Health and Medicine

Approximately 200,000 of the 38 million people in the U.S. who take statins to treat high cholesterol may develop life-threatening muscle disease. Currently there is no comprehensive way to identify those who may be at risk for this debilitating condition, but new research by University at Buffalo scientists may correct that situation.

Taking children to the dentist is important to their overall health, but for many families in Western New York, dental care is an unaffordable luxury. From Oct. 6-11, however, seeing a dentist will be free or cost little, thanks to 35 dentists in communities throughout Western New Work and at the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine.

Policing is dangerous work, and the danger lurks not on the streets alone. The pressures of law enforcement put officers at risk for high blood pressure, insomnia, increased levels of destructive stress hormones, heart problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide, University at Buffalo researchers have found through a decade of studies of police officers.

The University at Buffalo announced today the establishment of a Department of Biomedical Engineering that will focus on development of groundbreaking medical devices and therapies addressing society's most pressing health problems, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.

Pesticide exposure, particularly in children, is a serious health problem in many parts of the world, including the U.S. James Olson, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, is leading research studies on exposure to pesticides, the potential for adverse effects associated with exposures in certain populations and genetic susceptibility to the pesticides.

Shira Gabriel, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo, says "parasocial relationships" -- one-sided associations in which a party knows a great deal about someone who knows nothing about them -- can have self-enhancing benefits for people with low-self esteem, benefits they do not receive in real relationships.

"The modern city and the modern woman invented each other," says architectural historian Despina Stratigakos, a fact she says is clearly demonstrated in Berlin, a city that women began to claim as their own in bold and dramatic ways at the turn of the 20th century.

The University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) will present a fall seminar series on addictions-related topics featuring national experts beginning in September.

Young men with type 2 diabetes have significantly low levels of testosterone, endocrinologists at the University at Buffalo have found -- a condition that could have a critical effect on their quality of life and on their ability to father children.

The University at Buffalo School of Social Work this fall will expand a multi-year prestigious national grant program designed to transform how graduate social work students learn how to serve older adults.