CU Anschutz In The News

Before Brandon Campbell died of colon cancer, he shared a special project with his young son, Brady. Together, they built a lemonade stand so that Brady, 6, of Denver, Colorado, could raise some money to take his mother on a date and hopefully cheer her up. “We will use a small portion of the funds raised for Brady and Amanda to continue having adventures (and dates) together. We will use the rest to honor the Palliative Care Team and Cancer Center at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.”

People who exercise in the morning seem to lose more weight than people completing the same workouts later in the day, according to a new study of workouts and waistlines. Dr. Willis and one of his collaborators, Seth Creasy, a professor of exercise physiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, started brainstorming other possible, perhaps unexpected contributors to the enormous variability to weight loss. They hit upon activity timing.

Living near oil and gas wells may increase a woman’s risk of having a baby with a congenital heart defect. “The greatest suspect is the hazardous air pollutants that are emitted during the production of oil and gas,” said the lead author, Lisa M. McKenzie, an assistant research professor at the Colorado School of Public Health at the Anschutz Medical Campus. As a public health issue, the problem is potentially significant. Other studies have linked living near gas and oil sites to premature births, smaller babies, migraines and fatigue. “About 17 million people live near these sites in the U.S.,” Dr. McKenzie said.

Race founder Stan Havlick says it’s the oldest charity run in Colorado. Havlick, who would later found the Cherry Creek Sneak in 1982, wanted to create a fundraising race in 1980 when his wife was in a cancer fight with acute lymphocytic leukemia. One of her doctors was Bill Robinson, an oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center who lived in Eldorado Springs, and that seemed like the perfect spot for the race. All proceeds from the race go to the Colorado Cancer Foundation to benefit the CU Cancer Center, Havlick said.

Students from CU-Boulder are learning to deal with medical emergencies at the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah by working with doctors from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The program is meant to improve the care of people in space.

"Because the surface area is just so huge, even if there are weak interactions, things can be bound to the charcoal," says David Kroll, PhD, a professor in the department of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Colorado Denver. "Any drug that's taken at a relatively low dose, I could see these charcoal capsules having a deleterious effect."

Emmy Betz, an emergency physician and researcher at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, doesn’t dispute that there’s something going on with altitude. “There clearly are differences in suicide rates by altitude and that's a trend that has been seen and documented over a number of years,” says Betz, who just wrapped up a stint on the Colorado Suicide Prevention Commission. “The question is: Is it the altitude alone? Or is it something else? Or, most likely, I think it's a mix of contributing factors.” As she and others have written in a number of publications, there are limitations to looking at the question of altitude and mental health by aggregating public health data.

We also know that what works for men rarely works for women—particularly without modifications. “We don’t just assume that something that’s good for men or effective for men will be equally effective for women when we know there are marked sex and gender differences in response to physical treatment,” said Helen L. Coons, Ph.D., associate professor and clinical director for women’s behavioral health and wellness services in the department of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “I’d sure like to see a randomized clinical trial on Cliovana’s efficacy compared with other available treatments. Because it’s so expensive, it'd better be really highly effective [comparatively].”