“Both ethanol and acetaldehyde are carcinogenic and when they touch the lining of the mouth, throat or esophagus, that can cause cancer,” Dr. Noelle LoConte, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, told Live Science in an email. Like ethanol, acetaldehyde can also disrupt DNA methylation.
Audrey Girard is a food scientist and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Girard explained why the effort has taken a long time. “We have other natural additives, but a lot of times they’re more expensive and not as stable,” Girard said.
Girard explained that a scientific study on rats — completed more than 40 years ago in the 1980s — first raised health concerns about the dye. “At high ingestion levels, rats can have adverse effects, like growing tumors,” Girard said.“At high ingestion levels, rats can have adverse effects, like growing tumors,” Girard said.
The winter months’ colder temperatures and constant gray skies can really take a toll on your mood. We talk with Shilagh Mirgain, a psychologist at UW Health, about how to cultivate hope and optimism during this dark time of year.
Of course, $3.65 is just an average. Egg prices are similar across most U.S. states but can vary slightly, said University of Wisconsin-Extension poultry specialist Ron Kean.
“I would say the Midwest tends to be a little bit cheaper, but, by and large, prices are pretty similar, because we can ship eggs pretty easily,” Kean said. “So, if they’re a lot cheaper in one place, people will probably ship (those) eggs to the more expensive areas.”
Multiple health systems have abandoned merger and acquisition plans in recent years following FTC interference—but only about 1 percent of hospital mergers are flagged by the government agency, according to an April 2024 study from the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That study—and others—associated health system mergers with rising costs amidst dampened competition.
A confirmed case of mumps in Clark County, which has one of the state’s lowest rates of vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, has public health officials on alert.
Dr. Jonathan Temte, a professor of family medicine and the associate dean of Public Health and Community Engagement for the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, spoke with WPR’s Shereen Siewert to explain the symptoms of mumps and the broader implications involved.
Hearing aid technology has advanced significantly. Many of these devices are now AI-enabled, track other aspects of your health and can be purchased over the counter. We talk to UW-Madison audiologist Rachel Lee about the latest in hearing aids.
Analysing the data up to 2004, Prof. Jane Allyn Piliavin and her colleague, Erica Siegl, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that people who were regularly involved in these activities tended to report better physical and mental health. This might be expected: if you are feeling well, you are more likely to have the capacity to help others.
Tom Friedrich, professor of virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine, said more details are needed to understand what led to the patient’s death. But he pointed out that other countries have already seen deaths caused by similar H5N1 viruses, especially in people who are sick enough to be hospitalized.
“There’s over 50 percent case fatality when people have these severe infections,” Friedrich said. “So it’s not unheard of in other parts of the world, even though this is the first time it’s happened in the United States.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers recently made what they call surprising discoveries about how childhood trauma affects mental health in adolescence, thanks to a national trove of childhood health data.
“The virus has circulated for at least 60 years, and genetic evolutionary studies suggest that it diverged from a bird virus between 200 to 400 years ago,” says John Williams, a pediatrician and infectious diseases professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who has studied HMPV for more than 20 years. “HMPV causes regular annual seasonal epidemics, similar to the more widely recognized influenza virus and RSV. The typical HMPV season is late winter to early spring. So this isn’t totally unexpected.”
Yohishiro Kawaoka, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo, said the the death “highlights the need for vigilance in avoiding contact with the virus wherever possible.”
At the same time, however, Kawaoka said it was “important to note that the individual was over 65 and had underlying health conditions, which may have contributed to the severity of the illness.”
UW Health inserted 404 intrauterine devices last month, 47% more than average and the most of any month on record, spokesperson Sara Benzel said.
“From a strictly cancer perspective, there is no safe amount of alcohol,” says Dr. Noelle LoConte, associate professor of hematology, medical oncology, and palliative care at the University of Wisconsin who authored the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s policy statement on alcohol and cancer.
Written by ostdoctoral Research Associate in Microbial Genomics and Systems Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“When we engage in this practice, our physical brains change,” says Dr Richard Davidson, founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With regular meditation, the complex networks in our brain that control our emotional responses and executive functioning can be rewired. “This enables meditation to produce effects that are enduring,” Davidson says.
Pallavi Tiwari, a radiology and biomedical engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has spent the last 18 years developing artificial intelligence models to help study cancer.
Much of that work includes using machine learning to find ways to help predict cancer diagnosis, outcomes and drug responses, she said.
A study from the University of Wisconsin actually shows that wood can kill bacteria in as quick as three minutes, while plastic cutting boards can allow bacteria to grow many days without proper care.
Dr. Ellen Marks is the interim director of Mental Health Services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She, too, said SAD derives from a range of factors and should be approached holistically.
