Health

September 13, 2024 0

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

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 […]

August 23, 2024 0

Doc Explores How Gender Affects Usefulness of Psychiatric Drugs

by Jeff Millman

Dr. Briana K. Chen is a neuroscientist whose work may one day change the way doctors prescribe antidepressants. As a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Chen studies sex differences, stress, and psychiatric disorders with an interest in developing sex-specific treatments for mental health conditions.Since the development of the first antidepressants in the 1950s, the subjects in clinical trials for medications to treat stress-related disorders have been primarily male. Chen says this is a problem for a number […]

August 23, 2024 0

Asian American’s No. 1 Killer Goes Under the Microscope – As National Cancer Institute Funds Large Study, We Talk to Doc About the Disease

by Aurora Hao

To advance study of cancer among the Asian Americans, the National Cancer Institute this spring set aside $12.45 million for researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. The researchers’ aim will be to gather data and uncover potential causes of cancer in the Asian American population for whom the disease is the leading cause of death.“This study represents a significant advancement by recognizing these distinctions and offering relevant data specific to diverse Asian populations,” said Dr. Tim Rebbeck, […]

August 9, 2024 0

Hub Aims to Clean City of Rats With ‘BRAP’s

by Aurora Hao

Boston City officials have recently turned their attention toward the furry, unwanted guests occupying Boston neighborhoods — and it’s finally come up with a plan. Rats have been taking over streets, foraging through trash, and finding themselves taking comfort in residents’ homes. Mayor Michelle Wu has worked closely with the Boston Inspectional Services Division and Dr. Bobby Corrigan, a consulting Urban Rodentologist based in New York, to create the Boston Rodent Action Plan (BRAP), which was published on June 17. […]

July 26, 2024 0

PEERS Group Aims to Help Autistic People Make Friends

by Yizhen Zhang

When it comes to education and autism spectrum disorder, the focus in recent years has been on early childhood education. There are many services for young children with ASD, such as early intervention programs, preschools or other school-run programs, says Dr. Jenny Chu, who runs the Boston PEERS Social Skills Program in Brookline. But services – especially community-based ones for teens and older people with autism – are much harder to come by. Helping fill a small space in the […]

July 26, 2024 0

Boston Community Pediatrics ‘Starts With the Patient,’: Doc

by Kristen Si

Boston Community Pediatrics (BCP) was recently awarded the 2024 Excellence in Innovation award during the during Massachusetts Nonprofit Network’s 2024 Excellence Awards. BCP is a nonprofit, multilingual private practice aiming to provide high-quality medical care to low-income patients, regardless of their insurance coverage. It’s located on Albany Street in the South End. Sampan had the opportunity to sit down with the founder of BCP, Dr. Robyn Riseberg. SAMPAN: What shortcomings in healthcare do you currently see exist for low-income pediatric […]

May 24, 2024 0

Report: American Youth Dying at High Rates of Preventable Causes

by Adam Smith

Despite advances in medicine and vaccines, America’s young people are dying at alarming rates and by preventable causes, according to a recent investigation by a team of U.S. pediatric doctors. The report, published in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that in particular Blacks are hit hard by gun violence, whites and Hispanics by motor vehicle accidents and Asians and Native Americans by suicide. Most every group saw a recent increase in drug-related deaths.Most startling: Between […]

May 24, 2024 0

Editorial: U.S. Is Failing Its Young People

by Editorial Team

America is failing its children.That is the undeniable takeaway from a report published earlier this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.Kids age one to 19 are overall dying at a faster rate than they have been in the past half century, found the team of doctors who wrote the report, “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among US Youth.”Between 1999 and 2020, nearly a half million kids in the U.S. died, and many from […]

May 24, 2024 0

Dr. Gisela Velez Awarded for Vision Care to Hispanics, Others

by Kristen Si

After years of helping under-served Hispanic residents of central Massachusetts with eye care, Dr. Gisela Velez has been honored by the Small Business Association. Her clinic, Central Mass Retina and Uveitis Center, was recently named Woman-Owned Business of the Year.Velez says her ability to care for patients while also speaking both English and Spanish has helped her better serve her patients. Her practice provides specialized medical ophthalmic care to patients whose only other option would be to travel to Boston […]

May 24, 2024 0

AstraZeneca’s Jab Ends; Officials Urge Getting Covid Boosters

by Kristen Si

AstraZeneca is pulling its Covid-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria, which had been OKed in several nations in Europe and elsewhere.The U.K. company’s official reason for withdrawing the vaccine was a lack of demand, as the pandemic has largely cooled since it first flared up in China after the first cases were detected in late 2019. The vaccine was granted full marketing authorization in the European Union in 2022.But just before the vaccine’s run was to end, AstraZeneca publicly admitted in court documents […]

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