Scleroderma : Risk Factors

Learning how to express anger assertively and constructively can improve your personal interaction and your health.

Women experience symptoms of stress 30 percent more often than men, research has shown.

Whether you’ve already gained a few extra pounds or have yet to reach perimenopause, here are strategies to help you maintain a healthy weight in midlife and beyond.

Pregnant women with asthma are just as likely to have healthy, normal babies as women without asthma -- as long as their disease is kept under control.

As a woman, your body is much more sensitive to the effects of alcohol and more easily damaged than a man’s body. Because women have less water in their body than men, alcohol doesn't dilute as much and more of it gets absorbed into the blood. That’s why women suffer greater physical damage and often become more intoxicated than men when they drink identical amounts of alcohol.

Personality changes in adults are most likely to happen during the earlier adult years, up to around age 40.

A survey of women who had recently been diagnosed with depression found that at least half of them had opted for an alternative form of treatment, such as massage or yoga, in addition to conventional forms of treatment such as medication and therapy.

A Harvard Medical School physician answers your question about women's loss of interest in sex after menopause.

Can vaginoplasty assist with bladder incontinence and sexual satisfaction for a 33-year-old woman with three children?

Women with advanced ovarian cancer may benefit from a treatment that sends anticancer drugs directly into the abdomen.

I'm a healthy 65-year-old woman and just had my first bone density test. How often do I need to have it repeated?

A new technology called oscillating plate therapy may increase bone muscle mass in humans via barely perceptible vibrations.

Women with a higher body mass index, even those with a normal BMI who are not in the overweight portion of the scale, face an increased risk of gastroesophogeal reflux disease (GERD).

This year I've had four urinary tract infections. Each cleared up with antibiotic treatment. Now, my doctor is prescribing a prophylactic antibiotic, Bactrim 400/80, that I'm supposed to take every day. Are there long-term risks in this?

A correction to the November 2005 Women's Health Watch.Correction Our article about the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (“New trial to test hormone therapy in younger women,” HWHW, November 2005) should have included Salt Lake City in the list of locations of participating centers (the others are Boston; New Haven; New York; Rochester, Minn.; San Francisco; and Seattle). To learn more about the trial, call 866-878-1221 toll free) or visit www.keepstudy.org on the Web.

Can a tubal banding be reversed? Joan Bengtson, M.D., is assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproduction at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

How is mammography done after a breast augmentation? Joan Bengtson, M.D., is assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproduction at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

I am currently dating someone with HIV. He and I have never been sexually active, but are considering marriage. My question is in regards to sperm washing to possibly have children. How effective is this procedure? Is it done often, and does it work?

How long do I have to wait after a diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease to have sexual intercourse?

If a Pap smear result came back with "high risk HPV," what does that mean?

I'm 51 and in menopause. What degree of protection from ovarian cancer would a prophylactic oophorectomy provide? My mother contracted ovarian cancer at 62, already in stage IIIc, and died one year later. Is there still a risk of developing ovarian cancer?

Research into the long-term effects of hormone therapy found that women who were more physically active were less likely to suffer cognitive decline than those who exercised less often.

A brief look at state-by-state rankings in health-related categories, with a link to the government report.

A study found that women who had off-pump bypass surgery had much lower rates of heart attack, stroke, or death during the operation or shortly after, more so than for men.

Two studies evaluate supportive underwear meant to ease pain and speed recovery after bypass surgery.

Older women are less likely to exercise. A supplement containing bitter orange caused chest pain. A healthy heart may help protect mental health as well.

Researchers found that women who did not express their feelings during marital arguments were at higher risk of dying prematurely.

