Improving the health and well-being of family caregivers
Lessons in Lifespan Health
Francesca Falzarano is an assistant professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School. Her research is inspired by her personal experience as a caregiver to her parents and explores how to improve the mental health and well-being of family caregivers, including through the use of technology. On young caregivers “I think right now it's estimated that five and a half million individuals are under the age of 18 are caring for a parent or some family member with chronic illness, mental health issues, dementia-related illnesses, and other age-related impairments. So, this is something...
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Aging among Black Americans
Lessons in Lifespan Health
Lauren Brown is an assistant professor at the USC Leonard Davis School. Her research uses publicly available data to uncover the unique difficulties Black Americans face in maintaining physical and psychological well-being as they age. Her lab both challenges the methods used to study older Black adults and strives to increase diversity in data science research with the goal of increasing the visibility of Black and Brown people via data and storytelling. Quotes from the episode On the role of racism in biomedical and statistical sciences and disease prediction If you think about the...
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Using dance to ease Parkinson’s symptoms
Lessons in Lifespan Health
Patrick Corbin is an associate professor of practice at the USC Gloria Kaufman School and an internationally renowned dance artist whose career has spanned over 30 years and bridged the worlds of classical ballet, modern and contemporary dance. He recently spoke to us about his work, exploring the positive effects that dance can have on neurology. On movement and movement therapy Well, on a neurological level movement is cognition. Movement stimulates cognition. So that's sort of the sciencey part. The other part is that dance is a multifaceted, multilingual way of movement, and...
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The effects of exercise on the brain
Lessons in Lifespan Health
Connie Cortes is an assistant professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School. Her work straddles the fields of neuroscience and exercise medicine, and she recently spoke to us about her research seeking to understand what is behind the beneficial effects of exercise on the brain with the goal of developing what she calls “exercise in a pill” therapies for cognitive decline associated with aging and neurodegenerative diseases. On brain plasticity and brain aging Brain plasticity we define as the ability of the brain to adapt to new conditions. And this can be mean...
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Tips for healthy aging
Lessons in Lifespan Health
and instructional associate professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School, and a specialist in geriatric medicine, joins us for a conversation about healthy aging, including tips on how to keep the body and mind functioning for as long as possible. Quotes from this episode On the importance of setting small goals "People may have all the good intentions, but they might set up goals that are too ambitious and then when they don't reach that goal, they feel frustrated, and they quit… We have to let them understand that goals must be small…So, an apple a day. We have to eat the...
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Cellular balance across the lifespan
Lessons in Lifespan Health
Dion Dickman, associate professor of neuroscience and gerontology, joins George Shannon to discuss how the nervous system processes and stabilizes the transfer of information in healthy brains, aging brains and after injury or disease. Quotes from the episode: On synaptic plasticity: “Synapses are essential, fundamental units of nervous system function and plasticity is this remarkable ability to change. And throughout early development into maturation and even into old age, synapses just have this amazing resilience to change and adapt to different situations and injury disease,...
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A balancing act: homestasis under stress
Lessons in Lifespan Health
is a Distinguished Professor of gerontology, molecular and computational biology, and biochemistry and molecular medicine at USC. Over the course of his career, he has played a central role in defining the pathways and mechanisms by which the body is able to maintain balance under stress and in uncovering the role aging plays in disrupting this balancing act. He recently joined Professor George Shannon to discuss his research on how the body is able to maintain balance under stress and the implications it could have for preventing age-related disease and decline. Quotes from this...
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Improving health outcomes and quality of life
Lessons in Lifespan Health
is the Mary Pickford Chair in Gerontology and director of the at the USC Leonard Davis School. She's also the co-director of the National Center on Elder Abuse, which is housed at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She recently spoke to George Shannon about her research, including her work exploring ways to provide long-term care services and supports that allow older adults to be as independent as possible and the challenges and opportunities that technology provides in this area. Quotes from this episode On building on lessons learned during the pandemic “I think a lot of what we saw...
