In recent years, there has been rising concern that tiny particles known as microplastics are showing up basically everywhere on Earth, from polar ice to soil, drinking water and food. Formed when plastics break down into progressively smaller bits, these particles are being consumed by humans and other creatures, with unknown potential health and ecosystem...
Health
About 22 High School Age Adolescents Died Each Week from Overdoses in 2022, Driven by Fentanyl-Laced Prescription Pills
An average of 22 adolescents 14 to 18 years of age died in the U.S. each week in 2022 from drug overdoses, raising the death rate for this group to 5.2 per 100,000– driven by fentanyl in counterfeit pills, new research finds. Adolescent overdoses had more than doubled among this group between 2019 and 2020,...
PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety Nearly Doubles in Israel in Aftermath of Hamas Attack
A study conducted by researchers at Ruppin Academic Center in Israel and Columbia University documents the broad impact on the mental health of Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, with sharp increases in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety in the aftermath Hamas’ attack in October. The study, published in the Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine Jan. 5, 2023, found the...
Maximizing Exercise Benefits to Improve Mental Health
A slew of studies in recent years has shown that exercise can reduce stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression. Jacob Meyer, associate professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University, wants to know whether different types and doses of exercise benefit individuals, either on their own or integrated into a treatment plan. Unlocking the underlying mechanisms between physical and...
New Tool Helps Gauge Trust in Government
People are less likely to adopt new health policies if they don’t have faith in their government, and a new tool from University of Waterloo researchers aims to fix that. The tool – designed by a team based in Waterloo’s School of Public Health Sciences – aids lawmakers in how trustworthy they may appear to the public...
Powerful Financial Giants Could Play Vital Role in Preventing the Next Pandemic
Many emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, especially zoonotic diseases such as ebola or new coronaviruses, emerge as the result of intensified human activities such as deforestation, expansion of agricultural land, and increased hunting and trading of wildlife. In a new study, published in the scientific journal Lancet Planetary Health, researchers identified public and private companies operating...
How Do We Stop Relying on 911 to Handle Mental Health Crises?
911 is the most well-known phone number in the country. When 911 launched in 1968, its original intent was to alert responders to emergency situations such as fire, crime, and accidents. Today, though, about two-thirds of calls to 911 are for nonemergency situations like power outages or general requests for information: What time is it? What day is recycling...
Modern Medicine Has Its Scientific Roots in the Middle Ages − How the Logic of Vulture Brain Remedies and Bloodletting Lives on Today
Nothing calls to mind nonsensical treatments and bizarre religious healing rituals as easily as the notion of Dark Age medicine. “The Saturday Night Live” sketch Medieval Barber Theodoric of York says it all with its portrayal of a quack doctor who insists on extracting pints of his patients’ blood in a dirty little shop. Though...
Discrimination Alters Brain-Gut ‘Crosstalk,’ Prompting Poor Food Choices and Increased Health Risks
People frequently exposed to racial or ethnic discrimination may be more susceptible to obesity and related health risks in part because of a stress response that changes biological processes and how we process food cues. These are findings from UCLA researchers conducting what is believed to be the first study directly examining effects of discrimination...
Elevated Temperatures and Climate Change May Contribute to Rising Drug and Alcohol Disorders
Hospital visits from alcohol- and substance-related disorders are driven by elevated temperatures and could be further affected by rising temperatures due to climate change, according to new research by environmental health scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The study, which is published in the peer-reviewed journal Communications Medicine, is likely the first comprehensive investigation of...