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Putting health on the menu Los Angeles Times, CA - Two-thirds of the adults in the United States are obese or overweight. Obesity has been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, strokes, ... Daily Mail Health: Official letters to warn parents if their child is obese ... guardian.co.uk, UK - Ministers have ruled that letters to parents should not use the words "fat" or "obese" for fear they might stigmatise overweight children and cause families ... Schools to warn parents their children are overweight in bid to ... Independent What Should We Do About the Obesity Epidemic? HealthNewsDigest.com THE O WORD Mirror.co.uk InTheNews.co.uk all 63 news articles » Los Angeles Times California Central Valley fights obesity epidemic Los Angeles Times, CA - Overweight and obese adults are more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer. As part of the Central California program, ... Candidates for gastric banding are very carefully selected, one ... Irish Times, Ireland - However, for some morbidly obese patients, explains general surgeon Oliver McAnena, surgery may be the only option. Galway-based McAnena currently provides ... Hindu Fat can kill Hindu, India - Aug 2, 2008 We don?t have all the answers; but clearly being fat increases your cancer risk. Will weight loss help reverse the cancer risks of an obese person or will ... Reader Views The Tennessean, TN - ... and breast, colon or prostate cancer. You recently asked Tennessean readers the following question: "What can Tennessee do about its high obesity rate? ... Modest lifestyle, diet changes can save Tennesseans' lives The Tennessean all 3 news articles » TopNews Children to face double cancer risk of parents due to obesity Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Jul 25, 2008 The children of today could be twice as likely as their parents to develop cancer due to the growing obesity crisis, a leading health charity warns. ... Brit Kids To Get 'Fat' Report Cards! TheMedGuru 86 Per Cent Of American Adults May Be Obese By 2030 Medical News Today (press release) all 69 news articles » NSW to pay for surgery of obese people Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - Aug 2, 2008 It is considered a relatively safe and cost-effective way to reduce obesity-related conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. ... Shape, Not Just Size, Impacts Effectiveness Of Emerging ... Science Daily (press release) - ... that could lead to new and more effective methods for treating cancer and other diseases, from diabetes and multiple sclerosis to arthritis and obesity. ... Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc. Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript Seeking Alpha, NY - In oncology, we are pursuing indications in bladder cancer and lung cancer. Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the United States and seventh ... BOTHELL, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MDRNA, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA) today ... Business Wire (press release) all 8 news articles »  MRNA

Severely Obese Women More Likely to Skip Cancer Screenings

While severe obesity can be accompanied by other health problems including cancer, severely obese women are likely to skip clinical breast exams, mammograms and Pap smears, according to a recent analysis.

The study, however, found that physicians are as likely to recommend mammograms and Pap smears to obese as to non-obese women.

While lead study author Jeanne Ferrante, M.D., found the latter finding “reassuring,” she said it is important to figure out why severely obese women aren’t getting screened, because “the obese person has an increased risk in developing and dying of cancer.”

Ferrante practices in the family medicine department at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/New Jersey Medical School in Newark. Her study was presented at a meeting of the American Society of Preventive Oncology in March and appears in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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The study was conducted in 2006 and analyzed data from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey, involving nearly 8,300 women ages 40 to 74.

Up-to-date status on clinical breast exams, mammograms and Pap smears was 9 percent to 10 percent less prevalent among severely obese women, compared to women of normal weight. Severely obese women had 51 percent lower odds of adhering to physician recommendations for mammography and 83 percent lower odds of adhering to Pap recommendations.

A woman is severely obese if she has a body mass index of at least 40. The calculation takes into account height and weight: a 5-foot-5-inch person who weighs 247 pounds has a BMI of 41

As a next step, Ferrante is sending surveys to doctors to determine if there are barriers that may keep severely obese women from getting examined. For example: Is there proper equipment to examine severely obese patients?

Ferrante is also using focus groups to get patients’ perspectives. Women have reported they feel embarrassed because of their weight, she said. “They don’t like to be examined. They don’t like to wear two gowns or have a scale inadequate to weigh them.”

