The Delicate Balance, Part 2: Enduring Effect of Contaminates
Despite the fact that much clean-up has been done since the 1960s, the Great Lakes still contain fish that don't reach sexual maturity because of endocrine disrupting chemicals. A study of children whose mothers had eaten fish from the Great Lakes c...
Obesity and Genetics
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about the role of genetics in obesity. Dr. Hamer explains that, while the direct cause of obesity is eating too much, the tendency to overeat is, ...
Stressed to the Limit: Physiology of Stress, The
The field of psychoneuroimmunology seeks to understand the interaction between the immune system and the central nervous system. Most stress research is focused on the fight-fight reaction, and more recently threats to the social self. The autonomic...
The Becoming Years: Physical Development During Adolescence
Adolescence, roughly spanning the ages from 10 to 20, is a transitional time when children are becoming adults. It is a period marked by profound physical and psychological changes. One of the most important features of adolescence is the biological...
Endocrine System and the Environment (Part Two), The
Zoologist and World Wildlife Fund senior scientist Theo Colborn explains what the endocrine system does and why it's so critical. She then discusses concerns about the link between exposure to chemicals in the Great Lakes in the mid 20th century and...
Understanding Depression
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, explains that depression is an illness not a weakness, and that real, physical changes in brain neurochemistry or in hormones often, "...prevent the depressed patient from being themselves."