Harvard Chan: This Week In Health

Each year in Zambia, 60,000 people are infected with HIV, and more than 20,000 die of AIDs. In all, it’s estimated that more than 1.2 million people in the country are living with HIV. Research shows that over 90% of Zambians have heard of HIV but less than 40% have a thorough knowledge of the virus or how to protect themselves. In this week's episode, we're talking to the people behind a collaborative project working to fill that knowledge by harnessing the influence of some of Zambia’s most popular musicians. The goal is to produce songs and music videos that can reach youth across Zambia with important messages about HIV prevention. We spoke to three of the people making this possible. Katy Weinberg recently graduated with an MPH from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and works in the Global Health Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. She has partnered on the project with her colleague, David Bickham, a research scientist at the Hospital’s Center on Media and Child Health. And we were also lucky

In this week’s episode we're talking about new research comparing the health of athletes in the National Football League and Major League Baseball. The study looked at 6,000 athletes between the years of 1979 and 2013. During that period, there were 517 deaths among NFL players and 431 deaths among MLB players, translating into a 26% higher mortality rate among football players compared with baseball players. The findings showed that while NFL players died of neurodegenerative diseases at a higher rate than MLB players, both groups of athletes were more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than brain diseases. The study was led by Marc Weisskopf, Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Physiology at the Harvard Chan School. The research comes amid increasing concerns over the effects of repeated head trauma on the health of NFL players. And while the study did show a difference in death rates, it’s still unclear exactly what’s driving that disparity—and how to address it. We

What does it mean for someone to flourish? Flourishing is more than just being happy—although that’s a part of it. But the idea of flourishing expands beyond happiness to look at a person’s overall well-being, taking into account things like life satisfaction or someone’s sense of purpose. That’s why studying flourishing is an interdisciplinary science drawing on public health, philosophy, psychology, and more. In this week’s episode we’re talking to two researchers from Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University who are tackling big questions about flourishing: What does it mean for people to flourish? How do we measure it? And are there things that make people more or less likely to flourish? Our guests are Tyler VanderWeele, director of the Human Flourishing Program and John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard Chan School, and Matthew Wilson, associate director of the Human Flourishing Program and a research asso

A new study shows that transgender and gender-nonbinary teens face a greater risk of sexual assault in schools that prevent them from using bathrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. In this week's episode we speak with the study's author, Gabe Murchison, a doctoral student at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Murchison explains why restrooms and locker room policies are so critical and outlines steps that schools, parents, and physicians can take to create more inclusive environments for transgender and gender-nonbinary adolescents. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on Soundcloud, and stream it on the Stitcher app or on Spotify. If you're a fan, we'd appreciate you leaving a rating and review wherever you listen.

In this week's podcast we're sharing a special conversation between Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood and one of the co-founders of Supermajority, and Mary Bassett, director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. Richards spoke about how Supermajority is working to empower women and organize them around key issues related to gender equity, including equal pay and child care. The two also spoke about the recent spate of anti-abortion laws across the United States and the need to protect reproductive rights. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on Soundcloud, and stream it on the Stitcher app or on Spotify.

Each year, more than 200 million people around the world are infected with malaria and more than 400,000 die. For the past two decades, the most successful method of malaria prevention has involved treating bed nets with long-lasting insecticides that kill mosquitoes. But that progress is being threatened as mosquitoes increasingly grow resistant to the most commonly used insecticides. Now, new Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health research offers a potential fresh approach to fighting malaria: directly target the parasite responsible for the disease. A recent study showed that mosquitoes that landed on surfaces coated with the antimalarial compound atovaquone were completely blocked from developing Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria. The study was led by Flaminia Catteruccia, professor of immunology and infectious diseases and Doug Paton , a research fellow at the Harvard Chan School. In this week's episode we sit down with Paton to discuss the findings—and how they could be used to

Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams has been caring for people since she was just a child. When Trent-Adams was just 12 she volunteered as a candy striper at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia. The Rear Admiral later served as a nurse in the U.S. Army before rising up the ranks of the U.S. Public Health Service to become Deputy Surgeon General. In 2017, she was named Acting Surgeon General for six months, becoming just the second nurse, and the first registered nurse to hold that position. Today, Trent-Adams is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health. Throughout her career, Trent-Adams has focused on improving access to care for under-served and marginalized groups. And during a visit to the Harvard Chan School, we took the opportunity to interview Trent-Adams about her career in public health. She spoke about the need to shift America’s health care system to a prevention model, strategies for addressing complex health challenges, and how being a nurse has shaped her career

