Drexel University College of Medicine Women’s Health Education Program
Women’s Health News
Stereotypical imperfections offer health benefits when it comes to bodies
Women's Health News Wednesday, 3-Dec-2008 The hormones
that make women physically
stronger, more competitive and
better able to deal with stress also
tend to redistribute fat from the
hips to the waist, according to
Elizabeth Cashdan, an anthropologist at the University of Utah. So
in societies and situations where
women are under
pressure to procure
resources, they may
be less likely to
have the classic
hourglass figure.
Cashdan's hypothesis aims to explain a
peculiar observation. Women
around the world tend to have
larger waist-to-hip ratios - more
cylindrical rather than hourglassshaped bodies - than is considered
optimal. Medical studies have
shown that a curvy waist-to-hip
ratio of 0.7 or lower is associated
with higher fertility and lower
rates of chronic disease. Studies
have also shown that men prefer a
ratio of 0.7 or lower when looking
for a mate. The preference makes
perfect sense, according to evolutionary psychologists, because the
low ratio is a reliable signal of a
healthy, fertile woman. But in
data that Cashdan compiled from
33 non-Western populations and 4
European populations, the average
waist-to-hip ratio for
women is above 0.8.
If 0.7 is the magic
number both in
terms of health and
male mate choice,
why are most women significantly
higher? That's where the hormones come in. Androgens, a
class of hormones that includes
testosterone, increase waist-to-hip
ratios in women by increasing
visceral fat, which is carried
around the waist. But on the upside, increased androgen levels
are also associated with increased strength, stamina, and
competitiveness. Cortisol, a hormone that helps the body deal
with stressful situations, also
increases fat carried around the
waist. "The hormonal profile
associated with high WHR
(waist-to-hip ratio) ... may favor
success in resource competition,
particularly under stressful circumstances," writes Cashdan.
"The androgenic effects - stamina, initiative, risk-proneness,
assertiveness, dominance should be particularly useful
where a woman must depend on
her own resources to support
herself and her family." In other
words, trading the benefits of a
thin waist for better ability to
collect resources may be a good
deal in certain societies and
situations. And there is evidence
that male mate preferences may
reflect this trade-off, according
to Cashdan. In Japan, Greece
and Portugal, where women
tend to be less economically
independent, men place a
higher value on a thin waist
than men in Britain or Denmark, where there tends to be
more sexual equality. And in
some non-Western societies
where food is scarce and
women bear the responsibility
for finding it, men actually
prefer larger waist-to-hip ratios. "Waist-to-hip ratio may
indeed be a useful signal to
men, then, but whether men
prefer a WHR associated with
lower or higher androgen/estrogen ratios (or value
them equally) should depend
on the degree to which they
want their mates to be strong,
tough, economically successful and politically competitive," Cashdan writes. "And
from a woman's perspective,
men's preferences are not the
only thing that matters."
History of Women in Medicine: Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is most remembered as a pioneer of nursing
and a reformer of hospital sanitation methods. For most of her
ninety years, Nightingale pushed
for reform of the British military
health-care system and with that
the profession of nursing started
to gain the respect it deserved.
Unknown to many, however, was
her use of new techniques of statistical analysis, such as during
the Crimean War when she plotted the incidence of preventable
deaths in the military. With her
analysis, Florence Nightingale
revolutionized the idea that social
phenomena could be objectively
measured and subjected to mathematical analysis. She was an innovator in the collection, tabulation,
interpretation, and graphical dis-
V O LU M E 5 , I S S U E 1
play of descriptive statistics.
Florence Nightingale's two greatest life achievements--pioneering
of nursing and the reform of hospitals--were amazing considering
that most Victorian women of her
age group did not attend universities or pursue professional careers.
