Latest news with #MedicalUniversityofSouthCarolina
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pediatrician Annie Andrews challenges Lindsey Graham in South Carolina
Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and former congressional candidate, is launching a Democratic bid to challenge Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) next year. In her roughly three-and-a-half-minute ad, Andrews used her background as a pediatrician to slam the Trump administration for its handling of different health crises and concerns. Her ad also criticizes Graham for voting to confirm President Trump's appointees. Her campaign ad also reminds voters of Graham's past criticism of Trump, playing several clips of Graham calling the president a 'kook' and suggesting Trump 'should go to hell.' Graham has since turned into a key Trump ally since the 2016 election. In an interview with The Hill ahead of her launch, Andrews described Graham as being ideologically inconsistent and suggested he prioritize the business and donor community over that of everyday Americans. She said Graham had been in the Senate for about half her life, saying that 'one of the problems with that is that he's changed his position on nearly every issue over the span of those 22 years because he doesn't believe in anything or stand for anything other than himself.' 'Lindsey Graham will take food off of kids' plates … let prices spiral out of control, gut our nation's Medicaid program, which is the largest insurer for children, just so he can cut taxes for billionaires and his donors and special interests,' she said. Andrews spent 15 years at Medical University of South Carolina, leaving the university in 2023. The pediatrician has previously run for office before, running against Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in 2022; Andrews lost to the Republican congresswoman by 14 points that November. Andrews noted that she does do some work in Washington, D.C., telling The Hill that she has 'a part time role at Children's National Hospital and a faculty appointment at George Washington [University], and so I spend a few days a month up there taking care of sick and injured children in our nation's capital.' Andrews has two medical licenses in Washington, D.C. and South Carolina, the latter of which is set to expire next month. Andrews's campaign confirmed to The Hill she plans to renew her South Carolina medical license. Andrews said if elected to the Senate one of her legislative priorities would be expanding and making permanent the child tax credit. 'I also want to work towards policies that will help working families, that will lower the costs of groceries, that will lower the cost of childcare, that we rein in the cost of health care, get prescription drug costs down,' she told The Hill. 'All of these things will benefit Americans, whether they're Republicans or Democrats in every corner of this country.' Andrews faces an uphill battle to topple Graham. Democrats bet big on Democrat Jaime Harrison in 2020, who launched a bid to unseat Graham in 2020. Despite raking in more than $100 million over the course of his campaign, he ultimately lost to the GOP senator by 10 points that fall. The pediatrician noted that some of the barriers present during 2020, when the world grappled with a global COVID pandemic, won't be present during the 2026 cycle. 'Jamie ran a great campaign, but it was in the middle of the COVID pandemic which really hamstrung their ability to have an effective field operation, so we won't have those limitations this time,' she said. She added that 'we are in a very different moment in this country' in comparing 2026 and 2020, saying that 'we are seeing attacks on our health care system' and 'attacks on the social safety nets that are really the bedrock and foundation of this country,' among other concerns. 'Folks are feeling that in a way that they were not in 2020.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former MUSC pediatrician announces campaign to oust Lindsey Graham
