Toronto - Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of men like the word colonoscopy. So news that a new study has confirmed the effectiveness of the CT or virtual colonoscopy would seem like a welcome relief.
Lead researcher, Dr. C. Daniel Johnson, of the Mayo Clinic, reports that a virtual colonoscopy can catch 90% of polyps that measure 10mm or more in diameter. That’s the same accuracy as a regular colonoscopy.
Although smaller polyps of 5mm or less were only caught 65% of the time by the CT scan.
The CT colonoscopy scan can also spot abnormalities outside of the colon unlike the traditional invasive colonoscopy.
While I don’t want to discourage men over 50 from getting regular colon screenings, the new technology only takes part of the sting out of the experience.
For either type of colon inspection to be effective, the colon must be cleansed. This involves a period of fasting before your scheduled visit. Unfortunately for both types of colon checks, it also requires a cleansing enema to physically flush out the colon and expose the walls of the large intestine for inspection.
Furthermore, as Dr. Robert Fletcher of Harvard University told WebMD, about 1 in 6 patients undergoing a CT colonoscopy, something will be found which then requires a traditional colonoscopy- which can mean a second colon cleansing.
So although the accuracy may be virtually the same, from a patient’s perspective, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between invasiveness of the procedures when taken as a whole.
New York - Studies have shown recently that virtual colonoscopies are just as effective as real colonoscopies – but what does that mean for doctors that are worried about this affecting their practice? Well, experts say doctors have very little to worry about.
The fact that virtual colonoscopies require no sedation allows for an increased flexibility in scheduling with both the patients and the doctors. This not only means that people are more likely to schedule an exam in the first place, but doctors and clinics can fit in more patients in less amount of time. A virtual colonoscopy is also cheaper, which again will make this procedure possible for more people. As a result of factors such as these, some doctors have even seen an increase in patient exams and colonoscopies.
But real colonoscopies aren’t quite out of the picture just yet. Since both procedures require the patient drinking a strong laxative, both are still quite uncomfortable. Furthermore, there are still certain lesions that may be missed by both a virtual and real colonoscopy. This lends itself to the old adage, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it”, and may leave some patients remaining faithful to the older and already proven technologies that are involved with a real colonoscopy
New York - Everyone faces the problems that come along with aging. We go through physical and emotional changes.
We age according to how we live our lives and take care of our bodies. Rescent studies now show that we can stop or reverse the effects of aging by modifying our diets and types of physical activities that we partake in.
DIET
Telomerase, an enzyme located in the DNA strand, is what controls telomeres. Telomeres are protein complexes at the end of chromosomes that control how quickly the cell ages. Changes in diet that include diets that are low in refined sugar, with only 10% of your caloric intake from fat, and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can reverse the damage done to your cells, therefore, reversing the effects of aging. Suppliments such as vitamins and fish oil are also recommended.
EXERCISE
Along with a healthy diet, moderate aerobic excercises, breathing exercises, stress relieving techniques, and relaxation exercises it has been proven that the effects of aging can be slowed and often reversed. A person should exercise at least 30 minutes a day 6 days a week to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Adopting healthy lifestyle changes in your diet and exercise program can greatly improve your overall health. The production of telmeres greatly improves with changes in diet and exercise. This helps combat common problems of aging such as heart disease and cancer, by protecting the structural integrity of your cells. This in turn stops or reverses the effects of aging.
New York - Millions of Americans live everyday with diabetes. Until recently, there has been no magic cure for the countless individuals who just want their lives to stop including needles, pills, and “carb” counting.
There has been buzz that invasive weight-loss surgery might provide some diabetics with the chance at a normal lifestyle even completely without diabetes.
The good thing is the speculation does not only rely on the notion that the weight-loss will produce the cure but possible hormonal changes occurring in surgeries such as gastric bypass. University of Washington endocrinologist David Cummings, M.D., is a staunch proponent of the procedure used as a cure for type 2 diabetes. Many patients bolster significant, if not full, recovery from the pancreatic disease.
