Health
How Naomi Feil Developed a Radical Approach to Caring for Dementia Patients
Before the answers to life’s questions fit in our pocket, you used to have to turn a dial. If you were lucky, Phil Donahue would be on, ready to guide you toward enlightenment. In a stroke of deluxe good fortune, Dr. Ruth Westheimer might have stopped by to be the enlightenment. He was the search engine. She was a trusted result.
Donahue hailed from Cleveland. The windshield glasses, increasingly snowy thatch of hair, marble eyes, occasional pair of suspenders and obvious geniality said “card catalog,” “manager of the ’79 Reds,” “Stage Manager in a Chevy Motors production of ‘Our Town.’” Dr. Ruth was Donahue’s antonym, a step stool to his straight ladder. She kept her hair in a butterscotch helmet, fancied a uniform of jacket-blouse-skirt and came to our aid, via Germany, with a voice of crinkled tissue paper. Not even eight years separated them, yet so boyish was he and so seasoned was she that he read as her grandson. (She maybe reached his armpit.) Together and apart, they were public servants, American utilities.
Donahue was a journalist. His forum was the talk show, but some new strain in which the main attraction bypassed celebrities. People — every kind of them — lined up to witness other people being human, to experience Donahue’s radical conduit of edification, identification, curiosity, shock, wonder, outrage, surprise and dispute, all visible in the show’s televisual jackpot: cutaways to us, reacting, taking it all in, nodding, gasping. When a celebrity made it to the “Donahue” stage — Bill Clinton, say, La Toya Jackson, the Judds — they were expected to be human, too, to be accountable for their own humanity. From 1967 to 1996, for more than 6,000 episodes, he permitted us to be accountable to ourselves.
What Donahue knew was that we — women especially — were eager, desperate, to be understood, to learn and learn and learn. We call his job “host” when, really, the way he did it, running that microphone throughout the audience, racing up, down, around, sticking it here then here then over here, was closer to “switchboard operator.” It was “hot dog vendor at Madison Square Garden.” The man got his steps in. He let us do more of the questioning than he did — he would just edit, interpret, clarify. Egalitarianism ruled. Articulation, too. And anybody who needed the mic usually got it.
The show was about both what was on our mind and what had never once crossed it. Atheism. Naziism. Colorism. Childbirth. Prison. Rapists. AIDS. Chippendales, Chernobyl, Cher. Name a fetish, Phil Donahue tried to get to its bottom, sometimes by trying it himself. (Let us never forget the episode when he made his entrance in a long skirt, blouse and pussy bow for one of the show’s many cross-dressing studies.) Now’s the time to add that “Donahue” was a morning talk show. In Philadelphia, he arrived every weekday at 9 a.m., which meant that, in the summers, I could learn about compulsive shopping or shifting gender roles from the same kitchen TV set as my grandmother.
Sex and sexuality were the show’s prime subjects. There was so much that needed confessing, correction, corroboration, an ear lent. For that, Donahue needed an expert. Many times, the expert was Dr. Ruth, a godsend who didn’t land in this country until she was in her late 20s and didn’t land on television until she was in her 50s. Ruth Westheimer arrived to us from Germany, where she started as Karola Ruth Siegel and strapped in as her life corkscrewed, as it mocked fiction. Her family most likely perished in the Auschwitz death camps after she was whisked to the safety of a Swiss children’s home, where she was expected to clean. The twists include sniper training for one of the military outfits that would become the Israel Defense Forces, maiming by cannonball on her 20th birthday, doing research at a Planned Parenthood in Harlem, single motherhood and three husbands. She earned her doctorate from Columbia University, in education, and spent her postdoc researching human sexuality. And because her timing was perfect, she emerged at the dawn of the 1980s, an affable vector of an era’s craze for gnomic sages (Zelda Rubinstein, Linda Hunt, Yoda), masterpiece branding and the nasty.
Hers was the age of Mapplethorpe and Madonna, of Prince, Skinemax and 2 Live Crew. On her radio and television shows, in a raft of books and a Playgirl column and through her promiscuous approach to talk-show appearances, she aimed to purge sex of shame, to promote sexual literacy. Her feline accent and jolly innuendo pitched, among other stuff, the Honda Prelude, Pepsi, Sling TV and Herbal Essences. (“Hey!” she offers to a young elevator passenger. “This is where we get off.”) The instructions for Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex says it can be played by up to four couples; the board is vulval and includes stops at “Yeast Infection,” “Chauvinism” and “Goose Him.”
