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Survey finds that 49% of post-menopausal women do not take bone health supplements

Make no bones about it; post-menopausal women are well aware of the risks of brittle bones and fractures; however, a national survey of women taken for AIDP, Inc., the supplier of KoACT, a patented combination of collagen and calcium, found that almost half (49%) are not taking any bone health supplement to address this major health issue.

7 Oct 2014

Study identifies six new genetic variants associated with habitual coffee drinking

A new, large-scale study has identified six new genetic variants associated with habitual coffee drinking. The genome-wide meta-analysis, led by Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital researchers, helps explain why a given amount of coffee or caffeine has different effects on different people and provides a genetic basis for future research exploring the links between coffee and health.

7 Oct 2014

CHLA reports first confirmed case of enterovirus D68 in Los Angeles

In September, Children's Hospital Los Angeles physicians predicted it was a matter of when, and not if, Los Angeles children would become infected with Enterovirus EV-D68, commonly referred to as enterovirus D68. On Oct. 1, that day came. CHLA and public health officials announced that a young patient who had been hospitalized at CHLA with a respiratory illness and later experienced partial limb paralysis had tested positive for enterovirus D68.

7 Oct 2014

U-M scientists launch $11.5 million effort to better understand cause of Parkinson's disease

Deep in the brains of the million Americans with Parkinson's disease, changes to their brain cells put them at high risk of dangerous falls -- a problem that resists even the most modern treatments.

7 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Health costs and income inequality; vital matters when approaching life's end

Government data show that health costs are the biggest driver of income inequality in America today. Most employers pay workers a combination of wages and benefits, the most important of which is health coverage. Economic theory says that when employers' costs for benefits like health coverage rise, they will hold back on salary increases to keep total compensation costs in check. That's exactly what seems to have happened: Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that from June 2004 to June 2014 compensation increased by 28 percent while employer health-insurance costs rose by 51 percent. Consequently, average wages grew by just 24 percent (Mark J. Warshawsky and Andrew G. Biggs, 10/6).

7 Oct 2014

Correcting flaws in the Ebola response

How hospital and health workers react to suspected cases of Ebola going forward is the subject of much scrutiny. But, even as public health and many elected officials urge calm, some potential 2016 presidential candidates say President Obama isn't doing enough to keep the disease out of the U.S.

6 Oct 2014

Canada announces deployment of second mobile lab team to West Africa

The Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health, with Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Gregory Taylor, announced the deployment of a second mobile lab team to West Africa.

6 Oct 2014

Researchers reveal 'programmable' antibiotic technique to target drug-resistant microbes

The multitude of microbes scientists have found populating the human body have good, bad and mostly mysterious implications for our health. But when something goes wrong, we defend ourselves with the undiscriminating brute force of traditional antibiotics, which wipe out everything at once, regardless of the consequences.

6 Oct 2014

Doctors prescribe more analgaesia to women than to men, study finds

Regardless of the pain type, age and social class, women are more likely to be prescribed analgaesia than men. This is confirmed by a study conducted by several members of the Research Group on Public Health at the University of Alicante and funded by the Women's Institute, which recently received the XXIV Award of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology for the best original article published in the journal Gaceta Sanitaria in 2013.

6 Oct 2014

Suicide prevention: an interview with Dr Shekhar Saxena, World Health Organization

Suicide is a serious public health problem. More than 800,000 people die from suicide every year – that’s one person every 40 seconds.

5 Oct 2014

New study suggests that family meals may be protective against obesity

Increasing rates of adolescent obesity and the likelihood that obesity will carry forward into adulthood, have led to various preventive initiatives. It has been suggested that family meals, which tend to include fruits, vegetables, calcium, and whole grains, could be protective against obesity.

5 Oct 2014

MU researcher gets $1 million from CDC to enhance FASDs prevention efforts

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs), like Autism Spectrum Disorders, manifest in childhood as physical abnormalities along with social, attention and learning difficulties that range in severity and continue into adulthood.

5 Oct 2014

Genetic history of HIV finally unravelled

Research, published today, shows that the HIV pandemic almost certainly began its global spread in the 1920s in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

3 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Another troubled website rollout; insurers fight consumer measures in Calif.

If the federal government's new Open Payments website were a consumer product, it would be returned to the manufacturer for a full refund. Open Payments is the government's site for publishing payments made to doctors and teaching hospitals by drug and medical device manufacturers. It includes 4.4 million payments, worth $3.5 billion, to more than half a million doctors and almost 1,360 teaching hospitals (Charles Ornstein, 10/1).

3 Oct 2014

Researchers analyze incidence of childhood brain tumors

Older parents, birth defects, maternal nutrition and childhood exposure to CT scans and pesticides are increasingly being associated with brain tumors in children, according to new research from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

3 Oct 2014

Study: Expanding Medicaid boosts health care access and use in rural populations

A new study in Health Services Research reveals that expanding Medicaid to cover more adults boosts health care access and use in rural populations.

3 Oct 2014

Cultural, historical forces contribute to rise in cases of melanoma

A century's worth of cultural and historical forces have contributed to the rise in the incidence of melanoma, including changes in fashion and clothing design, according to an intriguing, retrospective research study conducted by investigators in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Langone Medical Center.

3 Oct 2014

Longer looks: Dying at home; losing religion; Obamacare 2.0

He was still her handsome father, the song-and-dance man of her childhood, with a full head of wavy hair and blue eyes that lit up when he talked. But he was gaunt now, warped like a weathered plank, perhaps by late effects of an old stroke, certainly by muscle atrophy and bad circulation in his legs. Now she was determined to fulfill her father's dearest wish, the wish so common among frail, elderly people: to die at home. But it seemed as if all the forces of the health care system were against her - hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, insurance companies, and the shifting crosscurrents of public health care spending (Nina Bernstein, 9/25).

3 Oct 2014

Animal study suggests ibuprofen can reduce lung inflammation in elderly

New research shows that the lungs become more inflammatory with age and that ibuprofen can lower that inflammation.

3 Oct 2014

Researchers identify biomarker that can predict GS7 prostate cancer patients

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified a biomarker living next door to the KLK3 gene that can predict which GS7 prostate cancer patients will have a more aggressive form of cancer.

3 Oct 2014

Public Health News and Research

Survey finds that 49% of post-menopausal women do not take bone health supplements

Study identifies six new genetic variants associated with habitual coffee drinking

CHLA reports first confirmed case of enterovirus D68 in Los Angeles

U-M scientists launch $11.5 million effort to better understand cause of Parkinson's disease

Viewpoints: Health costs and income inequality; vital matters when approaching life's end

Correcting flaws in the Ebola response

Canada announces deployment of second mobile lab team to West Africa

Researchers reveal 'programmable' antibiotic technique to target drug-resistant microbes

Doctors prescribe more analgaesia to women than to men, study finds

Suicide prevention: an interview with Dr Shekhar Saxena, World Health Organization

New study suggests that family meals may be protective against obesity

MU researcher gets $1 million from CDC to enhance FASDs prevention efforts

Genetic history of HIV finally unravelled

Viewpoints: Another troubled website rollout; insurers fight consumer measures in Calif.

Researchers analyze incidence of childhood brain tumors

Study: Expanding Medicaid boosts health care access and use in rural populations

Cultural, historical forces contribute to rise in cases of melanoma

Longer looks: Dying at home; losing religion; Obamacare 2.0

Animal study suggests ibuprofen can reduce lung inflammation in elderly

Researchers identify biomarker that can predict GS7 prostate cancer patients

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