February 10th, 2008
Dr. Stuart Meloy stumbled upon an alternative — and pleasurable — use for an electrode stimulation device that treats pain.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
February 11, 2008
Dr. Stuart Meloy never set out to study orgasms. It was an accident.
He was in the operating room one day in 1998, implanting electrodes into a patient’s spine to treat her chronic leg pain. (The electrodes are connected to a device that fires impulses to the brain to block pain signals.) But when he turned on the power, “the patient suddenly let out something between a shriek and moan,” says Meloy, an anesthesiologist and pain specialist in North Carolina.
Asked what was wrong, she replied, “You’ll have to teach my husband how to do that.”
Tags: Health, LA Times, men, orgasm, Science, sex, technology, women
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Newspaper, Science, Writing | Comments Off
February 10th, 2008
‘C-V distance’ may be a factor in how easily a woman has an orgasm.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
February 11, 2008
During intercourse, the female orgasm can be elusive. What frustrated woman hasn’t wondered: Am I simply, um, put together differently than other women?
Kim Wallen, professor of psychology and behavioral neuroendocrinology at Emory University, is busy doing the math to find out. And, yes, he says, simple physiology may have a lot to do with orgasm ease — specifically, how far a woman’s clitoris lies from her vagina.
That number might predict how easily a woman can experience orgasms from penile stimulation alone — without help from fingers, toys or tongue — during sexual intercourse.
Tags: Health, LA Times, orgasm, Science, sex, women
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Newspaper, Science, Writing | Comments Off
February 10th, 2008
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
February 11, 2008
Sure, orgasms can put a bounce in one’s step, but some studies hint they might also be good for one’s health.
* Heart: Lots of studies have looked at whether DHEA, a hormone released into the bloodstream during arousal and orgasm, helps keeps arteries clear and hearts strong. A 2001 study of 1,700 middle-age Massachusetts men found that those with the lowest levels of DHEA were about 60% more likely to develop heart disease than those with the highest. Orgasms aren’t the only way to get this hormone, though; your body produces some even without sexual stimulation.
Tags: Health, LA Times, orgasm, Science, sex
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Newspaper, Science, Writing | Comments Off
November 18th, 2007
Using Algorithms To Tackle Alzheimer’s Disease
by Regina Nuzzo, PhD
Biomedical Computation Review
Fall 2007
Feature Story
In 1906, at a small medical meeting in Tubingen, Germany, physician Alois Alzheimer gave a now-famous presentation about a puzzling patient. At age 51, Auguste D.’s memory was failing rapidly. Confused and helpless, she was growing inarticulate and fearful of her family, Alzheimer reported. Auguste died four years later.
During the autopsy Alzheimer found dramatic shrinkage in Auguste’s brain, with cells that were already dead and dying at the time of her death — plus two kinds of microscopic deposits that Alzheimer had never seen before. He summed it up in his presentation abstract: “All in all, we are faced obviously with a peculiar disease process.”
Tags: Alzheimer's, Biomedical Computation, computation, genetics, imaging, Science, simulation, technology
Posted in Articles, Biomedical Computation, Freelance, Health, Magazines, Science, Writing | Comments Off
May 28th, 2007
SPECIAL SUMMER ISSUE: A DAY AT THE BEACH
Tanning by the Dead Sea or doing yoga in a Slovakian cave may cure what ails you.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
May 28, 2007
BEFORE her first trip to the Dead Sea five years ago, 40-year-old Rhonda Dupras didn’t even own a pair of shorts. Suffering from severe psoriasis over her entire body, Dupras normally cloaked herself in long sleeves and long pants, hiding her red, flaky, scaly skin from curious stares and prying questions.
But after three weeks of soaking up the Dead Sea sunshine under a doctor’s care at her health hotel in Israel, Dupras’ skin was tanned, glowing, smooth — and virtually clear of flakes and patches. She cried like a baby, she says, and promptly bought shorts to celebrate. “I ended up showing off my skin to everyone. I just couldn’t help myself,” she says. Her remission lasted four giddy months. Now she tries to return for more therapy every couple of years.
Tags: caves, climate, dead sea, Health, LA Times, Science, uranium, vacation
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Newspaper, Science, Writing | Comments Off
April 15th, 2007
by Regina Nuzzo, Ph.D.
Biomedical Computation Review
Winter/Spring 2007
News Bytes
Text-mining tools such as iHOP (Information Hyperlinked Over Proteins) are doing for biological literature what hyperlinks and search engines do for the Internet: organizing interconnected information in a fast, intuitive, searchable manner. And in January 2007, the service started to provide daily updates–extending the information network by about 2,000 new papers every day.
With genes and proteins acting as hyperlinks between sentences and abstracts, a large part of the PubMed knowledge base becomes a giant, navigable information network, says Robert Hoffmann, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Sloan-Kettering Institute who started the iHOP project while a researcher at the Protein Design Group at the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB) in Madrid, Spain. “The new version provides current information on even more genes and chemical compounds, covering 1,500 organisms ranging from human and chimpanzee to yeast and HIV,” Hoffman says. He and his colleagues also extended iHOP’s results to include drug interactions, and they’ve provided new ways to interact with the data–such as displaying “breaking news” found in papers from the past two years.
Tags: Biomedical Computation, computation, PubMed, Science, technology
Posted in Articles, Biomedical Computation, Freelance, Science, Writing | Comments Off
March 12th, 2007
SPECIAL ISSUE: WALKING IN L.A.
