Doctor HealthHealth Tips

A study published in the Journal of American Medical Association Tuesday found Viagra is effective at combating sexual dysfunction in depressed women, Agence France-Presse reported.

Viagra’s effect in women has been disappointing, but a new small study finds those on antidepressants may benefit from taking the little blue pills.

The research involving 98 premenopausal women found Viagra helped with orgasm. But the benefits did not extend to other aspects of sex such as desire, researchers report in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

“For women on antidepressants with orgasm problems, this may provide some wonderful relief,” said psychologist Stanley Althof, director of the Center for Marital and Sexual Health of South Florida in West Palm Beach, who was not involved in the study. “But it will not improve their desire or arousal.”

Antidepressants can interfere with sex drive and performance even as the drugs help lift crippling depression. Switching drugs or reducing the dose can help. But many people, men and women, stop taking them because of their sexual side effects.

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WASHINGTON — Remember peeking through a View-Master? Scientists are using the same concept behind the classic kids’ toy to try to see mammograms in 3-D.

The goal: A better way to check for breast cancer in women with breasts too dense for today’s mammograms to give a clear picture.

Radiologists donning 3-D glasses isn’t the only potential aid. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., is testing a new kind of breast camera that might challenge the images of those far pricer MRI exams now reserved for the most high-risk women, but at a fraction of the price.

Both technologies still are experimental. But the research is being watched closely because the need is so great: Half of women younger than 50 and a third of women over 50 are estimated to have dense breasts.

In addition to a harder time viewing any brewing tumors, women with dense breasts have a higher risk of getting breast cancer, too.

Only a mammogram can tell if your breasts are made up more of dense or easier-to-examine fatty tissue. But if a doctor warns that you have dense breasts, there’s little good advice on how to get a better cancer check today.

“It’s a major issue in the field now, more and more, how to address the imaging needs of women with significant breast density,” says American Cancer Society screening specialist Robert Smith. “We and women and everyone else is kind of left wondering what would be best under what circumstances.”

But, “we can do better than we’re doing,” predicts Dr. Mary S. Newell, assistant breast-imaging chief at Emory University in Atlanta, who is testing the 3-D approach.

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There is a growing debate over the necessity and number of vaccines administered to the U.S. population. The controversy often surrounds a number of issues, such as pharmaceutical company lobbying to require administration of vaccinations that critics say have not undergone adequate testing.

For example, many states have pending bills that would require young girls to be vaccinated against HPV with Merck’s Gardasil. Currently only Virginia has passed a bill, as controversy has stalled bills in other states. The Virginia bill requires girls entering the sixth grade to be vaccinated, though it allows parents to opt their daughters out.

Others argue that over-vaccination will have long term detrimental effects on human immune systems. In the Journal Immunology Today researchers wrote:

Modern vaccinations, fear of germs and obsession with hygiene are depriving the immune system of the information input upon which it is dependent. This fails to maintain the correct cytokine balance and fine-tune T-cell regulation, and may lead to increased incidences of allergies and autoimmune diseases. If humans continue to deprive their immune systems of the input to which evolution has adapted it, it may be necessary to devise ways of replacing it artificially.

In a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, University of Toronto researchers have uncovered widespread misinformation in related videos on YouTube.

The researchers, Dr. Kumanan Wilson and Dr. Jennifer Keelan, analyzed 153 videos about vaccination and immunization on YouTube, a popular online video-sharing site. Researchers found that more than half of the videos portrayed childhood, HPV, flu and other vaccinations negatively or ambiguously.

Of those videos, researchers report that about 45 per cent contained messages that contradict the 2006 Canadian Immunization Guide, which provides national guidelines for immunization practices. The Canadian recommendations are similar to guidelines from the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“YouTube is increasingly a resource people consult for health information, including vaccination,” says first author Keelan, an assistant professor in U of T’s Department of Public Health Sciences. “Our study shows that a significant amount of immunization content on YouTube contradicts the best scientific evidence at large. From a public health perspective, this is very concerning.”