Alternate terms: Black English; African American Vernacular English. The form of English spoken by many black Americans, especially those living in urban, inner-city neighborhoods. Ebonics (derived from "ebony" and "phonics") gained nationwide attention at the end of 1996, when the Oakland, California, school board passed a controversial resolution recognizing it as a separate language distinct from standard English. The school board's action, taken in response to declining academic performance by the district's black students, was aimed at improving the quality of teaching by offering special workshops to ensure that teachers understood Ebonics and respected its African linguistic roots. There was also speculation that by classifying its black students as speakers of a second language, Oakland might qualify to receive Federal funds for bilingual education programs, such as those offered to Hispanic and Asian students. However, the United States Department of Education has continued to maintain that Ebonics is a dialect of English rather than a distinct language. Linguists have traced the grammar and syntax patterns of black English to West African and Niger-Congo languages. Distinctive elements of black speech include the use of "to be" in place of "is" and "are" ("He be home today.") or its omission altogether ("He not coming."). The "s" is commonly omitted from third-person singular verbs ("He play football every day.") and may be dropped from other words as well ("Sometime he be too busy."). It can also be added to words where it would not appear in standard English ("That candy mines."). A final "th" in a word is often replaced by an "f' sound ("I going wif you."). Other features include the double subject ("My sister she went to the store.") and the pronunciation of "ask" as "ax." The formal recognition of Ebonics by the Oakland school board ignited a nationwide controversy involving issues of education and race. Some African Americans considered the Oakland measure a gesture of respect toward their cultural and linguistic heritage; others were offended by the perceived implication that blacks were incapable of speaking their native language without special assistance. Still other critics held that the recognition accorded to Ebonics would further disenfranchise blacks by endorsing their linguistic isolation from mainstream white culture.

The use of the taxonomic category African American, either in public or health or other disciplines, fundamentally reflects the historic and contemporary systems of racial stratification in American society. The term "African American," as a categorical descriptor, includes many different segments of the American population referred to as "black" or Americans of sub-Saharan African ancestry. It is also a product of the group self-definition process in which African Americans have historically engaged as an expression of identity, power, defiance, pride, and the struggle for human rights. These designations were often in contradistinction to official government classifications and popular characterizations, which frequently reflected prevailing ideas about white supremacy intended to denigrate African Americans. The historical roots of the nominal identity of African Americans date back to the early nineteenth century, when there were intense debates and political movements, mostly among free blacks in the North, to reunite with their African heritage. Part of the discussion and designation also involved classification of "mixed-race" populations, whose identity raised serious questions about the relevance of racial classification based on pigmentation. According to Collier-Thomas and Turner, From the 1830s to the middle of the 1890s, Colored American and the more commonly used derivation Colored were the most popular terms. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Negro gained considerable support as a generic term, becoming by 1920 the most commonly used expression of race. Increasing dissatisfaction with the term Negro, most noted in the late 1930s, culminated with the Black power movement of the 1960s. During the latter period of heightened cultural nationalism, "Black" and "Afro-American" emerged as key terms for race designation and were frequently used interchangeably. More recently, in the late 1980s, "African American" was posited as the most appropriate and comprehensive race designation. This current designation not only reflects a historical lineage, but it also establishes an identity that is rooted in cultural and ethnogeographic origins, rather than skin pigmentation as defined by United States politics and policy. One reason for the attention African Americans have given to group designations is that group classifications by the white majority were highly instrumental in attempting to justify slavery, deny basic human rights, and restrain social opportunities. These oppressive practices had the effect of subordinating African Americans. Richard B. Moore in a book entitled The Name "Negro": Its Origin and Evil Use described how the skin color and other physical features of Africans who were brought into slavery "were identified in the mind of the people generally with ugliness, repulsion, and baseness." During earlier periods of the twentieth century, white media, publishers, and the scientific community largely refused to capitalize group designations such as Black, Colored, Negro, or African. This practice was in clear contrast to references in print to whites or the Caucasian "race." Moreover, scientific research and theories about so-called racial group differences (e.g., eugenics) were highly influential in promoting white supremacy. Public health and medicine have historically reflected the racial inequities of American society as manifested in discrimination in medical care, research ethics and applications, professional education, and ideas about the disease etiology. Physicians in the antebellum period gave different treatment to blacks because of the belief that the black physiology was inferior to whites and thus differed with regard to intelligence, sexuality, and sensitivity to pain. These racist beliefs in the subhuman qualities of the "Black race" were responsible for blacks being used as subjects in excruciating medical experiments. For example, between 1845 and 1849, Dr. J. Marion Sims, the fat

When Christopher Columbus dropped anchor on the shores of San Salvador in the Caribbean Sea, he believed he reached India. Because he believed he was in India, Columbus named the inhabitants Indians, a term that was soon used to refer to all the native inhabitants of North America. Today, the term Native American is more commonly used.