"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

Washington — To treat or not to treat has long been a puzzle in prostate cancer, with studies lending support to both options. Now comes a new, large study of older men with early-stage cancer that points to “watchful waiting” rather than treatment as the better option for this population.

The study, presented Feb. 14 at the 2008 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, found that a conservative approach that included monitoring for increasing levels of prostate-specific antigen and other signs of the cancer’s growth was a successful strategy for the majority of the older men studied who had stage I or stage II prostate cancer.

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Washington — Offering health insurance is a first step employers can take to improve employees’ well-being. A second step increasingly is likely to be taken: ensuring that the health care employees receive adequately addresses the needs of an ever-more-diverse work force.

Striving to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care is now recognized as a good business practice by some large employers, and a new coalition of business, medicine and public health groups has been formed to help advance this goal.

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(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Water is not only good for your body — it’s good for the police! The general location a person drank water is recorded in their hair, showing where they have been in recent weeks and years. This could help police track the past movements of criminal suspects or unidentified murder victims.

“You are what you eat and drink — and that is recorded in your hair,” co-author Thure Cerling, University of Utah, was quoted as saying.

In the fall I rotated through the geriatrics ward. One of the attending physicians was an irritating woman whose idea of the Socratic method was pimping you with really vague questions, then acting like she had already thought of whatever answers you gave and that you were only telling her what she already knew. The other attending was a throwback to “the days of the giants,” when pneumococcal pneumonia was diagnosed by injecting sputum into mice and antibiotics for urinary tract infections were tested on agar plates. One morning, one of my interns presented a case to him of an elderly man who had been hospitalized with fever and a cough producing green sputum. “He has pneumonia,” she proclaimed confidently. “Take a look at this chest X-ray.” She pulled up a digital image on a computer screen showing a distinct pneumonic streak. The senior physician waved it off. “First tell me about your lung exam,” he said.

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(Ivanhoe Newswire) Currently, pathology reports and PSA levels are all that doctors have to predictor whether a man’s prostate cancer will spread or come back. New research done at the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute has uncovered a biomarker that can significantly improve on what’s available.

Dr. Joshua Alumakal, MD conducted a study on men with localized prostate caner examining DNA and a gene modification process called methylation in which tumor suppressing genes like CDH13 are turned off. With the tumor-suppressing gene turned off, there is nothing to put the brakes on cell growth and spread. 

Facing a projected $14 billion budget shortfall, California lawmakers are right to consider how the landmark health care reform bill, ABX1-1, will affect the deficit. But ABX1-1 brings in new money for health care that could not be used to plug the gap in the general fund, as well as limiting health care costs moving forward. And as the past shows, if it is not passed, short-term cuts without an eye towards systemic reform are likely to increase costs down the road, effectively mortgaging California’s health care budget with no end in sight. As a result, Senate passage and voter approval of ABX1-1 are the responsible way to put our health care system on a secure footing.

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(Ivanhoe Newswire) — A well-publicized report suggesting iPods may interfere with cardiac pacemakers is being debunked by a new study.

The report stemmed from the case of one man who became dizzy after listening to his iPod. When cardiologists tested the iPod during the man’s examination, they found it did interfere with his pacemaker. The report was published, and calls for warning labels on portable music and video devices ensued.

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Employers who offer special training and other measures to help employees avoid back pain due to lifting heavy objects may be wasting their money.

Finnish researchers who reviewed the results of 11 studies comparing back pain prevention interventions with each other and with no intervention at all find little difference in outcomes between the groups.

The studies included eight trials involving health care workers who were charged with moving patients and three trials involving workers in the baggage handling and postal industries. The studies looked at things like training programs to teach people to lift correctly, the use of back belts to support the back during lifting, physical exercise to keep the back in better shape, and several combinations of these measures. Some of the studies compared people who received some kind of intervention with those who received no help at all.

By Meghan Yost
Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Good news for men: a new prostate cancer vaccine proven powerful in mice may also prevent the disease in humans.

Researchers at the University of Southern California have created a vaccine that prevented prostate cancer in 90 percent of mice genetically predisposed to developing it. After one year, only two of the 20 mice given the vaccine had developed prostate cancer while all of the mice who did not receive it died.

Statement by Mike Russo, Health Care Advocate and Staff Attorney for CALPIRG:

“We welcome Gov. Schwarzenegger’s announcement today that he has released the details of his health care reform proposal. Now all sides have put their cards on the table, and lawmakers can continue shaping the comprehensive health care reform California needs.

“The current proposal will limit the insurance companies’ ability to deny sick Californians coverage and charge them higher premiums. It also requires insurance companies to spend 85 percent of premium dollars on health care, assuring consumers that their monthly premiums go to health benefits, not administrative overhead or excess profits.

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