WebMD recently featured an article about the top stories in women’s health. They reported the five most popular stories were:
Period (menstrual) Problems
Fatigue
Super Foods that Women need
Thyroid Problems
Sex and Relationships
Our own Institute for Women’s Health Research Blog featured evidence-based articles on many…
While the role of alcohol consumption has been established as a risk factor for breast cancer, most of the research has focused the relationship on hormonally sensitive breast cancers. A new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute…
Anxiety caused by stressful events like moving or losing a job is a normal part of life. Anxiety disorders, on the other hand, are characterized by persistent, excessive and disabling fear and worry and get progressively worse if…
Study Estimates More than 600,000 Deaths Worldwide Caused by Secondhand Smoke
Secondhand tobacco smoke is estimated to have caused more than 600,000 deaths and the loss of more than 10 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) worldwide in 2004, according to…
Bleeding disorders refer to conditions that keep your blood from clotting properly after a cut or injury. Women generally notice a problem because of heavy or abnormal menstrual periods. Heavy bleeding or menses is one of the most common problems women…
Study Shows Strong Link between Obesity and Mortality
The largest study of its kind has confirmed a strong association between overweight and obesity and an increased risk of death. The study also identified a range of body-mass index (BMI) at…
Women who report having high job strain have a 40 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and the need for procedures to open blocked arteries, compared to those with low job strain, according to research presented at the…
Hormone Therapy Use May Increase Or Decrease Dementia Risk Depending Upon Timing
Compared to women never on hormone therapy, those taking hormone therapy only at midlife had a 26 percent decreased risk of dementia; while women taking HT only in late life…
People will gain significantly less weight by middle age – especially women – if they engage in moderate to vigorous activity nearly every day of the week starting as young adults, according to new Northwestern Medicine research.
Women particularly…
Working mothers are two-and-a-half times as likely as working fathers to interrupt their sleep to take care of others.
That is the finding of a University of Michigan study providing the first known nationally representative data documenting substantial gender…
A new study found that nearly 1 in 4 overweight American women believes her body weight as normal, while conversely, around 1 in 6 normal weight women regards herself as overweight.
The study was done by researchers at the University of Texas…
10-Year State-by-State Report Card in Women’s Health
Good: Less Cigarette Smoking, More Colorectal Cancer Screening
Bad: Fewer Pap Tests, More Chlamydia, More Binge Drinking
The United States has failed to meet most goals for women’s health — largely federal objectives drawn from the…
Amy Dickinson
This week, I had the opportunity to attend the Illinois Women’s Health Conference sponsored by the Illinois Dept. of Public Health in Springfield, Illinois. The closing speaker was Amy Dickinson, a nationally renowned syndicated advice columnist from the Chicago Tribune. …
The holiday season is a wonderful time to spend with family and friends but it can be stressful, especially if you have an anxiety disorder. The latest e-newsletter from the Institute for Women’s Health Research focuses on the most common anxiety…
Young women with the menopause-like condition, primary ovarian insufficiency, are much more likely than other women to experience depression at some point during their lives, according to a study from the National Institutes of Health. The finding suggests that all women…
We’ve all heard lots of reports about the flu and flu vaccine but are you game to check your knowledge? Click HERE to learn what you really know about the flu!
No doubt about it. The flu season is here—especially in…
The American Cancer Society projects the U.S. incidence of thyroid cancer in 2010 at 44,670 cases (14.4 cases per 100,000 people) with women having 3 times the rate of men. The rate of thyroid cancer diagnosis has doubled since 1990, in…
Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) refers to infection of the uterus (womb), fallopian tubes and other reproductive organs that causes symptoms such as lower abdominal pain. It is a serious complication of some sexually transmitted diseases, especially chlamydia and gonorrhea. PID can…
December 1 is World AIDS Day and the Institute for Woman’s Health Research in Chicago is focusing this blog on HIV/AIDS in Women. There is also a link to a comprehensive update at the end of this page.
Both women and men…
Two scientific articles in the July 2010 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shed more insight on the chemistry of red wine that may explain why more doctors are suggesting that a little red wine may be heart-healthy. Both articles…
Scientists discover how estrogen works and flip its switch to reap benefits without risks
CHICAGO — Estrogen is an elixir for the brain, sharpening mental performance in humans and animals and showing promise as a treatment for disorders of…
In a new meta-analysis published in the November 2010 issue of Diabetes Care, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health report that consumption of just one or two sugar-sweetened beverages per day is associated with a 26% greater risk of…
November is the busiest month of the year for the US Department of Agriculture Meat & Poultry Hotline. During the week of Thanksgiving(November 25), they get lots of questions about how to safely cook a turkey. Here are answers to some…
CHICAGO — Is cardiovascular health in middle age and beyond a gift from your genes or is it earned by a healthy lifestyle and within your control?Two large studies from Northwestern Medicine confirm a healthy …
Uterine fibroids are the most common, non-cancerous tumors in women of childbearing age. The fibroids are made of muscle cells and other tissues that grow within and around the wall of the uterus. See the diagram that shows where uterine fibroids…
Today Is the Great American Smokeout–November 18–time to Quit!
Quitting smoking is not easy, but it can be done.
An estimated 69.7 million Americans age 12 or older use tobacco products. Smokers are urged by federal agencies to become nonsmokers during the 35th…
The following blog was posted on the Our Bodies Ourselves Blog and we felt it may be of interest to some of our followers.
Posted: 11 Nov 2010 08:28 AM PST
Many of you may already be familiar with the systematic and comparative…
As an Institute that promotes sex and gender research, here is another blog of particular interest to the male side of the equation!
Experimental soy-based drug shows benefits in men with localized prostate cancer
CHICAGO — Northwestern Medicine researchers at the Robert H.…
Alzheimer’s disease affects twice as many women as it does men, according to a new report that portrays women as being “under siege” by the dreaded condition.
