The vaccine for hepatitis B may provide protection longer than previously expected, according to new research. The hepatitis B virus causes inflammation of the liver and can cause complications such as liver scarring or...
What motivated you to do this study on liver cancer? Dr. Thuluvath: Liver cancer is increasing in this country because of what we call the silent epidemic of hepatitis C. It is also due...
The ancient Chinese therapy of acupuncture can help those suffering from arthritis of the knee, according to new research. The study is the largest clinical trial on acupuncture reported to date. More than 20...
How many people have back surgery every year? Dr. Taylor: In the United States, back surgery is performed on 200,000 to 300,000 people per year. What’s really gone up in the past year is...
It is very common. Most of time, people do not even realize they have a problem. They just think the inability to walk is due to arthritis or different things, but it is a...
There’s positive news from a study conducted among people with carpal tunnel syndrome in Spain. Researchers say a non-surgical treatment is just as good as invasive surgery in relieving painful symptoms. The authors explain...
A new study shows narcotic medications can safely and effectively ease severe, chronic pain in patients older than 60. However, patients younger than 50 are likely to want to rapidly increase their dose, which...
Pamidronate is a medication and has been around for many years. It’s a medication for bone loss and was originally given to patients with high levels of calcium in the blood or to patients...
Back Pain is the most common pain disorder in the United States population. There are several hypotheses; the spine is a complex structure. It’s very important for us to stand and walk, so the...
Ankle replacement surgery has lagged behind total hip and total knee replacement surgeries. If you look at the volume of both of those procedures approximately 250,000 total hips are done in the United States...
What is a lipid disorder? It is more than just elevated cholesterol and more than elevated LDL cholesterol. Any abnormality in lipids (fats in the blood) that would increase risk of getting coronary artery...
What three things could a person start doing today that would help prevent the development of high blood pressure? Probably the most important thing is to get salt out of the diet. I wondered...
How much fructose does the average American consume each day? The average fructose consumption is about 37 grams to 40 grams per day. However, in the last three decades, the amount of fructose, from...
Why has the incidence of autism increased? Do you think vaccines relate to this? There really is not a good hypothesis right now to explain that increase. I think many parents have been concerned...
Is there the chance that some of these disorders were completely different disorders and not autism? Yes, because autism is defined completely by behavior at this point. There are hints about the biological causes...
Autism was conceived as a very specific disorder almost always associated with mental retardation, but quite severe. The estimates there were four or five per 10,000 kids, so maybe one in 2,000 kids, had...
Osteoarthritis Also known as osteoarthrosis, degenerative arthritis, and degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis is a gradual wearing down of cartilage – the firm, elastic tissue that connects bones with muscles and protects the joints. This...
Osteoporosis is a skeletal disease in which bones gradually lose mass, become less dense, and weaken over time. This increases the risk for bone fractures, which can impair mobility or lead to severe consequences...
Osteoporosis Vitamin D deficiency can contribute to the development of osteoporosis. A 2006 multinational study of 2,600 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis found that 64 percent of the participants had insufficient blood levels of vitamin...