The research team also found that videos skeptical of vaccinations—many of them highly provocative and powerful—received more views and better ratings by YouTube users than those videos that portray immunizations in a positive light.

“Health care professionals need to be aware that individuals critical of immunization are using YouTube to communicate their viewpoints and that patients may be obtaining information from these videos,” says Wilson, senior author and an associate professor with U of T’s Department of Medicine. “YouTube users also need to be aware of this, so they can filter information from the site accordingly.”

“The findings also indicate that public health officials should consider how to effectively communicate their viewpoints through Internet video portals,” Wilson says.

Below is an example of one of the most viewed anti-vaccination videos on YouTube, covering Gardasil, Merck’s cervical cancer / HPV vaccine. In February of 2007, Merck said the company would stop lobbying state legislatures to make it mandatory for girls to be inoculated with Gardasil.

Sources:

• Journal of the American Medical Association, December 5, 2007
• Universtiy of Toronto

The extra blood volume produced in the obese may so dilute levels of a telltale protein produced by prostates that the popular PSA test may be significantly less effective for diagnosing prostate cancer in men carrying extra pounds, a new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association suggests.

The new research, combining data from more than 13,000 prostate cancer patients at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and elsewhere, could eventually affect the reliability of scores of other blood tests for cancer and other diseases in obese people, or at least alter the way those tests are analyzed, investigators say.

The predictive value of the PSA test depends on accurate readings of a protein, (P)rostate (S)pecific (A)ntigen continually pumped out by the prostate. When the prostate is enlarged—due to cancer or other disorders—the concentration of PSA in the bloodstream can increase, signaling the possible presence of a tumor. Physicians thus commonly regard increased PSA values as a first marker to diagnose prostate cancer, to be followed by other diagnostic tests such as physical exams and ultrasound.

Complicating the picture further, the researchers note, that both physical exams and imaging studies are more difficult in obese men.

Although recent studies have shown that PSA concentrations can be lower than expected in obese men with prostate cancer, the current research was designed to determine which of two dueling hypotheses explained this, notes Alan Partin, M.D., chief of the Department of Urology at Johns Hopkins’ Brady Urological Institute.

One idea was based on the possibility that obese men make less PSA because they tend to have less testosterone, the sex hormone that prompts PSA production. The other attributed the phenomenon to the increased amount of blood that obese men produce to support their size, which has the effect of thinning out the concentration of PSA.

Partin and Stephen Freedland, M.D., Partin’s former postdoctoral fellow who is now an assistant professor at Duke University, investigated both ideas by assessing how much total PSA obese and normal-weight men have.

Using records of patients treated for prostate cancer between 1988 and 2006 at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Duke University and various Veterans Affairs hospitals, Partin, Freedland and their colleagues compiled information on PSA concentration and body mass index (BMI), a ratio of body weight to height that generally indicates whether someone is underweight, normal weight or overweight.

Using a standard calculation, the researchers used BMIs to estimate the amount of blood circulating in each patient’s body. A different calculation used this blood volume, along with PSA concentrations, to estimate the total amount of PSA each patient had.

As expected, PSA concentrations were typically lower in the obese patients than in the normal-weight ones, although the total amount of PSA was about the same in both groups of patients.

“It’s clear to us that excess blood had diluted PSA concentrations in that group,” says Partin.

Freedland says a variety of new tests currently in development for cancer and other diseases rely on the concentrations of disease markers similar to PSA circulating in the blood. “For these other tests just starting down the development pipeline,” he says, “we need to think about the actual total amount of a biological marker rather than concentration.”

