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Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes nearly 38,000 cancers a year, including most cervical and throat cancers. Now, recent research suggests HPV infection also increases the risk of heart disease. An analysis of seven studies with a total of nearly 250,000 participants found that those who tested positive for HPV were 33 percent more likely than those who tested negative to develop cardiovascular disease.

Now, Stephen Akinfenwa, an internal medicine resident at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and one of the lead authors of the analysis, says he would like to study whether the HPV vaccine, which can prevent 90 percent of cervical cancers, also reduces the risk of heart disease.

The vaccine, which has been recommended for adolescents since 2006, protects against infection with nine strains of HPV, including high-risk types that are the most likely to cause cervical cancer, as well as strains that cause genital warts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that boys and girls receive a series of two HPV shots at ages 11 or 12 as part of their routine childhood vaccinations—and that people receive three shots if their first dose is instead administered between the ages of 15 and 26. The vaccine is most protective when given before people become sexually active.

The HPV vaccine has been strikingly effective. Cervical cancer deaths in women under age 25—the first generation eligible to receive the vaccine—fell by 65 percent from 2012 to 2019.

Learning that heart disease may be related to HPV is exciting because HPV infection is preventable, Akinfenwa explains. “It feels like good news,” he says. “We’re hoping that [the vaccine] will be a powerful tool for prevention.”

Akinfenwa and his colleagues presented a condensed version of their analysis in March at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology. It has not yet been published as a peer-reviewed study. The analysis included studies published between 2011 and 2024 that followed women for three to 17 years.

The largest study included in the analysis was published by researchers in South Korea in 2024 and followed apparently healthy women who were tested for 13 strains of high-risk HPV as part of a routine screening for cervical cancer. The women returned for health checks every year or two for an average of 8.6 years. Although heart disease and death were rare among these women, who had an average age of 40, those who tested positive for high-risk HPV were nearly four times as likely as those who tested negative to develop blocked arteries or die from heart disease, the study found.

Women aren’t the only ones at risk, Akinfenwa says. In one paper included in the analysis, a 2017 study of people undergoing radiation therapy for head and neck cancer, 75 percent of patients were men. (Head and neck cancers are more than twice as common in men as they are in women, according to the National Cancer Institute.) The 2017 study found that people who tested positive for HPV were more likely to have strokes compared with those who tested negative.

HPV is ubiquitous and the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. Among sexually active people, more than 90 percent of men and more than 80 percent of women are infected with HPV during their lifetime. About half of HPV infections involve high-risk strains that cause the bulk of cancers of the cervix, throat, vagina, vulva, anus and penis.

Vaccine hesitancy and lack of awareness about HPV has kept many parents from vaccinating their children against the infection, research shows. Some parents are reluctant to vaccinate their kids against HPV because they don’t think their children will have sex as teenagers. Only 61 percent of adolescents are up to date on all HPV vaccines.

Even without a study that has specifically analyzed the effect of HPV vaccination on heart disease, the link between HPV and heart disease suggests that “vaccination is a good idea, and our study definitely supports that,” Akinfenwa says.

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Almost from the time my daughter Elizabeth could speak in sentences, she whined when she didn’t get what she wanted: my attention, a snack, a repair job on a faulty toy. When she turned 3—and suddenly seemed like such a “big girl”—her continued whining started to drive me crazy. I’d mutter angrily under my breath, clench my teeth, and even whine back. Once, I even lost control and yelled so vehemently that she burst into tears. But more often than not, I’d just give in to whatever she wanted, simply to make the shrill sound stop.

Like nails on a chalkboard, whining—an irritating blend of talking and crying—has the ability to make almost any parent either lose their temper or cave. And preschoolers are pretty smart. They know that pleading in that pitch gets a strong reaction from their parents, and if whining has worked in the past, they’ll be even more likely to try it again.

Why Kids Whine

While whining may seem like manipulation, it’s often more helpful to consider why kids whine in the first place. A whiny child isn’t being annoying or spoiled deliberately. Whining is usually the default way that young kids can express themselves when they’re tired, cranky, hungry, uncomfortable, or just don’t want to do something.

Although 3- and 4-year-olds’ language skills are rapidly improving, they still don’t have the vocabulary to describe all of these feelings, explains Michele Borba, EdD, author of Parents Do Make a Difference.

What Not to Do When Your Child Whines

Even when a child can articulate that they’re hungry for lunch or hate sitting in the car seat, they might still whine—because they’ve learned that whining gets your attention. “For 3- and 4-year-olds who are testing the limits of their independence, whining makes them feel very powerful,” says psychologist Carolyn Crowder, PhD, co-author of Whining: 3 Steps to Stopping It Before the Tears and Tantrums Start.

“If you can’t stand whining, your child will do it even more, simply because it gets a reaction,” agrees Jane Nelsen, EdD, co-author of Positive Discipline for Preschoolers. Even scolding can reinforce the behavior. “Kids just want a response. When they don’t know how to get a positive response, they’ll go for a negative one,” Nelsen explains. And needless to say, giving in (“OK, you can have one piece of candy, but promise you’ll eat your lunch?”) doesn’t work either. You might get a respite from the whining, but you’ll perpetuate the problem.

5 Ways to Tackle Whining

Fortunately, you can break this pattern—in a way that encourages your child’s development rather than punishes them. “When you stop getting frustrated by the whining, your child will stop too,” insists Nelsen. At first, this laissez-faire approach seemed completely unrealistic to me. But because my daughter was a whine connoisseur, I decided to try it.

