Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Unlocking The Mysteries Of Weed And Mexico, Eddy Martinez

Capstones

An American biotech firm named Phylos Bioscience is interested in entering the Mexican marijuana market once it legalizes. Before it can do that, it must deal with the Mexican government and a conservative society.

https://eddymartinezcunyedu.atavist.com/figuring-out-the-mysteries-of-weed-and-mexico

Addicted To The Answer, Charumathi Raman

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Hypochondria, which is now broadly known as health anxiety, is the fear of a serious illness that continues despite evidence to the contrary from laboratory tests and the reassurance of physicians. In the past people with this disorder would go from doctor to doctor seeking an answer, but now many people rely solely upon online information.

For people with health anxiety, the Internet provides a lot of fodder. Researchers have recently coined the term "cyberchondria" to describe the phenomenon of increased health anxiety due to online health searches.

Entering questions like “Who started World War Two?” or “Who was the …

Surviving A Death Sentence, Amy K. Mackinnon

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Diagnosed with HIV at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, Sean McKenna had planned to die. Now, decades after life-saving drugs were first released, he and other long-term survivors are still figuring out how to live.
https://amykmackinnon.wordpress.com/capstone/

Women Are Being Cut During Childbirth Without Need Or Consent, Molly Cora Enking

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An episiotomy, a surgical cut used to enlarge the vaginal opening during childbirth, can be extremely painful, hard to recover from and can increase the risk of severe complications. In 2018, episiotomies are rarely necessary, but at some U.S. hospitals they happen much more than they should. And in the course reporting this story, New York City News Service found that it is common for doctors to cut women without the mother’s consent.

https://medium.com/@mollyenking/women-are-being-cut-during-childbirth-without-need-or-consent-7677de7eddae

Burden Of Proof: Insurance Companies Are Refusing To Pay For Mental Healthcare And Regulators Are Letting Them. Patients Are Left To Fend For Themselves., Graison Dangor

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When their mental health claims are denied, patients who are supposed to be protected by state and federal law have a choice: Don’t get care or pay for the care themselves, then fight to get paid back.

Link to capstone: https://graisondangor.github.io/mental-healthcare-equality/

The Invisible Brain Injury Crisis, Michael E. Rosenthal

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According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2013 data, over 282,000 hospitalizations and 2.5 million emergency department visits were at least in part attributable to TBI. In the same year, about 56,000 people died.

Emergency departments in 2012 treated about 329,290 kids under 20 for TBI following an injury taking place during physical activity.

This project explores the rise in traumatic brain injuries and examines the difficult path that some of the survivors have to go through during recovery. By telling the story through my own personal experiences, I guide the reader through what the initial trauma and …

The Art Of Fortune-Taking, Allison Weintraub

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People suffering grief or emotional distress turn to many places for comfort, which can make them a target of psychic scam artists. Stigma about falling for scams might prevent victims from seeking help. https://medium.com/@allison.weintraub/the-art-of-fortune-taking-5cdedb6718d0

The New World Of Pet Prosthetics, Anna Brooks

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When an abandoned dog was found in Brooklyn with his paw gnawed off, the animal shelter had two options: amputate the leg, or put the dog down. But neither seemed like a solution. So they decided to do something different, and fit the dog for a prosthetic leg. Prosthetics for people have been around for millennia, and now these devices are moving into the animal kingdom. This story explores the new world of animal prosthetics, and how these devices have changed the lives of animals like Mr. Stubbs — the first alligator with a prosthetic tail — and saved the …

A Modern-Day Affliction: Did Wifi Make Joel Dean Sick?, Dominic Mckenzie

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Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity is one of many disorders that exist in a strange border zone between recognized syndromes and discredited ones. One young man, a computer engineer by trade, had his life turned upside down by the disorder that has doctors and scientists across the world confused on how to treat it. Here's his story:

https://medium.com/@dominic.mckenzie/capstone-1dd7ff866a29

Cannabis Caught Between Smoke And Mirrors, Laura M. Olivieri Robles

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Cannabis legalization advances across the country and social attitudes are changing. Public health experts see parallels with the tobacco industry-- and are concerned about kids exposed to cannabis advertisement.

Island Of Harm Reduction, Trevor T. Boyer

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New York City's Rikers Island has a medically assisted treatment (MAT) program for detainees who are addicted to opioids, providing buprenorphine or methadone. For many locked up there, though, Rikers is only a way station before a trip upstate to prison. Even now, over 30 years after its treatment program began, only six other correctional facilities in New York offer pilot opioid treatment programs, which are available only to limited segments of their respective populations.

So for those taking medication in the form or methadone or buprenorphine on Rikers Island pretrial and awaiting sentencing, they're tapered off their doses to …

Sleep Paralysis: Dreams, Demons And Rem-Atonia, Joshua G. Christensen

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Have you ever woken up from a dream only to find you can’t move? You’re paralyzed and, sometimes, you are even having vivid hallucinations. It’s terrifying, but harmless and very common. Regardless of it being so innocuous, Sleep Paralysis has inspired fear for centuries and many still believe it to be a supernatural phenomenon. This is, most likely, because most people who get Sleep Paralysis, don’t really know what it is. People just like me.

https://medium.com/@joshua.christensen/sleep-paralysis-dreams-demons-and-rem-atonia-27f46c2748cf

Art That Heals, Christina Cardona

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Beryl Brenner was a creative arts therapist for 40 years, and helped veterans heal from war traumas through art all across the city. For the past 11 years, she was at the Brooklyn Campus of the VA NY Harbor Healthcare system in Bay Ridge, where she developed the art therapy program. https://christinacardona1.wordpress.com

Climate Grief Hits The Self-Care Generation, Avichai Scher

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As the effects of climate change intensify, emotional anguish over the future of the planet is emerging. This piece looks at a 10-step program to deal with climate grief "Good Grief."

At Uplift Climate, a conference on climate change for people under 30 held annually, the creators of Good Grief presented their program. The conference focused on climate justice for Native Americans, who have been dealing with climate grief for a long time.

The setting highlighted the class divide of who is affected by climate change. The effects of climate change are now so strong, that climate grief is hitting …

Transgressed Bodies, Estephani Cano Martinez

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In 2005, desperate to feminize her figure, Paola Gil, a 43-year-old trans woman from Guatemala, decided to get silicone injections in her hips for $1,000. Two hours after the illegal procedure, she started vomiting and defecating blood. She ended up in a coma in the hospital for a month.

The medical record shows that Paola received a silicone injection mixed with mineral and castor oil. She still suffers serious consequences, including difficulty walking, kidney and liver failure, and depression, after seeing her body disfigured.

Because of discrimination, lack of economic resources, and misinformation, many trans women like Paola see liquid …

Dios, Drogas, Dinero: ¿QuiéN Gana Con El Traslado De Adictos De Puerto Rico A Ee.Uu.?, Claudia E. Irizarry Aponte, Eliana Y. Perez

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For the last 25 years, evangelical leaders have been shipping off opioid addicts in Puerto Rico to cities in the mainland US, mainly New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia--under the promise they’ll receive state-of-the-art rehabilitation treatment, only to end up in unregulated transitional homes and flophouses where they don’t receive proper medical care or psychotherapy. In turn, many of these unregulated transitional homes, also run by evangelical leaders, may charge Medicaid kickbacks from their “patients.”

While this so-called “air bridge” from Puerto Rico to the U.S. goes back decades, it gained momentum from 2005 to 2014, when evangelical leaders joined …