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Colon cancer deaths can be reduced by special procedure

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Jana
on May 1, 2010
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On April 29, British researchers announced that a procedure called a sigmoidoscopy performed between the ages of 55 and 64 can decrease colorectal cancer deaths by an astounding 43 percent.

These results, which were taken from the first major randomized trial of sigmoidoscopy, reveal that it is even more effective screening than mammography for breast cancer or PSA tests for prostate cancer.

This reaffirms current U.S. guidelines that recommend regular sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy to check for colorectal cancer.

During a sigmoidoscopy, a bendable tube equipped with a tiny camera is inserted into the rectum to scan the lower third of the bowel. More than 50 percent of bowel cancers happen in this area of the colon. All of the large intestine is examined during a colonoscopy.

This test finds tumors in their early stages of development, when the cure rate is almost 90 percent. It also spots and enables removal of polyps that could grow into tumors later.

At this time, only around 13 percent of all tumors are detected at that stage. Sadly, once symptoms develop, the cure rate is less than 50 percent.

Currently, colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer in the U.S.  It is diagnosed in about 147,000 people every year and kills almost 50,000. However, only around half of the qualified people in the U.S. get screened for it, according to the American Cancer Society.

Upper body pain can come from too much texting

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on April 23, 2010
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3772984885_e453a2cb30The increasing use of cell phones is resulting in a new type of pain for some people, according to Dr. Mark Sobor of ChicagoHealers.com.

Neck, shoulder, hand and arm pain and similar kinds of repetitive motion injuries can come from texting and using computer keyboards a lot. Believe it or not, cell phones were not originally designed for all that texting.

Dr. Sobor said that people are prone to hunch over as they work, which puts considerable strain on their neck and upper backs. Most use only one thumb to type, causing strain to occur on one side. Also, repeated motions of some muscles deprives them of oxygen, which can lead to spasms.

So if you are one of those who is texting more than talking, there are some things you can do to prevent this kind of unwelcome pain. First of all, get yourself ready for texting by warming up and stretching your muscles. Furthermore, mother was right when she said “sit up straight.” Improving your posture while texting can help prevent pain. Try to put your phone or PDA on an area where you will not have to strain your neck and upper back by bending over to see the screen. Also, it is important to give yourself plenty of breaks. Between texts, put the phone down and get up and move around a little. As often as you can, open and close your fingers and stretch them. You can stretch your forearm muscles by extending your arm with your palm facing up and use your other hand to pull your palm down toward the floor. Hold this position for 15 seconds and repeat 2 or 3 times for each arm. Another tip to try is to use both thumbs to text and try to keep your messages short and sweet.

Glaxo’s rotavirus vaccine is temporarily suspended by FDA

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Jana
on April 23, 2010
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4150560901_2350ce120bIn March, pediatricians were told by U.S. health officials to temporarily stop using one of the two vaccines used to prevent a leading cause of diarrhea in infants. This was done after they found doses of Glaxo-Smith-Kline’s Rotavirus contaminated with a benign pig virus.

Millions of children around the world have been vaccinated with Glaxo’s vaccine with no safety issues and the pig virus is not known to cause any type of illness in people or animals according to Dr. Margaret Hamburg, who is the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

The Rotavirus causes extreme diarrhea and is the leading killer of children in developing countries. About 55,000 children in the U.S. were hospitalized for rotavirus infections before vaccination began with the Merck’s vaccine in 2006 and Glaxo’s in 2008.

Glaxo said that regulators abroad have decided not to alter how Rotarix is used as scientists research the importance of this new finding.

The oral vaccine, Rotarix, is created from a diluted strain of human rotavirus that is grown inside living cells before it is purified into a vaccine dose. Glaxo uses a line of monkey kidney cells or vero cells. According to Hamburg, the pig virus DNA fragments have been found in Glaxo’s cell bank. This means that they were there from the earliest development of the vaccine. It is not yet known how the contamination happened but an investigation is being performed.

The rotavirus vaccine created by Merck is made by a completely different process.

