Tag Archives: health

No increased risk of infection for long-term sex partners of people with HPV-related oral cancers, study suggests

“While we can’t guarantee that the partners of patients will not develop oral HPV infections or cancers, we can reassure them that our study found they had no increased prevalence of oral infections, which suggests their risk of HPV-related oral cancer remains low,” says Gypsyamber D’Souza, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is expected to present the results of her study June 1 at the 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting…

New therapy shown to improve progression-free survival and shrink tumors in rare cancer for the first time

The findings are potentially practice-changing for a historically "untreatable disease." Though uveal melanoma is rare — there are only 2,500 cases diagnosed in the United States each year — about half of patients will develop metastatic disease, and survival for patients with advanced disease has held steady at nine months to a year for decades. Researchers found that progression-free survival (PFS) in patients receiving selumetinib was nearly 16 weeks and 50 percent of these patients experienced tumor shrinkage, with 15 percent achieving major shrinkage. Patients receiving temozolomide, the current standard chemotherapy, had seven weeks of PFS and no tumor shrinkage. …

New technology makes breast cancer surgery more precise

Surgeons at UC Irvine Medical Center are the first in the country to use a device that reduces by half the need to reoperate and cut out breast cancer cells missed during an initial lumpectomy. The MarginProbe System lets the surgeon immediately assess whether cancer cells remain on the margins of excised tissue. Currently, patients have to wait days for a pathologist to determine this…

7 warning signs you should not ignore

A few days after Melissa Daly broke her ankle, the calf above it became tender. Within a week, her foot was dark purple. She saw her doctor, who dismissed it as normal bruising and offered a prescription for painkillers. The drugs didn't help, and a week later she woke up in the middle of the night gasping for air.  “I felt like I was suffocating,” she said. Her husband called 911, and within an hour she was on a respirator in the ER. A blood clot had broken off from her calf and lodged in her lungs. The agony she felt is one of seven pains you should never brush off. Read on to make sure that your nagging aches are as innocent as they seem. MORE: 7 Lies We Tell Our Doctors Severe Head Pain This mother of all headaches makes your bachelorette party hangover seem laughable. If you could laugh. The culprit: Odds are, any jackhammering in your brain is just a migraine. But if it's not accompanied by other migraine symptoms (such as a visual aura), sudden and severe pain -- we're talking the absolute worst headache of your life -- can signal a brain aneurysm.  These arterial bulges occur in up to 5 percent of people, but most of the time they don't cause any trouble -- you won't even know you have one unless the weak spot leaks or tears. If that happens, escaping blood can flood the surrounding tissue (causing a violent headache) and cut off the oxygen supply there. Smoking and having a family history of aneurysms increase your odds. The fix: “A burst aneurysm can cause brain damage within minutes, so you need to call 911 immediately,” Dr. Elsa-Grace Giardina, director of the Center for Women's Health at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, said.  Your doctor will take a CT scan to look for bleeding in the space around the brain. If he finds hemorrhaging, you'll head into the (operating room) pronto for surgery to repair the blood vessel. Throbbing Tooth Spooning your way through a pint of Chubby Hubby has become an exercise in torture. When your teeth touch anything frosty, you feel a dull throb or sharp twinge. The culprit: It's likely that the tooth's nerve has become damaged, usually because the surrounding pearly white is cracked or rotting away. Unless you get it patched up quickly, bacteria in your mouth can infect the nerve. And you definitely don't want that breeding colony to spread throughout your body, said Kimberly Harms, a dentist outside St. Paul, Minnesota. The fix: Time for a cavity check! You may just need a filling to cover the exposed nerve. But if it's infected, you're in for a root canal, in which the tooth's bacteria-laden pulp is removed and replaced with plastic caulking material. Antibiotics can clear up any infection that has spread beyond the mouth. MORE: The 10 Self-Checks Every Woman Should Do Sharp Pain In Your Side A typical runner's side stitch pales in comparison to this piercing stab, which intensifies over a few hours or days. The culprits: You may just need some Beano. But if you feel as if you're being skewered in your right side and you're also nauseated and running a fever, you could have appendicitis. It occurs when something (like a stray piece of feces) migrates into the space where the appendix empties into the colon, blocking it. Soon the organ becomes dangerously inflamed.  Another possibility is an ovarian cyst. Typically these fluid-filled sacs are harmless and disappear on their own. But if one twists or ruptures, it can cause terrible pain. The fix: In both cases, you're looking at emergency surgery.  “If you don't remove an inflamed ap­pendix, it can burst,” Dr. Lin Chang, a gastroenterologist and co-director of UCLA's Center for Neurovisceral Sciences and Women's Health, said.  This can cause dangerous swelling of the tissue surrounding your organs. A twisted cyst also needs to be removed right away, as it can block blood flow to your ovary within hours. If that happens, the doctor will need to cut out the entire ovary (and the eggs inside) along with the cyst. Passing Chest Pain Periodically, you get what feels like a bad case of heartburn, or a tight squeezing sensation, as if you're being laced into a corset. The culprit: You probably just peppered your pizza with too many chilis. But if you know you're at risk for heart problems, don't blow it off -- it could be a heart attack. Every year, about 10,000 women under 45 have one. Symptoms tend to be less severe in women than in men, so “you may just feel pressure, along with fatigue, throat pain, or shortness of breath,” Giardina said. The fix: Feel the burn after feasting on chalupas? Normal. Feel as if you're being squeezed to death by a boa constrictor after a hard workout?

