Health & Wellness - October 2015 Archives

THIS WEEK'S TOP STORIES Job satisfaction: How to make work more rewarding If you're unhappy going to work, you may not need to find a ...

This patient story originally appeared September 16, 2015 in Sharing Mayo Clinic Heads turned when Aries Merritt walked into the lobby at Mayo Clinic ...

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I’ve been on blood pressure medication for nine months. It has lowered my blood pressure, but I’m having trouble with side effects like dizziness. I eat a healthy diet and walk every day, but want to know if there are other ways to lower my blood pressure so that hopefully I can stop taking this medicine. I am only 57. ANSWER: You’re on the right track. Eating well and staying active are two good ways to help control blood pressure. But there are more steps you can take that can make a difference and could eliminate your need for blood pressure medication. Blood pressure is a measure of how much resistance there is to blood flow through your arteries. It’s recorded as two numbers: a top number and a bottom number. The top is called systolic pressure — the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats. The bottom number is diastolic pressure — the pressure in your arteries when your heart is at rest between beats. Blood pressure generally is considered too high when the top number is more than 140 or the bottom number is more than 85. High blood pressure can lead to serious medical problems, including kidney disorders, heart attack, stroke and heart failure, among others.

ROCHESTER, Minnesota: Los científicos de Mayo Clinic en Rochester, Minnesota, colaboraron con el Centro Médico de la Universidad  de Mississippi en un reciente estudio, titulado “Troponina T como predictor de enfermedad renal terminal y toda causa de muerte entre afroamericanos y blancos de familias hipertensas.” Por primera vez, este estudio identificó la presencia en la sangre de una proteína que solía usarse para buscar enfermedades cardíacas y ahora puede ser un indicador precoz de enfermedad renal terminal, y de muerte en última instancia, en las personas con hipertensión, independientemente de la raza o del valor basal de la función renal. El estudio fue publicado por Internet  y aparecerá en la edición de noviembre de Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Según la Dra. LaTonya Hickson, autora principal del estudio y médico en Nefrología e Hipertensión de Mayo Clinic, un mayor nivel de troponina T cardíaca (cTnT) en la sangre puede no sólo ser el primer indicador de enfermedad, sino también identificar con exactitud a los pacientes que necesitan intervención, sea cual sea su origen racial. La Dra. Hickson comenta que esto es importante porque, pese a que estudios anteriores hayan demostrado mayor incidencia de muerte e insuficiencia renal entre afroamericanos que entre blancos, los médicos ahora saben que independientemente de la raza o del valor basal de la función renal, un nivel elevado de troponina T cardíaca puede servir como advertencia de insuficiencia renal inminente y/o muerte prematura.

Christina Woodside was knocked down — hard, but thanks to a Be The Match donor, she’s back up — and running. “My family is like every other average family in America,” Christina says at the start of a self-published YouTube video that chronicles her health journey. As part of an active family, Christina, her husband and their five children enjoyed running, biking, fishing and snow sports. But all that changed the day after Thanksgiving in 2013. The diagnosis Christina thought she’d come down with strep throat and went to a clinic in her hometown of Mankato, Minn. The test came back negative for strep, but an extremely high white cell count indicated a more serious problem. Tests at Mayo Clinic in Rochester would soon reveal Christina had leukemia. “I threw up right after they told me,” she says, describing the agony hearing the diagnosis.

Watch today's Mayo Clinic Minute Probing your risk for heart attack, and Mayo Clinic breast cancer specialist Dr. Sandhya Pruthi tells us about a new iPad app helping breast ...

ESTIMADA MAYO CLINIC: ¿Cuál es la causa de los hongos en las uñas de los pies y qué se puede hacer para tratarlos? ¿Es contagioso? RESPUESTA: Los hongos en las uñas de los pies son infecciones normalmente causadas por un microorganismo llamado hongo dermatofito. Estas infecciones pueden ser contagiosas y suelen ser difíciles de eliminar completamente, pero afortunadamente en la mayoría de adultos, los hongos en las uñas de los pies no plantean ningún riesgo de salud grave. Los hongos en las uñas de los pies son una afección común que comienza como una mancha blanca o amarilla en la punta de una de ellas. A medida que la infección se vuelve más profunda, los hongos pueden provocar decoloración, engrosamiento o desmoronamiento en el borde de la uña. Las infecciones micóticas (por hongos) ocurren con más frecuencia en las uñas de los pies que en las de las manos porque las primeras están confinadas dentro de los zapatos a un ambiente oscuro, tibio y húmedo, donde los hongos pueden prosperar. Además, el flujo sanguíneo de los dedos de los pies es menor al de las manos, lo que dificulta al sistema inmunitario detectar la infección y detenerla. La probabilidad de contraer hongos en las uñas de los pies aumenta con la edad porque a medida que uno envejece, el sistema inmunitario cambia y con el paso del tiempo, también las uñas se vuelven más frágiles y secas, presentando más rajaduras donde los hongos pueden alojarse. Las uñas de los pies tienen varias capas, apiladas una sobre otra, lo que puede dificultar el deshacerse de los hongos porque éstos se meten dentro de las capas y entre ellas. Los hongos también pueden asentarse sobre la uña o crecer debajo de ella. En algunos casos, los hongos llegan a las células que producen la uña, llamadas matriz ungueal, lo que hace muy difícil eliminarlos debido a que las células que fabrican el resto de la uña del pie ya están infectadas.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement. A slight tremor in one hand is often the first outward sign of ...

Stem cell transplantation, also known as bone marrow transplantation, is a procedure that infuses healthy cells, called stem cells, into your body to ...

This article first appeared March 12, 1955 in the publication Mayovox. Even in this jet-propelled present day, 1,000,000 miles is considerable of a distance. A generation and more ago, 1,000,000 miles of travel by automobile was a very great distance indeed. Between the early 1920’s and the late 1930’s, Fred Dahle of General Service drove a million miles for the same man – Dr. W. J. Mayo. It is a record in which Dahle, understandably, takes a deep quiet pride. Fred Dahle Recalls Million Miles With W. J. Mayo  Fred Dahle was born and raised on his parents’ farm over in Dodge County. He came to Rochester in 1911, worked for five years at the State Hospital as a cook. Then, for a couple of years, he owned a confectionery-restaurant at Hayfield, Minn. Seven years was more than enough to convince him that inside work was nothing for a man born and raised on a farm—and yet he didn’t just want to go back to farming. So, in 1918, he came back to Rochester as a construction foreman; among other jobs, he helped build the first kennels at the Institute of Experimental Medicine.

Looking good on Halloween often comes at a price, but that price should be in dollars and cents — not compromising your health. Unfortunately, misuse of decorative contact lenses and supplementing costumes with tinted eyewear may put your well-being at risk. Decorative contacts are lenses that change the appearance of your eyes without correcting vision. They can modify eye color, include your favorite team’s logo or create a scary, wild eye appearance for a creature you’re embodying on Halloween. They’re also known as cosmetic or fashion lenses and are promoted like an accessory, such as jewelry, scarves or no-correction glasses, in non-eye-care stores. However, decorative lenses are not as harmless as they seem. “Contact lenses are medical devices that need proper fitting and should be purchased from a store that requires a prescription,” says Bob Friese, O.D., Optometry, Mayo Clinic Health System in Fairmont. “Buying them elsewhere and not having a proper fitting can lead to significant health risks. The risks to your eyes include corneal abrasions, infections, allergic reactions, decreased vision and blindness.”

Stem cell transplantation, also known as bone marrow transplantation, has come a long way since it was first tried in the early part of the ...