HealthDay (8/22, Mozes) reports new research found being unsatisfied at your job in your 20s and 30s can “undermine your health by mid-life,” but having work you enjoy could “pay health dividends.” The study found that disenchanted worker had “worse mental health” by their 40s, and “were more likely to suffer from routine sleep trouble and anxiety compared with satisfied or increasingly satisfied participants.”

Researchers surveyed more than 6,400 men and women participating in a long-running study that began in 1979. According to the researchers “physical health appeared to suffer among those who consistently expressed low satisfaction with work or whose satisfaction fell over time.”

Related Links:

— “Unhappy at Work in Your 20s, Unhealthy in Your 40s?,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, August 22, 2016.

On the front of its New York section, the New York Times (8/21, MB1, Glaser, Subscription Publication) reported in a nearly 2,700-word story that suicidologist Madelyn Gould, PhD, MPH, a professor of epidemiology in Columbia University’s psychiatry department, is urging New York “authorities to put barriers on bridges and other buildings, something that copious amounts of research show is effective” in preventing suicides.

Even though “the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the George Washington Bridge, has put dozens of signs and several telephones on it to link desperate callers to trained crisis counselors,” some “93 people have died at the bridge” over the past seven years. Now, the Port Authority plans “to erect a safety barrier on the bridge, a project that will not be completed before 2024.”

Dr. Gould would like that barrier completed much sooner, commenting, “From the perspective of saving people’s lives, why not move up that time frame?”

Related Links:

— “A Suicidologist’s New Challenge: The George Washington Bridge,” GABRIELLE GLASER, New York Times, August 19, 2016.

Bloomberg News (8/19, Tracer) reported that according to a study conducted by Avalere Health, consumers are getting fewer options under Affordable Care Act plans. Data show about “36 percent of the approximately 500 rating regions in the US may have just one health insurer when the 2017 signup season starts on Nov. 1,” while an additional “19 percent could have just two carriers.” The article said by comparison, in 2016, some two-thirds of areas had three or more insurers competing for consumers’ business.

On its website, CNBC (8/19, Mangan) reported that the analysis indicates seven states, including Alaska, Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming, will have only one insurer offering ACA plans in 2017.

Related Links:

— “Choices May Be Limited for Obamacare Shoppers, Avalere Says,” Zachary Tracer, Bloomberg News, August 19, 2016.

TIME (8/18, Thompson) reports that Lieut. General Nadja West, the US Army’s surgeon general, “is skeptical that the first-ever federally-approved study will show that marijuana can help US veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD].” Proponents of marijuana treatment for PTSD, she “adds, too often emphasize the benefits without acknowledging the downsides.” General West said, “So to make [marijuana] sound as if it’s perfectly safe, the impact that it has long-term on certain areas of the brain, especially young people developing, that’s been proven: irreversible damage to the hippocampus and things like that that can really have impacts on individuals long-term.”

Related Links:

— “Top Army Doctor Leery of Treating PTSD with Marijuana,” Mark Thompson, Time, August 18, 2016.

In a nearly 1,700 word article, the New York Times (8/17, Heffernan, Wallace) reports people are at high risk for alcohol abuse, depression, and sexual assault during the first weeks of college, so parents should talk with their children about those risks before and after they begin college, according to “Robert Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health and director of the PRO Health Lab at Penn State,” and other experts. The article highlights research by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that has found binge-drinking among college students has declined overall, but the number of alcohol-related hospitalizations among college students has increased.

Related Links:

— “For Freshmen, Campus Life Poses New Risks,” LISA HEFFERNAN and JENNIFER BREHENY WALLACE, New York Times, August 17, 2016.