Keeping the Women we Love Healthy

Let's face it: how many times, at the beginning of the year, we promise ourselves to clean out the clutter in our closet/garage/storage room/office?  One's new year resolutions might be a bigger problem than we think...  There are a lot of hidden reasons why we clutter, and justify it. Understanding our behavior is only a part of the strategy to tackle the task of decluttering head on.  But at what point does an individual go from clutter to hoarding? How does it affect the life of those around a hoarder? And most importantly, how does the health of a person who is hoarding? There should't be a way to sugar-coat hoarding. It is as valid a disease as OCD and other anxiety and psychological disorders.  Dr. Sanjaya Saxena, speaker at the Howell Health and Happiness Symposium on January 21st, sheds light on the compulsive behavior called hoarding.  According to Dr. Sanjaya Saxena, (quoted in  this article  from the Washington Post last year), "...

Our 20th anniversary celebration truly represented what the Howell Foundation stands for:  a sense of community, the importance of women's health research, empowering women with informational events, and introducing young minds to science with our scholarship program. Today, after 20 years, the inspiration brought about by Dr. Howell has allowed the Foundation to award  over 200 scholarships to aspiring researchers and doctors,  to hold over 80 educational events and to fund 3 grants addressing the health of underserved and/or "at risk" women in our community. The celebration was marked with testimonials from our scholars, all of whom are on their way to success.  Our first CEI program is starting to create an impact on Latino women in our community.  The support of our sister organization, Soroptimist International of La Jolla, was felt with donations towards our 2016 programs and fabulous attendance at our luncheon.  Dr. Stanley Maloy from one o...

Deepika Suresh  Just a short time after she presented her field of research at the Foundation's lunch last May, Deepika Suresh was invited to present the progress of her work at the UCSD Summer Research Conference last week. . When she applied for the Foundation's scholarship, she mentioned that her priority was to learn all that she needed in order to succeed in medical school and ultimately her profession:  "I started in a research lab my first week of freshman year, eager to learn about what research entailed and how I could make my mark in the scientific world". And we are proud to say she is doing just that!  She reached out to us to tell us a little about the progress of her work. "My research project for this summer involves developing an education intervention on genetic risk assessment in young breast cancer survivors (YBCS).  My objective is to develop content about genetic risk assessment in YBCS for a web-based survivorship care plan that my...

Pictured above with Dr. Howell:  UCSD-Howell Scholars Liza Brusman, Jessie Chen and Deepika Suresh during Foundation's Lecture Series in May.   The Doris A. Howell Foundation announced it awarded 3 scholarships to UCSD students currently conducting research on women's health.  And while their fields of research are fascinating, the sentiment for women's health research reflects what the Foundation is all about.  Congratulations to our scholars!  We wish you all the success! Liza Brusman: "The opportunity to continue my work on this project would deepen my understanding of reproductive medicine and enlighten my future career path. Since beginning my work in this lab, my knowledge of reproductive biology has deepened significantly. I have become much more familiar with areas of research in reproductive medicine, as well as the systematic and molecular biological pathways of reproduction. In order to understand my project, I learned how reproduc...

I would add taking control.  That’s Judy’s philosophy in life.  She truly represents how to take a sad situation and turn it into a learning experience; and more so, a living philosophy.   Judy has always enjoyed life; the kind of enjoyment where you are ready to just go and get life going, instead of just watching it pass by.   That’s how she and Tony ended up living a two year adventure in New Zealand.  She enjoyed skiing, being in the outdoors and traveling.   He thought it would be an adventure they both could live.  A Registered Nurse by trade, she lost her first husband Tony to pancreatic cancer.  Facing the challenges of raising 4 kids on her own she remembers the day she met her second husband:  “With so many things I wanted to do, he just didn’t seem like the right man for me”.   What she didn't know is that he would become an excellent husband and more of a friend than father figure to her adul...

With so many similarities between depression and sadness, it is hard to know if we are truly depressed.  Learning to identify your feelings is the first step towards mental health. About the Doris A. Howell Foundation: The Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women’s Health Research is committed to keeping the women we love healthy, advancing women’s health through research and educating women to be catalysts for improving family health in the community. The organization does so by funding scholarships to scientists researching issues affecting women’s health;   providing a forum for medical experts, scientists, doctors, researchers, and authors to convey the timely information on topics relevant to women’s health and the health. of their families through its Lecture and Evening Series, and by funding research initiatives that will create women’s health awareness and advocacy in the community.     For more information about the Doris ...