What tests are MORE important than cholesterol?
In the conventional practice of early heart disease prevention, cholesterol testing takes center stage. Rarely does it go any further, aside from questions about family history and obvious sources of modifiable risk such as smoking and sedentary lifestyle.
So standard practice is to usually look at your LDL cholesterol, the value that is calculated, not measured, then–almost without fail–prescribe a statin drug. While there are indeed useful values in the standard cholesterol panel–HDL cholesterol and triglycerides–they are typically ignored or prompt no specific action.
But a genuine effort at he...
Source: Track Your Plaque Blog - May 13, 2013 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Lipoprotein testing Omega-3 fatty acids Omega-3 index Thyroid health vitamin D Source Type: blogs
Levoxyl Shortage for Thyroid Patients
I recently tried to refill my prescription for Levoxyl and learned I cannot due to a recall by the manufacturer Pfizer. I called Pfizer this morning and spoke to a robotic, though pleasant, customer service representative in India. She provided little useful information. Between my own research on the FDA and American Thyroid Association websites I learned the following:
* Pfizer has suspended production of Levoxyl, which is manufactured at a plant in Tennessee. Chemical contamination is the reason for suspended production. Emission of a strong odor was reported by pharmacists when opening 100 and 1000 ta...
Source: Everything Changes - May 9, 2013 Category: Cancer Authors: Kairol Rosenthal Tags: Uncategorized thyroid cancer levoxyl papillary carcinoma synthroid Source Type: blogs
The Fault In Our Stars (TFIOS): An Insightful Depiction Of Teens Living With Serious Illness
I have to confess that even though I am a grown woman I seem to like many young adult–teenage books (I am still seventeen at heart). I am frequently asking my daughter and nieces about books they enjoyed when I’m looking for something to read. So far the books I have read include some teenage love stories happening in a futuristic dystopia in which the main characters are at risk of dying because of being in a arena fighting other children like in the hunger games; or being at risk of getting injured while performing difficult stunts like jumping from a train like in the divergent series.
The Fault in Our Stars (TFIO...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - May 8, 2013 Category: Palliative Carer Workers Authors: Jeanette Ross Source Type: blogs
The Fault In Ours Stars (TFIOS): An Insightful Depiction Of Teens Living With Serious Illness
I have to confess that even though I am a grown woman I seem to like many young adult –teenage books (I am still seventeen at heart). I am frequently asking my daughter and nieces about books they enjoyed when I’m looking for something to read. So far the books I have read include some teenage love stories happening in a futuristic dystopia in which the main characters are at risk of dying because of being in a arena fighting other children like in the hunger games; or being at risk of getting injured while performing difficult stunts like jumping from a train like in the divergent series.
The Fault in Ours Sta...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - May 8, 2013 Category: Palliative Carer Workers Authors: Jeanette Ross Source Type: blogs
6 Steps To Healing Yourself
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Lissa Rankin of 6 Steps To Healing Yourself.
Take a moment and check in with yourself. How is your body feeling right in this moment? If you’re generally healthy, check in for subtle symptoms. Is your neck feeling tense? Does your lower back ache? Do you have a headache? Are you exhausted — again? Or perhaps you’re battling a more serious health diagnosis and you’re experiencing symptoms from your health condition.
Whether you’re experiencing the nuisance of a minor physical symptom, the more concerning stress of a serious health condition, or simple curiosity ...
Source: Zen Habits - May 7, 2013 Category: Life Coaches Authors: zenhabits Tags: Health & Fitness Source Type: blogs
BMJ's Too much medicine campaign
The BMJ's Too Much Medicine campaign aims to highlight the threat to human health posed by overdiagnosis and the waste of resources on unnecessary care.
There is growing evidence that many people are overdiagnosed and overtreated for a wide range of conditions, such as prostate and thyroid cancers, asthma, and chronic kidney disease.
Through the campaign, the journal plans to work with others to increase awareness of the benefits and harms of treatments and technologies and develop ways to wind back medical excess, safely and fairly. This editorial by BMJ editor in chief Fiona Godlee and overdiagnosis researcher Ray Moyn...
Source: PharmaGossip - April 26, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
If you don't have your health, what have you got?
Some of us look at the rich and famous, the Hollywood stars, and others and think they have it all. Beauty, riches, and fame seem to be everything.But they are wrong. If you don't have your health, what do you have? Sofia Vergara had thyroid cancer 12 years ago. A recent article about her provides her reactions to thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment."She said that you realize that no matter how much beauty, money, and success you have, if you don't have health, you have nothing, because you can't do anything."Personally I think I am as healthy as a horse on the way to the glue factory. It only took Sofia 12 years from h...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 24, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: cancer diagnosis emotions health Source Type: blogs
PhRMA Report: Over 5400 Medicines in Development and 70% are First in Class
According to report released by PhRMA, companies have more than 5,400 medicines in development globally, and more than 70% of therapies in the pipeline are potentially first-in-class and could offer patients new treatment options, and a notable number of potential therapies target diseases with limited treatment options such as ALS and rare diseases. A breakdown of their report offers insight into the various medicines in development for different diseases and populations.
