Healthy Living

Surgery to Avoid #3: Angioplasty

February 25, 2008

by Curt Pesmen
The third of 5 operations you don’t want to get—and what to do instead.

Every year in the United States, surgeons perform 1.2 million angioplasties, during which a cardiologist uses tiny balloons and implanted wire cages (stents) to unclog arteries. This Roto-Rooter-type approach is less invasive and has a shorter recovery period than bypass, which is open-heart surgery. The problem: A groundbreaking study of more than 2,000 heart patients, just released this year at a cardiology conference and in The New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that a completely nonsurgical method—heart medication—was just as beneficial as angioplasty and stents in keeping arteries open in many patients. The bottom line: Angioplasty did not appear to prevent heart attacks or save lives among nonemergency heart subjects in the study.

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Treatment Options for Hypothyroidism

February 25, 2008

There is no one-size-fits-all treatment for hypothyroidism. It may take a few trips to the doctor to get the right remedy, and over time, your prescribed medication may change. Here’s a brief look at the possibilities:

Synthetic hormones.
Most people with hypothyroidism first receive a synthetic thyroid hormone known as levothyroxine; the brand names are Synthroid, Levoxyl, Unithroid, and Levothroid. This medication often gets you back to normal within weeks. And you’ll take it for the rest of your life. But it doesn’t work for everyone. Read More


The New Diet Pills

April 1, 2007
From Health Magazine

Karen Mullin had always been able to eat what she wanted with no worries of packing on pounds—until she began battling “middle age spread” last year at age 44. Despite eating right and exercising, the scale wouldn’t budge. Frustrated, Mullin took Ritalin, a drug used to treat attention def-icit hyperactivity disorder, “borrowing” it from a friend. One of its side effects is weight loss, making it a popular diet drug for everyone from soccer moms to starlets. “You hear about how some drugs like Ritalin can just melt the pounds off,” she says, “so you figure why not?” Read More



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