Category Archives: Health

Violence Perpetuating Violence

YSPH Postdoc Examines how Armed Conflict Increases the Incidence of Intimate Partner Violence

The armed conflict in Burma is not one that receives much attention in the western media. But it has forced thousands of people to flee their homes and seek relative safety just over the border in Thailand.

But once there, refugee women face another peril entirely that continues to threaten their well-being: intimate partner violence.

In a research paper that was recently published in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Yale School of Public Health postdoctoral research associate Kathryn Falb found that refugee women living in three Thai border camps experience widespread physical violence, not by Burmese soldiers, but by the men who fled with them in the first place. (more…)

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Is this Peptide a Key to Happiness?

UCLA findings suggests possible new treatment for depression, other disorders

What makes us happy? Family? Money? Love? How about a peptide?

The neurochemical changes underlying human emotions and social behavior are largely unknown. Now though, for the first time in humans, scientists at UCLA have measured the release of a specific peptide, a neurotransmitter called hypocretin, that greatly increased when subjects were happy but decreased when they were sad. (more…)

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Green Tea Extract Interferes with the Formation of Amyloid Plaques in Alzheimer’s Disease

ANN ARBOR — Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a new potential benefit of a molecule in green tea: preventing the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain.

The aggregation of these proteins, called metal-associated amyloids, is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. (more…)

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Yale Researchers Identify Salt as a Trigger of Autoimmune Diseases

For the past few decades, health officials have been reporting increases in the incidence of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Now researchers at Yale Medical School, Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute have identified a prime suspect in the mystery — dietary salt.

In the March 6 issue of the journal Nature, Yale researchers showed that salt can induce and worsen pathogenic immune system responses in mice and that the response is regulated by genes already implicated in a variety of autoimmune diseases. (more…)

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Early Warning System Provides Four-Month Forecast of Malaria Epidemics in Northwest India

ANN ARBOR — Sea surface temperatures in the tropical South Atlantic Ocean can be used to accurately forecast, by up to four months, malaria epidemics thousands of miles away in northwestern India, a University of Michigan theoretical ecologist and her colleagues have found.

Colder-than-normal July sea surface temperatures in the tropical South Atlantic are linked to both increased monsoon rainfall and malaria epidemics in the arid and semi-arid regions of northwest India, including the vast Thar desert, according to Mercedes Pascual and her colleagues, who summarize their findings in a paper published online March 3 in the journal Nature Climate Change. (more…)

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Flip of a Single Molecular Switch Makes an Old Brain Young

The flip of a single molecular switch helps create the mature neuronal connections that allow the brain to bridge the gap between adolescent impressionability and adult stability. Now Yale School of Medicine researchers have reversed the process, recreating a youthful brain that facilitated both learning and healing in the adult mouse.  (more…)

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Plastic Surgery to Improve Your Looks — and Your Sight

Oculoplastic surgeons at the Yale Eye Center perform a range of procedures, from Botox injections to fix wrinkles, to lifesaving surgeries to help treat cancers near the eye.

(March 2013) Gail Chiasson’s “puffy eyelids” had gotten so heavy she felt as if they’d become permanently half-shut. Not only did she look sleepy, she felt sleepy. She couldn’t read a book for long and grew especially concerned when a doctor trying to perform an eye test had to tape her lids out of the way. (more…)

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Top Diet Programs for Weight Loss

Most people today look at diet plans to help them lose weight; however, these plans can also serve other purposes such as keeping heart disease and diabetes at bay. With all the different diet plans on offer, choosing the one that is right for you can be a tough job. Take a look at these plans that were evaluated by health experts and received high rankings in a recent survey by U.S. News, and make your decision.

The Mediterranean Diet

Like the Mayo Clinic Diet, the Mediterranean Diet plan helps to achieve and maintain a healthy weight and also prevent or control diabetes, brain and heart disorders and even cancer. Drawing inspiration from the diet of people in the European countries around the Mediterranean Sea, this diet focuses on eating more of nuts, herbs and spices, whole grains, vegetables and fruits, seafood and fish, and cutting down on red meat, saturated fat foods and sugar. With its emphasis on mono- and polyunsaturated fats and avoidance of saturated fat, this diet is effective at reducing bad cholesterol and keeping blood pressure low. Although it is one of the top diet programs, the only possible weakness lies in the fact that the plan is not a structured one and so, the onus lies on you to come up with a calorie chart to follow. (more…)

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