Chronic Disease

It's tempting to assume that another article on smoking's harms would be a non-story. But while smoking rates among African Americans are lower than national levels, this ethnic group continues to suffer disproportionately from chronic, preventable diseases caused by smoking.

Victims of childhood sexual abuse are far more likely to become obese adults. New research shows that early trauma is so damaging that it can disrupt a person’s entire psychology and metabolism.

A reporting project on the rising incidence of diabetes among Indian communities finds virtue in taking an explanatory approach. "Linking our cuisine to impactful statistics and studies, I hoped, would grab the reader’s attention," California Fellow Parimal Rohit writes.

Patients receiving blood transfusions are at risk of infection with Chagas disease, a tropical illness, according to an investigation by The Dallas Morning News and broadcast partner KXAS-TV.

These seven tropical diseases are closer to home than you think. Lurking in Dallas-area backyards is Chagas disease, caused by a parasite that infects more than 300,000 Americans. The disease can cause heart failure and death in humans and dogs and is often missed by doctors.

If she hadn’t gone to donate blood, Candace Stark wouldn’t have discovered that she harbored a dangerous parasite. Although she hadn’t left Texas in 20 years, swimming in her blood was a tropical parasite that causes a disease called Chagas.

Government decisions affect health, but we often don't realize it. Even stories that do examine how our environments shape health and wellbeing don’t always zero in on the specific policies contributing to those conditions. ChangeLab Solutions' Rebecca Johnson explains.

Just in time for Halloween, a frightful new study lends further support to the idea that calories from sugar are more likely to worsen metabolic health. This comes close on the heels of news reports that Mexico's 2013 tax on soft drinks has lowered soda sales there.

India-West’s examination of the impact of diabetes within the Indian population continues with a look at an attempt to legislate efforts to reduce sugar consumption, how one diabetic patient lived with the disease for nearly 25 years, and ways to manage the chronic condition.

The idea that childhood trauma and adversity can become embedded in the body and shape one's health decades later is not new. But a recent study throws the idea into stark relief: Even when psychological distress disappears by adulthood, the elevated risk of chronic disease remains.