It ’s not gonna’ kill you to take hormone replacement
It’s not going to kill you to take hormone replacement therapy.
That’s the take home message from the latest analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative, the largest and longest randomized trial of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in menopausal women.
After almost 18 years of follow up in the WHI, there was no increase in overall mortality, including death rates from cancer, in women taking HRT for up to 5.6 years (estrogen plus progestin) or 7.2 years (estrogen alone). There was a non-significant reduction in mortality among those who started HRT between ages 50 and 59, the group most likely to be presc...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - September 22, 2017 Category: Primary Care Authors: Margaret Polaneczky, MD Tags: Hormone Replacement Menopause WHI breast cancer estrogen HRT Prempro Source Type: blogs
Combination hormonal therapy boosts survival in men with aggressive prostate cancer
A standard approach for treating aggressive prostate cancer is to give therapies that block testosterone, a tumor-stimulating hormone. Should initial hormonal therapies fail, doctors can switch to other drugs that suppress testosterone in different ways. One of them, a drug called abiraterone, has been shown to significantly extend lifespans in men who have become resistant to other hormonal treatments.
But in June, two major studies reported simultaneously that abiraterone also prolongs life in men with aggressive prostate cancer that’s been newly diagnosed. One of the studies, a phase 3 clinical trial called LATITUDE, ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 18, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Cancer Health Men's Health Prostate Health Source Type: blogs
“I Feel that I’m a Human Being There”: A Transgender Older Adult’s Experience With a Family Medicine Clinic
By: K. Abel Knochel, PhD, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota, and Dylan Flunker, MPP, Rainbow Health Initiative, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Melissa is a white, 63-year-old academic. She began identifying to others as female six years ago, although she has self-identified as female throughout her life. Melissa is in the process of transitioning and receives care through Smiley’s Family Medicine Clinic. She discussed her experiences in an interview with the Minnesota Transgender Aging Project (MTAP) in September 2016. MTAP is exploring the care that older transgender adults experience and expect in the Twin Citi...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - August 10, 2017 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Guest Author Tags: Featured Guest Perspective empathy humanism LGBT Minnesota Transgender Aging Project patient Source Type: blogs
Yoga improves treatment-related symptoms in men with prostate cancer
Decades of research show that yoga can reduce the emotional and physical fatigue brought on by cancer treatment. Now researchers have shown for the first time that’s also true specifically for men being treated for prostate cancer. Men who took a yoga class twice a week during treatment reported less fatigue, fewer sexual side effects, and better urinary functioning than men who did not, according a new study. “The data are convincing,” said the study’s principal investigator, Dr. Neha Vapiwala, an associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. “Wha...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 4, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Prostate Health Yoga Source Type: blogs
Cognitive Training or Gingko Biloba to prevent cognitive decline and dementia? New comprehensive report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine clarifies priorities for public health and for future research
Evidence Supporting Three Interventions That Might Slow Cognitive Decline and the Onset of Dementia Is Encouraging but Insufficient to Justify a Public Health Campaign Focused on Their Adoption (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine):
“Cognitive training, blood pressure management for people with hypertension, and increased physical activity all show modest but inconclusive evidence that they can help prevent cognitive decline and dementia, but there is insufficient evidence to support a public health campaign encouraging their adoption, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engin...
Source: SharpBrains - June 23, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning Health & Wellness Professional Development Acetylcholinesterase antidementia treatments biomarkers blood pressure management cognitive-decline Cognitive-impairment Cognitive-Training Source Type: blogs
Combining surgery, radiation, and hormonal therapy dramatically extends survival in men with advanced prostate cancer
In April, scientists reported encouraging results from a pilot study of men with metastatic prostate cancer, or cancer that has spread beyond the prostate gland. Long considered incurable, these advanced cancers are usually treated by giving men systemic drugs that target new tumors forming in the body. The scientists who led this new study took a more aggressive approach. In addition to giving systemic therapy, they surgically removed the prostate gland and affected lymph nodes, and also treated visible cancer in the bones with radiation. By throwing everything but the kitchen sink at these cancers, they achieved a stunni...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - June 14, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Cancer Health Prostate Health Source Type: blogs
Adding hormonal therapy to radiation lengthens survival in men with recurring prostate cancer
High-grade cancer that’s still confined to the prostate is generally treated surgically. But a third of the men who have their cancerous prostates removed will experience a rise in blood levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). This is called PSA recurrence. And since detectable PSA could signal the cancer’s return, doctors will often treat it by irradiating the prostate bed, or the area where the gland used to be.
