The Clare Project and "What Matters Most?" to young people with advanced cancer
by Karen J. Wernli In the summer of 2014, my sister-in-law, a new mother, died of cancer after 11 years with her disease. Although doctors gave her the best care they could, as a health researcher focused in cancer care, I wanted to do better for people like Clare. Then, at a scientific conference that fall, I learned that others had the same desire. Representatives from the National Cancer Institute were asking for studies to improve care for adolescents and young adults, including at the end of life. On the plane home, I started working with my research ideas. I realized that to know what young people with advanced-stage...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - June 29, 2016 Category: Palliative Care Tags: cancer pediatrics tweetchat twitter young adult Source Type: blogs
The Last Straw: Anti-Tobacco Groups are Actively Promoting Smoking
Readers of the Rest of the Story may have noticed that I have not posted for a few days. This is not for lack of material. Lots is happening that deserves comment, and in the days to follow I will catch readers up on some important developments, including two more lawsuits filed against the FDA in an attempt to overturn its electronic cigarette deeming regulations.I have not been able to write because I have been too distraught. I have come to the realization that the anti-smoking movement - which I have been a part of for the past 31 years, is essentially dead. And even worse, the anti-smoking movement is now actively pro...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - June 5, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 6th 2016
This study teaches us that poor wound healing and wrinkling and sagging that occur in aging skin share similar mechanisms."
Reduced cell cohesiveness of outgrowths from eccrine sweat glands delays wound closure in elderly skin
Human skin heals more slowly in aged vs. young adults, but the mechanism for this delay is unclear. In humans, eccrine sweat glands (ESGs) and hair follicles underlying wounds generate cohesive keratinocyte outgrowths that expand to form the new epidermis. Our results confirm that the outgrowth of cells from ESGs is a major feature of repair in young skin. Strikingly, in aged skin, ...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 5, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 23rd 2016
FIGHT AGING! NEWSLETTER
May 23rd 2016
Fight Aging! provides a weekly digest of news and commentary for thousands of subscribers interested in the latest longevity science: progress towards the medical control of aging in order to prevent age-related frailty, suffering, and disease, as well as improvements in the present understanding of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to extending healthy life. Expect to see summaries of recent advances in medical research, news from the scientific community, advocacy and fundraising initiatives to help speed work on the repair and reversal of aging, links to o...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 22, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Few Recent Studies of Exercise, Fitness, and Risk of Age-Related Disease
Today I'll point out a few recent studies on exercise and age-related disease in human populations. Animal studies show that regular exercise improves health and extends healthspan, the period of life free from age-related conditions. Human studies, which use statistical methods on large sets of population data, tend to show correlations only, but these correlations match what is seen in animal studies. It is not unreasonable to believe based on the evidence that exercise is good for you over the long term, and that maintaining fitness as you age reduces the risk of suffering all of the common age-related diseases - that t...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 18, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Young Adult Cancer Survivor and LIVESTRONG Leader: Valerie
LIVESTRONG Leaders are individuals that make a yearly significant commitment to those in their community affected by cancer by spreading the message of LIVESTRONG. They do this by fundraising, hosting events, bringing LIVESTRONG resources to their local hospitals and more. One of our amazing leaders from France, Valérie Sanja, talks about why she is involved with LIVESTRONG and what she is doing in her community to help spread the LIVESTRONG message.
What is your name, where are you from?
My Name is Valérie Sanja, a french national currently living in Germany following my recent surgery and medical follow up treatment.
...
Source: LIVESTRONG Blog - April 21, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: LIVESTRONG Staff Source Type: blogs
A Young Adult Survivor Story: 15 Years in the Making
Nearly 72,000 young adults, ages 15-39, are diagnosed with cancer every year. April is the time when we highlight the unique challenges that young adult cancer survivors face like school, jobs, dating, getting married and having children. Over the years, LIVESTRONG has interviewed thousands of cancer survivors. Many of those survivors were filmed for our website including a woman named Kim Bergeron. Kim applied to become a LIVESTRONG Leader this year and we jumped at the chance to share her survivor story again 15 years in the making.
Kim’s 2003 interview with LIVESTRONG
LIVESTRONG:
We interviewed you in the early 2...
Source: LIVESTRONG Blog - April 17, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: LIVESTRONG Staff Source Type: blogs
CMS Releases Final 2017 Letter To Issuers In The Federally Facilitated Marketplaces (Updated)
Implementing Health Reform (March 3 update). On March 3, 2016, the Office of the HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) announced that the ACA has resulted in gains in health insurance coverage of 20 million adults through February 22, 2016. This includes 2.3 million young adults who gained coverage under the ACA provision allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ coverage through age 26, and 17.7 million non-elderly adults who have gained coverage between the beginning of open enrollment in October 2013 and the present. The report shows continued progress since ASPE released its last estimat...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 3, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Alaska Medicaid expansion QHPs Supreme Court Source Type: blogs
Death with Dignity?
