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.

Yes, scientists test drugs in clinical trials before they come to market so we can have a pretty good idea of the risks and benefits, but once they’re prescribed widely throughout the population, new risks inevitably emerge. For medications that treat uncommon conditions, it can take many years for us to gain a true understanding of the drug’s risks, but for medications like COVID vaccines and weight loss drugs that have been prescribed to millions of people within months of FDA approval, the information comes at us much faster. Not to mention, the manufacturers are currently testing them on a…

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Tuberculosis (TB) can be a severe, debilitating, and even fatal disease. Treatment, which sometimes requires hospitalization, can take months. Still, some experts point out that the infection doesn’t always require treatment. Here’s what you need to know about antibiotics for TB and the side effects of TB treatments. What is Tuberculosis? TB is a bacterial disease that usually attacks your lungs, though it can also infiltrate other organs such as your kidneys and brain. Getting infected with the bacteria can cause two different types of infections. The first, is “active TB disease” which causes symptoms such as: Cough with phlegm…

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It’s a medical horror story. Between 1959 and 1985, about two thousand patients were given growth hormones from cadavers to treat growth disorders such as dwarfism. Now, researchers found that the treatments, which are no longer used, may now be causing early dementia in those patients. This is one of the many reasons that it’s crucial to maintain your medical records. The treatment is no longer given because older studies showed that some patients received injections that contained prions, or misfolded proteins, that caused a type of dementia called Creutzfelt-Jakob disease. In the most recent study, the scientists found evidence…

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has repeatedly advised the majority of the population to get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. Florida’s surgeon general, on the other hand, rejected that advice in September 2023, and told Floridians that healthy people under the age of 65 didn’t need the vaccine. More experts came out dismissing the Florida surgeon general’s advice, siding with the FDA. Still, the disconnect between the experts caused confusion. The debate about whether or not we should get COVID-19 booster shots may have been more public and passionate than most medical debates, but it is not entirely…

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By the time Imali Chislett was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, her hair had already been falling out for four months. It came out in clumps as she brushed her fingers through her hair, and when she tried to braid it. Soon, her scalp became sore, too. The illness, which affects the intestines, made it difficult for her to absorb nutrients from the food she was eating and she’d become severely iron deficient, which can cause hair loss. Unfortunately, treatment didn’t restore her strands. Since July 2023, she’s been receiving infusions of a powerful immunosuppressant drug, infliximab, which she says has…

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It’s well-known that we tend to adopt some of the health behaviors of the people we spend the most time with in our daily lives. When we’re young, our parents may dictate much of our diets. If our siblings and friends are physically active, so are we. If they prefer movie nights on the couch, so do we. The same goes for our romantic partners. As we enter adulthood, our spouses and our marriage and significant others can have some of the most powerful impacts on our healthy habits. Marriage can make you healthy. Not only does the emotional support…

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You have cancer. If that wasn’t terrifying enough, you now face a litany of medical choices, treatments, and drugs. As you try to educate yourself about those options, you also have to weigh the unpredictable nature of their side effects. Unfortunately, the side effects listed on the drug’s label don’t tell us much about what it’s really like to take a drug. A new article published in Undark explains how and why the information patients get on side effects often seems to minimize that challenge that side effects can pose. The article uses cancer drugs as an example and is…

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Skin conditions can range from a mild annoyance, like an occasional blemish or patch of dry skin, to hives, rashes, and patches of scaly skin that itch or burn so intensely that you can’t focus on everyday activities. Some topical medications, like creams, require prescriptions from your healthcare provider, but many also fill the shelves of your local pharmacy or even grocery store, as well.  You may not even realize that when you’re reaching for an anti-itch cream to sooth your mosquito bite, you may be putting a drug on your skin, and possibly even into your bloodstream. Here’s what…

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Diabetes is one of the biggest challenges of our generation, and I’m at heightened risk for developing it. As some MedShadow readers might already know, I am one of the many women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS.) That condition puts me at a substantially higher risk than the average woman for developing diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 4.8% of people between the ages of 18 and 40 (with or without PCOS), and 18.9% of those aged 45 to 64, in the U.S. have diabetes. But by the time they’re 40 years old, more than…

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David Smith was starting to notice his hair thinning, and started talking about it with a friend who was also lamenting his newfound lack of hair. Shortly after that, Smith’s friend seemed to have solved the problem. He’d asked his healthcare provider for a prescription for Propecia (finasteride). “I was hesitant to try [finasteride] because I was unsure about the potential side effects of propecia. However, after seeing some great results he had, I decided to go for it,” says Smith. A few months after starting the prescription, he started to appreciate a little more hair on his head. He…

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