Bone and joint problems associated with diabetes

From: http://www.mayoclinic.com/diseases-conditions/diabetes/in-depth/diabetes/art-20049314

Germs: Understand and protect against bacteria, viruses and infection

From: http://www.mayoclinic.com/diseases-conditions/infectious-diseases/in-depth/germs/art-20045289

Is My Penis Too Small?

Even normal-size men may suffer small-penis syndrome -- fear that their penis is too small -- and seek unproven penis-lengthening treatments. But some men do suffer micropenis or inconspicuous penis.

From: http://www.webmd.com/men/guide/is-my-penis-too-small?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Norovirus Closes Schools, Spreads Misery

Norovirus and other stomach viruses have been closing schools and causing misery this winter.

From: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/news/20170217/norovirus-closes-schools-spreads-misery?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Breastfeeding: Breast Pumps, Nursing Bras, and Other Things That May Help

WebMD talks to experts about breast pumps, nursing bras, and other things that may be handy for moms who are breastfeeding their babies.

From: http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/features/breastfeeding-items-that-may-help?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Lingering baby weight? Don't blame the pregnancy

Researchers find weight gain speeds up a year after delivery, and they have some ideas about why

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lingering-baby-weight-dont-blame-the-pregnancy/

Court rules doctors can ask patients about guns

A federal appeals court ruled that a law barring Florida doctors from talking to patients about gun safety​ violated free speech

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/court-florida-doctors-can-ask-patients-about-guns/

Is Surgery Always Needed for Kids' Appendicitis?

Review found many with inflamed appendix were fine with antibiotics alone, but more research needed

From: http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/news/20170217/is-surgery-always-needed-for-kids-appendicitis?src=RSS_PUBLIC

'Love Hormone' Helps Dads and Babies Bond

Brain scans show distinct response when fathers gaze at their kids

From: http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20170217/love-hormone-helps-dads-and-babies-bond?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Docs Prescribe Antibiotics If Patients Expect Them

Study found physicians might even give the drugs if they didn't suspect a bacterial infection

From: http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20170217/docs-more-likely-to-prescribe-antibiotics-if-patients-expect-them?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Bone and joint problems associated with diabetes

From: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/in-depth/diabetes/art-20049314

Germs: Understand and protect against bacteria, viruses and infection

From: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/infectious-diseases/in-depth/germs/art-20045289

Twin tragedies give survivor a new face

One man’s tragedy offered hope that the other would have a second chance at a normal life

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-transplant-mayo-clinic-twin-tragedies-give-survivor-a-new-face/

Stop, it's smile time

Give Kids A Smile event 2017

From: http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2017-archive/february/stop-its-smile-time

Possible Drawback to Gluten-Free: Toxic Metals

Higher levels of arsenic, mercury found in people who follow this eating plan, study finds

From: http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/celiac-disease/news/20170216/possible-drawback-to-gluten-free-toxic-metals?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Mayo Clinic Minute: What is the 3 minute moisturizing window?

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDC7Ihi90S0

Mayo Clinic’s First Face Transplant: The Patient

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2acdLASjjM

Mayo Clinic’s First Face Transplant: The Surgery

From: Mayo Clinic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu7665Q2ZP0

Meet an author of ADA-developed sealant guidelines

Dentists are invited to hear directly from an author of ADA-developed sealant guidelines Feb. 22 during a Facebook Live event.

From: http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2017-archive/february/meet-an-author-of-ada-developed-sealant-guidelines

Organized Dentistry Coalition supports eliminating "use it or lose it" rule

From: http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2017-archive/february/organized-dentistry-coalition-supports-eliminating-use-it-or-lose-it-rule

Tricare dental expansion begins May 1

The Tricare Dental Program that covers many nonactive duty military members and their family members is set to begin a new contract May 1, following the military's agreement with United Concordia.

From: http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2017-archive/february/tricare-dental-expansion-begins-may-1

Parents still lose sleep worrying about grown children

New research finds that what keeps parents up at night may be different for men and women

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/parents-lose-sleep-worrying-about-grown-children/

New imaging technique may help some men avoid prostate biopsy

Men who have high levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in their blood face troubling uncertainties. While it’s true that prostate cancer can elevate PSA, so can other conditions, including the benign prostate enlargement that afflicts many men as they get older. PSA levels also vary normally from one man to the next, and some men have unusually high levels even when they’re perfectly healthy. To rule out cancer, doctors might recommend a biopsy. Yet prostate biopsies pose risks of infection, and they can also miss cancer in men who truly have the disease. Most prostate biopsies are guided by transrectal ultrasound, an imaging technology that allows doctors to see the gland while taking tissue samples (called cores) with specialized needles. Tumors may not show up on ultrasound, however, so the biopsy needles might never hit a cancerous target.

A more precise way to investigate elevated PSA results

In January, British researchers reported results from the multi-center PROMIS study showing that a different imaging technology, called multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MP-MRI), could allow some men with high PSA levels to safely avoid a prostate biopsy altogether. “If my MP-MRI was negative, I would not have a biopsy,” said Mark Emberton, M.D., director of the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at University College London, and a co-author on the study. “And I would do that confidently.”

An MRI machine uses a very large magnet, a radio-wave transmitter, and a computer to construct detailed pictures of structures inside the body. MP-MRI is an advanced form of the technology that allows specially trained radiologists to detect prostate tumors. They can also gauge how aggressive the tumor is by looking at how tightly the cells are packed and how blood and water molecules flow through them.

