I Love Explaining Medical Things
BY HANS DUVEFELT
A lot of people don’t know much about how the body works. One of my jobs as a physician is to explain how things work in order to empower my patient to choose how to deal with it when the body isn’t working right.
On my blog I have written about this many times, for example in the 2010 post GUY TALK:
Guy Talk
One of the first challenges I faced as a foreign doctor from an urban background practicing in a small town in this country was finding the right way to explain medical issues to my male patients. They were farmers and fishermen without much experience with illness, medications or medi...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 2, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Guy Talk Hans Duvefelt Rural medicine Source Type: blogs
Platelet-rich plasma: Does the cure for hair loss lie within our blood?
Platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, is derived from the bloodstream and has been used for years to treat musculoskeletal conditions, and more recently, skin conditions. Colloquially termed “vampire” treatments, PRP injected into the skin or used after microneedling (a technique that uses small needles to create microscopic skin wounds) may help to improve skin texture and appearance. Recently, PRP has garnered attention as a promising solution for one of the most challenging problems in dermatology: hair loss.
Platelets and hair growth: What’s the connection?
Platelets are one of four primary components of blood (the other...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 11, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Neera Nathan, MD, MSHS Tags: Health Skin and Hair Care Source Type: blogs
How Balding Became Big Business, and the market is expected to grow even further - WSJ video
How Balding Became Big Business - WSJ video: Only 2 medications are FDA-approved as of 2019: minoxidil and finasteride:References:https://on.wsj.com/32SeoPz
Posted atClinical Cases and Images. Stay updated andsubscribe, follow us onTwitter and connect onFacebook. (Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog)
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - October 3, 2019 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Dermatology Source Type: blogs
Popular drugs used for treating enlarged prostates associated with high-grade prostate cancer
If a man has an enlarged prostate, there’s a good chance he’ll be treated with a type of drug called a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (5-ARI). These drugs shrink the gland to improve urinary flow, and the approved forms used for treating enlarged prostates come in two varieties: Proscar (finasteride) and Avodart (dutasteride).
However, a side effect of 5-ARI inhibitor treatment is that it suppresses blood levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) by about 50%. Doctors measure PSA during prostate cancer screening, and if a man on 5-ARI therapy winds up with results that are artificially low, then he might be falsely reassu...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 12, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: BPH Health Prostate Knowledge Screening HPK Source Type: blogs
Might Depression Be Linked to One of These Popular Medications?
If you’re taking beta blockers, certain kinds of anxiety drugs, certain types of painkillers (including ibuprofen), proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) (used to treat acid reflux), ACE inhibitors (used to treat high blood pressure), or anti-convulsant drugs, you may be at greater risk for depression. That’s according to a new, large-scale study published earlier this week in JAMA.
However, this was a correlational study, so it can’t say that these medications actually cause depression or not. It may be that people with greater health problems are more likely to take one of these medications and be depressed abo...
Source: World of Psychology - June 15, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: Depression General Medications Psychiatry Research Drugs cause depression popular medications Source Type: blogs
Trump ’s Docs
BySTEVEN FINDLAY
It’s now clear that two public assessments of President Trump’s health since 2015—the only ones we know about—were seriously compromised.
The import of this has been eclipsed by other (more salacious) recent events—Stormy Daniels, etc. But what has transpired raises troubling questions and should prompt a reassessment of how candidates for president and presidents are medically evaluated, and the public’s right to that information.
I’ve written two pieces for THCB on Trump’s physical and mental health. You can find them here and here.
The first assessment of Trump’s he...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 7, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
YoDerm Provides Consultations and Prescriptions Within 24 Hours
In many areas the wait time to see a dermatologist can span weeks or even months, leaving those with acute or chronic skin conditions frustrated. YoDerm is trying to change that. For a fee of $59, patients can submit skin problems and upload photos through an online platform, receive a consultation from a board-certified dermatologist, and have a prescription sent to their local pharmacy – in less than 24 hours.
The idea for YoDerm stemmed from co-founder and CEO Ben Holber’s personal experiences. Growing up, he had chronic acne and was unhappy with the “pretty traditional experience” of scheduling difficulties...
Source: Medgadget - October 11, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Cici Zhou Tags: Dermatology Exclusive Source Type: blogs
The scary evolution of direct-to-consumer advertising
One night in 1997, as Americans watched Touched by an Angel they were touched by something else unexpected: an ad for a prescription allergy pill called Claritin, sold directly to patients.
