Author: Emma Yasinski

Emma Yasinski

I am a freelance science and medical journalist, fascinated by how the scientific process leads to incredible discoveries, but also can lead to publication bias leaning toward positive findings and minimizing negatives. With a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Lafayette College and a Master’s in Science and Medical Journalism from Boston University, I’ve written about clinical trial transparency, organ donation, and basic molecular biology for publications like The Scientist, The Atlantic, Undark.org, Kaiser Health News, and more. At MedShadow, I research and write about the sometimes unexpected ways that medicines can affect us, and what we can do if and when it does.

Madeline Shonka told MedShadow it took her years to get an accurate lupus diagnosis. Even then, she had to go through trial and error with many different combinations of medications for treatment, all the while trying to decipher the best lifestyle changes to manage her condition. For example, she eventually discovered that making time for light exercise had a huge positive impact on her quality of life. Jill Dehlin, an RN who suffers from migraines, told MedShadow that tracking her symptoms helped immensely. “I recommend to everyone that I speak with to keep a journal or diary and keep track…

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A now world-wide outbreak of hepatitis ‘that began in fall 2021 among young children, sickening hundreds, continues nearly eight months later, as of May 2022. The medical community is searching for its cause.  Some researchers believe it may have been triggered by COVID-19 infections or by colds or other viruses. The challenge is that the term hepatitis denotes an inflammation of the liver, but in order to treat it, a doctor needs to know what caused that inflammation. That’s problematic, because a doctor must know the cause to treat it effectively. Here’s what you need to know about the many…

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Treating Osteoporosis Without Bisphosphonates Lara Pizzorno minces no words when explaining why she didn’t want to take a class of drugs called bisphosphonates when she got a surprising diagnosis of osteopenia – weak bones, but not osteoporosis – at age 43. “You only need them if you want to accumulate crummy brittle bones,” said the editor of Longevity Medicine Review and author of the book Your Bones: How You Can Prevent Osteoporosis and Have Strong Bones for Life Naturally. R. Keith McCormick puts it this way in his book, The Whole Body Approach to Osteoporosis: “Using bisphosphonates is like your…

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Less than 40% of senior adults report adverse events they experience with a medication to their doctor. A retrospective study looked at 860 people 70 and older who were living in their community and had multiple health issues. They were asked if they had experienced a list of symptoms, whether a symptom bothered them, if they thought it was related to a medication and if they had talked about it with their doctor. Results showed that the main reasons patients didn’t tell their doctor about adverse events was that they thought it was related to their old age and they…

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