The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health began teaching courses on firearm safety in January 2023. The courses were started and are taught by clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health Dr. James Bigham.
The suicide of University of Wisconsin-Madison runner Sarah Shulze put a spotlight on the unique pressures facing student athletes and the level of mental health resources available to them.
The ribbons first appeared at the 2022 invitational, a few months after UW-Madison runner Sarah Shulze died by suicide at 21. A green ribbon is the symbol for mental health awareness.
One of Sarah’s former roommates, Maddie Mooney, came up with the idea as a way to reinforce the stakes.
Behavioral Specialist for UW Health, Dr. Sydney Zettler, explained while probability for plane crashes is low, travel anxiety can be very high.
“There’s two kinds of common thoughts that can drive anxiety, catastrophizing and probability over estimation,” said Zettler. ”This example, is there’s maybe more travel anxiety given recent plane crashes in the United States.”
Howard Schweber, a professor emeritus of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted many judges previously worked as criminal prosecutors or defenders.
“It would be absurd to suggest that those judges must recuse themselves from any case involving a crime,” Schweber said.
UHS and Environment, Health & Safety said they were notified of a typhoid fever case in a campus member who worked at Capital Café, inside of Grainger Hall, while infectious. UHS sent the email to campus members who visited Capital Café on Jan. 29 or 30.
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Dean Robert Golden discusses impacts of a Trump administration action to shift National Institutes of Health rules for research funds.
Wearing a padded cover over a football helmet does not reduce the risk of concussions for high school athletes, according to a new study using data from Wisconsin.
The study was conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Orthopedics andRehabilitation during the 2023 football season. Its peer-reviewed findings were published on Jan. 28 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
“We really rely on NIH funding,” Jon Audhya, a professor and associate dean at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health said. “That reduction would have a huge negative impact on the institution. The university really couldn’t fill the gap.”
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,
“Ideally, parents should think about their child’s heart health even before their child is born,” said Dr. Amy Peterson, a professor of pediatrics in the department of pediatric cardiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“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.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether UW Health has to recognize efforts by UW nurses to re-create the union they lost in 2014.
The number of people who sought surgical sterilization at UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital in Madison more than doubled after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned decades-old abortion protections in 2022, according to a recent study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
A campaign for union representation by nurses working for UW Health reached the Wisconsin Supreme Court Wednesday with an argument over whether state law grants them collective bargaining rights or has definitively taken those rights away.
“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.”
A union representing nurses in Madison is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to require UW Health to collectively bargain despite Act 10 stripping those rights from most public employees in 2011.
Treatment for postpartum mental health issues is also important, said Kathleen Hipke, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She said suicide and overdoses are leading causes of postpartum death.
A new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has revealed that soft-shell helmet covers do not reduce concussions for Wisconsin high school football players.
Oral arguments made Wednesday before the Wisconsin Supreme Court were the latest development in the years-long effort by UW Health nurses to again have a union after theirs was dismantled following a union-busting law passed more than a decade ago.
The Office of Children’s Mental Health released new recommendations this week for students, parents and colleges to improve mental health and sense of belonging on campus.
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.
How safe is the personal information of millions of Americans while the computer systems of federal agencies are accessed by an outside team looking for waste and fraud? Then, we ask if personal devices purporting to track our fitness actually work.
“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.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison said the decision to cut National Institutes of Health funding, or NIH, will “significantly disrupt vital research activity and delay lifesaving discoveries and cures related to cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and much more.”
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.”
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.”
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.
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 UW System is asking for roughly $855 million over two years from the state and urged support for that funding during a discussion with members of the Hoan Group, a private group of about 160 business and community members in the Milwaukee and Madison area.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the nation’s top research institutions, says National Institutes of Health funding cuts will “significantly disrupt vital research activity and delay lifesaving discoveries and cures” for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and more.
“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.”
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.
“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.
UHS is responding to a confirmed case of hepatitis A linked to a Rheta’s Market dining hall employee.
UW-Madison will experience significant disruptions to lifesaving research under the Trump administration’s new rules for federally funded medical research, officials said Saturday.
UW Health is condemning anyone pointing lasers at aircraft after noting two crews were hit by lasers Tuesday night in different areas.
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.
The Wisconsin Opioid Overdose Response Center is set to launch this year, and would give community pharmacies in the state resources like educational information, naloxone and fentanyl testing strips.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin visited UW-Madison to hear how federal funding helps combat the fentanyl crisis in Wisconsin as President Donald Trump threatens federal funding.
Dr. Daniel Shirley weighs in on observed spike of influenza cases this January, highlights preventative measures for students
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.
Flu levels in Dane County are high, up from moderate last week, with UW Health reporting 40 patients hospitalized for flu, the most in three years.
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.
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.
Robert Enright, professor of educational psychology in the School of Edcuation at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and co-founder of the International Forgiveness Institute, explains the benefits of mercy on physical and mental health.
Tracking how widely norovirus is spreading can be challenging, because it’s not considered a “notifiable disease” that requires doctors to report infections, said Malia Jones, a public health researcher in the department of Community and Environmental Sociology at UW-Madison.
“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.
