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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Court authorities often struggle to balance protecting society with appropriate treatment for youth who commit crimes. A University of Alabama professor recently authored a psychological test that measures key juvenile concepts and assists professionals in achieving that balance.