standing does what?

• A study found the criteria insurance companies use to cover mammography for early breast cancer detection (typically dense breasts and high family risk score) are less common in Black women.
   
• After announcing a sizable increase in funding for women's health, a Gates Foundation executive calls on the business community to step up, too. One reason? Many health problems facing women are similar, whether they live in low or high-income countries.
   
• A randomized control trial found postmenopausal women who purposefully stood more frequently when in a sitting position had lower blood pressure after three months.   

Women’s Health: Bad Across Low and High-Income Countries

What: Anita Zaidi, an executive at the Gates Foundation and pediatrician, explains why the organization is significantly increasing its investment in women's health. She also argues that the private sector needs to step up to fill the (many) remaining gaps -- in part because the health problems of women are common in high *and* low-income countries.

Key Line: "Or consider the many use cases for an AI-powered portable ultrasound, which the foundation helped to develop for the two thirds of women in low- and middle-income countries who don’t have access to expensive ultrasound machines. It’s a wand that plugs into a tablet running an algorithm trained with thousands of ultrasound images, and it can be used by workers who haven’t been trained in obstetrics. Research shows this simple device can identify high-risk pregnancies early and even identify gestational age with more accuracy than humans. This tool is very useful in remote Kenya, one of the areas where the AI ultrasound was tested. But it’s just as useful in, say, North Dakota, where one in four women have to drive for over an hour to reach the nearest birthing hospital."

Source: Fortune

Trump’s Failed Promise on IVF Costs

What: An op-ed from Susan Rinkuas that explains why Trump's promises on IVF were...never real. 

Key Line: "Not only is the Trump administration more concerned with extending tax cuts for billionaires than with helping everyday Americans access health care, but it has also allied itself with a far-right, anti-abortion movement that believes life begins at fertilization. That movement opposes IVF because it involves the routine destruction and storage of embryos."

Source: MSNBC
 

Why Hold SSRIs in Pregnancy to a New Standard?

What: Sunny Patel, a perinatal psychiatrist who previously worked at HHS, writes an op-ed about the Trump administration's FDA panel questioning the safety of SSRIs in pregnancy. He says there is robust data supporting the safety of SSRIs when clinically needed, and points out that calls for more data appear on nearly every scientific endeavor. 

Key Line: "SSRIs are not new drugs – they’ve been on the market for more than 30 years, and if there is a widespread epidemic of the harms that the FDA panel claimed, it is not substantiated in the data. So let’s not apply an inconsistent standard towards SSRIs in pregnancy. Their comments that we need more data is the last slide or nearly every scientific discussion – of course, we need more robust data. That shouldn’t seed unnecessary doubt and leave patients and their doctors in a limbo on how best to treat these conditions."

Source: The Guardian


MENOPAUSE 

Just Rise: Standing Up Helped Blood Pressure Go Down

What: A randomized control trial from UC San Diego had postmenopausal women separated into three groups. One group got general health tips, another group was asked to try sitting less during the day, and the third group was asked to focus on standing more often when they were sitting. They found the last group lowered their blood pressure over three months. It wasn't a massive drop, but researchers think it could increase with time.

Key Line: "'With a little coaching, we can teach ourselves to sit less and it makes a tangible difference to our short-and long-term health,' said co-author Andrea Z. LaCroix, Ph.D., distinguished professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. 'Adapting real-world interventions that are easy, realistic and aligned with our personal goals — such as stand up from sitting 25 extra times per day, like two times per hour over 12 hours — may be doable for so many of us.'”

Source: UC San Diego
 

Insurance Coverage for Finding Breast Cancer Early Misses Black Women

What: A study looking at nearly 70,000 Black and white women found fewer Black women had dense breast tissue or a high lifetime risk of breast cancer. Both of those measures are often used to get insurers to cover additional screening for early detection. 

Key Line: "Given lower density and lifetime risk estimates, few Black women met criteria for insurance coverage in Pennsylvania, and the criteria had poor sensitivity for identifying Black women with false-negative mammograms. Additionally, using the current breast density criteria for magnetic resonance imaging may not accurately reflect breast cancer risk in Black women."

Source: JAMA Network Open