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FAMILY HEALTH
July 2, 2009
Medical Research Study Participation
June 30, 2009
Emergency Transportation
June 25, 2009
National HIV Testing Day
National AIDS 24-Hour Hotline: 1-800-342-2437
June 23, 2009
Minority Breast Cancer
June 18, 2009
Autoimmune Pancreatitis
June 16, 2009
DNA Stool Testing: Catching Colorectal Cancer Early
June 11, 2009
High Risk Transplant, Worth the Risk
June 9, 2009
Marathon After Back Surgery
June 4, 2009
Teen Depression
June 2, 2009
Expired Sunscreen
May 28, 2009
Pro Athletes: Increase Weight, Increase Health Risks?
May 26, 2009
Healthy Kids
May 21, 2009
Michelle McGann: Type 1 Diabetes
April 21, 2009
Energy Drinks
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April 16, 2009
Reduce Your Risk of Cancer: Marinate Meat
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April 14, 2009
Doctor Patient "Connectedness"
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April 9, 2009
Autism Clinic
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April 7, 2009
Runner Science
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Melanoma Study
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March 31, 2009
Obesity Treatment Study
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March 26, 2009
Chronic Pain Treatment Study
Chronic pain often leads to depression, disability and heavier use of health care resources.
A new study compares two treatment options for chronic pain.
Chronic pain is defined as a pain that continues for 12 weeks or more.
Dr. Steven Dobscha of the Portland VA Medical Center explains that the effects of the illness can take a heavy toll.
"It leads to disability, what's called functional impairment, people being unable to go about their daily lives, it interferes with their mental health, their ability to relate to other people at times, certainly ability to work," Dobscha says.
But most patients get treatment in busy primary care settings, not from chronic pain specialists.
Dobscha and his colleagues decided to investigate whether a treatment method called collaborative care, might better help people with chronic pain. Dobscha says that collaborative intervention adds experts to the primary care setting to help primary care providers deliver the best care.
Dobsha's study appears in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.
It followed two groups of veterans diagnosed with muscle or bone pain for one year.
One group continued to see their physicians as they normally would, with no additional education or specialist support.
The "intervention" group, however, was offered seminars on chronic pain.
They saw physicians who had received additional education about chronic pain and had support from pain specialists.
The specialists developed treatment recommendations for the patients, and followed up regularly to provide motivation and chart their patients' progress.
Dobscha says the intervention was a success.
"This intervention was able to result in modest improvements across a number of measures of pain-related outcomes, that would include both levels of function and levels of pain severity, and we were able to do it in a population that was older, and that had very long-standing pain on average," he said.
Researchers say these findings reinforce the idea that a collaborative care approach is more effective in treating chronic conditions.
Proactive Prevention
March 24, 2009
You've heard the advice many times- eat right and exercise to improve your health
The fact is, that advice is true.
You really can make a difference.
Doctors at mayo clinic designed the heart health and performance program to help people assess their health and learn ways to make it better.
As president of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Derrick Hall knows about being over-scheduled and stressed.
To keep up that pace for the franchise and for his family, Derrick needed to stay healthy.
So, he signed up for the heart health and performance program at Mayo Clinic.
He had many tests including a blood pressure check, cholesterol test, an endoscopy, an ultrasound of his carotid arteries, and a stress test.
Results came back high, and he had heartburn. Doctors also discovered that his heart was about nine years ahead of him.
Dr. Todd Hurst says one of the keys to improving Derrick's health and preventing problems in the future is a lifestyle change.
"We are realizing that if we can identify problems early on and initiate pretty low risk intervention that we can benefit people long term," Hurst said.
Derrick spends 50-plus minutes on the treadmill everyday, and he overhauled his eating habits.
Making healthy eating choices and being active will improve your quality of life and could even help you live longer.
Derrick is in a unique position where he can offer new healthy diet options to thousands of baseball fans.
As president of the Diamondbacks, he changed what they serve at some concession stands, offering veggie burgers and whole-wheat pita as an alternative to standard ballpark franks.
Derrick is living proof that eating right, exercising and getting that yearly exam can help you improve your health.
After just a few months of maintaining healthy eating habits, Derrick dropped weight and his blood pressure and other numbers went down.
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