She in particular received excellent early preparation in mathematics from her father and aunt,
and was also tutored in mathematics by James Sylvester. In 1854,
after a year as a unpaid superintendent of a London
"establishment for gentlewomen
during illness," the Secretary of
War, Sidney Herbert, recruited
Nightingale and 38 nurses for
service in Scutari during the Crimean War. During Nightingale's
time at Scutari, she collected data
J A NUA RY 20 0 9
and systematized record-keeping
practices. Nightingale was able
to use the data as a tool for improving city and military hospitals. Nightingale's calculations of
the mortality rate showed that
with an improvement of sanitary
methods, deaths would decrease.
In February, 1855, the mortality
rate at the hospital was 42.7
percent of the cases treated
(Cohen 131). When Nightingale's sanitary reform was implemented, the mortality rate declined. Nightingale took her
statistical data and represented
them graphically. She invented
polar-area charts, where the statistic being represented is proportional to the area of a wedge
in a circular diagram (Cohen
133). As Nightingale demon-
strated,
statistics
provided
an organized way of
learning
and lead to
improvements in medical and
surgical practices. She also
developed a Model Hospital
Statistical Form for hospitals
to collect and generate consistent data and statistics. She
became a Fellow of the Royal
Statistical Society in 1858 and
an honorary member of the
American Statistical Association in 1874. Karl Pearson
acknowledged Nighingale as a
"prophetess" in the development of applied statistics.
V O LU M E 5 , I S S U E 1
P A GE 2
The Positive Side of Stress
As many people have noted, the stress response can be enormously helpful. Surging
adrenaline enables people to perform Herculean feats. Who can forget the firemen laden
with life-saving equipment who charged up
flights of smoke-filled stairs in the World
Trade Center after the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001? Or the ordinary citizens who carried injured and disabled people out of the towers? Fight-or-flight responses are appropriate and essential in
such overwhelming situations. When appropriately invoked, the stress response helps
us rise to many challenges. These challenges may be external forces, such as a fire
or an earthquake, or internal threats, such as
your circulatory system teetering on
the brink of a deadly collapse. The
fight-or-flight response can prove
beneficial under far less dangerous
circumstances, too.
Physiologist
Hans Selye, whose work helped shape
modern stress theory, advanced the
idea that physical and psychosocial stressors trigger the same physiological response. Selye explored the line between
short-term stress that stimulates people to
summon the resources to hurdle obstacles
(so-called "good" stress) and chronic or
overabundant stress, which wears down the
ability to adapt and cope ("bad" stress or
distress). Two Harvard researchers, Robert
M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson, likewise demonstrated that a jolt of stress
isn't necessarily bad. They noted that
as stress or anxiety levels rose, so did
performance and efficiency — up to a
point. At this turning point, further
stress and anxiety led to significant
decreases in performance and ability.Where
that line is drawn or where that turning point
falls seems to differ from person to person.
For while the stress response is hard-wired
into humans and other animals, the events
and perceptions that set it off vary widely.
What you perceive as a threatening situation,
your neighbor may easily brush aside or
even relish.
HIV/AIDS Prevention Efforts Failing To Reach Hispanic Community in the South, Report
States
Kaiser Health Disparities Report: A
Weekly Look At Race, Ethnicity And
Health
HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in
Alabama and other Southern states fail to
reach the Hispanic population, despite a rise
in cases among Hispanics, according to a
report released on Monday by the Latino
Commission on AIDS, the Birmingham News
reports. The two-year investigative report -"Shaping the New Response: HIV/AIDS &
Latinos in the Deep South" -- looked at HIV
rates and programs in Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South
Carolina and Tennessee. For Alabama,
the report found that while there are clinical services available for people living
with HIV/AIDS, few services employed
bilingual health care professionals. The
number of Hispanics diagnosed with HIV
in the state increased from 22 in 2005 to
31 in 2007, according to the report. One
HIV clinical care facility based in Birmingham reports a doubling of cases
among Hispanics within the last year.
Montgomery AIDS Outreach reports that
about 3% of its clients are Hispanic.
Tykeysha Boone, director of education for
AIDS Alabama, said a lack of funding has
prevented the organization from hiring bilingual staff, even though language barriers
represent a large challenge for the agency.
She added, "Every culture has different barriers and different things that appeal to them
and different things they find innovative.
