SCIENCE WRITING SAMPLES

Washington Wire: Science & Health News Summaries

NEWSLETTER OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE

May 2011

Treating Depression in Mom Brings Long-Term Benefits to Kids

Children with depression and behavior problems showed marked improvement when their mothers were successfully treated for depression, according to a study reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry.  Without treating the children directly, the faster mothers got better, the faster their kids improved, and the greater effect on the children’s depressive symptoms and social functioning.  Further, this effect is long-lasting.  One year after their mothers’ remissions, these children still showed continuous improvement in their own behaviors.

April 2011

Brain Activity Linked to Food Addiction

Women with compulsive eating habits show brain activity patterns typically associated with drug or alcohol addiction, according to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.  The study included women who were lean, overweight, or obese, however, food addiction symptoms and brain responses to food were observed independent of weight.

Estrogen-only Therapy Less Risky Than First Thought

New research should help women better navigate the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy.  The Women’s Health Initiative had followed over 10,000 post-menopausal women with prior hysterectomy on either estrogen-only therapy or placebo, and was stopped early due to an increased risk of stroke.  A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association evaluated these women four years after they had ended therapy and found that the increased stroke risk disappeared after women stopped the estrogen pills.

March 2011

Essential Fatty Acids Ease PMS Symptoms

Administering essential fatty acids significantly reduces the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), according to a study published in January’s Reproductive Health.   In a randomized, controlled trial of 120 women, patients were given capsules containing a mix of several polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E.  Women taking the essential fatty acids reported eased PMS symptoms, without major side effects.

Graduate School Can Lower Your Blood Pressure

An analysis of nearly 4,000 patient records, published recently in BMC Public Health, shows that people with advanced degrees are more likely to have lower blood pressure than those who don’t, and that this benefit is greater for women than men.  Systolic blood pressure for women with 17 or more years of schooling was 3.26 mmHg lower than in age-matched women who did not finish high school.  A pronounced gender difference also suggested that education may have a greater impact on women’s health over their lifetime, compared with the impact on men’s health.

January 2011

Faster and More Reliable Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis

Doctors have determined an ultrasound-based method for distinguishing between benign and malignant ovarian tumors.  In a study published in BMJ, researchers tested their ultrasound technique on almost 2,000 women prior to surgery.  Using five features of benign or malignant tumors, such as size, shape, and blood flow, the ultrasound technique was able to accurately identify ovarian tumor type in 77% of these cases.  Simple and reliable diagnosis of tumor type before an operation should better guide surgical technique and improve patient prognosis.

Interrupted Sleep More Likely for Working Moms than for Dads

Working mothers are two and a half times as likely as working fathers to get up in the middle of the night to take care of babies and small children.  Those sleep interruptions also last longer, averaging 44 minutes for women, compared to 30 minutes for men.  A study carried out at The University of Michigan analyzed time diary data from approximately 20,000 working parents collected from 2003 to 2007.  The study authors argue that the burden of sleep interruption for working mothers may contribute to gender inequality in earnings and career advancement.

Emotional Signals Are Chemically Encoded in Tears

Women’s tears can have a powerful effect on men.  Now a study, published in Science, demonstrates that the “scent” of a woman’s tears, without the crying woman present, reduces men’s sexual arousal.  Researchers collected tears from women volunteers watching sad movies alone, and then measured men’s reaction to sniffing either the tears or saline.  Exposure to sad women’s tears did not affect the male subjects’ empathy or reaction to emotional movies or faces.  However, physiological measures such as skin temperature, heart rate and testosterone levels, and brain scans indicated a pronounced drop in arousal in these men.

December 2010

Promise for Reversing Nerve Damage Caused by Multiple Sclerosis

In multiple sclerosis (MS), the immune system attacks myelin, the insulating layers that protect nerve fibers in the brain. Now researchers may have identified a way to regenerate myelin, and reverse the nerve damage and disability caused by MS. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, demonstrated how in mice, activating the retinoid acid receptor RXR-γ can be used to trigger the brain’s own stem cells to regenerate new myelin.

