“This prospective study found a modestly increased risk of subsequent [cancers] among individuals with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer, specifically breast and lung cancer in women and melanoma in both men and women,” the study authors wrote. “Because our study was observational, these results should be interpreted cautiously and are insufficient evidence to alter current clinical recommendations.”

http://www.healthfinder.gov/News/Article.aspx?id=675590&source=govdelivery

Alternative approaches to lowering blood pressure, such as isometric hand grip exercises and resistance or strength training, are effective at reducing high blood pressure. The alternative therapies also have few health risks and side effects. A panel of experts reached this conclusion using data from 1,000 studies on three types of alternative therapies: behavioral therapies, non-invasive procedures and devices, and three types of exercise.  While all three types of alternative therapies reduced blood pressure, certain ones were more effective than others. Isometric hand grip exercises were able to lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 10% after four weeks of doing the exercises.

http://newsroom.heart.org/news/alternative-therapies-may-help-lower-blood-pressure

With every ear infection we treat, and every healthy cow prophylactically dosed with antibiotics (which also helps fatten the animals), we make these drugs less useful for future generations. Antibiotic use should be restricted to those situations in which there is a clear indication and of course, no antibiotics for fattening cows.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/magazine/antibiotic-resistance.html?src=recg

Doctors can use patients’ CT scans that are ordered for another reason – such as looking for tumors – to also check for signs of osteoporosis. That may spare the patients from additional testing and additional costs.  However there are concerns that this could lead to incorrect diagnosis,  ”I don’t think at this point this one test is going to prevent further testing. I think it will identify patients who are at a higher risk and need more testing,” said Dr. Beatrice Hull from the Center for Osteoporosis and Bone Health at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/15/us-health-ctscsn-osteoporosis-idUSBRE93E15G20130415

Treating patients with multiple conditions can be very difficult.   “Much of the way we practice medicine is looking at disease by disease.  We aren’t doing enough thinking about how to add them together and really integrate care.”                   Dr. Cynthia Boyd, a professor of geriatric medicine at Johns Hopkins.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/04/16/science/disease-overlap-in-elderly.html?src=rechp&_r=1&

“Cryoneurolysis could have big implications for the millions of people who suffer from neuralgia, which can be unbearable and is very difficult to treat.   Cryoneurolysis offers these patients an innovative treatment option that provides significant lasting pain relief and allows them to take a lower dose of pain medication—or even skip drugs altogether,” said William Moore, MD, medical director of radiology at Stony Brook University School of Medicine in Stony Brook, N.Y.

http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=31237

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, what are you reading about?

http://www.healthfinder.gov/News/Article.aspx?id=675510&source=govdelivery

Ways to reduce food borne illnesses like E.coli or salmonella in the kitchen.  The worst offenders may take you by surprise, some of the areas people considered most likely to be contaminated, like microwave keypads, were not, while some they had never thought of, like refrigerator water dispensers and the rubber gasket on most blenders, were among the worst.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/where-germs-hide-in-your-kitchen/

Altho’ the technology is likely years away, a functioning rat kidney grown on the ‘scaffolding’ of a denuded kidney is showing  great promise for the possibility of developing  kidneys for the many who are waititng for transplants.  “I think the road is longer than people may think.  When embryonic stem cells were first discovered or developed, people were talking then [that] we were going to have organs in just a couple of years. There was a lot of exuberance then, and there’s a lot of exuberance around this technology now.”

Dr. Laura Niklason, a professor of anesthesia and biomedical engineering at Yale University

http://medcitynews.com/2013/04/mass-general-team-builds-a-working-rat-kidney-with-renal-scaffolding-and-cells/

New research suggests a substance in the chemistry of the egg white acts much like a low dose of a high-blood-pressure drug.     “We have evidence from the laboratory that a substance in egg white — it’s a peptide, one of the building blocks of proteins — reduces blood pressure about as much as a low dose of Captopril, a high-blood-pressure drug,”  study leader Zhipeng Yu, Ph.D., of Jilin University

http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=31230