Created in conjunction with California first lady Maria Shriver, “The Shriver Report:…
Federal regulators are testing the waters with the first proposed changes to cigarette packaging and advertisements in more than 25 years—bold health warnings with color images that show the tragic consequences of smoking.
On Nov. 10, the Food and…
In celebration of National Diabetes Awareness Month, the Institute for Women’s Health Research focused its November 2010 e-newsletter on this topic. It is available free at IWHRenewsNov10-1.
The following press release about the Institute for Women’s Health Research at Northwestern University was issued today. If you want to learn more about us and what we are doing, check the link.
The first research from the Breakthrough Generations Study could lead to a test to predict a woman’s reproductive lifespan.
The findings, published in Human Molecular Genetics, could have considerable impact on women in the United Kingdom (UK) and other western…
Between 2000 and 2007, the death rate of men treated in hospitals for stroke tumbled by 29 percent compared to a 24 percent decline for women, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency…
Menopause and the appropriate way to handle symptoms continues to be a lively topic of conversation. Much of this discussion is based on findings from the landmark Women’s Health Initiative Trial that was launched in 1991 and consisted of a set…
According to new research conducted at Oregon Health & Science University, yoga exercises may have the power to combat fibromyalgia — a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain. The research is being published in the November 10 edition of the…
In the largest human study to date on the topic, researchers have uncovered evidence of the possible influence of human sex hormones on the structure and function of the right ventricle (RV) of the heart.
The researchers found that…
When does the U.S. Health Care Law take effect?
Several provisions of the new health care law have already gone into effect and more take effect each year through 2014 and beyond. January 1, 2011 is the next key date when more…
Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report that estrogen therapy after menopause increases a woman’s chances of developing kidney stones. Kidney stones are common among postmenopausal women, affecting between 5% and 7% of the population in the…
We all have friends who are brilliant (e.g, can give you the dates of every World War, can explain nanotechnology, can transpose music instantly, etc), but when it comes to health issues, they don’t know what the difference is between an…
On October 15, 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Botox injection (onabotulinumtoxinA) to prevent headaches in adult patients with chronic migraine. Chronic migraine is defined as having a history of migraine and experiencing a headache on most days of…
Aspirin therapy to prevent heart attack may have different benefits and harms in men and women.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the U.S., contributing to approximately 58% of deaths. The epidemiology of CVD events is different for…
Breast Cancer is a major health concern for all women, including women with disabilities. About 30% of women aged 40 years or older have a disability. In the US in 2008, 76.2% of women aged 40 or older reported having a…
On March 11, 2010, this site posted a BLOG about news reports that raised the question about whether or not there is an increased risk of atypical subtrochanteric femur fractures in patients taking bisphosphonate medication for osteoporosis. At that time, the…
Free breast and cervical cancer screening is available in all 68 of the U.S. states, tribes and territories through a program that has been in existence for 20 years. The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) sponsored by…
In the recent Institute of Medicine report that we blogged about a week ago, Women’s Health Research: Progress, Pitfalls, and Promise” it was reported that there has been a lot of progress in the areas of breast cancer, heart disease, and…
Dr. Teresa Woodruff, Director of the Institute for Women’s Health Research at Northwestern, and her colleagues have just released their second book on oncofertility. Oncofertility is a new field of study named by Dr. Woodruff who is a leader in the…
On September 27, 2010, the federal Office on Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) celebrated it’s 20th Anniversary at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. Several of the former or current Congressional representatives who created the legislation to establish the…
I just got back from a brief vacation in the Italian region of Emilia Romagna–the land of Parma ham, proscuitto, Pasta Bolognese and tasty hard cheeses. One of the regional specialties is a ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta covered in…
Women who undergo treatment for breast cancer may be offered the possibility of reconstruction if they opt for mastectomy. This may lead to a discussion on whether or not to do reconstruction immediately during the initial surgery or delay it until…
A new report by the Institute of Medicine issued on Sept. 23, concludes that there has been some progress in women’s health over the past two decades especially in lessening the burden of disease and reduced deaths among women in the…
Did you know that perishable food carried in an old-fashioned brown bag can be unsafe to eat by lunchtime? Now that children and teens are back in school, it may be a good idea to take a look at how you…
Older men may be at risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), often a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease, earlier in life than older women, according to a study appearing today in Neurology. The study raises the question of whether there may…
Today,more than 200 health professionals attended the Institute for Women’s Health Research at Northwestern University’s first educational research forum of the 2010-2011 school year that featured Bonnie Spring, PhD, a behavioral psychologist at Northwestern. Her lecture entitled “Untangling the Web of…
For some unknown reason, we are suddenly receiving a lot of comments on our March 2010 posting on Endometriosis. Maybe it is because endometriosis is one of the most common gynecological diseases, affecting more that 5.5 million women in North…
The millions of middle-aged and older adults who suffer from insomnia have a new drug-free prescription for a more restful night’s sleep. Regular aerobic exercise improves the quality of sleep, mood and vitality, according to a small but significant new study…
An understanding why women experience more stress-related mental disorders like depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has eluded scientists but a new study in rat brains may help explain why women are more prone to mood and anxiety disorders than…
Our monthly women’s health e-newsletter is now available on the Institute for Women’s Health Research web site. Learn more about smoking, women and lung cancer. You can also check out our website every month to get the lastest e-newsletter for free.
Contrary to some commonly held beliefs, men, more than women will likely benefit more from expanded healthcare coverage. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research June 2010 Fact Sheet, men represent a majority of non-elderly US adults who lack health…
The National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a day-long symposium on Monday, Sept. 27, in Bethesda, Maryland. Discussed will be highlights of early accomplishments in women’s health research, as well…