Health Care

Photo of a tall glass of beer in a bar. Jimmy Anderson/Getty Images

Task force recommends screening all adults for alcohol misuse

Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Nearly 30 percent of adults drink more alcohol than is considered healthy, and there are serious consequences for them, their families, and their communities, says U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Member Sue Curry, dean of the UI College of Public Health.
A screen capture from the computer game, Double Decision, which helped boost players' brain function, a study found. Doing crossword puzzles had no such benefit.

When computer games may keep the brain nimble

Tuesday, May 14, 2013
A new study reveals that adults who played a video game helped their mental agility more than adults who did crossword puzzles. Your Health columnist Sumathi Reddy and University of Iowa public health professor Fred Wolinsky join Lunch Break with details.
University of Iowa College of Public Health faculty member Barbara Baquero.

Baquero builds connections to improve health of rural communities

Monday, May 13, 2013
University of Iowa College of Public Health faculty member Barbara Baquero is building connections to improve the health of rural Iowans, with a focus on Iowa's growing Latino population.
over-activated cell

Live or die?

Monday, May 13, 2013
Andrew Shepherd, UI postdoctoral scholar in pharmacology, studies cell processes that regulate potassium. When the balance of potassium is disturbed, cell death may occur. Shepherd focuses on a mechanism underlying the regulation of neuronal excitability, survival, and death—processes central to such diseases as epilepsy, neuro-HIV, and stroke.
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Let the children play

Friday, May 10, 2013
The University of Iowa has partnered with the Iowa Children's Museum on "Playing is Learning," an initiative to reintroduce children, and their parents, to the concept of play. The kickoff event is May 14 beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the children's museum in Coralville.

A friendship gained and weight lost

Friday, May 10, 2013
A friendship between public health graduate students Mandy Schey and Shawn Zierke helped spark the development of a new fitness program for patients receiving weight loss surgery at the UI.

Research team receives $10.6 million to study obesity and hypertension

Thursday, May 9, 2013
Researchers at the University of Iowa and colleagues at Cornell University have received a five-year, $10.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue their work investigating the biological links between high blood pressure and obesity.
Image of hearing-loop technology being adopted at UI

UI adopts hearing-loop technology on campus

Thursday, May 9, 2013
The University of Iowa has plans in the works to install hearing-loop technology in several buildings around campus, and while more expensive than older technology, official say the quality is worth it.

A blind man's daily journey

Thursday, May 9, 2013
The University of Iowa has produced a multimedia package chronicling a day in the life of Jerry Jackson, a 66-year-old Burlington man whose family suffers from a rare, inherited eye disease called ADNIV. Specialists at the UI's ophthalmology department have been studying the disease for more than two decades and now believe they've found the first genetic cause for it.

Sioux City social work pioneer

Thursday, May 9, 2013
UI alumna Meg Bessman-Quintero is the only bilingual, master's-level mental health therapist practicing in the Sioux City area who counsels primarily Spanish-speaking immigrants and their families, filling a critical mental health niche in western Iowa.
A closeup photo of someone's hands on a video game

Video games slow, reverse mental decay

Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Playing video games can prevent and even reverse deteriorating brain functions such as memory, reasoning, and visual processing, according to a recent University of Iowa study.
large tube in water

PCBs are everywhere

Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Despite the expectation of a large environmental exposure difference, UI researchers report that mothers and children in East Chicago, Ind., and Columbus Junction, Iowa, had similar concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their blood.