12 summer fruit and veggie recipes

Summer brings a wealth of deliciously ripe produce. Here are a dozen of the freshest seasonal fruits and veggies and mouthwatering ways to serve them. Berries Enjoy them on their own or on salads, desserts, and cereal. Health benefits include: • Low in calories • Rich in antioxidants, which neutralize cell damage • May reduce the effects of Alzheimer's disease • May reduce risk of colon or ovarian cancer Harvest season: May-September Try this recipe: Blueberry-Blackberry Shortcakes Cucumbers These crisp and cool veggies are for much more than salads (and spa treatments). They can be used in gazpachos and substituted for celery in tuna and chicken salad recipes. Health benefits include: • Contains silica, which improves the complexion and health of the skin • Good source of fiber, potassium, and magnesium Harvest season: June-November Try this recipe: Pickled Ginger Cucumbers Eggplant Most people think of eggplant in calorie-laden eggplant Parmesan. However, this rich purple veggie can be grilled, roasted, and enjoyed in a variety of summer dishes. Health benefits include: • Good source of B vitamins • Antioxidant-rich • May reduce cholesterol levels Harvest season: July-October Try this recipe: Szechuan Spicy Eggplant Peaches This fleshy fruit has a sweet, almost tangy taste that blends well in smoothies and other beverages. For a summer treat, slice some peaches and enjoy with a cream cheese (like Explorateur) and a glass of chardonnnay. Health benefits include: • Good source of vitamin A • Good source of potassium Harvest season: May-October Try this recipe: Homemade Peach Ice Cream Bell peppers With their tangy flavor and signature crunch, bell peppers are a summer diet must-have. The lively colors will bring dishes alive and add a nutritional bonus. Health benefits include: • More than 100 percent of your recommended amount of vitamins A and C • Contains vitamin B6 and folic acid, which may lower the risk of high cholesterol Harvest season: May-December Try this recipe: Sausage, Bell Pepper, and Onion Lasagna Squash Unlike winter squash, summer squash has a soft and almost creamy quality. Its mild taste works well with herbs such as basil, thyme, and rosemary. Health benefits include: • Excellent source of vitamin C • Contains omega-3 fatty acids Harvest season: May–September Try this recipe: Summer Squash with Tomatoes and Basil Tomatoes Though tomatoes are considered a fruit, they lack the sweetness that characterizes that food group. However, cooking or grilling them may take away some of their bitter or acidic flavors. Health benefits include: • Contains lycopene, which has antioxidant and cancer-preventing properties • Good source of niacin, which has been used for years as a safe way to raise HDL (good cholesterol) and lower LDL (bad cholesterol) Harvest season: June-October Try this recipe: Mediterranean Stuffed Tomatoes Pears The soft texture and sweet taste of pears make them the perfect fruit for summertime. And their mild flavor lets them blend well with a variety of recipes. Health benefits include: • Good source of vitamin C and copper • 4 grams of dietary fiber per serving Try this recipe: Caramelized Onion-Pear Pizza Apricots Starting in May, enjoy the sweet, smooth, and faintly tart taste of apricots. Not only are they the perfect juicy addition to any meal, but they are also nutrient-rich. Health benefits include: • Beta-carotene and lycopene for heart health • Good source of vitamin A, an antioxidant that helps with vision and cellular growth Harvest season: May-July Try this recipe: Honey-Vanilla Poached Apricots Figs Though dried figs can be enjoyed year-round, fresh ones are in-season starting in June. The chewy texture of the fruit is a favorite for baking. However, roasting them in the oven makes a sweet, tender treat. Health benefits include: • Good source of dietary fiber • 15 percent of your recommended amount of potassium and manganese Harvest season: June-November Try this recipe: Oat-Topped Fig Muffins Corn Corn has been a summer favorite way before the days of gas grills and microwaves. Though it's sweet enough to eat on its own, summer corn tastes delicious with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Health benefits include: • Almost 25 percent of vitamin B1, which helps cognitive functioning • Contains beta-cryptoxanthin, an antioxidant that may reduce the risk of lung cancer Harvest season: June-November Try this recipe: Savory Buttermilk Corn Cakes Okra Okra is often ignored as a summer veggie, but it is perfect for soups, canning, and stews. Its subtle taste enhances the flavor of tomatoes, onions, corn, shellfish, and fish stock. Health benefits include: • Contains insoluble fiber, which is essential for digestive health • Good source of vitamin B6 and folic acid Harvest season: June-November Try this recipe: Spicy Pickled Okra This article originally appeared on Health.com.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/01/12-summer-fruit-and-veggie-recipes/