Flavor Exposure in the Womb Impacts Infant’s Sense of Smell

Researchers studying mice found that the pups’ sense of smell is changed by what their mothers eat, teaching them to like the flavors in her diet.  The study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, also demonstrated how a pregnant mother’s diet induced structural changes in the olfactory glomeruli of the fetus’ brain, which process smells.  Researchers fed one group of pregnant and nursing mice a bland diet and another a flavored diet.  At weaning age, the pups from mothers on the flavored diet had significantly larger olfactory glomeruli than those on the bland diet.

Peer Pressure Can Keep You Healthy

Hanging out with healthy friends could be the best way to keep fit.  Researchers surveyed 3610 Australian women, aged 18-46 years, to assess the extent to which healthy behavior among a person’s contacts could influence their own lifestyle. The study, published in BioMed Central’s International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, found that physical activity and healthy eating behavior were both strongly affected by social norms.  Those women who moved in healthier circles were in turn more likely to eat well and get more exercise, independent of social support.

November 2010

Fighting Viruses from Within the Cell

The immune system uses a previously unknown defense strategy against viral infections.  Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers describe how antibodies in the bloodstream attach to viruses and hitch a ride with the invading virus to the inside of a cell.  Within the cell, a protein called TRIM21 recognizes the antibody and the intruder, and targets the virus for rapid destruction, before it gets a chance to take over the cell.  The authors think this newly discovered immunity mechanism could be exploited to better fight viral infections like the common cold.

Clinical Research Still Neglects Some Gender Differences

Heart disease and other medical conditions vary greatly between women and men, but clinical research may not do enough to study these gender differences.  Published in BMC Medicine, a research team examined almost 9000 medical research articles using a text-mining approach and showed a steady increase in clinical research incorporating gender-specific design and analysis, especially since the 1990s.  However, the literature largely ignored gender-specific disparity in the area of clinical management, including potential differences in symptoms, diagnostic accuracy, referral practices, and therapy choices.  The authors fear this research gap may lead to inequalities in health care and outcomes, if uncorrected.

Juice and Soda May Increase Risk of Gout in Women

New data analysis, published in JAMA, connects frequent consumption of fructose-rich beverages, like sugar-sweetened sodas and orange juice, with an increased risk of gout among women.  Gout is a painful inflammatory arthritis, most commonly seen in men, caused by uric acid crystals in the joints.  Fructose-rich drinks can increase serum uric acid levels, also increasing the risk of gout.  Researchers analyzed data from the Nurses’ Health Study, which followed more than 78,000 women over a 22 year period.  Women who drank two or more servings of sugar-sweetened soda or orange juice daily more than doubled their risk of gout compared with women who rarely drank these beverages.  However, because the incidence rate of gout among women is low, absolute risk was only modestly increased.

October 2010

Mouse Models Connect HRT and the Pill to Breast Cancer, and Suggest Possible Treatment

New research published in Nature points to why the synthetic sex hormones used in hormone replacement therapy and contraceptives increase the risk of breast cancer.  A protein called RANKL, which regulates bone mass, is also expressed in mammary cells.  Experiments in mice found that synthetic progestins bind to RANKL, triggering mammary cell division and inhibiting cell death, ultimately leading to breast tumors.  A second Nature study demonstrated a potential ‘antidote’ to reduce the cancer risk associated with synthetic hormone use.  Blocking RANKL with a monoclonal antibody, currently approved for treating osteoporosis, delayed mammary tumor formation and also reduced lung metastasis in mouse models.

Men Perspire, While Women “Glow”

New research published in Experimental Physiology found that men are more efficient than women at sweating during intense exercise.  The sweating responses of men and women, with or without physical training, were compared during an hour of continuous cycling with increasing intensity intervals.  The study found that women have to work harder than men in order to start sweating, and that men have a higher sweat output than women.  Exercise training improves sweating in both sexes, but the degree of improvement is greater in men.  Beginning to sweat at a lower core body temperature is an advantage that allows an athlete to perform longer, and to better tolerate extremely hot weather.