On “Donahue,” she is direct, explicit, dispelling, humorous, clear, common-sensical, serious, vivid. A professional therapist. It was Donahue who handled the comedy. On one visit in 1987, a caller needs advice about a husband who cheats because he wants to have sex more often than she does. Dr. Ruth tells Donahue that if the caller wants to keep the marriage, and her husband wants to do it all the time, “then what she should do is to masturbate him. And it’s all right for him to masturbate himself also a few times.” The audience is hear-a-pin-drop rapt or maybe just squirmy. So Donahue reaches into his parochial-school-student war chest and pulls out the joke about the teacher who tells third-grade boys, “Don’t play with yourself, or you’ll go blind.” And Donahue raises his hand like a kid at the back of the classroom and asks, “Can I do it till I need glasses?” Westheimer giggles, maybe noticing the large pair on Donahue’s face. This was that day’s cold open.
They were children of salesmen, these two; his father was in the furniture business, hers sold what people in the garment industry call notions. They inherited a salesman’s facility for people and packaging. When a “Donahue” audience member asks Westheimer whether her own husband believes she practices what she preaches, she says this is why she never brings him anywhere. “He would tell you and Phil: ‘Do not listen to her. It’s all talk,’” which cracks the audience up.
But consider what she talked about — and consider how she said it. My favorite Dr. Ruth word was “pleasure.” From a German mouth, the word conveys what it lacks with an American tongue: sensual unfurling. She vowed to speak about sex to mass audiences using the proper terminology. Damn the euphemisms. People waited as long as a year and a half for tickets to “Donahue” so they could damn them, too. But of everything Westheimer pitched, of all the terms she precisely used, pleasure was her most cogent product, a gift she believed we could give to others, a gift she swore we owed ourselves.
I miss the talk show that Donahue reinvented. I miss the way Dr. Ruth talked about sex. It’s fitting somehow that this antidogmatic-yet-priestly Irish Catholic man would, on occasion, join forces with a carnal, lucky-to-be-alive Jew to urge the exploration of our bodies while demonstrating respect, civility, reciprocation. They believed in us, that we were all interesting, that we could be trustworthy panelists in the discourse of being alive. Trauma, triviality, tubal ligation: Let’s talk about it! Fear doesn’t seem to have occurred to them. Or if it did, it was never a deterrent. Boldly they went. — And with her encouragement, boldly we came.
Wesley Morris is a critic at large for The New York Times and a staff writer for the magazine.
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The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Australia will receive a $5 million federal grant to launch a pioneering research team for children’s health.
The grant was announced at MCRI’s 40th anniversary gala in Melbourne on Saturday night.
“For 40 years, MCRI has been a global leader in children’s health research,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told guests at the gala, which was attended by 300 of Australia’s most esteemed medical experts, political leaders, philanthropists and sports luminaries.
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“My government is proud to partner with MCRI, so our world-leading researchers have the best opportunities to support healthier childhoods for Australians now and into the future.”
The $5 million will directly support medical research aimed at preventing numerous childhood conditions, including obesity, heart disease, mental health issues and disabilities.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at the MCRI gala. (Penny Stephens/Murdoch Children’s Research Institute)
Also announced at the gala, a lead donation from Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch will launch the Horizon Fund — a permanent endowment for MCRI aimed at funding long-term children’s health research and future medical breakthroughs.
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The goal is for the fund to raise between $50 million and $100 million in its first year and to reach $200 million within five years.
The fund is designed to back researchers’ immediate priorities while safeguarding long-term capital for future medical breakthroughs in children’s health.
Pictured above, Sarah Murdoch (MCRI co-chair); Jodie Haydon (wife of Prime Minister Albanese); Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese; Kathryn North (MCRI director); and Patrick Houlihan (MCRI chair). (Christopher Hopkins/Murdoch Children’s Research Institute)
In 2020, the Murdochs donated $5 million to establish a perpetual fellowship supporting leading researchers in fields including stem cell technology and genomic precision medicine.
Co-founded in 1986 by philanthropist and child health advocate Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and pediatrician and genetics pioneer Professor David Danks, MCRI comprises 1,800 scientists, researchers and clinicians.
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“Dame Elisabeth’s leadership, along with her values, shaped both the direction and the ethos of the Institute we were to become – for all children to live a healthy and fulfilled life,” said Sarah Murdoch, who is Dame Elisabeth Murdoch’s granddaughter-in-law and MCRI’s global ambassador and board co-chair.
