Lyme Disease Less Rare Than Previously Thought In The South

The Aiken Standard hit it on the head. Lyme disease is far more prevalent in the South than is reported. This op-ed explores all sides of the complicated issue revolving around Lyme disease and it's treatment.

Lyme disease in the South may not be nearly as rare as reported case numbers lead us to believe. In fact, scientists such as Georgia Southern’s world-renowned tick expert Dr. Jim Oliver and colleagues have documented more species and strains of Lyme disease-causing bacteria, (Borrelia burgdorferi) in the southeastern United States than in any other region of the country.

Diagnosing Prostate Cancer for Profits

It seems doctors that purchase expensive equipment are more likely to use it, even if it doesn't actually seem necessary. This hurts patients, obviously and is just one more example of how modern medicine is profit-driven. According to Bloomberg:

A study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that profits urologists make from referring patients to their own radiation facilities play an outsized role in the treatment decisions. One third of men whose doctors own radiation equipment get the therapy at a cost of about $35,000 per treatment course. The same doctors prescribed the therapy for just 13 percent of their patients before they had their own equipment and could profit directly.

Traditional Herbal Medicines That You Need To Know! [Infographic]

This fascinating infographic (available after the break) demonstrates many of the powerful benefits of traditional herbal medicines.

Hair Loss on Famous Figures [Infographic]

This infographic (available after the break) shows some very interesting facts about hair loss, including debunking some myths and showing how celebrities do it. As anyone will tell you, hair loss has a lot to do with nutrition. More after the jump.

Maine Legislature Passes Landmark Bill on Alternative Lyme Disease Treatments

Good news comes to Lyme disease patients living in New England -- the legislature of Maine has passed a bill that gives way more options to patients suffering from the disease. As The Global Dispatch reports:

A Lyme disease bill, which would require the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to link to alternative treatments for the bacterial disease, passed both houses of the Maine legislature this week and now goes to the desk of Gov. Paul LePage.

The bill, LD 597, directs the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to include on its publicly accessible website information about different alternatives for the treatment of Lyme disease. The bill also requires the center to include information about treatment guidelines recommended by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, which represents physicians, scientists and other health care professionals who specialize in infectious diseases.

The Maine CDC currently only links to the IDSA website, an organization where many physicians go to for treatment guidelines, which don’t recognize chronic Lyme as a condition or support long-term antibiotic treatment for the disease.

The original bill sponsored by Rep. Sheryl Briggs, D-Mexico went a step further saying:  A negative result for a Lyme disease test does not necessarily mean that Lyme disease is not present and if symptoms continue, the patient should contact a health care provider and inquire about the appropriateness of retesting or additional treatment. However, Briggs amended bill ended up requiring the health care provider to give a patient a copy of the results of a Lyme disease test.

Read more here.

Long-Term Benefits of Fitness Fight Cancer

Get off your butt! It could
just save your life!

According to a new report by NBC, fitness is vital to your long-term health. Great, we already knew that. But the protection from cancer that you receive can last up to 20 years down the road, just like we at Envita Medical Clinics have been saying for a long time. Need more reasons to get off the couch? Check out an excerpt of the article below:

Fitness can protect you from cancer -- even 20 or more years down the road, researchers report. And men who were the most fit in middle age were the least likely to die a quarter century later even if they were unlucky enough to get cancer, a new study finds.

Men who were the most fit at age 50 back in the 1970s were the least likely to develop lung or colon cancer 20 to 25 years later, the study, which will be presented next month at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, found. And among the men who did get lung, colon or prostate cancer, the fitter they were in their early 50s, the less likely they were to die of it.

This is good news for people who want to lower their risk of not only heart disease but cancer, says Dr. Susan Lakoski of the University of Vermont, who led the study. She’s a cardiologist who studies fitness and its effect on disease.

“Two things you can’t change are your genes and your age,’ she said. “But you can get more fit.”

Lakoski studied data on more than 17,000 men who attended the Cooper Institute in Dallas. Dr. Kenneth Cooper, who coined the word “aerobics”, founded the research institute in 1970. The men all took fitness tests on their first visits to the institute, and the institute later acquired their medical records.

Read more here.

BBC Agrees with Envita Medical Center -- Nutrition is Incredibly Important in Cancer Treatment

Nutrition: The Overlooked Ingredient in Cancer Treatment

The BBC is reporting what we at Envita Medical Center have been saying for decades -- nutrition is one of the most important aspects of fighting cancer and winning. If more people only knew this important aspect, then maybe this fight against cancer would be even more winnable. Read an excerpt below:

Thousands of scientific papers have been published on the link between diet and the treatment and prevention of cancer. But in practice food is still considered a marginal aspect of cancer care.

I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma (MM), a cancer of the bone marrow, in December 2011.

At every chemo session I was offered a white bread sandwich, a fizzy drink, and a chocolate bar or packet of biscuits.

Nurses told me that there was no point in worrying about what I ate. "Worrying" is not what I or any other patient wants to do. 

We want to know what will help us get through treatment in the best way possible, and what, if anything, might keep a recurrence at bay - and that includes how diet may help. 

We do not want to feel like a helpless pawn in a big and overwhelming system. 

But unless you are very lucky, you will not be told about any of the latest food-related research when you enter the parallel universe that is cancer treatment. 

Read more here.