Health

February 7, 2025 0

Panel of Doctors Agree: Climate Change, Vaccine Distrust Pose Grave Health Risks

Climate change, the rise of the “anti-vaccination” movement and several viral diseases are current threats to healthcare and humans, according to a diverse panel of doctors who presented at a Jan. 10 Ethnic Media Services online briefing.The panel of guests included Dr. Nahid Bhadelia from the Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases at Boston University, Dr. Peter Chin Hong from University of California San Francisco, Dr. Benjamin Neuman from Texas A&M University, Dr. Maurice Pitesky from UC Davis, and Dr. William […]

January 24, 2025 0

Expert: Lead, Other RisksLurking in Drinking Water

by Darren Liu

As concerning amounts of contaminants are found in drinking water systems – whether it be “forever chemicals” or lead from corroding pipes – the Environmental Protection Agency has imposed the first national, legally enforceable drinking water standard in the nation. This would reduce levels of contaminants but come at a cost of replacing and upgrading pipes. PFAS – or polyfluoroalkyl forever chemicals – are estimated to contaminate dozens of public drinking water systems in 86 Massachusetts communities since, posing risks […]

January 13, 2025 0

Dr. Yipeng Ge’s Prescription for Injustices: Speak Up

by Adam Smith

Already outspoken on genocide of indigenous peoples, doctor took deep dive into Palestine studies at Harvard While at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health a couple years ago, Dr. Yipeng Ge faced a dilemma – and the decision he would make would profoundly influence the following years of his life. Already outspoken on the genocide of indigenous people and racism in North America, Dr. Ge, during graduate studies at Harvard, discovered the Palestine Program. Also taking courses in […]

January 3, 2025 0

How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Nomination Reflects Nation’s Public Health Skepticism

by Jeff Millman

Two decades ago, a president’s choices for leaders of public health agencies like the Food and Drug Administration would not likely have generated much controversy. But in the years after the Covid-19 pandemic that spurred lasting skepticism from some segments of the American public, that is no longer the case. Especially for president-elect Donald Trump. Over the past month Trump has made nominations for the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and the Office of […]

January 3, 2025 0

B.U. Doctor: Clinical Trials for Cancer Are Increasingly Less Diverse

by Kristen Si

Thousands of clinical trials are run in cancer research every year to test new treatments and gather data about their effectiveness. But these studies can lack a diversity of participants, new research has indicated.For example, Dr. Heather Ann Edwards, an associate professor of otolaryngology-head & neck surgery at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, found in a new study that over time, diversity in head and neck cancer clinical trials has decreased. This is bad news, because […]

October 25, 2024 0

Warmer World Brings Dengue Close to Home

by Kristen Si

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning that after years of climate change, the global incidence of dengue fever has reached a record peak this year – reaching several parts of the U.S.In a recent Health Alert Network Health Advisory, the CDC reported that nearly 9.7 million dengue cases were spotted in the Americas for the first half of 2024, double the number of cases in 2023. According to the Pan American Health Organization, Latin America is experiencing […]

September 13, 2024 0

New Screening Tech Could Address Racial Disparities in Cervical Cancer

by Esther Wang

For many women, Pap smears are an uncomfortable, even painful experience. While effective at screening for cervical cancer, the technique calls for the patient’s legs to be held apart and a metal speculum to be inserted into the vagina to scrape cells from the cervix. The process can cause physical distress and evoke mental trauma. Pap smears, however, might soon become a thing of the past. In May, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new method of testing for […]

September 13, 2024 0

GUEST COLUMN: Getting the Right Care is Key to Treating Parkinson’s. For Asians, That’s a Problem

by Catherine Chung

“My mother started to have these horrible nightmares,” says Anne, an Asian American woman in Greater Boston. “She would wake up in the middle of the night multiple times … in a panic.” Anne assumed these ‘night terrors’ were a normal part of her mother’s aging, but then she noticed her mother started to fall a lot more over the next few years, which she took as a sign of something more serious. “Even after multiple visits to the primary […]

September 13, 2024 0

Weight-Loss Drugs Changing the Shape of America, But Not ‘Silver Bullet,’ Says Doc

by Jeff Millman

If you have watched any daytime television or YouTube videos over the past few years, you have no doubt seen advertisements for medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. The ads are ubiquitous, and so are the medications – 5 million Americans were prescribed semaglutide (the major ingredient in many of these medications) in 2023, a 40-fold increase from the past five years. Researchers for JPMorgan estimate that by 2030, nearly 10% of the U.S. population may be taking weight-loss drugs. […]

September 13, 2024 0

Why ‘Forever Chemicals’ Don’t Have to Stick Around … Forever

by Aurora Hao

Rain jackets, shampoo, meat, and cookware might wear out and go away, but they might never leave you. Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are integrated into almost every aspect of daily life. Given their strong carbon-fluorine chemical bonds, PFAS take an extremely long time to break down, lingering in the environment and the human body, and thus coined “Forever Chemicals.” These persisting forever chemicals can be found in water and soil, especially near waste sites as they enter the environment through production […]

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