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Cutting-edge prostate cancer drugs that help extend life in the toughest cases might also be useful in fighting less aggressive tumors, two new clinical trials suggest. Two drugs that interfere with cancer’s ability to use testosterone for fuel, apalutamide (Erleada) and enzalutamide (Xtandi), are already approved for use against more advanced prostate tumors that don’t respond to regular therapy. But these trials show that the drugs also can improve survival and slow progression in prostate cancers that do respond to regular therapy, which typically involves medication that halts production of testosterone. Both clinical trials involved patients with prostate cancer that had spread to other parts of their body but who still responded to androgen-deprivation therapy. “We’re slowly starting to see a migration of drugs traditionally saved for advanced stages of disease, where we’re incorporating them into earlier stages of disease,” said Dr. Bobby Liaw, medical director of the Blavatnik Family Chelsea Medical Center at Mount Sinai, in New York City. He was not involved in the trials. Apalutamide combined with androgen-deprivation therapy caused a 33% reduction in overall risk of death, compared against patients who received a placebo alongside their androgen-deprivation therapy, said the lead researcher of that clinical trial, Dr. Kim Chi. Apalutamide also delayed progression of the cancer by 52%, and the length of time before patients required chemotherapy by 61%, said Chi,… read on >

More American women under age 65 have been diagnosed sooner and treated earlier for ovarian cancer since the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2010, new research shows. And, more women received treatment within 30 days of diagnosis, improving their survival odds, the researchers said. For the study, the investigators analyzed data from the U.S. National Cancer Database. They compared nearly 36,000 women who were diagnosed and treated between 2004 and 2009, with more than 37,000 women diagnosed and treated between 2011 and 2014. Women in both groups were between 21 and 64 years of age. A similar number of seniors with ovarian cancer was used as a control group, because those women had access to Medicare and were much less likely to be uninsured before or after introduction of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Compared with the control group, there was a 1.7% gain in early-stage diagnosis and a 1.6% improvement in treatment within 30 days of diagnosis among younger women since 2010, the findings showed. The greatest gains were among women who got public insurance after the Affordable Care Act was introduced. These women had a 2.5% gain in early-stage diagnosis and timely treatment compared with the control group. The improvements were seen regardless of race, income or level of education. While a 1.7% improvement in early diagnosis may… read on >

Being an Instagram influencer isn’t always a good thing. New research found that vulnerable young people who see online posts of self-harm — like cutting — may copy those destructive behaviors. Almost one-third of teens and young adults who reported seeing self-harm posts on Instagram said they had performed the same or similar self-harming behavior afterwards. Seeing these images online “normalizes” the behavior, according study senior author Dan Romer. He’s research director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “Vulnerable kids think, ‘Well, maybe that’s something I should consider doing,’” he said. Romer noted that this problem goes beyond just Instagram. “Kids who don’t have mental health problems wouldn’t repeatedly self-harm. It’s vulnerable kids trying to relieve their distress,” he explained. But he added that this study indicates that these types of social media posts can be harmful to teens and young adults. The researchers initially became concerned about the potential effects of self-harm posts after a British father said his 14-year-old daughter had looked at explicit self-harming images on Instagram before killing herself. The social media site has since said that graphic depictions of self-harm aren’t allowed in posts. Self-harm typically refers to cutting, but can include other behaviors such as burning, hitting or head-banging. Self-harm isn’t usually suicidal, but people who engage in self-harm are at increased risk for… read on >

Whether it comes from demands at home, a slow commute or monthly bills, it’s hard to escape stress. Beyond affecting your mood, it can play havoc with your health, from lost sleep and stress-eating to weight gain and heart disease. Fortunately, you can take steps to counter all these negatives. A simple solution is a 20-minute daily break to practice relaxation in a tranquil spot away from annoyances. But when time is in short supply, you can still do a five-minute de-stress to refresh and refocus. Here are five effective ideas: Breathe with focus: Put all your concentration on taking long, deep breaths. Watch your belly expand as you inhale and contract as you exhale. Meditate: Build on focused breathing by silently repeating a mantra, which can be just a sound, one word or a short, life-affirming phrase of your choice. Exercise: Tap into the power of mood-boosting endorphins by spending a few minutes moving. You don’t even have to leave your office — just close the door and try walking or running in place at your desk. Or get the mind-body benefits of yoga with a simple move like the Tree Pose: Standing straight, bend your right knee out to the side to place the sole of your right foot against the inner thigh of your left leg. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds,… read on >

Heart failure is a common ailment afflicting older Americans, and many take drugs called diuretics to rid the body of excess fluid buildup that can impede breathing. Now, a team of Brazilian researchers say that, in some cases, it’s safe for patients with stable heart failure to stop taking diuretic drugs. “Patients don’t like using diuretics because they feel they have to stay at home to use the bathroom and they get cramps,” noted study principal investigator Dr. Luis Rohde, of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. “Patients would welcome being able to stop this medication,” he said, and the new study suggests it can often be done safely. One U.S. expert who reviewed the new findings stressed that diuretics are key to heart failure care. “Congestive heart failure is one of the most common chronic ailments in the United States, characterized primarily by volume (fluid) overload,” explained Dr. Mohammed Imam. In heart failure, a damaged or weakened heart fails to pump blood as efficiently as it should. “The mainstay of treatment for decades have been diuretics,” said Imam, who directs cardiothoracic surgery at The Heart Institute at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City. Diuretics help patients with heart failure reduce excess fluids that can cause shortness of breath, swollen legs, coughing and weight gain. However, the… read on >

