11/07/16

Monday, November 7, 2016

Kids with cancer living longer, but there's a tradeoff

New research looks at the long-term health issues facing adults who beat cancer in childhood

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/childhood-cancer-survivors-living-longer-but-not-in-better-health/

Name Game: Natural Beauty Products Explained

What do "eco" and "organic" really mean when it comes to your skin care?

From: http://www.webmd.com/beauty/skin/natural-beauty-products?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Challenge for Some Cancer Survivors: Heart Disease

The younger the age at diagnosis, the greater the risk, study suggests

From: http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20161107/a-future-challenge-for-some-cancer-survivors-heart-disease?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Does anesthesia in childhood impact IQ?

Researchers compared young children who'd never had surgical anesthesia with kids who'd had it one time or more

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anesthesia-in-children-before-age-4-linked-to-lower-iq-scores-grades/

Best Toys for Babies

How to choose playthings that inspire exploration and build skills.

From: http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/features/best-toys-babies?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Anatomy of Lipstick

Quite a bit of lip service goes into each tube.

From: http://www.webmd.com/beauty/makeup/anatomy-lipstick?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Turkey: 1 Day, 5 Dinners

Give your leftovers new appeal with these five easy-to-prepare recipes.

From: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/5-leftover-turkey-dinners?src=RSS_PUBLIC

3 Ways to Cook Butternut Squash

Go for the gold with this nutty, sweet, antioxidant-rich veggie.

From: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/3-ways-cook-butternut-squash?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Mercy Killers

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slxH-38LRG8

Additive in processed foods linked to cancer in mice

Emulsifiers are tied to altered gut bacteria, inflammation and colon cancer, say the authors of a new mouse study

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/common-additive-in-processed-foods-linked-to-colon-cancer-in-mice/

“This Is My New Math. This Is Diabetes.”

Siani looks like a typical college student. She goes to the campus dining hall for breakfast, takes classes in Business Administration during the day and dances with her friends at parties in the evening.

What you don’t know is that inside her purse, she is carrying juice, snacks and insulin. You don’t know that she’s counting carbs for everything on the menu at the dining hall. You don’t know that the reason she occasionally misses class is because she has to take care of her diabetes. “You don’t always have somebody there with you,” she says. “I have to always take care of myself first.”

Siani was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes shortly after her 10th birthday. This is her story.

During American Diabetes Month^® we’re sharing the stories of people affected by diabetes, just like Siani. What do YOU want the world to know about this disease?

If you or someone you know is living with diabetes, share your story during November using #ThisIsDiabetes. And learn more at http://diabetes.org/adm.

From: American Diabetes Association http://diabetesstopshere.org/2016/11/07/this-is-siani/

Dr. Pritish Tosh on babies and cleanliness

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1P0xQ-ioI8

Anesthesia Before 4 May Slightly Affect Academics

The low 'overall difference in academic performance' is reassuring, researchers say

From: http://www.webmd.com/children/news/20161107/anesthesia-before-age-4-may-have-slight-impact-on-later-school-performance?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Does Second Opinion Sway Prostate Cancer Patients?

Most choose treatment they originally planned to follow, study finds

From: http://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20161107/second-opinions-dont-seem-to-sway-prostate-cancer-patients?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Health Heroes: Where Are They Now?

Checking in on winners from the past 10 years.

From: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/health-heroes-where-are-they-now?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Pregnant women must be able to access the right care at the right time, says WHO

WHO has issued a new series of recommendations to improve quality of antenatal care in order to reduce the risk of stillbirths and pregnancy complications and give women a positive pregnancy experience.

From: http://www.who.int/entity/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/antenatal-care-guidelines/en/index.html

Love or hate exercise? It may be in your genes

New research says some people don't get the same pleasurable effects from working out that others do

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/love-or-hate-exercise-it-may-be-in-your-genes/

Meet the Researcher: “Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP)”

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YG8rxt6Hp4

10th Anniversary: WebMD Health Heroes

We honor extraordinary Americans in four categories: People's Choice, Advocate, Scientist, and Prodigy.

From: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/health-heroes-10th-anniversary?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Kidney Transplant at Mayo Clinic

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyO3DGHOtAE

Why Choose Mayo Clinic Transplant Center

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYyP6JhwtwM

Liver Transplant at Mayo Clinic

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8MJONzbuTA

Largest preventable cause of disease still kills millions

Despite national campaigns, deaths are still climbing worldwide

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/smoking-still-killing-millions-worldwide/

Heart Transplant at Mayo Clinic

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmMdsYC4-tc

Suicide Kills More Middle Schoolers Than Crashes

From: http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20161107/suicide-middle-schoolers?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Hepatitis A Outbreak Linked to Frozen Strawberries

From: http://www.webmd.com/hepatitis/news/20161107/hepatitis-a-frozen-strawberries?src=RSS_PUBLIC

When a cough just won’t go away

Who has never had a cough? I bet no one can raise their hand. We see this in clinic all the time. But chronic cough— one that lasts at least eight weeks — can be hard for patients to deal with and difficult for doctors to figure out.

