Scientists know that women who have been traumatized or suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more likely to be at risk for HIV.
Now two new studies published in the journal AIDS and Behavior show that HIV-positive women suffer disproportionately high rates of trauma and PTSD. In a vicious circle, the high rates of trauma lead to increased risk of further spreading the illness.
I had a 10-hour migraine yesterday. It was terrible (obviously). So I found it rather morosely coincidental when halfway through the day, as I lay on the couch feeling sorry for myself, I checked my email and noticed this press release from the University of California, San Francisco: “Babies’ Colic Linked to Mothers’ Migraines.”
In a recent settlement agreement with the California Attorney General, GIB, the company that makes the popular Brazilian Blowout hair straightening treatment, will drop the claim that they’re formaldehyde-free. They also have to add a caution label to their product.
Some Burmese refugee children heading to the U.S. have toxic levels of lead in the blood, according to a study released this week in the journal Pediatrics. Researchers at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention measured lead levels in Burmese children living in Thai refugee camps. They found that children under age two were at highest risk. Fifteen percent of them had lead poisoning, as did five percent of all children. That compares to less than one percent of all children in the U.S. [PDF] But Burmese refugee children who resettle in Oakland may not be very safe against lead exposure, once they arrive here.
he number of women in the military has doubled in the past decade. According to the Pentagon, about 10 percent of the 2.2 million troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been women.
Smoking an occasional marijuana joint isn’t bad for your lungs. In fact, lighting up once in a while may increase lung function, according to researchers at University of California, San Francisco.
The first wave of Vietnamese refugees came to the San Jose area in the 1980s, after the fall of Saigon. Now San Jose has the largest Vietnamese population of any city in the country. Santa Clara County is also second largest of any county in the U.S., after Orange County.
Today, Santa Clara released its first-ever Vietnamese health assessment to get a better understanding of this growing population’s health needs.
The number of registered nurses entering the workforce has more than doubled in the past decade, according to a national study released today. California is seeing a similar trend, with some regions experiencing a surplus.
From the 1980s to the 2000s, the number of young people going into nursing schools plummeted — both nationally and in California. To reverse the trend, the government launched recruitment efforts to to spur more people to go into nursing.
It looks like they did a pretty good job. The number of registered nurses nationwide skyrocketed in the past decade, according to a study released in today’s Health Affairs. Recent grads aged 23-26 increased by 62 percent. There hasn’t been a spike in nursing grads like this in the U.S. since the 1970s.
More than two million adults in California say they need mental health care, but about half of them aren’t getting it, according to a report released Wednesday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
California mandates health insurance companies provide equal care for mental and physical health problems. But mental health services are often inadequate–or they don’t exist at all, says lead author David Grant.