In the News

Are COVID Nasal Vaccines on the Way? – Health Central

Read article – Peter Wright, a professor of pediatrics and an infectious disease physician, is featured in an article about the development of a COVID-19 nasal spray vaccine. “The injected mRNA vaccines have been incredibly valuable in preventing serious illness and death, but they haven’t been able to stop transmission,” Wright said. “The inhaled COVID vaccines in development could finally impact that, because they stop the virus from growing in the nasal cavity.”

Statins and Diabetes: Everything You Need to Know – Diabetes Strong

Read article – Alexander Reeves, a professor emeritus of neurology, is featured in an article about the proposed benefits and side effects of statins, a class of cholesterol-lowering medications often prescribed to diabetics to lower their risk of various cardiovascular events. “Other past research, with 150,000 female participants, revealed a 71% increased risk of diabetes,” Reeves said.

Gun Safety Is Public Health, Not Politics – New Hampshire Bulletin

Read article – Dartmouth Health CEO and President Joanne Conroy ’77 and Keith J. Loud, chair and associate professor of pediatrics, co-author an opinion piece about gun violence as a public health issue. “One way to address gun violence as a public health crisis is to share information with responsible gun owners about how to store firearms safely: locked up and with the ammunition locked and stored separately, which research shows can reduce firearm injury and death,” Conroy and Loud write.

Why NH Provides Free Private Well Testing for Pregnant WIC Participants – New Hampshire Bulletin

Read article – Caitlin Howe, an assistant professor of epidemiology, is featured in an article about well water testing to combat the dangers of exposure to toxic heavy metals during pregnancy. “Arsenic is a major concern,” Howe said. “It’s a known carcinogen. There have been studies linking it to higher blood pressure, gestational diabetes, adverse birth outcomes, reduced lung functions.”

Mammograms Show Promise as Tool for Predicting Heart Disease and Stroke in Women – American Heart Association News

Read article – Thara Ali, an instructor in medicine, is featured in an article about the potential benefits of routine mammograms beyond detecting breast cancer. “We know we need to find better ways to predict heart disease in women before it happens,” Ali said. “We’re saying these patients can be risk-stratified with routine mammograms they get every one to two years anyway. This is a pretty simple way the average cardiologist can find out if a woman is at risk.”

A First-of-Its-Kind Substance Use Disorder Screening Tool Is Piloted at New Hampshire Hospital – New Hampshire Bulletin

Read article – Corneliu Stanciu, an assistant professor of psychiatry, is featured in an article about a data-driven substance use disorder screening algorithm for patients with severe mental illness. “When one is in an acute psychiatric crisis, they’re not always able to accurately and even at all provide the input,” Stanciu said. “They may be so disorganized that we’re not able to have these types of conversations early on in their admission. We’re missing that window of opportunity to intervene right away.”