In February, researchers reported that radiation is a more effective treatment for PSA recurrence when given in combination with androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT). ADT interferes with the body’s ability...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 19, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Cancer Prostate Health Source Type: blogs
Motherhood, the Brain and Dementia: Changing Hormones Alter Risk
Throughout decades of study, hormone therapy (HT), often but not always the same as hormone replacement therapy (HRT), has been glorified and demonized in turn. The information that doctors receive has come from ongoing studies that seemed to offer over time radically conflicting results. A new study may add more confusion since this study has found that not only does HT given near menopause create changes in a woman’s brain, but motherhood itself creates changes.
Read full article on how changing hormones can alter the risk of Alzheimer's:
Support a caregiver or jump start discussion in support groups with real stories&...
Source: Minding Our Elders - May 13, 2017 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
January, 2035: The First Designer Baby Brought To Life
I write short science fiction stories to raise awareness about the massive ethical issues we will have to face when disruptive technologies show their full potential. This way, people can get scared, excited or just initiate discussions about how to prepare for the coming changes in health, disease and life.
Waiting to disconnect Lydia from the artificial womb
The birth of a baby is always one of the greatest events in the parents’ life. But the 21st of January was also a big day in the Digital Healthcare Facility in London, UK. Lydia, the first so-called „designer baby” was brought to life. Unbearable amount of pres...
Source: The Medical Futurist - May 9, 2017 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Medical Science Fiction CRISPR designer babies designer baby future GC1 genome editing sci-fi Source Type: blogs
This gynecological issue is misdiagnosed over 50 percent of the time
As a consultant in gynecologic pathology, I receive requests for second opinions from patients who have been diagnosed with endometrial hyperplasia. My opinion is based upon correlating the relevant clinical history with a review of the patient’s pathology slides and report. In my experience, there is a difference of opinion that leads to a change in treatment in about half of the cases. 75 percent of cases with changed diagnoses are downgraded to a less serious condition or normal variant, and the remaining 25 percent of those cases are upgraded to a more serious condition.
Pathologists are particularly likely to overdi...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 4, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/roger-reichert" rel="tag" > Roger Reichert, MD, PhD < /a > Tags: Conditions OB/GYN Source Type: blogs
Transgender Health Equity: Patients Say Providers Lack Expertise And Understanding Of Transgender Health Needs
For the past five years, Massachusetts has mandated that insurers provide coverage for medical services related to the health of transgender people, including gender-affirming medical services. But it was not clear how well the mandate was working or whether people were able to access care now that services were covered. Were insurers covering the right services? What barriers were being encountered?
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation’s new program, the Health Equity Roundtable, set out to find answers to these questions by bringing together transgender men, transgender women, and transgender youth, along with parent...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 29, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Shani Dowd Tags: Featured Health Equity Quality transgender discrimination transgender rights Source Type: blogs
What Can Women Do to Prevent Early Menopause?
About Early Menopause
The average age a woman goes into menopause is 51. Menopause is considered abnormal when it begins before the age of 40 and is called “premature ovarian failure.” Common symptoms that come with menopause include hot flashes, night sweats, sleep problems, sexual issues, vaginal dryness, pain during sex, pelvic floor disorders (urine, bowel leakage, pelvic organ prolapse), losing bone mass, and mood swings.
Menopause is mostly genetically predetermined, which means you generally can’t do much to delay it from happening. What we can do is work to counter-balance or prevent the symptoms and effe...
Source: Life in a Medical Center - March 13, 2017 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: UMMC Tags: Health Tips Women's Health diet and exercise early menopause tatiana sanses Source Type: blogs
Exercise, or Reducing AI's Side Effects
All of us ' lucky ' people with hormone positive breast cancer, get the ' benefit ' of being able to take hormone therapy or aromatase inhibitors (AIs) such as Femara, Aromasin, etc. These lovely little pills potentially reduce your risk of breast cancer recurrence (that most dreaded of all possibilities).However these aforementioned lovely little pills cause nice side effects such as bone loss and joint pain. I have friends who had to discontinue AIs because of these side effects. They can be THAT bad.So anew research study (because we always need more research) has come up with a cure for these issues: Exercise. Parts of...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - February 13, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer treatment exercise hormone therapy side effects Source Type: blogs
Correlating Activity Levels and Telomere Length as a Proxy for the Pace of Aging
Discussions about the benefits of exercise should start when we are young, and physical activity should continue to be part of our daily lives as we get older, even at 80 years old."
Associations of Accelerometer-Measured and Self-Reported Sedentary Time With Leukocyte Telomere Length in Older Women
Emerging evidence has linked leukocyte telomere length (LTL) to modifiable factors such as smoking, body mass index, and physical activity. Sedentary behavior has also been studied in relation to LTL, but with mixed findings. In the Nurses' Health Study, there was no association of total sedentary time or spec...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 20, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