Sarah Murdoch (MCRI co-chair) is pictured with Kathryn North (MCRI director) at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute 40th Anniversary Gala at the State Library Melbourne. (Penny Stephens/Murdoch Children’s Research Institute)
“With the generosity of a remarkable group of founding donors alongside the Murdoch family – Sir Jack Brockhoff, the Miller family, and The Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust – the foundations were laid for an Institute designed to bring our brightest minds, to serve all children, not only in that moment, but for generations to come,” Ms. Murdoch added.
“I see what is possible when foresight, science, commitment, collaboration and heartfelt generosity come together,” she emphasized.
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“Because behind every breakthrough is a child — a family desperate for answers. A future changed because of the commitment by so many.”
MCRI Director Kathryn North expressed appreciation at the gala to the prime minister for the $5 million grant.
“From the beginning, MCRI has been guided by a simple but powerful purpose: to give all children the opportunity to live a healthy and fulfilled life,” said the MCRI director. (MCRI)
“From the beginning, MCRI has been guided by a simple but powerful purpose: to give all children the opportunity to live a healthy and fulfilled life,” North said.
“It reflects a belief that good health is the foundation for a full life, and that opportunity should never be limited by circumstance.”
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Professor North mentioned the Institute’s focus on developing therapies for previously incurable diseases.
“We are harnessing the power of human stem cell technologies to grow heart patches, functional mini kidneys, blood and immune cells … to better understand disease, and to develop regenerative therapies using a patient’s own stem cells to replace organ transplants and the risk of rejection,” she said.
The Institute’s next challenge is to address chronic conditions like asthma, obesity, allergies and mental health conditions that can persist for decades. (iStock)
The Institute’s next challenge, North said, is to address chronic conditions like asthma, obesity, allergies and mental health conditions that can persist for decades.
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“These are big problems that will require significant and ongoing support,” she said. “Through our work globally, we are helping communities raise their expectations to both deliver and receive the sort of healthcare we take for granted.”
“Our ambition now is to translate these partnerships into population-scale solutions that improve the lives of millions of children worldwide,” North added. “This is not simply the next chapter for MCRI – it is the work of building the future of children’s health.”
FDA fast-tracks pancreatic cancer drug daraxonrasib
Family and emergency medicine physician Dr. Janette Nesheiwat discusses how artificial intelligence could help detect pancreatic cancer earlier and the FDA fast-tracking the drug daraxonrasib on ‘Fox Report.’
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A new drug for pancreatic cancer is showing promise in early testing.
Daraxonrasib is a daily pill designed to block cancer signals linked to the RAS gene. It has now finished an early-stage clinical trial — the first time it was tested in people — to evaluate both its safety and effectiveness.
The clinical trial, led by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, tested the drug in 168 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer whose tumors had mutations in the RAS gene. All study participants had previously received at least one chemotherapy treatment.
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The drug is designed to block multiple active cancer signals that help tumor cells grow. This is especially important because more than 90% of pancreatic cancers carry these harmful mutations, researchers said.
Existing and older drugs that target RAS mutations only work on certain types that are uncommon in pancreatic cancer, such as KRAS mutations.
Daraxonrasib is a daily pill designed to block cancer signals linked to the RAS gene. It has now finished an early-stage clinical trial to evaluate its safety and effectiveness. (iStock)
At the 300-milligram dose — the amount that will be used in larger phase 3 trials — about 30% of patients saw a positive response, researchers noted. Overall, about 90% of patients had their cancer either shrink or stop getting worse.
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There were some side effects reported — most commonly rash, mouth inflammation, nausea and diarrhea.
Lead investigator Dr. Brian Wolpin, director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber, commented in a press release statement that this development could change the future of cancer care.
About 90% of patients treated with the drug experienced disease control, meaning their cancer was reduced or stabilized. (iStock)
“If supported by data from future clinical trials, daraxonrasib would be a targeted therapy relevant to nearly all patients with advanced pancreatic cancer,” he said.
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“This trial provides the first published data showing the safety and broad activity of a RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibitor in pancreatic cancer,” Wolpin went on. “If it proves effective in larger clinical trials, it would signify a substantial shift in how this disease is treated.”
In an interview with Fox News Digital, the researcher claimed that daraxonrasib represents “one of the most promising therapy advances we’ve seen in pancreatic cancer.”
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This is especially significant since pancreatic cancer has had “very few effective therapies” in the past, Wolpin noted.
“The study also showed disease control in approximately 90% of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, which is extremely exciting,” he added.
The study does not prove daraxonrasib is superior to standard treatment of chemotherapy, researchers noted. (iStock)
Wolpin noted that while side effects were common, most patients were able to tolerate treatment with “supportive care measures, and very few patients needed to stop therapy due to side effects.”
