Medical News May 20th, 2008
Google Health Service Is Finally Here
The internet search giant Google Inc. has finally launched its long-awaited Google Health (google.com/health), a product that will enable users to upload and store medical records from many sources and get relevant health information.
The announcement, made on Monday, expands upon Google’s initial notice in February, according to which the company had teamed up with the Cleveland Clinic to test the service with about 10,000 patients who already use the hospital’s online health records system.
According to Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president, patients can upload medical records from organizations, enter their own data and create their own profile, search for viable information on health conditions or ask for a second opinion on their diagnosis.
From the very beginning, a key concern of this new product involved privacy over user’s sensitive information. A series of privacy watchdog groups believe that Google already knows too much about the interests and habits of its users as its computers log their request and store their e-mail discussions.
Sleep Apnea Puts People at Risk for Heart Trouble while Flying
People suffering from obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to experience higher psychological stress and therefore heart problems during air travel, new research shows.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep. Actually, the Greek world “apnea” literally means “without.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, sleep apnea is very common, affecting more than twelve million Americans. Risk factors include being male, overweight and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children. Worrisome is the fact that around 80 percent of men and 93 percent of women with sleep apnea are unaware they have this disorder, despite the fact that it can have significant consequences.
Untreated, sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency, and headaches.
Sex problems ‘may be heart alert’
Men with diabetes who are having trouble keeping an erection could be at increased risk of serious heart problems, suggests a study.
Those with erectile dysfunction were twice as likely as other men with diabetes to develop heart disease.
The root cause of both can be blood vessel damage caused by high blood sugar levels, the Chinese University of Hong Kong said.
Experts said men with erectile dysfunction should see their doctor.
The Journal of the American College of Cardiology reported that researchers wanted to see if erectile dysfunction could be a reliable independent warning signal for doctors that further problems were on the way.
San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland ranked third best in women’s heart health
A report released Monday by the American Heart Association indicates that women may be wise to follow in the footsteps of Tony Bennett and leave their hearts in San Francisco.
The study ranked the San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland metropolitan area third best among the largest 38 metropolitan areas for women’s heart health. Rankings were determined by heart-friendly benefits in the city and personal choices of the city’s residents.
According to the study, the Bay Area had lowest body mass index and the best score for healthy eating among large metropolitan areas.
The Bay Area also received some of the best scores for regular exercise, commuting by bicycle or walking, cigarette smoking and diabetes, according to the study.
NIH to study diseases that elude diagnosis
Government researchers plan to study baffling diseases that defy diagnosis as part of a new research program that could give insight into conditions both rare and common, they said on Monday.
The cross-specialty program at the National Institutes of Health will focus on the medical cases have stumped doctors, and will start taking the first patients in July.
“More and more we are seeing new manifestations of diseases, new causes of disease and diseases that are completely not understood at this point,” NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni said in a telephone briefing.
Study finds that shingles runs in families
Shingles tends to run in families, indicating these people may have an increased genetic susceptibility to the viral disease marked by a painful, blistering rash, researchers said on Monday.
The researchers looked at 1,027 people treated at a clinic in Houston between 1992 and 2005, half of whom had shingles and the other half had skin conditions other than shingles.
Those with shingles were about four times as likely as the others to have had a close family member with the disease. In all, 39.3 percent of the shingles patients had such a relative, compared to 10.5 percent of the other patients.
Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is caused by the same varicella-zoster virus responsible for the common childhood illness chicken pox. After a person has had chicken pox, the virus stays dormant in the body, but years later can reactivate in spinal nerves and cause shingles.
It’s West Nile season, and a bird’s got your back
It’s too soon to tell whether Utah’s wet spring will mean an increased number of West Nile virus cases this summer - but the state’s sentinel chickens are soon to be on the lookout.
The chickens, which serve as early indicators of virus activity, were distributed Monday to mosquito abatement departments. About 14 agencies picked up a total of 450 of the birds in Provo, and will place them throughout the state.
The chickens will be tested within the next week to make sure they are free of the virus. They will begin undergoing weekly testing in about five weeks.
The virus is transmitted by infected mosquitoes. If the virus is detected, health officials will notify the public, set up traps to capture mosquitoes and begin spraying insecticide in that area.
Firefighters May Face Higher Risk of Bladder Cancer
Firefighters may be at increased risk for bladder cancer and should be considered for routine annual screening, say University of California, San Francisco, researchers.
The team tested 1,286 active and retired San Francisco firefighters, whose mean age was 45, and found that 93 tested positive for blood in the urine (hematuria), and six tested positive for nuclear matrix protein 22 (NMP-22), which is released by bladder cancer cells. Those 99 patients were referred for upper tract imaging, cystoscopy and urine cytology.
