Americans spend billions to beautify their outermost organ — to make it softer and younger, to erase wrinkles, conceal freckles, fake a tan, flaunt a tattoo. In our obsession with skin’s cosmetic qualities, it’s easy to forget the role it plays as nature’s biohazard suit. It defends our bodies against a barrage of environmental and [...]
Category » Vitality
October 26, 2011
Co-conspirators in Melanoma
Researchers discover "partners in crime" in deadly skin disease
October 25, 2011
Is There a Pill for That?
How the Internet is changing the way Americans seek health care
Instead of blindly following “doctor’s orders,” patients can power up their iPad, Google their symptoms and join a chatroom for a different kind of “expert” opinion — that of ordinary people who have “been there, done that.” In this brave new world of “e-health,” there are bounteous benefits, says Kristin Barker, a sociologist at Oregon State University.
October 21, 2011
High to Moderate Levels of Stress Lead to Higher Mortality Rate
A new study concludes that men who experience persistently moderate or high levels of stressful life events over a number of years have a 50 percent higher mortality rate. In general, the researchers found only a few protective factors against these higher levels of stress – people who self-reported that they had good health tended [...]
October 4, 2011
Birth Knowledge
Master's student aims to solve devastating maternal health problem in Uganda
As a midwife in Eugene, Ore., Bonnie Ruder has overseen more than 150 successful homebirths. When she leaves for Uganda with her family in November, she will be investigating circumstances when things don’t go so well.
September 14, 2011
Nature-Made Medicine
Linus Pauling pioneered research on micronutrients and health
“Orthomolecular medicine is the use of the right molecules or orthomolecular substances that are normally present in the human body in the amounts that lead to the best of health and the greatest decrease in disease. It is the most effective prevention in the treatment of disease.” — Linus Pauling, 1983 Linus Pauling spent [...]
July 6, 2011
Bone Builders
step! run! jump! lunge!
It may sound like the Olympics, but you don’t have to go to extremes to get benefits that could last a lifetime. Regular exercises can raise or maintain bone mass in children and adults, reducing fracture risks as they age. Those are the conclusions of studies by Kathy Gunter and her team of undergraduate and [...]
June 6, 2011
When Our Dogs Get Sick
Dogs get special care at the OSU veterinary hospital
A greyhound named Holly, a retriever named Lucky and a mutt named Mogli don’t have much in common, appearance-wise. Holly, a retired racing dog, is tall, sleek and lean. Lucky is a wiry hunting dog with reddish-gold fur who loves to fetch tennis balls. Mogli is shorter, like a Border collie, with a friendly face [...]
June 1, 2011
Canines to the Rescue
Dogs with cancer point scientists to treatments for people
The similarities are uncanny. Bone tumors, whether from a teenager’s leg or the paw of the teen’s pet dog, look virtually identical. If you biopsy those tumors and examine them under a microscope, you’d be hard pressed to tell one from the other. That’s why oncology research at Oregon State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine [...]
June 1, 2011
Saving Orion
OSU's cutting-edge oncology clinic offers hope for one family's dog
Unlike humans, whose hair falls out during chemotherapy, dogs don’t lose their fur. I didn’t learn that when I was training to be an oncologist. I know it now because my dog has cancer. My 9-year-old golden retriever Orion, who is undergoing a pioneering cancer treatment at Oregon State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, still [...]
May 31, 2011
Good Impressions
How do we size each other up?
Call it gut instinct, intuition, street smarts or sixth sense. Good poker players need it. Success in business, politics and athletics demands it. Psychologists call it emotional intelligence, but unlike the myriad tests available to assess verbal and quantitative intelligence, a well-validated test for emotional intelligence has yet to be established, according to Frank Bernieri, [...]
May 31, 2011
The Birth-Weight Factor
Small babies may face lifelong problems metabolizing meds
Among the questions you may be asked someday by doctors who prescribe your medications is one that few people can probably answer: What was your birth weight? Research by Ganesh Cherala of the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy suggests that when physicians prescribe drugs ranging from Tylenol to cancer chemotherapies, they may need to [...]
May 28, 2011
Holding Out Hope
A tenacious scientist's quest for the causes of Lou Gehrig's disease
He hit .295 with 29 home runs and 114 RBIs that last year in 1938 — a season most baseball players could only dream about. They called him the “Iron Horse” because he was known for his durability. But even in 1938, he was feeling tired by mid-season. And for him, a season like that was considered mediocre.
May 28, 2011
Blood Lines
Ishan Patel found his niche in biomedical engineering
It wasn’t the most elegant way to enter a lab. Ishan Patel had just met his mentor for the summer of 2009, Dr. Owen McCarty at Oregon Health & Science University. The OSU bioengineering student wanted to make a good impression, and when McCarty told him to go across the hall and meet his research [...]
May 27, 2011
Natural Defense
Plant-based diabetes treatment shows promise
“I’m not one that is easily deterred,” Anneke Tucker says with a disarming smile. It’s a good thing. The 23-year-old Oregon State University senior from Lakeview, Oregon, has fixed her sights on nothing less than improving health care in rural communities. And along the way, she might throw in a new treatment for one of the nation’s most serious health threats, Type 2 diabetes.
May 27, 2011
Growth Factors
High alcohol consumption inhibits bone healing
Feeding the rats was just the beginning. To get to the bottom of questions about the effects of alcohol consumption on bones, Cyndi Trevisiol learned how to remove the living cells from a femur and a tibia (purchased frozen from a biological supply house). She then removed the minerals — calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, silicon [...]
April 24, 2010
Biases and Barriers
Pharmacist battles myths about chronic pain
Bi-Mart seems an unlikely springboard for social change. Yet tucked away in a corner of a store on the edge of Springfield, pharmacist Kathy Hahn is waging a militant campaign against pain. “I’m kind of an activist,” she says, leaning close to her listener and whispering the word “activist” as if confiding a dark secret. [...]
April 24, 2010
Guarding Human Health
Diseases cross barriers from animals to people
Veterinarians, as everyone knows, care for dogs, cats and livestock. Less well-known is their role in safeguarding human health. “It’s important to point out the strengths and critical assets that veterinarians bring to public health,” observes Cyril Clarke, Lois Bates Acheson Dean of Veterinary Medicine. Clarke ticks off the key intersections of animal-human health one [...]
October 24, 2009
Delving into Wellness
Children’s physical well-being is critical to their academic and emotional growth. Yet for an alarming number of preschoolers, too much sitting and too much snacking have led to premature weight problems. OSU researchers are working on ways to intervene. Joanne Sorte, director of the OSU Child Development Center, and her colleague Inge Daeschel, a nutrition [...]
October 24, 2009
A Living Laboratory video
As the song says, “Teach your children well.” In OSU’s Head Start and pre-kindergarten program at the Child Development Laboratory, children learn through Health in Action. watch video
April 24, 2009
Sensors for Safety
Microbiologists aim for rapid, accurate monitoring of food and water
The news grabbed national headlines in early 2009: eight dead, hundreds sickened by food poisoning in 34 states. After investigators traced the outbreak to Salmonella-tainted peanut butter from a Georgia plant, stores pulled thousands of products from their shelves. Worried consumers tossed suspect items into the trash. At least 100 companies will post losses from [...]
February 24, 2009
Resilience
Three times a week, as dawn breaks over the Willamette Valley, 25 women show up at the Benton Center gym in Corvallis.
February 24, 2009
Targeting an Old Foe
Medicine for the new war on tuberculosis
M. tuberculosis is a tenacious germ. Armored in a thick, waxy wall impervious to water, the bacterium can lie dormant in the lungs for decades, waiting for a weakness in its human host.
January 23, 2009
Lunging for Life
Next year, a class for 90-year-olds
The risk of falling rises as we get older, but researchers and fitness instructors have a prescription: Better Bones and Balance. Even if you’re 88 years old, there’s a class for you.
September 11, 2008
Movie maker
Zebrafish star in amazing tale
Kate Saili’s films won’t show in theaters any time soon, but they do feature zebrafish, a rising star in molecular biology, in a dramatic role — regenerating tissues that have been injured. Saili, who grew up in Kalispell, Montana, studies the effect of nanomaterials on inflammation. She uses transgenic zebrafish whose white blood cells fluoresce [...]
September 11, 2008
Student goes for gold
How do gold-based nanoparticles behave in the body?
Nanomaterials are on the health-care horizon. Gold-based materials have long been used to reduce inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis and to improve biomedical imaging. They have intrigued Lisa Truong since she first heard about their potential to help solve intractable problems from cancer to heart disease. Truong, who grew up in the Seattle area, wants [...]
July 19, 2008
Birth Mothers
Anthropologist leads study with Oregon midwives
“Would you like to help us listen to the baby?” Melissa Cheyney asks 8-year-old Isaiah. “OK, push that button!” As Isaiah carefully holds an ultrasound device against the pregnant belly of his mother, Amanda Wise, ocean-like sounds fill the bright, freshly painted living room. The eyes of Isaiah and his younger sisters and brother widen, [...]
January 23, 2008
Building the Pauling Legacy
Oregon native Linus Pauling had already won two Nobel prizes when he turned his genius to the chemical complexities of diet and health. Not content to rest on his laurels as a world-renowned chemist and international peace activist, Pauling plunged with characteristic ardor into the study of micronutrients, particularly vitamin C, in the late 1960s. [...]
January 23, 2008
First Line of Defense
Last fall’s announcement that virulent antibiotic-resistant staph infections had killed almost 19,000 patients in American hospitals and nursing homes in 2005 didn’t surprise George Allen. With colleagues David Bearden and Mark Christensen, the assistant professor in the OSU College of Pharmacy studies antibiotic effectiveness. He focuses on a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones, [...]
January 23, 2008
A Drink to Your (Bone?) Health
Moderate alcohol consumption in adults can have health benefits. It can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, gallstones and maybe diabetes. Russell Turner, Gianni Maddalozzo and Urszula Iwaniec of OSU’s Bone Research Laboratory could add osteoporosis to that list. Studies with animals have found that the equivalent of five to 10 drinks per week [...]
