Patients ‘Head over Heels’ for Dizziness Research via Rotating Chair
A unique Roto-Tilt chair helps a University of Alabama researcher test portions of the inner ear to assist those suffering from dizziness and balance problems.
Health & Medicine
Links to Zinc: Nutrition Expert Finds Tie Between Trace Mineral, Birth Weights
Some counties in Alabama have infant mortality rates higher than those in some Third World counties. For a UA researcher, this gives added significance to recent findings that low blood zinc levels in expectant mothers can increase by eight times the risk of delivering low birth-weight babies.
The Stigma Remains
To Dr. Pamela Payne Foster, a former New Yorker, the most striking thing about the red brick building on the street corner of the Alabama town was the complete absence of signage indicating its purpose. It was home to an AIDS Service Organization.
Extending Health Care’s Reach
In 2001, the Capstone Rural Health Center opened in Parrish, bringing quality health care near to the doorsteps of the approximate 1,500 people living in and around the rural Walker County, Ala. community.
‘Baby Blues’ of a Different Shade
When you hear “baby blues,” chances are you think of the kind that hit after the baby is born – thanks to all the attention postpartum depression gets in the media and from celebrities like Brooke Shields.
UA Works to Stop PD
There’s an almost audible buzz emitting from a basement level laboratory in The University of Alabama’s Biology Building. The five graduate and 10 undergraduate students who work there, alongside Drs. Guy and Kim Caldwell, UA biology professors, are pumped. So too are their aforementioned faculty mentors.
The (Sleep) Doctor is In
Counting sheep as a way to doze off may be a cliché, but statistics show that millions of Americans suffer from insomnia and struggle to get a good night’s sleep.
Dispensing of Heart Drug Not ‘Black and White’
Think we’ve advanced too far in Civil Rights issues and medical care to resort to making health judgments based on skin color? Don’t be so sure, says Dr. Gregory Dorr, an assistant professor of history at The University of Alabama, who has joined scholars at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researching so-called “designer medicines” and the possibilities they could lead to racial medicine.
Protection in a Protein
University of Alabama researchers have demonstrated that a specific protein protects against the loss of the brain neurons whose demise leads to Parkinson’s disease, a central nervous system disorder estimated to affect more than 1 million Americans.
Virtual Care
The Institute of Medicine estimates that almost 100,000 patients die each year because of human errors in their care. This estimate is greater than the numbers of annual deaths from vehicle crashes, AIDS or breast cancer.