A skin disease is harming the health of children — and causing them to fall behind in their education. Latino and black children are more likely than white children to miss school due to eczema, according to researchers are the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. "Most people don't realize the serious impact eczema can have on a person's life, and our research shows minorities may be disproportionately affected," said the study's senior author Dr. Junko Takeshita, assistant professor of dermatology and epidemiology, according to Penn Medicine News.
What is Eczema?
Eczema, or atopic dermatitis (AD), is a common inflammatory disease that causes red and itchy skin. It affects 30 million Americans, including up to 20% of all children, according to the ...
Freshly painted walls are linked to up to a 10-times higher risk of exacerbating asthma in children, according to a recent study by the University of Miami. The research also showed even greater danger for asthma complications if these children took asthma medication and came in contact with second-hand smoke. Researchers say this data indicates a direct line between environmental exposure and worsened symptoms. “Paint exposure is a significant risk factor of an asthma attack while other environmental exposures including second-hand smoke further intensify this effect,” said Dr. Nadia Saif, a study author who conducted the research at the University of Miami but is now at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, according to Medpage Today. “Airway remodeling is a ...
Life after cancer is not easy. Survivors face many concerns. Will my cancer come back? Have my family and work relationships changed? What do I eat and how should I get exercise? What happens if I were to die? Healthcare providers rarely focus on all these areas, together. Dr. Daniel Carlos Hughes and his research team are out to change that. Hughes, a researcher at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, the team behind Salud America!, is leading a new pilot intervention that takes a holistic approach to improve cancer survivors' quality of life, thanks to a one-year, $50,000 grant from UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center. Hughes and his team have designed a holistic intervention to optimize physical, mental, and spiritual ...
Would you still buy your favorite fragrance spray if its package had a “hazard” sticker on the front? That’s what researchers from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health in the United Kingdom hope to see, according to The Times of London. Their recent study of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in products prompted the call for such warnings. “Liberally going around spraying chemicals around your house that are complex and react with other chemicals — you’ve got to weigh up the benefits of that,” said Stephen Holgate, a professor of Immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton and one of the review authors. “Are there not other things you can do, like buy a nice bunch of flowers?”
Issues in Products
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By Kimberly Hernandez
San Antonio Cancer Survivor One night exactly one month after my 31st birthday, I was taking off my bra getting ready for bed and felt a lump. I told my ex wife about it and told me “don’t worry, it’s probably fatty tissue”. I knew it was something more and could tell it was different. We know our bodies. The next day I called my family doctor and made an appointment. When I went in, the physician assistant felt the lump. She asked the usual questions about my age and family history. There is no family history of cancer in my family and she did not think much of it but if I wanted to pursue further testing she would set it up. We proceeded to mammograms, sonograms, x-rays, scans and biopsies within a week’s time. A lot of the time entering the ...
Early childhood experiences impact early-stage development, lifelong health, and overall wellbeing. There is an urgent need to conduct research on the early home experiences of Latino children, according to a new report from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families. Current research focuses more on families’ risk factors and deficits, rather than on protective factors and strengths. Moreover, much of the research that concentrates on early home environments to date has studied white, middle-class families. Little is known cultural norms, beliefs, values and expectations are embedded in Latino parenting and how Latino parenting practices promote development and cognitive and social competence. The National Research Center on Hispanic Children and ...
Hazardous firefighting substances are tainting a wide range of foods, exposing numerous Latinos and Americans to harmful materials that do not break down in the body over time. The FDA confirmed widespread per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) contamination this week. Their findings show high levels of the substance in meat, seafood, dairy, vegetable, and dessert products, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) “Measuring PFAS concentrations in food, estimating dietary exposure and determining the associated health effects is an emerging area of science,” the FDA writes in a statement. Additionally, FDA spokesperson Tara Rabin told the Associated Press that most contamination levels were “not likely to be a human health concern.”
Investigation Findings and ...
Cancer, mortality rates continue to decline for men, women, and children, according to an annual report released by the National Institutes of Health. Great news, right? Not so fast. In a special section of the report, researchers found that cancer development and mortality rates increased between 2011 and 2015 for women ages 20 to 49 — whereas men, who historically have higher rates than women, did not experience such gains. The data also shows continuing disparities among Latinos and other racial/ethnic populations. “We are encouraged by the fact that this year’s report continues to show declining cancer mortality for men, women, and children, as well as other indicators of progress,” said Betsy A. Kohler, executive director of North American Association of ...
Just two years after launching, the City Health Dashboard is adding new features to dig deeper into neighborhood- and city-specific data to guide local solutions to local health issues. Most data on urban areas focuses on the county, state, or national levels. The City Health Dashboard , however, pulls together local data from multiple sources to provide cities with a one-stop, regularly refreshed data center to help identify local gaps in opportunity and support decision-making to address factors that shape health. Now the Dashboard is adding new features and showcasing them at a webinar on June 5.
What’s New?
In June, the City Health Dashboard is giving cities additional data and new innovative features. The new data allow local leaders to dig deeper into neighborhood- ...
