Will Depressed Women Take Viagra?

Ask a depressed woman if she’d take Viagra to invigorate a faded libido caused by the antidepressants she’s taking to keep the blues away and she’s likely to say the proposition sounds like a pretty bitter pill to swallow. Others, however, would jump at the chance. If only it worked that way. Read more

Older Women’s Sleep Patterns Influence Risk of Stroke

When all other risk factors are relatively equal, postmenopausal women who sleep between seven and eight hours each night are less likely to experience an ischemic attack, or stroke, than women of the same age group who sleep less than seven hours.  And women of this age group who sleep nine hours or more each night are at an even greater risk of experiencing a stroke than women who sleep less, according to the report of a study that has just been published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Read more

Breast Self-Exams: More Biopsies But No Lives Spared

Five years ago the American Cancer Society discontinued its recommendation that women perform monthly breast self-exams (BSEs) to help detect the presence of masses or lumps at the earliest possible moment, saying instead that women should continue the exams if they are more comfortable doing so.  Now a recent study that has followed up on the number of breast cancer deaths in women who do and those who do not perform regular BSEs has revealed no significant difference between the two. Read more

Genetic test for breast cancer approved

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just announced approval of a genetic test that will help determine which breast cancer patients will be best served by taking the drug Herceptin (trastuzumab) for treatment.  The new test, SPOT-Light HER2 CISH, measures the number of the HER2 gene in cancerous breast tissue. Read more

Young American Women Getting Tanned to Death

The most lethal form of skin cancer is on the rise in American women aged 15 to 39, according to data provided by the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program, operated by the National Cancer Institute.  The number of cases of melanoma, the form of skin cancer in question, has risen in young women by as much as 50% between 1980 and 2004.  Authorities suggest the increasing popularity of tanning salons may be one reason for the dramatic increase in this cancer. Read more

No News to Moms: Baby’s Smile is Sweet Addiction

Seeing one’s own baby smile affects the same parts of the brain that are activated by drug addictions, according to the findings of a study conducted at the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM).  Other expressions on a baby’s smile provoke responses in the same areas of the brain, although not to the same degree that a smile does. Read more

FDA Rejects Gardasil for Older Women

The pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co. Inc., won approval in 2006 from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market Gardasil, the first vaccine ever approved for the prevention of infection from human papillomavirus (HPV), which often causes cervical cancer.  Gardasil is approved for use only in young females, those between the ages of 9 and 26. Read more

Pro-Life Drugstores

America’s pharmacists are facing an ever-expanding pharmacopeia from which to dispense the medications that ease pain, cure infection, and help people everywhere maintain a standard of living unsurpassed by previous generations.  Some of the drugs in that mind-boggling array of medications are cause for much concern among a growing number of pharmacists who do not feel religiously or morally comfortable dispensing birth control prescription drugs, condoms, and contraceptives.  More and more of them are opting out of the traditional drugstore setting and they’re developing their own “pro-life” drugstores, where contraceptives in any form are, quite simply, not in stock. Read more

Daily Coffee Habit Brews Up Improved Health, Longer Life

For coffee aficionados, there’s a lot to love about coffee. The aroma. The flavor. The morning ritual. The high-voltage jolt of energy that gets the day moving. Researchers in Spain have discovered that a generous dose of coffee every day just might reduce the risk of developing heart disease, too. Especially for women. Read more

Ten Percent of Adolescent Girls Admit to Either Binge Eating or Purging

According to the June 9, 2008 issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, one in ten teenage girls either binge eats or purges at least once a week. The incidence of purging was highest among younger adolescent girls. Binge eating among boys was 3%, and boys were less likely to engage in purging. Alison E. Field, ScD, associate professor of pediatrics, in the division of adolescent medicine at Children’s Hospital, Boston, in Massachusetts said, “I would believe that 10% [of girls] would at least experiment with these behaviors, but once a week is quite severe.” The authors also found that girls who diet frequently and are concerned about their weight are at greater risk for developing eating disorders. Girls, younger than 14, were three times as likely to binge or purge if their mother had a history of an eating disorder. Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »