Doctors trying to use psychology to boost the power of migraine medication have made a startling discovery about how attitude can affect pain. They found that people felt relief from placebos — sugar pills — even when they knew they were taking placebos. Rami Burstein, the John Hedley-Whyte Professor of Anaesthesia, and Ted Kaptchuk, professor of medicine, both of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, led the study.
Using bits of human intestine stored in a Philadelphia medical museum in 1849, scientists have decoded the genes of an early form of cholera, the deadly diarrheal disease that first swept the globe just a few decades earlier. John J. Mekalanos, chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at HMS, is quoted.
Many of us make New Year’s resolutions at the onset of each new year, but research shows that very few people who make these kinds of resolutions actually stick with them over the long term. Carol Kauffman, assistant clinical professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at McLean Hospital, offered some tips on how to best stick with New Year’s resolutions.
Like yoga, tai chi is a type of moving meditation – a gentle exercise that focuses on the breath and prioritizes ease of movement – that comes with a host of health benefits. And, like yoga, there are distinct styles and lineages of tai chi along with more modern and hybrid incarnations. Peter M. Wayne, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
Hospitals might be able to coax cafeteria customers to buy healthier food by adjusting item displays to have traffic light-style green, yellow and red labels based on their level of nutrition, new research suggests. Anne Thorndike, assistant professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the lead author of the study.
Using a smartphone, tablet or laptop at bedtime may be staving off sleep, according to HMS scientists, who have found specific wavelengths of light can suppress the slumber-inducing hormone melatonin in the brain. Charles A. Czeisler, the Frank Baldino, Jr., Ph.D. Professor of Sleep Medicine at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is quoted.
Kevin Hill, assistant professor of psychiatry at McLean Hospital, was a guest on NECN to discuss rules and regulations of medical marijuana in New England.
Fifty years later, smoking rates have been cut by about half, and a new study estimates that 8 million Americans have been saved from premature smoking-related deaths. Benjamin Cook, assistant professor of psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, is the lead author of a study cited in the article.
An American shipping magnate’s trust will announce on Monday one of the largest philanthropic gifts to support cancer research: more than half a billion dollars to be divided equally among six institutions, including Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joan Brugge, chair of the Department of Cell Biology at HMS, and George Demetri, professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, will codirect the Ludwig Center at Harvard. Matthew Vander Heiden, instructor in medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is also quoted.
