_ Which Prostate Surgery Is Better? By Jane Farrell article Robotic surgery, the primary choice for removing cancerous prostate glands, is as safe as open surgery for Medicare patients over 65, according to a new survey. The findings came in a survey that included analysis by researchers from Henry Ford Hospital. The hospital is a pioneer in robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP), a minimally invasive procedure. ΓÇ£Although studies comparing the two techniques were done early in the robotic era for this surgery, RARP boomed in more recent years, overtaking open surgery,ΓÇ¥ says study co-author Jesse D.
_ Women's Health and Wellness Bacteria and Overactive Bladder By Jane Farrell article Bacteria in urine appears to contribute to overactive bladder in some women, according to new research. The finding, by researchers from Loyola University Chicago, appears to contradict the belief that urine is germ-free. The investigators used DNA-based detection methods to reveal the presence of bacteria that couldnΓÇÖt be revealed by standard techniques.
_ Alternative Health Finding A Good Alternative Health Practitioner By Jane Farrell article There are so many ΓÇ£alternativeΓÇ¥ or ΓÇ£complementaryΓÇ¥ therapies available today that it can be hard to tell which ones are effective, donΓÇÖt work at all or can do you harm. ItΓÇÖs just as much of a challenge to choose a complementary health practitioner. Should you want to go to one, itΓÇÖs best to do the research beforehand or you may end up paying money for ΓÇ£treatmentsΓÇ¥ that donΓÇÖt work. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is part of the National Institutes of Health and an authority in the field of alternative medicine.
_ 10 Facts About Depression By Jane Farrell article By Dr. Prakash Masand May is Mental Health Month, and a time to bring awareness to the many conditions that make up mental illness. One of the most common is depression. Unfortunately, many people have been misled about the facts of depression from what theyΓÇÖve seen on TV or in the movies, or have heard about from their friends and others. What are the real facts about depression? Here are the 10 ten facts that everyone should know about depression: 1. ThereΓÇÖs more to depression than just feeling blue.
_ Low Risk Prostate Ca Not Always Low Risk By article The criteria for active surveillance -- often called ΓÇ£watch and waitΓÇ¥ -- in dealing with prostate cancer should be re-evaluated. That is the recommendation of a study done at the University of California, Los Angeles and published in the May 19th 2014 issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Urology.
_ Sepsis Contributes to Half of Hospital Deaths By article Sepsis, toxic response to infection, contributes to up to half of all hospital deaths in the U.S., according to a study presented at the American Thoracic Society's 2014 annual conference in San Diego. Although many studies have examined the incidence and mortality of patients diagnosed with sepsis in the U.S. over time, the study authors say that so far, the impact of sepsis on overall hospital mortality has been poorly understood.
_ Heart Health New Heart Tx as Good as Gold Standard By article LCZ696, a drug with two antihypertensives to lower blood pressure, won a head to head comparison with ACE inhibitors, the gold standard treatment. The trial, which was conducted in Athens and called the PARADIGM-HF, was stopped abruptly in May 2014 because of a benefit to patients that was overwhelmingly statistically significant.
_ Clot-Busting Can Help or Harm Stroke Patients By article Johns Hopkins researchers say they have developed a technique that can predict with 95 percent accuracy which stroke victims will benefit from intravenous, clot-busting drugs and which will suffer dangerous and potentially lethal bleeding in the brain. Reporting online May 15th 2014 in the journal Stroke, the Johns Hopkins team says these predictions were made possible by applying a new method they developed that uses standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to measures damage to the blood-brain barrier that protects the brain from drug exposure.
_ National Hepatitis Testing Day 2014 By Sondra Forsyth article May 19th 2014 is the third national Hepatitis Testing Day. Testing is especially important for Boomers and Beyond because people in that cohort may have contracted the HCV virus through blood transfusions or organ transplants prior to 1992 before screening went into effect. HCV, a potentially life-threatening infection of the liver, can be chronic with no symptoms for years and even decades. Millions of Americans have chronic hepatitis and most of them don’t know they are infected until serious liver damage has occurred.
Heart Health Viagra for Heart Failure? Works Better for the Guys By article Clear-cut gender differences stand out in measuring impact of Viagra as therapy for heart failure, according to a study done at Johns Hopkins and posted online May 16th 2014 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Specifically, in female mice modeling human heart failure, the benefits of sildenafil, the generic name for Viagra, ranged from robust to practically nonexistent depending on the animals' levels of the hormone estrogen. Yet in male mice, sildenafil generally appears to work well because it targets a different biological process independent of estrogen.
_ New Tx to Protect Brain Cells in PD By article April was Parkinson's Awarness Month, but here at ThirdAge we want to promote PD awarness all year long. To that end, here's a fascintating and encouraging new study about PD.
Antidepressant May Slow Alzheimer's By article Citalopram (brandname Celexa), a commonly prescribed antidepressant, can reduce production of the main ingredient in Alzheimer's brain plaques. That is the finding research done at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Pennsylvania. The study was published May 14th 2014 in Science Translational Medicine.
_ A New Approach to Treating Peanut Allergies By article If your grandchildren have to avoid PB&J sandwiches, once a staple of school lunch boxes, you’re far from alone. More and more people have food allergies that can sometimes have life-threatening consequences. Now scientists at the American Chemical Society report in May 2014 in the' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that they have developed of a new type of flour that someday could be used in food-based therapies to help people better tolerate their allergy triggers, including peanuts.
_ Skip the Surgery for Knee Osteoarthritis By article Arthroscopy of the knee joint for osteoarthritis, also called arthrosis or gonarthrosis,has no detectable benefit. That is the conclusion of a final report published by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) on May 12th 2014. The study included new data in which strengthening exercises under the supervision of a physical therapist were used as comparison therapy. This data did not changethe result of IQWiG’s preliminary report that was published in September 2013.
_ How Can We Avoid Another Global Pandemic? By Jane Farrell article An investigation into the 1918 flu pandemic has yielded some findings that could help experts improve current health policies, researchers say. Researchers from the University of Missouri looked at remote regions in North American to see how environmental, nutritional land economic factors determined the effect the pandemic had on them. The flu pandemic infected more than 500 million people and killed at least 50 million.
_ Aggressive Tx for Older Prostate Patients a Mistake By article Treating older men with early-stage prostate cancer who also have other serious underlying health problems with aggressive therapies such as surgery or radiation therapy does not help them live longer and, in fact, can be detrimental, according to a study done by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. The study was published in the May 13th 2014 early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Cancer.
_ New Molecule to Treat Asthma By article A new, potent therapeutic agent to treat asthma is on the horizon, according to findings published on May 12th 2014 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show promise for, a chronic disease affecting more than 25 million Americans. The research study was done at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Orlando, the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Germany, the Free University of Berlin in Germany, Shinshu University in Japan, and the University of California, San Diego.
Tools To Take Charge Of Your Cancer Survivorship By blog Most major cancer centers today offer a survivor care plan to organize your diagnosis, treatment and follow-up plan. It will soon be a standard of care to provide treatment summaries and survivorship care plans to all cancer patients. The primary components of a plan include: Diagnostic tests performed and results; including tumor site, stage, grade and other biomarker information.