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, 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. “We’ve known for a long time that breastfeeding is good for babies,” said lead author…
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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 their caffeine-drinking habits and their blood pressure. No connection was found between their coffee intake and a risky rise in blood pressure. In fact, results…
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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. However, in this study, in which these risk factors were controlled, we found a correlation between higher levels of phobic anxiety and death from CHD,…
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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 weighed more before they were diagnosed with breast cancer and those who were lean but gained weight after diagnosis and treatment tended to have worse…
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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,” said Eric Taylor, M.D., a BWH researcher and nephrologist. The data are based on a study of approximately 45,000 men and more than 200,000 women…
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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 1976 and 2000, were chosen for the study from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-based Nurses’ Health Study. The women answered questionnaires that asked on average…
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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 55 percent greater chance of developing coronary heart disease than those women who don’t provide such care. Though the study didn’t probe the reasons behind…
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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 cognitive impairment compared to those who were inactive. they also demonstrated the cognitive functioning of someone three-years younger than their actual age. The findings were…
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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. The participants filled out dietary questionnaires every four years between 1980 and 1999 that assessed their vitamin D intake along with other dietary information. During…
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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 the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-based Nurses Health Study. Some 41,934 men were tracked from 1986 to 1998 and 84,276 women from1980 to 1998 via food…
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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 Health researchers found that regular users of these drugs had a lower risk for Parkinson’s disease than non-users. More than 44,000 men and nearly 99,000…
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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 evidence that sedentary behaviors, especially prolonged TV watching, are directly related to the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes,” reports Frank Hu, leader of…
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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 of short-term reduced sleep duration include increased blood pressure, heart rate variability, decreased glucose tolerance and increased cortisol levels. Yet, little is known about how…
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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 meat during mid-life and later was associated with risk of breast cancer. Similarly, the data showed no reduced risk among women who were vegetarians. In…
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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 or never ate nuts. The researchers also found that women in the study who frequently ate peanut butter reduced their risk for type 2 diabetes…
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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 great for those whose diet met the new guidelines when compared to those whose eating patterns reflected the current USDA dietary guidelines. The findings appeared…
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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 the Brigham and Women’s Hospital-based Nurses’ Health Study, researchers compared women’s use of postmenopausal hormones and their alcohol intake. That data showed that postmenopausal women…
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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 health problems. Women account for 80 percent of the 300,000 hip fractures that occur annually. A study, which included investigators from the Harvard School of…
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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 the unopposed estrogen theory. In the early 1970s, researchers documented that a woman on unopposed estrogen replacement therapy had a 10 times higher chance of…
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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, including prostate, colon, lung and breast cancer. Two studies examined the relationship between modifiable lifestyle factors and circulation levels of IGF-1 to potentially define new…
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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 and why it targets certain individuals, though they have long suspected that a virus was involved. Alberto Ascherio, associate professor in the Departments of Epidemiology…
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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 of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. A study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Dana-Farber…
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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 of Public Health. In a study, individuals who increased consumption of fruits and vegetables by one additional serving per day helped reduce their risk for…
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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 to a recent study. In this study, breast-feeding included feeding infants breast milk extracted from breast pumps. The implications are dramatic. “Breast-feeding may prevent obesity…
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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 been administered in 1995 and 1997 as part of a mass immunization program. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system.…
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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, Harvard Medical School instructor in medicine. “The findings also indicate that higher intake of omega-3 fatty acids may help women reduce their risk of stroke.”…
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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 of high-fat dairy products decreased by more than 40 percent. These changes were complemented by increases in consumption of cereal fiber, folic acid, and fish.…