January 2008 Archives

Although researchers have known for years that use of the birth control pills can cut the risk of ovarian cancer, the medical world got all excited last week with the release of new evidence indicating that the cancer-preventing effects can last as long as 30 years after women stop taking the pill. The latest report, based on research by Valerie Beral from the Cancer Research U.K. Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, found that the longer women take the pill, the more cancer-preventing benefit they derive. The report culled 45 studies involving over 23,000 women, and found that those women who stayed on the  pill for 15 years or longer cut their risk of getting ovarian cancer in half, plus also reduced their risk of endometrial and colorectoral cancers.

In spite of the fact that up to 8 million people in this country suffer from symptoms of fibromyalgia, many in the medical community insist that the disease does not exist -- except in the minds of the "hypochondriacs" whom it affects.  In fact, even the person mainly responsible for defining fibromyalgia as a disease, Dr. Frederick Wolfe, has now altered his position to claim that fibromyalgia is simply a reaction to stress.  The reason for all this denial centers around the fact that the disease offers little that physicians can observe or measure -- patients complain about experiencing acute pain all over their bodies as well as profound fatigue -- but lab tests yield nothing. 

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune (not to mention on the Chicago lawyer's Injury Board site -- under the heading General Negligence) reveals that the nation's first official program intended to document hospital safety issues remains mired in bureaucratic and financial chaos five years after launch, with no findings yet published. In fact, staffing hasn't even been completed yet, and one of the three major components of the program hasn't yet established ground rules or appointed an advisory group.

The program was established by the Illinois state legislature in 2003 to provide the public with reliable and detailed information about the track record of various hospitals within the state, and to serve as a model of accountability for other states to emulate. Three separate studies were included in the initial plan:

Until a few days ago, we had been told that women who have a family history of breast cancer combined with mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes have an 80-percent chance of developing the disease at some point in their lives. Women in this at-risk group have been receiving advice to consider "a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy," which means having both their still-healthy breasts surgically removed to preempt the possibility that they might develop cancer. Astoundingly, about 20 percent of these women have been opting for the preventative surgery.

Here's yet another reason to forgive and forget: A recent study out of the University of Minnesota concluded that hostility depletes certain antioxidants linked to heart health. The study followed 3579 ornery people between the ages of 18 and 30, and found that seven years later, they had significantly lower levels of antioxidant carotenoids than they did at the outset. Research director Dr. Tetsuya Ohira and his team point out that angry people tend to smoke, drink, and eat badly, and that these lifestyle factors might account for the results.

A survey of over 2000 parents by the research firm Knowledge Networks recently confirmed the axiom, " Love is blind."   The parents in the survey almost universally denied that their kids had serious weight issues, even when the children were outright obese -- in the 95th percentile of body mass index (BMI) or higher.

The study found that the parents of 6- to 11-year-olds were particularly deluded. Forty-three percent of those with grossly overweight offspring claimed that their children were " about the right weight," and seven percent went as far as to indicate that their kids were " slightly underweight." Only thirty-seven percent acknowledged that their progeny carried any heft at all, and in those cases, the parents mostly indicated that their children were just " slightly overweight."