Ever wondered why WesWELL exists at Wesleyan? Why we even spend time talking about health as a component of academic success? Here’s the proof: 

“Our study shows that there is a direct link between college students’ health and their academic achievement. This is the first time that anything like this has been published where Grade Point Average is linked to all these behaviors,” said Dr. Ed Ehlinger, the director and chief health officer of the University of Minnesota Boynton Health Service.

To download the study, go to http://www.bhs.umn.edu/reports/HealthAcademicPerformanceReport_2007.zip

To view a video about the study, visithttp://www1.umn.edu/urelate/newsservice

Not long after the virus that causes AIDS was identified, Margaret Heckler, then the U.S. secretary of health and human services, told a group of reporters that the discovery would enable scientists to develop a vaccine to prevent AIDS. “We hope to have such a vaccine ready for testing in approximately two years,” she declared proudly. It was 1984.

Government officials have certainly been spectacularly wrong on other occasions but rarely has a large portion of the scientific community been so overly optimistic as well. Twenty-five years after isolating HIV, we still have no effective vaccine. One year ago a major clinical trial of a candidate made by Merck was shut down because it became obvious that the vaccine was not working and might even be doing harm. This past summer another vaccine hopeful was shelved and its trial canceled before it could begin because there was no reason to believe its results would be any better.

After decades of struggle to make a vaccine against HIV, these events plunged the effort into disarray. We in the field have realized that if none of the classical methods of making vaccines works against this virus, then we need a new one—some unusual creative approach that has yet to be imagined or some new insight into the virus itself that might reveal a vulnerability. We have to go back to basics, but that is not to say we have learned nothing of value over the past 25 years. Indeed, every failure has revealed tricks this virus uses, suggesting new ways to go after it. Those lessons are already spawning fresh ideas and bringing scientists together to attack remaining unanswered questions about this unique virus. (read full article…)

The lack of a cure for AIDS also highlights the need for taking preventative measures — protecting yourself from coming in contact with infected bodily fluids — blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk – through sexual activity, sharing needles, etc. 

Best things to do?

• Educate yourself about how to reduce your risk for being infected with HIV and other sexuallytransmited infections. Start here for a variety of credible sources of information. 
• Use barrier protection such as condoms or oral dams properly during every sexual encounter where you come in contact with bodily fluids. You can pick them up for free at WesWELL.  
• Get tested on a regular basis to ensure you are not infected with HIV or other sexually transmitted infections.  Health Services offers testing for Wesleyan students. 
• Talk with your sexual partner(s) about using protection to reduce your risk of infection. Communication is the best form of prevention. 

Often, a visit to the doctor’s office starts with a weigh-in. But is a person’s weight really a reliable indicator of overall health?

Increasingly, medical research is showing that it isn’t. Despite concerns about an obesity epidemic, there is growing evidence that our obsession about weight as a primary measure of health may be misguided.

Last week a report in The Archives of Internal Medicine compared weight and cardiovascular risk factors among a representative sample of more than 5,400 adults. The data suggest that half of overweight people and one-third of obese people are “metabolically healthy.” That means that despite their excess pounds, many overweight and obese adults have healthy levels of “good” cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and other risks for heart disease.

At the same time, about one out of four slim people — those who fall into the “healthy” weight range — actually have at least two cardiovascular risk factors typically associated with obesity, the study showed.

To be sure, being overweight or obese is linked with numerous health problems, and even in the most recent research, obese people were more likely to have two or more cardiovascular risk factors than slim people. But researchers say it is the proportion of overweight and obese people who are metabolically healthy that is so surprising.

“We use ‘overweight’ almost indiscriminately sometimes,” said MaryFran Sowers, a co-author of the study and professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan. “But there is lots of individual variation within that, and we need to be cognizant of that as we think about what our health messages should be.”

The data follow a report last fall from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute showing that overweight people appear to have longer life expectancies than so-called normal weight adults.