August 2010

Sponge Genome Reveals Keys to Multicellular Life

The sea sponge genome sequence, recently reported in Nature, gives several insights into the origins of multicellular life.  Examination of the sponge genome reveals gene families involved in cellular differentiation and multicellular cooperation common to all animals, and also highlights groups of genes which sea sponges lack that are likely to be responsible for more complex body forms.

Calcium Supplements May Increase Heart Attack Risk

Calcium supplements are often prescribed for skeletal health, but a recent trial suggests they might increase rates of heart attack and cardiovascular events in otherwise healthy older women. According to a study published in the British Medical Journal which analyzed the results of eleven randomized controlled trials involving 12,000 patients, calcium supplements were associated with about a 30% increased risk of heart attack. Although the increase in risk is modest, the widespread use of calcium supplements may still translate that risk into a large disease burden in the population. Because calcium supplements only provide modest benefit on bone density and fracture prevention, the researchers argue that the role of calcium supplements in osteoporosis management should be reassessed.

July 2010

What Exercise Science Doesn’t Know About Women

Exercise research has traditionally focused on male athletes.  But as a New York Times columnist points out, these research results are often not applicable to women, and female athletes need to be studied independently. The few parallel exercise studies that have been conducted in both women and men demonstrate gender differences. Protein showed no performance benefit in women as it does for men, and even seemed to cause sore muscles in women. Other studies into “carbo-loading” before a race revealed that women do not pack fuel into their muscles the same way men do. Scientists have only recently begun to appreciate the effects estrogen has on muscle metabolism, and the article argues that women should approach male-focused exercise research with skepticism before changing their workout routine.

Severe Angina Triples Coronary Artery Disease Risk for Women

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in developed countries, but is still often viewed as a man’s disease. Because women and men show different symptoms and risk factors for CAD, physicians need to decipher the most predictive factors to guide diagnosis and treatment. A retrospective Canadian study, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, followed nearly 24,000 patients over six years and found that although chest pain is more common in men, severe angina poses three times the risk for developing CAD in women. The study also showed that women at risk for CAD were more likely than men to have high blood pressure or diabetes, and less likely to smoke.

Chromosome Variation in Female Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Human female cells regularly “turn off” one of their two X chromosomes to control the expression of X-linked genes.  This X chromosome inactivation is critical for normal embryonic development. Stem cell scientists at UCLA examined the X chromosome inactivation state of newly cultured female human embryonic stem cells as part of safety studies. They observed variations that could be due to cell culture conditions, or coincidence, but that would need to be well controlled before human female embryonic stem cells could be used in regenerative medicine.

June 2010

More Women Suffering from “Men’s” Diseases

According to an article in the British tabloid The Daily Mail, health issues traditionally associated with men, like heart attacks, are being increasingly diagnosed in women. A prospective analysis of the Denmark Nurse Cohort study gives clues as to why. The research revealed that women in high-pressure jobs had nearly twice the risk of having a heart attack compared to nurses with more manageable workloads.  The risk was most significant for women under the age of 50.  Experts are also noticing more cases of women with hair loss, lung cancer, liver disease, low sex drive, mouth cancer, and gout. The trend is attributed to women’s changing lifestyles which now involve higher work stress, increased alcohol intake, and poorer diet.

May 2010

A Phone Call from Mom is as Good as a Hug for Relieving Stress

A study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B demonstrated that a mother’s voice was as effective as in-person touch for soothing the anxieties of her young daughter. Researchers tested a group of girls, aged 7 to 12, by first putting them in a stressful situation such as public speaking or solving math problems in front of an audience. They then measured levels of the stress hormone cortisol and the ‘love’ hormone oxytocin, over time. After the task, a third of the girls were reunited with their mothers, a third received a phone call from their mothers, and a third watched an ’emotion neutral’ movie. Comfort from a mother proved effective at reducing cortisol and increasing oxytocin levels, whether offered in person or over the phone. This physiological reaction to soothing conversation seems to fit with the ‘tend and befriend’ theory of stress response in females versus the ‘fight or flight’ stress response in males.

