Archive: News

Oral Contraceptives Are Safe…Users May Live Longer, Study Says
Cheree Cleghorn | March 11, 2010

The main issue with assessing the impact of contraceptive pills on women’s health is that lifespans are longer.
The “Pill” is a product of the 1960s.
The first generation of 20-something users now are only in their 60s. Of course, women in their 30s and 40s used the Pill and would now be in their 70s and [...]

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“The Missing Voice of Patients in Drug Safety Reporting”
Cheree Cleghorn | March 11, 2010

News/Commentary
This full free text article from The New England Journal of Medicine, by Ethan Basch, M.D., explains that clinicians’ assess patients’ responses in clinical trials.
Nobody’s asking the patients what they think they are feeling or experiencing.
This article says that getting information from patients could add valuable information. “Self-reports are more sensitive to underlying changes in [...]

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Cheree Cleghorn | March 11, 2010

The new age of genetic coding to be used in clinical care is almost here, say various experts.
Even one leading critic, a Duke University geneticist, who has disagreed with current approaches in the field, agrees that over the next few years human genetics finally can be used to “systematically deliver clinically meaningful findings.”
The hope has [...]

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Cancer Is “Not the Killer of 20 Years Ago”
Cheree Cleghorn | March 10, 2010

News/Commentary
Cancer is many diseases but, in general, is associated with aging. Risks go up with time.
In a study of cancer deaths, taking age into account, cancer deaths declined among men by 21% since 1990. For women, cancer deaths are down 12% since 1991.
That is significant progress but there remains significantly more work to do. The [...]

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Light to Moderate Drinking Does Not Appear to Cause Weight Gain in Women 40 and Up
Cheree Cleghorn | March 8, 2010

Does drinking lead to weight gain for women, free of major diseases and at normal weight, at 40 and the years afterward?
This study of close to 20,000 women aged 38.9 and older tracked women for eight years, using surveys the participants completed (self-report) about their body weights and alcoholic consumptions.
Archives of Internal Medicine
“The obesity epidemic [...]

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Researchers Find Possible Link Between Genes Types and Diet Success
Cheree Cleghorn | March 5, 2010

Before you get excited about this, the sample size was very, very small—101 women—and limited to Caucasian women. The study, conducted at Stanford University, did not identify which genes might be involved, either. However, other studies have suggested that there may be some connection of this kind.

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Food Poisoning May Be Four Times More Common Than Estimated…Here’s How You Can Tell If You Have It
Cheree Cleghorn | March 4, 2010

When is it “just a bug?” When is it food poisoning? A new consumer research report says the true costs of health-related, food-borne illnesses are four times higher than USDA estimates, coming in at $152 billion each year if you count medical costs, lost wages and lost productivity.

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Payments to Doctors for Medicare Patients Restored as Budget Stand-off Resolved
Cheree Cleghorn | March 4, 2010

For our purposes, Medicare payments to doctors were a top concern. Fortunately, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) delayed processing bills until this could be resolved.

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Coffee Drinkers Get the News…There May Be Heart-Health Benefits
Cheree Cleghorn | March 2, 2010

These studies were presented at an American Heart Association conference this week. This conference offers a number of provocative studies about coffee and various aspects of heart health.

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The Old Atkins Diet Gets a New Look from Clinical Nutritionists
Cheree Cleghorn | March 2, 2010

When my father did not like the number on the scale, he put himself on his football training table diet for two weeks.
Weight gone. “It works for me,” he say. “I don’t know why.”
The diet was composed of meats of various kinds and salads. He skipped the bread. Bravely passed up the nightly ice cream.
In [...]

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