Diseases & Conditions Archive

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has issued new recommendations to prevent kidney stones from recurring. The guidelines, published Nov. 4, 2014, in Annals of Internal Medicine, suggest that people who have had a kidney stone increase their fluid intake so that they pass at least 2 liters of urine per day. If that doesn't prevent kidney stone recurrence, the ACP recommends adding medication. ACP doctors also say that dietary changes may help prevent kidney stones, such as maintaining normal calcium levels and reducing dietary sodium, animal proteins, and oxalate (a substance in chocolate, beets, nuts, spinach, and rhubarb). A kidney stone occurs when tiny crystals in urine stick together to form a stone. About 13% of men and 7% of women in the U.S. population will develop a kidney stone during their lifetime. Studies show that the recurrence rate of kidney stones within five years of an initial stone ranges from 35% to 50% without treatment. 

There are several ways to keep your tears flowing and your eyes moistened.

Give it ample time to work before considering surgery.

A review of the best available evidence by the Cochrane Collaboration found no clear difference in safety between two medications used to treat a common form of age-related vision loss. The Cochrane Collaboration consists of doctors, researchers, and patient advocates who conduct independent evaluations of the evidence for or against tests and treatments.

The review focused on bevacizumab (Avastin) and ranibizumab (Lucentis), the drugs used to treat age-related macular degeneration. The disease damages the light-sensitive retina in the back of the eye. Many doctors favor Lucentis, the more expensive option, because some research suggests it is safer.

A study published in the Aug. 14, 2014, New England Journal of Medicine indicates that a high-dose version of the flu vaccine is more effective than the standard dose in preventing the flu for people over 65. The vaccine manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, had been required by the FDA to demonstrate that the high-dose version, which contains four times the dose of immune-stimulating antigens, actually works better than the standard dose.

About 32,000 people over 65 were randomly assigned to get either the standard flu vaccine or the high-dose version. All were asked to report any flulike illness they got over the next few months.

Your risk factors determine whether you should be screened annually or every three years.

Eating tree nuts is associated with reduced risks of heart disease, cancer, and even death. Now a study published in PLoS One on July 30, 2014, suggests that eating more tree nuts may help people with type 2 diabetes lower their blood sugar. After analyzing the results of a dozen studies, researchers concluded that people who ate about half a cup of tree nuts each day (in two servings) had lower fasting blood sugar than people who didn't eat tree nuts. The nuts included cashews, macadamias, hazelnuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts, and pistachios (but not peanuts, which are legumes). How do tree nuts work their magic? Researchers think it may be the unsaturated fats or magnesium in tree nuts, or because the nuts replaced carbohydrates in participants' diets. But be careful about how many tree nuts you eat. They're high in calories and fat (even though it's the healthy fat), and eating too many can make you gain weight—which makes controlling diabetes more difficult.

Most people who are suffer from fecal incontinence do so in silence. As a result, the number of people with the condition — which results in the involuntary release of gas or stool — isn't known. But the scant evidence at hand indicates that it usually begins during one's 40s or 50s.

You don't have to live with incontinence — there are treatment options, which include dietary changes and bowel training regimens, and surgery for some people.

Treating gum disease is associated with lower health care costs for other conditions, finds a report in the August 2014 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Researchers analyzed the dental and health insurance records of about 340,000 people. They observed that among people with certain medical conditions, those who got treatment for gum disease went on to have lower medical costs and fewer hospitalizations in a four-year period, compared with people who didn't get treatment. Among people with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease who had treatment, health care costs were as much as 40% lower than in those who didn't get treated. The treatment was a type of tooth surface cleaning below the gum line called planing and root scaling. Gum disease can result when plaque buildup gets out of hand, causing inflammation below the gum line. The best way to avoid that is to brush twice a day and floss at least once a day, recommends the American Dental Association.

It appears that physicians rarely counsel people about sunscreen use—even people with a history of skin cancer. However, people should wear a broad-spectrum sunscreen before heading outdoors, even in fall or winter.