The View of Health Care From the Oval Office - Harvard Medicine Magazine

MISSOULA, Mont. - University of Montana Police Department has reported that there was a bear spotted on campus. Officials stated that it was last spotted around the Oval. People that encounter the bear on campus are asked to either call 911 or UMPD at (406) 243-4000. The public is urged to keep clear of the area and to be bear aware. If one were to find themselves face-to-face with a bear, officials remind you to not run away, instead back away from it while facing it. If the bear keeps moving towards you, try to scare it away by stretching your arms over your head and making loud noises to make yourself seem imposing and large. You can find more safety tips on the US Forest Service's “Be Bear Aware” webpage.

A novel study has found that increases in risk-taking behavior in people with mild to moderate alcohol use disorder (AUD) precede increases in alcohol consumption, not vice versa. This research is the first to predict changes in real-life drinking longitudinally using gamified smartphone-based decision-making tasks. The findings from the new study, appearing in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, published by Elsevier, open up the possibility of future targeted and timely interventions for people with AUD. AUD is a major contributor to global disability and mortality. Cross-sectional studies have linked AUD to reduced cognitive control and heightened risky decision making. However, whether these cognitive-behavioral alterations are a consequence or a precursor of changes in drinking was previously unknown. This study clarifies the temporal direction of these effects.

Losartan, a drug commonly prescribed for high blood pressure, boosts brown adipose tissue or "brown fat" activity and enhances its metabolism, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center researchers. The findings suggest that repurposing losartan—an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) with a well-known safety profile—may potentially offer a therapeutic approach to stimulate brown fat, which has been linked to improved cardiovascular health. Unlike normal white fat, which stores energy in the body, brown fat burns calories to generate heat. The study also reported, for the first time, that brown fat is associated with reduced prevalence of psychiatric diseases. The study, published Oct. 14 in Nature, analyzed PET/CT scans that were performed as part of cancer surveillance for over 100,000 patients. The researchers focused on the scans that detected brown fat, which is located in six regions of the body, including the neck, armpit and around organs like the heart and kidneys.