Noncommunicable diseases—or NCDs—are the leading cause of death around the world. And of those NCDs, chronic cardiometabolic conditions—such as heart disease and diabetes—are particularly deadly. For more than two decades, Gökhan Hotamışlıgil, James Stevens Simmons Professor of Genetics and Metabolism and and director of the Sabri Ülker Center for Nutrient, Genetic and Metabolic Research, has been working to understand the root causes of these diseases—what goes wrong at the cellular and molecular level to make us sick. In this week's episode we share a wide-ranging conversation with Hotamışlıgil, focusing on the burden of cardiometabolic diseases, the importance of basic scientific research in treating and preventing these conditions, and the unique challenges of running a lab like the Sabri Ülker Center. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on Soundcloud, and stream it on the Stitcher app or on Spotify.

In 2018, colorectal cancer was the third-most common diagnosed cancer among both men and women in the U.S., and data indicate that younger adults are increasingly being diagnosed with it. A new research initiative will examine how the microbiome—a collection of trillions of microorganisms throughout the body—affects the development of colorectal cancer. Scientists on the team will also seek out ways to manipulate the microbiome to better prevent and treat colorectal cancer. In this week's episode, part two of our miniseries on cancer prevention, we're speaking with one of the co-principal investigators of the team, Wendy Garrett, professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Garrett is also on the steering committee of the Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention. In part one of our miniseries, we spoke to Timothy Rebbeck, the center's director. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to i

The statistics on cancer worldwide are staggering:  In 2018, more than 18 million people worldwide were diagnosed with the disease, and nearly 10 million died from it. And the burden of cancer is only expected to grow in the coming decades, thanks to a combination of the world’s aging population, the adoption of unhealthy lifestyles, and environmental exposures linked to cancer. The challenge of combating cancer may seem daunting, but research has shown that one-half to two-thirds of all cancer cases could be prevented if societies fully implemented currently available cancer-prevention strategies. At the same time, there is also a need to develop new strategies for prevention and screening. That's why we're devoting our next two episodes to the future of cancer prevention and diagnosis. In part one you'll hear from Timothy Rebbeck, director of the recently launched Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention. During a wide-ranging conversation Rebbeck explained the current landscape of cancer prevention a

March 22, 2019 — When many people think of design they're probably picturing a product, like a new smartphone or car. But the design principles that lead to the creation of those products—such as the focus on human behavior or the use of prototyping—can also be harnessed to tackle complex public health challenges. In this week's episode you'll learn how one of the world's top public health researchers, Ashish Jha, dean for global strategy at Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, and one of the world's foremost design experts, Patrick Whitney, professor in residence in the Department of Health Policy and Management, have teamed up to think about how design methods can be used to address issues ranging from the opioid epidemic to the future of hospitals. This episode is a collaboration with Harvard Global Health Institute. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on So

The traditional public health mantra is that there is no safe level of lead for kids. But a new report from the Harvard Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity finds that many kids in the U.S. could be exposed to lead through the water they drink at school. The team from the Harvard Prevention Research Center analyzed data from 24 states that have lead testing programs in schools, plus Washington, D.C. Only 12 of the states had useable results. Among those, 12% of all water samples tested had higher-than-recommended lead levels, and 44% of schools tested had one or more samples with higher-than-recommended levels. In this week’s episode we’re talking about the report and its findings with Angie Cradock, who is the deputy director of the Prevention Research Center. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on Soundcloud, and stream it on the Stitcher app or on Spotify.

Coral reefs aren’t just beautiful. They’re the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the oceans, and can provide food, jobs, and protection from storms for coastal communities. But reefs around the world are under threat from a variety of a factors including environmental changes, pollution, and overfishing. And that could have major implications for communities that rely on these reefs for the seafood that sustains their diet. A new research project is trying to tackle that problem by taking an in-depth look at the health of coral reefs in the South Pacific island nation of Kiribati. In this week’s episode we’re speaking to Christopher Golden, the scientist leading this four-year project. Golden is an assistant professor of nutrition and planetary health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and associate director of the Planetary Health Alliance. Golden and other researchers will examine the factors affecting the health of reefs in Kiribati, identify fisheries management strategies that can promote

