In The News: Department of Social and Behavioral Health

IndicaNews

Every year the United States reverts its time by one hour in Fall and forward in Spring. This year daylight saving time (DST) ends on November 3, 2024. This shift hurts health in several ways. The impact is more pronounced in Spring and Fall is somewhat less troublesome. However, both time adjustments are problematic.

The World

More than a dozen researchers collaborated on a report for Lancet that deems gambling as a public health threat on the same level as alcohol and tobacco. Manoj Sharma is a professor of social and behavioral health at UNLV who worked on the Lancet’s commission and explains the findings. He speaks with host Carolyn Beeler.

Indica News

A recent report by The Lancet Public Health Commission has brought to the forefront the growing debate on the epidemic of gambling worldwide. The Report estimated that 46.2% of adults and 17.9% of adolescents had engaged in gambling of some sort in the previous year at the global level.

Indica News

Diabesity is a term used to describe the blending of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The adverse health effects of these two conditions have commonalities. The term was first coined by Sims and colleagues in the 1970s, to highlight the close connection between type 2 diabetes and obesity. This condition is also referred to as obesity-dependent diabetes.

India Currents

How does one overcome a drug addiction? Dr. Manoj Sharma explains the impact of drug dependency and how to tackle it.

New India Abroad

Drowsy driving among college students and young drivers in America is a public health challenge that critically impacts road safety drives with the rising number of accidents involving the youth and new drivers, according to a new study published by the public health experts of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

India Currents

Ranjan* a 55-year-old first-generation immigrant to the United States lives in Texas. Last year, his wife, Usha* (54) was injured in an automobile accident that damaged her spine causing paraplegia. Even after rehabilitation Usha is still unable to use her lower limbs and is wheelchair-bound. She is dependent on Ranjan for her daily living activities. The couple do not have any children.

Indica News

Recent news reports point to the rising cases of whooping cough or pertussis in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pertussis cases were lower than usual during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, as of week 39, reported on September 28, 2024, more than five times as many cases have been reported, compared to the same time in 2023. Several states have issued warnings about this trend on their websites. This summer, there was a pertussis outbreak among college students in the Lynchburg area of Virginia.

MedicalBrief

American scientists have suggested that people identifying as a sexual or gender minority (LGBTQ+) have a higher likelihood of adverse brain health outcomes, according to cross-sectional data.

MedPage Today

People who identified as a sexual or gender minority (LGBTQ+) had a higher likelihood of adverse brain health outcomes, cross-sectional data showed.

Indica News

A recent news story in the media claimed that frequent coffee drinkers may be risking their hearts. Is that true? Is caffeine, the active ingredient in coffee, injurious to health? What is the current evidence regarding caffeine on health? We examine some of these questions closely.

The Daily Guardian

In Eastern philosophy, all entities in nature, including human beings, are made of three qualities or gunas: rajas (passion, activity, change, creation), sattva (goodness, harmony, purity, preservation), and tamas (darkness, chaos, inertia, destruction). In an apple tree, there are three kinds of fruits that denote these three gunas: there are ripening fruits (rajas), there are ripe fruits (sattva) and there are overripe fruits (tamas). In human beings, also there are people full of passion and energy (domination of rajas), people in harmony and purity (domination of sattva) and people who are lazy and full of inertia (domination of tamas).