Two blood cancers with such similar names, Non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin Lymphoma, is bound to cause confusion. The Dana Farber Cancer Institute has created a great infographic to help clear up any...
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What does it mean to have a calling? You’ve probably heard people say that they were “called” to become a pastor, social worker, nurse or doctor. What does that mean? Researchers have tried to define it and seem to have settled on three components to the definition. First, there is a caller: something external that could be defined by...
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In July 2015, Medivizor introduced us to a project being conducted by the Broad Institute in conjunction with Dana Farber Cancer Institute called The Metastatic Breast Cancer Project or MBC Project. In October of 2015, after two years of work involving patient input and partnership, the MBC Project website went live. One of the reasons why this project is...
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In two previous posts, What Do You Think About Clinical Trials? and What Do You Think? Medivizor’s Clinical Trials Perception Survey Results, we learned your perceptions of clinical trials. As a follow-up, we have a short, very useful explainer video produced by the European Patients’ Academy (EUPATI) describing some of the key features of...
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Though this title might seem flippant, there is evidence that Vitamin D supplements may help you get fewer pesky colds and flu. In a recent article published in The BMJ, researchers conducted a meta-analysis on randomized control trials. Backing up, to do a meta-analysis, researchers find already published articles that fit a specific criteria, in this...
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You’ve probably heard of yoga. Some people are “into” it. Others, not so much. Yoga is over 5000 years old, originating in India. One of the oldest texts in existence is the Yoga Sutra. Written 2000 years ago, it is the basis of the yoga practiced today. Possible health benefits from practicing yoga include stress management, balance...
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In Before Angelina Jolie: Karen Malkin Lazarovitz’s BRCA Journey (Part 1) Karen explained her experience of learning she had the BRCA mutation. This mutation significantly increased her risk of getting breast cancer (87% risk) and ovarian cancer (54% risk). Here is the rest of her interview. Why Karen Had A Double Mastectomy Waking up everyday thinking...
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In 2013, Angelina Jolie described her experience of being diagnosed with one of the BRCA mutations in her New York Times OpEd and prophylactic surgeries. But, five years before AJ’s “coming out,” Karen Malkin Lazarovitz @karenBRCAMTL learned she had one of the BRCA mutations. BRCA1 & BRCA2 Genes There are genes in our cells that...
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According to the movies, a heart attack is dramatic and obvious. Pain in the left arm and severe chest pain tells you it’s time to call 911. But the reality can be quite different. Nausea can be a symptom in both men and women. Shortness of breath, without doing anything, is a sign. Women may experience dizziness, feel pain in their upper back, or...
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Radiation and chemotherapy saved Stephanie Zimmerman’s life when she had Ewing’s Sarcoma in 1978. But years later, she almost lost her life again to long-term side effects of her treatment. Her heart died but she lives today because of the gift of organ donation. Here is the next part of her story. Losing Heart-Gaining Life How did the long term...
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How does stress affect the body? Newly published research may provide clues to the impact of emotional stress on different parts of the body. In their study, the researchers wanted to learn if there was a connection between a specific part of the brain, called the amygdala, and cardiovascular health. The Amygdala There are actually two amygdalae, one on...
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It’s tough when you have a disorder people aren’t comfortable talking about. Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is one of those conditions. So let’s get comfortable with it. What is BPH? Okay. The name of this condition is a clue to what it means and why it’s not discussed…benign means that it is not cancer, prostatic means...
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