How can my eyes be dry and tearing at the same time?!
Do you suffer from gritty, burning, red eyes? Do they feel dry, or sometimes excessively watery? Then you’re not alone. Estimates are that more than three million women over 50 and over 1.5 million men over 50 are affected by dry eye syndrome. The prevalence increases with age. You can see that women are twice…
Should We Drink Bottled Water or Tap Water?
Poland Spring, Fiji, Aquafina, Deer Park, Dasani, Evian…the list goes on and on. Today, bottled water is becoming more and more prevalent as people turn to this option as a healthy alternative to drinking other bottled beverages, such as sodas and energy drinks. However, you may have heard concerns regarding the differences between tap water…
Heart Disease in Women
Why, you might ask, should there be a symposium on heart disease in women? When we talk about pregnancy-related issues, uterine fibroids, and other ‘female issues’, it’s obvious why discussions need to focus on females, but why would that be true for heart disease? Well, having just returned home from just such a conference, I think…
October Health Pearls
October Health News 1. Primary Care Utilization and Colorectal Cancer Incidence and Mortality Among Medicare Beneficiaries, Annals of Internal Medicine, 2013; 159(7): 437-445. Senior citizens who see a primary care physician more often (5-10 visits over an 11 year period versus 0-1 visits during the same period) are less likely to develop colorectal cancer and less likely…
Think Pink, Breast Cancer Screening: MRI or Mammogram?
“ Think Pink. “ Pink is everywhere in October, from the White House to NFL primetime, during breast cancer awareness month. For many of us, breast cancer is very personal and we have seen the toll it takes on our loved ones. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, and currently the…
Hormone Replacement Therapy and Heart Disease
In recent years I have seen men have their testosterone levels checked more often than their cholesterol profile. What’s more interesting is the amount pharmaceuticals have invested to create testosterone supplements for men with “low T”: there are gels and rubs and various other products. But what about women? The last anyone talked about our…
September Pearls
1. Preventable Adverse Events (PAE) at U.S. hospital are the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. A new study in the Journal of Patient Safety, conducted by John James of the advocacy group Patient Safety America, estimates that PAEs cause as many as 440,000 patient deaths a year in U.S. hospitals, far…
Public Health Mythbusters: Is there a risk in getting vaccinated?
This is the third round of our Public Health Mythbusters series where we will address another major health concern: risks associated with vaccinations. Flu season is coming up, and you may notice more coverage in the news regarding the ongoing vaccine debate. We will not only tackle the apprehension about the flu shot, but also…
What’s New with Flu (2013-2014) Vaccine?
You’re probably more aware than you care to be that influenza is a highly infectious viral illness. It causes moderate to severe illness in all age groups around the world. Common symptoms of the flu include fever, body aches, fatigue, cough, sore throat and congestion. In recent years, averages of 20,000 preventable deaths and 200,000…
Public Health Mythbusters:Do everyday appliances increase our risk for cancer?
Researched and written by Nisha Puntambekar and Andrea Vaught This is the second round of our Public Health Mythbusters series where we address another major health concern that has been appearing more frequently in the news: cancer risks associated with common household items. We have all read the articles about microwaves and cell phone usage…