A woman who’s just had one of her breasts entirely removed, which forever leaves her with a huge scar across half of her chest, might be very satisfied with the result. If this was her only option, what obviously most matters to her is to be rid of the disease. But for another, who has...
Health
Post
Dangerous Counterfeit Drugs Are Putting Millions of U.S. Consumers at Risk, According to a New Study
The big idea The Food and Drug Administration took 130 enforcement actions against counterfeit medication rings from 2016 through 2021, according to my new study published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy. Such actions might involve arrests, confiscation of products or counterfeit rings being dissolved. These counterfeiting operations involved tens of millions of pills, more...
Post
Spatial Distribution of Anti-Asian Hate Tweets During Covid-19
In January of 2020, SARS-CoV-19 reached the United States. With it came an even faster-spreading virus—xenophobic rhetoric referring to the pandemic’s epicenter in Wuhan, China. Politicians flooded news outlets and social media with distrust of the Chinese government and labeled COVID-19 as the “Chinese flu,” “Wuhan flu,” “Kung flu” and more. The messaging that blamed...
Post
Both Nature and Nurture Contribute to Signatures of Socioeconomic Status in the Brain
Your education, your job, your income, the neighborhood you live in: Together these factors are considered to represent socioeconomic status (SES) and contribute to a variety of health and social outcomes, from physical and mental health to educational achievement and cognitive capacities. The brain acts as an obvious mediator between SES and many of these...
Post
Childhood Circumstances and Personality Traits Are Associated with Loneliness in Older Age
Life circumstances during childhood — including having fewer friends and siblings, low-quality relationships with parents, bad health and growing up in a poorer household — are all correlated with a higher rate of loneliness in older age, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Sophie Guthmuller of Vienna University...
Post
Women Who Embraced Their Partner Subsequently Had Lower Stress-Induced Cortisol Response
Women instructed to embrace their romantic partner prior to undergoing a stressful experience had a lower biological stress response—as indicated by levels of the stress hormone cortisol in saliva—compared to women who did not embrace their partner. This effect was not seen for men. Gesa Berretz of Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and colleagues present these...
Post
Brain Capital: A New Investment Approach for Late-Life Well-Being
Within many societies and cultures around the world, older adults are too often undervalued and underappreciated, according to a new article in the journal Innovation in Aging. This exacerbates many key challenges that older adults may face. It also undermines the many positive aspects of late life that are of value at both an individual and...
Post
If You Stand Like Superman or Wonder Woman, Would You Feel Stronger?
Dominant or upright postures can help people feel – and maybe even behave – more confidently. A new analysis by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), the University of Bamberg and The Ohio State University has confirmed what small studies already suggested. The team evaluated data from around 130 experiments with a total of 10,000...
Post
Cutting Air Pollution Emissions Would Save 50,000 Us Lives, $600 Billion Each Year
Eliminating air pollution emissions from energy-related activities in the United States would prevent more than 50,000 premature deaths each year and provide more than $600 billion in benefits each year from avoided illness and death, according to a new study by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers. Published today in the journal GeoHealth, the study reports the health...
Post
Deaths from Alcohol Use Disorder Surged During Pandemic
Deaths involving alcohol use disorder increased dramatically during the pandemic, according to a new study by Cedars-Sinai investigators. The study also found that young adults 25 to 44 years old experienced the steepest upward trend in alcohol use disorder mortality. In the study, published this month in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Network Open, investigators used predictive modeling...
