A wide range of medical breakthroughs emerged from numerous scientific studies conducted in 2003. To determine which ones are most likely to make the biggest difference in your health, writer Bob Holmes of Health magazine interviewed experts from several major research institutes.
Holmes then reported on the top discoveries in the magazine’s January/February issue. They include:
– Heading the list is the use of stem cells in bone marrow extract to help rebuild a patient’s blood supply after a heart attack, thus preventing further damage.
– The anti-cancer drug Avastin is highlighted for its ability to prevent deadly tumors from spreading by choking off new blood vessel growth in the tumors.
– Another drug, Antegren, has the potential to minimize relapses in the symptoms of patients with multiple sclerosis.
– Researchers found early success with an experimental vaccine against the human papillomavirus, the leading cause of cervical cancer.
– A new drug makes kidney dialysis less risky.
– Women’s stroke symptoms were better recognized.
– Researchers found that statin drugs are effective, not just for those patients who are dealing with high cholesterol, but also as a daily drug for other people to help reduce risk of heart attack or stroke.
Scope out surgeon
Before you go under the knife, it pays to shop around for a surgeon who has performed many times the type of surgery you require, notes a story in the January issue of the New England Journal of Medicine Health News.
When selecting a surgeon, ask if he or she is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. (Find this information on the ACS Web site, web.facs.org/acsdir/public/Search.cfm.) Ask whether the surgeon is board-certified in general surgery or a surgical specialty (you can check this with the American Board of Medical Specialties, www.abms.org).
Ask how many surgeries of this type the surgeon has performed and how his or her success rate compares with national averages. Ask, too, what complications may arise and how they would be managed.
It’s also important to check the quality and accreditation information of the hospital where the surgery will be performed. Check this with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (www.jcaho.org/qualitycheck/directry).
Finally, determine whether the surgeon has ever paid a malpractice claim or been disciplined by a state medical licensing board or hospital. You can find this at the Federation of State Medical Boards (www.fsmb.org) and at a nationwide database of physician disciplinary data (www.docinfo.org), which charges $9.95 per report.
Iron, calcium team up
Bone-building isn’t just about calcium intake. Iron is important, too, because it promotes the production of collagen, which is a critical part of bone, notes a feature in the January issue of the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter. The key is to get the right balance of iron (18 mg daily) to calcium (800 to 1,200 mg), says Margaret M. Harris, a researcher with the University of Arizona’s Department of Nutrition Sciences. Too much or too little of one or the other and you may lose the absorption benefits.
It is best to add iron through foods, not vitamins. Beans, beef, poultry and fish are good iron sources, and iron is absorbed especially well when taken with foods containing vitamin C (think chili with tomatoes and beans, or chicken with a salad that includes green or red pepper).
Keep pets perky
Enough already about your own health. What about the health of your pets? For reliable animal health information, head to the Web site of The Merck Veterinary Manual, www.merckvetmanual.com. Here you can search by topic, species, disease or keyword to access more than 12,000 indexed topics and 1,200 illustrations on pet health.
