Risks factors for developing this type of cancer include environmental exposures like smoking, high blood pressure, a history of kidney failure, obesity, or not having a healthy weight. And there are also hereditary syndromes that may your risk for kidney cancer.
Dr. Thai Ho, a Mayo Clinic oncologist who specializes in genitourinary malignancies, says there are no screening tests specifically for kidney cancer. When it is discovered early, it’s usually from an imaging test for another issue.
This work laid the foundation for everything we know about T cells today, including how they become activated to fight infections and how they form memory populations that provide long-lasting immunity.
Learn more about T cells here http://www.nature.com/collections/t-c…
What if those people could be treated with medication that could slow the progression of their disease, and help avoid the need for dialysis and kidney transplantation altogether?
Dr. Naim Issa, a Mayo Clinic transplant nephrologist says there is a class of medications to help people with chronic kidney disease that does just that. He says Mayo Clinic has been incorporating these medications to help patients for the last few years.
March 9 is World Kidney Day, a day aimed at raising awareness about the importance of the kidneys.
Pneumonia is an infection that inflames the air sacs in one or both lungs. The air sacs may fill with fluid or pus (purulent material), causing cough with phlegm or pus, fever, chills, and difficulty breathing. A variety of organisms, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, can cause pneumonia.
The signs and symptoms of pneumonia vary from mild to severe, depending on factors such as the type of germ causing the infection, and your age and overall health. Mild signs and symptoms often are similar to those of a cold or flu, but they last longer.
Signs and symptoms of pneumonia may include:
Newborns and infants may not show any sign of the infection. Or they may vomit, have a fever and cough, appear restless or tired and without energy, or have difficulty breathing and eating.
See your doctor if you have difficulty breathing, chest pain, persistent fever of 102 F (39 C) or higher, or persistent cough, especially if you’re coughing up pus.
It’s especially important that people in these high-risk groups see a doctor:
For some older adults and people with heart failure or chronic lung problems, pneumonia can quickly become a life-threatening condition.
Video timeline: 0:00 Start 0:01 #1.What is the difference between dementia risk genes and rare familial genes? 1:05 #2.Which genes are tested for? 1:45 #3.What happens in families with directly inherit dementia? 3:20 #4.What are the common misconceptions? 4:14 #5.Do I need to know which gene runs in my family? 9:50 #6.How do I get a genetic test for dementia? 11:09 #7.What if my doctor won’t refer me for the test? 11:56 #8.Will getting my results affect my life insurance or mortgage?
Having a test to look for a faulty gene that causes dementia is only appropriate for a very small number of people. This is because only around one in 100 cases of dementia are directly inherited. In these cases, there is an obvious pattern of a parent passing it on to their child (or children) throughout every generation of a family, often developing symptoms in their 40s and 50s.
The study investigated airway mucus and mucins in COVID-19 autopsy lungs and showed that both were elevated due to infection, especially during subacute and chronic stages of the disease.
Read more here: https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.11…
“Many health conditions have a genetic link,” says Breanna Mitchell, a genetic counselor at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire. “Genetic testing can help you and your health care team understand if you have an increased risk for developing certain conditions that are present in your family. If you are at risk, you may be able to take preventive measures to decrease your risk or undergo genetic testing to clarify your risk.”
Here are nine common questions about genetic testing:
Most cancers are considered sporadic, meaning the cancer happens randomly or has environmental influences, such as smoking and lung cancer. About 25% of cancers are considered familial. This is when multiple members of a family are affected by cancer. These family members have some shared genetic factors in combination with shared environmental factors that lead to the development of these cancers.
“About 10% of cancers are considered hereditary or have a single specific genetic component that can be tested and increase a person’s risk for developing cancer,” Mitchell says. “Genetic counseling and genetic testing can help determine which category a person’s individual or family cancer falls into. It also can help estimate your risk for developing cancer.”
You may have an increased risk for some health conditions, including some types of cancer, based on your genes. A genetic test looks for specific harmful gene changes, called mutations or pathogenic variants, that can cause you to develop a genetic condition. Gene changes are like spelling errors within your body’s instruction manual.
Most genetic tests look for changes in a group of genes called a panel. However, testing may look for changes in a single gene when there is a known genetic mutation in your family. The most common genes typically thought of related to cancer risk are BRCA1 and BRAC2. These genes are associated with breast and ovarian cancer. It’s known that changes in other genes can increase risk for these cancers, as well.
There also are gene panels that assess risk for other cancers, such as colorectal, pancreatic, prostate, liver, uterine and endometrial cancers.
There are three general types of large molecules of which our body is composed. There are PROTEINS, essential components of the Nanomachines that power of our bodies, the CARBOHYDRATES which can form structures, as well as provide and store nutrients, and LIPIDS, which can function as a storehouse of nutrients.
Lipids, unlike carbohydrates and proteins, are essentially nonpolar, that is they have no profusion of charged molecules. The main characteristic of lipids is that they do not dissolve in water, thereby allowing for domains and structures to develop in the cell and beyond.
Cholesterol is a lipid that is essential to our cell membranes, and therefore to life. As people get older, however, cholesterol tends to accumulate and get stored in unwanted places, such as under the lining membranes of blood vessels. In this location, they can cause blockages that threaten the very life for which they are essential.
All of the lipids measured in the comprehensive lipid panel measure lipids in different forms that have different functions and significance in the body. The only one of the lipids that is almost always good, or at least neutral, is the high density lipoprotein, the HDL. The level of this lipoprotein is under genetic control and is increased by EXERCISE and FISH OIL, among other things.
“Good Genes”, healthy diet and exercise will help keep down the bad lipids, especially the LDL, and elevate the main good lipid , HDL.
Coronary artery disease and strokes are the main killers in mid and into later life, and are therefore very important to control. Many people do not seem to have the self-discipline that healthy diet and exercise requires. Fortunately, we have a miracle drug. the HMG- CoA inhibitors, the “statin” drugs, which most people tolerate without the muscle pain and myolysis side effect.
I have taken the statin drugs for years, ever since I discovered my cholesterol was 220, above the optimal level. Fearful of muscle effects, since I am a heavy exerciser, I started out on 1/2 of the lowest dose, 2.5 mg., of Rosuvastatin. This amazingly took my cholesterol level all the way down to 180, and my LDL down below 100, a powerful medication indeed.
My most recent Lipid panel results are below:
Result value. Ref. Range
Triglycerides. 51 mg./dL. <150 mg./dL
Cholesterol. 186 mg./dL. <200 mg./dL
HDL. 90 mg./dL. > 60 mg./dL
LDL direct. 95 mg./dL. <100 mg./dL.
The authorities have lowered the normal range a couple of times during my lifetime. It is true that even lower values than mine show ever more benefit.
It is best to keep your lipids under control with diet and exercise, so stay healthy!
—Dr. C.
A weekly podcast on the latest medical, science and telehealth news.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. It is more common in women than in men, with incidence increasing sharply around the age of 50.
January 30, 2023 – And it can cause complications – including the inability to perform activities of daily living and spinal stenosis in cervical and lumbar osteoarthritis.
So it is vital that we get the diagnosis and management of this condition right. In this BMJ Best Practice podcast on osteoarthritis, Kieran Walsh talks to Fadi Badlissi, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Musculoskeletal Medicine Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Doctors Without Waiting Rooms 