January 2nd, 2010 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Research
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Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you know that in mid-November, the US Preventive Services Task Force released new recommendations on screening mammography, in which they recommended against routine mammogram screening in women under age 50, and recommended that mammograms now be every two years in women ages 50-74.
What you may not have heard is that the Task Force has acknowledged that the mammogram guidelines were poorly worded, and have revised their original statement to clarify their intentions, mostly by removing those two little words “recommends against”. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog that Ate Manhattan*
December 24th, 2009 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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It’s winter so why think about skin cancer? One of the major risk factors is UVA and UVB rays from sun exposure which is much more common in the summer. Tanning beds never cease being used, regardless of season and may even be used more in the winter than summer.
There is never a wrong season to be reminded of the prevalence of skin cancer or the risk factors for skin cancer or ways to prevent skin cancer. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
December 5th, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Quackery Exposed
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Earlier this week, I saw one of the best treatments of a misinterpreted story that has me thinking about how all news outlets should report in vitro laboratory studies.
Only thing is that it didn’t come from a news outlet.
It came a brainwashing site run by those medical socialist types – I am, of course, speaking of the UK National Health Service and their excellent patient education website, NHS Choices.
You may recall reading in the popular dead-tree or online press that investigators from New York Medical College in Valhalla published in British Journal of Urology International about maitake mushroom extract killing bladder cancer cells. The most widely cited reports came from the UK Daily Mail by Tamara Cohen entitled, “Mushroom ‘shrinks cancer tumours by 75 percent,'” and “Cancer Cure: Mushrooms Can Shrink Tumors,” by Jo Willey of the UKDaily Express. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata - PostRank (PostRank: All)*
November 24th, 2009 by DrRob in Better Health Network, True Stories
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It’s that part of the job that I’ve never gotten used to. I hope I never do.
I saw a man recently with an unexpected finding on his exam – a “lesion” that should not have been there. I was seeing him for his diabetes and blood pressure, and was doing my “ritual” physical exam, when the “lesion” blared into my vision.
I say “ritual” exam because the exam itself had little to do with his medical problems. It is just my practice to do a cursory exam of the head, neck, chest, and lungs of most everyone who comes to the office. I guess it’s the “laying on of hands” part of the practice of medicine that makes me do this; there is something about the human touch that makes a doctor’s visit different from a visit to the accountant. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
November 21st, 2009 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, News
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Right in the middle of the national firestorm about Mammogram recommendations, the American College of Gynecologists (ACOG) has issued new guidelines for screening of cervical cancer. After 40 years of successfully convincing women to get pap smears annually, the new recommendations say women should not get their first pap test until age 21 and the intervals for testing can then be stretched out.
The new recommendations say that women should start pap screening at age 21 (not teens who are sexually active as previously recommended) and then every two years through age 29. Women age 30 and over with three negative pap smears can stretch it out for three years. Women over age 65 can stop getting pap tests if their previous tests have been negative. Women who have had a hysterectomy for non-cancer reasons never need a pap smear. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*