Why excess belly fat is a health hazard

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on April 19, 2010
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Having too much belly fat is definitely a bummer when you are trying to shop for new jeans or put on that swimsuit for that first day at the pool. This said, it is also linked with a smorgasbord of health problems like increased blood glucose levels, Type 2 diabetes, elevated blood pressure and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Dr. Donald Hensrud, the chair of the division of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic diet, said “There’s an increased risk of heart disease with increasing waist circumference or abdominal fat, and increased risk of overall mortality.”

So basically,  if you can lose the belly, you’ll be happier and healthier.

According to Hensrud, there are two kinds of belly fat; subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Inside the abdominal wall you have visceral fat and outside the abdominal wall is subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that you can actually grab. It is usually assumed that visceral fat is more dangerous and is linked with more health risks.  Most of the time, this is true, but there’s some evidence that subcutaneous fat can be harmful as well.

So what do you do if you are extra thick around the middle? Well there are steps you can take. First of all, if you drink alcohol, try to stop or cut down, especially if you like beer. If you can’t stop cold turkey, at least switch to light beer and try to limit your drinking to the weekends.

There is some evidence that points to skipping breakfast as being a culprit in visceral fat accumulation, according to Hensrud. He also said that some dietary patterns tend to affect fat distribution. One study revealed that a diet with 25 percent of calories coming from fructose was connected with a surge in weight gain.

I’m sure I don’t have to remind you to exercise when you are trying to reduce that belly, but forget about spot-reducing. Hensrud said “Either doing specific exercise, crunches, or wearing one of these belts around the middle things, it doesn’t work.”

The good news is that once you do begin to lose weight, you may notice it first in your belly area. According to Hensrud, visceral fat appears to be more metabolically active, so it’s accumulated and broken down more rapidly that fat in other areas.

Hensrud also said that two studies found that people who failed to lose weight during an exercise program still lost visceral fat in their abdomens.

Drug for menstrual cramps is being developed

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on April 6, 2010
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3153325402_7a2c7bfac0Well there is finally some good news for every woman out there who has experienced the excruciating menstrual cramps that can come with getting your period; the pain that no man can truly understand and that most all women endure to some degree every month.

There is a British company that is striving to create a medication that is aiming against the exact cause of menstrual cramps. Recently at a medical conference, the researchers revealed data from a clinical trial.

Contractions of the uterus and an escalation of the hormone vasopressin are what generate menstrual cramps. The purpose of this innovative medicine, called VA111913, is to shut off this hormone. The usual treatments women currently use for help with painful cramps are pain medicine and birth control pills. These do help, but they only deal with the symptoms of menstrual cramps, not the actual cause.

About 50 percent of all women undergo some type of menstrual cramps, but there are 10 to 20 percent who have a severe condition called dysmenorrhea. This condition is one of the main reasons for women to miss school and work in America.

Several antidepressants may reduce libido for some people

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on April 6, 2010
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We all probably know someone who has taken antidepressants and many of us have even had them prescribed to us. Unfortunately, we may not all be aware of the sexual side effects that some of these may cause.

Several antidepressants, including Prozac (fluoxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), Paxil (paroxetine), Celexa (citalopram), Effexor (venlafaxine), Pristiq (desvenlafaxine) and Lexapro (escitalopram), can all lead to sexual side effects. There have been some studies that have discovered that one-third to two-thirds of patients who took these drugs can encounter lower sex drive, diminished arousal and  a slower time to reach climax. Some patients have even reported a type of genital “anesthesia” and having orgasms without pleasure.

Even though there are numerous doctors who believe that these type of unwanted side effects usually goes away soon after patients stop taken their antidepressants, it might not always happen. There is one analysis of case reports which found that specific types of antidepressants can have long-term effects on every part of sexual responses and may continue even after they are stopped.

BCBSNC CEO is now in favor of health reform bill

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Jana
on April 6, 2010
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The CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Brad Wilson, has recently revealed that he stands behind the health-care reform bill that passed in the evening of March 21. He says “It’s a step in the right direction, however, there is still a lot of work to do to give Americans a health-care system that they can both depend on and afford.”

He also appealed to Congress for them to try and tackle the rising health-care costs that have caused major surges in the cost of insurance in the past few years.

This surprising show of support from the CEO of BCBSNC is in sharp contrast for the insurance company that was formerly opposed to the bill and even organized a campaign that debated against health-care reform legislation passed by the House of Representatives.

