Welcome to Benchmarks, your semi-weekly, sometimes monthly, whenever we can get around to it recap of the latest research news from Massachusetts General Hospital. Here are a few highlights from the past week.

• Research in the News
• Mass General Researchers Detail the Harmful Effects of Chronic Noise on Cardiovascular Health
• Weight Loss Surgery Weakens the Bones of Teens and Young Adults
• New Treatment Guidelines for Restless Legs Syndrome
• Tweets of the Week
• This Week in MGH History
• Mass General Surgeons and Nurses Travel to England to Treat War Wounded
• Mass General Research Study Highlights the Danger of Mistaking Stomach Tumors for Gastric Ulcers

Research in the News

Mass General Researchers Detail the Harmful Effects of Chronic Noise on Cardiovascular Health

Chronic noise—such as that created by jet engines—is a largely unrecognized health threat that increases the risk of high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks.

The New York Times recently published a detailed article on the way that unpleasant noise affects the body—triggering the amygdala and causing a cascade of stress reactions throughout the body. These changes over time can lead to inflammation, heart disease and plaque buildup in arteries.

These findings are based in part on research at Mass General by Ahmed Tawakol, MD, Michael Osborne, MD, and others who analyzed the brain scans and health records of hundreds of people at Massachusetts General Hospital, they made a stunning discovery: Those who lived in areas with high levels of transportation noise were more likely to have highly activated amygdalas, arterial inflammation and — within five years — major cardiac events.

The associations remained even after researchers adjusted for other environmental and behavioral factors that could contribute to poor cardiac health, like air pollution, socioeconomic factors, and smoking.

As with so many health issues, poor people and communities of color are more likely to experience excessive noise exposure because they often have fewer housing choices and are more likely to live near high-traffic roads, raucous waste dumps and industrial areas, the Times writes.

Fixing the problem will require changes in local, state and federal policy. Finding solutions won’t be easy, but if noise levels can be reduced to safer levels, the result could be an annual savings of $4B in preventable healthcare costs. Read more.

Weight Loss Surgery Weakens the Bones of Teens and Young Adults

A common weight-loss surgery for obese adolescents and young adults is found to have harmful effects on bones, according to a study published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). 

“Childhood obesity is on the rise and weight-loss surgery is the most effective way to reduce weight and improve cardiometabolic comorbidities,” said the study’s lead investigator, Miriam Bredella, MD, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and vice chair for Faculty Affairs and Clinical Operations, Department of Radiology Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“This is the first study in adolescents and young adults that examined the long-term effects of sleeve gastrectomy, the most common type of weight-loss surgery, on bone strength and bone marrow fat.” Read more.

New Treatment Guidelines for Restless Legs Syndrome

The guidelines for treating restless legs syndrome no longer indicate dopamine agonists as a first-line choice, John Winkelman, MD, PhD, reported at the annual SLEEP meeting earlier this month. Winkelman is chief of the Sleep Disorders Clinical Research Program at Mass General and professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

First-line treatments for restless legs disorder (a neurological condition that causes uncomfortable sensations in your legs and irresistible urges to move them) now include iron, alpha₂-delta agents or long-acting opioids, Winkelman reports. Learn more.

Tweets of the Week

This Week in MGH History

Mass General Surgeons and Nurses Travel to England to Treat War Wounded

June 12, 1915 (Cambridge Chronicle)—The Boston City Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital have yielded some of their ablest and most skillful surgeons to form the Harvard War Unit, which is to leave New York on June 22 to serve in an English field hospital of 1,040 beds. The party includes 32 surgeons and seven nurses from the two hospitals, the newspaper reports.

Mass General Research Study Highlights the Danger of Mistaking Stomach Tumors for Gastric Ulcers

June 8, 1948 (New York Times) –The results of a 10-year research study conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital shows that the best chances for reducing the number of deaths from stomach cancer comes with the prompt and complete removal of gastric ulcers.

The study showed that in a considerable number of cases of stomach cancer, the early symptoms were similar to those of stomach ulcer.

“It is this group of patients that can be sorted out early in the process and treated radically with hope of a cure,” said Arthur W. Allen, MD, president of the American College of Surgeons. “Until we accept this fact, we are wasting our best chance to improve the salvage rate in cancer of the stomach.”

Dr. Allen also cautioned against the use of drugs designed to relieve acid indigestion, which may provide temporary relief but can also mask the symptoms of stomach cancer during the early stages when the tumors can be treated with surgery.