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Stem cell biology and aging
Lessons in Lifespan Health
Rong Lu is an associate professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, biomedical engineering, medicine, and gerontology at USC. She joins George Shannon to discuss her research into the complex and surprising behavior of individual blood stem cells and what it could mean for treating diseases associated with aging. Quotes from this episode On stem cells and what makes them so promising for medical research Stem cells are the special cells in the body that can produce other type of cells. So in particular there are two type of stem cells, one called embryonic stem cells that only...
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The intersection between stress and aging
Lessons in Lifespan Health
Assistant Professor of Gerontology joins Professor George Shannon to discuss their research seeking to understand why stress response pathways break down as we grow older and whether there may be ways to delay that breakdown and potentially promote healthier lifespans. Quotes from this episode On the definition of stress: Stress can come in so many different forms and flavors. It can come in the form of something external, something like heat stress. For example, being out in the desert heat, it can be something as similar to cold stress of a winter storm, or even something like...
info_outlineThroughout his career, Dr. Tyler Evans ‘02 has been on the front lines of major disease outbreaks around the globe. He was in South Africa at the height of the AIDS crisis and he treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. He just joined the New York City Emergency Management Department as the chief medical officer for the COVID-19 branch.
The USC Leonard Davis School “Impact Maker” joined Professor John Walsh to discuss the current pandemic, global health, and how students can best serve populations in need. Here are highlights from what he shared:
On how we were not prepared for COVID-19
“Folks in public health, especially in the communicable disease world, knew that the greatest sort of threat to society was not necessarily going to be war; it was going to be a microbial onslaught. And if the infrastructure is there, I'm not saying it's not bad, but the risk is definitely mitigated. And we were not there. I mean, we're getting better now. but we were not ready.”
On health disparities and vulnerabilities
“When we look at variability, even between states and certainly even within states and within cities, and when you look at the granularity, you're going to see a lot of differences, and those differences, I think, really highlight the disparities that naturally exist throughout this country.”
“I'm sitting here in a tennis field hospital with incredibly sick people, but they all have what we refer to it as the social determinants of health. They all have a number of chronic comorbidities. They're people that historically don't have a great access to healthcare. So there are a lot of factors involved that have led them to be more vulnerable for adverse consequences.”
“We can't move forward in life being afraid to come outside. We can't move forward in life being afraid to touch other people. I do think that the shelter in place measures were a good thing. I don't think that we completely thought out all of the unintended consequences on the most vulnerable populations in the U.S. and abroad when it comes to food insecurity, when it comes to other kinds of chronic diseases or access to care.”
On how we are all in this together
“I think, hopefully, it'll kind of bring us all together; more solidarity across the world to better understand that we are really all in this together. Despite the fact that the term is a little cliché, I think that if people really listen to what that means, they will grasp onto it and really understand how we focus so much on differences, but the reality is we really are all potentially impacted by this.”
On how students can help and find meaning in their work
“There are a lot of opportunities to get involved, not just for COVID, but for the prevention or management of other diseases. You don't have to be a physician. You can be a student. But you’ve to find ways where your contribution is not just meaningful to you. I've had a number of really meaningful and translatable, sort of transformational experiences throughout my own life, but we also have to ensure that we're giving back to society when we're doing these internships or whatnot. So finding something that might not be as glamorous but could truly be meaningful and helpful is good. You might be having to create a database or code, or help to develop infrastructure. A lot of the developments are not as sexy and cool and exciting as people think they are. But all of those parts ultimately end up leading to our ability to save lives. So finding your niche, finding something that you're really good at, and doing it, and contributing is important.”
“For the students that are watching this, it’s so important that throughout your career, whether it's in medicine or public health, or whatever field you decide, to just try to really do the right thing. Try to lead your career with your moral compass and ultimately try to impact populations that need it the most. And I assure you that ultimately your lives, both professionally and personally, will be very rich and meaningful.”
“So the world needs you guys to help populations that are in need, whether it's now, or whether it's building it, or whether it's in acute management. Like I said, it's not just healthcare systems, it's economics… there's so many intersections in our globalized world. And as long as folks really lead with their moral compass, I think they'll have a very meaningful life.”