It wasn’t easy—often I was tempted to yell or just give her what she wanted—but I was determined to be firm and consistent. “You have to exercise a lot of self-control,” acknowledges Dr. Crowder. But remember: You’re asking your child to do the same.

To my amazement, within a few weeks, Elizabeth had gotten into the habit of asking nicely instead of nagging. To help turn your whining experiences around in a similar way, here are five strategies you can try next time the whine comes to town.

1. Refuse to let it bother you

Pick a calm, quiet time to tell your child that there’s a new rule: If they whine, you won’t respond.

“From then on, whenever they whine, keep your facial expression absolutely neutral,” Borba says. Calmly remind them that you’re there to listen and help when they use their regular voice.

You might even work together to choose a gentle signal you can give when you notice whining creeping in—like tugging on your ear, suggests Nelsen.

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Hmmmmm…

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Isaiah 65:13-16

New Living Translation

13 Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“My servants will eat,
but you will starve.
My servants will drink,
but you will be thirsty.
My servants will rejoice,
but you will be sad and ashamed.
14 My servants will sing for joy,
but you will cry in sorrow and despair.
15 Your name will be a curse word among my people,
for the Sovereign Lord will destroy you
and will call his true servants by another name.
16 All who invoke a blessing or take an oath
will do so by the God of truth.
For I will put aside my anger
and forget the evil of earlier days.

 

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CLIMATEWIRE | Climate-warming carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere grew at a record-breaking speed in 2024, surging by 3.7 parts per million, a recent NOAA data analysis has found.

It’s one of the agency’s biggest scientific findings of the year — yet the research largely has flown under the radar after NOAA officials took steps to minimize the announcement.

Instead of publishing a press release or a featured article online, the agency described the findings only in social media posts on Facebook and on X. And the posts failed to highlight the dataset’s most important finding: that last year’s CO₂ concentrations jumped by an unprecedented amount.

That’s a departure from the agency’s historical approach to public communication. NOAA typically releases a public report each spring, prominently featured on its website, describing the previous year’s greenhouse gas concentrations. It also usually sends a press release to members of the media.

Last year’s report, for instance, noted that carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide concentrations all continued to climb in the atmosphere in 2023.

According to a source with knowledge of the 2024 analysis, NOAA staff prepared a public web story this year as usual. But officials nixed the report at the last minute, instead releasing the findings only on social media. The source was granted anonymity because they feared reprisal from the Trump administration.

A NOAA communications officer did not respond to a request for comment.

The move is part of a broader assault on NOAA science and public communications by the new administration.

Last month, the agency confirmed it was ending its regular monthly climate briefings, in which NOAA scientists presented climate and weather data to the media. That’s on top of widespread layoffs this year at the agency. And a recent proposal from the White House Office of Management and Budget would dramatically reorganize the agency and terminate much of its climate work — eliminating its entire Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

A NOAA official suggested that downplaying the new CO₂ data has dampened media attention on what otherwise would have been a major climate headline. The scientific findings were reported earlier this month by The Washington Post, and the suppressed web story was reported by CNN earlier this week. There’s otherwise been little news reported on the subject.

But scientists say it’s a finding that’s worth more attention — and more worry. Some researchers believe last year’s CO₂ spike is evidence that the Earth system itself is becoming more vulnerable to the impacts of rising temperatures.

Natural landscapes, such as forests and wetlands, historically have acted as a carbon sink — soaking up excess CO₂ emissions and helping to offset some of the impacts of climate change. But some of these ecosystems may be breaking down under the stress of continued warming, with the added side effects of droughts and wildfires. And they’re storing less carbon in the process.

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A California research collective known as Noah’s Ark Scan says it will begin the first controlled excavation of the Durupınar Site on Mount Ararat’s southern flank once a preservation framework is in place with local universities.

“After securing additional information in cooperation with local universities in Turkey, we will establish a site-preservation plan and confirm whether the structures discovered through radar scans are artificial or natural,” the team told the Korean outlet FN News.

Ground-penetrating radar carried out by the group has revealed what members describe as “a rectangular structure” lying several metres below the surface. The anomalous shape sits inside a flat, oval hill some 160 metres long—almost exactly the length assigned to Noah’s Ark in Genesis.

Soil samples taken during earlier seasons by Turkish and American geologists contained clay, marine sediments and mollusk fragments dated to between 3,500 and 5,000 years ago. Those results, published last year, placed the material in the Copper Age, a horizon some historians link to large flood traditions.

The Durupınar hill first drew attention in May 1948, after earthquakes and torrential rains stripped away overburden. Turkish Army Captain İlhan Durupınar re-examined the site in 1959 while mapping the region for NATO and forwarded his photographs to Ankara, giving the outcrop its current name.

Many geologists who visited in the 1960s called the feature an unusually eroded rock formation, yet the ark hypothesis has persisted. The new project marks the first attempt to open trenches at the locality since systematic sampling began in 2021.

Mount Ararat, a dormant volcano topping 5,137 m, dominates a border zone shared by Turkey, Iran and Armenia. A small visitor centre stands a few hundred metres from the site, but guides advise foreign travellers to use caution in the politically sensitive area.

Excavation permits are still pending. Noah’s Ark Scan says fieldwork will not begin until protective measures are agreed with Turkish authorities and regional universities.

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The Durupınar hill. © (photo credit: Kasbah. Via Shutterstock)

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