In limited cases, though, there are some rare complications as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. Fred Service, M.D., a Mayo endocrinologist and colleagues, found a challenging issue, which needs consideration. They state a small percentage of diabetic patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery experience severe neurological symptoms. These symptoms brought on by hypoglycemia caused by a subsequently overactive pancreas require additional surgery in these rare cases. When interviewed, Dr. Cummings argues, “… [though] a novel adverse consequence of gastric bypass surgery, “it’s hardly a public health crisis.” Both arguments are valid in their own right but shows how close science is to discovering a cure to a disease believed by some to be a death sentence, especially those not able to obtain proper treatment.
Hamilton - According to a new study from the University of California, diabetics lose less weight after gastric bypass surgery.
The study involved more than 300 people who underwent gastric bypass surgery. Researchers found that 12 percent had poor weight loss — losing an average of 32 percent of their excess body weight. One study participate only lost 11lbs.
Gastric surgery reduces the size of the stomach and therefore limits the amount of food patients can eat.
“When performed in high-volume centers and with a low rate of complications, gastric bypass provides sustained and meaningful weight loss, significant improvements in quality of life, improvement or resolution of obesity-associated co-morbidities, and extended life span. However, 5 percent to 15 percent of patients do not lose weight successfully, despite perceived precise surgical technique and regular follow-up,” the researchers wrote.
After they adjusted for different factors, the researchers concluded that diabetes and having a larger size of stomach pouch after surgery were independently associated with poor weight loss.
“Other factors that may lead to weight gain in patients with diabetes include a ‘protective’ increase in caloric intake to treat episodes of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), reduction of urinary glucose losses, and sodium and water retention that are a direct effect of insulin on the distal tubule in the kidney,” they wrote.
More than 200,000 Americans underwent a gastric bypass operation last year to treat their obesity.
New York - With cancer rates increasing across the United States, especially for women, the thought of a breast cancer vaccine brings hope to many people. Does this latest vaccine, now available only through clinical trials, show promise?
The idea and development of a vaccine for breast cancer is a relatively new idea. Although vaccines effectively fight many serious infections like polio and measles, they have yet to prove their ability to prevent cancer. One hurdle is that cancer is very different from other types of infections. Cancer progresses fast, as more and more abnormal cells start multiplying and making new variations on each other. The hope for this cancer vaccine is that it will create antibodies that will destroy any cancer cells currently inside the body as well as any new cancer cells that may appear.
This latest breast cancer vaccine, licensed under the name NeuVax, is given by injection under the skin and treats women with tumors that create a protein called HER-2. These tumors grow faster and recur more often than tumors that do not carry this particular protein. Preliminary studies suggest that it may reduce the risk of death for most patients by half. Only 168 women participated in the study, but if additional studies replicate the same success rates, the vaccine will move on to the next stage, and hopefully win FDA approval; this process could take years. Once successful, this vaccine could provide benefits to about thirty percent of women with breast cancer.
New York - Sufferers from chronic migraines may be about to receive relief from an unlikely quarter.
Allergan, Inc., makers of the famous wrinkle-busting drug Botox, have just released results of late-stage testing that indicates that the botulism-based drug has some effect on alleviating this painful condition, which effects an estimated 1.2 to 3.6 million people in the United States alone.
Allergan, which conducted trials by injecting Botox in the foreheads and temples of subjects every twelve weeks, reports that those given the treatment had fewer headache days than those receiving only a placebo. While Allergan’s goal was the reduction of the number of actual headache episodes users experienced, the positive results for their secondary goal of reducing the number of migraine days is promising news.
Wall Street agreed with this assessment and shares of Allergan rose some 10 percent, to a high of $60.41 by midday Thursday, upon the release of the report. Allergan will still need to receive a license from the FDA to make Botox freely available as a migraine treatment.
