Ivy Family Health Updates

Recent studies have shown that the family of acid-reducing durgs that includes Pilosec, Nexium and Protonix increases the risk of bone fracture by about 25%.  It can also more that double the risk of contracting the bacterium Clostridium difficile.

The increased risk is thought to be caused by the sharply reduced levels of acid in the stomach and gastrointestinal tract.  This makes it more hospitable for infectious agents such as C. difficile, which then impairs the uptake of the calcium required for strong bones.    

Over the past decade, doctors have seen that weight-loss surgery often led to dramatic improvement in the control of Type 2 diabetes, often even before the patients left the hospital.  Some doctors even say that the surgery should be considered as a treatment for diabetes.  As many as 86% of obese people with Type 2 diabetes find their diabetes is gone or much easier to control within days of haveing weight-loss surgery according to a meta-analysis published by the Ameican Journal of Medicine.   Experts still aren’t sure why the surgery helps resolve the diabetes.     

Dr. Jeffrey Neitlich, chairman of the Department Of Radiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, warns against full-body CT scans in healthy people.  He states that there has been ”no scientific publication demonstrating that a whole-body CT scan has any impact on life expectancy or quality of life.  Therefore, at least at the current time, it’s just excess radiation without any proven benefit.”     

It seems that most coaches, trainers, and physical therapists are always recommending 5-10 minutes of stretching before a workout.  But according to the National Center for Injury Prevention Control, which is a part of the Center for Disease Control (CDC),  “there is not sufficient evidence to endorse routine stretching before or after exercise to prevent injury among competitive or recreational athletes.” This was their conclusion from a 2004 study looking at stretching.     (more…)

As the government tries to come up with a solution to our health care woes, I was able to witness firsthand some of the problems we have with our current system.  My 80 year old mother was visiting me earlier this year.  She was having some chest pain and shortness of breath, so I brought her to the nearest emergency room, at Mercy Hospital in Miami.  My father, also a physician, came along with us. She received excellent and quick care from the nurses and physicians in the ER.  It was felt that she should be admitted for one night to rule out any cardiac event. (more…)

Recent studies have shown that the use of tanning beds can be much more dangerous than previously believed.  Regular sun bed users are eight times more likely to get melanoma than those who have never used them, and international experts have moved tanning beds into the top cancer risk category with arsenic and mustard gas.  A new analysis or about 20 studies also concluded that the risk of cancer jumps 75% when people begin using tanning beds before age 30.   (more…)

Dysport, a botulinum A injectable from Medicis, the makers of Restylane,  is now available in the United States.  Johnson and Johnson has also announced that they will soon be releasing another botulinum toxin named Purtox. The emergence of alternative drugs to Botox should spur on pricing competition that will benefit both patients and physicians alike. For the patient, the Dysport will be slightly less expensive than Botox. (more…)

In a recent Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers found that procedures to replace a knee ravaged by arthritis are a good deal for both patients and Medicare.  Total knee replacement provided about one year of better quality of life compared to that experienced by patients who didn’t have the procedure.

Core Strength

In the NY Times magazine section on June 21, 2009, there was an article by Gretchen Reynolds about the connection between “core” strength and back pain.  Based on studies done in the 1990’s, there was the belief that strengthening the transversus abdominis was the key to core strength.  People were instructed to pull in their belly button and press their backs into the floor during crunches.  (more…)

Plastic surgery trends:

The American Society of Plastic Surgery recently released data showing the changes in plastic surgery procedures from 2007 to 2008. What they found is that while the numbers of some of the larger surgical procedures has decreased, there has been an increase in non-surgical procedures such as Botox injections and laser. (more…)