Does Mobile Revolution = Public Health Revolution?

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It is 11AM on what would be considered a typical weekday for me. Already I have responded to emails, taken surveys, sent/received text messages, posted a picture and played a game…all on my cell phone. According to the International Telecommunications Union, by 2010, the number of cellphones active in the world reached more than 4.6 billion. Mobile technologies are not going away; the trick is to determine how to best leverage them in a sustaining and meaningful way. Continue reading →

The Driving Force Behind Chronic Disease

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Imagine an America without cars. Surely, efficiency of daily life activities for many Americans would go down if cars were forced off the roads. Suburban residents commuting to cities would have trouble getting to work, and daily errands like grocery shopping would be a lot harder without a car for transportation. Our society is dependent on cars because of the way we designed our urban space. Unfortunately, our dependence on cars also negatively impacts human and environmental health.

Dr. Richard Jackson, an advocate of better urban design for public health, has zeroed in on urban sprawl and car dependence as leading factors for chronic diseases epidemics such as obesity and diabetes. His PBS documentary series (previewed below) explores how poorly planned communities contribute to chronic disease.

Urban sprawl is loosely defined as low-density, automobile-dependent development beyond the urban centers of services and jobs. In the 19th century, cities were designed to keep factory and industrial emissions away from residences in order to promote health. This early city planning helped keep infectious disease under control. However, as our places of residency moved away from city centers, our dependency on the automobile has increased, and so have rates of chronic diseases such as asthma, obesity, and diabetes. Continue reading →

Grandma Was Right: The Link Between Screen Time and Health

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I don’t know about you, but I really don’t think we give Grandma enough credit.  She seems to be at least 50 years ahead of science when it comes to issues surrounding our health: vegetables and now TV?  Researchers studying kids have discovered screen time is associated with psychological difficulties.  Way to be Grandma, TV may fry the brain after all… Continue reading →

Arsenic: The Unwanted Ingredient

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I wouldn’t knowingly eat arsenic every day. It’s just not something that sounds appetizing.
Unfortunately, I unknowingly ingest arsenic on a daily basis.  And so do millions of others.

Maybe you’ve heard concerns regarding arsenic in drinking water. Emerging evidence is now indicating our diets may be exposing us to harmful arsenic compounds.

Arsenic is a toxic element that has been associated with increased rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.  Exposure to arsenic during pregnancy has been associated with increased rates of miscarriage.

[Sigh. I know, another source of exposure to a harmful chemical. Another post about how our diets are dangerous. As a public health professional in training I at times struggle with the overwhelming risks associated with the task of living. But, I’m in public health to take part in minimizing unnecessary risks, such as arsenic in food, so that we can be healthy enough to take the risks we really want to take – like skydiving. Or marriage.]

With that being said, eating relatively modest portions of rice, about half a cup every day, can result in increased exposure to arsenic. Continue reading →

Cold Weather Athletes, Proceed With Caution

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Source: ashraful kadir- Flikr Creative Commons

If you are like me and can’t stand the gym, you may find yourself exercising outdoors in the frigid temperatures of winter for part of the year. Well, first of all, good for you. Keep at it. Research has shown many benefits to spending time outdoors, from soaking up Vitamin D to breathing in fresh air (granted that you are not in a smoggy urban environment). And of course the health benefits of exercise are huge. Unfortunately, it is not all good news. A review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows research on winter sports athletes’ long-term exposure to cold air as having potentially harmful respiratory effects and that such athletes should take precautions when training outdoors in cold weather. Continue reading →

Biochar: What it is, what it does, and why we need it

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Pictured: Normal Tropical Soil vs. Terra Preta (soil enriched with biochar) Photo by Bruno Glaser

I grew up in a relatively rural and small town in Northern Michigan. Like for any rural child, spring had many connotations. The world would begin refreshing itself, turning green and blossoming. There was the sickly-sweet smell of the last leaves of fall completing their decay. And of course the possibility that everything will suddenly, and without warning, smell like the inside of a particularly ripe porta-john on a hot-summer’s day. Continue reading →

Not all research is created equal…

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As a soon-to-be public health professional, I hope that my work will positively impact the communities and populations that I’ll be serving.  Research is an important step in identifying public health problems and creating interventions and it’d be nice to think that research is serving the greater good.  But sometimes, that’s not always the case.

It’s not uncommon for communities, especially low-income or minority communities, to feel exploited in the research process because researchers often have their own agenda. Sometimes community members feel like “ ‘PhDs just come and do their research and leave’ ” (Gonzalez et al., 2011).

So, what is another way to conduct research that addresses public health issues but doesn’t leave people feeling exploited in the process?

Continue reading →

Physical Pain and the Brain: A Love Story

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Only a few days past Valentine’s Day and I’m sure some of you are hoping not to hear another word about heart-shaped candy and red roses until next February.  But with all of the talk of love and romance this week, I felt it was timely to share a recent study about a perk of being in love that doesn’t include receiving gifts or candlelit dinners—pain relief.  A study from Stanford University found that being shown a picture of a new love interest can alleviate physical pain by activating the brain’s reward system.  Activation of reward centers in the brain also sometimes occurs with pain-relieving medications.

Image from Microsoft Office Online Image Gallery.

The college students chosen for the study were newly involved in a romantic relationship because feelings of euphoria and desire are typically most intense in the beginning, and therefore most likely to stimulate the same brain areas associated with rewards and cravings.  The researchers examined how each participant’s brain responded when shown a picture of his or her beau, shown a picture of a friendly acquaintance, and when given a verbal task meant to cause distraction (like naming sports that don’t involve a ball).  Pain was presented as varying levels of heat applied to one of the students’ hands.  The tasks were randomly given to each student while they were simultaneously provided with the pain stimulus, and then after each paired exposure of a task with heat, the participant would report how much pain they experienced.

The researchers found that reward zones of the brain were activated when the students saw pictures of their love interests, meaning that the human brain finds strong positive emotions like love gratifying. Continue reading →

Guns and Play Dates

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I’ve never shot a gun before or even held one in my hands. Life is unpredictable, I suppose, but it’s difficult for me to come up with a scenario where I would ever be shooting a gun. My wife is the same.

Alaska Department of Public Safety

So when she took our daughter for a check-up a few weeks ago, she gave the pediatrician a dismissive wave of the hand when he brought up guns in the home. Not something for us to worry about we thought.

It hadn’t really crossed our minds that we would need to worry about guns in other peoples’ homes.  But it turns out that there are a variety of good reasons we should worry.

Using national survey data, researchers have shown that guns can be found in 1 out of every 3 homes with children in the United States. Continue reading →