Headache: When to worry, what to do
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Month: April 2010
A 10-Minute Consult: How to quit smoking
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A 10-Minute Consult: Controlling GERD and Chronic Heartburn
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Ask the doctor: What’s the difference between blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c?
In your article on blood sugar control, you kept talking about hemoglobin A1c. I measure my blood sugar all the time, but my meter doesn’t have a setting for a percentage reading. Is there a simple connection between blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c?
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Focus on hormones: Testosterone therapy’s benefits, risks need crystallizing
Lower levels of testosterone may correlate with a higher risk of heart disease, but taking a testosterone supplement may also increase the risk of prostate cancer and reduce beneficial HDL cholesterol.
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HDL cholesterol, Part II
Boosting HDL cholesterol is more beneficial to the body than lowering LDL. Lifestyle changes such as exercising and eating more carefully are harder to accomplish than taking a statin, but produce better results with regard to raising HDL.
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Genetic screening for prostate cancer
Genetic testing may soon be able to predict a man’s risk of getting prostate cancer, but the tests can give false or misleading results. Men with a family history of the disease will probably benefit more from such testing when it is available.
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Follow-up
An excess of aldosterone, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, can increase the risk of heart disease. The problem can be treated with medication, but sometimes it is necessary to remove the glands.
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Heart beat: Statins, aspirin affect prostate cancer test
Two studies found that use of a statin or daily low-dose aspirin may artificially lower the reading of a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test.
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In Brief: Many drugs prevent fractures, but none is best, study finds
A review of dozens of studies of the various types of medications prescribed to help prevent fractures concluded that there is not enough evidence to declare that one medication is better than others.
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