Combination therapy appears more effective than single drug for lower urinary tract symptoms
Men with overactive bladder and lower urinary tract symptoms who received a combination therapy were more likely to report improvement in symptoms than men who received only one medication, according to a study in the November 15 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on men’s health.
Steven A. Kaplan, M.D., of Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, presented the findings of the study today at a JAMA media briefing on men’s health in New York.
Overactive bladder is a syndrome characterized by urinary urgency, usually with increased urination frequency during the day and night. An estimated 10 million men 40 years or older have symptoms consistent with overactive bladder, according to background information in the article. Lower urinary tract symptoms include urinary hesitancy and intermittency and weak urinary stream. Some men with these symptoms do not respond to treatment with common medications.
Teen girls make better health choices with intervention program
Teens around the world are becoming more overweight. Findings from a Rutgers University research study indicate a health intervention can help curb this disturbing health trend. The intervention - TEEN ESTEEM™ - is a health and fitness program for adolescent girls attending Trenton Central High School (TCHS), an inner-city school with a mostly African American and Latino population. For two consecutive years, researchers have been examining the effect of an innovative physical fitness and nutrition program on measures of cardiovascular fitness and self-esteem and found the students are making better health choices. Many of those at highest risk successfully lowered their BMI scores. Lipid levels analyzed in year two demonstrated participants’ Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) levels - the unhealthy cholesterol - decreased significantly.
Sleep apnea patients at higher risk for deadly heart disease, says new SLU research
People with sleep apnea could also be at risk for a particular kind of deadly heart arrhythmia, finds Saint Louis University researchers. They presented the findings this week at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions meeting in Chicago.
Researchers looked at 134 patients with coronary heart disease who hadn’t been diagnosed with a sleep disorder. In the patients who had a type of an irregular heartbeat called ventricular premature contraction, more than 40 percent also had severe sleep apnea – and didn’t realize it.
“The real worry is that benign arrhythmia can be a harbinger of a much more serious – and lethal – heart rhythm disorder,” says principal investigator Raj Bhalodia, M.D., of Saint Louis University School of Medicine. “While most people with the mild version of arrhythmia will be just fine, in some people, it’s possible it can worsen during the night and lead to sudden death.”
Diseased gums raise risk of pancreatic cancer
Gum disease may increase the risk of developing deadly pancreatic cancer, even among those who have never smoked, according to research reported today in Boston at the American Association for Cancer Research’s Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Meeting.
Two previous studies found positive associations between tooth loss or periodontitis (inflammation of the gums around the teeth) and pancreatic cancer. However, “residual confounding” by smoking and other known risk factors may have accounted for the findings.
To investigate further, Dr. Dominique S. Michaud of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston and colleagues analyzed 16 years of health data on nearly 52,000 male doctors in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. This ongoing study, initiated in 1986, is looking at lifestyle factors related to cancer and other chronic diseases.
Flu shot linked to small risk of brain disorder
The flu vaccine can slightly raise the risk of a potentially disabling neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome, researchers said on Monday, but they stressed the vaccine’s benefits far outweigh its risks.
Canadian researchers, writing in the journal of the Archives of Internal Medicine, estimated that one to two people per million who get the flu vaccine will develop Guillain-Barre syndrome as a result. The ailment normally affects about one of every 100,000 people per year.
Radioactive iodine linked to thyroid disease
The long-term risk of developing a tumor in the thyroid gland or autoimmune thyroiditis, a progressive inflammatory disease of the thyroid, is increased after exposure to radioactive iodine in childhood, according to a re-analysis of data from children exposed to radiation from a nuclear test site in Nevada.
Since 1965, researchers have been studying children exposed to radioactive iodine from nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 through 1962.
In 1993, Dr. Joseph L. Lyon, of the University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, and colleagues, reported that among the 2,497 subjects examined, there was an association between radiation exposure from the Nevada Test Site and thyroid tumors.
