Health & Wellness - August 2012 Archives

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Lee Aase, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, will be in Tampa, Fla., on Monday, Aug. 27, to participate in a panel discussion on "Building Healthier Cities" produced by The Atlantic and National Journal in conjunction with the Republican National Convention. WHO: Lee Aase, Director, Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media WHAT: "Building Healthier Cities" panel discussion WHERE: The event will take place at the Atlantic Media Headquarters for its RNC Convention coverage, Carne Chophouse, 1536 East 7th Ave., in Tampa. It will be webcast from the Atlantic Live site http://events.theatlantic.com/presidential-conventions/2012/. WHEN: Monday, Aug. 27, from 2–3:30 p.m. EDT WHY: The discussion will explore investment in community health through public-private partnerships and innovative delivery of care. For more information on the program, contact Logan Elsass, lelsass@theatlantic.com.

Taking Blood Pressure Medication at Night May Be Keeping You Awake August 24, 2012 Dear Mayo Clinic: I was recently put on medication ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — August 23, 2012. The Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation will hold Transform 2012, its fifth collaborative symposium focused on redesigning the way health care is experienced and delivered, Sept. 9–11 in Rochester. Transform 2012 – Designing Solutions. Inspiring Health will feature dozens of speakers on topics that include designing health care spaces and experiences, new models of care delivery, the power of social media and the growing role of entrepreneurs and startup companies in health care innovation. Participants include: Journalist and commentator John Hockenberry, who will moderate the symposium. Garrison Keillor, the host and writer of "A Prairie Home Companion," who will join a discussion about health and inspiration. In the "Elephants in the Room" session, Phil Satow and John MacPhee of the Jed Foundation will share their insights into suicide prevention among college students. They will be joined by journalist and author Michael Wolff, who will discuss his recent experience caring for his terminally ill mother. Adam Darkins, M.D., who leads telehealth programs for the Department of Veterans Affairs, will join the "Connecting for Change" session to discuss telemedicine and disease management technologies that have improved access to care and led to more efficient use of health care resources.

                                             West Nile virus transmission cycle West Nile virus is an infection transmitted by mosquitoes. If you become infected with West Nile virus, you may not experience ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — August 23, 2012.  The public is invited to enjoy three Rosemary and Meredith Willson Harmony for Mayo Program concerts in September. Performances will be on Mondays from 12:10 to 1 p.m. The schedule is: Sept. 3: Labor Day, no concert. Sept. 10: Maritza will perform a Balkan and klezmer concert in Barbara Woodward Lips Atrium, subway level, Charlton Building, 10 Third Ave. NW. Band leader and accordionist Pine Wilson developed a love of Balkan music through 20 years of exposure to Eastern European folk dance. She then traveled to Bulgaria and Greece and studied with an Albanian accordionist. Wilson also plays tupan and doumbek. Other band members include Ann Streufert on violin, viola, flute and percussion; Elizabeth Finanger, on mandolin, guitar and percussion; Erik Berg on percussion; and Hannah Breckbill on double bass.

One thing that seems to keep people from scheduling a colorectal cancer screening is the task of drinking liters of laxative the night before. Well, there's a ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — August 22, 2012.  People who carry a "G" instead of an "A" at a specific spot in their genetic code have roughly a six-fold higher risk of developing certain types of brain tumors, a Mayo Clinic and University of California, San Francisco study has found. The findings, published online today in the journal Nature Genetics, could help researchers identify people at risk of developing certain subtypes of gliomas which account for about 20 percent of new brain cancers diagnosed annually in the U.S. and may lead to better surveillance, diagnosis and treatment. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video resources are available for journalists at the Mayo Clinic News Network. Researchers still have to confirm whether the spot is the source of tumors, but if it's not, "it is pretty close," says senior author Robert Jenkins, M.D., Ph.D., a pathologist at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. "Based on our findings, we are already starting to think about clinical tests that can tell patients with abnormal brain scans what kind of tumor they have, just by testing their blood." A few years ago, researchers began hunting for regions of the genome that might be associated with the development of gliomas. These groups observed a portion of chromosome 8 that contained single nucleotide polymorphisms or "SNPs" associated with brain tumors. Since then, Dr. Jenkins and Margaret Wrensch, Ph.D., professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, have been using a combination of sophisticated genomic techniques to search for the SNP causing brain tumors to form. They honed in on seven candidates. One — the SNP called rs55705857 — confers a relative risk approaching that is seen with BRCA1, the breast cancer gene. Interestingly, this region was only found through the most laborious method used by the researchers, next generation sequencing, suggesting that experimental and mathematical shortcuts may miss such rare, highly potent gene variants, Dr. Jenkins says. Drs. Jenkins and Wrensch found that having the "G" guanine version of this SNP — rather than the more common "A" adenine version — was strongly associated with slower growing gliomas. "Being able to tell people that the mass in their brain is this type of tumor is actually good news, because it has a much better prognosis than other brain tumors," Dr. Jenkins says. "So what is it that predisposes people to develop less aggressive, but still lethal, gliomas? That makes understanding the function of this variant even more important."

Anywhere there is a pecking order, there is the potential for bullying. For children, the competitive nature of sports can add an extra element of aggression. We ...

People who carry a "G" instead of an "A" at a specific spot in their genetic code have a  sixfold higher risk of developing certain ...

Iron is a mineral essential for good health and is especially important for premenopausal women because they can lose it through menstruation, pregnancy and an iron-poor diet. So, Mayo Clinic experts say premenopausal women who don’t get enough iron in their diets may need to take iron supplements. But what about women who have gone through menopause? Should they take iron supplements? Voiceover script, b-roll and sound bites with Richa Sood, M.D., are available in the downloads above.  Expert title for broadcast cg: Dr. Richa Sood, Mayo Clinic Women's Health Clinic                             

ROCHESTER, Minn. — August 21, 2012.  The Karl R. Potach Foundation held the 15th annual Karl Potach Memorial Golf Tournament on Aug. 20 at Austin Country Club in Austin, Minn. A portion of the proceeds from the event help support pediatric oncology research at Mayo Clinic. "Over the last nine years, the tournament has raised approximately $100,000 to help fund basic, translational and clinical research at Mayo Clinic with the goal of improving treatments for children with cancer " says Richard Bram, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. "Mayo Clinic is very appreciative and is currently planning an event to recognize the foundation as a major benefactor." Karl Potach was 2 when he was diagnosed with Wilms' tumor, a rare kidney cancer. Karl went through multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatments at Mayo Clinic. He lost his battle with cancer at age 4. Mayo Clinic researchers are working to find a cure for Wilms' tumor and other pediatric cancers. They are also investigating alternative cancer treatments for pediatric cancers, such as proton beam therapy.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — August 20, 2012.  Mayo Clinic Healthy Living at Mall of America and Mayo Clinic's Children's Center will host an interactive and educational ...