Health Topics – Johns Hopkins Medicine Podcasts

The Modernizing Opioid Treatment and Access Act, or MOTAA, was presented to Congress in March 2023, as a means to expand access to medicines used in opioid use disorder treatment. Clearly such legislation is needed in light of the 100,000 …

Why can’t more physicians prescribe medicines to treat addiction? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Decriminalizing drugs doesn’t seem to have stemmed the tide of substance use in Oregon, and now the state is backpedaling. Yet over 100,000 drug overdose deaths in 2022, recently reported by the CDC, must be addressed somehow. Substance use disorder …

How should policy address substance use? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Over 100,000 people died in 2022 because of drug overdoses, with the majority of them using illegal opioids in ways other than injection, the latest CDC data shows. Substance use disorder expert Michael Fingerhood at Johns Hopkins says while interdiction …

What might help combat opioid overdose deaths? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

A myth often heard on the street is that using opioid drugs like heroin or fentanyl by inhaling them, snorting them or ingesting them is less likely to result in overdose than injection. This myth may be behind new CDC …

Is there a safe way to use street opioids? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

109,000 people is the current number for people who died of drug overdoses in 2022, with over 70% of them due to illegally manufactured fentanyl and its lookalikes, the CDC reports. Michael Fingerhood, a substance use disorder expert at Johns …

Most overdose deaths involving illegal opioids aren’t from injection, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Employing treatments like chemotherapy shortly before someone dies is not only ineffective, it can reduce quality of life and someone’s ability to interact with loved ones. Now a new study examines how often immunotherapy is utilized within a month of …

How often is immunotherapy for cancer used shortly before death? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Diabetes drugs known as GLP1 receptor agonists are much in the news for weight loss. Now a new study finds that when people with diabetes take them, their risk of colorectal cancer is reduced. Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson …

Can a diabetes drug reduce the risk for colorectal cancer? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

A panel of proteins found in the blood was both sensitive and specific in men and women in detecting early cancers. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, says the numbers may even be better if …

Can proteins and DNA be used together to detect cancer? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Blood proteins can be used to not only detect early cancers in both men and women, but also to localize them the majority of the time, a new study reports. Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson at Johns Hopkins says …

A panel of blood proteins can identify early cancers with great accuracy, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »

Finding cancer early so it can be treated before it spreads is optimal, and now a new study looking at blood proteins finds that examining a panel of them is both sensitive and specific. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director …

Can we detect cancer very early by looking at blood proteins? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read More »