Each year in the U.S. more than 30,000 people are killed by guns—with two-thirds of those deaths being suicide. And there are tens of thousands non-fatal injuries. Yet research into preventing firearm violence remains limited and under-funded. In a special collaborative episode with Review of Systems we’re taking an in-depth look at gun violence in America: why we know so little about the toll of firearm injuries and deaths, what researchers want to know, and how they are engaging gun owners and enthusiasts as key stakeholders in advocating for more research. You'll hear perspectives on gun violence from the emergency room, with Megan Ranney, and from public health, with David Hemenway. Ranney is an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital/Alpert Medical School of Brown University and also chief research officer for the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine, a non-partisan philanthropy focused on filling the funding gap for high-quality, medic

January 24, 2019 — Climate change will mean more extreme weather, including heat waves. And it’s not a distant threat—we’re already seeing the effects now in the United States. In this week’s episode, we explore the health threat posed by severe heat and how our society needs to adapt in the decades ahead. You'll hear from Augusta Williams, a doctoral student at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who studies how extreme heat can affect our bodies and minds. She'll explain why heat is considered a "silent killer" and how we can combat the effects of our warming world. This episode was produced with assistance from Veritalk, a podcast from Harvard University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on Soundcloud, and stream it on the Stitcher app or on Spotify. Learn more Extreme heat linked with reduced cognitive performance among young adults in non-air-conditioned

January 10, 2019 — For many Americans, a visit with their doctor no longer requires an actual trip to the doctor’s office. More physicians are offering so-called “telemedicine” services, where they provide care to patients via smart phones, tablets, and computers. And while telemedicine is being more used more frequently across the U.S., it’s still relatively uncommon, according to a new study led by Michael Barnett, assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard Chan School. In this week's episode we speak to Barnett about the rise of telemedicine, ways to further increase its use, and how this technology could improve health care for patients in the years to come. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on Soundcloud, and stream it on the Stitcher app or on Spotify. Learn more Use of telehealth rising—slowly (Harvard Chan School news) Trends in Telemedicine Use in a Large Commercially Insured Population

December 19, 2018 — Oral rehydration solution (ORS)—a mixture of water, sugar, and salt that is administered as part of oral rehydration therapy (ORT)—is credited with preventing tens of millions of deaths from cholera and other diarrheal diseases. In this week's podcast you'll hear from two scientists who helped bring this simple, low-tech, and cost-effective treatment into worldwide use. Richard Cash, senior lecturer on global health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and David Nalin, professor emeritus at Albany Medical College, collaborated on groundbreaking clinical studies showing that ORT was remarkably effective in reversing dehydration. This episode is a collaboration with Harvard Global Health Institute. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on Soundcloud, and stream it on the Stitcher app or on Spotify. Learn more A lifesaving therapy—and the researcher who helped launch it Watch video of a recent

December 7, 2018 — For busy families, gathering together for a meal—whether it’s breakfast or dinner—can be difficult. But a growing body of research shows that these meals together can have an important influence on the quality of food that children and teens eat. However, there’s been less research on effective ways to encourage families to eat together more often. In this week’s episode we’re speaking with Kathryn Walton, research fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and a PhD student at the University of Guelph in Toronto, about a new study that could help public health professionals target interventions at busy families. Walton and a team of researchers, including Bryn Austin, professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, found that when families sit down together for dinner, adolescents and young adults eat more fruits and vegetables and consume fewer fast-food and takeout items. What’s unique about this study is that Walton and her colleagues looked at the families parti

November 21, 2018 — In this week's episode we bring you an in-depth conversation with a public health pioneer. During her five-decade career, Marie McCormick, Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor, emerita, at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has worked on a range of issues: from the health of pre-term babies to vaccines to cannabis. McCormick began her career as a pediatrician and conducted groundbreaking research on the outcomes of high-risk infants, especially preterm infants, and the evaluation of programs to improve their health and development. During our conversation we covered all of that, plus McCormick’s views on the future of child and maternal health, including the need to address poverty’s role in childhood health. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on Soundcloud, and stream it on the Stitcher app or on Spotify.

November 2, 2018 — Every day we are bombarded with health news in our social media feeds: from studies touting the benefits—or harms—of a particular food to research on a new treatment for a disease. But how accurate are those headlines? That's the question a multidisciplinary research team led by Noah Haber, ScD '19, tried to answer. And their findings showed that health news shared in social media is likely to be overstated and/or inaccurate. In this week’s episode, we speak with Haber about how that happens—and what can be done to improve health reporting. You can subscribe to Harvard Chan: This Week in Health by visiting iTunes or Google Play and you can listen to it by following us on Soundcloud, and stream it on the Stitcher app or on Spotify. Learn more MetaCausal: Health science, statistics, and media