epidemic

2Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

During An Epidemic In 1714 The Death Of Cicely, Young, Black And Enslaved Has Lessons That Resonate In Today’s Pandemic

What I believe to be the oldest surviving gravestone for a Black person in the Americas memorializes an enslaved teenager named Cicely. Over 1.4 million people have died from COVID-19 so far this year. How history memorializes them will reflect those we most value. CC BY-ND Cicely’s body is interred across from Harvard’s Johnston Gate in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She died in 1714 during a measles epidemic brought to the college by a student after the summer recess of 1713. Another tombstone in the same burial ground remembers Jane, an enslaved woman who died in 1741 during an outbreak of diphtheria, or “throat distemper.” A grave marker for an enslaved woman named Jane uses the archaic ‘1740/1’ Julian calendar notation to denote her death in early 1741. Nicole Maskiell, CC BY-ND When dise...

Immigrants And U.S.-Born Hispanics Have Longer Life Expectancies Than Americans – Will The US Obesity Epidemic Change Things?

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Immigrants And U.S.-Born Hispanics Have Longer Life Expectancies Than Americans – Will The US Obesity Epidemic Change Things?

Anti-immigrant sentiments have fueled recent national and state-level health policy efforts. In 2019, Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation that would deny visas to immigrants who could not provide proof of insurance. He argued that they would financially burden the health care system. More recently, Missouri’s August election ballot proposed Medicaid expansion, and opponents warned that it would overwhelm Missouri hospitals with undocumented immigrants, even though they are ineligible for Medicaid benefits. We study immigrant health and population health. Our work suggests that viewing immigrants as a drain on the U.S. health care system is largely unfounded. For decades, research has shown that immigrants tend to be healthier than U.S.-born whites. Immigrants outlive U.S.-born...

How gene editing a person’s brain cells could be used to curb the opioid epidemic

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

How gene editing a person’s brain cells could be used to curb the opioid epidemic

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic cripples the economy and kills hundreds of people each day, there is another epidemic that continues to kill tens of thousands of people each year through opioid drug overdose. Opioid analgesic drugs, like morphine and oxycodone, are the classic double-edged swords. They are the very best drugs to stop severe pain but also the class of drugs most likely to kill the person taking them. In a recent journal article, I outlined how a combination of state-of-the-art molecular techniques, such as CRISPR gene editing and brain microinjection methods, could be used to blunt one edge of the sword and make opioid drugs safer. I am a pharmacologist interested in the way opioid drugs such as morphine and fentanyl can blunt pain. I became fascinated in biology at the tim...

Diabetes: A global epidemic costing billions

15Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Diabetes: A global epidemic costing billions

On World Diabetes Day, data shows the disease's incidence is declining in the United States, but rising globally. It's a disease that kills someone every eight seconds, and costs the globe over a trillion dollars every year. Diabetes is a chronic condition that strikes when the pancreas, an organ that is part of the digestive system, no longer produces sufficient insulin, a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels. Complications with the hormone can lead to various forms of diabetes, now at epidemic levels around the world. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1.5 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed annually in the US alone. To lower that toll, the CDC has spent millions on prevention and ed...

Making the Gun Violence Epidemic Visible Through Art and Activism

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Making the Gun Violence Epidemic Visible Through Art and Activism

Two art projects explore the impact of gun violence, with a focus on mass shootings and police brutality. Leslie Lee calls herself an “artivist.” It’s a word combining art and activism, rooted in community and Latinx art from the late 1990s, but Lee says she was doing this work before it had a name. “I have always been interested in metaphor and content that addressed various social issues,” she says. A 71-year-old grandmother, Lee has made art professionally as a sculptor and painter for more than 50 years, and she says she’s developed the “tenacity required for large-scale projects.” In response to the October 2017 shooting deaths of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Lee established The Soul Box Project in Portland, Oregon, where she lives....

The Battle For Minimum Weight – Blacks and the Obesity Epidemic

15Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

The Battle For Minimum Weight – Blacks and the Obesity Epidemic

Caught up in the frenetic grind of her fashion industry job, Allison Ferrell, 41, paid little attention to her increasing waistline. As Manager of Product Operation and Logistics for Abaete, a New York-based luxury apparel line, lunch was a luxury she couldn't afford. She said she was crazed and I couldn't spare the time so If I didn't eat by 1:00 p.m. that was it for the rest of the day. After a 2005 surgery left her stomach upset, she routinely avoided a litany of foods and routinely skipped meals. Her erratic eating habits kicked her body into pre-starvation mode. Believing it was starving, her body stopped burning calories and began to store food reserves causing an increase in body fat. I'd had a good run, but my negative habits were catching up with me and now it was time to take...