The five most-read stories on Scope this week were:
Ask Stanford Med: Director of Female Sexual Medicine Program responds to questions on sexual health: In this installment of Ask Stanford Med, Leah Millheiser, MD, the director of Stanford’s Female Sexual Medicine Program, addresses your questions related to female sexual health. Topics include the relationship between body image and sex drive, treatments for low sex drive in women and possible effects of bicycling on female sexual health.
The mystery surrounding lung-transplant survival rates: An October 2012 article in the San Francisco Chronicle offered a look at the challenges facing lung transplant patients and explored why a significant number don’t live beyond the five-year mark, despite improvements in survival rates.
A Q&A with breastfeeding expert Susan Crowe: In our most recent Q&A, Susan Crowe, MD, the director of outpatient breast feeding medicine services at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, answers several questions related to the benefits and challenges of breastfeeding.
Could gut bacteria play a role in mental health?: Many of us have experienced butterflies (or something less pleasant) in the pit of our stomach owing to stress or anxiety. But, as discussed in this recent article in The Verge, the link between our mental state and the bacteria in our gut could work both ways.
Researchers reverse pulmonary hypertension in rats by blocking inflammation-producing pathway: Until recently, the cause of pulmonary hypertension – dangerously high blood pressure in the lungs caused by narrowed pulmonary arteries – was unclear. Now, a Stanford-led study of pulmonary hypertension in rats suggests that an inflammation-producing pathway may be to blame.