Pink urine! You can imagine my shock. What could it be? I exercise more than 1½ hours a day. Could it be myoglobin? I put beets in my daily osterizer “shake”: could the color be from the anthocyanins from beets?
I took a urine specimen to the lab, and the color turned out to be from Hemoglobin, the most likely cause all along. There were lots of red blood cells in my urine and the test strip was strongly positive for Hemoglobin. I called a urologist, who said I needed a Urine culture for infection, and a “CT Urogram”, to check for cancer, kidney stones and other problems.
You should always check with your doctor with Hematuria, and I am no exception. My Urology appointment was in 1 week. I got a urine culture, Cell cytology (for cancer), a CT Urogram, and a urine culture before the visit. I wanted to save time by scheduling a Cystoscopy at the time of the first visit, but couldn’t arrange it.
I went for the appointment. They took a blood pressure, but didn’t check my urine, which I thought was negligent. I had been regularly checking my urine for blood by a test strip, and it was negative. The appointment lasted only minutes. My old urologist always checked my urine on every visit, regardless of whether it was a regular check or to consult for a problem. If I were a Urologist, you can be sure I would have my microscope ready, have the nurse collect the urine, spin it down, and put the sediment under the microscope for me to check.
When I was in medical practice as an allergist, I would have my nurse check any sputum the patient produced smeared on a slide, stained and dried. Microscopic examination of urine and sputum takes only seconds and yields lots of information. In my opinion, 50 years of Insurance surveillance and governmental regulations, including restrictions on lab work done in the doctor’s office and Hippa privacy laws, have handicapped Doctors and are partly responsible for the costly, dysfunctional system that is modern medicine.
Sorry for the Sermons. Visible blood in the urine-Gross Hematuria- requires that you see your Doctor and find the cause of that blood. Please see the 2 appended Mayo Clinic articles for more detail.
Colorectal cancer is comprised of colon cancer and rectal cancer, which originate in the lower portion of the large intestine and into the rectum. As with other cancers, screening for early detection should not be delayed. “The vast majority of the time, we don’t know exactly what causes any specific cancer,” says Dr. Jeremy Jones, a Mayo Clinic oncologist. “But there are a number of factors that can increase the risk of developing colon or rectal cancer.” Dr. Jones says one risk factor is increasing age. However, he adds that over the last 30 years younger patients have seen a 50% increased risk of developing colon and rectal cancers. In this Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Dr. Jones talks about risk factors, symptoms, treatment, health care disparities and the latest in colorectal cancer research. ____________________________________________
A bi-weekly podcast on the latest medical, science and telehealth news.
A bi-weekly podcast on the latest medical, science and telehealth news.
Vaccines are about to change the world…again. mRNA Vaccines are currently being used to battle COVID-19, and have the potential to eradicate diseases like HIV, herpes, sickle cell anemia, and even cancer. Learn how the vaccines work and where the technology could be headed in this explainer video.
Observation is a non-surgical approach in which we allow the stone to pass on its own. The smaller the stone, the better the chance that it will pass. The benefit of observation is that you avoid having surgery.
Just two months ago, the incredible performance of new vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer had people cheering for an imminent end to the pandemic. But an onslaught of fast-spreading and potentially dangerous mutations of the virus changed that.
So now, even as pharma companies ramp up production in the early stages of a massive rollout, they are racing to retool their vaccine strategies. Robert Langreth reports that booster shots could give drugmakers a lucrative new revenue stream.
The heart is a hero. It works relentlessly to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the body. But just like all heroes, sometimes it gets tired, and can’t do its job as well. This is called heart failure – the inability for the heart to pump enough blood and oxygen to the lungs and rest of the body. In this video, Northwestern Medicine cardiologists Clyde W. Yancy, MD, MSc and Jane E. Wilcox, MD, MSc explain what heart failure is and the integrated and collaborative approach used to diagnose, stage and treat heart failure at Northwestern Medicine. For more information, visit http://heart.nm.org
Mayo Clinic Division of Preventive Cardiology will be preparing a series of recordings focusing on Cardiovascular Disease states. This is the Exercise Series and this particular one focuses on HIIT and its benefits. Results in physiological adaptations linked to improved health (even with a very small volume of exercise).
Doctors Without Waiting Rooms 