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Welcome to Frontiers!
Frontiers Magazine: WU Review of Health is a publication that strives to make transdisciplinary aspects of health and medicine more…
A Little Birdie Told Me You’re Sick: An Analysis of Social Media Syndromic Surveillance
Social media platforms have become ubiquitous since their conception in the digital age. Originally, the platforms existed as social networking sites, for individuals to connect with others rather than dyadic communication as they are commonly used for now (1). These outlets have developed opportunities for individuals to publicly and digitally share self-produced content despite their…
Does Evolutionary Medicine Have a Place in Medical Schools?
An alarmingly small fraction of physicians are familiar with the concepts of evolutionary medicine. Why? Because evolutionary medicine is rarely included, especially in the form of full courses treating the topic as a basic science, in medical schools. Nearly half, 48%, of North American medical school curriculum deans stated that they “anticipated igniting controversy at…
Movement Therapy: Opening Doors to Creative Recoveries
What if I told you that your patient’s treatment could involve no drugs or hospital visits at all? Dance movement therapy (DMT) is officially defined as the “psychotherapeutic use of movement and dance to support intellectual, emotional, and motor functions of the body” by Psychology Today. In other words, it is a means to engage…
Do You Have a Food Allergy or Just an Intolerance?
For an increasing number of Americans, allergies are becoming an everyday part of life. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), food allergy rates among minors (0-17 years old) have been steadily rising since 1997 (1), and nearly 20% of adults self-reported food allergies. Recent studies, however, allege that this rate may be greatly…
Promises from an Almost Extinct Tree
Throughout history, many advancements in various types of medical drugs have originated from plants. Aspirin, commonly used as a pain reliever, was derived from salicin, a compound in the bark of white willow trees (1). Use of these willow barks dates back to 400 BC, “when people were advised to chew on the bark to…
Sickly Sweets
The first artificial sweetener, saccharin, was discovered in 1897 when coal tar derivative researcher Dr. Constantine Fahlberg quite literally brought his work home with him. After a day in the lab, he sat down to dinner and bit into an unusually sweet piece of bread. He realized the chemical that caused the sweetness had been…
Greater Wealth, Greater Health: The Challenges Society and St. Louis Face
Those who live in the United States are told that they are lucky because of the multitude of opportunities and freedoms offered to them. The US is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but despite this abundance of wealth, the nation falls short in terms of health. Even with one of the best…
A Changing Game: How the NFL’s New Rules Have Affected Concussions, Traumatic Brain Injuries, and the Future of Contact Sports
As a loyal Kansas City Chiefs fan for the last decade, I have lived through forgettable season followed by forgettable season. I remember watching the Indianapolis Colts erase a 28-point deficit in the second half to defeat the Chiefs in the Wildcard Game in 2014. One could imagine how excited I was about this season…
Marijuana Legalization: Half-Baked?
In 1996, marijuana was illegal everywhere in America. Now, just over twenty years later, cannabis has become a normalized substance: 33 states have legalized the drug in some form, ten states have legalized it for recreational use, and a majority of Americans now support legal pot. The effort to reverse the ban on weed has…
I’m Invisible: Sexual Assaults and Social Barriers
“What effect has this event had on you?” The woman sits next to her attorney and stares back blankly at the prosecutor in front of her. Her head swirls as hundreds of people stare down at her, waiting for her to answer. Millions more across the nation watch on their TVs at home as the…