Susan Curry, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, suggested record-keeping methods that flag patients in at-risk groups.

“What might happen is a physicians’ group would get a listing of all patients who have a [BMI] of 40 or greater,” Curry said. “Along with it would be mammography and Pap status. If they haven’t been in, they might get a postcard saying, ‘You are due for a Pap smear. We’d love to see you. We can accommodate you.’”

Ferrante JM, et al. Cancer screening in women: BMI and adherence to physician recommendations. Am J Prev Med 32(6), 2007.

New Procedure Allows Diagnosis of Lower Back Pain Cause

Newswise — Functional anesthetic discography (FAD), a new diagnostic procedure involving injecting anesthetic directly into a spinal disc, can be used to confirm the presence of injured discs as the source of a patient’s lower back pain symptoms, according to a new study by researchers from Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, NY.

For the study, the researchers performed FAD in 19 consecutive patients who underwent lumbar discography for suspected disc-caused lower back pain. A total of 29 discs were injected with anesthetic and then studied afterward using MDCT and patient response. The researchers found that 19 out of the 29 discs showed a favorable response to the injection in the form of pain relief of the patient.

“We hoped that by using FAD in our practice we could isolate patients that would likely benefit from disc surgery. FAD is a functional examination; it relies on the patient’s induction of pain during active patient movement, which is far different than the typical discogram. When the patient performs the movement or position that causes pain, we then inject anesthetic into the disc in hopes of relieving the pain. If the pain is or is not alleviated, then this either confirms the discogram results or proves a false negative or positive discogram, respectfully,” said Jonathan Luchs, MD, lead author of the study.

The authors do caution that even though FAD seemed to work in some cases, it often actually raised more questions as to diagnosis. “Many of our patients—although a small number at this time—did have pain relief after FAD, and some even had complete pain relief. This pain relief reveals that these anesthetized discs were the source of the problem, so we view that as beneficial information for the surgeon and patient, confirming that disc surgery is in order. However, the surprising information was that not all patients had the same amount of pain relief with the anesthetic during functional motion. This led us to believe that not all of our patients suffered from merely disc disease, but their pain may be from various spinal contributors. Therefore although this is a new helpful exam that does in many cases add to the localization of back pain, it is not the final answer to diagnosing back pain,” said Dr. Luchs.

The full results of the study will be presented on Tuesday, May 8, 2007 during the American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL.

Extremely Low-Dose MDCT Useful for Reducing Hospital Stay For Patients with Acute Abdominal Pain

Newswise —
Extremely low-dose MDCT of the abdomen and pelvis is useful in providing needed diagnostic information and reducing hospital stay in patients with acute nonspecific abdominal pain, according to a new study by researchers from the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA.

For the study, researchers analyzed the findings of 163 patients who had nonspecific abdominal pain and who underwent ultra-low-dose MDCT of the abdomen and pelvis. All of these patients would have otherwise undergone three view abdominal X-ray serris according to standard department protocol. “We found that 61 patients (37%) were able to be discharged the same day from the emergency department based on negative findings on MDCT,” said Unni Udayasankar, MD, lead author of the study. The mean duration of the hospital stay overall for the study population was 2.4 days.

“Patients with unspecified abdominal pain usually have to get abdominal X-rays,” said Dr. Udayasankar. “Abdominal X-rays lack accuracy in patients with acute abdominal pain. Our study focused on the feasibility of substituting three-view abdominal X-rays with ultra-low-dose MDCT and assess its impact on patient care and management,” said Dr. Udayasankar.

“With developments in CT technology it is now feasible to acquire good quality images at extremely low radiation doses. Patients with acute abdominal pain who would otherwise have undergone three-view abdominal X-rays may be evaluated with ultra-low-dose MDCT at comparable radiation doses. CT studies improved reader confidence and resulted in early diagnosis and patient management,” added Dr. Udayasankar.

The full results of the study will be presented on Tuesday, May 8, 2007 during the American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL.