Health & Wellness - September 2012 Archives

JACKSONVILLE, Flórida, 25 de setembro de 2012 — Homens que se submetem à remoção de câncer de próstata podem sofrer de ansiedade, em níveis significativos, ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — September 26, 2012.  Each year, Mayo Clinic commemorates its history, culture and values with a weeklong celebration to recognize all staff and volunteers who care for Mayo patients. This year's Heritage Days celebration Oct. 1-5 reflects on the "Spirit of Service" at Mayo Clinic that has continued through every interaction among patients, visitors, volunteers, students and colleagues for nearly 150 years. Everyone is welcome to attend. Several activities are taking place across the Rochester campus. Documentary Film: "Mayo Clinic and the White House: Caring for America's First Families" will be shown in Geffen Auditorium, Gonda Building, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2, and Thursday, Oct. 4. There is no charge or advance reservation needed. Narrated by Tom Brokaw, award-winning journalist and member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees, the film tells the story of Mayo's relationship with presidents, vice presidents and members of their families, spanning more than 100 years. The film is made possible by a generous gift from Karla M. Sorensen in honor of Marie and Albert Sorensen of Washington, D.C., and their family. Midday musical concerts and dance performances are planned Monday through Friday from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at several locations across campus. Displays commemorating Mayo Clinic's notable anniversaries can be found in the Mayo Building Mathews Grand Lobby. One display features antique office furniture from the 1920s to honor the tradition of medical-administrative teamwork, a hallmark of Mayo Clinic. Two vehicles, a vintage 1924 Packard Town Car and a historical 1976 ambulance, will be on display in Annenberg Plaza between the Plummer and Mayo buildings. The 1924 Town Car is custom-built and represents the collaboration of William J. Mayo, M.D., and business manager Harry Harwick. They often discussed plans for the future of Mayo Clinic during long rides in Dr. Will's Packard. The Miller-Meteor Lifeliner ambulance represents the history of emergency medicine at Mayo Clinic. The vehicles will be on display Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Mayo Clinic's Research Information Center will celebrate its one-year anniversary. The center in the Gonda Building Lobby is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Oct. 4 from 1 to 2 p.m., meet Bruce Johnson, Ph.D., and members of the Mount Everest Research Team to learn about their recent expedition.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — September 26, 2012.  A virtual monopoly held by some drug manufacturers in part because of the way treatment protocols work is among ...

One of the reasons cancer drugs cost so much in the United States is because there's a virtual monopoly held by some drug manufacturers. That's according ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — September 25, 2012.  Mayo Clinic researchers have found a way to detect and eliminate potentially troublemaking stem cells to make stem cell therapy safer. Induced Pluripotent Stem cells, also known as iPS cells, are bioengineered from adult tissues to have properties of embryonic stem cells, which have the unlimited capacity to differentiate and grow into any desired types of cells, such as skin, brain, lung and heart cells. However, during the differentiation process, some residual pluripotent or embryonic-like cells may remain and cause them to grow into tumors. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video resources, including an interview with Dr. Nelson will be available for journalists at the Mayo Clinic News Network. "Pluripotent stem cells show great promise in the field of regenerative medicine; however, the risk of uncontrolled cell growth will continue to prevent their use as a therapeutic treatment," says Timothy Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., lead author on the study, which appears in the October issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine. Using mouse models, Mayo scientists overcame this drawback by pretreated stem cells with a chemotherapeutic agent that selectively damages the DNA of the stem cells, efficiently killing the tumor-forming cells. The contaminated cells died off, and the chemotherapy didn't affect the healthy cells, Dr. Nelson says. "The goal of creating new therapies is twofold: to improve disease outcome with stem cell-based regenerative medicine while also ensuring safety. This research outlines a strategy to make stem cell therapies safer for our patients while preserving their therapeutic efficacy, thereby removing a barrier to translation of these treatments to the clinic," says co-author Alyson Smith, Ph.D.

This week is designated International Week of the Deaf, to focus attention on the accomplishments and challenges facing deaf and hearing-impaired people. A potential health care issue ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — September 24, 2012.  This week is the International Week of the Deaf, held to draw attention to deaf and hearing-impaired people, their accomplishments and challenges they face. One health care issue is a potential communication barrier between medical providers and deaf or hard-of-hearing patients. Mayo Clinic ear, nose and throat expert Colin Driscoll, M.D., is available to discuss the language barrier, including tips for hearing-impaired patients and physicians. Patients who cannot hear well or who are deaf often require communication assistance for their medical appointments so they and physicians and other health care workers can understand each other and avoid misunderstandings. This is generally through a medical sign language interpreter, computer-aided transcription services, telecommunications devices and written materials. "There are many patients with significant amounts of hearing loss who really struggle to follow conversations but may not always admit it," Dr. Driscoll says. "Providers often don't recognize it or are unwilling and unable to take the additional time needed to communicate more fully." Eye contact between the doctor or nurse and the patient is key, says James Cartledge, a Mayo Clinic patient who is deaf. "Talk directly to the patient because the interpreter will interpret what you are saying," Cartledge says. "I have to look at the interpreter to get the information, but then I look back and forth to the person who's speaking." Good communication is essential so patients understand critical details about medications and surgeries and other procedures, he adds. "Deaf or hearing-impaired patients should feel empowered to press for clear explanations from interpreters and physicians and other health care staff, but health care workers should take steps to make sure that good communication is happening in the first place," Dr. Driscoll says. Dr. Driscoll offers the following tips for health care providers when communicating with the deaf or hearing impaired: Be aware of any hearing difficulty and have the patient's attention before talking. Face the patient, slow the rate of speech so there is space between words, and speak clearly. Reduce background noise, if possible, and if the patient has limited hearing, politely ask whether he or she hears and understands the information. Type out the discussions with patients and offer them written information about their course of treatment or any other information that is exchanged. Written information is very helpful, even for normal hearing patients, Dr. Driscoll says.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — September 24, 2012.  The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa have received a five-year, $11.5 million grant renewal from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to continue the Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) for lymphoma research. The renewal was based on a competitive peer-review process conducted by cancer researchers from across the country. The program, known as the lymphoma SPORE, focuses on applying scientific advances to develop new approaches for the prevention, detection, and treatment of lymphoma and lymphoid leukemia. It is the nation's longest-running lymphoma SPORE and has received more than $34 million from the NCI over its lifetime. "Collaboration between researchers at both institutions has led to new discoveries about cancers of the immune system and to clinical trials that test novel treatments," says Thomas Witzig, M.D., a Mayo Clinic hematologist and the SPORE lead researcher. "The advancements we've made and the SPORE grant itself would not have happened if our two organizations hadn't collaborated so well together," says George Weiner, M.D., director and principal investigator of the SPORE and director of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. The team's work includes translational and clinical studies exploring the potential of treatments that stimulate the immune system to treat lymphoma; clinical trials targeting lymphoma-specific signaling pathways; discovery of gene mutations in cell-signaling pathways that contribute to development of non-Hodgkin lymphoma; identification of key interactions between lymphoma cells and their microenvironment that can be disrupted to make cancer cells more vulnerable to chemotherapies; and investigation into biomarkers that could have a significant impact on the management of lymphoma. The research team has worked with more than 6,000 patient volunteers to better understand how genetic makeup and other factors impact the clinical outcome of patients with lymphoma and lymphoid leukemia. SPORE funds will provide support for four major research projects, four shared research cores, clinical trials, early pilot projects, and new investigators in lymphoma research at both institutions.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — September 24, 2012.  Mayo Clinic and the Rochester Police Department are joining the Drug Enforcement Administration to hold a National Take-Back Initiative ...

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Norm Turner joined us to discuss the foot.  We discussed all sorts of conditions that can go wrong with the foot and talked about ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — September 20, 2012.  Mayo Clinic researchers and an international team of scientists have developed a highly-efficient means of editing zebrafish genomes for research purposes, eliminating a bottleneck that has stymied biomedical scientists from using the fish as a model for human disease. The details appear online today in the journal Nature. For many researchers, zebrafish are becoming the model of choice for genetic studies. However, the inability to efficiently target genetic modifications has delayed their use by some. The Mayo team used an improved variant of artificial transcription activator-like effector nucleases, or TALENs, to provide a new approach. "By using genetic engineering tools called TALENs and synthetic DNA to make defined changes in the genomes of our fish, we are able to make small changes (just a few nucleotides) as well as add a specific sequence for biological gene switch applications," says Stephen Ekker, Ph.D., senior author and head of Mayo's zebrafish core facility. "This is the first time we've been able to make custom changes to the zebrafish genome." Dr. Ekker says this toolkit opens the door to a range of new experiments in zebrafish, including modeling of human disease by introducing small point mutations, designing regulated gene alleles, and developing classical structure/function experiments using an animal model system. This new approach has implications for other model systems, including mice, rats, flies and worms, and possible applications in stem cell research. "To our knowledge, this TALEN toolkit also is the most active described to date," says Dr. Ekker. "This has important implications for the growing TALEN field, whether used in fish or any other cells. We used this higher activity for genome editing applications. We also used it to conduct a series of somatic gene function assessments, opening the door to an array of non-germline experiments in zebrafish."

Adult obesity in the United States is predicted to increase up to 60 percent by 2030, likely resulting in an increase of obesity-related diseases and health care costs. The ...