Columns
Category: General Medicine
Testicular cancer: scary but almost curable
David Cohan, a 34-year-old senior analyst at a Boston real estate investment trust company, says he “never wanted to be the poster child for testicular cancer.” “But if it will help to save some lives and turn my experience into something much more positive, I’d like to do this,” says Cohan.”This” is going public with…
Gingseng $350 million for not much
Ginseng has become the tonic of choice for tired Americans. Thinking it will make us better athletes or reduce our stress or just get us through the night shift, we now spend $350-to-$400 million a year on the stuff, making ginseng second only to garlic as the nation’s most sought-after herbal remedy. In fact, ginseng…
Pill Mills
Weight loss center pinning hopes for fat profits on diet drugs – and doctors hired to prescribe them on demand. So. You’re determined to lose those 20 pounds this year. Okay, maybe a little more. Really. Once and for all. You go to your friendly family doctor, who’s been badgering you for years to gets…
Tempest in a juice box
Is your toddler is getting pudgy? Is your preschooler shorter than the other kids? Are your kids’ teeth sprouting white spots or brown stains? If so, the culprit may be the juice craze that’s sweeping the nation, as well-meaning parents stuff lunchboxes and backpacks with juice boxes and kids guzzle the stuff all day. Last…
The downside for female athletes
It was a moment that 14-year-old Meaghan O’Connor of Dover, N.H., says may stay with her for the rest of her life. She was charging for the ball in the midst of a heated basketball game last summer. Suddenly, another girl’s knee smashed into hers. “I fell to the floor,” recalls O’Connor. Right away, “it…
Eat, drunk and be miserable
First you have the eggnog. Then the turkey and stuffing and the puddles of gravy, or maybe a huge slab of roast beef surrounded by a sea of mashed potatoes. Then the rolls, with butter, of course. Maybe a veggie or two for color. And wine, naturally, the more the merrier. Then the pecan might-as-well-make-it-a-la-mode…
In estrogen replacement therapy, less may be better
Call it coffee klatch research. Or book group medicine. Or just plain winging it. By whatever name, women of a certain age are trying to figure out for themselves — and with each other — the answers to a midlife question doctors won’t have good answers to for years: If you’re taking postmenopausal estrogen and…
The hottest thing in the cold war is zinc
It remains to be seen whether the latest remedy for the common cold is really any better than chicken soup, a hot toddy by the fire and a few days off, but enthusiasts are seizing on the latest evidence that zinc lozenges may reduce cold misery this sneezing season. There have been eight studies so…
Drugs seem to help hair loss and a “baldness cure”
Beth Stein, a 39-year-old New Jersey advertising copywriter, began losing her hair at 19 – presumably because of the same bad genes that affect everyone in her family, male and female. At first, her part just seemed to be getting wider. Soon, whenever she shampooed her hair, she’d wind up with 15 or 20 strands…
There’s no cure in sight for Lupus, but the outlook’s much better
Lupus — “the wolf” — began stalking Debra McGann, a 40-year-old Waltham teacher, 15 years ago. It made her deathly ill during all four of her pregnancies, and probably caused two of those pregnancies to fail. It also triggered intermittent seizures and what McGann calls “little confusions.” For years, though, neither she nor her doctors…
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