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.

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…

Read More
HIV

“I don’t have a problem saying I have AIDs,” says Hydeia Broadbent in a video made as a part of a campaign with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but she acknowledges that many others still live in fear of sharing their status due to ongoing stigma. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which can lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), is no longer the death sentence it was in the 1980s, provided that you receive timely, consistent treatment. Still, it’s a serious illness with complications that can be fatal. Here’s what you need to know about HIV, and the benefits…

Read More

Regular “MedShadow” readers are likely familiar with the idea of deprescribing—the process of reducing the number or dose of drugs a person is taking. “MedShadow” has written about the phenomenon before. But, while the idea of taking fewer medications is simple, the real world process of deprescribing, while balancing risks versus benefits, is complicated. Some medications have withdrawal symptoms, and tapering may take time. The Therapeutics Initiative at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is hosting a series of webinars with healthcare professionals sharing real-life stories about their own patients whose medications they were able to reduce, and what happened…

Read More

Angela Tong, BscPharm, ACPR, met her patient, a woman in her 20s, when she’d just overdosed on acetaminophen. The overdose was not her first. Tong is a clinical pharmacist at Fraser Health Authority, a hospital system in Canada. She treated the woman as she stayed at the hospital for several months.  The woman had just started a new job as a medical assistant, but the stress quickly became overwhelming. She listed her symptoms to Tong.  “She felt really anxious. She feels sleepy during the day, but she had trouble sleeping at night. There are lots of voices in her head,…

Read More

Regular MedShadow readers are likely familiar with the idea of deprescribing—the process of cutting down on medicine and reducing the number or dose of drugs a person is taking. MedShadow has written about the phenomenon before. But, while the idea of taking fewer medications is simple, the real world process of deprescribing while balancing risks versus benefits is complicated. Some medications have withdrawal symptoms, and tapering may take time. The Therapeutics Initiative at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is hosting a series of webinars with healthcare professionals sharing real-life stories about their own patients whose medications they were able…

Read More

Heat Exhaustion & Heatstroke Yet another heat wave is “baking” the U.S. and is expected to last all week. And this is just the first full week of summer. In 2022, thousands of people died from heat-related causes in Spain, Portugal United Kingdom, the United States, and India. Extra-high temperatures are perilous for everyone, but they are even more so for the elderly, people who need electric medical equipment and for those on medications with side effects that can increase their sensitivity to heat. You may need to take extra caution to remain safe when the heat rises. Heat exhaustion is…

Read More

Regular MedShadow readers are likely familiar with the idea of deprescribing—the process of reducing the number or dose of drugs a person is taking. MedShadow has written about the phenomenon before. But, while the idea of taking fewer medications is simple, the real world process of deprescribing while balancing risks versus benefits is complicated. Some medications have withdrawal symptoms, and tapering may take time. The Therapeutics Initiative at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is hosting a series of webinars with healthcare professionals sharing real-life stories about their own patients whose medications they were able to reduce, and what happened…

Read More

Regular MedShadow readers are likely familiar with the idea of deprescribing—the process of reducing the number or dose of drugs a person is taking. MedShadow has written about the phenomenon before. But, while the idea of taking fewer medications is simple, the process of deprescribing while balancing risks versus benefits is complicated. Some medications have withdrawal symptoms, and tapering may take time. The Therapeutics Initiative at the University of British Columbia is hosting a series of webinars with healthcare professionals sharing real-life stories of their own patients whose medications they were able to reduce, and what happened when they did.…

Read More

Updated Jan 5, 2023 with new details on Paxlovid side effects. Two recently authorized antiviral drugs designed to protect against the most severe outcomes of COVID-19 may be game-changers during the ongoing pandemic. Those benefits may come at a cost, however. It’s crucial that you and your healthcare providers understand New COVID Antivirals’ potential side effects, so you use them as safely as possible. “Obviously, if you’ve got a serious case of COVID, you need to be treated,” despite the risk of side effects says Katherine Seley-Radtke, PhD, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.…

Read More

MedShadow recently posted an article in which a journalist investigates his own sleep apnea diagnosis and ends up forgoing expensive machinery and learning that sleeping on his side was all it took in his case to keep his oxygen levels stable through the night. In the Kaiser Health News article, author Jay Hancock describes an “expensive testing prescription cascade” including an at-home test and two separate nights in a sleep lab testing for different characteristics of the condition.  Testing is not the only cascade in medicine. In recent years, researchers have started to identify “prescription cascades”—situations in which a patient…

Read More