Health

Pregnancy doesn’t have to sabotage athletes’ fitness. Shon Rowan—a researcher with the WVU School of Medicine—and his colleagues used a wearable device called WHOOP to monitor the heart rate and heart rate variability of women before they conceived, throughout pregnancy and after giving birth. The data that the researchers collected from the WHOOP devices suggests that some women may be in better shape after delivering their babies than they were before they became pregnant.

West Virginia University has extended the cancellation of classes on the Morgantown campus until 1 p.m. Wednesday (Jan. 20) due to inclement weather and road conditions. In-person instruction with a start time prior to 1 p.m. are canceled today. Online classes and those in hybrid form that are scheduled to meet today will not be affected and will continue as planned.

As West Virginia primary and secondary school students prepare for in-person instruction next week, an associate professor in the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy is organizing the effort to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to teachers and school personnel.

Dr. Brian Hendricks, a research assistant professor with the West Virginia University School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology, is trying to better understand the needs of a historically underserved population in West Virginia — pregnant women with substance use disorder.

The journey of the COVID-19 vaccine – from the factory to the needle injected into a patient - is not immune to breaks in the supply chain.

The spring semester begins on Tuesday, Jan. 19, and West Virginia University is sharing details to help students, faculty and staff stay safe and abide by the University’s guidance to protect the campuses and surrounding communities from the spread of COVID-19. The campus community is invited to join a Return to Campus Conversation on Thursday, Jan. 14, from 10-11:30 a.m. to hear from administrators and public health experts and ask them questions.

As a new year begins – and the inevitable wave of health-related resolutions go into effect – one West Virginia University researcher reminds parents in particular of the critical role they play when it comes to shaping their children’s self-image and lifelong relationship with food.

Although it may seem that the COVID-19 vaccine came from out of nowhere, it underwent the same rigorous testing that all vaccines do. Ivan Martinez—a virologist with the WVU School of Medicine and Cancer Institute—discusses how the vaccine was made, why it’s safe, and how it will make our lives better in 2021.

The first shipments of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in West Virginia on December 14. As doses are administered, researchers from the West Virginia University Public Interest Communication Research Lab are focused on making sure West Virginians get timely, accurate and scientifically sound information related to the vaccine.

One silver lining to COVID-19 restrictions, based on a recent report, is a 2.4 billion-ton plummet in global carbon emissions. Yet worldwide carbon output remains astronomical – 34 billion tons – and experts project an uptick in 2021.