As this was a phase 1/2 study, it does not “definitively prove” the superiority of daraxonrasib compared to chemotherapy, Wolpin added.
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“The study did not include a randomized control arm that directly compared daraxonrasib with chemotherapy,” he said. “That being said, the results for daraxonrasib looked substantially better than what we have seen in prior clinical trials of chemotherapy in patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer.”
It also remains unclear how the drug may perform earlier in the disease, as the trial included patients who had already received prior treatments.
“Additional research is needed to determine how best to sequence or combine therapies to provide the most durable responses and cures,” the lead investigaror sid. (iStock)
For patients and families affected by pancreatic cancer, Wolpin noted that daraxonrasib signals “real momentum” toward effective treatments, but it is still investigational and is not a cure.
“Pancreatic cancer remains a challenging disease, and additional research is needed to determine how best to sequence or combine therapies to provide the most durable responses and cures,” he said.
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Brian Slomovitz, director of gynecologic oncology and co-chair of the Cancer Research Committee at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, applauded this development in a separate interview with Fox News Digital.
“We are anxiously awaiting the upcoming plenary presentation of RASolute 302 at the ASCO meeting later this month,” said the expert, who was not involved in the study. “Greater than 90% of pancreatic cancers have activation of kRAS, which is a major factor in the development and progression of these cancers.”
“Doubling the survival time in pretreated patients is unprecedented.”
“If the full dataset results that will be reported later this month confirm what was earlier released, I believe this will be one of the most important breakthroughs in all solid tumors,” Slomovitz went on. “Doubling the survival time in pretreated patients is unprecedented.”
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The doctor added that the “magnitude of benefit” could “reshape the treatment landscape” and “establish a new standard of care.”
“We will need to evaluate the full dataset for efficacy and safety,” Slomovitz added. “I am more than cautiously optimistic, and I am truly excited for our patients and their families that suffer from this dreadful disease.”
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People who regularly visit museums or participate in creative activities may be aging more slowly on a biological level, according to a new study from the United Kingdom.
Researchers from University College London analyzed data from more than 3,500 adults and found that people who frequently engaged in arts and cultural activities showed signs of slower biological aging in several DNA-based measurements.
The findings were published in the journal Innovation in Aging.
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The study examined activities including painting, photography, dancing, singing, visiting museums and attending cultural events or historic sites.
People who frequently visit museums or engage in artistic activities may experience slower biological aging. (iStock)
Researchers compared participation in those activities with “epigenetic clocks,” scientific tools that examine chemical changes in DNA over time.
Adults who participated more often, and in a wider variety of activities, tended to show slower aging scores compared to people who rarely engaged in arts or cultural experiences.
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The association appeared even stronger among adults over age 40.
Researchers also noted that the effect sizes were comparable to those linked to physical activity, one of the most widely studied behaviors associated with healthy aging.
The study found that adults who engaged more often in arts and cultural activities showed slower biological aging. (iStock)
Jessica Mack, a health and wellness expert and founder of The Functional Consulting Group who was not involved in the study, said the findings reflect a growing understanding that health is influenced by more than exercise and nutrition alone.
“Arts and cultural engagement may be associated with slower epigenetic aging, with effects comparable in some measures to physical activity,” Mack told Fox News Digital.
She said activities such as visiting museums and engaging with music or art may help reduce stress, improve emotional regulation and increase social connection.
Experts say these activities may reduce stress, improve emotional regulation, and strengthen social connections. (iStock)
“These are not ‘extra’ lifestyle activities,” Mack said. “They may be deeply connected to how the body manages inflammation, stress hormones, mood and overall resilience.”
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Mack added that people experiencing stress, social isolation, retirement or caregiving responsibilities may especially benefit from meaningful cultural engagement.
Experts cautioned, however, that the study does not prove arts engagement directly slows aging.
“This is an observational study, not an experiment,” Professor Steve Horvath of UCLA, a longevity researcher and pioneer in epigenetic aging research who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
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“So when researchers find that the people who go to museums have younger epigenetic age, we cannot tell whether the museum visits slowed their aging, or whether their slower aging is what allowed them to keep visiting museums,” he said.
While the findings suggest a link, experts caution that the study cannot prove arts and cultural activities directly slow aging. (iStock)
Horvath said both explanations may be true to some degree, though he described the research as “methodologically careful” and worthy of further study.
The findings remained consistent even after accounting for factors such as smoking, income, body weight and other lifestyle habits.
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He added that regardless of whether arts engagement is directly slowing biological aging, staying socially and mentally active is still associated with healthier aging overall.
“The prescription is the same,” he said. “Keep going.”
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