Heart attacks look different in women — rather than clutching their chests, as men stereotypically do, they may experience more diffuse pain shooting through their jaw, neck, arm, back, and stomach. That’s just one of the myriad sex and gender differences in cardiovascular disease that researchers have discovered, from risk factors to the number and function of muscle cells in the heart.At a moment when research into women’s health is under threat in the United States as a casualty of the Trump administration’s attack on diversity efforts, researchers are worried that this kind of potentially lifesaving progress may be stymied. Read more from Liz Cooney on what we’ve learned about women and heart disease in recent years, and where experts say we should focus next.

first opinion

The end of cadavers in medical school training

More medical schools are phasing out the use of cadavers in favor of virtual reality and other 3-D visualization tools. That means future doctors will lose out on a valuable education about being comfortable in the presence of death, according to First Opinion writer and medical student Nadir Al-Saidi.

“Coming face-to-face with a body in that raw state was one of the most powerful moments of my first year in medical school,” Al-Saidi writes of an early encounter with a cadaver. “It taught me reverence and the gravity of what it means to choose this path in health care.” Read more — and if you want to learn more about the long and ethically complicated history of cadavers in medical training as well as in uses like crash testing, check out Mary Roach’s 2006 book “Stiff.”

infectious diseases

Texas measles cases jump 20%

Speaking of measles, the outbreak in Texas is getting worse. Officials said they had identified 400 cases as of Friday, primarily in the western part of the state, a 20% jump from 327 cases just a few days prior on March 25. Outbreaks are also underway in New Mexico (44 cases), Kansas (23 cases), Oklahoma (9 cases), and Ohio (10 cases). The CDC defines outbreaks as three or more related cases.

The news comes as alarm grows among public health experts over HHS secretary Kennedy’s response to the outbreak, including his suggestion that things like vitamin A and cod liver oil could be effective treatments for measles. Recent federal cuts have impacted people who track the spread of measles and other infectious diseases, and canceled grants include research on vaccine hesitancy. Read more on the outbreak.

from AXIOS:

Who’s stockpiling abortion pills amid bans

By Christine Clarridge

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

A growing number of people are requesting abortion medications beforethey’re pregnant, a shift driven in part by fears of future abortion bans, a study suggests.Why it matters: The number of states enforcing near-total abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 has varied, but as of last month, 41 states have either restrictions on abortions after a certain point in pregnancy or near total bans, according to the Guttmacher Institute.Driving the news: For the study, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers analyzed medical records from more than 20,000 patients across 25 states who received abortion pills via the telehealth service Aid Access between August 2021 and March 2023.Advance provision users were mostly white (72%), child-free (80%) and living in metro areas, not lower-resource counties, per the study.Among them, 70% said they feared future legal restrictions, the study found.Orders spiked during political moments like Roe v. Wade’s reversal or major media coverage, said lead author Anna Fiastro, a researcher at the University of Washington School of Medicine.Share this

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