Medical Tips « Surviving American Medicine

25 Nov

Which Health Insurance Should You Choose?

carypresant Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance, Healthcare Reform, Medical Tips 2 0

Choosing the right health insurance has always been confusing. But this perplexing dilemma has become more difficult for 2014 because Obamacare is being implemented. So which insurance is best for you?

I have reviewed the various types of policies in my book “Surviving American Medicine”. But now let me give you my best advice on which policy you should choose.

If you are eligible for Medicare and can afford it, choose the Medicare option with…

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,…

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…

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,…

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…

03 Jun

You May Need More Sleep to Stay Healthy

carypresant Health Care, illness, Medical Tips 0 0

Getting enough sleep is very important. Reduced sleep can lead to diabetes and obesity. Sleep also helps learning and memory.

A recent study shows how the benefits of sleep occur. In a study by J. Broussard and coauthors http://bit.ly/QKf7b1 people were allowed either 4.5 or 8.5 hours of sleep. In people with shorter sleep, biopsies of fat cells from the area around the navel showed resistance to insulin compared to people with more sleep.

…

31 May

How You Can Avoid Delays in Treatment After Breast Cancer Diagnosis

carypresant Breast Cancer, Health Care, Medical Tips, Uncategorized 0 0

After a woman gets a diagnosis of breast cancer, she has anxiety, depression and fear until she gets her treatment plan from her doctors, and begins therapy (surgery possibly followed by radiation, chemotherapy and/or hormonal treatment). This delay from diagnosis to treatment with surgery has been growing (according to Dr. Richard Bleicher and coauthors, J. Clin. Oncol. 30: 4485, 2013). The delay averaging 21 days in 1992 has grown to 32 days in 2005 (the…

22 Apr

Increasing Your Voice in Medical Decision Making

carypresant Doctors, Medical Tips 0 0

Doctors have been talking about shared decision-making by patients with physicians for over a decade, at least since the Institute of Medicine reported “Crossing the Quality Chasm” in 2001. But for you to have your voice heard in making decisions about your own health care, doctors must be giving you honest and complete background information about your condition, and be discussing the pros and cons of proposed treatments.

In a recent analysis, authors concluded that less…

15 Apr

Tell Your Doctor About Alternative or Complementary Medicines You Use

carypresant alternative medicine, Drug Side Effects, Medicines 0 0

In America, use of vitamins, nutritional supplements, and herbs is common, ranging from 10 to 95%. In my practice it is about 50%. But shockingly, a new study http://bit.ly/YVzEAx shows that between 20% to 77% of people who were using complementary or alternative medicines did NOT tell their doctor about which complementary or alternative therapies they were taking. People said they kept this a secret because the doctor never asked, or they were afraid of…

04 Mar

You Can Prevent Oral and Throat Cancer

carypresant Cancer, Medical Tips, Prevention 0 0

Oral and throat cancers are serious and life-threatening, and adequate treatment often produces disfiguring scarring, loss of teeth (due to radiation side effects), and dramatic reduction in quality of life.

Prevention of these terrible conditions is effective. Since the disease is caused by smoking and excess drinking, as well as HPV (human papilloma virus, the same virus that causes cervix cancer, vaginal cancer and penis cancer), you can reduce your risk of these serious cancers….

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