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A constitutional right to health care

By Guest PostJuly 29, 2013Health, Politicsaccountability, adele cassolab, affordable care act, amy raub, canada, canada foundation, congress, constitutional right, global public health, global recognition, half empty, half full, health care, health protection, innovation, jody heymann, latvia, lipi mishrab, mcgill university, medical care, moral right, senegal, transparency, ucla, united nations, united states, uruguay, us supreme court

UCLA-led study shows that many countries have it, but not the U.S.

Uruguay has it. So does Latvia, and Senegal. In fact, more than half of the world’s countries have some degree of a guaranteed, specific right to public health and medical care for their citizens written into their national constitutions.

The United States is one of 86 countries whose constitutions do not guarantee their citizens any kind of health protection. That’s the finding of a new study from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health that examined the level and scope of constitutional protection of specific rights to public health and medical care, as well as the broad right to health. (more…)

Innovative intervention program improves life for rural women in India living with HIV/AIDS

By Guest PostJune 30, 2013General, Healthadey nyamathi, ahsa life, aids, aids in india, al, andra pradesh, asha, black gram, cd4 tcell, control group, epidemic, good nutrition, high protein foods, India, kalyan ganguly, living with hiv, pigeon pea, rural women, sanjeev sinha, school of nursing, ucla

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from UCLA and India has found that a new type of intervention program, in which lay women in the rural Indian province of Andra Pradesh were trained as social health activists to assist women who have HIV/AIDS, significantly improved patients’ adherence to antiretroviral therapy and boosted their immune-cell counts and nutrition levels.

The lay women were trained by the research team to serve as accredited social health activists, or ASHA, and their work was overseen by rural nurses and physicians. These ASHA then provided counseling and support to the women with HIV/AIDS, as well as assistance aimed at removing the barriers they face in accessing health care and treatment. (more…)

UCLA’s undergraduate researchers: ‘We’re going to have an impact on the future’

By Guest PostJune 14, 2013Education, Scienceafrican american studies, amy stuyvesant, arthritis, australia, bouts of depression, change, chronic condition, diabetes, disability, England, fibromyalgia, financial assistance, forest, future, green vegetation, health issues, hurricane activity, influx, invisible disabilities, los angeles, mental illnesses, microbial communities, patricia turner, paul von blum, post concussion syndrome, puerto rican forests, puerto rico, serena lee, skype, ucla, undergraduate researchers, undergraduate scholars program, wasserman, wasserman program

Serena Lee aspires to increase our understanding of people living with “invisible disabilities.” Amy Stuyvesant wants to figure out how changes in hurricane activity are helping or hindering the forests of Puerto Rico.

Although their subjects of their research are unrelated, these two graduating seniors share a key distinction. Thanks to the Wasserman Undergraduate Scholars Program, they are pursuing high-level research that they expect to have an impact far beyond UCLA. (more…)

UCLA life scientists present new insights on climate change and species interactions

By Guest PostJune 11, 2013Environmentanthony dell, biotraits database, climate change, cold blooded animals, consumer, coral reefs, ecology, ecosystems, feeding event, feeding relationship, flowering in plants, fluctuation, Germany, global increase, global warming, immobile prey, interactions, juvenile possum, knowledge, life scientists, massive dataset, mean temperature, metabolic rate, mobile prey, moving prey, natural ecosystems, policymakers, predator, prey, python, rainforests, rate, resource, rising temperatures, samraat pawar, species, species interactions, timing, ucla, university of chicago, university of gottingen, van savage, variability in temperature

UCLA life scientists provide important new details on how climate change will affect interactions between species in research published online May 21 in the Journal of Animal Ecology. This knowledge, they say, is critical to making accurate predictions and informing policymakers of how species are likely to be impacted by rising temperatures.

“There is a growing recognition among biologists that climate change is affecting how species interact with one another, and that this is going to have very important consequences for the stability and functioning of ecosystems,” said the senior author of the research, Van Savage, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and of biomathematics at UCLA. “However, there is still a very limited understanding of exactly what these changes will be. Our paper makes progress on this very important question.” (more…)

Teen girls less successful than boys at quitting meth in UCLA pilot research study

By Guest PostMay 19, 2013Healthaddiction, behavioral health services, boys, bupropion, felipe rodriguez, henry van oudheusden, ineffective treatment, james mccracken, janette gadzhyan, keith heinzerling, less successful, pilot research study, placebo pills, quitting meth, steven shoptaw, teen girls, ucla

A UCLA-led study of adolescents receiving treatment for methamphetamine dependence has found that girls are more likely to continue using the drug during treatment than boys, suggesting that new approaches are needed for treating meth abuse among teen girls.

Results from the study, conducted by the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine and the community-based substance abuse treatment program Behavioral Health Services Inc., are published in the April edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health. (more…)

Do you obsess over your appearance? Your brain might be wired abnormally

By Guest PostMay 17, 2013Scienceabnormal, alex leow, appearance, bdd, body dysmorphic disorder, brain, brain maps, donatello arienzo, graph theory, jamie feusner, jesse a brown, johnson gadelkarim, liang zhan, neurobiology of bdd, neuropsychopharmacology, obsess, patterns of connections, psychiatric condition, psychiatry, sarit hovav, ucla, university of Illinois, white matter networks

Body dysmorphic disorder is a disabling but often misunderstood psychiatric condition in which people perceive themselves to be disfigured and ugly, even though they look normal to others. New research at UCLA shows that these individuals have abnormalities in the underlying connections in their brains.

Dr. Jamie Feusner, the study’s senior author and a UCLA associate professor of psychiatry, and his colleagues report that individuals with BDD have, in essence, global “bad wiring” in their brains — that is, there are abnormal network-wiring patterns across the brain as a whole. (more…)

Scientists map elusive 3-D structure of telomerase enzyme, key actor in cancer, aging

By Guest PostApril 26, 2013Healthbreakthrough, cancer cells, cancer fighting drug, cancer progression, cancers, function, jiansen jiang, juli feigon, masterpiece, nobel prize, telomerase enzyme, telomerase enzyme complex, tetrahymena thermophila, three dimensional structure, uc berkeley, ucla, visual map, z hong zhou

Like finally seeing all the gears of a watch and how they work together, researchers from UCLA and UC Berkeley have, for the first time ever, solved the puzzle of how the various components of an entire telomerase enzyme complex fit together and function in a three-dimensional structure.

The creation of the first complete visual map of the telomerase enzyme, which is known to play a significant role in aging and most cancers, represents a breakthrough that could open up a host of new approaches to fighting disease, the researchers said. (more…)

UCLA brain-imaging tool and stroke risk test help identify cognitive decline early

By Guest PostApril 12, 2013Healthabstract reasoning, alzheimer's disease, amyloid beta plaques, brain imaging tool, chemical marker, cognitive decline, david merrill, evidence, factors, fddnp, framingham, gary small, hallmark, high blood pressure, irregular heart rhythm, neurofibrillary tau tangles, neuropsychological testing, PET, physical assessments, positron emission tomography, prabha sidarth, pushpa v rajaa, risk factor, stroke risk, stroke risk profile, symptoms of dementia, ucla, ucla brain scan, verbal reasoning

UCLA researchers have used a brain-imaging tool and stroke risk assessment to identify signs of cognitive decline early on in individuals who don’t yet show symptoms of dementia.

The connection between stroke risk and cognitive decline has been well established by previous research. Individuals with higher stroke risk, as measured by factors like high blood pressure, have traditionally performed worse on tests of memory, attention and abstract reasoning. (more…)

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