HEALTH & WELLNESS

Frequent Use Of Lye-Based Hair Relaxers Linked To A Higher Risk Of Breast Cancer – 25-Year-Long Study Suggest

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Frequent Use Of Lye-Based Hair Relaxers Linked To A Higher Risk Of Breast Cancer – 25-Year-Long Study Suggest

Kimberly Bertrand, Boston University The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Frequent and long-term use of lye-based hair straightening products, or relaxers, may increase the risk of breast cancer among Black women, compared with more moderate use. Boston University’s Black Women’s Health Study followed 59,000 self-identified African American women for over 25 years, sending questionnaires every two years on new diagnoses and factors that might influence their health. Using these data in our own study, my team of epidemiologists and I found that Black women who used hair products containing lye at least seven times a year for 15 or more years had an approximately 30% increased risk of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer compared with more i...

Designer Babies – Soon To Be The Norm In Reproductive Healthcare

1Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Designer Babies – Soon To Be The Norm In Reproductive Healthcare

When human desires and wants are quantified as unalienable rights, then, ethics and morals become easily compromised, and a disaster often awaits. Designer babies will soon be the norm in reproductive healthcare, a reflection of desire passed off as an individual right. Soon, a couple will be able to walk in a reproductive healthcare facility and select all the features that they would prefer their child to have or not have. If permitted from clinical trials to practical applications, couples will have the freedom and right, depending on affordability, to decide the features that their child will have, in the process creating a child that they want. Therefore, based on their preference, a couple can decide to have a child with green eyes, less chances of becoming obese, high probability o...

COVID Lockdowns – Was It Worth It? Why Nobody Will Ever Agree

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

COVID Lockdowns – Was It Worth It? Why Nobody Will Ever Agree

James D. Long, University of Washington; Mark A. Smith, University of Washington, and Victor Menaldo, University of Washington As an increasingly vaccinated world emerges from lockdowns, lots of people are talking about whether the fight against the pandemic was too strong or too weak. Some people argue restrictions did not go far enough; others maintain the attempted cures have been worse than the disease. One reason for these conflicting views is that the answer depends on both facts and values. Relevant facts include features of the virus like transmission rates and deaths. Government policies were often guided by scientific findings to reduce the spread of the virus and the resulting illnesses and deaths. Relevant values include health and longevity, but also prosperity, opportunit...

Old Marketing Tactics Used To Sell Baby Formula And Undermine Breastfeeding – New Technologies Claiming To Copy Human Milk

14Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Old Marketing Tactics Used To Sell Baby Formula And Undermine Breastfeeding – New Technologies Claiming To Copy Human Milk

Cecília Tomori, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing New products that claim to replicate mother’s milk have entered the lucrative market for infant formula. To an anthropologist and public health scholar who studies breastfeeding, these claims appear to be built on old patterns of misleading scientific statements – and reveal the power of marketing to exploit gaps created by inadequate societal support for breastfeeding. The costs of undermining breastfeeding are enormous. Globally, over 823,000 child deaths could be prevented annually with appropriate breastfeeding. Additionally, 20,000 maternal deaths could be averted each year worldwide from breast cancer. Poor communities of color around the world disproportionately shoulder this harm. The rise of commercial formula Through...

Around The World Weight Stigma Is A Burden – And Has Negative Consequences Everywhere

2Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, SELF

Around The World Weight Stigma Is A Burden – And Has Negative Consequences Everywhere

Lazy. Unmotivated. No self-discipline. No willpower. These are just a few of the widespread stereotypes ingrained in American society about people who have a higher body weight or larger body size. Known as weight stigma, these attitudes result in many Americans being blamed, teased, bullied, mistreated and discriminated against. There is nowhere to hide from societal weight stigma. Decades of research confirm the presence of weight stigma in workplaces, schools, health care settings, public accommodations and the mass media, as well as in close interpersonal relationships with friends and families. It’s everywhere. I’m a psychologist and researcher at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut. For 20 years my team has studied weight stigma. We’ve ex...

