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It’s not calories that are making us obese — it’s sugar. That’s the message one of the nation’s best-known experts on obesity, UCSF’s Dr. Robert Lustig, is spreading far and wide to try to ignite change in food systems and nutrition policy. Thursday, he brought it to UC Berkeley.
Health & medicine archive
Berkeley to hold UC Global Health Day on Feb. 4; registration closes today
January 27, 2012: Faculty, students and staff from around the UC system will convene at Berkeley on Feb. 4 for the second UC Global Health Day, featuring a wide range of subjects. Registration deadline is Friday, Jan. 27.
J-School students’ ‘Food of Politics’ featured by USA Today 
January 26, 2012: A video produced by Berkeley journalism students appeared recently on USA Today‘s website. “The Food of Politics,” spotlighting an Iowa diner where presidential hopefuls eat, was created for the summer 2011 Berkeley News21 project on food and health reporting.
Lifelong brain-stimulating habits linked to lower Alzheimer’s protein levels
January 23, 2012: People who have made mental engagement a lifelong habit have lower levels of a key protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study led by UC Berkeley neuroscientists. The findings could provide support for cognitive therapies to prevent the onset of a debilitating disease.
Ashok Gadgil wins Zayed lifetime-achievement award
January 20, 2012: Ashok Gadgil, a UC Berkeley engineering professor and a division director at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, has won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the 2012 Zayed Future Energy Prize, given for innovation, leadership and vision in renewable energy and sustainability. Gadgil was recognized for his sustainable humanitarian work in Darfur, providing healthier, energy-efficient “Berkeley-Darfur” cooking stoves. More than 1,100 nominations were submitted for prize.
Gossip isn’t all bad — new study finds its social and psychological benefits
January 17, 2012: For centuries, gossip has been dismissed as salacious, idle chatter that can damage reputations and erode trust. But a new study suggests rumor-mongering can have positive outcomes such as helping us police bad behavior, prevent exploitation and lower stress. Listen to UC Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer discuss the virtues of gossip on KQED Forum.
Researchers focus on the waste disposal units of living cells
January 13, 2012: Eva Nogales and her colleagues in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and at Berkeley Lab have taken the most detailed look ever at the “regulatory particle” used by the protein machines known as proteasomes to identify and degrade proteins marked for destruction. This particle is critical to a broad range of vital biochemical processes, including the immune defense system.
UC seeks to ban smoking on all campuses by 2014
January 12, 2012: All University of California campuses would ban smoking by 2014 if they follow UC President Mark Yudof’s new request, in a letter emailed to chancellors that follows a systemwide wellness group policy study.
Howard Bern, expert on effects of hormones, has died at 91
January 10, 2012: Howard A. Bern, professor emeritus of integrative biology at the UC Berkeley, and a pioneer in understanding how hormones affect development, including that of the human fetus, died Jan. 3 at his home in Berkeley after a nine-month battle with cancer. He was 91.
Though it’s not mind-reading, neuroscientists explore perception
January 3, 2012: A team of neuroscientists led by Berkeley Professor Jack Gallant are beginning to figure out a way to reconstruct what we see, based on records of our brain activity. Jake Schoneker, a School of Journalism alum, reports on the PBS NewsHour.
New questions about prostate-cancer PSA test
January 3, 2012: When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended recently that men not get routine PSA screenings for prostate cancer, many wondered why a simple early-detection test for cancer was not, automatically, a great thing. The UC Berkeley Wellness Letter explores the issues behind the latest recommendation.
Nutritional investigator Barbara Laraia maps the food environment
January 2, 2012: Why would women with less access to nutrient-dense food be more at risk for weight gain? Barbara Laraia, a new associate professor in the School of Public Health, teases out answers to such questions, as part of her research on food policy, the food environment, and health.
Study details how dengue infection hits harder second time around
December 21, 2011: One of the most vexing challenges in the battle against dengue virus, a potentially fatal mosquito-borne virus, is that getting infected once can put people at greater risk for a more severe infection down the road. A new study with UC Berkeley researchers details how the interaction between a person’s immune response and a subsequent dengue infection could mean the difference between getting a mild fever and going into a fatal circulatory failure.
Luke Lee gets $1.5 million Gates Foundation grant to develop diagnostic chip
December 19, 2011: Luke Lee, professor of bioengineering and co-director of the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, gets nearly $1.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a portable microfluidic chip that can be used to diagnose multiple infectious diseases, such as HIV, TB and malaria, at the same time.
Lower classes quicker to show compassion in the face of suffering
December 19, 2011: Emotional differences between the rich and poor, as depicted in such Charles Dickens classics as “A Christmas Carol” and “A Tale of Two Cities,” may have a scientific basis. Researchers at UC Berkeley have found that people in the lower socio-economic classes are more physiologically attuned to suffering, and quicker to express compassion than their more affluent counterparts.
