When minority men and women felt that they were being discriminated against by their health care providers, they were less likely to be screened for breast or colorectal cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the average patient will wait nearly an hour to see a doctor, up from 38 minutes ten years ago.

The reason?  Fewer emergency departments and more visits to them.  Emergency room visits increased by almost 1/3 (32 percent) between 1996 and 2006 with 119 million visits in 2006.  At the same time there were 300 fewer emergency departments to handle the need.  In addition, ED beds fill up with patients who are waiting for a bed to free up so they can be admitted to the hospital. Read the rest of this entry »

Colon and rectal cancer patients 75 years old and older who are treated with chemotherapy or radiation don’t report any poorer quality of life than older patients who don’t have such therapy.  Patients who had chemotherapy said that their physical functioning was better than that reported by those who didn’t receive chemo. Read the rest of this entry »

Occasionally people having CT scans or other imaging exams will have an allergic-type reaction to the iodine contrast, but research has found that they can be treated safely without long term effects. In fact, almost all reactions are mild and more han 99 percent patients with them will get better within a day.

Radiologists at the University of Michigan hospitals in Ann Arbor studied nearly 85,000 intravenous injections of nonionic iodinated contrast media looking for allergic-type reactions.  They analyzed both how the reactions were treated and whether there were any long term problems after a reaction. Read the rest of this entry »

Marinating meat before grilling can reduce some carcinogens that are connected with colon polyps and cancer according to research from Kansas State University.

Food technology researchers marinated round steaks in three different commercial marinade mixes containing different spice blends including Caribbean, southwest, and herb.  They then grilled the steaks at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Read the rest of this entry »