These Hero Doctors Save Lives Around the World

Doctors who volunteer for charity groups are making a difference in countries where treatable health problems can turn deadly without surgery.

From: https://www.webmd.com/women/features/world-health-hero-doctors?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Doctors warn of "second wave" of the flu

Flu season is winding down, but it's not over yet, experts caution

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/doctors-warn-of-second-wave-of-the-flu/

Why Americans' Life Expectancy Is Getting Longer

Americans appear to be aging slower than they used to, which may help explain recent gains in life expectancy.

From: https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20180406/why-americans-life-expectancy-is-getting-longer?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Heart Disease Carries Huge Cost for Some Families

Having a chronic heart condition is stressful enough, but new research suggests the cost of caring for the condition is also a huge financial burden for poorer families in the United States.

From: https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20180406/heart-disease-carries-huge-cost-for-some-families?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Carcasses of "zombie-like" raccoons being tested

One stood up on its hind legs, showed its teeth, then fell over backward into an almost comatose condition

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/carcasses-zombie-like-raccoons-in-ohio-being-tested-to-determine-cause-of-strange-behavior/

California Dental Association aims to make dental plans more transparent

Legislation sponsored by the California Dental Association would increase the transparency and value of dental benefit plans in the state, while protecting patients, according to the state dental society.

From: https://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2018-archive/april/california-dental-association-aims-to-make-dental-plans-more-transparent

What's in your water? Dental providers can look at local reports

Dental professionals are encouraged to check their community's annual Water Quality Reports or Consumer Confidence Reports, which water suppliers nationwide are required to make available each year prior to July 1.

From: https://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2018-archive/april/whats-in-your-water-dental-providers-can-look-at-local-reports

Older adults can still grow new brain cells, study finds

New research contradicts a common belief about aging brains

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/older-adults-can-grow-new-brain-cells-study-finds/

Shingles: A look at the virus after Lin-Manuel Miranda's diagnosis

One in three Americans will get shingles in their lifetime, according to the CDC

From: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-shingles-a-look-at-the-virus-after-lin-manuel-mirandas-diagnosis/

Eating Pasta Linked to Weight Loss

Eating pasta as part of a low-glycemic index (GI) diet results in modest weight loss, compared with a higher-GI diet, a new study found.

From: https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20180406/eating-pasta-linked-to-weight-loss?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Bananas Edge Out Sports Drinks in Study

Researchers compared the effects of carbohydrates consumed during sports and found that bananas provide comparable or greater anti-inflammatory and other benefits than sports drinks.

From: https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20180405/bananas-edge-out-sports-drinks-in-study?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Origins of Adult Killer COPD May Lie in Childhood

Two new studies suggest COPD could have roots in life's earliest years.

From: https://www.webmd.com/lung/copd/news/20180406/copd-is-an-adult-killer-but-its-origins-may-lie-in-childhood?src=RSS_PUBLIC

2018年世界卫生日：世卫组织总干事谭德塞博士的讲话

From: World Health Organization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9kS2LOvTuo

Universal health coverage: reaching remote households

From: World Health Organization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X60zxjDP6MY

全民健康覆盖：每一个人，每一个地方

From: World Health Organization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJA5RJA7sQg

Mayo Clinic Minute: 3 tips for kids to get better sleep

From: Mayo Clinic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EStDqJptW4U

Hawaii Legalizes Medically Assisted Suicide

A bill legalizing medically-assisted suicide in Hawaii was signed into law Thursday by Gov. David Ige.

From: https://www.webmd.com/women/news/20180406/hawaii-legalizes-medically-assisted-suicide?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Engagez-vous pour la couverture santé universelle - Journée mondiale de la Santé 2018

From: World Health Organization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM1cAasOJok

Journée mondiale de la Santé - message du Directeur général de l'OMS, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

From: World Health Organization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZhpASAH9wE

Health for all - World Health Day 2018

From: World Health Organization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wScwJjSOWo

New study once again casts doubt on PSA screening

To screen or not to screen for prostate cancer? This remains an important question. Screening relies on a highly imperfect measure, the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test, which is prone to false-positive results. And with mounting evidence that survival benefits from screening pale in comparison with the harms from overtreatment — particularly incontinence and impotence — the pendulum has steadily swung away from it. Still, screening research continues, in the hopes that some lifesaving benefits may be found.

Now the latest study once again casts doubt on PSA screening as an effective public health tool.

British scientists divided more than 400,000 men between the ages of 50 and 69 into two groups: one was screened for prostate cancer with a single PSA test, and the other wasn’t tested for the disease at all. After an average of 10 years of follow-up, prostate cancer death rates in both groups were nearly identical. Cancer was detected more often in the screened group, but mostly it was low-grade, with a questionable need of treatment.

“This was the largest study of PSA screening to date, and the results don’t support it,” said Dr. Michael J. Barry, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and author of an editorial accompanying the published study.

Called the Cluster Randomized Trial of PSA Testing for Prostate Cancer (CAP), the study’s approach of giving men a single PSA test differs from the more traditional strategy of testing men repeatedly every few years. However, prior studies investigating repeated PSA tests have reached similar conclusions. One European study with 162,000 men, for instance, concluded that for every life saved by screening, 27 men would be diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer that wouldn’t have been lethal if left undetected.

During the CAP study, 189,386 men were assigned to screening and 219,439 men were assigned to a non-screening control group. After 10 years on average, 549 of the screened men had died from prostate cancer, compared to 647 men in the control group who hadn’t gotten a PSA test. The number of prostate cancer deaths among the controls was higher, but so was the number of men in that group to begin with. So the researchers adjusted for the different sample sizes with a statistical tweak: they compared death rates in terms of person-years, or the total number of years that men in either group had participated to the study. Analyzed that way, the study revealed 0.30 prostate cancer deaths per 1,000 person-years in the screened group, and 0.31 deaths from prostate cancer per 1,000 person-years in the controls, which amounts to a negligible difference.

Dr. Barry, who was recently a member of the US Preventative Services Task Force, an influential group of independent experts who publicly discourage PSA screening, emphasized that most men who opt for the test get it more than once. And with each additional PSA test, he said, the odds of being diagnosed with prostate cancer grow higher. “But is repeat screening worth the risk of a low-grade cancer diagnosis and all the treatment complications that come with it?” he asked. “It’s hard for us as clinicians to make those decisions for our patients. We need to make them with our patients to determine if they feel those risks are worth taking on.”

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, agreed. “This study adds to the discouraging screening literature, and again, simply does not support screening of asymptomatic individuals,” he said.

Fortunately, Garnick added, men diagnosed with prostate cancer following a PSA test may not have to be treated either in the short or long term. Depending on tumor characteristics, some can opt to have their cancer monitored with active surveillance, which relies on periodic prostate biopsies or MRI to look for new signs that treatment may be necessary. “Hopefully, current research that uses sophisticated genetic testing or biomarkers of prostate cancer may help provide more precise information about those who are likely to most benefit from screening and treatment,” Garnick said. “But we are not there yet.”

The post New study once again casts doubt on PSA screening appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

From: Charlie Schmidt https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/new-study-once-again-casts-doubt-on-psa-screening-2018040613526