Flesh-Eating Afflicted Woman’s Brave Recovery
Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=1360cd1be9e29abe1381b87cb803dc84
Trayvon Martin Shooting Video, Photos Released
Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=4b70f6577c82bf5d616ef2b4ffd0d0ca
By Dr. VERONICA SIKKA
For the first time, several top cancer organizations are recommending that smokers and former smokers ages 55 to 74 years who have smoked at least one pack of cigarettes a day for at least 30 years get an annual low-dose CT (LDCT) — a three dimensional X-ray — to look for lung cancer.
The recommendations, put forth as a collaborative effort by the American Cancer Society, American College of Chest Physicians, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and National Comprehensive Cancer Network, were released this morning. They appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Each year, more Americans die from lung cancer than from breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined. It has held its position for years as the second most common cancer for both sexes in the United States. Only prostate cancer is more common than lung cancer in men. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women.
If detected early enough, lung cancer can be treated and survival chances improved. Despite this, until now there had been no formal recommendations on screening tests for this deadly cancer.
“We now have an important and critical tool to screen for the most common cancer in America, and can reduce the mortality through this screening,” says Dr. John Deeken, assistant professor in the division of hematology/oncology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Still, the question of whether every person at high risk for lung cancer should get an annual low-dose CT scan is not so simple. Since the type of CT scan used exposes the patient to radiation, albeit a low-level dose, there is a small health risk posed by this screening.
If doctors detect a questionable cancerous mass through a CT scan, they may have evaluate it further through a minor surgery called a biopsy. In this procedure, a doctor will take a sample of the tissue for further testing to determine if the mass really is a cancer. While some of these may be cancerous, there are always a certain number which are not — meaning that the detection and subsequent surgery may not have been technically necessary.
The new recommendation also begs the question of who will be paying for the test itself.
“The cost of LDCT is currently not covered as a standard test,” says Dr. Chao Huang, lung cancer specialist at the University of Kansas Cancer Center. “Therefore, it is difficult to recommend this test when patients may be burdened by the cost of this test year after year.”
“The key question is when will more insurance companies, and most importantly Medicare, start paying for these screening tests,” Deeken says.
And then there is the issue of how many Americans will fall under the guidelines — and whether the resources exist to screen all of them.
“We currently do not have the infrastructure to manage the potential number of patients that would qualify for screening,” Huang says.
These issues aside, one thing is clear: screening CTs have been shown to save lives. Dr. Keith Mortman, associate professor of clinical surgery at Georgetown University School of Medicine, explains that a major study in 2010 called the National Lung Screening Trial found a 20 percent reduction in lung cancer deaths in patients who were screened with low-dose CT scans as compared to those who got chest X-rays.
Dr. Herbert Kressel, a radiologist at Harvard Medical School, says that in light of this, the recommendation is a step in the right direction.
“Lung cancer is an important health problem with a poor prognosis when it is discovered at an advanced stage,” Kressel says. “This study is important in further highlighting the importance of low dose CT screening for patients at high risk for lung cancer.”
Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=41ec2f844e08d1238c9e09643ff91e3f
You expect some sports to be filthy—your kitchen floor, your garbage can, your toilet. But how germy are the things designed to keep you and your home clean?
Washing Machine
Even if your drawers are free of skid marks—please, guys—trace amounts of feces still cling to your dirty underwear, says Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona. “If you wash a load of undergarments, you transfer about 500 million E. coli bacteria to the machine.” This can contaminate other clothing items, which may harbor germs of their own. (For the dos and don’ts of boxers and briefs, read What She Thinks of Your Underwear. Because yes, she’s looking. And yes, she cares.)
What She Thinks of Your Underwear
Wash most whites first, and use chlorine bleach.
“It sanitizes the machine,” Gerba says.
Then dedicate a load to underwear, using hot water (150°F) and a color-safe bleach substitute.
Once a month, run an empty cycle with bleach to wipe out any lingering germs. This is especially important for front-loading machines; water tends to settle in the bottom of these machines, allowing bacteria to proliferate, Gerba says.
Dishwasher
Crusty scrambled eggs = bacterial breakfast.
“When you allow dishes to accumulate for a few days, growth of bacteria invariably increases,” says Philip Tierno Jr., director of microbiology and immunology at NYU’s Langone Medical Center and the author of “The Secret Life of Germs.”