Here’s how the study worked

During the study, researchers looked at how well MP-MRI performs at detecting prostate cancer compared to two different kinds of biopsies: a standard biopsy guided by transrectal ultrasound (TRUS-biopsy), and a “template prostate mapping” (TPM) biopsy that samples the entire gland at 5-millimeter intervals. TPM biopsy is the “gold standard” for diagnosing prostate cancer, but doctors rarely use it because it’s so invasive. If MP-MRI had failed to detect a prostate cancer identified with TPM biopsy, then the result would be recorded as a false negative.

The study enrolled 576 men with PSA levels ranging up to 15 nanograms per milliliter. MP-MRI correctly identified prostate cancers that were confirmed with TPM biopsies 93% of the time. That’s a significant improvement over TRUS-biopsy, which only picked up about half the prostate cancers detected with TPM biopsy. MP-MRI was also effective at identifying men who did not have clinically significant prostate cancers, recognizing them correctly 89% of the time. The results helped to confirm that MP-MRI is better at picking up aggressive tumors than it is at detecting low-grade cancers that might never be harmful during a man’s lifetime. Dr. Emberton emphasized that the cancers missed by MP-MRI were nearly all low-grade. “MP-MRI missed none of the high-grade, dangerous cancers and TRUS-biopsy missed many of them,” he said.

Promising, but proceed with caution

Dr. Marc Garnick, the Gorman Brothers Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and editor in chief of HarvardProstateKnowledge.org said the new study helps to show that MP-MRI provides important diagnostic information in a non-invasive way that protects men from infection and other biopsy-related complications. But he cautioned that all diagnostic methods employed today carry some risk of missing prostate cancers that are truly present. “Moreover, the radiological skills needed to interpret MP-MRIs correctly are in short supply,” he said. “And the technology’s cost must also be considered as its use becomes more widespread.”

The post New imaging technique may help some men avoid prostate biopsy appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

From: Charlie Schmidt http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/new-imaging-technique-may-help-men-avoid-prostate-biopsy-2017021711180

The underappreciated health benefits of being a weekend warrior

Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling

What do you think of when you hear the term “weekend warrior”? Maybe it’s a person who exercises intensely on the weekend but is otherwise sedentary. I tend to think of an overweight, middle-aged guy resolving for the 100th time to get in shape. But because he only has time to work out over the weekend, that’s when he does it — or overdoes it.

Woe betide the weekend warrior

Weekend warriors with back pain, a pulled muscle, or other “overuse” injuries are a common sight in doctors’ waiting rooms after they’ve tried to do too much in too little time. That’s why most experts recommend regular exercise most days of the week rather than just on weekends.

A new study’s new take

Despite the injuries commonly associated with the weekend warrior, a new study finds that weekend warriors may be on to something. As published in JAMA Internal Medicine, weekend warriors who met recommended exercise guidelines (including those who exercised just once or twice a week but did so vigorously for at least 75 minutes, or at moderate intensity for at least 150 minutes) had a reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, or other causes.

Here’s some more specific information about this study:

• More than 63,000 adults in England and Scotland were surveyed about their health and physical activity between 1994 and 2012.
• Nearly two-thirds of study subjects were considered inactive — 11% were regularly active and about 4% were “weekend warriors.” The rest were “insufficiently active,” meaning they were not inactive but did not meet recommended activity guidelines.
• Data regarding their deaths from any cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer were also collected over this time period.

Compared to less active adults, weekend warriors had a 30% lower risk of death from any cause, a 40% lower risk of death due to cardiovascular disease, and an 18% lower risk of death due to cancer. While regular exercisers had lower death rates than weekend warriors, the differences were quite small.

Some caveats

Of course, a study of this sort can only describe an association between exercise and death rates, but it cannot prove that the exercise actually caused the health benefits. It’s possible that something other than exercise — perhaps a difference in diet not captured by the surveys — accounted for the lower death rates among the weekend warriors. Activity levels were self-reported and could be inaccurate. In addition, 90% of the study population was white. If other ethnic groups were included, the results might have been different. Other information not included in this study would be of interest, including the type of sedentary activities (such as sitting), effects on other health outcomes (such as mental health, arthritis, or diabetes), and rates of injuries related to physical activity.

Still, this study is among the first to suggest that weekend warriors may get a similar benefit from their schedule of exercise as those working out more regularly. This study also supports current exercise guidelines that recommend 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week or 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week.

So, what does this mean for you?

In my view, this study is important. In the past, weekend warriors were encouraged to change their ways lest they wind up injured. And it has long been assumed that you can’t get much benefit by exercising just once or twice a week rather than daily or most days of the week. This new study should make us rethink that assumption.

If you’re a weekend warrior, the results of this study should be reassuring. But I see at least two important challenges:

• The weekend warriors in this study met or exceeded current activity guidelines — they probably exercised more, and more intensely, in one or two days than many people who work out only over the weekend.
• Injuries are particularly common among weekend warriors; unfortunately, this study did not collect information on the risk of injury among weekend warriors. Experts generally agree that warming up, stretching, and not pushing too hard, too fast are important preventive measures.

Perhaps the most important conclusion of this study is that inactivity is way too common and being active is what matters, not how often you exercise each week.

The post The underappreciated health benefits of being a weekend warrior appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

From: Robert H. Shmerling, MD http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/underappreciated-health-benefits-weekend-warrior-2017021611167

Bone and joint problems associated with diabetes

From: http://www.mayoclinic.com/diseases-conditions/diabetes/in-depth/diabetes/art-20049314

Germs: Understand and protect against bacteria, viruses and infection

From: http://www.mayoclinic.com/diseases-conditions/infectious-diseases/in-depth/germs/art-20045289