That's probably what the issue is right now -trying to figure out what is the most innovative approach" (Stock, Birmingham News,
12/3).
Report Details Differences in Practices at CVS Stores Located in Minority, White
Communities
A report released on Thursday by Change To
Win, a coalition of union interest groups
alleging discrimination at CVS pharmacies
nationwide, details the findings of a 14month long investigation that cites differences in practices between stores located in
minority and white neighborhoods, the Detroit Free Press reports (Anstett, Detroit Free
Press, 12/5). CVS has more than 6,000 pharmacies nationwide. The group gathered outside of several CVS pharmacies in New York
City and four other cities to protest what it
says are unequal services provided to minority communities across the country (Kaiser
Health Disparities Report, 12/4). Several
community groups also are involved in the
campaign (Clark, Philadelphia Inquirer,
12/5). The report -- titled "CureCVS: From
High Prices to Low Quality" -- claims that
CVS stores located in communities with
large minority populations have been cited
for selling expired food and having higher
prices and poorer service than stores in white
communities. CVS stores in communities
where the majority of residents are minorities also had 65% more health violations per store than stores where the majority of residents were white, according
to the report (Hunter, Detroit News, 12/4).
The minority communities also had fewer
24-hour stores and had more stores with
unsanitary conditions, according to the
group (Detroit Free Press, 12/5). Nancy
Jowski, head of the group, said that CVS
has "failed to serve communities where
minorities live," adding, "We believe
minority communities deserve better"
(Detroit News, 12/4). Whyatt Mondesire,
president of the Philadelphia chapter of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, during a press
conference said, "Drugstore red-lining is a
real problem. Health care is a critical issue
in Philadelphia, and when people don't
have access to get their prescriptions filled
or get formula for their babies to take care
of their basic needs, it does affect the way
they live." CVS has denied the allegations
and said in a statement, "We do not discriminate in our policies or store operations or
tolerate discrimination of any kind in our
organization. We will carefully review the
information that has been released and contact the NAACP to follow up" (Philadelphia
Inquirer, 12/5). CVS spokesperson Michael
DeAngelis added that he believes the group's
campaign is part of an attempt by unions to
organize nonunion workers at some of its
stores (Detroit Free Press, 12/5). CVS said
that since 2007, Change to Win "has attempted to pressure CVS to deny our employees the full benefit of voting rights afforded to them under federal law. This
'report' and the accompanying media outreach is the latest attempt by CTW to
achieve this objective" (Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/5).
W OM EN ’ S H E A L TH N E W S
P A GE 3
Incoming Obama Administration Begins To Lay Groundwork for Health Reform
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report
[Dec 04, 2008]
Former Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Presidentelect Barack Obama's nominee for HHS
secretary, on Wednesday launched an
effort by the incoming administration to
"lay the groundwork" for health care overhaul, the Washington Post reports. On a
conference call with 1,000 Obama supporters who have expressed interest in
health issues, Daschle discussed how the
transition team and administration will
use the Internet -- including
online videos, blogs and email alerts -- to initiate a
grassroots overhaul effort.
In addition, Daschle said,
"We'll have some exciting
news about town halls, we'll
have some outreach efforts
in December," adding that
"we'll be making some announcements" during a
Thursday health care summit with Sen.
Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) in Denver. Salazar
said, "President-elect Obama believes that
change really comes from the ground up,
not from Washington," adding, "The
drumbeat for change is one which goes
across every single state -- red, blue and
purple. That kind of a drumbeat will be
very effective in achieving the change
needed on health care." Obama's staff
will use the Internet in other areas but
chose to begin with health care because
"every American is feeling the pressure of
high health costs and lack of quality care,
and we feel it's important to engage them
in the process of reform," transition team
spokesperson Stephanie Cutter said. The
online health care effort began with a 63second video posted on Change.gov, in
which health advisers Dora Hughes and
Lauren Aronson posed the question,
"What worries you most about the health
care system in our country?" The video
triggered 3,700 responses, which were
turned into a "word cloud," featuring the
100 most frequently used terms. The
cloud's largest words -- those that were
used most frequently -include "insurance,"
"system," "people" and
"need." The feature also
was interactive, allowing
participants to reply to
other users' comments
and rate responses. In a
second video, Daschle
said, "We want to make
sure you understand how
important those comments and your contributions are," adding, "Already we've
begun to follow through with some of the
ideas." In addition, Daschle lauded a suggestion of creating a "Health Corps,"
modeled after President John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps. Andrew Rasiej, cofounder of Personal Democracy Forum,
said, "It will be a lot easier to get the
American public to adopt any new health
care system if they were a part of the
process of crafting it" (Connolly, Washi n g t o n
P o s t ,
1 2 / 4 ) .
Obama's plan to allow the federal government to directly negotiate drug prices for
the Medicare prescription drug benefit has
left "drugmakers feeling ill," Dow Jones
reports. The 2003 legislation that created
the drug benefit allows health insurers to
negotiate prices with drugmakers. According to Dow Jones, "The industry views the
proposal as a frontal assault on sales and
profits." According to the Boston Consulting Group, such a change could reduce
industry revenue by 10%, or about $30
billion. According to Dow Jones, the
"indirect impact could be even greater"
because such a change could prompt private insurers that offer Part D plans to
attempt to negotiate similar prices in their
commercial plans.
Dow Jones reports
that such a change "could deal a big financial blow to companies such as Pfizer,
Merck and Wyeth, which are already
hard-pressed to sustain historical profit
growth rates because of generic competition and stumbles in their own efforts to
bring new drugs to market." According to
drugmakers, a decrease in revenue would
force them to reduce spending on research
and development. Billy Tauzin, president
and CEO of the Pharmaceutical and Research Manufacturers of America, said, "I
don't know if they want to declare war like
that when there's so much room to work
together and so much willingness to work
together." However, Tauzin acknowledged that Obama and Congress "could do
it -- they've got the votes." Dow Jones
reports that if such a change emerges as a
top priority for Obama, it could pass early
next year and take effect as early as 2010
(Loftus, Dow Jones, 12/2).
'Self-Embedding' a Troubling Trend Among Teen Girls
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 3 (HealthDay News) - Self-embedding, a disorder where people
wound themselves and then place objects in
the wound, is an increasing problem among
American teens, especially girls, researchers
say. Slated to report their findings Wednesday at the Radiological Society of North
America's annual meeting in Chicago, doctors said that ultrasound and other minimally invasive imaging techniques can help
guide the removal of these foreign objects
from the wounds. This is one of the firstever reports of self-embedding, the authors
said. Self-embedding disorder is typically
done without suicidal intent. Objects are
used to puncture the skin or are embedded
into the wound after cutting.
In the
study, interventional pediatric
radiologists used ultrasound
and/or fluoroscopic guidance to
remove 52 embedded foreign
objects from nine teenagers with
the disorder. The objects removed
included needles, staples, paper
clips, glass, wood, plastic, graphite (pencil lead), crayon and stone.
Ultrasound allowed the finding of
objects such as wood, crayons and plastic,
which are not normally detectable on Xrays. Small incisions in the skin were
made to remove the objects without fragmentation
or
complications.
"Radiologists are in a unique position to be the first to detect selfembedding disorder, make the
appropriate diagnosis, and mobilize the health-care system for
early and effective intervention
and treatment," principal investigator William E. Shiels II, chief of
the department of radiology at
Nationwide Children's Hospital in
Columbus, Ohio, said in a news release
issued by the conference organizer.
The Women’s Health Education Program
Women’s Health Education Program
Drexel University College of Medicine
2900 Queen Lane, Room 228
Philadelphia, PA 19129
Phone: 215-991-8450
Fax: 215-843-0253
http://www.drexel.edu/whep
Begun in 1993 as a vanguard innovative educational center to address holistic, contextual
comprehensive care to women and girls, the Women’s Health Program of Drexel University
College of Medicine is part of a nationally designated Center of Excellence in Women’s
Health. In addition to curricular efforts, community health outreach programming, and community participatory health services research, WHEP maintains an existing resource listing
that includes articles, books, videotapes, and journals, that address sex and gender medicine.
