Sunday church service in Amish country is more than just belting out hymns, reading Bible passages and returning home an hour later to catch a football game or nap.
Every day, our bodies face a bombardment of UV rays, ozone, cigarette smoke, industrial chemicals and other hazards. This exposure can lead to free-radical production in our bodies, which damages our DNA and tissues. A new study from Eric Kelley—a researcher with the WVU School of Medicine—suggests that unrepaired DNA damage can increase the speed of aging. His results appear in the journal Nature.
Imagine being woken up at 3 a.m. to navigate a corn maze, memorize 20 items on a shopping list or pass your driver’s test. According to a new analysis out of West Virginia University, that’s often what it’s like to be a rodent in a biomedical study. Mice and rats, which make up the vast majority of animal models, are nocturnal. Yet a survey of animal studies across eight behavioral neuroscience domains showed that most behavioral testing is conducted during the day, when the rodents would normally be at rest.
Slowly, but surely, America is returning to some semblance of normalcy. Masks, wipes and sanitizers can now be found in discount bins. Dine-in restaurants are filling back up, and concerts and sporting events are opening the gates. For some folks, however, reentering society - after a deadly pandemic shuttered the world for a good chunk of one year - can be a bit terrifying.
If someone joins a church, mosque or synagogue, they may be seeking better emotional or spiritual health. But according to research out of West Virginia University, faith communities have the potential to promote physical wellbeing, as well.
The West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute Project ECHO program has been spreading specialty care knowledge across the Mountain State for five years. Building upon its success, the project can now lend resources and expertise to health providers beyond West Virginia with its recent designation as an ECHO Superhub – one of only eight in the United States and 18 worldwide.
People have been driving under the influence of alcohol since before the first person crank-started a Ford Model T. But CBD oil didn’t become a concern until years after people began driving the Tesla Model X.
In studying COVID-19 testing and positivity rates in West Virginia between March and September 2020, West Virginia University researchers found disparities among Black residents and residents experiencing food insecurity.
Some things—like death and taxes—are certain, but a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes doesn’t have to be. A new study led by Adam Baus—a researcher with the WVU School of Public Health—shows that diabetes-prevention programming can reduce the rate of diabetes diagnoses, lower healthcare costs and add 4.4 quality-adjusted life-years to participant average lifespan.
Sounds like crickets chirping and the taste of warm buckwheat pancakes can spark the senses of dementia patients — a fact faculty and students at West Virginia University used to develop a way for those patients to experience parts of their cultural past and to relieve stress for caregivers.