• Introduction
• Feature Article

   -Risky Behavior

  -Taking Medications Safely

• Featured Videos

  - Weight loss w/Video

• Articles of the Month

   - Erectile Dysfunction w/Video

   - Proscar and Prostate
• Feedback from visitors

• Questions, Answers, Notes

• Health Links

• Health Article Archive

Prescription medications save lives and help improve the quality of life for many people. But medicines can also pose a danger when they are not used correctly.

Prescription drug errors are a major problem and potentially touch the lives of all Americans. By one estimate, there are about a quarter of a million medication errors committed per year in the outpatient setting alone.

Errors can be relatively insignificant: minor side effects that a patient wasn't warned about. Or more serious: A patient may end up taking the wrong medication, or the wrong dose, or no medicine at all.

The biggest cause of prescription drug errors, is a lack of communication. And that's a lack of communication between physicians and nurses, physicians and patients and families, patients and families and patients and nurses.

That's why experts say: Ask lots of questions. It's the first item on a medicine safety checklist prepared by the US government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Many people are reluctant to ask questions, because it's very, very clear that doctors and all healthcare professionals are very pressed for time these days. Oftentimes, people, think of a question after they leave, and then it's not really clear who to call.

Often doctors don't know all the medicines a patient is taking. So the second item on the safety checklist is: Bring them in.

Watch the Video here!

Obesity is one of the biggest health crises today, with nearly two-thirds of the American population now classified as overweight or obese.              

Obesity is recognized as a leading health problem and a major cause of death in the United States.

Obesity is a major medical problem because it causes life-threatening illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, and it shortens people’s lives by up to 20 years.

Additionally, obesity can impact a person both psychologically and socially, with depression being the most common symptom. But, obesity can also take an economic toll.

There’s studies that have shown that these people spend almost twice as much as a person that is not obese. Why is that? Because they have to pay the co-pay of their medicines, the visits to the doctors. And just simplistically, the clothing, the difficulty of doing some of the traveling arrangements, many other things will increase their spending.

Although there are non-surgical weight loss methods such as diet and exercise programs, as well as medical treatments, they typically result in minor weight loss and are highly unsuccessful at maintaining any weight loss long term.

On average, you can lose about five to ten percent of your excess weight. The majority of the patients in studies show they can lose about 20 pounds. The problem with those programs is that they have a high failure rate in the long term. What happens is, 95% of the patients, if you follow them for three and four years, will regain that weight that they lost, and they gain a little bit more.

By contrast, surgical weight loss has a much higher success rate both in terms of amount of weight lost and long-term durability.

Weight loss surgery is done for permanent weight loss, and good weight loss surgery has at least ten year success rates of losing more than 50%, more than 60% of a person’s excess weight and maintaining it.

The fact is, for 98% of individuals out there who are morbidly obese, they will never lose any significant weight and never keep that weight off without surgery. And that's a fact that's been proven over and over.

For obese people who meet specific qualifications, surgery can provide a solution to weight loss troubles. Learn what role these procedures can play in improving health and in helping achieve successful weight loss.

Watch Information Video here!

ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION

If you're a sexually active man, the idea of losing your ability to have intercourse may be hard to imagine. But erectile dysfunction (ED) affects millions of men. What are the causes of this widespread condition? How do you know if you have erectile dysfunction -- and whether the cause is biological or psychological? Join our panel of experts and patients for a candid discussion of this sensitive issue.

When we talk about the fifteen million men with erectile dysfunction, a lot of these patients have a physical cause. The physical causes have to do with the vascular system, with blood flow -- insufficient blood flow going to the penis. It has to do with high blood cholesterol levels, diabetes, high blood pressure --


To learn more watch the informational video below from Sciencedaily.com

Erectile Dysfunction Video

PROSCAR LOWERS PROSTATE CANCER RISK

Finasteride (Proscar) reduces the risk of prostate cancer in all men, regardless of their risk level for the disease, new research shows.

In the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, finasteride treatment cut the risk of prostate cancer by 25 percent. Whether this was because the drug prevented the cancer from forming or because it effectively treated early disease was unclear, Dr. Ian M. Thompson, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and colleagues note.

The new findings, reported in the journal Urology, suggest that the drug has both effects.

In a re-analysis of data from the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, Thompson and co-researchers stratified 10,181 participants into five groups based on their prostate cancer risk, as determined using standard criteria.

At study entry, the men were also grouped according to PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels, a common blood test in which increased levels may suggest the presence of prostate cancer.

Treatment with finasteride reduced the risk of prostate cancer for all five risk groups, including men with the lowest and those with the highest risk for prostate cancer.

Finasteride treatment also lowered the risk of prostate cancer regardless of the PSA level. However, the researchers found that the benefits of the drug decreased slightly as PSA levels rose.

Although this study began with the objective of evaluating the prevention versus treatment hypothesis, "the results speak to the clinical use of finasteride for reducing a man's risk of a prostate cancer diagnosis," the investigators conclude.

Thompson's team stresses that "all men undergoing PSA screening should be informed of the potential for finasteride to reduce their risk of prostate cancer."

SOURCE: Urology, May 2008.

Special Notes:

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Question from Mike D., Detroit, MI

Is exercise really all that important?  I mean I'm on my feet all day at work, isn't that enough?  I'm tired when I get home and just want to hit the chair and watch TV!

Standing at work and actually making your heart pump are two entirely different activities.  Mike, research has shown that exercise cuts Cancer deaths in men and women.  Many men and women feel the same way you do, however it is a known fact that men and women who exercise often are less likely to die from cancer than those who don’t exercise.  Although there are many tests dedicated to proving this to you, let's take the latest that deals directly with men. In this latest Swedish medical university study, the researchers looked at the effect of physical activity and cancer risk in 40,708 men aged between 45 and 79.

Over the seven year period of the study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, 3,714 men developed cancer and 1,153 died from the disease. Men who walked or cycled for at least 30 minutes a day had an increased survival from cancer with 33 per cent, than the men who exercised less or did nothing at all. The researchers also found that a more extensive program of walking and cycling for between 60 and 90 minutes and a day, led to a l6 per cent lower incidence of cancer. But these activities only led to a five per cent reduction in cancer rates among the men who walked or cycled for 30 minutes day, a finding which could be due to chance.

The researchers surveyed men from two counties in central Sweden about their lifestyle and the amount of physical activity they did. They then scored these responses and compared the results with data officially recorded in a central cancer registry over a seven year period.

These results show for the first time, the affect that daily exercise has in reducing cancer death risk in men aged between 45 and 79.  They also looked at more moderate exercise such as housework, undertaken over a longer period of time and found that this also reduced men’s chances of dying from the disease.

You don't say whether you are overweight in your letter, but Mike, whether you take the dog for a walk before and/or after work and breathe in the fresh exhilarating air outside the office cubicle for an hour, or help your wife by doing the vacuuming, chances are you will live a great deal longer then sitting in that chair as soon as you get home until it's time for bed.

Thank you for staying up to date with articles about Erectile Dysfunction.  It helps to watch the videos and know that there are options, and better yet, many reasons why each man may have erectile dysfunction.  In other words...all erectile dysfunction is not created equal.  I appreciate you researching to find the best articles and showing us some of these great sites to come back and revisit and learn more.  Also, I checked your page above for XL Medications and was very impressed with the prices.  I have my news reader pointed to your rss feed. - Paul S., Chicago, Ill.

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