“And even if you can’t see it, there is viable foodstuff in the rinse water to feed them.”
Plus, the dishwasher’s door gasket may be contaminated with fungus and black yeast.
“That outer rim never reaches a temperature high enough to kill everything off,” Tierno said.
And that’s to say nothing of what you’re actually ingesting—find out how to clean—and avoid—The 10 Dirtiest Foods You’re Eating.
The 10 Dirtiest Foods You’re Eating
If you don’t plan on running a load soon, rinse your plates with a mild bleach solution (a shot glass of bleach to a half quart of water). This kills surface organisms so you can let dishes accumulate, Tierno says. Use the same solution to periodically clean the gasket.
Toothbrush
A 2011 study in Microscopy Research and Technique found that nearly half of never-before-used brushes were tainted with bacteria. It gets worse when you put the bristles to work.
“Your mouth contains more than 500 different types of bacteria,” Tierno says. And if you leave your brush sitting out, it could collect fecal bacteria. “Unless you have a low-flow toilet, aerosolized droplets splatter when you flush. They can go pretty far—up to 20 feet.” Yum!
Regularly run your toothbrush through a clean dishwasher, using standard dish detergent. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Dentistry found that this method eradicated nearly all disease-causing bacteria.
Another option is to soak your brush in a mouthwash that contains cetylpyridinium chloride, such as Crest Pro-Health Complete Rinse, for 20 minutes; doing this can also beat bacteria, the study found.
To avoid flying feces, Tierno says, simply store your brush in a closed cabinet—and remember to stock it with The Best Toothpastes for You.
Sponge
“The sink is the dirtiest area in the kitchen,” Tierno says, “and the sponge is the dirtiest item in the sink.”
Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=c602c9786ffc30c57269acf6a9c497fc
Michael J. Fox, whose turn from Parkinson’s disease patient to scientific crusader made him one of the country’s most visible advocates for stem cell research, now believes the controversial therapy may not ultimately yield a cure for his disease, he told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview.
There have been “problems along the way,” Fox said of stem cell studies, for which he has long advocated. Instead, he said, new drug therapies are showing real promise and are “closer today” to providing a cure for Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative illness that over time causes the body to become rigid and the brain to shut down.
“Stem cells are an avenue of research that we’ve pursued and continue to pursue but it’s part of a broad portfolio of things that we look at. There have been some issues with stem cells, some problems along the way,” said Fox, who suffers from the diseases’ telltale tics and tremors.
“It’s not so much that [stem cell research has] diminished in its prospects for breakthroughs as much as it’s the other avenues of research have grown and multiplied and become as much or more promising. So, an answer may come from stem cell research but it’s more than likely to come from another area,” he said.
Tune in to “World News with Diane Sawyer” Friday at 6:30 p.m. E.T. to see more of Diane Sawyer’s interview with Michael J. Fox
Fox, who recently appeared in episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Good Wife,” has dedicated himself to finding a cure for Parkinson’s, the disease with which he was diagnosed in 1991.
Fox said he still strongly believes in stem cell research and government support of those studies, praising ongoing research at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. When asked about earlier criticism he received from conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh about his advocacy, Fox said it only “sharpens your resolve.”
Scientists are conducting research and looking for a cure on multiple fronts, Fox said, including drug therapies, experimental surgeries, and developing tests to help make earlier diagnoses.
To that end, his Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the largest private funder of Parkinson’s disease research worldwide, has recently launched an online initiative to increase studies across the country by pairing patients with clinical trials in their areas.
The Fox Trial Finder (Visit FoxTrialFinder.org for more info on clinical trial participation) harnesses the power of the Internet to find patients and, based on their profile of symptoms, pair them with research scientists conducting clinical trials.
Thirty percent of all clinical trials fail to recruit a single subject, according to the foundation’s web site, and many more, some 85 percent, are delayed because scientists are unable to find enough participants.
“People can fill out a form anonymously… and then we can let them know about… clinical trials happening in their area,” Fox said.
Some 200 trials are currently seeking recruits through the website, but one of the most promising will “try to find a biomarker for Parkinson’s, which is really important,” Fox said.
By the time Fox was diagnosed 20 years ago, he said, 80 percent of the dopamine cells in his brain – neurons instrumental in sending the signals that control movement – were depleted.
