If you knew you were dying, what would you do with the time you had left? For Debbie Whitmore, a young mother diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, the answer was simple: spend quality time, including a trip to Disney World, with her husband and four children. Debbie and her family share their story in […]
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CancerNews
“It’s Very Hard to Come to the Realization That You’re Dying”
by explainingmedicine June 10, 2016Doctors who need to break the worst possible news to patients don’t just have to overcome their own discomfort about talking about death. They must also overcome the fact that some patients and loved ones aren’t prepared to accept the news. “Frequently, as an emergency surgeon, I’m meeting somebody for the first time and they […]
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Allen Chou was just 27 when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. His girlfriend, Linda Sim, was 25. We usually think of death and dying as problems for the elderly. Usually, when a couple needs to make decisions about how to spend their last days together, they are late in life and can look back on […]
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CancerNews
Podcast: The Long Tail, the Lottery and “Being Mortal”
by explainingmedicine June 10, 2016When famed evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould was diagnosed with abdominal mesotheliaoma, a rare form of cancer, in 1982, he examined the research on survival rates. What Gould found wasn’t encouraging: median survival after receiving this particular diagnosis was only about eight months. But, as Gould wrote in a now-famous essay, he found hope in […]
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CancerDiabetesHeartMedicationsNews
When Transgender Kids Transition, Medical Risks are Both Known and Unknown
by PBS June 10, 2016The last couple of years have seen burgeoning awareness in society of what it means to be transgender as an adult. But now doctors, like those at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, are helping children who identify as transgender negotiate their journey into adulthood. For earlier generations of transgender people, the […]
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<!– Video title –> Fish oil is the third most widely used supplement in the United States, with around 10 percent of Americans taking it regularly — often for the perceived benefit to cardiovascular health. But there are two big problems when it comes to fish oil: Researchers still cannot definitely say whether it actually lowers […]
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AllergiesHeartMedicationsNews
Five Questions To Ask When Considering Health Supplements
by PBS June 10, 2016Compared to most drugs sold at pharmacies, health supplements are loosely regulated by government agencies. Law prohibits manufacturers from selling products that are adulterated or mislabeled, and they cannot claim to cure things they don’t. But there is little oversight or enforcement to ensure they comply. And unlike prescription drugs, which pass through a strict premarket […]
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CancerMedicationsNews
Big Pharma Calls for New Incentives to Fight “Superbugs”
by explainingmedicine June 10, 2016SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Hospital scientist Joanne Thambyah (L) inspects an unidentified culture (C) in the Microbiology Department of Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital, 07 June 2004. A young man who died in the intensive care unit of the Royal Brisbane Hospital, in the northern state of Brisbane last year, has been identified as the first victim […]