Health

Over the past decades, Brazil has become the world’s leading soybean producer, as well as the leading consumer of pesticides. Despite concerns about potential public health consequences, little is known about the effects of pesticide exposure in the general population.

URBANA, Ill. – Family mealtimes are important for parents and children as a space to communicate, socialize, and build attachment relationships. But it can be difficult for busy parents to balance family and work life. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how parents’ job stress influences their attendance at family mealtimes, and in turn, children’s socioemotional development.

URBANA, Ill. – Educational programs that promote mental and physical health can help young people – particularly in environments of chronic stress and trauma exposure – learn healthy coping strategies, avoid risky behaviors, and succeed in school. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign shows that a school-based mindfulness program is beneficial for Black high school students in urban communities.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — New research found the most common form of breast cancer presents differing metabolic signatures in the blood of African American women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer compared with non-Hispanic white women. The scientists also identified a protein – negative elongation factor complex E – that was linked with higher mortality rates among African American women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. 

URBANA, Ill. — When we eat sugar, a portion of it is stored as glycogen in our liver and muscles, where it can be quickly metabolized to glucose for bursts of energy. But the uterus also stores the molecule, a long-known but scientifically overlooked observation University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers hope to exploit to solve perplexing questions related to infertility and pregnancy failure.

URBANA, Ill. — Last week’s classification of BA.2.86 as a COVID "variant under monitoring" by the World Health Organization raises many epidemiological and public health questions. Among the unknowns is how the virus evolved to acquire 36 to 38 mutations on its spike protein, relative to other circulating variants.

URBANA, Ill. — Like every industry, modern farming relies heavily on plastics. Think plastic mulch lining vegetable beds, PVC pipes draining water from fields, polyethylene covering high tunnels, and plastic seed, fertilizer, and herbicide packaging, to name a few. In a new review article, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers say these plastics are now widely dispersed in agricultural soils in the form of microplastics and nanoplastics. 

URBANA, Ill.  – Producers of infant formula employ comprehensive food safety systems, including product testing to ensure those systems are working. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign finds that some testing methods are more powerful at catching contaminants than others.

URBANA, Ill. – Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world and access to health care is limited for many people. Childhood vaccinations are a crucial component of preventative care, but vaccination rates remain below the World Health Organization’s goal of reaching 95% of children.

URBANA, Ill. – Common beans are important food sources with high nutritional content. Bean seeds also contain phenolic compounds, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that promote health. A study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and CIATEJ in Guadalajara, Mexico, explored the composition of seed coat extracts from black and pinto bean varieties unique to the Chiapas region of Southern Mexico.