In the October 20, 2016 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, lung experts describe a step-by-step approach doctors can use to help treat patients with chronic cough. Most often a prolonged cough is due to one of the “usual suspects.” But when it’s not, we have a long list of increasingly rarer conditions that we should run through and rule out. If it isn’t due to any of those, experts now recognize that the culprit may be overactive nerves that cause an exaggerated cough response to certain triggers.

The “usual suspects” that may be behind a chronic cough

The authors describe a typical patient with chronic cough, and she is very similar to many of my patients. She’s a middle-aged lady with a cough lasting many months. Of course, first we want to ask a whole lot of questions.

Has she had chronic allergy symptoms such as itchy, watery eyes and nose, stuffy nose, and postnasal drip? If so, it’s worth trying antihistamines and nasal steroids. Undertreated allergies can lead to chronic sinus infection, which causes cough by postnasal drip, so we may want to treat for this as well.
Could she have “cough variant” asthma that causes a cough but no wheezing? Many of my patients would rather not wait for an appointment with a lung specialist and undergo fancy tests. So, if we suspect cough-variant asthma, we simply begin inhalers. A few weeks of inhaled albuterol to help open the airways and a steroid inhaler to quell inflammation may both make the diagnosis and treat the problem.
Is she suffering from heartburn symptoms? Acid reflux can also trigger cough, and if someone describes heartburn symptoms, or even if we are not sure what is causing the cough, we often prescribe eight weeks of an acid-lowering medication.
Is she taking a medication for which coughing is a side effect? Lisinopril or another blood pressure medication from the class called ACE inhibitors can cause cough in 20% of patients. A trial period off this medication may be warranted.
Is she among the 17% of Americans who smoke cigarettes? If so, her cough may be due to chronic bronchitis, where cumulative lung damage prevents the body’s normal ability to clear particles, the airways swell and make excessive mucus, and eventually areas die off and leave “dead space.” In a smoker, other symptoms with the cough may raise concern about a lung infection or even cancer.
Does she have other health risks or conditions? If she has been incarcerated or in a shelter, or perhaps is from a resource-poor country, we consider tuberculosis (TB). If she has a weakened immune system as well, due to HIV or long-term use of corticosteroids, TB and a host of other unusual organisms are on the list.
Are we stumped? Rare conditions to consider include pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, autoimmune diseases, and anatomical abnormalities. Additional workup should include pulmonary and ENT evaluations.

Beyond the usual — and even the “unusual” — suspects

But what do we do for patients who either do not respond to treatments for their common conditions, or for whom extensive evaluation rules out the less common causes of a chronic cough? Well, researchers are now describing a new family of breathing and cough conditions caused by nerve dysfunction.

New evidence suggests that postnasal drip, acid reflux, or even forceful coughing in and of itself can aggravate nerve endings in the “cough centers” of the airways. These aggravated nerve endings then overreact to many other triggers, such as smoke, perfume, or temperature changes, causing an overwhelming urge to cough. They label this condition “neuronal hyper-responsiveness syndrome” and outline several approaches to treatment.

But wait, there’s more. Other researchers describe a similar concept at the level of the larynx, a family of disorders under “laryngeal dysfunction syndrome” that can include “laryngeal hyper-responsiveness.” Many of the treatments they describe are similar to the treatments for “neuronal hyper-responsiveness,” and the most promising include the anticonvulsants gabapentin and pregabalin, the antidepressant amitriptyline, speech therapy, or a combination of these.

Basically, medical experts are describing a new cause of chronic cough based on aggravated nerves and airway dysfunction, and more research will result in better treatments.

The post When a cough just won’t go away appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

From: Monique Tello, MD, MPH http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/when-a-cough-just-wont-go-away-2016110710597

Few States Have Post-Concussion Class Return Plans

Students need an appropriate return to mental work, doctors say

From: http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20161107/few-states-have-plans-for-kids-returning-to-class-after-concussion?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Flavored E-Cigarettes May Entice Teens to Smoke

Nearly 2 of 3 young people using e-cigs load them with flavors such as bubble gum or gummy bear

From: http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20161107/flavored-e-cigarettes-may-entice-teens-to-smoke-study?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Saying goodbye

After 30 years in the House of Delegates, Dr. James Russell Dumas Jr., of Prentiss, Miss., serves as a delegate for the last time at ADA 2016 – America's Dental Meeting in Denver.

From: http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2016-archive/november/saying-goodbye

Snapshots of American Dentistry — November 7, 2016

The percentage of U.S. dental school graduates who were female increased by over 4 percentage points over the past decade, making up nearly half of all dental school graduates.

From: http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2016-archive/november/snapshots-of-american-dentistry

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