Older Americans
America’s biopharmaceutical research companies are developing 465 new medicines that target the 10 leading chronic conditi...
Source: Policy and Medicine - April 24, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
False positive test results
One of the complaints about annual mammograms is the possibility of false positive results. They can cause emotional trauma years later.Any false positive test result can be very scary. I am very sympathetic to this. No one wants to be told they have something 'bad' and to be told that they have something 'bad' and then be told that they were wrong, would be worse. But from my point of view (with my medical history) I can say having something 'bad' is infinitely worse than not having something 'bad'.To understand my point of view, look at my medical history.In 1981, I was told I probably had a goiter on my thyroid or somet...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 13, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: medical tests Source Type: blogs
Why don't have I have a patient navigator?
I need a patient navigator. The idea behind a patient navigator is to help newly diagnosed people deal with the mysteries of all these new doctors, treatments, and help them through the process by being there as the go-to person. Its part of the new patient centered care which is a great idea. An experienced person is assigned to a newly diagnosed person. The experienced person can be someone who simply is more familiar with the hospital and how it works or can be someone who has been through the same ailment (s). My health is complicated and I have lots of doctors so why don't I get a patient navigator? I think the real a...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 9, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: support hospital being a patient Source Type: blogs
Further proof that thyroid cancer is not a good cancer
Robert Ebert died the other day of cancer. He had both papillary thyroid cancer and salivary gland cancer. I do not know which cancer was the one that got him in the end and does it really matter?People go around saying thyroid cancer is a good cancer. Its not. It kills people. (Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog)
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 5, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: thyroid cancer Source Type: blogs
Simple Cooking For The Low-Iodine Diet
Thyroid cancer diagnoses rates are increasing, especially among young women. Many thyroid cancer patients undergo radioactive iodine treatment, a.k.a. RAI-131. I have done so twice and learned along the way about how to cope with the seemingly bizarre low-iodine diet.
When I was going through preparation for radioactive iodine treatment, the list of permitted foods on the low-iodine diet seemed grim. Low-iodine diet cookbooks only made me feel worse; I am simple, lazy cook, adverse to complicated recipes and substitutions. Plus, I didn’t want my shopping lists, recipes, or meals to remind me that I was...
Source: Everything Changes - April 2, 2013 Category: Cancer Authors: Kairol Rosenthal Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Comparisons and Standards
Take two people with the same ailment in the same room and one of the first things they will do is start comparing their ailments, doctors and treatments. This is normal. (People who have not had the ailment are not allowed in these conversations because they will insist on comparing the treatment their cousin's hairdresser's neighbor's dogwalker's mother in law had for a similar but different ailment, was treated by a different treatment protocol, and then died after month's in pain in a greatly emaciated state.)Its the same as two people who show up at the same event wearing the same shirt, they talk about where they got...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - March 29, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: cancer treatment standards follow up doctor appointments Source Type: blogs
The exploitation of cancer patients is wicked. Carrot juice for lunch, then die destitute
Jump to follow-up
The time when I lose patience with quacks is when they make unjustified claims about serious diseases. Giving false hope to the desperate (often at a high price) is plain wicked. If the patient stops more effective treatment, it’s homicide. Homeopaths have been jailed for that. Sometimes it’s a result of wishful thinking. Sometimes it’s to make money. The latter is morally more despicable. Both are culpable.
One example was the Totnes (aka Narnia) to “offer real alternatives to the conventional approach to cancer health care“.
Another case, the Dove Clinic, was investig...
Source: DC's goodscience - March 25, 2013 Category: Professors and Educators Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Barbara Wren Cancer act Cancer Options Carctol College of Natural Nutrition Karol Sikora Patricia Peat Rosy Daniel University of Buckingham alternative medicine CancerActive College of medicine Source Type: blogs
Victoza, Januvia, and Other Diabetes Drugs Under FDA Scrutiny: Marketing's "Ethical Concerns"
"Facing growing evidence that some of America's top-selling diabetes medicines could lead to pancreatic disease, federal regulators [see FDA notice here] on Thursday opened an unusual review of drugs from Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and other pharmaceutical makers," reports the Wall Street Journal (here).Some of the "evidence" may have come from Public Citizen in a petition it filed in 2010 with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That petition called on the agency to "immediately remove from the market the increasingly prescribed diabetes drug Victoza because it puts patients at higher risk of thyroid ca...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - March 15, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Drug Safety Victoza FDA Avandia Januvia Paula Deen Ethics diabetes Source Type: blogs