But many people resist the notion that people who are overweight or obese can be healthy. Several prominent health researchers have criticized the findings from the C.D.C. researchers as misleading, noting that mortality statistics don’t reflect the poor quality of life and suffering obesity can cause. And on the Internet, various blog posters, including readers of the Times’s Well blog, have argued that the data are deceptive, masking the fact that far more overweight and obese people are at higher cardiovascular risk than thin people.

Part of the problem may be our skewed perception of what it means to be overweight. Typically, a person is judged to be of normal weight based on body mass index, or B.M.I., which measures weight relative to height. A normal B.M.I. ranges from 18.5 to 25. Once B.M.I. reaches 25, a person is viewed as overweight. Thirty or higher is considered obese.

“People get confused by the words and the mental image they get,” said Katherine Flegal, senior research scientist at the C.D.C.’s National Center for Health Statistics. “People may think, ‘How could it be that a person who is so huge wouldn’t have health problems?’ But people with B.M.I.’s of 25 are pretty unremarkable.”

Several studies from researchers at the Cooper Institute in Dallas have shown that fitness — determined by how a person performs on a treadmill — is a far better indicator of health than body mass index. In several studies, the researchers have shown that people who are fat but can still keep up on treadmill tests have much lower heart risk than people who are slim and unfit.

In December, a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association looked at death rates among 2,600 adults 60 and older over 12 years. Notably, death rates among the overweight, those with a B.M.I. of 25 to 30, were slightly lower than in normal weight adults. Death rates were highest among those with a B.M.I. of 35 or more.

But the most striking finding was that fitness level, regardless of body mass index, was the strongest predictor of mortality risk. Those with the lowest level of fitness, as measured on treadmill tests, were four times as likely to die during the 12-year study than those with the highest level of fitness. Even those who had just a minimal level of fitness had half the risk of dying compared with those who were least fit.

During the test, the treadmill moved at a brisk walking pace as the grade increased each minute. In the study, it didn’t take much to qualify as fit. For men, it meant staying on the treadmill at least 8 minutes; for women, 5.5 minutes. The people who fell below those levels, whether fat or thin, were at highest risk.

The results were adjusted to control for age, smoking and underlying heart problems and still showed that fitness, not weight, was most important in predicting mortality risk.

Stephen Blair, a co-author of the study and a professor at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, said the lesson he took from the study was that instead of focusing only on weight loss, doctors should be talking to all patients about the value of physical activity, regardless of body size.

“Why is it such a stretch of the imagination,” he said, “to consider that someone overweight or obese might actually be healthy and fit?”

Use the comments section below to discuss this issue.

“I’ve grown up on medication,” my patient Julie told me recently. “I don’t have a sense of who I really am without it.”

At 31, she had been on one antidepressant or another nearly continuously since she was 14. There was little question that she had very serious depression and had survived several suicide attempts. In fact, she credited the medication with saving her life.

But now she was raising an equally fundamental question: how the drugs might have affected her psychological development and core identity. read full article…

Discussion Questions:
How do you see the use of legitimately prescribed drugs influencing one’s identity defvelopment?
Can one truly have a sense of who they are as an individual while under the influence of a drug?
How does this differ from illegal drugs or alcohol?

In part, the article states:

The bill, approved by the lower house of Parliament, faces a Senate vote. If passed, it would take aim at any means of mass communication — including magazines and Web sites — that promote eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia with punishments of up to three years in prison and more than $70,000 in fines.

The legislation was sponsored by Valérie Boyer, a conservative lawmaker from the Bouches-du-Rhône region in the south of France, and was also backed by the government’s health minister, Roselyne Bachelot. It is one of the strongest measures proposed since the 2006 death of a Brazilian model, Ana Carolina Reston, from anorexia.

