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| | Fight off fractures with new
bone!
Until now, all medications for osteoporosis—Fosamax,
Actonel, Evista, and hormone replacement therapy—worked by
slowing down bone loss. Now a new drug, Forteo (teriparatide),
stimulates the growth of new bone, giving both bone mass and bone
strength a welcome boost.
In clinical trials, women who took Forteo for 19 months had a
65% lower risk of new vertebral fractures and a 53% lower risk of
new nonvertebral fractures. It also increases bone mineral
density in men, although the effect on fracture risk in men has
not been studied. Given once a day by self-administered
injection, this promising new drug is recommended for people with
osteoporosis who are high risk for fractures.
| | | Different
Strokes
Men and women experience stroke symptoms
differently. While men report changes in sensation, balance
problems, and motor skill impairment, women more commonly report
headaches, disorientation, and pain the face or limbs.
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Women and
Smoking Women smokers are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men
who smoke, based on data collected from nearly 3,000 men and
women aged 40 and older who were current or former smokers for 10
years. While the reason is unknown, it's yet another good reason
to stop.
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The Pap
Gap
The Pap test for cervical cancer has become a
routine part of most women's annual checkups. But new guidelines
issued by the American Cancer Society suggest that certain groups
of women can safely forego it.
The test is not perfect. Each year, at least
2 million women have an abnormal finding. Large numbers of women
are subjected to the cost, inconvenience and emotional stress of
follow-up testing, which turns out to have been unnecessary.
According to new guidelines, healthy women 30
or over who have had negative results on three consecutive annual
Pap tests can safely switch to 2- or 3-year intervals. At age 70,
women can stop the Pap tests altogether if they've had at least 3
normal Pap smears and no abnormal Pap test results for the
previous 10 years.
Of course, high-risk women (such as those
with HIV or a history of high-grade cervical lesions) should be
screened annually. And any woman who has had a hysterectomy
because of cervical cancer, or whose cervix was left intact,
should continue screening to at least 70.
| | | Soy and Cholesterol
Women who take a soy supplement may be rewarded with reduced
cholesterol, according to a recent study. After three months, the
women who got the soy supplements, which contain chemicals with
estrogen-like effects, had significantly reduced LDL ("bad"
cholesterol) and triglycerides. Their HDL (the "good"
cholesterol) was unchanged.
For more healthy living advice for men and women over
50,
subscribe today to Johns Hopkins Medical Letter: Health
After 50.
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