Opinion | ‘Don’t Let Me Die in Pain,’ My Patient Pleaded
I still recall the look on my patient’s face and her words 2 years later. “I am done with this life,” she told me. “Don’t let me die in pain,” she added as she folded her hands to physically plead with me. I simply cannot convey in words how painful it was to witness the […]
Balancing protein in your diet could improve water quality: Eating too much protein adds to nitrogen pollution in US waters
Balancing how much protein you eat with the amount your body needs could reduce nitrogen releases to aquatic systems in the U.S. by 12% and overall nitrogen losses to air and water by 4%, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. Protein consumption in the United States, from both plant and animal […]
Electroacupuncture Points to Improvements in Depression-Related Insomnia
Electroacupuncture added to standard care improved sleep quality in people with depression-related insomnia, a randomized clinical trial showed. At 8 weeks, a -6.2 point change (95% CI -6.9 to -5.6) from baseline in Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores was seen in people with depression and insomnia who received electroacupuncture, reported Shifen Xu, PhD, of […]
The Symptom Of Anxiety And Panic Attacks We Don’t Talk About Enough
If you deal with anxiety, you may be familiar with the draining sensation that comes after an anxiety or panic attack. There’s the brain fog and the sluggishness. It can feel harder to focus, you may be less alert and your body might ache. During an anxiety or panic attack, the body experiences a range […]
Fewer Complications With Robotic Nephrectomy in Complex Kidney Tumors
Robotic-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) led to a lower rate of complications compared with open partial nephrectomy (OPN) in patients with intermediate- or high-complexity kidney tumors, the randomized OpeRa trial found. Among over 200 patients, 36.6% of those who underwent RAPN had a postoperative complication of any kind within 30 days — the trial’s primary endpoint […]
Whopping Mortality Benefit in Severe COVID Trial
Treatment with a novel, oral microtubule disruptor significantly reduced the risk of death in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with severe disease, an interim analysis of a phase III study indicated. Mortality at 60 days, the international trial’s primary endpoint, was more than halved in the group assigned to investigational sabizabulin versus those randomized to placebo (20.2% […]
CEND-1 Offers Hope in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
Chemotherapy combined with the CEND-1 cyclic peptide showed promising efficacy, and was well tolerated as a first-line treatment, for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, researchers reported. In a phase I study of 29 patients evaluable for efficacy, 59% (95% CI 39-77) responded to the combination of CEND-1 — a novel 9-amino acid cyclic peptide that […]
Thyroid problems linked to increased risk of dementia
Older people with hypothyroidism, also called underactive thyroid, may be at increased risk of developing dementia, according to a study published in the July 6, 2022, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The risk of developing dementia was even higher for people whose thyroid condition required thyroid hormone […]
Methenamine Hippurate Could Be Alternative Treatment for Recurrent UTI
The urinary antiseptic methenamine hippurate (Hiprex) was non-inferior to antibiotic prophylaxis in women with a history of recurrent urinary tract infections (UTI), according to results from the ALTAR trial. Over the course of 12 months, the incidence of antibiotic-treated UTI was 0.89 and 1.38 episodes per year in patients treated with prophylactic antibiotics or methenamine […]
ADHD Drugs May Treat Alzheimer’s Cognitive Symptoms Effectively
Drugs with principally noradrenergic action — including ones prescribed for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or to treat hypertension or depression — may effectively treat cognitive symptoms and apathy in Alzheimer’s disease, a systematic review and meta-analysis suggested. Noradrenergic drugs showed a significant small positive effect on global cognition with a standardized mean difference (SMD) of […]