Diseases & Conditions Archive

Strategies to combat that constant ringing in your ears.

Do you hear a constant ringing in your ears? You may be among the millions of Americans living with tinnitus, a sound that may annoy you or even interfere with daily living. "While most patients are aware of their tinnitus without a negative impact on their overall quality of life, I do have patients who can't concentrate at work or sleep at night because they're always hearing their tinnitus," says Dr. Felipe Santos, an otolaryngologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and an instructor at Harvard Medical School.

Simple procedures can eliminate the condition.

Varicose veins are more than just unsightly. They raise your risk of skin ulcers and superficial blood clots if left untreated. Fortunately, there have been some real breakthroughs in treatment in recent years. "Treatment used to be very involved, requiring general anesthesia and a trip to the operating room, but now it's just an office procedure," says Dr. Sherry Scovell, a vascular surgeon and instructor in surgery at Harvard Medical School.

People with higher-than-normal blood glucose levels but who do not have diabetes—a condition known as prediabetes—may be at a higher risk of stroke. A diagnosis of prediabetes should sound a warning to better manage weight, diet, and exercise, which may contribute to diabetes and stroke.

Improved prevention efforts and protective behaviors (like not smoking) have reduced eye health problems faced by older adults by 23% since 1984.

Q. I'm 76 and I have had three normal colonoscopies for routine colorectal cancer screening. Am I done now?

A. Recommendations for screening tests like colonoscopy usually state an age to start being screened, but when to stop is more of a gray area. Whether to continue screening depends on your overall health and how likely it is that you are still at risk for the disease. Remember, screening tests are performed to look for a problem years before it would likely appear. Colonoscopy, for example, detects the precancerous polyps that appear many years before the polyps turn into cancer.

New treatments promise high cure rates with fewer side effects. But carefully consider the pros and cons of testing.

If you are a baby boomer born between 1945 and 1965, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) thinks you should be tested for infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Boomers are five times more likely than other adults to have HCV. The virus can reside silently in the liver for decades, where in a minority of people it may progress to fatal liver failure or cancer.

Injection therapy (also known as viscosupplementation) offers little relief from painful knee osteoarthritis, according to a recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The therapy involves injections of hyaluronic acid, a substance found in joint fluid, to add cushioning in the knee joint and ease symptoms of "wear and tear" osteoarthritis.

Researchers pooled the findings of 89 studies of the injections, involving 12,667 people with knee arthritis. They calculated the overall effect on pain, painful "flare ups," and knee function. The analysis revealed minor improvements in pain and joint function, but noted a small increase in side effects from the injections, such as sudden pain, feeling of warmth, and swelling of the treated joint.

Research finds DHA may help preserve your vision.

The omega-3 fatty acid known as DHA is touted for its many health benefits, and vision protection may be one of them. A new study published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science found that DHA, one of three forms of omega-3 fatty acids and the substance that makes up about 30% of brain matter, prevented age-related vision loss in lab mice. DHA is considered the most complex form of omega-3, but is among the most difficult to consume in sufficient amounts because it is contained in so few food sources.

Dr. Ann Bajart, a corneal specialist and clinical instructor in ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, says the vision study likely applies to humans.

A topical supplement may help your treatment.

Fighting psoriasis, a condition characterized by patches of irritated, flaky skin that usually appear on the elbows and knees and across the trunk, is difficult throughout the year, especially in winter. New research may help explain why. Scientists in Italy found that people with psoriasis also suffer from vitamin D deficiency.

"We speculated that vitamin D might be low in psoriasis patients, but this is the first good study that substantiates it," says Dr. Suzanne Olbricht, an associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School.