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.

The leading causes of death in the United States (U.S.) are heart disease and strokes. Having high blood pressure—which affects about half of the adults in the U.S.—raises your risk of both. MedShadow reached out to Randell Wexler, MD, a primary care physician specializing in blood pressure control at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, to talk about what you need to know about measuring blood pressure and the habits and medications that can change your blood pressure. Q: Let’s start with the basics. What is blood pressure? What do those numbers represent? A: Blood pressure is the amount…

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When pregnant, chances are you will have a lot of questions. One of them shouldn’t be “can I take this drug while pregnant,” but sadly research is often lacking in this topic. Tylenol While Pregnant In the last week of September 2021, a group of more than 90 doctors and researchers published a call to action, cautioning against the liberal use of Tylenol (acetaminophen) during pregnancy. The studies suggested that exposure to the drug could increase the risk of a baby having neurodevelopmental, reproductive, and urogenital disorders. The authors added, however, that Tylenol has long been considered one of the…

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A well-known diabetes drug has gotten a lot more popular over the last two years. In June 2021, Wegovy, a new formulation of semaglutide, the active ingredient in the diabetes drug, Ozempic, was approved for weight loss, even in those who don’t have diabetes. While it’s only indicated for people with obesity, celebrities with seemingly healthy weights have claimed to be giving themselves the at-home injections in hopes of fitting into particularly form-fitting outfits for special events. If you so much as Google “Wegovy” even once, you’ll likely start seeing ads on social media for telehealth companies that help manage…

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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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