2.4 Million US Seniors Get Enough To Eat While Meals On Wheels Volunteers Help Staving Off Loneliness

21May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

2.4 Million US Seniors Get Enough To Eat While Meals On Wheels Volunteers Help Staving Off Loneliness

More than 2.4 million older adults are supported each year by Meals on Wheels, a program through which seniors and people with disabilities receive healthy and tasty meals for free from a network of volunteers. These efforts are usually organized through local senior centers and other community organizations across the U.S. that encourage the people who receive meals to make voluntary donations to cover at least part of the cost if that’s within their means. CC BY-NC-ND Services like this nonprofit meal delivery program, for which eligibility begins at age 60, are becoming more important than ever before. About 5.3 million people 60 and up, 7.3% of all Americans in that age group, experienced food insecurity in 2018 – meaning that their households couldn’t acquire adequate food bec...

Do You Need To Floss More Or Are Your Parents Responsible For Your Cavities?

18May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Do You Need To Floss More Or Are Your Parents Responsible For Your Cavities?

To “cry poor mouth” is an expression used to habitually complain about a lack of money. A literal poor mouth, however, represents one of the most widespread global diseases: tooth decay. Cavities resulting from poor oral health can drive everything from emotional issues to low self-esteem and health concerns. The health of your teeth has a major effect on your body. Rudy Fargo/Unsplash, CC BY Even more critical is the socioeconomic impact of tooth decay. Cavities are a “hidden cost” across a person’s lifespan. They can affect the ability of children to learn, result in absenteeism and a loss of productivity for employees and employers, and increase health costs for retirees. Untreated tooth decay can result in health complications including poor nutrition, if it is painful to chew; sever...

7 Questions Answered By A Pediatric Infectious Disease Expert – Should My Child Get The COVID-19 Vaccine?

14May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, LIFESTYLE

7 Questions Answered By A Pediatric Infectious Disease Expert – Should My Child Get The COVID-19 Vaccine?

The Food and Drug Administration expanded emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to include adolescents 12 to 15 years of age on May 10, 2021. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed with recommendations endorsing use in this age group after their advisory group meeting on May 12. The American Academy of Pediatrics also supports this decision. Dr. Debbie-Ann Shirley is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia specializing in pediatric infectious diseases. Here she addresses some of the concerns parents may have about their teen or preteen getting the COVID-19 vaccine. 1. Does the vaccine work in adolescents? Yes, recently released data from Pfizer-BioNTech shows that the COVID-19 vaccine seems to work really well in ...

CDC Says Vaccinated People Can Ditch Masks In Most Settings – Herd Immunity Appears Unlikely For COVID-19

14May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

CDC Says Vaccinated People Can Ditch Masks In Most Settings – Herd Immunity Appears Unlikely For COVID-19

When COVID-19 first began spreading, public health and medical experts began talking about the need for the U.S. to reach herd immunity to stop the coronavirus from spreading. Experts have estimated that between 60% and 90% of people in the U.S. would need to be vaccinated for that to happen. Only about 35% of the population has been fully vaccinated, and yet the CDC said on May 14, 2021 that fully vaccinated people can lose their masks in most indoor and outdoor settings. An important question now arises: What happens if we don’t reach herd immunity? Dr. William Petri is a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Virginia who helps lead the global program to achieve herd immunity for polio as the chair of the World Health Organization’s Polio Research Committee. He answers q...

Lack Of Training – Doctors Treating Trans Youth Grapple With Uncertainty

12May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, LGBTQ

Lack Of Training – Doctors Treating Trans Youth Grapple With Uncertainty

Last month, the Arkansas Senate passed legislation prohibiting medical providers from offering gender-affirming hormones or surgeries to trans youth. If you were to read the bill – titled the Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act – you might think the law was protecting children from physicians like Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who experimented on Jewish people. “It is of grave concern to the General Assembly,” the text reads, that trans youth are being allowed “to be subjects of irreversible and drastic” treatments “despite the lack of studies showing that the benefits of such extreme interventions outweigh the risks.” This language is at odds with the growing evidence that blocking people from accessing gender-affirming care creates increased risks for social isolation, suicide ...