The Pill cuts heart disease and cancer

The US Women\'s Health Initiative, which studied 162,000 women, found those who had taken the oral contraceptive had a lower chance of heart problems. Dr Michael Diamond of Wayne State, said: \"We\'re still learning more and more about the biology of the pill. The type of hormones and the stage of life when they are used may be what makes the contraceptive helpful at one point and harmful at another.\"

October 22, 2004

Oral Contraceptive Use Linked To Reduced Risk of Endometrial, Other Cancers

Dr. Rahi Victory of Wayne State, reported that a history of oral contraceptive use reduced risk of any cancer. After controlling for covariates, Dr. Victory reported that risk reduction remained for endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer while risk of breast and bladder cancer was unaffected. The major differences in cancer risk probably have to do with the receptivity of the various tissues to hormones, Dr. Victory speculated.

October 22, 2004

Birth control pill may cut cancer, heart risks

Dr. Michael Diamond and Dr. Rahi Victory of the WSU School of Medicine are quoted in an article about their research that found women taking the pill had significantly lower risks of heart disease and stroke.

October 21, 2004

Friends become foes for one game

This feature article discussed the upcoming game between Wayne State and Ashland and how Wayne State head football coach Paul Winters and offensive line coach Keith Uecker will be facing their former colleagues and friends in the game. Ashland\'s head coach and four assistant coaches were all on the same coaching staff at the University of Akron last season.

October 21, 2004

Economy: Global auto leaders to meet at Wayne State

Wayne State will host an Oct. 27 panel discussion on "Reducing Global Oil Dependence Through Advanced Vehicles." Industry and policy experts will participate. The event is sponsored by the United Nations Foundation. No contact information was provided.

October 21, 2004

Education: Record enrollment at U of M

This year's freshman enrollment of over 6,000 students at the University of Michigan is the largest in school history. To accommodate the growing student body, U-M will build one new dorm and upgrade five others over the next decade.

October 21, 2004

Candidates increasingly play on fears

Professor Frederic Pearson, a foreign policy and elections expert and director of CULMA's Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, commented about last-minute campaign rhetoric among the presidential candidates. "After wars there is a lot of switching of horses. It's unusual to switch horses in the middle of a war," Pearson said. Voters must ask themselves this year if the Iraq situation merits change and "can Kerry do something meaningfully different to get us out of it?"

October 21, 2004

Signs point to a close race

Lyke Thompson, a professor of political science and director of the Center for Urban Studies here, says that Republicans tend to have more money to contribute to candidates, but notes that campaign coffers are only one factor in a candidate's success. The Democrats have worked tirelessly this year to get eligible voters registered, Thompson said, and that could translate into more votes for the Democratic Party nationwide.

October 21, 2004

Cheney told jobs, wages are worries

U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy delivered a speech at Wayne State University saying the Bush administration has had its "opportunity in Iraq and it has been a disaster, a quagmire." Kennedy charged that "there hasn't been one single member of the administration who's taken responsibility for it."

October 21, 2004

Sen. Edward Kennedy speaks at Wayne State University

Following a speech at Wayne State's School of Medicine in support of John Kerry's run for the White House, Sen. Edward Kennedy was questioned about his colleagues in the Senate receiving flu shots while the rest of the nation waits for a limited and rationed supply of the flu vaccine.

October 21, 2004

US study says the pill cuts heart disease risk

The newspapers above are just a small sampling of the dozens nationwide that ran an AP story that discusses research findings from the WSU School of Medicine that found that the birth control pill is safe. Women on the pill had surprisingly low risks of heart disease and stroke. "We're still learning more and more about the biology," said one of the researchers, Dr. Michael Diamond at Wayne State. Doctors say the type of hormone pill and the stage of life at which they are used may be what makes them helpful at one point and harmful at another. Dr. Rahi Victory of the Obstetrics-Gynecology Department was also on the research team, which used data from the Women's Health Initiative Study, which included 60,000 women who had used birth control pills in the past.

October 21, 2004

Cheney has quiet yet powerful pull

History professor Melvin Small is quoted in a story about Vice President Dick Cheney's role in the Bush administration and how he is perceived by others. He noted that vice presidents traditionally bear the burden of "dirty politics" in an election year. "No vice president has ever played a role so central to the administration, and Cheney anticipated it," Small said. "He took the job because he understood its potential significance."

October 21, 2004

An important choice for young voters

The Free Press ran letters to the editor from six Wayne State students regarding their respective opinions on presidential candidates George Bush and John Kerry.

October 21, 2004

Michigan needs nutritional labeling at restaurants

In a letter to the editor, Tom Rifai, a medical doctor and lecture at the WSU School of Medicine, calls for nutrition-fact labeling at major restaurants as one step in the war against the "obesity epidemic." He says many people "grossly underestimate the caloric, fat and sodium content of their staple foods."

October 21, 2004

Ichthyology meets ignominy at the Ig Nobels

Steven Stack, professor in the Criminal Justice Department at Wayne State, is the recipient of an Ig Nobel Award for his research (with James Gundlach of Auburn University) that found a correlation between suicide rates and persons who listen to country music. Stack won in the medicine category. There were over 5,000 nominations for the nine prizes for the tongue-in-cheek awards that nevertheless bring attention to some interesting research studies. Stack's study results were published in 1992 and drew nationwide attention at the time.

October 21, 2004

State loses more jobs

Michigan lost 15,000 jobs in September, pushing the state's unemployment rate to 6.8 percent, according to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. Persons interviewed for this article include Jacqueline Manetta, a 24-year-old student at Wayne State. She has used waitressing jobs in downtown Detroit to help pay tuition for the past two years but, with the Red Wings season in limbo, she has had no luck landing a job this year.

October 21, 2004

Local comment: Why take gay couples' only benefit away

English professor Christopher Leland has an op-ed piece calling for the defeat of Proposal 2, the issue on the state ballot that recognizes marriage as a union between a man and a woman. He points out that he is gay and explains some of the challenges of being in a same-sex relationship. "About the only benefit we as a couple have enjoyed in Detroit," he points out, "is the domestic partner medical and dental insurance available through my job at Wayne State University. . . . If Proposal 2 passes, those benefits will disappear."

October 21, 2004

Report unfairly flunks Michigan on university affordability

In an op-ed piece, Mark Murray, president of Grand Valley State University, contends that universities in Michigan and many other states are unfairly criticized in some national surveys for scoring low on affordability. He points out that "higher education has been the long-term loser in the scramble for state funding." The result is that more of the burden of paying for a college education has shifted from the state to the students.

October 21, 2004

People making news

Harper University Hospital named Jeffrey Clark, an associate clinical professor at the Wayne State University School of Medicine department of anesthesiology, as chief of staff of medical affairs.

October 21, 2004

Wally's Warehouse Waifs play Dixieland and all that jazz

A brief article about two local Dixieland bands making appearances in the metro area mentions that one of the groups, Hot Club of Detroit, is made up of students and graduates of Wayne State University.

October 21, 2004