“We have noticed,” Ms. Boyer said in an interview with The Associated Press, “that the sociocultural and media environment seems to favor the emergence of troubled nutritional behavior, and that is why I think it necessary to act.” read full article…

Discussion Question: Can these influences be legislated away? What other methods could affect change? 

Visit the WesWELL website for additional information on eating disorders.

Each day, we are bombarded with options — at the local coffee shop, at work, in stores or on the TV at home. Do you want a double-shot soy latte, a caramel macchiato or simply a tall house coffee for your morning pick-me-up? Having choices is typically thought of as a good thing. Maybe not, say researchers who found we are more fatigued and less productive when faced with a plethora of choices.

Researchers from several universities have determined that even though humans’ ability to weigh choices is remarkably advantageous, it can also come with some serious liabilities. People faced with numerous choices, whether good or bad, find it difficult to stay focused enough to complete projects, handle daily tasks or even take their medicine.

read full article…

Discussion Question: How does having too many choices influence you?

Pregnancy rates for females under age 25, including teenagers, in the United States declined in 2004 compared to 1990, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report says nearly 38 percent of pregnancies in 2004 were to women under age 25, down from nearly 43 percent in 1990. The proportion of pregnancies among teens under age 20 dropped from 15 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2004.

The report, “Estimated Pregnancy Rates by Outcome for the United States, 1990-2004,” prepared by CDC′s National Center for Health Statistics, shows there were almost 6.4 million pregnancies in 2004 among women of all ages, about 6 percent fewer than the nearly 6.8 million in 1990. The 2004 total included 4.11 million live births, 1.22 million induced abortions, and 1.06 million fetal losses (such as stillbirths and miscarriages). In 1990, there were 4.16 million live births, 1.61 million induced abortions and 1.02 million fetal losses.

read full article…

But why consider organ donation in the first place? This is what the Mayo Clinic says:

Being an organ donor can make a big difference, and not just to one person. By donating your organs after you die, you can save or improve as many as 50 lives. And many families who have lost a loved one who became an organ donor say that knowing their loved one helped save other lives helps them cope with their loss.

It’s especially important to consider becoming an organ donor if you belong to an ethnic minority. Minorities including African-Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and Hispanics are more likely than whites to have certain chronic conditions that affect the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas and liver. Certain blood types are more prevalent in ethnic minority populations. Because matching blood type is necessary for transplants, the need for minority donor organs is especially high.

A smile is one of the most universally recognizable facial expressions, helping to depict an individual’s happiness, confidence, attractiveness, sociability and sincerity. And now, according to a recent study, a smile may also help convey healthy teeth and gums. Researchers found evidence that periodontal, or gum, disease may negatively affect an individual’s smiling patterns and deter someone from displaying positive emotions through a smile. 

read full article…

Chopped pig pancreas may not sound appetizing. But most cystic fibrosis patients eat a refined version of it each breakfast, lunch and dinner — five large capsules a meal — to supply enzymes their bodies do not produce.

The pills are life-sustaining for most of the nearly 30,000 people in the United States with cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disease that attacks the lungs and digestive tract.

But partly because of the drug’s source there have been longstanding concerns about those capsules, according to Leslie Hendeles, a University of Florida professor of pharmacy and pediatrics who has studied them.

“What would happen if there were a virus, a pig virus, something analogous to mad cow disease?” Dr. Hendeles asked.

The recent recall of the Baxter International blood thinner heparin, which has been linked to 19 deaths and whose main ingredient comes from pig intestines, has raised public awareness that even in the age of sophisticated bioengineering, certain crucial medicines are still derived from animal parts. The concerns remain, even though, as it turned out, the heparin problem had nothing to do with the pigs.

A company called Scientific Protein Laboratories, which supplies the active ingredient in heparin to Baxter International, is also the supplier of much of the pig-derived pancreatic enzymes used by cystic fibrosis patients.

Medical and drug scientists have long worried about animal-derived drugs, but they also know that the search for synthetic alternatives has often ended in frustration.

read full article…