Thanks to the quick thinking of a Northwestern Medicine® pediatrician, 14,000 silver mylar blankets, the kind typically handed out to runners after a marathon, are headed to Afghanistan to help children in danger of freezing to death this winter in scarcely heated refugee camps. More than 20 Afghan children have already died from the cold in the past month.

Craig Garfield, M.D., well knows the value of the blankets, used by paramedics to warm newborn babies and by mountain climbers who camp overnight in frigid outdoor conditions. An athlete, Garfield also uses the blankets to maintain his body temperature after a triathlon.

He emailed his idea to a New York Times reporter on the scene in Afghanistan. The reporter, Rod Nordland, put him in touch with Aschiana Foundation U.S.A., which is focused on helping Afghan children in the refugee camps.

It’s the day after Valentine’s Day and if you’re anything like me, you’re still enjoying the abundance of sweet holiday treats. Thankfully, some of those treats may actually support good health. Experts agree that chocolate in moderation can provide certain health benefits for the heart, so we caught up with Northwestern Medicine cardiologist Stephen Devries, MD to learn more. Devries says it’s okay to indulge a bit and explains that dark chocolate may help lower blood pressure and improve blood flow.

“Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is rich in flavonoids, the same compound that gives plants their vibrant color and reduces cellular damage. Flavonoids are also found in grapes, red wine and tea,” said Devries.

Flavonoids aid in cardiovascular health by reducing LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and plaque formation on the walls of the arteries. It also improves the ability of arteries to deliver oxygen, increase blood flow, and reduce the risk of blood clotting.

As a follow up to the February 2 post “Northwestern Medicine Doctor Heads to Haiti to Teach Emergency Medicine”, below is an update from Rahul Khare, MD, emergency medicine physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, regarding his journey.

It’s been a phenomenal week so far. We are in Cap Haitien, Haiti, a city in the north of Haiti on the water. We are working at the Justinian University, which is the 2nd largest hospital in Haiti. Justinian University has a nursing school, residency (one year for primary care), and over 250 hospital beds (including surgery, medicine, OB/GYN, pediatrics, urology, and orthopaedics). Like many hospitals, the ER is not a big part of the hospital…yet.

When reflecting back on the most significant day in our lives, most of us think of a wedding anniversary, or a birthday. For Howard Zwirn, however, January 16, 2004 is a much more important milestone – it’s the day the seizures he had experienced for seven years stopped.

Zwirn experienced his first seizure at the age of 28 and was diagnosed with mesial temporal sclerosis, a condition that was causing a type of focal epilepsy. Zwirn’s seizures continued, taking a toll on his life. For several years, Zwirn continued to try to control his seizures with medications and lifestyle changes. However, he found little relief.

Nearly seven years after his initial diagnosis, Zwirn, with the support of Jeannine, decided to go through a battery of tests to determine if he was a candidate for surgery that would potentially stop his seizures. Results indicated that he was a perfect candidate for surgery. After much discussion and many questions, the decision was made to move forward with the procedure.