Extra pounds are hard on the heart, but the fat located in the abdomen-called visceral fat-is particularly risky to heart health. Cutting portion sizes, eating less sugar and fat, and exercising are three of several effective ways to banish belly fat.
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What are the symptoms of a yeast infection in a man? How is it treated?
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Breast cancer screening of women over 50 saves lives, but leads to overtreatment of many more women, an expert group says. For every life saved, the group says, 3 women will be treated for cancers that never would have harmed them. The United Kingdom’s health department and Cancer Research U.K. sponsored the study. The expert panel added together the numbers from 11 prior studies. They concluded that screening of women in their 50s reduces breast cancer deaths by 20%. They looked more closely at 3 studies that randomly divided women into 2 groups. One group was invited to regular screening, and the other group was not. Based on these studies and other information, the expert group estimated overtreatment rates. In the UK, women over 50 are invited to have screening mammograms every 3 years.
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Cigarette smoking robs women of more than 10 years of life, on average, a long-term study of British women has found. But quitting early greatly reduces that risk â up to 97% for women who quit by age 30. The numbers come from the Million Women Study, which started in the late 1990s. Women were 50 to 65 when the study began. Therefore, they were part of the generation of women most likely to smoke. Smoking for women peaked in the 1960s. Women filled out questionnaires when the study began. They showed that 20% were smokers, 28% ex-smokers and 52% had never smoked. Women answered the same questions 3 and 8 years later. During 12 years of follow-up, about 6% of the women died. Women still smoking 3 years after the study began were 3 times as likely to die as women who never smoked.
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Many cancer doctors refer their patients to palliative care only very late in the disease process, a study from Canada shows. The study was based on a survey of 603 oncologists. Most of the doctors practiced in hospitals that had access to palliative care. This is a type of care that focuses on pain relief and the overall well-being of patients and their families. It may include psychological, social and sometimes spiritual care. About one-third of oncologists said they referred patients for this type of care when they found that a cancer had spread. Such cancers often can be treated but not cured. Another one-third of the doctors said they waited to refer to palliative care until chemotherapy was stopped. This often occurred just a few weeks or months from death. Palliative care is designed to benefit patients throughout treatment, not just at the end.
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How well does the drug varenicline work for people who want to stop smoking?
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