Dr. Manny: ObamaCare criticism is not about race, it’s about facts

State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, the head of the Louisiana Democratic Party, said on the floor of the state Senate this week that opponents of the federal health care overhaul are motivated by President Obama's race. Peterson, who is also chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, then went on to repeatedly bring up race as she railed against ObamaCare critics. “I have talked to so many members both in the House and the Senate, and you know what? You ready…

France to ban electronic cigarettes in public

France will ban electronic cigarette smoking in public places by imposing the same curbs enforced since 2007 to combat tobacco smoking, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Friday. Amid mounting global concern over the public health implications of so-called e-cigarettes, Touraine said they faced the same fate as traditional ones: a ban on smoking in public spaces and sales to minors and a blackout on media advertising. In a country where the pungent waft of Gaulloises and Gitanes once seemed an unassailable part of cafe culture, smokers have long been banished to outdoor terrace seats. The near-odorless electronic alternative - battery-driven devices that allow users inhale odorless nicotine-laced vapor rather than smoke - are gaining ground in no-go zones such as bars, cafes, trains, waiting rooms and offices. A government-commissioned report said this week that around 500,000 people in France had turned to e-cigarettes, which are designed to look like cigarettes although some come in different colors, and recommended a crackdown on public use. Health officials in many countries say the impact of electronic cigarettes on health needs further study. Another worry they cite is that the electronic alternative will increase the general temptation to smoke, including enticing those who have quit to start again, or that smokers may use them alongside rather than instead of regular cigarettes. “This is no ordinary product because it encourages mimicking and could promote taking up smoking,” said Touraine, who announced her plans at a news conference. In the United States, the number of smokers who have tried out e-cigarettes doubled to one in five in 2011 and the number of all adults trying it doubled too, to 6 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In France, a country of 66 million, the government says tobacco smoking kills some 66,000 people a year and another 5,000 are killed through passive exposure to smoke. The expert in charge of the French report advised against an outright ban on e-cigarettes, however, saying they still seemed safer than tar-laden tobacco. Electronic cigarettes, whose invention is widely credited to a Chinese pharmacist a decade ago, usually comprise disposable cartridges of liquid such as propylene glycol that is easily turned to vapor and can contain artificial flavors alongside concentrated liquid nicotine.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/france-to-ban-electronic-cigarettes-in-public/

