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Privacy, Practicality, and Potential: The Use of Technology for Healthy Aging
That wearable fitness device on your wrist is measuring so much more than your exercise levels. Digital tools offer unprecedented opportunities in health research and healthcare but it can come at the cost of privacy. Six days of step counts are enough to identify you among a million other people – and the type of […]
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Medicine of the Future
UCSF has a long history of pioneering biomedical research and a bold vision for advancing science and seeking new ways to improve health care delivery nationwide. But, what does that actually mean in the near future and beyond? This new series, part of the popular Mini Medical School for the Public, takes you inside the […]
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Wisdom Combats Loneliness
Loneliness and social isolation have become silent killers and studies have shown that they’re as dangerous to our health as smoking and obesity. But what can be done? “Behavioral epidemics need behavioral medicines,” says Dilip Jeste, MD, a geriatric neuropsychiatrist who specializes in successful aging. Jeste suggests harnessing wisdom as a vaccine – a trait […]
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E-Cigarettes: What We Know, What We Need to Learn
In 2014 with vaping newly on the rise, Dr. Laura Crotty Alexander joined us to talk about the potential health risks. Five years later, we revisit the topic to see how the research is bearing out how e-cigarettes and their usage has evolved. Dr. Alexander shares a physician’s view of the specific dangers of vaping. […]
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Imaging Studies: A Revealing Look
Research imaging studies are crucial to finding effective treatments and therapies. Protocols are in place to protect both the study participant and the science, but what if the images reveal a previously unknown condition? Or a false positive or negative? Unraveling this question is more than a simple task and the consequences can range from […]
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Unlocking the Mysteries of the Brain Through Stem Cell Research
Inside a lab at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, researchers are doing something truly remarkable. They are growing tiny versions of developing human brains in order to study everything from Alzheimer’s disease to the Zika virus. Alysson Muotri is the co-director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program and leads the team researching […]
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Bone Health: Beyond Supplements
“This is what I learned when I thought I knew everything already about healthy eating and living,” says Vicky Newman, MS, RDN. Her informative talk goes beyond the basics of calcium intake for bone health to highlight the importance of a healthy diet combined with physical activity. Learn about the exercises that increase weight bearing […]
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Spotting the Warning Signs of Kawasaki Disease
It is one of the most common causes of acquired heart disease in pediatrics, yet very little is known about Kawasaki Disease. It was discovered by Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki in Japan in the 1960s. It has since been documented around the world, including a spike in cases in San Diego earlier this year. Yet, the […]
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How a Year in Space Affects the Human Body
Science fiction has long promised an age of interplanetary human existence. Scenes of spaceships hopping from one galaxy to the next are so common, it seems almost inevitable that future generations will one day vacation on Mars. But, if we are ever going to achieve life on other planets, we first have to figure out […]
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From “Never Medicine” to Acclaimed Physician-scientist
When he was a young man, Dan Lowenstein used to proclaim that he would never be a doctor. Fast-forward to today and he is not only an accomplished physician-scientist in the area of epilepsy, an award-winning medical educator, and an innovative and forward-thinking leader but he is also UCSF’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost. As […]