Complications After Cancer Linger
My least favorite phrase is ' with your medical history we need to be sure ' . I have been hearing it since my first cancer diagnosis. Even though my two cancers, thyroid and breast, are not what are considered the most horrible kinds, they both could recur and kill me anytime they want.What it has meant over the year is that I have always been sent for more tests than anyone else. I need more blood tests and scans than anyone else. Now as I have developed more ailment such as RA, its harder to treat. One of the costs of my cancer treatment is osteopenia - in a family full of women with osteoporosis, all of a sudden I am m...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - September 21, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer history cancer treatment crankiness Source Type: blogs
Why does hair turn gray?
Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling
If you look at photos of President Obama taken before he ran for president and since he left office, you’ll notice a distinct difference: where there used to be only dark brown hair, there is now far more gray than brown. It seems that the stress of running a country would turn any person’s hair gray. But is stress really to blame? And why does hair turn gray, even for those of us who don’t have jobs quite as stressful as President of the United States?
Stress doesn’t actually turn hair gray. In fact, hair doesn’t actually “turn” gray. Once a hair follicle produces hair, the...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 18, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Healthy Aging Skin and Hair Care Source Type: blogs
Good News Again
Stable:
Since April of 2016 my treatment regimen has been Pomalyst (pomalidomide) and Darzalex (daratumumab), with dexamethasone in the early months. That combination brought my IgG and M-Spike down to the lowest levels seen since diagnosis 14 years ago. M-Spike has not been above 0.5 g/dL since August 2016, and it was 0.5 again last Tuesday. IgG was 536 mg/dL, about where it has been for more than a year. This is wonderful.
The Darzalex protocol (with Pomalyst) calls for infusions once per week for 8 doses, then every other week for 8 more, and finally once per month " until disease progression. " ...
Source: Myeloma Hope - September 18, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: acid reflux daratumumab Darzalex GERD PET scan pomalidomide Pomalyst thyroid Source Type: blogs
Novo Nordisk $58 Million Settlement and REMS - Off Label Prosecution Still Alive and Well
Novo Nordisk will pay roughly $58.7 million to resolve claims that the company’s sales force downplayed the importance of mandated United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings about the cancer risks of its diabetes prescription, Victoza.
In a civil complaint filed on September 5, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the government asserted claims under the FDCA, alleging that at the time of Victoza’s approval in 2010, the FDA required a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) to mitigate the potential risk in humans of a rare form of cancer associated with the drug - Medul...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 13, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
What ’s up with hiccups?
Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling
If you do an Internet search on “hiccups” you’ll find lots of supposed cures for this annoying but usually fast-passing condition — one site lists 250 of them! One thing you won’t find, though, is a good reason for why we hiccup.
Hiccupping is a more complex reflex than it might seem: a sudden contraction or spasm of the diaphragm and the muscles between the ribs makes you inhale quickly and involuntarily. It ends with “glottic closure” — the space in the throat near the vocal cords snaps shut, producing the typical hiccup sound. The technical term for hiccups (singultus) ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - September 5, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Source Type: blogs
Patient-Centered Medical Home: A new model for medical care
The world of primary care is challenging right now. It can be frustrating for both patients and doctors.
From the patient’s perspective
Let’s say you’re basically healthy, but overweight. You can’t quite get your diet under control. You’d like your doctor’s help and maybe some testing, like thyroid. So you call your primary care doctor. You work through the practice’s phone tree and leave a message for the nurse. The nurse may get back to you within a day or a few days, and after you talk, she or he will pass the message on to your doctor, who says you should come in. Then it takes a week or so to get an appo...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 30, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Health Managing your health care Source Type: blogs
Doctoring Between The Lines
I don ' t know about anyone else but I have a primary care and then an oncologist, breast surgeon, endocrinologist, rheumatologist, pain management, orthopedic surgeon, meds therapist, social worker therapist, dentist, and periodontist. They all have their own specialties and focuses on specific portions of my body. But I swear they like to color outside the lines.Last week my rheumatologist started commenting on my regimen to control my acid reflux from my hiatal hernia. How does heart burn relate to my rheumatoid? And why did I need to explain it to her?In the past six months my pain management doctor has been messing wi...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 27, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: being a patient doctors Source Type: blogs
“ I can ’ t lose weight on levothyroxine ”
I hear this complaint every day, yet the solution is SO simple.
The Undoctored lifestyle is magnificently effective to achieve weight loss, prevent or reverse hundreds of health conditions, and to free you from prescription medications.