If you’re interested in more information, please see our resources on the WHEP website at
http://webcampus.drexelmed.edu/whep/index.html
If you’re looking for information about girls’ or women’s health topics; information about
health fairs or community activities or health education research; or just information about
our bulletin boards or how to get involved, please stop by and visit us at room 228 Queen
Lane, or call/email us anytime for more information.
Happiness Is Contagious—Social Networks Affect Mood, Study
Women’s Health
Seminar Series
Held Tuesday
Evenings,
5:30PM—7:00PM
SAC B,
Queen Lane Campus
and videoconferenced to the New
College Building
(refreshments are served
at both sites)
Open to anyone
interested in attending.
For more information, please visit
our office, call, or email.
By Salynn Boyles WebMD
Health News Reviewed by
Louise Chang, MD Dec. 4, 2008
New research from Harvard
Medical School and the University of California, San Diego
suggests that happiness is influenced not only by the people you
know, but by the people they
know. The study showed that
happiness spreads through social
networks, sort of like a virus,
meaning that your happiness
could influence the happiness of
someone you've never even met.
Sadness spreads too, but much
less efficiently, says study coauthor James H. Fowler, PhD, of
the University of California-San
Diego. "We have known for a
long time that there is a direct
relationship between one person's happiness and another's,"
Fowler tells WebMD. "But this
study shows that indirect relationships also affect happiness.
We found a statistical relationship not just between your happiness and your friends' happiness,
but between your happiness and
your friends' friends' friends'
happiness." Fowler and Harvard
social scientist Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, have been
studying social networks for
several years, using data from
the ongoing Framingham Heart
Study. Last year the pair made
headlines when they reported
that obesity seems to spread
through social groups, so that
your chances of becoming overweight are greater when your
friends and their friends gain
weight. A related study, published earlier this year, found
that smokers were more likely
to give up cigarettes when their
family, friends, and other social
contacts stopped smoking.
Their latest research, published
today online in the journal
BMJ, was designed to determine whether happiness
spreads through social networks in a similar way. The
researchers were able to recreate the social networks of 4,739
Framingham participants
whose happiness was measured
from 1983 to 2003. A standard
test for assessing happiness
was used, which included questions like "I felt hopeful about
the future," and "I was happy."
Important family changes for
each participant -- such as a
birth, death, marriage, or divorce -- were also recorded.
The participants were also
asked to name family members,
close friends, co-workers, and
neighbors. Because many of
these contacts were also study
participants, the researchers
were able to identify more than
50,000 social and family ties
and analyze the spread of happiness through the group. They
concluded that the happiness of
an immediate social contact
increased an individual's
chances of becoming happy by
15%, Fowler says. The happiness of a second-degree contact, such as the spouse of a
friend, increases the likeliness
of becoming happy by 10%,
and the happiness of a thirddegree contact -- or the friend
of a friend of a friend -- increases the likelihood of becoming happy by 6%. The
association was not seen in
fourth-degree contacts (the
friends of friends of friends of
friends). Having more friends
also increased happiness, but
having friends who were
happy was a much bigger
influence on happiness.
Fowler says the findings do
not mean you should avoid
unhappy people, but that you
should make an effort whenever you can to spread happiness. "We need to think of
happiness as a collective phenomenon," he says. "If I come
home in a bad mood, I may be
missing an opportunity to
make not just my wife and son
happy, but their friends."
Richard Suzman, PhD, who
directs the behavioral and
social research division of the
National Institutes of Health,
which funded the study, calls
the research "pioneering."
"These findings are very
strong," Suzman tells
WebMD. "From a public policy perspective, this research
means we need to consider the
societal impact on happiness,
or obesity, or smoking. We are
only just beginning to understand how social networks
influence these things for good
or for bad."