While Botox is best known for its wrinkle-smoothing properties, it has also been used to treat muscle aches and spasms. The drug is not without controversy, as the FDA has warned of rare cases of Botox spreading from injection sites and interfering with breathing, swallowing, and speech.
New York - Conservative therapies may be just as effective as knee surgery in helping oseteoarthritis patients, according to a new Canadian study.
Arthroscopic knee surgery is a common treatment for people suffering from the most prevalent form of arthritis, Osteoarthritis. The most recent studies estimate that about 27 million Americans have the disease. Patients who suffer from the disease have pain and stiffness in weight bearing joints in the hips, knees, back and feet.
During surgery, a surgeon cuts an incision in the knee and then inserts a small camera. Debris is then flushed off of the knee. Sometimes rough areas of cartilage are shaved. It usually takes 4 to 6 weeks for the knee to recover. The operation costs about $5000.
The University of Western Ontario, Canada studied 178 patients for two years to discover if Arthroscopic knee surgery is more effective than other arthritis treatments.
Researchers found no significant difference between the surgery group and the therapy group. Though the surgery group showed greater improvement in the first 3 months, symptoms returned after six months.
A study made by the Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 2002 resulted in similar findings. That study found no difference between patients who had the surgery and patients who were merely told they had the surgery. Many doctors and researchers did not believe the Houston study because they questioned its methods. But in 2003 Medicare stopped paying for the operation.
Non-surgical treatments for osteoarthritis include exercise, injected painkillers and physiotherapy. Some doctors also recommend alternative treatments such as herbal supplements and acupuncture.
New York - Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine recently weighed in on matters of obesity, genetics, and exercise.
In an article published in the September 8th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine the researchers, led by Dr. Soren Snitker, showed that while heredity certainly plays a role in obesity, physical activity can drastically reduce genetic predispositions to portliness.
This study focused on the FTO gene, previously linked to obesity, and the effect of exercise on individuals carrying this common gene which is shared by over 30 percent of European populations.
Study participants included 704 Amish adults and of those individuals with variations of the FTO gene, those who were more active showed no increase in obesity.
Simply, if a subject was active enough they were unaffected by the hefty influence of the FTO gene. The researchers concluded that “the increased risk of obesity owing to genetic susceptibility by FTO variants can be blunted through physical activity.
These findings emphasize the important role of physical activity in public health efforts to combat obesity, particularly in genetically susceptible individuals”.
Unfortunately to combat the effect of the gene, three to four hours of physical activity per day is required. While the lifestyle of Amish communities may be conducive to such a level of activity, the lifestyle of many more modern populations is not.
This is not to say that more moderate physical activity lacks benefit and it is encouraging to confirm that with exercise we can overcome genetic predispositions for obesity.
New York - A recent study headed by Northwestern University’s Karl Y. Bilimoria, M.D., suggests that the majority of hospitals in the US do not meet the minium guidelines concerning follow up care for colon cancer patients.
Bilimoria and his research team found that only 38% of hospitals are following the standard benchmark, which states doctors should check at least twelve lymph nodes regularly.
Proper follow care greatly reduces the risk of returning cancer remaining undetected and is crucial to the patient’s health.
Even when the cancer is diagnosed and eliminated, complications can still occur.
Three out of every ten colon cancer patients will have the disease return within five years; attentive care can detect the cancer early enough to prevent it from spreading and, in some cases, may even eliminate the need for chemotherapy. Blood and lymph node testing guidelines need to be strictly followed in order to provide the best care possible.
Fortunately, not all US hospitals are failing to meet colon cancer criterion. Comprehensive Cancer Centers, many university-affiliated hospitals, and Veterans Administration health care had the best results; between 53% -78% of these met the standard. In these examples, the relationship between pathologists, onologists, and surgeons may have something to do with the higher percentage of compliance; when the medical personnel have direct contact with each other, care tends to be more comprehensive. However, there is still much room for improvement for other classes of hospitals.