News Releases - March 2014 Archives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MkoFI5lBvY Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Cerhan are available in the downloads. ROCHESTER, Minn. — March 12, 2014 — Having a big belly has consequences beyond trouble squeezing into your pants. It’s detrimental to your health, even if you have a healthy body mass index (BMI), a new international collaborative study led by a Mayo Clinic researcher found. Men and women with large waist circumferences were more likely to die younger, and were more likely to die from illnesses such as heart disease, respiratory problems, and cancer after accounting for body mass index, smoking, alcohol use and physical activity. The study is published in the March edition of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The researchers pooled data from 11 different cohort studies, including more than 600,000 people from around the world. They found that men with waists 43 inches or greater in circumference had a 50 percent higher mortality risk than men with waists less than 35 inches, and this translated to about a three-year lower life expectancy after age 40. Women with a waist circumference of 37 inches or greater had about an 80 percent higher mortality risk than women with a waist circumference of 27 inches or less, and this translated to about a five-year lower life expectancy after age 40.  

ROCHESTER, Minn. — March 11, 2014 — People who develop diabetes and high blood pressure in middle age are more likely to have brain cell loss and other damage to the brain, as well as problems with memory and thinking skills, than people who never have diabetes or high blood pressure or who develop it in old age, according to a new study published in the March 19, 2014, online issue of Neurology. Middle age was defined as age 40 to 64 and old age as age 65 and older. “Potentially, if we can prevent or control diabetes and high blood pressure in middle age, we can prevent or delay the brain damage that occurs decades later and leads to memory and thinking problems and dementia,” says study author and Mayo Clinic epidemiologist Rosebud Roberts M.B., Ch.B. For the study, the thinking and memory skills of 1,437 people with an average age of 80 were evaluated. The participants had either no thinking or memory problems or mild memory and thinking problems called mild cognitive impairment. They then had brain scans to look for markers of brain damage that can be a precursor to dementia. Participants’ medical records were reviewed to determine whether they had been diagnosed with diabetes or high blood pressure in middle age or later.

The answers may make a difference in your outcome ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mar. 10, 2014 — The news that you will need surgery can prompt many questions and a lot of anxiety. Beyond details about your medical condition and treatment options, what should you ask your surgeon before the operation? Whatever you need to ask to be comfortable with the decisions you make about your care, says Robert Cima, M.D., a colon and rectal surgeon and chair of Mayo’s surgical quality subcommittee. “You are the one who has to know if it fits in with your life and your family’s life to do which type of procedure when. So it’s important for you to feel comfortable asking your surgeon if this is the best option, are there other options, is this the best place for me to do this?” Dr. Cima says. “It’s your body, it’s your disease; you should feel comfortable asking those questions before you enter into something as major as surgery.” Dr. Cima suggests inviting family members or friends who will help you recover to accompany you and to ask any questions they have. He also proposes adding these five questions to your list:

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Mayo Clinic and Yampa Valley Medical Center officials announced today that the Steamboat Springs hospital is the newest member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. The network connects Mayo Clinic and health care providers who are interested in working together to enhance the delivery of locally provided high quality health care. Yampa Valley Medical Center is the second hospital in Colorado to be invited to join the network. "We are pleased to announce this collaboration with Mayo Clinic,” said Frank May, CEO, Yampa Valley Medical Center. “We share a common philosophy and commitment to improve the delivery of health care and now our relationship through the Mayo Clinic Care Network will allow our physicians and providers to have access to Mayo’s knowledge and expertise to best address the needs of our patients in northwest Colorado.”

MEDIA ADVISORY PHOENIX – Mayo Clinic will host a special sneak preview of the highly anticipated documentary, Head Games: The Global Concussion Crisis. WHEN - Saturday, March 8 at 6:30 p.m. WHERE - the Phoenix campus of Mayo Clinic, 5777 East Mayo Boulevard. BACKGROUND – From the acclaimed director Steve James (Academy Award-nominated Hoop Dreams, Emmy Award-winning The Interrupters), Head Games: The Global Concussion Crisis is a revealing documentary featuring never-before-seen neurological findings related to rugby and soccer players that will serve as a wake-up call for people who think that the devastating chronic effects of repetitive head trauma are only an American football and boxing injury.

New York — March 3, 2014 — A new approach to breast reconstruction surgery aimed at helping patients’ bodies get back to normal more quickly cut their postoperative opioid painkiller use in half and meant a day less in the hospital on average, a Mayo Clinic study found. The method includes new pain control techniques, preventive anti-nausea treatment and getting women eating and walking soon after free flap breast reconstruction surgery. It has proved so effective, it is now being used across plastic surgery at Mayo Clinic. The findings were being presented at the Plastic Surgery Research Council annual meeting March 7-9 in New York. Breast reconstruction surgery is common after breast tissue is removed to prevent or treat breast cancer; in free flap breast reconstruction, the plastic surgeon transfers a section of tissue from one part of the body to the chest.  Using traditional care, the hospital stay averaged roughly four and a half days after that procedure. Using a new approach known as an “enhanced recovery pathway,” patients spent an average of three days in the hospital, the researchers found. Opioid painkiller use by patients in the hospital after surgery also declined with the new method, and those patients reported less pain at 24 hours after surgery than those who received the traditional approach. Calculated in oral morphine equivalents, opioid use averaged 142.3 milligrams over the first three days in the hospital, compared with an average of 321.3 milligrams over the same period with traditional care. Patients are giving the changes positive reviews, says senior author Michel Saint-Cyr, M.D., a plastic surgeon in the Breast Diagnostic Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.