health Archives

April 26, 2024 0

Opinion: Beware TikTok Medicine

Americans are increasingly turning to the internet for health advice. A 2022 study by CharityRx found that 65% of Americans use Google to get answers to health questions before they consult doctors. Around 20% try TikTok first, with the numbers higher for millennials and Gen-Z. As the demand for information grows, so does the supply of online “health influencers” ready to peddle products, supplements, and questionable treatments. According to the CharityRx study, 37% of Americans seek advice from online health […]

April 26, 2024 0

Rats in Boston: A Rising Concern and the Push for a New Pest Control Office

by Sabrina Yeung

As Boston grapples with a surging rat population, officials and residents alike are increasingly concerned about the ramifications of this persistent problem. The city, renowned for its rich history and cultural significance, now faces a less savory challenge that could affect its public image and quality of life. Rats are not just a nuisance but a costly hazard as they get into homes, vehicles and elsewhere. In response to the escalating problem, Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn is advocating for […]

August 4, 2023 0

Living Your Best Life: It Takes a Village

by Jeff Millman

A five-minute walk from the historic On Leong Chinese Merchants Association building in Chinatown brings you to the Biewend building on Tremont Street. Dr. Wei Wang, a geriatrician and primary care physician, sees elderly patients here at Tufts Medicine’s primary care offices. He told Sampan that many elderly people living in Chinatown deal with chronic medical conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. This is true of older adults more generally. In the United States, nearly 95% of […]

November 6, 2022 0

A Heavy Heart: Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease

by Jeff Millman

This is the third is a series of articles on cardiovascular health and risk factors for heart disease. We need to drop a few pounds. Most of us, after all, are now overweight or obese. Nearly 74% of adults in the United States have BMIs above the healthy weight range. 42% are considered obese. America is one of the fattest nations on the planet, and data from the CDC suggest the numbers will only continue to grow in the near […]

October 21, 2022 0

White House Conference on Hunger and Health: Commitments and Challenges

by Max Wei

On September 28th, the Biden-Harris Administration hosted the second White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Historically, the first conference on the issues of hunger, nutrition, and health in America took place in 1969, which resulted in the momentous establishment of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and the National School Breakfast and Lunch Program. The support for the second conference can be traced to Massachusetts Congressman James […]

October 10, 2022 0

Heart Disease: What You Can Do Today to Reduce Your Risk

by Jeff Millman

This is the second is a series of articles on how to protect against heart disease and improve cardiovascular health. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and globally. Though it affects people of all races and socioeconomic statuses, a 2021 Nature article found that “large differences in cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality exist between migrant populations and host populations.” Migration itself “generally has an adverse effect on health, particularly cardiovascular and metabolic health, which […]

September 19, 2022 0

Ultraprocessed Foods Linked to Cancer: An Interview with Tufts University’s Dr. Fang Fang Zhang

by Kristen Si

Last month, a study published in the medical journal The BMJ (a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the British Medical Association) connected the consumption of ultraprocessed foods to a higher risk for colorectal cancer. Dr. Fang Fang Zhang, a researcher at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, led this project, focusing specifically on the effects of ultraprocessed diets on cancer risk through a large cohort study over 28 years. A key finding in her study […]

September 5, 2022 0

Aspirin, Heart Disease, and You

by Jeff Millman

Once upon a time, bloodletting and lobotomies were common medical procedures. Cocaine was prescribed for depression, and doctors treated asthma with cigarettes. Conventional medical wisdom – fortunately for us – changes over time. The progress of science is cumulative: as we gather more evidence, we build upon our existing knowledge and abandon those practices for which there is little empirical support. Earlier this year, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a volunteer panel of experts that issues evidence-based […]

close up photo of a rat trapped inside the cage

August 24, 2022 0

Boston’s response to the rat crisis has been Inadequate

by Sandy Battulga

Boston is currently battling against a swelling number of rats residing in the city. Due to the closure of multiple restaurants and businesses as a result of the pandemic, rats are migrating into residential areas of the city in search of new food sources. According to the data collected from Boston’s 311 app, which is used to report rat sightings, rat and rodent-related complaints increased by 48% from 2019 to 2021. Rats pose a public health issue as the Norwegian rat, the most common species in Boston, can spread diseases such […]

August 7, 2022 0

World Health Organization Declares Global Emergency as Monkeypox Spreads

by Jeff Millman

It all started in Wisconsin. A three-year-old child was bitten by a prairie dog purchased from a local pet store. Shortly after, the child developed a high fever and a strange rash and had to be hospitalized. The child’s parents also developed the rash, but were otherwise asymptomatic. The Milwaukee Health Department tested the child and the prairie dog and confirmed that the cause of the child’s symptoms was the monkeypox virus, first discovered in crab-eating macaque monkeys in 1958. […]

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