Annie Andrews, a Mount Pleasant pediatrician, announced she will be running against Lindsey Graham on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Andrews campaign) A Lowcountry pediatrician is again running for a spot on Capitol Hill, this time aiming for the U.S. Senate seat held by Lindsey Graham, she announced Thursday. Annie Andrews, who spent 15 years at the Medical University of South Carolina and attempted in 2022 to oust U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, is the second Democrat to announce a bid to topple Graham next year. 'I believe in South Carolina. I believe in the kids and families that I've served for years, and I'm not afraid to take on the people who've sold them out, and I'm starting with Lindsey Graham,' Andrews told the SC Daily Gazette ahead of her announcement. Andrews touted her medical experience during her 2022 run and will do so again amid debate in Washington over Republicans' efforts to slash spending in President Donald Trump's second term. An overhaul of Medicaid in the massive bill passed by the U.S. House last week by a single vote would cut spending on the government-run health insurance program by a projected $625 billion over a decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. 'I am watching in real time as our health care system is being completely dismantled by conspiracy theorists and drifters who have no business being anywhere near our public health system,' Andrews said. 'I've seen both Republicans and Democrats watch and treat this as normal politics, which is not what this is at all.' Andrews first ventured into politics for the 2022 election, hoping to flip the coastal 1st District blue again after Mace brought it back to the GOP in 2020, defeating one-term Democrat Joe Cunningham. But Andrews lost by nearly 14 percentage points as Mace swept every county in the district in the first election following the Legislature's decennial redrawing of congressional voting lines. In a split ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld those lines last year. In September 2022, weeks before voters cast their ballot, Andrews took a leave of absence from her role at MUSC due to political attacks during the election. The following June, less than two months after announcing the creation of a political action committee dedicated to supporting children, Andrews announced her departure from MUSC. Andrews lives in Mount Pleasant but works part time at Children's National Hospital in Washington D.C. And she's active on social media, accruing more than 100,000 followers across Instagram and X, formerly Twitter. However, that pales in comparison to Graham's 2.2 million followers on X alone, with another 164,000 on Instagram. Taking on Graham, a fundraising juggernaut with $15.9 million in his campaign account, according to his latest FEC filings and Trump's endorsement, will be no easy task for any Democrat in a state in its biggest red wave in four decades. But Andrews says it's possible. Despite being the Senate Budget Committee chairman and one of the GOP's most visible faces, he remains divisive. In Andrews' eyes, that makes him vulnerable. 'Republicans are just as fed up with the corruption in career politicians like Lindsey Graham in Washington D.C. as Democrats are,' she said. Mark Lynch, a Greenville businessman who invested $5 million of his own money into his campaign as of the end of March, is Graham's lone Republican primary challenger so far. It's likely that more Republicans will jump into the race. Graham usually draws multiple challengers in elections. Upstate Democrat announces bid to unseat Lindsey Graham Graham's re-election campaign is co-chaired by Gov. Henry McMaster and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott. Before she gets to Graham, Andrews will have to defeat Lee Johnson, a Greenville engineer, for the Democratic nomination. In a statement, Johnson said he welcomes anybody to the race and wants to find the best candidate to defeat Graham. 'My focus remains squarely on the mission: retiring Lindsey Graham with someone who shows up, listens, and delivers for all of South Carolina,' the statement said. When asked why she should be the Democratic nominee, Andrews said, 'I'm a doctor. I'm a mom. I'm not a career politician. I've been serving kids and families in South Carolina from every corner of South Carolina for 15 years, and I'm in this fight for those kids and families.'
