April 24, 2012
By Farah Dosani – Looking for secrets to a long life? Just ask women living in Southwest Florida’s Collier County. They live longer – an average of 85.8 years – than women in any other county in the nation, according to a new study. The report from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimated the life expectancy of each county in the United States for 2009.
December 9, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Take a deep breath right now and notice what you smell. Is it roasting coffee? A coworker’s perfume? Microwaved popcorn? A wet dog? Whatever it is, it can have an impact on your emotional health, says Dr. Rachel Herz.
November 23, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Last week, Congress reaffirmed pizza sauce as a vegetable serving in school lunches. This week, American families sit down to the kind of decadent meal for which health experts issue warnings. It’s during this season of mixed messages about nutritional priorities that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a report on the fruit and vegetable habits of high school students. The results are, as CDC epidemiologist Dr. Sonia Kim puts it, “alarming.”
November 21, 2011
[VIDEO] By Sarah Pusateri – Diabetes, cancer, obesity and depression. Researchers at the University of South Florida College of Nursing believe there’s a strong link between these problems and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Now, they’re getting a chance to prove the theory with the help from a grant from the U.S. Army. “We were aware of literature showing that women veterans in the current conflicts were coming back with higher levels of PTSD. They are suffering difficulties in sort of transitioning back to civilian life,” says nursing professor Maureen Groer. “They are having marital problems. And from the trauma literature, we know that those women are probably at risk for later mid-life diseases.”
By Sammy Mack – Almost two-thirds of LGBT seniors have been victimized three or more times, according to a government-sponsored report. The results are in from a groundbreaking national health survey of more than 2,500 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors, and it highlights the particular disparities and needs of aging LGBT communities.
November 18, 2011
[VIDEO] By Dalia Colón – Dr. Robert Gallo is one of the biggest and most controversial names in medical research. Gallo is recognized with co-discovering HIV as the cause of AIDS in 1984. But critics accuse Gallo of stealing credit from French scientists. Hate him or love him, the founder and director of the University of Maryland’s Institute of Human Virology sure draws a crowd.
November 14, 2011
[VIDEO] By Sarah Pusateri – Patients suffering from diabetes can now get their care all in one place at the University of South Florida. The new state-of-the-art facility at the Carol & Frank Morsani Center on the USF Tampa campus features clinical care, research and education all under one roof.
November 8, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Many people are often barred from eating grapefruit or drinking its juice because it can negatively interact with their prescription drugs. However, there may be some hope for those longing for the tangy citrus. University of Florida researchers believe they can develop a new variety that would allow people to eat the fruit without any problems. It’s a hybrid between grapefruit and pummelo. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science.
November 4, 2011
By Sarah Pusateri – Finger waving, talking and using imagery. Could these seemingly simple actions hold the key to cracking PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder? The University of South Florida’s Dr. Carrie Elk thinks so. Using a grant funded by the Department of Defense, Dr. Elk is currently treating veterans suffering from PTSD through a process called accelerated resolution therapy.
November 2, 2011
By Sammy Mack – All the recent rain means conditions are ripe for mosquito breeding. But if researchers and health officials have their way, it will soon be a death-marked love for Florida’s mosquitoes. A British biotech firm, Oxitec, has come out with promising research on mosquito control in this week’s Nature Biotechnology. Oxitec has engineered a mosquito that basically has an internal kill switch. It’s a gene that builds up toxic levels of a protein that eventually kills the mosquitoes, but not before the altered mosquito breeds and passes the gene on to short-lived offspring.
October 28, 2011
By Sammy Mack – A report out this week from the American Lung Association says Hispanics suffer disproportionately from asthma – not so much by the numbers, but in severity and access to care. The report suggests that Hispanics with asthma often suffer from more severe symptoms, get fewer preventative services and get lower quality care than non-Hispanic whites.
October 11, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Mixed news from the American Cancer Society: according to research out this month, breast cancer death rates are dropping, but they’re dropping slowly for women in poverty.
October 7, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Florida is becoming a friendlier state for patients facing serious illness. The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) graded each state on access to palliative care in its hospitals. According to the new report, almost two-thirds of Florida hospitals with 50 or more beds have a program in place – an increase from less than half in 2008. The same trend goes for hospitals nationwide.
September 22, 2011
By Sammy Mack – A remarkable bit of news from the research world: a group of citizen scientists have cracked the code to a decade-old virus puzzle. And they did it by playing a computer game.
September 19, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Giving up smoking can bring about changes in a person’s life – from health to stamina to even relations with others. It can apparently also alter one’s overall personality. A new study from the University of Missouri found that quitting the habit reduces two distinct traits in young adults. Former smokers between ages 18 to 35 were less impulsive and also less neurotic. The study was accepted by the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
September 16, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Floridians of color are more likely than white people to believe they’d receive better medical care if they belonged to a different race or ethnicity. That’s according to a series of recent reports issued by the Florida Department of Health. The data comes from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) – an ongoing telephone survey that asks thousands of participants all sorts of questions about their health and habits.
September 14, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among American women behind skin cancer. It’s estimated that one in nearly every eight women will develop it in her lifetime. However, research reveals that routine mammograms can decrease the death rate by nearly a third. Dr. Hatem Soliman is a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at The Center for Women’s Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. He tells WGCU’s Gulf Coast Live host Valarie Edwards about the latest treatments available and why he entered the field.
September 2, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Looks like most babies and young toddlers are getting their recommended vaccines – even in South Florida, where by school age, some children appear to fall behind the childhood vaccine schedule.
August 10, 2011
By Sammy Mack – It’s the first week of full football practice at Florida high schools and according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children are safe to play in the summer heat – as long as certain guidelines are met. The new guidelines from the AAP come less than two weeks after a high school football player from Miramar died during a conditioning practice.
July 21, 2011
[VIDEO] By Kimberly Vlach – A new minimally invasive heart surgery for atrial fibrillation is sending people home – up and about, walking after a one-night hospital stay – on their way to being AFIB-free. About three million people suffer from AFIB which is an irregular heart beat caused by erratic electrical signals in the pulmonary vein. Clinical trials found that 70% of patients treated with the new procedure were free of AFIB after one year. The success rate jumped to 90% for those treated by physicians with more extensive experience.