Proposed regs limit working families’ access to affordable healthcare, study finds
December 13, 2011: Tens of thousands of working Californians’ family members could be denied access to affordable health insurance under proposed regulations to the federal healthcare law, says a new report released by researchers at UC Berkeley and UCLA.
Is there a sight-saving diet?
December 13, 2011: Many nutrients and supplements are promoted as ways to preserve vision in healthy people and prevent age-related macular degeneration and/or cataracts. The UC Berkeley Wellness Letter looks at research findings on the most commonly recommended eye-health aids.
Research could help people with declining sense of smell
December 7, 2011: UC Berkeley neuroscientist John Ngai and colleagues have discovered a genetic trigger that makes the nose renew its smell sensors, providing hope for new therapies for people who have lost their sense of smell due to trauma or old age.
Researcher takes on ‘empathy fatigue’ in the workplace
December 6, 2011: A nurse refuses to help an ailing alcoholic who is upset to find a hospital detox unit closed. A hospital clerk brushes off a deceased woman’s grieving family as they try to pay her bills and claim her belongings. These harsh, real-life scenarios helped inspire Eve Ekman, a UC Berkeley doctoral student in social welfare, to study empathy burnout in the workplace, a condition expected to skyrocket this year due to the stress caused by the nation’s financial crisis.
School of Public Health launches first online degree program
December 5, 2011: UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health has launched the campus’s first online degree program in an effort to address the nation’s shortage of trained public health professionals. Students enrolled in the new program, to begin Spring 2012, will be able to earn a master of public health (M.P.H.) degree by completing 85 percent of their coursework online and attending three on-campus sessions totaling 15 days over the first two years.
Campus marks World AIDS Day
November 30, 2011: A 12-foot section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt is serving as the visual centerpiece for a series of campus events surrounding World AIDS Day.
UHS offers final 2011 flu-shot clinic Dec. 1
November 29, 2011: University Health Services will hold the last flu-shot clinic of the 2011 flu season from noon to 6 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 1, at the Tang Center’s ground floor.
The fiber brigade
November 28, 2011: Food manufacturers are putting isolated fibers — extracted from foods or chemically synthesized — into yogurt, ice cream, energy bars, even juices and water, in order to make “high-fiber” claims. Does fiber in this form have the same health benefits as that found in foods naturally high in fiber? The UC Berkeley Wellness Letter reports.
How grateful are you? Take this quiz and find out
November 23, 2011: Research from UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center shows that gratitude is key to happiness. How grateful are you? Take this quiz and find out if you’re counting your blessings this Thanksgiving
Dream sleep takes sting out of painful memories
November 23, 2011: They say time heals all wounds, and new research from UC Berkeley indicates that time spent in dream sleep can help. UC Berkeley researchers have found that during the dream phase of sleep, also known as REM sleep, our stress chemistry shuts down and the brain processes emotional experiences and takes the painful edge off difficult memories.
‘Happiness expert’ Christine Carter shares favorite gratitude practices
November 22, 2011: UC Berkeley sociologist Christine Carter believes gratitude is the key to personal and community happiness. This Thanksgiving, she offers her three favorite gratitude exercises that she practices with her kids so they can focus on what they have instead of what they’re missing.
Taking bushmeat off the menu could increase child anemia
November 21, 2011: When the dinner menu includes endangered species, human nutritional needs must contend with efforts to manage wildlife resources, according to a new UC Berkeley study. Researchers estimate that a loss of access to bushmeat as a source of food would lead to a 29 percent jump in the number of children suffering from anemia.
Mindfulness program set to break new ground at law school
November 17, 2011: Buoyed by growing student and faculty interest, the law school is launching the Berkeley Initiative for Mindfulness in Law. The brainchild of lecturer Charles Halpern, the initiative will undertake a range of meditation and mindfulness activities over the school year.
College of Engineering launches collaboration with Shanghai innovation hub
November 15, 2011: The College of Engineering announced Nov. 11 a new partnership with the Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, one of China’s top high-tech parks, to develop a platform for expanding industrial and academic research collaborations in Asia and fostering global learning opportunities for UC Berkeley students.
Using ionized plasmas as cheap sterilizers for developing world
November 14, 2011: Devices that create ionized plasmas could be life-savers in the developing world or on the battlefield, providing an inexpensive way to sterilize water and medical instruments.
Wood smoke from cooking fires linked to pneumonia, cognitive impacts
November 10, 2011: UC Berkeley-led researchers have found a dramatic one-third reduction in severe pneumonia diagnoses among children in homes with smoke-reducing chimneys on their cookstoves. Reducing wood smoke could have a major impact on the burden of pneumonia, the leading cause of child mortality in the world, the researchers said. A separate pilot study also found a link between prenatal maternal exposure to woodsmoke and poorer performance in markers for IQ among school-aged children.
