FDA Approves New Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug

Joint stiffness
According to the Arthritis Foundation, roughly 1.5 million people in the United States suffer with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and nearly three times as many women have the disease as men. RA, which is an autoimmune disease affecting the joints, afflicts women primarily between the ages of 30 and 60 whereas in men it usually occurs
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A Vacation? Who Has Time? **

A Vacation? Who Has Time?
When my editor and her associate urged me to for the second year in a row to write my August editorial on why doctors need a vacation, I couldn’t seem to do a credible job. My son, passing through the room in which I was wrestling with this inexplicably difficult assignment, suggested that since I
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A New Meaning for the Term “Glued to the Hip!”

Bonding bones
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), more than 53 million people in the United States have osteoporosis or are at risk of experiencing an osteoporosis-associated bone fracture. And, over six million fractures will occur in the U.S. every year. And, if you have ever broken a bone, you know just how painful and
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The Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine—Our Researchers in Action, Part Two

Our Researchers in Action
In this second article, the Foundation presents the research of our final four grant awardees. Two of these young research scientists are also recipients of our M. Irené Ferrer Award. Doctor Ferrer was a distinguished scholar who used the cardiac catheter to define the nature of heart disease in the living patient. Our Foundation is
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The Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine—Our Researchers in Action, Part One

Scientists
A research scientist’s work is never done. It involves planning, is often rigorous, painstaking and always evidence-based. When theories are proven, the results can yield major breakthroughs; when theories fail, it is back to the drawing board to begin again. The Foundation for Gender-Specific Medicine is proud to note that many of its awardees have
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Deep Vein Thrombosis—The Blood Clot That Can Kill

erythrocyte-red-blood-cells
According to the National Blood Clot Alliance, 274 people will die every day from the consequences of a blood clot. Neither age nor gender offer protection:  you can develop a clot just as easily at 25 years of age as 85 years of age. Most are the result of a traumatic injury, a surgical complication
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The Shingles Vaccine—Should You Take It?

Shingles virus
If you are a Baby Boomer, you’ve surely heard of shingles— a painful rash that often presents with blisters, fatigue, muscle weakness, and fever.  According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), one in every three Americans will get shingles during their lifetime. Shingles is caused by a virus — the varicella-zoster virus — which also
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How the Changing Seasons Make Us SAD

Seasonal Affective Disorder
This has to be one of the coldest, dreariest, and snowiest winters on record. Spring isn’t shaping up any better with snow and rain storms heralding its arrival. Everywhere you turn, people appear depressed, lethargic and moody. If the weather and season have got you down and there is no other reason to feel this
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Your Thyroid and You

Your Thyroid and You
Have you ever wondered why there are days you feel like a couch potato and are too tired to move and when you step onto the bathroom scale, your weight seems to be ballooning out of control and you can’t figure out why?  Inactivity, illness, depression and/or age might all be factors, but a thorough
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How Depression Can Alter Your Brain

Depression
At one time or another, we all suffer from bouts of sadness brought on by something such as a career disappointment, physical illness, relationship woes or financial strains. Sadness is a normal emotion. For most, this is transient often disappearing after a short while. However, when unrelenting stresses continue they can signal serious risks to
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