“For me, having lost my husband, it’s frustrating to hear publicly people saying to John McCain, ‘If anybody can beat this you can — you’re so tough.’ Not that it’s intentionally hurtful, but it does leave those of us who’ve lost a loved one thinking, ‘Was my loved one not tough enough? Did he not fight hard enough?'” ~Dannagal...
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A-B-C – the beginning of the alphabet, a song by the Jackson 5 or the acronym that anyone who took CPR (coronary pulmonary resuscitation) before 2010 learned means Airway, Breathing, Chest Compression. I just learned that this CPR acronym is out-of-date. Before 2010 I learned Airways – Tilt the victim’s head and lift his chin to open the...
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“I’m barely 27 and if it were not for immunotherapy and cancer research, I would not have seen 25.” So starts Stefanie Joho speech at a 2017 Congressional Hearing called “Progress in Immunotherapy: Delivering Hope and Clinical Benefit to Cancer Patients.” When Stefanie was 22, she was diagnosed with a very aggressive Stage II...
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You’re at a loss. You’ve just learned your friend or loved one is diagnosed with breast cancer. What do you do? How do you act? What do you say? As I look back at my own actions under these circumstances, I know that I came up short. I said the wrong things and made some basic mistakes. Partly I could blame youth. But mostly I...
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September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. To increase awareness, Medivizor is sharing a theory from researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine that attempts to explain what may be causing men in Europe and the US to be so vulnerable to prostate cancer. What does the prostate gland do? The prostate gland is part of the male...
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In the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, a recent news story discussed the mental health consequences of disasters. Researcher Jean Rhodes of University of Massachusetts Boston studied the mental health of young parents living in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina. RISK- Resilience In Survivors of Katrina is the project’s name. An...
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From September 8 through 12th, over 24,000 oncologists and oncology researchers attended the European Society of Medical Oncology Meeting (ESMO), the equivalent of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting (ASCO) held in the US. This year’s event focused on connecting researchers to practitioners in a meaningful way. Here are some research...
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“Friday April 19th is a date that has been permanently engraved in my brain… I…recall awakening in the early morning hours, my sheets drenched and wet clothes sticking to every inch of my shaking body…I pulled off my wet and cold shirt, and it seemed tighter…Slowly at first and then more quickly, my hands scoured my neck....
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It is the end of summer in the Northern Hemisphere; people have been outdoors in the sun. Over the summer we’ve been promoting our short survey on tanning. We had 101 respondents and thought we’d share some results. Beliefs about tanning Do you consider yourself to be more attractive when you have a tan? “I am sunburnt; I may sit in a...
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On average we take 16 breaths in a minute. According to the EPA, that means we take between 17,280 and 23,040 breaths a day. That’s a lot. Unconscious breathing is taken care of by our brainstem, so we never have to think about it. If we do think about controlling our breath, we are using our cerebral cortex. When we’re laughing, singing or...
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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgic Encephomyelitis What’s the difference between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and fatigue? A huge difference according to an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that focused on a cutting edge research study conducted at Stanford University. Researchers found that inflammation is the driver of...
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You may not know this but you can get warnings from the FDA on problems with prescription medications and over-the-counter drugs. For example, on August 11, a FDA News Release issued this warning about over-the-counter liquid vitamins that are given to young children and those who cannot swallow pills. “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is...
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