No science behind blood-type diets, researchers say

They are a fad that refuses to fade, but no solid evidence exists to show whether or not eating plans tailored to ABO blood types promote health, say Belgian researchers who tried their best to find some. After sifting through the scientific literature, researchers identified just one indirectly related study - it looked at the effects of low-fat diets on cholesterol levels in people with different blood types - and even that one was weak, they concluded. Some studies have found links between blood type and risk for developing blood clots or certain cancers, of having a heart attack and of hemorrhaging when infected with Dengue fever. But no peer-reviewed research has indicated that eating foods supposedly compatible with one's blood type will improve health or induce weight loss more than a general diet plan. Medical professionals already knew this, according to the study's senior author, Dr. Philippe Vandekerckhove at the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders in Mechelen. “However, the general populace have access to blood type diets, regardless of medical guidance, and cannot be expected to be able to determine whether or not the health claims are, in fact, ‘evidence-based',” Vandekerckhove said. Blood type is determined by proteins on the surface of red blood cells and antibodies in the blood. The most familiar grouping, known as ABO blood types, refers to whether a person's cells carry the proteins known as A or B, or both of them, or neither of the two - which is designated blood type O. The idea that blood type influences an individual's life - and even personality - is popular in parts of Asia. In 2011, for example, a Japanese politician apologized for a rude remark he had made about tsunami victims by blaming his blood type. But blood type eating regimens are often premised on the theory that blood group signals a population's evolutionary background - primarily agrarian or hunter-gatherer, for instance - and that ancient history inclines people of certain blood types to thrive or suffer when eating one kind of diet or another. Vandekerckhove's team, who published their results in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, searched the largest online databases of published research for clinical trials, reviews and all other types of studies for reports about people grouped by blood type following specifically prescribed diets. Of 1,415 articles that initially turned up in the search, 16 looked promising at the start but 15 of those were discarded on closer analysis when the authors saw that they were poorly designed. Only one was relevant to the topic and strong enough to be included in an analysis because it was a randomized controlled trial. But it had several other weaknesses, including the fact that participants knew which group they had been assigned to, the group sizes were small, and the main endpoint assessed was “bad cholesterol” levels, which doesn't directly address the question of health or weight. Vandekerckhove and his coauthors were surprised and disappointed to find that no studies had been done that actually addressed the question, he said. “Until a study has been performed which recruits people with a certain blood type who have adhered to the diet, compared with those of the same blood type who have not adhered to the diet, and the incidence of disease/measurement of health can be assessed, then the health effects of a blood type diet are not proven,” he wrote in an email. “Currently, there is no evidence to support that ‘Blood Type Diets' have any effect on positively benefiting your health,” said Beth Warren, a registered dietician in New York City who was not involved in the study. “The fad diet was only made popular by a book during 1996…with no evidence to support it,” Warren said. “Eat Right 4 Your Type” by Peter D'Adamo has more than 7 million copies in print, and outlines a theory about which foods are best for people with the various ABO blood types to eat and which to avoid. D'Adamo says he believes in the diet based on circumstantial evidence. “All the authors did was conclude, as have I, that there is a lack of direct research on the subject,” D'Adamo said by email. He too would like to see direct research on the diets, but such studies are unlikely because they would be too costly. One-size-fits-all diets don't make sense either, D'Adamo said, and it may be that blood type is one way to predict which general weight loss diets work better for which people. “We hope the results of this systematic review will reinforce the need for individuals and companies to take responsibility of their claims and clearly differentiate between something that is “evidence-based” rather than something that is “theoretical”,” Vandekerckhove said. “We have to be very careful when we hear of fad diets and look into if and how this way of eating benefits our health and goals for weight-loss and maintenance,” Warren said. “In this case, we cannot say that it does at this time,” she said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/no-science-behind-blood-type-diets-researchers-say/