“We have no way to identify the disease before symptoms appear. If we can target progress along the way, we can arrest progress and eliminate the possibility of symptoms,” he said, adding that this area of research is “the most exciting.”
Fox, an actor who grew up in front of the camera on the 1980s sitcom “Family Ties” and starred in the “Back to the Future” film franchise, worried about the future of his career after announcing his diagnosis in 1998 and leaving the hit show “Spin City.”
In the years since, he has led the Fox Foundation, which has donated more than $300 million to Parkinson’s research. In recent months, however, he has returned to acting more regularly, the result he says, of a new drug regimen that helps control his tics, or dyskinesia.
“I kind of stumbled onto a new combination of meds for what’s called dyskinesia… Now I thought, there’s no reason not to work so I started to accept more work. Larry David called and had a terrific idea and the ‘Good Wife’ is such a terrific show,” he said of his decisions to appear on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and the CBS series “The Good Wife.”
Fox said that each morning he is uncertain exactly how his symptoms will affect him that day. Some mornings he can delay taking his first dose of medicine for a few hours, other days he expects a greater challenge.
“I don’t write off the day ahead of time because of that, it just means it’s going be tougher sledding,” he said.
Having struggled with the disease for years himself, Fox understands its devastating effects and the physical challenges it presents.
He said it was an abiding sense of optimism, a topic on which he has written two books, that allows him to carry on, even on the most difficult days. In 2009, he traveled to the Asian country Bhutan, which emphasizes happiness over productivity, and said he found his symptoms diminished there.
“People talk about me being a paragon of optimism and hope and all that stuff,” he said. ”I have a really blessed life, I have an amazing life.”
Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=996126c4f66c8e47e2283b60b5b3feeb
Profanity in teen novels varies greatly from book to book, but characters that do use foul language tend to also be the most popular, attractive and rich, according to new research published in the journal Mass Communication and Society.
Sarah Coyne, professor in the department of family life at Brigham Young University, analyzed the use of profanity in 40 young adult books on the adolescent bestsellers list.
Thirty-five out of the 40 books had at least one swear word. She found that YA novels contained on average 38 instances of bad language, but one book had nearly 500 instances of swearing.
Of note, the characters that were doing the swearing tended to be of higher social status, better looking and have more money than their non-swearing counterparts.
“The funny thing about books is that you really don’t know what you’re getting into when you pick one up,” said Coyne. “I was genuinely surprised by how much profanity some of these books had.”
The documented increase in the use of profanities within YA fiction keeps with the increased acceptance of obscenities in general, said Dr. Steven Schlozman, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
“Recall the multiple political figures who have been heard to use profanity when they assumed they were not on microphone,” said Schlozman. “The subsequent [truth] that increased profanity within dialogue or first-persona narratives, or third-person familiar narratives, adds to the YA novel, and a kind of challenging that is characteristic of identity formation for all adolescents and young adults, especially in Western culture.”
And that level of profanity that kids are learning and using these days can be shocking, said Dr. Victor Strasburger, a former member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Communications Media. But, while media plays a strong role in influencing children’s language and profanity, movies and television have a much more powerful role than books.
“Reading has always been a separate kind of media,” said Strasburger. “Seeing your favorite movie star, or someone you identify with, spouting foul language is different than reading it on a page because with movies you have the visual processing, along with the auditory and role modeling. With books, you just have the visual.”
Experts, including Dr. Ari Brown, a pediatrician who authored “Baby 411,” said that families should preview movies and television shows before kids watch them, and read books along with their children.
“Then like other book clubs, take the opportunity to discuss them,” said Brown. “These are where teaching moments happen as parents. It gives kids a chance to ask questions not only about the plot, but the human interactions portrayed by the characters. Teens, in particular, use all forms of media to get a taste of what the real world is like, so it is important to talk about issues that come up in books if they deviate from your own moral compass.”
Help kids to understand context, said Schlozman.
“Obscenities have their place, but these strong words lose their punch if used frequently, Schlozman continued. “And, help kids to understand that they have every right to use strong words (we can’t and don’t want to threaten an adolescent with control over what comes out of their mouth) but they must be also be aware that the very nature of the choice to use these words brings with it consequences.”
Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=8159c3e64b471b7e53a5b74f5aada2fc
A day after a study in the journal Lancet challenged the long-standing notion that raising levels of HDL — commonly known as “good” cholesterol — prevents heart attacks, top cardiology experts differed on whether the research really means the end of the road for therapies aimed at boosting HDL levels to beat back heart disease.
Some, like Dr. Philip Greenland, said the new evidence may very well close the book on such efforts.
“After several blows to the head of this theory, it is on the ropes, or maybe even down for the count,” wrote Greenland, senior associate dean for clinical and translational research at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, in an email to ABC News.
Others, like Dr. Christopher Cannon, say the story might not be over yet. While he admits that the study shows that raising good cholesterol to stave off heart disease is not as straightforward as first imagined, he believes that drugs now being tested that aim to boost HDL levels even higher may hold promise.
“It casts some doubt on the benefits of higher HDL, but the real answers will come from clinical trials of new medications that raise HDL,” Cannon, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and senior investigator of the TIMI Study Group, said in an email. “We are testing a drug now… that increases HDL by 60 mg/dl on average — and that will hopefully answer the question on whether HDL is important.”
HDL levels are still an important predictor of heart health; for decades, doctors have used this measure as a way of predicting a patient’s risk for future heart disease.
“These data do not take away the predictive value of HDL in the general population,” said the new study’s senior author Dr. Sekar Kathiresan, who is director of preventive cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “Low amounts of HDL cholesterol have been correlated with an increased risk of heart attack.”
Naturally, this correlation made HDL levels seem an attractive target for drugs to reduce the risk of heart disease. To help doctors understand whether this was the case, Kathiresan and his colleagues looked at a group of people who had higher HDL levels because of differences in their genetic makeup. They compared these people with others without this genetic predisposition.
Based on past studies, the researchers expected the patients with higher HDL cholesterol to be protected from a heart attack. To their surprise, that was not the case; there was no difference between the two groups.
So what does this mean for patients? “Just because an intervention raises HDL, we cannot assume that this lowers the risk of a heart attack,” Kathiresan said.
This study comes on the heels of several other recent clinical trials that suggest that medications designed to increase HDL are not effective in reducing coronary heart disease. These trials examined, among other things, extended-release niacin and several drugs in an experimental class of medications known as CETP inhibitors.
Several of these studies are still in progress. Yet, none of this research has demonstrated that raising HDL is effective at reducing the rates of heart attacks and heart disease.
Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=bdf0f2ca9bbb98685c10c395e13f5a76
Nearly 10 percent of U.S. teens have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a largely silent accumulation of fat in their liver cells that puts them at risk for developing later cardiovascular disease and additional liver problems, new research has found.
Most of the increase in cases of NAFLD (disease not brought on by alcohol-related liver damage) is occurring among the heaviest teens — those considered obese, based on their height, weight and age, said lead researcher Dr. Miriam Vos, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Emory University in Atlanta.
“We tried to see where the increase was happening and it looks like it’s happening in the obese group,” she said.
But ill health is not inevitable for obese teens whose livers already have sustained damage, said Vos, an assistant professor of pediatrics. “We think that liver disease is reversible, particularly for a teenager if they can make substantial changes and improve their weight,” she added.
Vos determined that the prevalence of fatty liver among U.S. teens has more than doubled in the past two decades, from 3.6 percent to 9.9 percent, outpacing the rise in teenage obesity during that time and suggesting obesity is only a partial explanation for a rise. Vos’ findings come from health data collected for 10,359 adolescents who participated in the National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1988 and 2008.
Even without fully understanding why numbers are up, “this is a disease that definitely needs attention. We need programs that focus on prevention of both obesity and fatty liver disease,” said Vos, who is scheduled to present her findings Monday at Digestive Disease Week in San Diego, an annual gathering of nearly 16,000 physicians, researchers and academics.
The increase in fatty liver and its associated risks provide strong support for “recommendations to screen for NAFLD in obese adolescents,” Vos and her colleagues concluded.
“Fatty liver disease kind of goes with the whole obesity epidemic,” said Dr. Joseph A. Skelton, a pediatric gastroenterologist and associate director of the Center for Family Obesity Research at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., who was not involved in Vos’ research.
He said that getting youngsters to eat healthier, be more active and maintain a healthy weight is “going to have the biggest impact, because there aren’t any good drug treatments for fatty liver disease.”
