Cheryl Thomas, RYT
www.cherylthomas.com
yoga@cherylthomas.com
415-308-3377
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 Doc, Could You Repeat Those Side Effects Again?
Life just got more complicated. Not only must we comb through our cell phone
bills for the nefarious "huh?" phone charges, our charge card statements for the
outrageous "why me" finance/late charges, monitor the cr#*p out of your kid's
Facebook presence/friends, and channel Harold McGee at the grocery store, but now, spend
that free time you don't have perusing the medical journals for the latest
news/updates that could affect your Life with a capital L. Wait, aren't your doctors supposed to be
doing this? Well, yes, they are. But, it's no surprise they have the ear of
the big-pharma, they're bogged down the insurance paperwork, all while they
try to put their children through Stanford.
There
was some interesting reporting this week in Tuesday's NYT, Science & Health
section(1). Authors, Ralph H. Blum and
Dr. Mark Scholz, in their book on prostate cancer suggest that nearly all of the
200,000 cases of prostate cancer are overtreated. Given that most of them are slow growing,
they should be managed as a chronic condition rather than the 50,000 "radical
prostatectomies" of which more than 40,000 are unnecessary per the
authors. According to Dr. Scholz: ". .
.the vast majority of men with
prostate cancer would have lived just as long without any operation at all.
Most did not need to have their sexuality cut out." A
recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine suggested that the
operation extended the lives of just 1 patient in 48. The side effects-incontinence, impotence, and
shrinking of the penis.
Does this sound
a bit eerily familiar? I recall when Mother's Little
Helper was not just a Rolling Stones lyric. Many women in the 60s and 70s, my mother included, were easily given
Valium for managing their anxiety, sleeplessness, or, shall we say, general unhappiness. I wonder whether the doctors mentioned the addiction word.
Today, it's anti-depresssants and mood-stabilizers. Another phenonenom, my mother again represented,
was the hysterectomy. A 1981 Centers for
Disease Control study found 15% of hysterectomies were questionable, and a 1990
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois study showed about one-third to be medically
unnecessary.(2) And, while we're at it,
what about the tonsillectomy. Along with
hysterectomies it was then one of the two most commonly performed surgical procedures. A clinical trial eventually showed the
reasons for which children had their tonsils removed were inappropriate
(3).
An article in the Press Democrat this week was entitled: "Early Surgery Cuts Cancer Risk" and subtitled
"Study: Pre-emptive removal of breasts, ovaries aids women with specific cancer
genes." Yikes! How many women have been called back for
multiple boob smashings (mammograms) and eventually had breast biopsy because their dense breast
tissue could be hiding something suspicious(4). How about an abnormal Pap smear? Between
10 and 60 percent of all Pap smears are incorrectly analyzed. False negatives,
which are far more common than false positives, may be reported 20 and 45
percent of the time. Statins? Calcium? Want another?
It was reported that mental exercises retard the onset of dementia (we
know this), but once you have it, the crossword puzzles, reading, museum
visits, actually hasten the disease.(5) Want
more? Check out the dangers of Bluetooth
cell phone devices.
What to do, what to do? If this were a blog, I can now see the scads of posts from those whose lives
have been saved by medical testing and interventions. I don't have an answer, but it behooves us to
ask lots of questions of our doctors and to do some independent research. If your doctor is not willing to answer your
questions or accept other opinions, then seeing another doctor may be
necessary. Ultimately, the best thing we
can do is stay healthy and happy--have your apple-a-day, take a 20 minute brisk walk, sit
quietly for 10 minutes and breathe!
1) http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/a-rush-to-operating-rooms-that-alters-mens-lives/
2) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0815/is_n170_v18/ai_13218625/
3) Mine were removed
4) Me, again.
5) http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/01/brain-exercises-delay-speed-up-dementia/?hpt=C2
Want to read some of my past emails? Just click
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and as always, please let me know your thoughts!
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Week of September 5, 2010
Tuesday
Noon - 1:00 Yoga on Center, Healdsburg Slow Flow - All Levels 6:00 - 8:30 (Private) Restorative Yoga For Metabolic Syndrome UCSF, San Francisco Wednesday 5:30 - 6:55 p.m. Yoga Studio Ganesha, Sebastopol Vinyasa Flow + Restorative - All Levels
Thursday 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. Graton Community Club All Levels Friday
9:15 - 10:45 a.m. Yoga Studio Ganesha, Sebastopol Intermediate (Ann Austin's Class) Week of September 12, 2010
Tuesday
Noon - 1:00 Yoga on Center, Healdsburg Slow Flow - All Levels Wednesday5:30 - 6:55 p.m. Yoga Studio Ganesha, Sebastopol Vinyasa Flow + Restorative - All Levels Thursday 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. Graton Community Club, Graton Gentle Flow - All Levels
STUDIO WEBSITESYoga on Center: www.yogaoncenter.comYoga Studio Ganesha: www.yogastudioganesha.comWestside Yoga Studio: http://www.westsideyogastudio.net |
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Hope to see you soon!
Namaste,
Cheryl
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Bulletin Board
Up-To-Date: Go to www.cheryl
thomas.com. Click on the classes link and there will be a spiffy new on-line calendar. It should always be up-to-date.
Friday at Ganesha: I love Ann Austin's classes and especially the opportunity to sub for her. I'll be leading her Friday class this week at 9:15. Come and join us.
Contribute to your Community. Support the Ceres Project by attending the Food and Wine Pairing evening at Lynmar Estates. Get info at www.ceresproject.org/
lynmar.html. Patrick and I will be there and hope to see you!
Face It! We can all use a bit of nip and tuck here and there. But who knew that yoga could help your face? The fantastic Magick is offering Face Yoga at Yoga Studio Ganesha. Feel your face getting firmer as you give it a workout. Join her on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 - 8:15 at Yoga Studio Ganesha.
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