April 2010

New Way HIV Infects Women Discovered

Scientists have uncovered a mechanism to explain how HIV may cross through the lining of a woman’s genital tract to establish infection without direct access to the blood stream.  In a study published in PLoS Pathogens, researchers exposed cultures of mucosal epithelial cells to various strains of HIV-1, and observed an increase in the “leakiness” of the cell layers.  Exposure to the virus’ envelope glycoprotein alone also lowered the integrity of the epithelial lining by turning off gene expression of tight junction proteins.  The virus could then squeeze through the “cracks” in the genital lining and infect target cells in the blood.  As women are the fastest growing group of new HIV-infections, understanding this unique transmission method may provide new drug targets for preventing HIV infection in women.

Home Test Kits Increase HPV Detection

Regular gynecological screening reduces the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer.  However, for various reasons, many women still do not follow the recommendation to have yearly pap smears.  In a study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers were able to significantly increase screening compliance by offering a home test kit, allowing women to send in a self-collected sample to detect for high-risk HPV.  Incorporating this option into screening programs may further improve cervical cancer outcomes.

Study Questions Whether Screening Really Cuts Breast Cancer Deaths

The British Medical Journal also reported a study evaluating the success of mammography screening programs introduced in two regions of Denmark in the 1990’s. Surprisingly, when compared with Danish regions without an organized breast cancer screening program, the screened regions showed no difference in mortality from breast cancer over a ten year period.  The researchers suggest that improvements in breast cancer mortality are due to better treatments options, rather than increased use of mammograms.

March 2010

Osteoporosis Drugs May Decrease Breast Cancer Risk

Women taking common bisphosphonate drugs like Fosamax or Boniva for osteoporosis may also be reducing their risk for breast cancer. In a population case-controlled study published in the British Journal of Cancer, researchers interviewed nearly 6,000 women and observed a 30% reduction in breast cancer risk in women taking osteoporosis medications. Bisphosphonates may exert their protective effects by promoting tumor cell death, inhibiting blood supply to tumors, or preventing the ability of cancer cells to stick to each other. The benefit appeared limited to women who were not obese, perhaps due to the elevated estrogen levels associated with a higher body mass index.

NIH Panel Recommends Revised VBAC Guidelines

Women who have previously delivered a baby by cesarean may now have more choices for subsequent births. Since their peak in 1996, rates of ‘VBAC’ (vaginal birth after cesarean) have declined by 15 percent, with fewer health care providers supporting the option due to risk of uterine rupture and medical malpractice concerns. This trend prompted an NIH panel to examine the risks and benefits of VBAC, versus planned repeat cesarean births, for women and their babies. Because trial of labor was relatively safe and is successful in nearly 75% of cases, the panel recommended that VBAC guidelines be revised to support the preferences of women at low risk for complications.

February 2010

Third-Hand Smoke Hazards

The dangers of second-hand smoke are generally appreciated, however most people are unaware of ‘third-hand’ smoke.  Recently a study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates how third-hand smoke, the nicotine residue that sticks to indoor surfaces such as carpets, furniture and clothes, can also be a health hazard.  Researchers found that the nicotine reacts with common indoor air pollutants like nitrous acid to form potent carcinogens. These carcinogens pose the greatest health risk to small children who have more direct contact with household surfaces.

Anti-Aging Cocktail

Researchers may have uncovered a recipe for youthful vigor, as recently reported in the journal Experimental Biology and Medicine. Mice fed a complex dietary supplement of vitamins, minerals, and extracts maintained high physical activity levels into old age, compared with controls which significantly slowed down. The energy boost in the supplement-fed mice appeared to be due to increased mitochondrial activity and decreased oxidative stress. The researchers hope to develop a supplement formula to help humans similarly maintain zestful health and performance into their later years.