A simple, brisk stroll has more benefits than you might think.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
March 12, 2007
REMEMBER fitness in the 1970s? All those aerobics classes, leotards and sweatbands, the endless jogging and velour track suits? Got to crank up that heart rate to 90% of maximum, experts told us. No pain, no gain.
But today a new, easygoing message reigns: Leave the spandex at home — you don’t have to sweat or even change your clothes. Simply take a walk. Aim for least 30 minutes of activity on most days of the week, experts now advise. Break it up into a few brisk-walking “snacks,” if you prefer. Vigorous exercise is great, they say, but don’t feel pressured.
Tags: exercise, Health, LA Times, Science, walking
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Science, Writing | Comments Off
March 12th, 2007
SPECIAL ISSUE: WALKING IN L.A.
It’s easy. And with fitness clubs and races, keeping up the routine will be doable.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
March 12, 2007
WANT to walk? Don’t, at present, do much of it? Here are some tips on how, when and where to put one foot in front of the other.
– The basics: To reap walking’s benefits, you don’t have to redline your heart rate but you can’t be a slugabed about it, either. The goal is to get your active metabolic rate between 3 and 6 times your resting rate. For most people, that means walking between 3 and 4 mph, says Mark Fenton, a walking trainer and author of “The Complete Guide to Walking for Health, Weight Loss, and Fitness.” “It’s not race-walking, but it’s not window-shopping, either.”
Tags: exercise, Health, LA Times, Science, walking
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Science, Writing | Comments Off
March 12th, 2007
SPECIAL ISSUE: WALKING IN L.A.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
March 12, 2007
For millions of years, we’ve been ambulating about on two legs. At this late stage, how could walking possibly offer up any out-of-the-ordinary thrills? Here’s a sampler:
*
Racewalking
Believe it or not, racewalking used to make the news. In 1867, a New York Times article entitled “The Pedestrian Mania” discussed the latest craze for long-distance speed walking, comparing its practitioners with prizefighters and warning its readers against the sport’s “possible risk to … life.” During a great media splash in 1910, the most famous of these “pedestrians,” Edward Payson Weston, walked 3,500 miles from Santa Monica to New York City in a mere 78 days — and at the age of 71, no less.
Tags: exercise, Health, LA Times, walking
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Science, Writing | Comments Off
March 12th, 2007
SPECIAL ISSUE: WALKING IN L.A.
Exactly how much good does that daily stroll do? For starters, it’s terrific for the heart, studies show.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
March 12, 2007
STUDIES investigating the health wonders of exercise keep rolling in. But just like with eating habits, physical activity habits are tough to study in gold-standard, randomized clinical trials — after all, who would agree to be assigned to a marathoners’ group for 20 years? Instead, most researchers do the next best thing: study people’s exercise habits and see how they fare, health-wise, down the line.
Here’s a snapshot of some high-profile studies that have focused on walking or other moderate-intensity physical activity:
Cardiovascular system: This is where the mother lode of walking benefits have been found.
Tags: exercise, Health, LA Times, Science, walking
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Science, Writing | Comments Off
February 6th, 2007
by Regina Nuzzo, PhD
Biomedical Computation Review
Winter 2006/07
Feature Story
Walk, run, bend, reach.
The elements of human movement have fascinated research scientists for centuries. To understand how muscles contract and joints flex, researchers have dissected cadavers and experimented with animals. They can describe how bones, muscles, and tendons connect in a complicated geometry; how muscles exert forces on joints; and even how sparks in the brain can trigger a muscle’s contraction.
Meanwhile, and mostly independently, clinicians have been treating people for sports injuries, stroke, and movement diseases such as cerebral palsy and osteoarthritis. Using trial and error, they’ve assessed which rehabilitative strategies and surgical interventions work best.
Until recently, these two perspectives have not been well integrated. Clinical observations might miss the interplay of forces that lead to an injured knee, while static equations regarding the flexion of a dead man’s knee may by themselves be of little help in treating a torn ligament. Researchers were missing the cause-and-effect models that linked the physical forces with the clinical outcomes.
Tags: biomechanics, Biomedical Computation, computation, Science, simulation
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Magazines, Science, Writing | Comments Off
January 1st, 2007
SPECIAL FITNESS ISSUE: THE FOOT
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
January 1, 2007
SKIN and nails of the feet just don’t get any respect. When researchers talk foot science, they lavish attention on bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments.
And when athletes trade stories in the locker room, they’ll recount the finer points of a plantar fasciitis episode — but are far less likely to breathe a word about a wicked case of warts or toenail-crumbling fungus.
Embarrassment: That’s forgivable. Taking the humble foot wrapping for granted: That would be nothing short of foolish.
Layers of resilient skin offer the first line of defense against infection-causing microscopic nasties, and thick nail armor protects toes’ most vulnerable parts from bashing and bruising.
Tags: exercise, feet, Health, LA Times, Science
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Writing | Comments Off
December 25th, 2006
People with Parkinson’s can have trouble speaking clearly. But simple voice drills can help.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
December 25, 2006
Martin Romoff used to rely on his voice to make a living as a Los Angeles tire salesman. But two decades of Parkinson’s disease muffled his speech and spoiled the art of easy conversation. Even his wife, Shirley, asked him to repeat himself over and over.
Then he learned about a special kind of voice training. For four one-hour sessions over a month, Romoff worked with a speech therapist in a program designed specifically to help people with Parkinson’s disease retain — or reclaim — the clarity of their speech.
Tags: Health, LA Times, Parkinson's, Science, voice
Posted in Articles, Freelance, Health, LA Times, Newspaper | Comments Off