Prescription drugs had never been sold directly to the public before — a marketing tactic called direct-to-consumer or DTC advertising. How could average people, who certainly had not been to medical school, know if the medication was appropriate or safe without a doctor’s recommendation?
Soon, ads for Meridia, Propecia, Singulair, Paxil, Prozac, Vioxx, Lipitor, and Viagra followed — exhorting patients to “ask their doct...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 17, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/martha-rosenberg" rel="tag" > Martha Rosenberg < /a > Tags: Conditions Cancer Source Type: blogs
The Future of Work Part I
Have you ever taken some time to think about what work will look like 5, 10 or even 20 years from now? If you haven’t, it is probably worth the effort because a changing work environment may have dramatic implications for how you are employed in the future. In these two posts, I want to talk about some of the trends I’m seeing and how they may play out in the coming years.
Outsourcing
Companies are getting better and better at spinning off specific business functions and letting them be handled by others. For example, many businesses can’t justify running payroll in-house. It is cheaper to hire a company...
Source: Productivity501 - September 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Mark Shead Tags: Misc Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 50-year-old man with increasing urinary frequency and urgency
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 50-year-old man is evaluated for a 1-year history of increasing urinary frequency and urgency and occasional urge incontinence. He has no symptoms of urinary hesitancy or incomplete emptying. The patient has primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Medications are dalfampridine and vitamin D.
On physical evaluation, temperature is 36.8 °C (98.2 °F), blood pressure is 120/55 mm Hg, and pulse rate is 68/min. Findings of abdominal and digital rectal examinations are normal. Finger-to-nose testing reveals dysmetr...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 30, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: mksap Tags: Conditions Neurology Source Type: blogs
All about hair loss (alopecia) - Deutsche Welle expert interview
Dr. Andreas Finner (Trichomed Praxis Berlin) talks about what everyone can do to keep a full head of hair and about the best methods for treating hair loss:Today's Hair-Loss Treatments: DrugsMinoxidil shampooPatients can buy an OTC shampoo with an ingredient called minoxidil. Minoxidil (Rogaine) fights androgenic alopecia in both men and women. It's still not entirely clear how minoxidil works. Used properly -- twice a day, massaged deep into the scalp -- it slows new hair loss. Two-thirds of men do get acceptable hair growth. "It is not something a bald person would use, but someone starting to go bald would use it. The g...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - August 28, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Dermatology Deutsche Welle Source Type: blogs
Can plant stem cells grow more hair? Episode 84
This study indicates that butyl avocadoate does reduce sebum production (although there was no control used in the study so it’s really hard to tell if the reduction in sebum just resulted from washing the scalp.) Regardless, all the study showed was less oil on the surface of the skin it did NOT measure any factors related to hair growth. So the only evidence for this ingredient doesn’t even support the primary claim.
The Beauty Brains bottom line
Tyler asked what you can expect to see from this technology. The answer is…we can’t find any evidence that this product will do anything to your hair beyond reducing hai...
Source: thebeautybrains.com - May 26, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Randy SchuellerDiscover the beauty and cosmetic products you should use and avoid Source Type: blogs
Cases: Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH) as a hospice diagnosis?
Conclusion: In this case, a simple condition that is easily treatable in most men became one that we expected to lead to Mr. K’s death. However, the diagnosis that led it to become life-limiting was Mr. K’s dementia, and the heavy burden which BPH treatments would have placed on him. Mr. K’s daughter based her decision on Mr. K’s values, saying that if the father she was raised by was able to see himself in his current condition, he would have wanted both to stay in place and to be allowed to die with dignity. Forced catheterization and antipsychotic treatment might have prolonged his life by years but would have ...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - January 6, 2015 Category: Palliative Carer Workers Tags: cases childers emergency care hospice medications POLST urology Source Type: blogs
Seeking an end to the prostate cancer and finasteride discussion
We’ve all heard the phrase, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Well, that saying may hold particular relevance while reviewing a new research report published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The report is an important one. It is an 18 year follow-up of a study designed to show whether the use of the drug finasteride could reduce the incidence and deaths from prostate cancer. The study was called the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial and when it was initially reported in 2003 it showed that the drug could reduce the incidence of prostate cancer by almost 25%.
Continue readin...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 27, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Conditions Cancer Medications Source Type: blogs
