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Getting Warmer in Bid to Kill Tumors
A year ago, when Gayle Driscoll’s, breast cancer recurred on her skin, the 63-year-old retired teacher from Barnstable tried an experimental treatment that gave her radiation therapy some extra oomph . Every time she lay down for radiation treatment on her chest, her tumors were also heated with a special device that emitted radio frequency…
Hormones: Does Timing Make a Difference
After years of frightening findings on hormone therapy, there is finally some reassuring news for women who start taking hormones close to menopause. The new results suggest that there is a “window of opportunity” near menopause during which estrogen therapy may actually reduce heart disease risk, not raise it, as starting hormones a decade or…
So, the Low-Fat Diet is Kaput, Now What?
Last week, researchers conducting a long-awaited study on the effectiveness of low-fat diets dropped a bombshell: Eating a low-fat diet does not appear to reduce the risk of getting breast cancer, colorectal cancer, or cardiovascular disease. The $415 million study, part of the Women’s Health Initiative, followed nearly 49,000 women aged 50 to 70 over…
Trick or Treatment?
A spate of recent studies reinforces the idea that what we think about our medical care really can affect our health. The new research into the power of placebos is giving scientists new insights into how patients’ expectations their beliefs about whether an inactive, sham treatment will work can have an actual, observable effect on…
The Competitive Edge? It’s a Zen Thing
In a few weeks, millions of us will be glued to our TV sets, watching the best athletes in the world ski, skate and slide their way into Olympic history in Turin, Italy. We will certainly be dazzled, as always, by the sheer physical skill of these folks who have pushed their bodies so hard…
Some comfort for the grieving: There’s no wrong way to do it
Grieving used to be seen as a very straightforward process: You cried at the funeral, were sad for a few months, then you had some “closure,” and got on with your life. Psychologists — both pop and professional — thought that anyone who didn’t cry at the funeral or were still crying a year later…
Hormones Given Through the Skin are Worth a Look
True confession time again: Just when I thought I had made peace with the Great Post-Menopausal Hormone Decision — in my case, sticking with very low dose oral hormones, despite the risks revealed in a 2002 study — I have plunged into the murk again. This time, my curiosity and my game plan are focused…
You’re Getting Sleepy; Could that Stop Cancer?
Melatonin, long known to insomniac Americans as an over-the-counter sleep aid, is now being studied as a way to prevent and treat breast and other cancers. Dubbed the “hormone of darkness,” melatonin is a hormone that is made by the brain’s pineal gland at nighttime. This summer, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital led by…
A Diagnosis Of Cancer Is Trying For Any Marriage
Cancer can be very tough on a marriage just ask Sandro Segalini, 64, of Falmouth. His first wife died of breast cancer 14 years ago. His second wife, Marcia Woltjer, 59, left him earlier this year, three years after her own diagnosis with breast cancer. Segalini, a retired businessman, had been totally willing to take…
Saliva May Replace Blood as Test for Disease
Within two years, you may be able to go for a regular dental visit, spit into a cup and, before your appointment is over, find out from an analysis of your saliva whether you’re at risk for oral cancer. Currently, dentists have to do a thorough mouth exam to probe for oral cancer, which will…
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