Marks said SAD exists on a spectrum and can affect people with varying levels of severity. She encourages the normalization of SAD through education and discussion.
Even relatively small amounts (of raw milk laden with the virus) can be deadly for mice, according to lab experiments done by Peter Halfmann and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “But we don’t know how this exactly would work in humans,” he says. “It’s still a big black box.”
As he first announced nearly a year ago, Robert Golden will soon step down as dean of the School of Medicine and Public Health. He’s held that role since 2006, overseeing more than 5,400 faculty and staff, nearly 2,400 students and postgraduate trainees, and over $640 million in research grants.
We call it “adulting” when young people face grown-up situations. But there are actual classes that teach independent living, financial literacy and health maintenance skills. Amanda Kostman, a UW-Extension Family Living Educator, joins us to explain.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have collected brain scans in a first-of-its kind study on Alzheimer’s disease.
“Speedcubing offers a unique combination of cognitive challenge, [alongside] social connection, and personal achievement that contributes to happiness”, says Polina Beloborodova, research associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Centre for Healthy Minds.
A union representing hundreds of UW Health nurses hopes a recent court decision overturning limits on collective bargaining will pave the way for success in their own push for recognition, which is set to go before the Wisconsin Supreme Court next year.
There are a handful of variables and factors that shape the financial losses of a dairy hit with an outbreak. Luckily, agriculture economist Charles Nicholson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and some colleagues created a calculator to estimate this financial impact of a bird flu outbreak. Based on Nicholson’s estimates for California, a typical farm of 1500 cattle will lose $120,000 annually. For context, this is about $10,000 more than the median household income of a dairy farmer.
Steph Tai, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, said many insurers wanted to avoid paying for cleanup costs. Despite broad language, some insurance companies were ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars. Tai said that’s prompted more express exclusions, such as those for PFAS.
“I think it’s partly because a lot of insurance companies have realized how much they’ve been spending on defending companies in this litigation,” Tai said. “They just want out.”
His UW Health providers had determined he struggled with debilitating depression and anxiety, but the hired psychologist — using only chart notes — told the insurer he still could work. The insurer issued a denial Dec. 9, 2021.
“The really shocking number [in this report] is the dramatic decline in abortions provided in Wisconsin in 2022, and we know that that’s largely a result of the Supreme Court’s decision that overturned federal protections for abortion,” said Dr. Jane Seymour, a research scientist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Collaborative for Reproductive Equity (CORE).
UW Health’s new Eastpark Medical Center has seen an average of 1,000 patients a day in the month since it opened, an immediate wave of demand that reinforces the clinic’s goal of addressing a regional need, a top official says.
What these idealists forget is that while people used to live on more natural products, they were also pretty unhealthy. According to John A. Lucey, PhD, a professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and director of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, it’s estimated that in 1938, pre-pasteurisation, milk-borne outbreaks constituted 25% of all disease outbreaks (related to food and water) in the United States. Now, they make up fewer than 1%.
Katie Eklund is a professor of educational psychology at UW Madison and co-director of the School Mental Health Collaborative. She tells WORT News Producer Faye Parks some strategies for supporting kids following events like these.
“Most of the increase in recent decades is in relatively mildly affected children and adults, so maybe in the past we wouldn’t have called it autism,” explained Maureen Durkin, professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“There’s very clear evidence that screening prevents vision loss,” says Roomasa Channa, a retina specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.
Scientists, including Charles Raison of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Andrew Miller of Emory University, have meanwhile identified mechanisms by which inflammation can cause depression. Inflammatory cytokines circulating in the blood can weaken or even breach the protective barrier between blood vessels and the brain. Once inside the brain, they trigger its immune cells, called microglia, to produce further inflammatory agents.
Fifteen ambulances responded to the shooting. Four victims were transported to St. Mary’s and three to University of Wisconsin-Madison hospitals, Madison Fire Chief Chris Carbon said.
Officers from the Madison Police Department, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department, Wisconsin State Patrol and Dane County Sheriff’s Department were on site. Barnes said he also had been in contact with the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
A new University of Wisconsin project aims to train pharmacists on responding to overdose deaths that, despite recent declines, continue to be seen as a public health issue in Wisconsin.
SAD can significantly impact college students and interfere with their ability to attend classes, complete assignments, regulate their sleep schedules and maintain social connections, according to University of Wisconsin University Health Services Interim Director of Mental Health Services Ellen Marks.
“These are folks who can ill afford to spend that kind of money on what is really not a necessary thing,” said Manny Teodoro, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studied the water vending machine industry in a 2022 book, “The Profits of Distrust.” “Money spent on (vended) water is money that’s not spent on healthier food, on perhaps needed medicine and healthcare.”
