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PSA Screening Not Recommended: NY Daily News Still Doesn’t Care

Headlines every day in the New York Daily News are luring men in as part of a mass prostate cancer screening campaign that the American Cancer Society not only does not endorse, but its chief medical officer recommends against. Yet the paper brags that it’s beginning its second decade of this non-evidence-based campaign. Sample headlines:

• Doctors urge New York men to take advantage of free, city-wide PSA testing

• What you don’t know can kill you. Get a FREE prostate cancer test. It can save your life

• Bring dad in for FREE prostate cancer test across the city on Father’s Day

and

• Don’t skip the PSA test! My prostate cancer is treatable because simple test caught it early (written by a Daily News staffer). Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*

Prostate Cancer: What You Should Know

When Dennis Hopper died of prostate cancer at age 74, my husband asked me: “Hey, I thought prostate cancer is slow-growing and doesn’t kill men.”

Well, he’s right about it usually being slow-growing, but prostate cancer is still the second leading cause of cancer death in men. His question made me realize that there are some facts that everyone should know about prostate cancer. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

Why Are People Embarrassed By Certain Conditions?

April is “Embarrassing Subject Month” for my podcast. I am covering the following problems:

  • Hemorrhoids
  • Digestive problems (constipation/diarrhea)
  • Urinary incontinence
  • “Male problems”

It should be fun, and it will be promoted on iTunes, so it should drum up more subscribers and downloads.

But it begs the question: Why are certain conditions embarrassing to people? Why can people open up to me about so many personal things, yet be embarrassed to discuss hemorrhoids? Why is it easier to talk about your marriage falling apart than your urinary “accidents?” Why is diarrhea more embarrassing than vomiting? Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*

No End In Sight For Prostate Cancer Screening

Is the tide finally turning on PSA screening for prostate cancer? There’s no definitive data that PSA screening saves lives from prostate cancer, and it indeed can lead to further, invasive, tests that can cause men significant discomfort. Medical societies are divided on the issue. Primary care groups like the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommend against it for older men, while the American Urological Association (AUA) continues to recommend screening.

In a strongly worded op-ed in the New York Times, Richard Ablin, also known as the founder of the PSA test, bemoans how our healthcare system has twisted its use. “The test’s popularity has led to a hugely expensive public health disaster,” he writes. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*

New Condom Delivers Erection Medicine Via The Skin

The New York Times profiles research by Harvey A. Liu and Kenneth J. Balkus Jr. of the University of Texas at Dallas to create a therapeutic nitric oxide releasing bandage. Nitric oxide can play a significant role in peripheral vasodilation, relaxation of pulmonary vasculature, and other physiological processes, such as penile erection. Therefore, an effective method of delivering this free radical should allow the development of new types of vascular stockings, bandages, and other therapeutic (or recreational) devices.

A snippet from NYT:

As they describe in a paper in Chemistry of Materials, the researchers use a zeolite, an aluminosilicate mineral that has a three-dimensional cage structure. Zeolites have been shown to be able to store and release nitric oxide and other chemicals. They embed the mineral in fibers of a biocompatible polymer, polylactic acid, as they are spun and form a tissue-like mat. The fibers are then infused with nitric oxide; by controlling the porosity of the fibers, the researchers could control the release of the gas.

The researchers say the resulting material could be incorporated into socks for diabetics that would deliver nitric oxide through the skin. It might also prove useful before transplants as a wrapping for organs to help preserve them outside the body for longer.

More from the New York Times…

Abstract in Chemistry of Materials: Novel Delivery System for the Bioregulatory Agent Nitric Oxide

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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