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Category: Health

The relationship between the gut and brain has an effect on addiction, disease and behavior

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Vanessa Sperandio, professor and chair of the medical microbiology and immunology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has studied how the connect between the intestinal system and the brain — called the gut-brain axis — plays into addiction. Sperandio explained that E. coli, the bacterium famous for making people violently ill, always lives in our guts. She found that when there’s an overgrowth of E. coli, a person becomes more susceptible to cocaine addiction.

“If you have an expansion of E. coli … you enhance … cocaine addiction behaviors, cocaine seeking behaviors, cocaine administration behaviors,” she said.

There are countless examples of gut bacteria influencing our lives. Maggie Alexander, an assistant professor of medical microbiology and immunology at UW-Madison, is studying how the gut-brain axis affects autoimmune diseases, where the immune system attacks healthy parts of the body.

“There’s been this really strong connection of microbiota and autoimmune conditions,” Alexander said,

On YouTube, living vicariously through pregnancy announcements

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Newsweek

“Social media may be playing a role in pushing the birth rate down, in part by promoting the perception that people should really only have children if they can give those children what we might think of as ‘Pinterest-perfect’ lives,” said Jessica Calarco, an award-winning sociology researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

New analysis praises Wisconsin system as way to reduce child labor violations

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“Sanitizing the facilities can be a very dangerous job in meat packing and poultry processing,” said Alexia Kulwiec, an attorney and an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School for Workers. “It’s bloody work. It’s dangerous work. Sometimes folks turn on the equipment to clean it, even though they should not. That’s an instance in which people will get harmed.”

Restrictions on CDC communications, Concerns about bird flu, An album inspired by Wisconsin’s landscape

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Wisconsin Public Radio

We learn how new restrictions on communications by federal health agencies could affect public health. Then, we look at how the ongoing bird flu epidemic is affecting farmers and whether it could surge. Then, we talk with a pianist inspired by Wisconsin’s landscape.

A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration’s new NIH funding policy

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NPR

“Cutting the rate to 15% will destroy science in the United States,” says Jo Handelsman, who runs the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “This change will break our universities, our medical centers and the entire engine for scientific discovery.”

‘What a ripoff!’: Trump sparks backlash after cutting billions in overhead costs from NIH research grants

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Fox News

The University of Wisconsin-Madison put out a statement arguing the new indirect cost cap will “significantly disrupt vital research activity and daily life-saving discoveries.” It added that the move will also “have an inevitable impact on student opportunities to engage in research activities.”

Map shows red states losing the most funding from NIH cuts

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Newsweek

University of Wisconsin-Madison, in a statement: “This proposed change to NIH funding – UW–Madison’s largest source of federal support – will significantly disrupt vital research activity and delay lifesaving discoveries and cures related to cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and much more.

“In addition, these reductions will have an inevitable impact on student opportunities to engage in research activities, from undergraduates to Ph.D. and medical students. Medical innovation will be slowed, delaying the creation of new treatments, new technologies, and new health workers.”

NIH cuts could stall medical progress for lifesaving treatments, experts say

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NBC News

Dr. Robert Golden, the dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, said indirect costs aren’t just administrative tasks, or “waste,” but the physical structures and equipment needed to do “top tier” research.

“I’ve been at several public institutions, including the NIH early in my career, and never saw waste to a striking degree,” he said. The NIH’s change, Golden said, “will have a profound significant impact on everything,” including utility charges, building out the laboratories where scientific experiments are done and finding cures for patients.

More Wisconsin communities rejecting fluoride in water. Health groups say fears unfounded.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Patrick Remington, emeritus professor at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health who began his career at the CDC, said some who oppose fluoride because of its risks aren’t weighing them against the benefits — something people do every day when they choose to drive a car, have a drink or make other choices.

The benefits of fluoride are clear: less tooth decay, Remington said, while the science doesn’t yet show neurodevelopmental problems for children who ingest fluoride at the level in the U.S. water supply.

