Health and Medicine

For years, residents living in the Bellevue section of Cheektowaga have wondered if something in their environment contributes to an increased incidence of disease in their neighborhood. University at Buffalo researchers, working with the New York State Department of Health, hope finally to be able to answer that question by year's end, but first they say they need more residents to fill out and return to them important 10-page surveys.

Preliminary results of a comprehensive program to prevent children from using alcohol or other drugs shows that a family-treatment approach emphasizing communication and skill-building may be effective in reducing the risk of children becoming substance abusers, according to researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work.

Like any emerging technology, nanophotonics -- the science behind light and matter interacting on the nanoscale -- is ripe for all kinds of claims ranging from the sublime to the far-fetched. So it is an opportune time for the publication of "Nanophotonics," the first book to comprehensively cover nanophotonics, both as a fundamental phenomenon and as the origin of technologies and devices that will impact fields ranging from information technology to drug delivery.

If you are over 50, a smoker or regularly consume alcohol, you could be a candidate for oral cancer, a disease that is treatable if caught early. On April 17, faculty and students in the University at Buffalo's School of Dental Medicine will offer free oral cancer screening at the dental school on the UB South (Main Street) Campus.

A novel rat behavioral model of tinnitus that will allow researchers to study this debilitating condition in a manner never before possible and to test potential treatments has been developed by researchers with the University at Buffalo's Center for Hearing & Deafness.

Reinforcing the relationship between periodontal disease and heart disease, oral biologists from the University at Buffalo have shown that levels of two inflammatory proteins known to raise the risk of heart disease can be reduced substantially by regularly treating existing gum infections.

In a study conducted in the University at Buffalo's Periodontal Research Center, researchers showed that giving smokers a supplement containing the antioxidant vitamins C and E and grape seed extract improved the response to treatment, shown by better gum attachment and improved oral health in general.

"Self-Googling" -- searching for your own name on the popular Google search engine -- may seem like an innocuous act of vanity, but a University at Buffalo communications professor recommends it as a shrewd form of "personal brand management" in the digital age.

"Brain exercises" originally developed for the rehabilitation of head-injury patients improve the cognitive functioning of individuals in substance-abuse treatment and their commitment to the treatment program, according to research conducted at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA).

Researchers at the University at Buffalo and the Mayo Clinic have shown that chronic sinusitis is an immune disorder caused by fungus, opening up a promising new avenue for treating this ubiquitous and debilitating condition, for which there is no FDA-approved therapy.