Woman Charged in Black-Market Buttocks Procedures
A Florida woman was charged with two counts of practicing medicine without a license when two women became seriously ill last month after being injected with a homemade silicone gel and saline combination in an effort to improve the looks of their buttocks, ABCNews.com reports. Sharhonda Lindsay, 32, who is not a physician, turned herself in to police yesterday. A warrant had been issued for her arrest earlier this week. One of the women paid $500 for 40 injections; the second received 20 injections for $250. Both women experienced reactions to injections they received on January 29 and are still recovering in the hospital.
U.S. News's Deborah Kotz has written about the price women pay for beauty. Some get Botox, hoping it will help them land a job. Others get face-lifts, even before aging sets in. Meanwhile, the FDA is taking a closer look at wrinkle treatments.
Stroke: Know the Warning Signs and How to Lower Your Risk
When it comes to breast cancer, most women know to check for breast lumps and get mammograms after age 40. When it comes to protecting ourselves against strokes, however, most women don't have a clue, Deborah Kotz reports. A new study published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke finds that fewer than 20 percent of women with atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat) and a little more than 15 percent of women with heart disease recognize that they're at increased risk for having a debilitating or even deadly stroke. In fact, strokes are the third leading killer of women, behind heart disease and all cancers combined.
Here are some easy nutritional changes you can make to reduce your chances of having a heart attack or stroke. Also, be sure to assess your heart disease and stroke risks. And if you're over 35 and taking birth control pills or hormone therapy, talk to your doctor about whether you need to worry about an increase in your stroke risk.
Colon Cancer Is One of the Most Preventable Cancers
You probably saw the headline late last year: Colonoscopy may not be as effective as previously thought at preventing colorectal cancer, which killed an estimated 50,000 people last year. But whether the procedure cuts the risk of getting and dying from colon cancer by 60 percent (as the study indicated) or 90 percent (as had been assumed), it's still the second-most effective screen for any common cancer, after the Pap smear, Katherine Hobson reports. Unlike a mammogram or the test for prostate-specific antigen, colonoscopy can even be considered a form of prevention, since it enables the doctor to get rid of polyps before they become malignant. And yet fewer than half of people who should be screened—those ages 50 and older at average risk—are getting either a colonoscopy or one of the other highly recommended tests for colorectal cancer: sigmoidoscopy, CT or "virtual" colonoscopy, or a double-contrast barium enema.
The colonoscopy isn't perfect, but few medical procedures are. And no screening test can give you a 100 percent guarantee that you won't get colon cancer. There are less invasive tests available, though they can't find precancerous polyps and have other drawbacks. Also, some people say they'd prefer to be unconscious during a colonoscopy; patients can choose sedation options.
—January W. Payne
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