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New Guidelines For Prostate Cancer Screening

I’m about to make an appointment for my yearly physical. This year is especially important because I just turned 50. I could not help but to notice about new guidelines that were issued last week on prostate cancer screenings that emphasize that physicians should better educate men about both the risks and benefits of using the PSA test for screening. (I got this information from the LA Times)

They also call for cutbacks in the use of digital rectal exams to find tumors and recommend the end of mass prostate screening programs at health fairs and other sites. The revised guidelines issued by the influential American Cancer Society come on the heels of several studies suggesting that large numbers of tumors identified by PSA screening are inconsequential and that biopsies and treatment produce more harm than those tumors would.

Because of such findings, the new guidelines emphasize the importance of physicians explaining both risks and benefits to the patients more fully so that each man can make an informed decision about whether to get tested.

Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said the new guidelines are not that different from earlier ones issued in 1997 and 2001. “I think (earlier panels) meant to say what we are saying now, but they were interpreted by people to say we were encouraging screening,” Dr. Brawley said. “They were trying to encourage informed decision making.”

Skip Lockwood, president of Zero: The Project to End Prostate Cancer, said that calls to end the digital rectal exam are “kind of nuts. … The whole concept that you would do anything to reduce the amount of information you have does not make sense to me.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men after skin cancer, affecting 192,000 men each year and killing 27,000. And while all the parties may not totally agree on how and how often PSA screening should be used, they are in unanimous agreement on one point. As Mr. Lockwood said, “We need a better test.”

After reading this information, I ask myself “What am I going to do?” I think I will ask my doctor. And what about you? I would love to hear from other men out there about what they think or what they plan to do.

Read the full artice: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10063/1040197-84.stm#ixzz0hS7JW9mU

I’m Doing It

Meet Rashida, a woman determined to lose weight through a fitness and nutrition program called “All About You Bootcamp.” Rashida is fighting against some lifestyle related diseases that run in her family (like diabetes) and is determined to take a proactive role in her own health. Come along on Rashida’s journey and share some of her insights on her own challenges.

I’m Doing It! from oomphTV on Vimeo.

The Surgical Tool of the Future

This medical science webisode examines a new medical device called PlasmaBlade, which uses pulses of plasma generated around its tip to locally cut and cauterize flesh. The PlasmaBlade, from Peak Surgical, represents a quantum leap in technology, improving the control, bleeding and recovery time of the patient.

The Surgical Tool of the Future from oomphTV on Vimeo.

Sheryl Crow Keynote Address at Health and Wellness Event

Sheryl Crow gives an inspirational and passionate keynote address about her surviving breast cancer. Her informative and frank keynote took place at an event called Conversations on Health and Wellness October 10, 2009 at the beautiful Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes and was sponsored by Los Angeles Times Magazine.

Sheryl Crow Health and Wellness Keynote-oomphTV.com from oomphTV on Vimeo.

My Journey With MS By Garth McLean

It was a hot day in May 1996 when I found myself struggling to walk. Over the course of the previous month, I had been slowly losing feeling throughout my limbs and torso. With the heat, the tingling and numbness I had been experiencing spread to envelop my face and skull…I had lost feeling in my body from head to toe. It wasn’t just a pinched nerve as first suspected. Something was very wrong. After various medical texts, I was admitted to UCLA Medical Center where I was clinically diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Lesions had been detected in my cervical spine, thoracic spine and on my brain.

As I have always been a physically active person and not one to accept the role of victim, I asked my then doctor’s recommendation for my physical protocol. He suggested swimming and yoga, as long as I don’t overheat the body.

The initial protocol of intravenous steroids helped to get my symptoms into remission but along with the other medications prescribed for MS management, they do not offer a cure. With a pocketful of meds, I was released from the hospital and decided to explore some yoga – Iyengar Yoga to be specific – as the Iyengar system employs props to help the practitioner gain access to the poses in order to glean their potential benefits. So I made some necessary dietary and lifestyle changes, started yoga and chose to forego the medications.

The daily practice of Iyengar Yoga has had a profound effect on my course of the condition. However, my journey has not been without setbacks, as anyone’s might be who deals with relapsing-remitting MS, whether or not they are on the medications. The symptoms I have experienced over the years include: loss of feeling throughout my body, numbness and a banding sensation in the torso and limbs, difficulty walking, compromised gait, loss of motor skills to the point where I could not use a pen or use a fork to feed myself, optic neuritis (loss of vision in my right eye and compromised vision in my left); bowel and urinary incontinence; the L’Hermitte’s symptom (a symptom where electrical charges are felt throughout the body when moving the head in a forward fashion); fatigue and depression.

When I had two severe exacerbations within months of one another in 2001 – loss of eyesight in January 2001 (which returned within a couple of months) and loss of feeling from the navel down in June 2001, fear and doubt crept in and I started with the weekly protocol of interferon beta 1-A. As no medications offer a cure for the MS, I found the ongoing side effects of my weekly injections to be more challenging than the condition! While I am not advocating that people with MS ignore the benefits of the pharmaceutical approach in managing their course of MS, I personally opted for the side effects of a daily practice of Iyengar Yoga over the meds. In January 2004, I chose to once again forego the medication.

My agreement with my neurologist is to have an annual MRI to monitor the lesions on my brain. The MRI reports over the last five have been promising, showing a reduction in size of the brain lesions as well as consistently showing no change in activity – which is really good news. I have been able to successfully overcome the symptoms listed above and remain symptom free, with the exception of fatigue and the residual loss of feeling in my right leg and foot which results in strength and balance challenges on my right side. I see my doctor (Dr. Hart Cohen, Director of Multiple Sclerosis Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles) semi-annually to continually monitor my course of the condition.

With these results, I am hopeful and my outlook for the future is positive. Undaunted, I carry on with “courage and caution” as encouraged by Yoga master, BKS Iyengar.

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