carypresant

26 Aug

Checking for Osteoporosis by Using Abdominal or Chest CT Scans.

carypresant CT scans, osteoporosis 0 0

Osteoporosis is a common complication of aging, and produces high risk of fractures, which cause disability and even death. Osteoporosis can be effectively treated. When doctors discover osteoporosis and prescribe treatments, the risk of fractures is reduced by 30 to 50%.

Sometimes, doctors neglect to screen for osteoporosis. The usual type of screening is a bone density or DEXA scan. However, many individuals have chest or abdomen CT scans performed for other problems. And now…

19 Aug

How Having a Good Relationship with Your Doctor Improves Your Medical Care.

carypresant Medical Tips, Physician Communication, psychosocial well-being, Uncategorized 0 0

It is logical that having a good physician with whom you have a close relationship can improve your sense of confidence in your medical care. But does it result in improved health care outcomes?

In an important scientific article, K. Trevino and co-authors studied the relationship between 95 young adults with advanced cancer and their physicians. In these young adults who were between 20 and 40 years old, having a strong relationship with the physician,…

12 Aug

You Can Prevent Wrinkles with Sunscreen

carypresant Aging, sunscreen, Vitamins, Wrinkles 3 0

We have all seen when people get older, they develop more and more wrinkles. Unless celebrities have had face-lifts (and many have), you can see examples of wrinkling developing in celebrities on television and movies. Although face-lifts may eliminate wrinkles on the face or neck, hands are always very revealing of the wrinkling that takes place.

Other than using plastic surgery, can other things be done to prevent this wrinkling with age. In a surprising result,…

05 Aug

What is the Latest Advice on Screening for Colon Cancer

carypresant Cancer, Medical Tips, Prevention, Uncategorized 0 0

We are all told that after age 50 we should have a screening colonoscopy. This reduces the risk of death from colon cancer by finding and removing polyps that can cause cancer later. But the difficult preparation for having a colonoscopy prevents many people from agreeing to have periodic colonoscopies, and many older patients have a dangerously high risk from repeated colonoscopy examinations.

A recent article examined what options a person has and what are…

29 Jul

Do Nurse Practitioners Give You Better Care than Your Doctor?

carypresant Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform, Nurse practitioners 0 0

With the expansion of health insurance from the Affordable Care Act and other insurance reforms, more patients will have access to physicians. In order to accommodate this increased burden on the healthcare system and increased availability of higher quality care for patients, there will be more widespread use of nurse practitioners.

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine by K. Donelan and co-authors (New England Journal of Medicine 2013, Volume 368, Page…

22 Jul

Preventing Cardiovascular Disease: What Should You Do?

carypresant Health Care, Heart disease, Vitamins 0 0

Many people take multivitamins to try to prevent disease. A recent study confirms that these vitamins do not prevent the leading cause of death in America, cardiovascular disease.

The study and its editorial http://bit.ly/RaLhNO showed that multivitamins had no evidence of benefit despite about 40% of American using them. so what should you do to prevent heart disease?

Here are my tips:

Concentrate on proven methods of reducing heart disease: exercise, weight control, smoking…

15 Jul

How Long Should I Stay in a Hospital?

carypresant Hospitals, Medical Tips, Physician Communication 4 0

No one wants to be in a hospital, ever! But for many illnesses or accidents, hospitalization is needed. Lengths of hospital stays used to be very long, 7-14 days. But with the increased costs of health care in America, insurance companies, hospitals and physicians have taken steps to shorten the length of hospitalizations.

In a recent article, Dr. P. Kaoboli and coauthors studied how long patients were staying in VA hospitals (Annals of Internal Medicine,…

08 Jul

Diagnosing and Treating Fatigue

carypresant Fatigue, Health Care, Physician Communication 0 0

Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms in people. When fatigue is severe or constant, many doctors do not spend enough time trying to diagnose and treat the problem, leading to poor quality of life in the person suffering from weakness and lack of energy.

Here are some tips for getting to the cause and treating this common condition:

Ask your doctor to do a complete workup looking for all causes Suggest your doctor…

30 Jun

Your Chances of Surviving Cancer are Improving

carypresant Cancer, Medical Tips, Prevention 0 0

We are all afraid of getting cancer. and everyone is feeling that cancer is becoming much more common. 1 of every 6 men and 1 of every 8 women will get cancer at sometime in their lives.

But now we have a progress report from the American Association for Cancer Research http://bit.ly/mYEfwr that shows great progress in the fight against the second leading cause of death in Americans. Between 1990 and 2008, the death…

24 Jun

How the Supreme Court Decision on Gene Patents Really Helps You

carypresant Breast Cancer, Gene Testing, Supreme Court 0 0

Approximately 30% of cancers are caused by hereditary tendency to get cancer. In other diseases, such as cardiac disease, bone disease, and lung disease, diabetes, and high cholesterol, the hereditary tendency to develop the disease is also very strong.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that in the case of a gene test for breast and ovarian cancer (BRCA1 and BRCA2), the gene itself could not be patented. It did specify that the synthetic DNA, used…

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