Could shedding extra pounds improve psoriasis?

Losing weight may ease psoriasis and improve quality of life for some overweight people with the chronic skin disease, new research from Denmark suggests. But the trial may have been too small to fully flesh out that link, and researchers said future studies will have to follow larger groups of patients for more time to make definitive conclusions. “The results, I would say, are promising,” said Dr. Joel Gelfand, a dermatologist from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia. “It's still excellent advice to patients who are overweight with psoriasis to lose weight.” According to the National Institutes of Health, more than three percent of U.S. adults have psoriasis, which is characterized by itchy, painful plaques on the skin. Over the years, researchers have learned that obese people are more likely to develop psoriasis than their thinner peers and tend to have more severe disease. That could be due to more body-wide inflammation among people carrying around extra fat. “It's more than one thing that causes it, but obesity is probably one of the factors that can bring on psoriasis,” Gelfand, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health. Genetics also plays a role. Conversely, Gelfand said there's been some suggestion that losing weight may ease psoriasis symptoms, based on reports of people who had bariatric surgery and saw their skin condition improve. For the new study, researchers led by Dr. Peter Jensen from Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte wanted to shed more light on how weight loss influences psoriasis. They randomly assigned 30 overweight and obese people with psoriasis to go on a 4-month weight-loss diet of 800 to 1,200 calories per day and another 30 to stick to typical nutrition guidelines. By the end of the study, participants in the diet group had lost an average of 35 pounds, on average, compared to just one pound in the non-diet group. Dieters had a borderline larger improvement in their psoriasis severity and the amount of their body covered by psoriasis plaques. They started the study with an average severity score of 4.8, on a scale of 0 to 72. By 4 months, that had fallen to 2.5. Non-dieters saw only a slight drop in their psoriasis cover and severity, from 5.5 to 5.2. People in the weight-loss group also reported greater improvements in their quality of life during the study period, Jensen and his colleagues wrote Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology. The diet was tied to some mild side effects, including headaches and dizziness. One patient complained of being hungry throughout the study, the researchers reported, and another “consumed large amounts of sugar-free licorice, resulting in hypokalemia (low potassium) that normalized after he was instructed to stop eating licorice.” Gelfand said that because patients started out with mild to moderate psoriasis, they didn't have much room to improve when they lost weight. That, combined with the small group size, limits some of the conclusions that can be taken from the study. “The next step would be to do a much larger study in patients who have more severe psoriasis,” Gelfand said. In the meantime, he said weight loss can have other benefits for heavy people with psoriasis, such as improving how they respond to some medications and lowering their risk of heart disease.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/could-shedding-extra-pounds-improve-psoriasis/

Saudi Arabia reports 3 more deaths from new SARS-like virus

Saudi Arabia has reported that three more people have died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing the total number of deaths globally to 30. The Ministry of Health said Thursday the three deceased, ranging in age from 24 to 60, had chronic diseases, including kidney failure. It says they were hospitalized a month ago. The Ministry also announced a new case of the respiratory virus called MERS, bringing to 38 the number of those infected in the kingdom. It identified the afflicted person only as a 61-year-old from the Al-Ahsa region where the outbreak in a health care facility started in April. The World Health Organization said the new germ, a respiratory infection, was first seen in the Middle East and sickened more than 49 people worldwide.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/30/saudi-arabia-reports-3-more-deaths-from-new-sars-like-virus/