Wilson announced that his company, the state’s largest health insurer, is getting ready for the changes that the new law will bring. Just days before taking over from Greczyn on February 1 from COO to CEO, Wilson announced to TBJ that his reservation over the health-care reform was his utmost concern about BCBSNC. The company controls almost 97 percent of individual of the health insurance market in North Carolina.

Lose weight by cutting TV time in half

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on March 11, 2010
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69616386_b6468f8305Love watching TV but hate exercising and you want to lose some weight? Well you may just need to love TV half as much. A new study claims that you can burn an extra 120 calories a day by cutting your TV watching by 50 percent. I know, you love your favorite shows, but the good news is that you can burn these extra calories without even exercising!

The lead author of a new University of Vermont study, Jennifer Otten, says that “the average American watches about five hours of TV a day.” The people in her study actually burned 120 calories more a day just by watching half as much TV a day. She said that this can render a whopping 12-pound weight loss within a year’s time; all without any additional change in their diet.

The researchers discovered that when the participants turned off the TV, they tended to do little chores around the house that eventually had a significant effect on their weight. She said that you can even burn calories by doing something as simple as organizing a photo album.  Otten said that “small changes in behavior can be more sustainable over time and may have a real effect on fighting obesity.” That’s a good incentive to turn off the tube and get started on that “honey do” list.

Study finds antidepressants more beneficial in serious cases

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on March 11, 2010
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A recent study has discovered that antidepressants do not give much help to people who have mild or moderate depression. For these people, just going to the doctor and talking about symptoms and understanding more about depression is often all they need to do to begin to achieve the similar positive effects that medication would provide.

Robert DeRubeis, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor, claims that only the people who have severe depression get the extra benefits from taking antidepressants. The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

There have been many studies that have shown the benefits of antidepressants over placebos, but most only deal with participants who suffer from extreme depression. DeRubeis said that “confusion arises because there is a tendency to generalize the findings to mean that all depressed people benefit from medications.”

This analysis tried to figure out just how much of the antidepressants’ positive effects is from the specific chemical effects from medicine and how much can be attributed to other things like going to a doctor, making an effort to feel better or simply from the passage of time.

Six placebo-controlled studies were analyzed by researchers for the study. There were 718 patients who either took a placebo (fake pill) or an actual antidepressant. These patients were adults who suffered from a variety of depression cases that ranged from mild to severe according to the Hamilton Depression Ratings Scale, which is a commonly used questionnaire in depression research.

The results from the treatment were similar for those with mild, moderate and severe symptoms, whether or not they had the placebo or the actual antidepressant. The only people who showed notable improvements on the antidepressants were the ones who were considered very severe at the beginning of the study.

So what are some symptoms of a severely depressed person? Well they could have symptoms like feelings of sadness and guilt, feeling that life is not worth living, crying often, sleeping difficulties, being lethargic and discontinuing regular activities. People with this type of extreme depression usually need to take antidepressants to help them improve. DeRubeis said that those who don’t have such deep depression should think about doing cognitive therapies, because treatment can be helpful for any level of depression.

New study could help find new methods to quit smoking

Published
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Jana
on March 9, 2010
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2091297077_83394cbec9_bA recent study on smokers’ brains found that nicotine accumulates slowly in smokers’ brains instead of rising after each puff.

In the March 8 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Jed Rose of Duke University reported that nicotine accumulation in the brain was gradual over a time period of several minutes.

In the past, scientists speculated that there was a surge of nicotine in the brain about seven seconds following each puff, but until recently, there was hardly any evaluations made. Rose admitted that they were astonished to discover that the rate of uptake was in strong contrast to what one usually hears. He directs the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research, which is a part of the university’s School of Medicine.

Brain scans were done by Rose to calculate the nicotine levels in 13 regular smokers and 10 people who only smoke once in a while. The researchers found that the highest brain levels of nicotine were achieved within 3 to 5 minutes and built up more gradually in addicted smokers than in casual ones.

Rose implied that “this slower rate resulted from nicotine staying longer in the lungs of dependent smokers, which may result of the chronic effects of smoke on the lungs.” He says that because of this discovery, researchers could be more capable to come up with better ways for smokers to get what they want from cigarettes, but in a non-addictive way.

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