In a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the USC President’s Sustainability Research Initiative, researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC explored whether drinking water, food access and industrial pollution were linked to differences in blood levels of PFAS among 446 Southern California residents. It is one of the first studies to analyze PFAS in relation to certain neighborhood factors, including food access and proximity to Superfund sites—areas designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as contaminated with toxic substances. 

Several factors were associated with higher levels of PFAS in the blood. These include living in a neighborhood with low food access, living in a water district with PFAS contamination, and living within a three-mile radius of a PFAS-polluting facility or Superfund site. The results were just published in the journal Environmental Research.

Researchers from Indiana University Indianapolis, Regenstrief Institute and the IU School of Medicine’s Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center – led by Babar Khan, M.D., M.S., Sophia Wang, M.D., and Jesse Stewart, PhD, – have been notified of funding from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA) to explore the potential of  internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy to improve cognitive health in older intensive care unit (ICU) survivors struggling with depression.

Scientists have discovered how long-term treatment of high blood pressure with commonly prescribed drugs can destroy the kidney’s ability to filter and purify blood. The finding could open the door to better ways to manage high blood pressure and other vascular diseases.