The sex mushroom hunters of Nepal

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Bloomberg

“It’s really an amazing medicine that deserves more attention,” says Tawni Tidwell, a biocultural anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds, where she specializes in pharmacological innovations in Tibetan medicine. Tidwell, who spent years studying across the Indian subcontinent, says the mushrooms don’t supercharge her sex drive—she just feels energized after taking them—but she has seen dramatic results in other people’s libidos. “Men report their erections are more functional, stronger and longer,” she says. “It works for women, too.”

26 books that teach young kids about diversity, inclusion, and equality

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Pop Sugar

Luckily, there’s still plenty of children’s literature that can aid in the process, though children’s literature itself has long suffered from a lack of diverse representation. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has tracked the number of children’s books by or about Black and Indigenous people and other people of color since 2018, and while the numbers have mostly increased, it remains much harder to find children’s books that are widely representative than it should be.

Marriages in China plunged by a record last year, fanning birthrate concerns

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NBC News

“Unprecedented! Even in 2020, due to Covid 2019, marriages only decreased by 12.2%,” said Yi Fuxian, a demographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He noted that the number of marriages in China last year was less than half of the 13.47 million in 2013. If this trend continues, “the Chinese government’s political and economic ambitions will be ruined by its demographic Achilles’ heel,” he added.

Influenza-A leads record respiratory illness spike in Dane County

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WMTV - Channel 15

Health officials say that the peak in respiratory illnesses hit Dane County late this year, leaving hospitals and urgent care facilities packed.

“It did start late and it really came on like wild fire,” said Dr. Jim Conway, pediatric infectious disease doctor with UW Health Kids and medical director of UW Health’s immunization program.

Moms on Medicaid would get a year of postpartum care under bill

Posted on
The Capital Times

Dr. Amy Domeyer-Klenske is an OB-GYN at UW Health, assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the legislative chair for the Midwest region of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The current coverage period for Wisconsin Medicaid — 60 days after birth — is “arbitrary,” she said.

“There’s no physiologic magic writing that says that, you know, all pregnancy complications end at that point,” Domeyer-Klenske said.

What will UW-Madison scientists learn from hundreds of people vaping?

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The Capital Times

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison launched a new study this month to reveal the lasting effects vaping may have on people’s hearts and lungs.

“Although e-cigarettes have been on the U.S. market for over 15 years and used by millions of Americans, we do not really understand their long-term health effects,” said Dr. James Stein, a professor of medicine at the university.

Wisconsin physicians are learning about firearms to prepare them for talking to patients about gun safety

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Two years ago, Dr. James A. Bigham, a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, began teaching medical students on the issue, not just providing statistics around firearms injury but also arranging for instruction from firearms trainers on how guns function and why someone may want to own one.

How does alcohol cause cancer?

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Live Science

“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.

Madison bakery ahead of the curve as FDA bans Red No. 3 food dye

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Spectrum News

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.

Why are egg prices rising in Wisconsin? Here’s what’s behind the egg shortage

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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.”

After three collapsed mergers, Sanford CEO shares why fourth time’s a charm

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Newsweek

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.

Mumps case in Clark County highlights vaccination concerns

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Wisconsin Public Radio

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.

How to live better in 2025: the power of giving

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The Guardian

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.

First human death from avian flu sparks calls for stricter hygiene, more testing

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Wisconsin Public Radio

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.”

HMPV cases are rising across Asia, but experts say not to panic

Posted on
Scientific American

“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.”

First U.S. fatality from bird flu reported in Louisiana

Posted on
Los Angeles Times

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.”

‘The only thing you need is your own mind’: how to start meditating

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The Guardian

“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.

UW-Madison researchers use AI to identify ‘sex specific’ risk factors in brain tumors

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Wisconsin Public Radio

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.

‘Don’t look for just one magic cure’ to your seasonal depression

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Wisconsin Public Radio

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.

Bird flu Q&A: What to know to help protect yourself and your pets

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NPR

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.”

UW med school dean reflects on abortion training, faculty diversity

Posted on
The Capital Times

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.