The five most-read stories this month on Scope were: Sticky situation: How sugar affects our health: In this post, a clinical dietician with Stanford Health …
Month: February 2015
One person’s normal = another person’s heart attack?
Much has been written about calculating your BMI (or body mass index, the relationship between your height to your weight) and what it might indicate …
ME/CFS/SEID: It goes by many aliases, but its blood-chemistry signature is a giveaway
It's the disease that dare not speak its name without tripping over one of its other names. Call it what you will - chronic fatigue …
Exploring the science of decision making
Every day we make decisions that affect our work, personal relationships and health. With stakes this high, it's no wonder many of us dread decision-making …
Biodesign program welcomes last class from India
In January, three fellows from India arrived to Stanford to join the Biodesign program, which immerses clinicians, scientists, engineers and business people in the biodesign …
Corrective braces adjust cell-surface molecules’ positions, fix defective activities within cells
Stanford molecular and cellular physiologist and structural biologist Chris Garcia, PhD, and his fellow scientists have tweaked together a set of molecular tools that work …
Baby with rare heart defect saved by innovative surgery
Elyse Lane was 20-weeks pregnant when she learned that her unborn son had a rare and severe heart defect. Her baby was missing his pulmonary …
Women who have a stillbirth are more likely to experience long-term depression, study shows
Any serious loss requires grieving time, and the birth of stillborn child is no exception. However, a recent study suggests that women who have experienced …
By investigating cells, researchers can “stumble” on the next big thing in medicine
Welcome to the latest edition of Biomed Bites, a weekly feature that introduces readers to some of Stanford’s most innovative researchers. Tobias Meyer, PhD, was hooked …
A look at why young women who have heart attacks delay seeking care
Heart attacks kill more than 15,000 women in the U.S. each year and are disproportionately deadly for females under the age of 55. Although several studies, …
A conversation about using genetics to advance cardiovascular medicine
In recognition of American Heart Month, Stanford Health Care is hosting a heart fair on Saturday. The free community event includes a number of talks …
Peanut products and babies: Now okay?
Updated 2-25-15: Allergy expert Sharon Chinthrajah, MD, discussed the study and its implications on KQED's Forum today: *** 2-24-15: Any parent of young children is …
Stumbling upon circadian rhythms
In my job as a science writer, I get to hear lots of amazing stories of discovery. In some cases, researchers have worked diligently to …
Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble – yeast dynasties give up their secrets
Apologies to Shakespeare for the misquote (I've just learned to my surprise that it's actually "Double, double, toil and trouble"), but it's a too-perfect lead-in …
Minimum wage: More than an economic principle, a driver of health
SMS (“Stanford Medical School”) Unplugged was recently launched as a forum for students to chronicle their experiences in medical school. The student-penned entries appear on …
Sex biology redefined: Article suggests that genes don’t indicate binary sexes
The scenario many of us learned in school is that two X chromosomes make someone female, and an X and a Y chromosome make someone male. These are simplistic ways of thinking about what is scientifically very complex.