Double X Science - It's In Your Genes

Search Results for: label/health

  • Depressing genes

    …ch experience — yet it was obvious he didn’t have the knack for it. This student’s dogged pursuit of a mental health career made me wonder what kind of emotional turmoil he experienced which would make him think, at age 19, that psychiatry was the only vocation worth working towards. Then there were the two graduate students who both worked incredibly hard and were both prone to obsess about their experiments. Each burned off stress in quit…

    Authored by on May 17, 2013

  • Hormonal birth control explainer: a matter of health

    …levels of these four hormones drive what we think of as the menstrual cycle, which exists to prepare an egg for fertilization and to make the uterine lining ready to receive a fertilized egg, should it arrive.  Fig. 1. Female reproductive anatomy. Credit: Jeanne Garbarino. In the theoretical 28-day cycle, fertilization (fusion of sperm and egg), if it occurs, will happen about 14 days in, timed with ovulation , or release of the egg…

    Authored by on March 5, 2012

  • Biology Explainer: The big 4 building blocks of life–carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic acids

    …e X Extra: A triglyceride can have up to three different fatty acids attached to it. Canola oil, for example, consists primarily of oleic acid, linoleic acid, and linolenic acid, all of which are unsaturated fatty acids with 18 carbons in their chains. Why do we take in fat anyway? Fat is a necessary nutrient for everything from our nervous systems to our circulatory health. It also, under appropriate conditions, is an excellent way to store up…

    Authored by on June 8, 2012

  • Is the bar high enough for screening breast ultrasounds for breast cancer?

    …nt movement and legislation to inform women that they have dense breasts. Merits and pitfalls of device approval The approval of breast ultrasound hinges on a study of 200 women with dense breast evaluated retrospectively at 13 sites across the United States with mammography and ultrasound. The study showed a statistically significant increase in breast cancer detection when ultrasound was used with mammography. Approval of a device of this nat…

    Authored by on September 21, 2012

  • Women know something you don’t

    …ford it. But it’s also true that divorce rates dropped, too, as couples couldn’t afford either another child or maintaining separate households. How did my great-grandparents and the others who contributed to this 15% drop in population do it, especially in an age without 99% effective birth control? I can’t speak for my great-grandparents, but the realistic explanation for having one child over decades of marriage is either c…

    Authored by on March 26, 2013

  • After Newtown missteps, journalists get guidelines

    Protip: Don’t diagnose based on speculation. by Jessica Wright                Attention journalists: If you’ve been calling people “nuts” or “deranged” in your stories, the Associated Press is recommending that it’s time you stopped. This guideline — along with the common-sense assertion that writers shouldn’t diagnose individuals with a mental illness based entirely on speculation — is part of a new recommendation added to the AP styleboo…

    Authored by on March 27, 2013

  • A dislocation of mind

    Why is mental health “different” health? By Adrienne Jones Comic courtesy of Beatrice the Biologist. [This post and the above cartoon are presented as part of our "I Am Mental Illness" series.] My 17 year old daughter, Abbie, broke her leg the other day; a bad break in her femur. She was in terrible pain, begging me to make it stop, to help her feel better, so I took her to the emergency room. We went there, and we waited for 6 hour…

    Authored by on March 15, 2013

  • Why a UN ban on thimerosal in vaccines would be a big mistake

    …y’s three AAP articles drive the point home. One of these provides some  historical context for why thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines in the U.S. (as  recommended by the AAP and the U.S. Public Health Services in 1999) and in other high-income countries. The other two emphasize just how important it is – and how ethically essential it is –that the ban not be included in the UN treaty. Here’s the back story: A  1997 US FDA review of t…

    Authored by on December 18, 2012

  • Pertussis: Get the vax or at least listen to why you should

    …rently September of 2012, and the numbers last reported to the CDC were at 29,834, and that doesn’t even include over 3,700 cases in Minnesota that haven’t been officially reported to the CDC yet. These numbers, which include 14 deaths (primarily of babies under 3 months), may very well end up doubling the 2011 total of 18,719 if they continue at the current rate through the end of the year. It’s the biggest pertussis outbreak since 1959. Not…

    Authored by on October 10, 2012

  • Striking a balance between health and sustainability: a study inspired by a love for sushi

    Sushi for sale (Source) by Jeanne Garbarino, DXS biology editor A conservation scientist walks into a [sushi] bar… You’ve probably heard that eating a diet including fish, especially fatty fish, is good for us. Fish can be a source of high quality, lean protein, and also provide heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. However, there are risks associated with eating some types of fish. For instance, fish that are at…

    Authored by on September 19, 2012

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