But many people who take levothyroxine (Synthroid), the T4 thyroid hormone, report NO weight loss on the program, along with persistent abnormal symptoms such as low energy, dry skin, and thinning hair, even depression. This is not due to the failure of the program, but is due to the lack of the T3 thyroid hormone, the truly active form of thyroid hormone.
Learn why addressing and correc...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - August 25, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Undoctored Wheat Belly Lifestyle Armour can't lose weight gluten-free grain-free health naturethroid reverse t3 Thyroid Weight Loss wellness Wheat Belly Total Health Source Type: blogs
Why not order your own lab tests?
Most of us already notice obvious changes in our bodies such as body weight, blood pressure, and waist circumference. During the Undoctored process you will discover that you could also benefit from tracking some important lab values. These lab values will reflect reemerging health in blood sugar levels, triglycerides, and factors that reflect risk for heart disease, stroke, and other conditions.
Here are lab values to consider tracking:
Fasting glucose, hemoglobin A1c, fasting insulin—all reflecting blood sugar and insulin-resistance status
NMR lipoproteins (NMR LipoProfile) or other advanced lipoprotein testing serv...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - August 23, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates Source Type: blogs
Cancer Discrimination and Bias
We live in a society full of bias which leads to racism, discrimination, fear and hatred. The media recently has reflected this with headlines full of racism, bias, discrimination, alt-right vs alt-left, protests, anti-protests, riots, deaths, fear, hatred and more. But it reminds me that there is bias, fear, and discrimination for those of us with cancer.We are born one way and learn about bias, fear, and discrimination based on where we start. With a cancer diagnosis, all of this is turned upside down and we learn about more bias, fear and discrimination based on that single word ' cancer ' .First, let me say times are c...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 20, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: bias cancer bonds discrimination fear of cancer Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 36-year-old man with history of fatigue
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 36-year-old man is evaluated for a 1-year history of fatigue, intermittent headaches, sore throat, and joint and muscle pain. He reports no difficulties falling asleep and gets 10 hours of uninterrupted but nonrestorative sleep each night. He has seen several physicians over the past year. Evaluation has included a complete blood count with differential, thyroid-stimulating hormone level, and plasma glucose level that were normal at the time of initial presentation and again 2 months ago. HIV testing performed...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 19, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Endocrinology Infectious Disease Pain Management Primary Care Rheumatology Source Type: blogs
Join us on the next Wheat Belly/Undoctored Cruise!
Join us on the next annual Wheat Belly Cruise to the Caribbean! Dr. Davis will be there and will share his knowledge, including the many lessons learned over the six years since the Wheat Belly books changed the entire landscape of diet and health. And, on this cruise , we add the perspectives of the Undoctored message that expands personal health to include the use of new health tracking devices, apps, and easy-to-apply insights that achieve even higher levels of personal health.
The Wheat Belly Cruise sets sail December 2-9, 2017 and will include:
Over 9 hours of seminars and workshops delivered by bestselling author o...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - August 19, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly/Undoctored Cruise autoimmune bowel flora Dr. Davis Gliadin gluten gluten-free grain-free grains Inflammation joint pain low-carb microbiota prebiotic Thyroid Weight Loss Wheat Belly cruise Source Type: blogs
Breaking In A New Doctor
I was disappointed when my endocrinologist left for a new hospital. But I can understand that as the mother of two small children she needed a shorter commute to be able to achieve a good work/life balance. However, that meant I needed a new endocrinologist. I met him yesterday.Before I met my endocrinologist after I had an appointment with my rheumatologist who is a nice woman in her late 50s/early 60s who has been a doctor for many years. In contrast my endocrinologist joined the hospital in early July after his residency. This means he is a kid, literally. I think I have clothes older than he is.When I met him, my first...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 17, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: doctors endocrinologist thyroid cancer young doctors Source Type: blogs
Executive Functions in Health and Disease: New book to help integrate Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology
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Neuroscience used to be the monopoly of a few elite universities located in a handful of countries. Neuropsychology used to be a quaint niche discipline relatively unconnected to the larger world of neuroscience and content in its methods with paper-and-pencil tests. Neuroscience itself was relatively unconcerned with higher-order cognition, and the very term “cognitive neuroscience” was often met with rolled eyes by scientists working in more established areas of brain research (a personal observation made in the 1980s and even 1990s on more than one occasion). And the interest...
Source: SharpBrains - August 8, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness Professional Development Alexander-Luria clinical psychologists cognition cognitive-psychologists disease Executive-Functions frontal-lobe medical neurologists neuropsychologists Neuropsyc Source Type: blogs