Tarris Rosell, PhD, DMinWhat Kansans Need to Consider about House Bill No. 2150(“The Kansas Death with Dignity Act”)How would you answer the following question if a Gallup pollster asked?When a person has a disease that cannot be cured and is living in severe pain, do you think doctors should or should not be allowed by law to assist the patient to commit suicide if the patient requests it?As of mid-2015, nearly 7 out of 10 Americans polled answered that question, “Yes,” including 48% of those who attend church weekly. The vast majority of Americans, and 81% of young adults ages 18-34, currently fav...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - February 15, 2016 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Practical Bioethics Tags: Health Care advance care directives bioethics chronic pain Death with Dignity end of life care planning medical ethics syndicated Source Type: blogs
TBT: Getting Diagnosed with Cervical Cancer
In honor of it being Cervical Cancer Awareness Month today’s TBT post is one we ran as part of a series back in 2014.
January is Cervical Cancer Month. According to the CDC, in 2010 11,818 women in the United States were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 3,939 women died from the disease. And while these statistics are disheartening, once the leading cause of death in women, cervical cancer has rapidly declined over the past 40 years. The decline in cases can be attributed to preventative medicine: more women are getting regular Pap tests, which can find cervical precancer before it turns into cancer.
Throughout t...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - January 14, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Cancer TBT Women's Health Source Type: blogs
The financial costs of treating CT-induced cancer
Computed tomography (CT) is a powerful diagnostic tool that allows rapid diagnosis of disease. CT is widely available in the U.S. and is a mainstay of medical diagnosis. Estimates state that 85 million CT scans were performed in the U.S. in 2012. To create images, CT scanners pass ionizing radiation (x-rays) through the body thereby exposing patients to radiation. Patients who are imaged with CT have a theoretical but widely accepted risk of developing cancer years to decades following radiation exposure.
In contrast, MRI and ultrasound create images without x-rays and have no risk of inducing cancer. MRI particu...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 12, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Matthew F. Covington, MD and Phillip H. Kuo, MD, PhD Tags: Conditions Radiology Source Type: blogs
Best of 2015: Why Don’t We Take Tanning As Seriously As Tobacco?
Back in May being to celebrate Skin Cancer Awareness Month and in tandem with our event we co-hosted with the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses we are ran a series on skin cancer. Today’s best of 2015 posts is from that series.
In 2009, upon review of the science on tanning beds and cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer assigned tanning beds a class 1 carcinogen, joining tobacco and asbestos in the highest classification of harm. In spite of this development, skin cancer rates have steadily climbed over the last 3 d...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - December 28, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Advocacy Source Type: blogs
Administration Finalizes Regulations Implementing ACA Insurance Reforms (Updated)
Implementing Health Reform (November 17 update on deductibles). There has been a good deal of coverage recently of the high and ever-growing level of health insurance deductibles; this was the subject of a major article in The New York Times and even of a question at the November 14, 2015, Democratic candidates debate. A November 17, 2015 post by Kevin Counihan, CEO of healthcare.gov, at the CMS Blog adds some perspective to this issue.
First, it is important to remember that for individuals and families with incomes below 250 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) ($50,225 for a family of three), cost sharing, includ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 14, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Source Type: blogs
Administration Finalizes Regulations Implementing ACA Insurance Reforms
Implementing Health Reform. The Affordable Care Act, adopted in March of 2010, contained a number of insurance reforms that were to be effective six months after the date of its enactment. During May, June, and July of 2010, the departments that share responsibilities to oversee the group health plans and insurers subject to the reforms—Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury—issued interim final (Labor and HHS) or temporary and proposed (Treasury) rules to implement the six months reform. These interim rules governed
grandfathered plans,
preexisting condition exclusions,
internal and external appeals,
resciss...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 14, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Source Type: blogs
Who said that the older years are golden? They seem pretty grey to me.
I have written about the support that a partner/spouse provides to someone living with cancer — with prostate cancer and for young adults with cancer — and I always include the partner in discussions about treatment choice or sexual difficulties.
But a number of my older patients are single, and their experiences of facing treatment and survivorship alone are profoundly moving. They often want to find someone with whom to share their life — and this is a real challenge.
There are times when I am tempted to start a matchmaking service for the men and women, both gay and straight, who tell me how lonely t...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 10, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Anne Katz, RN, PhD Tags: Physician Cancer Geriatrics Source Type: blogs
