Author Archives: Rebecca Stern

For the parents of today’s “Generation Y” — and the guidance counselors and psychiatrists who meet with these teens — drug abuse and sexual promiscuity are still hot-button topics, risky behaviors that have bedeviled adolescents forever, or so it seems. But new threats are on the rise, and one in particular has caught many off »

The past half-century has seen significant scientific achievements and drastic improvements in health care. Many cancers can now be cured through chemotherapy; we’ve mapped the human genome; we can transplant organs and prevent many illnesses such as measles and rubella with a single injection. Smallpox has essentially been eradicated and polio is getting close. In »

At Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a new rule was instigated for the class of 2010: All students with a Body Mass Index above 30 had to take a physical education class at some point during their four years. If they did not complete this course, the students would not be allowed to graduate. In the »

Most people have heard about seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, in which the gloomy, cold, dark season of winter causes a depressed mood and other health concerns such as weight gain, excess sleep and lethargy. Numerous studies about the impact of weather on human health have revealed that the opposite is true as well: Sunshine »

Most of us have grown out of the “five second rule” — if we drop a french fry on the ground in Commons, we would never pick it up and eat it. But we may have moved on to something worse: later that night, we won’t think twice before downing a Solo cup of beer »

Last week, I found out that three of my closest friends here have learning disabilities. A couple of them have known for a long time but hadn’t felt comfortable sharing initially, and one was just diagnosed last week. Yale students face a surprising array of learning challenges including attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, dyslexia. visual-spatial perceptual »

With midterms approaching, libraries filling up and students revving their engines for exams and papers, we are all searching for tricks to succeed during this frantic rush toward spring break. While we all know to maximize mental performance by sleeping, exercising and unwinding, one lifestyle change we can make is watching the foods we eat »

For most of us at Yale, stress is a given part of daily life. This evolutionary mechanism — the release of adrenaline into the bloodstream causing an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, as well as other physiological responses like dilated pupils — was useful back in the time when fight or flight made »

Sex week at Yale: the student-run, biennial marathon of fetishes, “Defiant Desires” and love. A week for Yalies to talk porn, to speed date, to pick up some tips and some “relationship enhancement products.” The SWAYers twitter; they blog; they’ve made their own movie. In 2004, the event won the Collegiate Network’s Campus Outrage Award »

Today begins February, which, at Yale, means three things: freezing temperatures, first papers and Feb Club. Across the country and the world, as part of Feb Club Emeritus, Yalies of all generations will get together to drink and make merry. However, all this frivolity comes at a cost: Even if we manage to work hard, »

If you lost your appetite while reading Yale Dining’s “Wellness Information and Nutrition” flier on healthy eating, you’re not alone. The healthy eating tips are obsessive, restrictive and negative. As a whole, the list promotes the shift in American eating habits from appreciating food to obsessing over it. Rather than eating to live, the American »