Featured series 
Tag: Brigham and Women’s Hospital
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Health
Grandkids can make you sick
A study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School shows that women who care for grandchildren more than nine hours a week have a…
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Health
Elevated BMI may not increase risk of death among men with heart attack or stroke
“This study does not eliminate a small amount of risk for being overweight or obese,” said author Howard D. Sesso, Sc.D., M.P.H., of BWH. “However, it does tell physicians that…
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Health
Risk of becoming resistant to antibiotics may be lower than expected for chronic sinus infection sufferers
“This study was designed to help determine how great a risk antibiotic resistance was among chronic sinus patients to determine if there is a need to re-evaluate how we diagnose…
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Health
Study finds that blacks are significantly less likely to undergo prostate cancer screening
In a study involving more than 67,000 men age 65 years and older, the researchers found that blacks were 35 percent less likely than whites to undergo prostate-specific antigen (PSA)…
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Health
Mechanism helps describe how airways respond to constriction
In asthma, substances such as allergens irritate the airways and cause the smooth muscle cells around them to contract. With repeated attacks, lung tissues become damaged from cycles of inflammation…
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Health
Surprising variations discovered in human genomes
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Toronto in Canada looked at 55 healthy, unrelated men and women, and they discovered 255 regions with relatively large gains or…
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Campus & Community
C-reactive protein, high blood pressure linked
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital found a strong link between levels of C-reactive protein in the blood and the future development of high blood…
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Health
For-profit health plans did not restrict Medicare beneficiaries’ use of high-cost operative procedures
Testing the hypothesis that rates of use of 12 high-cost procedures would be lower in for-profit health plans than in not-for-profit plans, researchers analyzed Medicare HEDIS (Health Plan Employer Data…
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Science & Tech
Minimally invasive prostate cancer treatment works as well as traditional techniques
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men and the cause of approximately 29,000 deaths a year. Currently, the most common treatments for prostate cancer include radical prostatectomy…
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Health
Finding challenges predominant theory that arthritis prevents bone loss
For more than 30 years, it has been accepted in the medical community that women with arthritis are actually much less likely to experience accelerated bone loss. New findings, outlined…
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Health
Researchers find way to block SARS virus from entering cells and spreading infection
SARS – severe acute respiratory syndrome – is a viral respiratory illness caused by coronavirus, a family of viruses also implicated in the common cold. SARS is a distinct form…
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Health
Smoking increases bleeding into the brain, study finds
A research team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) found that stroke risk for women increased proportionately with the number of cigarettes smoked each day. In contrast, women who stopped…
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Science & Tech
Studies identify protein’s role in immune response
Tim-3 (T cell immunoglobulin domain, mucin domain) proteins are found on the surface of TH1-helper type T cells, which when activated become the body’s first line of defense against foreign…
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Health
Dieting may actually promote weight gain in children
The prevalence of overweight and obese children has increased by 100 percent since the 1980s. Americans spend about $33 billion a year on weight loss products and services, however, only…
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Health
Osteoporosis appears to be poorly treated after fractures
Hip and wrist factures, suffered by more than 550,000 individuals annually, are a leading cause of hospitalization and death in the elderly. Often one fracture from osteoporosis leads to another,…
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Science & Tech
Blue light special
Jet-setters and shift workers now sit in front of glaring white lights to readjust their body rhythms and avoid sleep and alertness problems. New experiments condcuted by Harvard University researchers…
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Health
Longer life for blood
Blood platelets, which are transfused into those who lose too much blood from wounds, major surgery, or cancer treatments, can be kept for only five days. Then they must be…
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Science & Tech
Researchers make new compounds from protein
Over the years, scientists have repeatedly sought to use a cell’s protein-making process to create new drugs and other compounds. They have had some dramatic successes, such as inducing bacteria…
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Health
Anti-inflammatory drugs may reduce Parkinson’s disease risk
In the first study to investigate the potential benefit in humans of the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in reducing the risk of Parkinson’s disease, Harvard School of Public…
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Science & Tech
Lung imaging method allows visualization of airways
A new dynamic imaging technique described by Mitchell Albert, Harvard Medical School assistant professor of radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Angela Tooker, MIT graduate student; Kwan Soo Hong, Harvard…
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Health
CRP shown to predict heart disease among patients with metabolic syndrome
It is estimated that over 50 million people in the United States have at least three of the five medical problems that result in a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. In…
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Health
Researchers find that sleep deprivation or excess in women may be associated with increased risk of coronary artery disease
Chronic sleep deprivation is common in today’s society. It is reported that a third of Americans sleep six or less hours per day. Previous research has shown that the effects…
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Health
Combination therapy shows promise for delaying progression of Lou Gehrig’s disease
In a study, researchers reported that the combination of minocycline and creatine resulted in additive neuroprotection in the case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. After…
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Health
Study identifies risk factors for retained objects after surgery
A study found that errors involving leaving surgical sponges or instruments inside patients are more likely to happen during emergency procedures, or in operations where there is a sudden change…
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Health
Kidney disease genes tied to flow sensing
Polycystic kidney disease, or PKD, is the most common life-threatening genetic disease. It is caused by mutations in one of two genes. Though the genetic defect that causes PKD is…
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Health
Meat consumption may not increase breast cancer risk
After following 88,647 women for 18 years, the largest and longest individual study of its kind to date, researcher Michelle Holmes and her co-investigators found no evidence that intake of…
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Health
Alzheimer’s disease: New theory on how it damages brain
Studies have shown that the buildup in the brain of certain toxic proteins, called amyloids, leads to the emergence of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Research has traditionally focused on…
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Health
Replacing joints early may be better than waiting for some osteoarthritis sufferers
In a study, scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Toronto Western Hospital followed the progress of patients who opted to have joint replacement surgery. They found that those…
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Health
Chlamydia pneumoniae may contribute to heart attacks, strokes
Murat Kalayoglu of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Peter Libby of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Gerald Byrne of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center searched MEDLINE…