Featured series 
Tag: Nurses’ Health Study
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Health
Moms who breastfeed may be protected from type 2 diabetes
Researchers have demonstrated that breastfeeding a child for one year may reduce a woman’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 15 percent. This study appeared in the Nov. 23,…
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Campus & Community
Coffee gets cleared of blood pressure risk
Harvard researchers set out to test the idea that a lot of coffee isn’t good for your circulation. They followed 155,000 female nurses for 12 years, questioning them regularly about…
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Health
Phobic anxiety increases risk of sudden cardiac death in women
According to lead author Christine M. Albert, M.D., M.P.H., an epidemiologist at BWH and an electrophysiologist and cardiologist at MGH, “Phobic anxiety is associated with coronary heart disease risk factors.…
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Health
Weight and weight gain may predict breast cancer survival
The study included 5,204 women with invasive breast cancer who were between the ages 30 to 55 when enrolled in the study in 1976. The researchers found that women who…
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Health
Weight gain and obesity linked to higher risk of kidney stones
“Our study demonstrated that multiple measures of larger body size, including larger waist circumference, higher weight, and higher body mass index, were related to an elevated risk of kidney stones,”…
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Health
Study finds that both weight and exercise are key to longevity
Over 115,000 participants who were free of cardiovascular disease or cancer, who were between the ages of 30 and 55 and had filled out biennial health and lifestyle questionnaires between…
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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
Walking improves cognitive functions in older women
In a study, elderly women who engaged in the most activity — for example, walking at least 6 hours per week — had a 20 percent decrease in risk of…
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Health
High intake of vitamin D linked to reduced risk of multiple sclerosis
More than 185,000 women from the Brigham and Women’s-based Nurses’ Health Study and Nurses’ Health Study II, who were free of multiple sclerosis (MS), were selected for a research study.…
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Health
Coffee cuts diabetes risk
More than 125,000 study participants who were free of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease at the start of a study were selected from the on-going Health Professionals Follow-up Study and…
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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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Health
Generous portions of TV make women fat
The first study to compare the effects of inactivity on obesity and diabetes concludes that being a couch potato significantly raises the risk of both diseases. “Our data provide strong…
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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
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
Nuts lower diabetes risk
Women in a study who reported eating nuts at least five times per week reduced their risk of type 2 diabetes by almost 30 percent compared to those who rarely…
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Health
New alternative to USDA dietary guidelines nearly twice as effective in reducing risk for major chronic disease
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health rigorously assessed the diets of more than 100,000 men and women and found that the reduction in risk was nearly twice as…
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Health
Drinking and hormones, alone and together, increase risk of breast cancer
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 190,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually. It is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women today. Using data from…
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Health
Incidence of hip fractures reduced by walking
In the United States, one in every three adults 65 years old or older falls each year, with hip fractures resulting in the greatest number of deaths and most serious…
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Health
Hormone receptor variation linked to cancer risk
Endometrial cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women in this country, according to National Cancer Institute statistics. Progesterone’s important protective role showed up three decades ago, articulated in…
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Health
Studies find milk consumption, use of HRT, and pregnancy may influence hormone levels associated with cancer risk in women
IGF-1 is a hormone important to the growth and function of many organs. Higher levels of IGF-1 have been associated independently with an increased risk of a number of cancers,…
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Health
High levels of Epstein-Barr virus antibodies in women linked to risk of multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Nationwide, there are an estimated 250,000 to 350,000 people with MS. Researchers have long wondered how MS develops…
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Health
Study shows obesity can increase risk of pancreatic cancer
Each year almost 30,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. About the same number of people are killed by it. Pancreatic cancer is the fifth-leading cause…
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Health
Green vegetables and fruits rich in vitamin C reduces risk of heart disease
Regularly eating fruits and vegetables, in particular green leafy vegetables and fruits that contain vitamin C, reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, according to researchers from the Harvard School…
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Health
Breast-feeding may limit teenage obesity
Infants who were breast-fed more than formula-fed, or who were breast-fed for longer periods, had approximately 20 percent lower risk of being overweight in their preteen and teen years, according…
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Health
No link between hepatitis B vaccine and risk of multiple sclerosis
The French government in 1998 decided to temporarily suspend hepatitis B vaccine programs in schools after several cases of multiple sclerosis were reported a few weeks after the vaccine had…
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Health
Fish may reduce risk of stroke in women
“Our research suggests that women can reduce their risk of thrombotic stroke by up to 48 percent by eating fish two to four times per week,” said Kathryn M. Rexrode,…
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Health
Sharp declines in heart disease in women
During the course of a 14-year study, female participants’ consumption of red meat dropped by nearly 40 percent, intake of trans fats dropped by more than 30 percent, and use…