Vos said the researchers undertook the study to see whether there was evidence for a perception among GI specialists that they were seeing more cases of fatty liver disease in young patients. “Doctors are also looking for it more often, so it was difficult to tell if there were more cases because they were looking more often, or because there actually were more cases,” she said.
In her own pediatric gastroenterology practice, Vos commonly sees “multiple cases per week” and because of the volume of cases, now runs a clinic for youngsters with fatty liver. Although the NHANES data only looked at youngsters 12 and older, Vos said fatty liver disease can develop well before that. “We certainly see 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds with it,” she said.
Vos calculated the prevalence of teens with probable liver disease by identifying those youngsters who met the statistical definition of being overweight (in the 85th to 95th percentile for body mass index for their age) or obese (above the 95th percentile for BMI) who also had elevated levels of an enzyme called alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in their blood.
When the liver is damaged or diseased, it releases more ALT into the bloodstream. The method “is not perfect,” she said, but it’s the most sensitive way to get at the information short of doing an invasive liver biopsy, which wouldn’t be ethically feasible.
Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=41411cbc20fee6caf1e75092588d3bbc
At a time when women are “eating for two,” dieting can safely lower the health risks of obesity during pregnancy, according to a new study.
British researchers reviewed data from 44 trials involving 7,278 women to determine the safety and effectiveness of weight management programs during pregnancy. Not only did the moms-to-be gain less weight, they also lowered their risk of dangerous complications.
“Dietary interventions were most effective in reducing complications such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, and preterm delivery,” the researchers wrote in their report, published Thursday in BMJ.
Babies benefitted, too, as they were less likely to get stuck in the birth canal despite no difference in birth weight.
“There is no evidence that the interventions evaluated in our review or recommended in current clinical practice are associated with adverse maternal or fetal outcomes,” the authors wrote.
Nearly half of U.S. women who are of child-bearing age are obese, according to a 2009 study in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.
The growing problem prompted “Obese Expecting,” a TLC documentary that followed four obese women through complicated pregnancies and painful deliveries. A scene from the special shows doctors struggling to give one woman an epidural through the fat in her back.
“We spent 45 minutes attempting to put the spinal in,” said Dr. Charles Hux, a New Jersey OB/GYN featured in the documentary. “With so many layers of fat, it’s difficult to be certain that the needle went into the exact space it should go in.”
After several tries, the team gave up, deciding instead to give the woman a general anesthetic and a C-section.
“Going to sleep carries significant risks, even for a slim pregnant woman,” said Dr. Marjorie Greenfield, division chief of general obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. “And the risk goes up significantly in a woman who’s overweight.”
Obesity also compromises prenatal care, according to Greenfield.
“It’s harder to provide excellent care to someone who’s obese because a lot of things we do are not as accurate,” said Greenfield, explaining how ultrasounds and other tests to gauge the baby’s growth can be skewed by the mother’s fat. “It’s also harder to feel the position of the baby.”
The extra fat, and the fact that obesity can cause irregular periods, also means women might not immediately realize they’re pregnant.
“If you don’t know you’re pregnant, you might not avoid things that are toxic, like alcohol, smoking and certain medications,” said Greenfield, adding that prenatal vitamins are also important. “And a lot of what we do in prenatal care depends on knowing exactly how far along a woman is. If you don’t have a sense of gestational age, it’s harder to provide the right care.”
Weight gain during pregnancy is normal. But obese women should gain no more than 15 pounds, according to guidelines. That’s roughly half the amount recommended for women of normal weight.
“For someone with bad eating habits, that’s going to be really hard,” said Greenfield, describing how pregnancy cravings and the “eating for two” mentality can conspire to pack on the pounds.
Women who dieted during pregnancy gained roughly three pounds less than women who did not, according to the BMJ study. And that’s good, said Greenfield, because it’s less weight to lose later.
“Women who put on a lot of weight during pregnancy often can’t get it off again,” she said. “It’s definitely contributing to the obesity epidemic.”
Rising rates of obesity among moms-to-be has forced hospitals to adapt, adding delivery tables that can be made wider and hold up to 600 pounds.
“The old tables only went up to 450 pounds,” Greenfield said. “That’s just not realistic anymore.”
Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=334ba8099ce68d2ce84c4c5f63765e23