When a heart attack occurs, delaying treatment by even a few minutes could be deadly. But many people wait hours after symptoms set in to get care — either because they feel mentally “frozen” and unable to act, or because they’re slow to recognize the seriousness of the situation, a new survey reveals. The finding stems from a look at how 300 Swedish patients reacted while having a heart attack. “The patients who waited more than 12 hours seeking medical care when having symptoms perceived an inability to act,” said study lead author Carolin Nymark. These patients often described feeling as if they had “lost control over themselves.” Others said they felt unable to take any action because they didn’t know how to react or what to do. Nymark works in the department of neurobiology at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. She and her colleagues reported their findings online May 27 in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. The researchers said that heart attack symptoms can show up as several forms of moderate-to-severe discomfort, including chest pain, or pain affecting the throat, neck, back, stomach and/or shoulders for 15 minutes or more. Nausea, cold sweat, weakness and shortness of breath may also set in, along with a sense of foreboding, fear or powerlessness. “Another red flag is feeling you have no power to act on… read on >

Brittle bones are often seen as a woman’s health issue, but low bone mass may be more common among middle-aged men than generally thought, a small study suggests. The research, of 173 adults aged 35 to 50, found that men and women were equally likely to have low bone mass in the hip. It was found in 28% of men and 26% of women. Those study participants, the researchers said, had osteopenia, or lower-than-normal bone density. In some cases, it progresses to osteoporosis — the brittle-bone disease that makes people vulnerable to fractures. The fact that osteopenia was just as common in men came as a surprise, said researcher Allison Ford, a professor of health and exercise science at the University of Mississippi. Full-blown osteoporosis is clearly more common in women. About one-quarter of U.S. women aged 65 and up have the condition in the hip or lower spine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That compares with about 5% of men the same age. But, Ford said, the new findings suggest low bone density might be more common in middle-aged men than appreciated. “Low bone mineral density and osteoporosis affect men,” she said. “They should not be overlooked.” Ford suggested men take steps to help ensure their bones stay healthy — including eating a well-balanced diet with enough calcium, getting… read on >

Vaping is gaining a foothold in an unlikely population: New research shows a growing number of cancer patients are using electronic cigarettes. “The gradual but steady increase is quite striking,” said study author Dr. Nina Sanford, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “The high prevalence of e-cigarette use among younger cancer patients and survivors is concerning.” E-cigarette use by cancer patients rose from 8.5% in 2014 to nearly 11% in 2017, according to the analysis of federal government data on more than 13,000 patients. Among patients younger than 50, the rate of use rose from 23% in 2014 to 27% in 2017. Use of conventional cigarettes by cancer patients remained stable between 2014 and 2017, according to Sanford. There is little known about e-cigarette use among cancer patients, she added. “Because e-cigarettes are relatively new, we don’t have the long-term data on their side effects yet,” Sanford said in a medical center news release. It’s known that conventional cigarettes can impair healing from surgery and radiation therapy, so it’s possible that e-cigarettes may cause similar problems, she noted. Sanford said patients often ask about e-cigarettes, and she advises them to avoid all kinds of smoking or vaping. “I don’t encourage it, but I also am honest that the jury is still out on what the long-term effects of… read on >

The popular weed killer Roundup might be linked to liver disease, a new study suggests. A group of patients suffering from liver disease had elevated urine levels of glyphosate, the primary weed-killing ingredient in Roundup, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). “We found those patients who had more severe disease had higher levels of [glyphosate] excretion, which means they had higher levels of exposure, presumably through their diet,” said lead researcher Paul Mills. He is director of UCSD’s Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Integrative Health. Until now, debate regarding the health effects of glyphosate has largely centered on fears that the chemical causes cancer. Earlier this month, a California jury awarded $2 million to a couple who said long-term exposure to Roundup caused them to develop the same type of cancer — non-Hodgkin lymphoma — four years apart. That happened days after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a draft conclusion that glyphosate poses “no risks to public health” and “is not likely to be carcinogenic for humans.” Dr. Kenneth Spaeth is chief of occupational and environmental medicine at Northwell Health in Great Neck, N.Y. He said that the UCSD study findings regarding liver disease raise “a whole other area of potential reason to have concern about this product and its widespread use globally.” Glyphosate is… read on >

Do you worry a lot? Besides the anxiety it’s causing you emotionally, it can threaten your health. Whether you worry over actual problems or the fear of future ones, it interferes with sleep and quality of life. And, according to research done at Case Western Reserve University, it can be so intrusive that it harms your important relationships, too. Here’s what you can do to ease your worries and protect your mental and physical health. Take action for true concerns. For instance, if you’re worried about money for retirement, learn more about investments. Work with a certified financial planner to help you meet goals. If you’re nervous about a health condition or an upcoming medical test, bone up on the procedure, experts at the University of California, Berkeley, suggest. Don’t be afraid to ask your medical providers questions so you understand what you’ve read and how it applies to you. On the other hand, if you find that you look for things to worry about and can’t seem to shake the bad habit, try to lose yourself in exercise. Physical activity boosts mood and improves health — that’s one less worry right there. You might also investigate mindfulness, a technique that teaches you to live in the moment and not worry about “what ifs.” There are self-help approaches to try on your own, or you… read on >