The Hill
29-05-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Pediatrician Annie Andrews challenges Lindsey Graham in South Carolina
Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and former congressional candidate, is launching a Democratic bid to challenge Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) next year. In her roughly three-and-a-half-minute ad, Andrews used her background as a pediatrician to slam the Trump administration for its handling of different health crises and concerns. Her ad also criticizes Graham for voting to confirm President Trump's appointees. Her campaign ad also reminds voters of Graham's past criticism of Trump, playing several clips of Graham calling the president a 'kook' and suggesting Trump 'should go to hell.' Graham has since turned into a key Trump ally since the 2016 election. In an interview with The Hill ahead of her launch, Andrews described Graham as being ideologically inconsistent and suggested he prioritize the business and donor community over that of everyday Americans. She said Graham had been in the Senate for about half her life, saying that 'one of the problems with that is that he's changed his position on nearly every issue over the span of those 22 years because he doesn't believe in anything or stand for anything other than himself.' 'Lindsey Graham will take food off of kids' plates … let prices spiral out of control, gut our nation's Medicaid program, which is the largest insurer for children, just so he can cut taxes for billionaires and his donors and special interests,' she said. Andrews spent 15 years at Medical University of South Carolina, leaving the university in 2023. The pediatrician has previously run for office before, running against Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in 2022; Andrews lost to the Republican congresswoman by 14 points that November. Andrews noted that she does do some work in Washington, D.C., telling The Hill that she has 'a part time role at Children's National Hospital and a faculty appointment at George Washington [University], and so I spend a few days a month up there taking care of sick and injured children in our nation's capital.' Andrews has two medical licenses in Washington, D.C. and South Carolina, the latter of which is set to expire next month. Andrews's campaign confirmed to The Hill she plans to renew her South Carolina medical license. Andrews said if elected to the Senate one of her legislative priorities would be expanding and making permanent the child tax credit. 'I also want to work towards policies that will help working families, that will lower the costs of groceries, that will lower the cost of childcare, that we rein in the cost of health care, get prescription drug costs down,' she told The Hill. 'All of these things will benefit Americans, whether they're Republicans or Democrats in every corner of this country.' Andrews faces an uphill battle to topple Graham. Democrats bet big on Democrat Jaime Harrison in 2020, who launched a bid to unseat Graham in 2020. Despite raking in more than $100 million over the course of his campaign, he ultimately lost to the GOP senator by 10 points that fall. The pediatrician noted that some of the barriers present during 2020, when the world grappled with a global COVID pandemic, won't be present during the 2026 cycle. 'Jamie ran a great campaign, but it was in the middle of the COVID pandemic which really hamstrung their ability to have an effective field operation, so we won't have those limitations this time,' she said. She added that 'we are in a very different moment in this country' in comparing 2026 and 2020, saying that 'we are seeing attacks on our health care system' and 'attacks on the social safety nets that are really the bedrock and foundation of this country,' among other concerns. 'Folks are feeling that in a way that they were not in 2020.'
San Francisco Chronicle
28-05-2025
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
Is brain rot real? Here's what brain health experts say
Doomscrolling. Instagram obsessions. Mindless YouTube video viewing. Distracting behaviors, yes. But can they actually rot a person's brain? Last year, Oxford University Press designated "brain rot" as its word of the year, defining it as the "supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state" caused by overconsuming "trivial or unchallenging" material found on social media and other online platforms. "It's what happens when you consume too much low-quality online content, which is like junk food for the brain," said Dr. Andreana Benitez, an associate professor in the department of neurology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. But whether that content is actually harming the brain – and how – remains unclear. Screen habits can shape health According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, half of teenagers in the U.S. spend four hours or more looking at screens each day, and global estimates suggest adults may be online an average of more than six hours per day. There are no federal health guidelines for how many hours of daily screen time are appropriate for teens or adults. Researchers lack sufficient data to fully understand the concept of brain rot and what it might lead to. "There really isn't a coherent science around it," Benitez said. There is, however, CDC data showing that 1 in 4 teenage frequent scrollers report feeling anxious or depressed. Some research suggests problems with heavy online use may begin quite young. Adolescents who spend greater amounts of time in front of screens may be more likely to experience mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, and related physical symptoms such as pain, dizziness or nausea. That's according to a 2024 analysis of data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, the largest long-term child brain development study in the U.S. Other studies have potentially linked brain rot to emotional desensitization, cognitive overload, negative self-worth and impaired executive function skills, including memory, planning and decision-making. Rethinking our digital diet While there's no evidence that hours of daily screen time are changing the structure of the human brain, it's what's not happening during those hours that could be harmful, especially for young people whose brains are still developing, said Dr. Costantino Iadecola, director and chair of Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. The more time young people spend in front of screens, the less time they spend being physically active or having the face-to-face human interactions that supply the developing brain with critical complex sensory and emotional input, he said. "Brain development requires diversity of exposures," Iadecola said. "When you are on your phone, you are not getting these other experiences. We are substituting artificial interactions for human interactions, and artificial interactions lack the complexity of the human experience – the verbal, sensory and emotional reactions we have after interacting with people." It's not just screen time that matters – it's also screen content, Benitez said. "If you consume excessive amounts of low-quality online content, you are more likely to be exposed to information that might distort your perception of reality and harm your mental health," she said. Cycling through large amounts of negative content can also leave a person mentally exhausted, she said. But how much is too much has yet to be determined, Benitez said. Sticking to her junk food analogy, she likened short periods of screen time to the occasional junk food snack. "One bag of chips might not be that bad, but if you're eating three at a time, that might be a problem," she said. How to have smarter screen time Helping kids – and adults – consume a healthier online diet isn't easy, Benitez said, because so much of modern life, from schoolwork to shopping, entertainment and socializing, involves online applications. "With kids, screens are a part of their lives," she said. "It's how they get a lot of information." But, she said, "it's incumbent upon adults to curate the content, make sure they are consuming content that's good for them and in a way that does not result in mental fatigue. We need to make sure they are engaging in critical thinking as they engage with screens." For both children and grown-ups, Benitez also cautioned against scrolling before bedtime. "Consuming arousing information and being exposed to light when your body should be winding down for sleep might affect your sleep," she said. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests families develop screen-time plans together and encourage usage that builds creativity and connections with family and friends. It also suggests parents emphasize the importance of offline activities such as sports, music, art and other hobbies. The AAP also notes that some screen use may be "healthy and positive," a point both Benitez and Iadecola agreed with. "You could be consuming good content," Benitez said. "There's a value judgment in this." Iadecola suggested making sure online usage is "purpose-appropriate. It's OK to use the technology for whatever task is at hand. The problem is when it becomes addictive behavior. Everything in moderation."
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Everyday Hero: 'Get under it' with the Lowcountry Splash
Around five hundred people will jump into the water on Saturday morning and 'get under it.' An idea that started 24 years ago has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes near and dear to the man who started it and has kept it going. Mark Rutledge, CEO of Rehab Carolina Physical Therapy, has reason to be excited. Two decades ago, he came up with the idea of the Lowcountry Splash while running the Cooper River Bridge Run. 'I ran the Bridge Run in like 1992 for the first time, and the motto, of course, is 'get over it' and I'm running it, and I'm an old swimmer; I swam in college, and I'm thinking it'd be cool to get under it. So that's where the idea was born, and then we made it happen in 2002,' Rutledge explained. The splash is a 2.4- or 6-mile swim starting in the Wando River and ending in the Charleston Harbor. It's an annual fan favorite for swimmers. In its early stages, it was a way for Rutledge to raise money for the neonatal intensive care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina, a foundation in his son Logan's name. 'He was born prematurely. He was born at 24 ½ weeks and was in the neonatal intensive care unit at MUSC. He was doing great. They were actually amazed at how well he had been doing for how early he had been born, and then he got an infection. In two days, he died from heart problems,' Rutledge said. 'So, he lived for a month.' The Lowcountry Splash made hundreds of thousands of dollars in the early stages, but a trip to Edisto soon directed the dollars to a new cause. 'We were at Edisto visiting friends, and two kids drowned while we were there. We heard the helicopters, we heard the ambulances, and we were all ex-swimmers at South Carolina. We didn't know what was going on. So I started investigating that and found out that South Carolina had the fourth highest drowning rate per capita in the country.' After discovering this, Rutledge decided to change directions and redirect the money to a program that teaches people how to swim, the Lowcountry Aquatic Program Swimming (LAPS). LAPS teaches students from kindergarten through first grade in Charleston County. 'We were up to teaching 1,700 kids with free swim lessons of kindergarteners and first graders when we were really at our peak before COVID,' Rutledge said. COVID killed the program, but Rutledge is working hard to restore it. The fun fact is that in the 23 swims that have been, no one has ever been bitten by a shark. The splash has raised around $1 million since its inception and will be heading into its 24th race this Saturday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
