health

Jan 27, 2014

Media Coverage Drives Some Misperceptions About Cancer

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Ryan Hurley, a health communication researcher and assistant professor of communication at NC State, on two papers related to news media, cancer, and public perception. People need and want recent information about cancer in order to make decisions about how they might manage their personal prevention, detection, treatment,… 

Nov 18, 2013

Researchers Design Interactive Software to Target Teen Alcohol Use

If you want teens to avoid risky behavior, you can’t just give teenagers the facts – you have to get them to engage with the information, feel motivated to change, and have the confidence and skills to keep themselves safe. That’s the idea behind a project under way at NC State and the University of California,… 

Nov 7, 2013

Tackling the Barriers Between Health Professionals and Spanish-Speaking Communities

Communication is essential to doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, but language and cultural barriers prevent many people in the U.S. from communicating effectively with their health care providers. But language scholars in North Carolina are trying to improve the situation, with a suite of programs and resources designed to improve Spanish-language communication efforts for… 

Oct 9, 2013

Blueberry Power: Eat Your Way to a Better Workout

Editor’s Note: This guest post was written by Justin Moore, an extension communications specialist who works at NC State’s Plants for Human Health Institute in Kannapolis, N.C. Drop and give me 20. But don’t forget to eat your blueberries before and after you complete those push-ups. It turns out that that the fruit, already renowned for… 

Sep 27, 2013

Study Shows Innovative Program Helps Limit Domestic Violence

October is domestic violence awareness month, and the statistics are horrifying. Nearly three in 10 women have been stalked or assaulted by their partner, and states reported investigating abuse cases involving 5.9 million children in 2010. It hurts children to be exposed to domestic violence, and child maltreatment and partner abuse too often happen in… 

Sep 23, 2013

Researchers Seek to Control Prosthetic Legs With Neural Signals

Most people don’t think about the difference between walking across the room and walking up a flight of stairs. Their brains (and their legs) automatically adjust to the new conditions. But for people using prosthetic legs, there is no automatic link between their bodies and the prosthetics that they need to negotiate the new surroundings.… 

Sep 16, 2013

Finding Cellular Causes of Lung-Hardening Disease

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, or IPF, is an incurable lung disease that, over time, turns healthy lung tissue into inflexible scar tissue – hardening the lungs and eventually causing respiratory distress and death. Currently, there is no cure. Phil Sannes, a professor of cell biology, studies IPF on the cellular level. In his most recent research,… 

Sep 6, 2013

Mosquito-Borne Illness Doesn’t Horse Around

The tiny mosquito can have a huge impact on your horse’s health. Mosquitoes can transmit Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), a virus that is usually fatal. The disease is most prevalent in the southeastern U.S. during late summer and early fall. EEE causes inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, and there is no cure. About… 

Aug 26, 2013

Stopping Cancer in its Tracks?

We’ve come a long way in cancer treatments – we have powerful, effective drugs for many types of cancer and we’re moving toward ever more specific, less invasive therapies. But the problem with cancer is that it’s always in motion, metastasizing and spreading throughout the body to overwhelm it. What if you could stop cancer… 

Jul 23, 2013

Hare-Raising Therapy Helps Bunny Stay Mobile

At NC State, underwater treadmills aren’t just for humans undergoing physical therapy. They’re also proving useful for treating hares – as in rabbits – suffering from degenerative illnesses. Meet Edie, a five-year-old Belgian hare (which is a breed of domestic rabbit, not an actual hare) who came to NC State’s exotic animal service and was diagnosed with… 

Jun 6, 2013

How to Keep Fresh Fruits and Veggies From Going AWOL

Keeping fruits and vegetables fresh while shipping them halfway around the planet presents logistical challenges that even the U.S. military can’t solve. Now NC State is working with the Army to infuse protein powders and flours with healthy chemicals extracted from fruits and vegetables to provide nutritious – and tasty – meals for soldiers thousands of… 

May 20, 2013

Preventing Dog Bites

This week is National Dog Bite Prevention Week (May 19-25). Barbara Sherman, a veterinary behaviorist at NC State University, has some tips to help parents and children avoid getting bitten. More than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year in the U.S. with some 800,000 receiving medical treatment. Children, ages 5 to9, are the… 

Apr 23, 2013

Bartonellosis: Diagnosing a Stealth Pathogen

NC State professor of veterinary internal medicine Ed Breitschwerdt has spent the last couple of decades working with Bartonella, bacteria historically associated with “cat scratch disease.” Bartonella is increasingly recognized as a cause of persistent intravascular infection that can result in severe health effects. Research from Breitschwerdt’s laboratory and others has led to the discovery of… 

Apr 11, 2013

New Flu Review 2: How Do You Measure Lethality?

Editor’s Note: You may hear about fatality rates or percentages when media report on new and dangerous flu strains, and often times the reports are conflicting. In this post, Barrett Slenning, an epidemiologist at NC State, explains how these fatality rates are calculated, and why the numbers may fluctuate. A previous post on H7N9 flu can… 

Apr 10, 2013

New Flu Review

The new strain of avian flu – known as H7N9 – has only been on scientists’ radar for a couple of weeks, but that’s been long enough to raise some questions.  NC State epidemiology expert Barrett Slenning, who spends a lot of time looking at the ways in which pathogens transfer from animals to people, was…