This study was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Duke University Department of Surgery and Division of Urology, Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program, the American Urological Association Foundation/Astellas Rising Star in Urology Award, National Institutes of Health Specialized Programs of Research Excellence Grant P50 CA58236, the Georgia Cancer Coalition, National Institutes of Health R01CA100938, National Institutes of Health Specialized Programs of Research Excellence Grant P50 CA92131-01A1 and the American Cancer Society.

Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine

Breast cancer statistics show that over 1. 2 million persons will be diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide this year, according to the World Health Organization. For breast cancer and prevention, it has long been known that regular physical activity has been shown to decrease the likelihood of having breast cancer. What has not been known or studied has been the effect of regular physical activity on the breast cancer survival rates or likelihood of death in women that already have breast cancer. That is, until now.

The breast cancer statistics and findings as reported by the American Medical Associations Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in May 2005 were astounding! Certain participants in the study of women with Stage I, II or III breast cancer achieved a 50% reduction in the death rate from breast cancer.

Here are these breast cancer statistics: the journal reported that in the study 2, 987 female registered nurses had been diagnosed with breast cancer during the years 1984-1998. What the study found was that the women who had physical activity equivalent to walking at a steady pace of 2. 0-2. 9 miles per hour for 3-5 hours a week had a death rate of only 50% of the death rate of women who had physical activity equivalent to walking less than one hour a week. The conclusion of the breast cancer statistics in the study was that physical activity after breast cancer has been diagnosed may reduce the risk of death from breast cancer. The study found that there was little evidence of any relation between increased physical activity and increased benefit.

It’s time to dust off those walking shoes!

As a physical activity, walking can be done almost anytime by anyone anywhere. All that is needed is a good pair of walking shoes. Walking is fun and reduces stress. As for injuries, walking has the lowest injury rate of all the various kinds of exercise.

You can walk with a partner, friend, family member or dog, maybe even a neighbors dog. Or you can walk with your favorite headset and music. If you are walking outdoors with a headset, keep one ear open to hear the sounds around you.

As for basic walking tips:

· As you begin regular walking, take it easy. Standard advice is to check with your physician before starting any exercise program. If it has been years or decades since you walked regularly, perhaps you can begin with 5 minutes of walking and slowly increase your time and distance.

· Walking at a pace of 75-95 steps a minute will have you walking at a speed of about 2-3 miles per hour.

· Walk with your head up, looking out in front of you. Do not walk looking down right in front of you except to navigate any obstacles.

· Really take it easy the first 5 minutes of walking to warm up. Afterwards, gently stretch for 5-10 minutes while your muscles are warm.

· Practice good walking form. Your arms should swing naturally in the direction you are walking, not from side to side across your body. Your foot should strike the ground on your heel, then a rolling motion forward toward the ball of your foot, then pushing off with your toes.

And here are some basic walking shoes tips:

· Buy your walking shoes from a sporting shoes store with large selections. Doing so will give you plenty of choices. And buy your walking shoes later in the day when your feet will be larger.

· Buy cushioned, supportive walking shoes. To see if a shoe is supportive, do this test: take a shoe and turn it upside down. Holding each end of the shoe, try to fold it. If you find the shoe bends in the middle, then that shoe is not a supportive shoe. A supportive shoe should bend where your foot normally bends, near your toes.

· You should allow the width of your index finger between the end of your shoe and the end of your longest toe, or about one-half inch.

· Buy two pairs of walking shoes, one for home and one for the car or workplace. And if one pair gets wet, you can use the other pair that day.

Walking is the closest thing to the perfect exercise. In today’s fast-paced society, regular walking can be a welcomed break from the stress of the day. Maybe you will get to know your neighborhood or neighbors better. There may be walking trails you have never seen but wanted to.

Wherever and however you choose to walk, not only can the experience be fun, you will know you are being good to your body in a variety of ways. Besides the incredible breast cancer statistics and findings of the breast cancer study, walking helps with weight control and bone strength, elevates mood, helps build and maintain healthy muscles, joints and heart. With so many great health benefits, why not get started walking today!

By Olinda Rola