Her latest project, “The Garden Without Strangers,” is now a permanent installation at UW Health Eastpark Medical Center in Madison. The recently opened center specializes in adult cancer care and women’s complex care.
McAfee’s products have been linked to several outbreaks of E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter, according to the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research. Even with on-farm testing, raw milk isn’t safe for public consumption, said Alex O’Brien, safety and quality coordinator at the Center, which is on the UW-Madison campus.
“The more people who consume it,” he said, “the higher the probability someone’s going to become ill.”
UW Health’s East Madison Hospital has been designated as a Level IV Trauma Center. That means it will provide quicker critical care for patients in and around the east side of Madison.
“Cheesemaking is a process of concentrating the solids originally present in milk,” Ben Ullerup Mathers, a research cheesemaker at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research, tells SELF. “Since protein is one of the main constituents of milk solids, the further you concentrate those solids, the more protein is in the final cheese. Since hard cheeses are the lowest-moisture cheeses, they will also be the higher-protein cheeses.”
UW Health announced Wednesday one of their hospitals received a new designation.
“We’re just starting to see the very beginnings of the usual uptick of influenza and RSV — the ones that we kind of always expect to start increasing in November,” said Dr. Jim Conway, an infectious diseases professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In the parts of the city inhabited by Africans during the period of segregation, levels of fine particulates known as PM2.5 are high enough to reduce life expectancy more than tobacco use or HIV infection, said the study’s lead author, air quality scientist Dorothy Lsoto of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
“When you look at the air quality in these different places, it’s striking,” Lsoto said.
First, we look back on a century of surgery and innovation at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health with surgeons Dr. Rebecca Minter and Dr. Michael Bentz. Then, we talk about how to improve your sleep habits with psychologist Dr. Rick Blackburn.
Includes Nathaniel Chin, M.D., an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin and medical director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
On a recent Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, sample number 435 lies supine on a lab table where it surrenders to a gauntlet of measurements.
Brandon Prochaska slides a thermometer into the pizza’s abdomen, and the digits tick upward to 205 degrees Fahrenheit. He and a group of other trained professionals jot the number down.
On the flip side, John Lucey, a professor of food science and the director of the Center for Dairy Research at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told The Washington Post that drinking raw milk is “a really stupid, bad idea,” adding: “It’s almost like a doctor shouldn’t wash their hands before they go into an operating room.”
In 2013, researchers at University of Wisconsin put people in MRI machines and threatened to shock them at random. The researchers measured fear activity in each person’s brain. And they found something incredible in the third group. Participants’ brains were much less active. They could literally outsource their fear to their loved ones.
Here’s what guests on the Dec. 6, 2024 episode said about Medicare Advantage plans, a court ruling to reverse Act 10, affordable housing under the second Trump administration and the need for more foster families in Wisconsin.
With the amount of free and discounted care fluctuating at Dane County hospitals and unpaid patient bills up last year at UW Hospital, a Madison advocacy group says financial assistance programs should better help patients get coverage or reduce what they owe.
For the first time in a decade, the American Academy of Pediatrics released updated recommendations on how pediatricians and caregivers can encourage early childhood literacy, with a Wisconsin doctor working on the effort.
Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, professor of pediatrics and human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, helped write the new literacy promotion policy statement and accompanying technical report. He told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” what parents and healthcare professionals should know.
Raw milk supporters say it contains more enzymes, probiotics (or the “good bacteria”), proteins and vitamins than pasteurized milk. They also say it helps prevent chronic health issues such as asthma and allergies, as well as ear and respiratory infections and fever, citing studies of European children living on farms. There’s little scientific evidence to support these claims, said John Lucey, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research and a food science professor.
“The short answer is no, there are no proven benefits,” he told USA TODAY. “You are being conned with these claims,” he said. “This is snake oil.”
The two hospitals anticipates a full implementation within the first three years and an initial 10-year agreement, the hospitals announced. “This alliance will better help us attract and retain the best pediatric cardiac care providers,” said President of UW American Family Children’s Hospital and system Vice President of UW Health Kids Nikki Stafford.
The collaboration, called Forward Pediatric Alliance, brings together pediatric heart care at Wisconsin’s two academic medical centers: UW’s American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison and Children’s Wisconsin hospital near Milwaukee.
The data comes from states with so-called “shield laws,” said Jenny Higgins, director of the Collaborative for Reproductive Equity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These laws give some legal protections to clinicians who offer abortion care by telehealth to people living in states with abortion bans or telehealth restrictions, she said.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are launching the first comprehensive study into how pulsed microwaves might cause traumatic brain injuries.
The viruses circulating in cows could be less virulent than other versions of the virus, said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a flu virologist cross-appointed to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo. But it’s impossible to prove that, given the animal studies don’t reflect it, he said.
