Weight loss and Weight Chat Blog

Using someone else’s prescription medicine is a lot like playing Russian roulette – you might get away unscathed, and then again you might not. And it could have devastating consequences. Just because we see prescription medicines advertised on TV doesn’t mean they are safe for everyone. There are good reasons why you can’t buy them over the counter. A physician takes many factors into account before prescribing a medication for you, including your current condition, your past medical history, your other medications and the likely risks and benefits of the drug to you as an individual. After making this decision he or she will then explain how to take the medication, when to take it, how much and how long to take it, what else you can and can’t take with it, and what to expect after you take it – both the good and the bad. And after all […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

Recent media activity has called attention to a repetitive use syndrome called ‘cell phone elbow,’ which can cause pain, numbness or tingling in the forearm and hand.  But cubital tunnel syndrome, as it’s known medically, isn’t only caused by excessive cell phone use. In fact, it can be caused by any repetitive activity in which the elbow is bent at a greater than 90 degree angle. This could include holding any kind of phone to the ear for long periods of time. It just happens that because cell phone use has increased exponentially and because people can now use their phones while walking, while driving, literally anywhere, some people are spending much more time on the phone than they did previously. And some of them are paying the price with painful hands and arms.
Cubital tunnel syndrome is similar in many respects to the more widely known and more common carpal […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

March is National Colon Cancer Awareness Month and as it’s such an important issue I’d like to bring it up today.  I’ve written on this topic several times before but according to the American Cancer Society it is the third most common cancer found in men and women, and the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States so I think it warrants attention.
If you are over the age of 50 (or over 40 with risk factors), you should be screened for colon cancer on a regular basis. The schedule for the various screening methods is shown here (discuss this with your physician and decide which one is best for you):
Tests that find pre-cancer and cancer:
• Colonoscopy every 10 years
• Flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years
• Virtual colonoscopy every 5 years
• Double-contrast barium enema every 5 years
Tests that mainly find cancer:
• Fecal occult blood test (FOBT) every year
• […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

A week ago you were barely, if at all, aware of the aortic valve, let alone its importance. Now with news that former First Lady Barbara Bush has undergone open heart surgery to replace her defective valve and that comedian Robin Williams will soon have the same procedure, suddenly the aortic valve is front and center and on everyone’s minds. So what is it and why does it need replacing? Inquiring minds want to know.
You may remember from school that the heart has four valves, two of which rarely cause trouble (the pulmonary and the tricuspid), and two of which are more frequently in need of replacement (the mitral and the aortic).You can see them on this diagram where the pulmonary and tricuspid valves are on the right side and the aortic and mitral on the left.

One of the reasons the right side valves are less often involved in disease […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

It’s not often that I recommend natural remedies because there’s rarely any scientific evidence that they work better than a placebo. But when there’s data supporting their use I’m all for it. Such is now the case in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) as shown by a review of research recently published in the British Medical Journal. Turns out that two of the best treatments for IBS, peppermint oil and fiber, are old-fashioned, inexpensive and widely available over-the-counter (OTC). And I don’t mean that these are just two of the best natural remedies or two of the best OTC remedies, they are two of the best remedies period.
The research review found three IBS treatments to be consistently better than placebo. In addition to peppermint oil and fiber, the anti-spasmodic scopolamine (also called hyoscine), a natural product derived from certain plants, is also effective […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

Let’s talk about placebos, and in particular about how you’d feel if you found out that your doctor had prescribed something for you that he or she believed actually had no activity against your illness other than a psychological effect. But instead of calling it a placebo, he or she told you that the prescription was for “a medicine not typically used for your condition but which might benefit you.” Would you be okay with it figuring that your doctor had your best interests in mind and was trying, as best he or she knew how, to help alleviate your symptoms, or would you be angry, feeling that you’d been misled, or worse, the victim of fraud?
However you feel, it seems that placebo prescribing may be more common than you think. A new study, conducted in the United States but published online in the British Medical Journal […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

St. John’s wort, an herb long thought to be effective for the treatment of depression, is used widely in many countries for this purpose and is available over-the-counter in the United States (but not approved by the FDA as an antidepressant). But clinical studies have sometimes yielded conflicting results, in part because of variations in study designs (such as the exact definition of depression) as well as variations in the preparation of the herbal extract and the dosages used. But a new meta-analysis has reviewed 29 separate studies involving nearly 5500 patients and found that, overall, St. John’s wort was more effective than placebo and similar in efficacy to both older antidepressants (such as those called tricyclics of which amitriptyline is typical) and newer ones (such as those called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, of which Prozac and Celexa are typical). Most of the patients studied […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

Virtual colonoscopy is an x-ray examination of the colon used to screen for cancer. It is also called CT colonography because the x-ray test used is a CT scan (also called computed tomography or CAT scan for computed axial tomography). Virtual colonoscopy is in the news because of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that compared the x-ray test to traditional colonoscopy and found comparable results in terms of identifying abnormal growths. But while the headlines will tout the positive findings, there are a few things you should know before undergoing one of these procedures.
First off let me say that screening for colon cancer is an extremely important and life-saving yet underutilized undertaking that I’ve written about before, and which you should undergo regularly as appropriate for your age and risk level (please read the article for more details). So efforts […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

After surgery for colon cancer, you are still at risk, both for cancer recurrence and for development of another new colon cancer. Because of this it’s important for colon cancer survivors to be followed closely and monitored carefully. But new research has found that many such survivors aren’t getting the proper follow-up care. And it looks as though the fault lies more with the doctors than it does with the patients. If you or someone you love is a colon cancer survivor, it’s important to know the guidelines for follow-up in order to ensure you’re getting the right tests.
In the study, published online in the journal Cancer on September 8, 2008 - only 40 percent of colon cancer survivors who were followed for three years had all the right doctor visits and tests. But since 92 percent of patients had all the proper office visits, […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

Bernie Mac, comedian, writer, TV and film star, died this past weekend of pneumonia at the age of 50. He had suffered from an unusual condition known as sarcoidosis or sarcoid, since his 20s, but it was said to be in remission at the time of his death. It is probable, however, that the pneumonia was due to immune system suppression caused by the very medications used to treat his sarcoid disease. So, just what is sarcoid, who gets it, what happens and how is it treated?
Sarcoidosis, also known as sarcoid, is an unusual inflammatory disorder of unknown cause. The inflammation it causes is also unusual in that it results in small nodules, called granulomas, which can join together to become larger nodules, and which can be present in a wide variety of organs, most typically the lungs. The nodules can interfere with normal organ […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com