Menopause
What we often think of as menopause is really the “perimenopause”, the years leading up to the actual menopause (your last period), which signals the end of your reproductive years. On a positive note,...
Monthly Archive: April 2011
Stay Healthy in a Gloomy Economy
Recession can wreak havoc on your health and financial stress can take its toll on your immune system, making you prone to illness. But if you do get sick, do you resist visiting the...
Clear Up Cloudy Vision
Studies show that by age 60, 50 percent of all people have some degree of cataracts. They account for the number one cause of vision loss. New technology allows them to be removed in...
Saving Your Sight
Now there’s a major breakthrough in eye surgery for patients who suffer from extreme near-sightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism. The procedure offers 20-20 vision in a matter of minutes. Lisa’s eyesight was so bad that...
Children’s Cataracts
When you think of cataracts, you probably associate the condition with older adults. Each year, about 20,000 children also develop the disease. While the care of adult cataract patients has advanced over the past...
Tattoos, Body Piercing, Send Up Red Flags
Doctors who see tattoos and/or body piercings at sites other than at the earlobes on their young patients may want to assess them for other risky behaviors, say researchers publishing in Pediatrics. Their study...
Professional Help for Mental Illness
A recent study points out the large numbers of adults with common and treatable mental disorders who don’t seek professional help. Researchers in New York surveyed more than 8,000 adults between ages 15 and...
Depressed Men
Depression is twice as common in women as in men, but men do get the blues. However, they sometimes don’t realize it … or won’t admit it. Marty almost joined the ranks of hundreds...
Identifying Kidney Infection Risk
Many of the same factors that put women at risk for urinary tract infections also put them at risk for kidney infections, according to a new study. Researchers from Group Health Cooperative in Seattle...
Urinary Incontinence may be all in the Family
If your mother or older sister suffers from urinary incontinence, new research shows you may have a higher risk of developing the condition as well. Researchers publishing in the British Medical Journal found the...
Determining Dementia Prognosis
The best care for persons with advanced dementia is hindered because of the difficulty in estimating their prognosis with accuracy — until now. Researchers have created a model to help determine the risk of...
Hospitalizations After Hip Fractures
Hip fracture patients who are discharged from the hospital before they have fully stabilized stand a much higher risk of dying — even if they are discharged to another health care facility. According to...
Cystic Fibrosis and Urinary Incontinence
A new study shows urinary incontinence is a common but often underreported problem in adolescents with cystic fibrosis. The study suggests doctors need to talk to their patients about this problem. Urinary incontinence is...
Cinnamon Sores
Cinnamon can irritate the mouth’s lining, causing a burning sensation. Cinnamon gum and candy may look harmless, but they can cause white spots and sores in your mouth. Pat, Had Mouth Sores: “It was...
Fibromyalgia Pain Relief
Fibromyalgia affects about 6 million Americans, most of them women. For many, the pain can be unbearable. Treatments vary from person to person, and some find no relief with treatments currently available. Now a...
Unnecessary Illness
The hospital is supposed to be the place where people go to get better. However, that same place may be doing more harm to trusting patients than good. The Centers for Disease Control and...
How important is it for women to take care of their teeth during pregnancy?
That’s a key thing because the more decay that you have in your mouth, the higher the bacteria count is that is associated with dental decay. What happens is they’re going to have their...
Help for Sudden Hearing Loss
One in every 5,000 Americans will suffer sudden hearing loss. It can be caused by a number of conditions including autoimmune disease, viral infection, a blood clot or a broken membrane in the ear....
Sinus Surgery
Chronic sinusitis can make a child miserable. Children get sinusitis when the tiny passages which drain the sinuses into the nose are blocked and can’t drain. Now improved surgical techniques make it possible to...
Allergy Sprays
Allergies. For years Joy has had symptoms, reacting to pollens from trees, grasses and weeds. Runny nose, itchy, itchy eyes where you want to pluck them out. For others the problem may be in...
The Phases of Menopause
The transition to menopause actually begins long before you have your last period. To make the process easier to measure, doctors divide it into three phases. The first is the perimenopause, the time leading...
The Top Ten Foods for Natural Menopause
1. Soy Singled out as number 1, soy has been proven time and again to have properties that help reduce hot flashes and night sweats. Eat a variety of organic soy foods, including tofu,...
Go Green
A healthier planet makes for a healthier you. Pollutants and chemicals in the food, water, and air have been blamed for everything from chronic fatigue to infertility to cancer. And while you shouldn’t move...
Fibrosis Can Be Reversed and Cured
A new discovery could lead to the first cure for cirrhosis of the liver. San Diego researchers have proven liver fibrosis can be stopped and reversed in mice. This could help scientists develop new...
Drug Lowers Cholesterol in a New Way
A new drug works in an entirely different way than statins — the popular class of drugs doctors commonly prescribe to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. Now, researchers report there...
Drug Treatment for Liver Disease
A drug traditionally used to treat diabetes could reverse the symptoms of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis — a type of liver disease. Recent research reveals pioglitazone (Actos) effectively reduces fats and inflammation in the liver. Fifty-five...
Understanding Liver Disease in the Obese
A new study looks at what is associated with a form of fatty liver disease that can lead to advanced liver disease. For the study, researchers looked at the livers of patients undergoing gastric...
Thalidomide Kills Cancer
Multiple myeloma is one of the fastest growing cancers in the United States. Cancer of the bone marrow strikes nearly 14,000 Americans every year, and there’s no cure. However, there may be a way...
The Truth Is in the Tummy
Countless infomercials advertise trendy products and pills promising to transform your stomach from soft to svelte. But what’s the real cause of belly bulge… and the “secret” to slimming down? Unfortunately, no magic concoction...
Conventional Treatments for Osteoporosis
In the past, the usual recommendation for preventing and treating osteoporosis has been hormone replacement therapy (HRT). In the USA, pre-menopausal women can still use HRT (or HT, hormone therapy) to prevent osteoporosis. However,...