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Chronic inflammation in middle age may be associated with an increased risk for brain shrinkage and Alzheimer’s disease later in life. A new study, published in Neurology, looked at 1,633 people whose average age was 53 in 1987-89, measuring white blood cell count and various blood proteins that indicate inflammation. They followed the participants for 24 years. In 2011-13, when the subjects’ average age was 77, the scientists measured their brain volume using M.R.I. and tested their mental...

Everyone from medical professionals to strangers tell pregnant people what they should and shouldn’t be doing with their bodies. Throughout my two pregnancies, OB-GYNs, nurses, family, and friends often used phrases like “you can’t,” “you’re not allowed to,” and “we’ll let you” when discussing my body. Unfortunately, this is standard practice in U.S. medicine, which supports a disease-based, doctor-centered, patriarchal model of care (as opposed to patient-based care, which emphasizes...

I just had to cradle a bundle of books when my publisher showed me the first 1000 copies that arrived from the printer. A thousand copies of Healing My Life from Incest to Joy ! At this very moment the most important thing is they exist. Not if or when they’ll be purchased. Not who will get a copy or what they’ll think of it as they read it. What’s happening is I am telling. A thousand times over, I am telling. A lot of people already know that after every rape my father said, “You tell...

Resilience Leaders is a data leaders and quality improvement program focused on creating trauma-free and family-friendly communities. The program is based on the Data Leaders for Child Welfare program developed with the support of Casey Family Programs and currently implemented in NYC, Connecticut and NM. We are focused on preventing the root causes of childhood emotional trauma through a data-driven four-step process of continuous quality improvement (CQI): assessment, planning, action and...

For more than a decade I have interviewed more than 1,000 kids in 35 states. What of these kids who were sentenced to long sentences and JLWOP, life sentences without parole? These kids become adults who become geriatric. These are the people I have interviewed for the past year. These are their stories. There are more than 2,000 people — juveniles serving life without parole all over the country. These are some of their voices. These are their faces. This is a series by Richard Ross that...

The residents of southeastern Newport News, Virginia, have long complained about the "coal dust." They say the air is so thick with the stuff it will coat their porch furniture. Newport News and neighboring cities on the mouth of the James River ship Appalachian coal out to the rest of the world, and, every year, tens of millions of tons of coal rumble along on carts and tumble down conveyor belts in towns around the river. Meanwhile, a 2005 Virginia Department of Health study found that...

On Monday, October 31, former Trump aide Paul Manafort was charged with felony crimes of, among other things in his 12-count indictment , money laundering and conspiring against the U.S. A judge imposed a $10 million bond on Manafort, and $5 million for his alleged co-conspirator Richard Gates, to ensure that they would return for a court trial. Special counsel Robert Mueller told the judge that both were “serious” flight risks given their wealth and the high-level crimes they’re allegedly...

School suspensions and expulsions in California public schools have dropped dramatically among all racial and ethnic groups over the past five years but a significant gap remains for African-American students, according to new state data released Wednesday. In the 2016-17 school year, the suspension rate of African-American students in California public schools was 9.8 percent. Still, that rate was significantly lower than it was in 2011-12, when the rate for African-American students was...

The recent firestorm of allegations made by several female actors of unwanted sexual advances and rape seems to have exposed yet another powerful man, Harvey Weinstein, as an apparent sexual predator. Like that of his counterpart Anthony Weiner (and the alleged conduct of Bill Cosby), Weinstein’s alleged predation appears to have been fully calculated. Different than the garden-variety rapist who looks for opportunity in the moment, then lunges in an adrenaline high at his victim, such men...

Be optimistic. Think happy thoughts. Lots of happiness advice makes it sound as if we could flip a switch and fill our heads with puppies and rainbows—and wouldn’t that be great? But it turns out that positive thinking isn’t so easy. In an infamous 2014 study where people had 15 minutes to mentally entertain themselves, about 40 percent chose to help pass the time by—no, not meditating—receiving an electric shock. In fact, a recent study found that only 13 percent of people’s thoughts are...

A new study by Andrew Grogan-Kaylor and Shawna Lee, both U-M associate professors of social work, and colleagues indicates the violence caused by spanking can lead adults to feel depressed, attempt suicide, drink at moderate-to-heavy levels or use illegal drugs. "Placing spanking in a similar category to physical/emotional abuse experiences would increase our understanding of these adult mental health problems," Grogan-Kaylor said. Spanking is defined as using physical force with the...

In August, when the solar eclipse passed over South Boise Women's Correctional Center in Idaho, the officers held lunch early, handed out protective sunglasses, and invited the women outside to watch the sky. At the Cheshire Correctional Institution in Connecticut, a few prisoners and officers recently played cards together; the warden seemed a little stunned when describing the scene. John Wetzel, who runs the prison system in Pennsylvania, has noticed a shift in tone at annual gatherings...