Menopause’s effects on the brain are often temporary, according to a new study. But there’s a caution for women at risk of Alzheimer’s.

Mean sleep duration increased in 2020 by 5 to 11 minutes in nearly all groups studied, according to an analysis of Fitbit data from more than 163,000 users in six major U.S. cities "particularly hard hit" by the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was also interesting to see that the degree of change in sleep was correlated with the degree of improvement in resting heart rate," said Michael Grandner, PhD, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program and associate professor at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

Frank A. von Hippel, a professor of environmental health sciences in the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, and Joe Schwarcz of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society, discuss the unknown environmental and health ramifications from harmful chemicals.

A $15.3 million grant will fund research to study Hispanic children’s susceptibility to asthma in Tucson, compared to Nogales, Sonora, where it is much less prevalent. “We have a very significant asthma epidemic in the United States, and many children who develop asthma can be burdened for a lifetime. My goal is to prevent asthma in children by building their immune system,” said Dr. Fernando Martinez, director of the UArizona Health Sciences Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center.

David Harris, professor of immunobiology and executive director of the UArizona Biorepository in the College of Medicine – Tucson, believes that stem cell clinics marketing unproven treatments could hurt researchers who are doing things the correct way. "If it appears that medical professionals are doing this just to make money, it will spur a lot of distrust, not only in the doctors, but also in in this field," said Harris.

New data presented at the annual SLEEP meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies suggests that individuals who used or abused opioids were significantly more likely to receive sedating medications than those who did not use opioids. “At least 9% of the individuals using an opioid had also used a sedating medication despite the increased risk for overdose death with combined use," said Andrew S. Tubbs, an MD/PhD student at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

The center focuses on research, outreach and education to fulfill its mission of protecting people against a deadly fungal disease native to the Southwest.

Briana Choi, a PhD student at the College of Pharmacy, discusses the cost evaluation of osimertinib use as an adjunctive maintenance therapy in surgically resected EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer. The findings were presented at the virtual 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Dr. John Galgiani, a professor of medicine in infectious diseases at the College of Medicine – Tucson and director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence, says this year Valley Fever is heading for the highest case count in the last ten years.

In an article for ABC News, Dr. Onyema Okolo, an oncologist and hematologist from the University of Arizona Cancer Center, discusses how and why the Covid-19 vaccines are working against variants. Dr. Okolo is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.