Marriage and men's health

Men of a certain age may remember the tune, if not the words:

Love and marriage, love and marriage,
Go together like a horse and carriage.
This I tell you, brother,
You can't have one without the other.

Much has changed, obviously, since the horse and buggy days. And when it comes to marriage, there have also been enormous changes since Sammy Cahn penned his romantic lyrics in the Ozzie and Harriet era. Many people find love without getting married, and many marriages turn loveless and hostile as divorce rates soar. Single parenting is now common, and society is becoming increasingly comfortable with various patterns of cohabitation.

The many social, economic, psychological, and spiritual ramifications of these huge changes have been the topic of much discussion and debate, and more will follow. Without treading into these deep waters, though, it's also useful to ask how marriage itself affects men's health.
Men, marriage, and mortality

A major survey of 127,545 American adults found that married men are healthier than men who were never married or whose marriages ended in divorce or widowhood. Men who have marital partners also live longer than men without spouses; men who marry after age 25 get more protection than those who tie the knot at a younger age, and the longer a man stays married, the greater his survival advantage over his unmarried peers. But is marriage itself responsible for better health and longer life?

Although it's hard to be sure, marriage seems to deserve at least part of the credit. Some have argued that self-selection would skew the results if healthy men are more likely to marry than men with health problems. But research shows the reverse is true: unhealthy men actually marry earlier, are less likely to divorce, and are more likely to remarry following divorce or bereavement than healthy men.

Another potential factor is loneliness; is the institution of marriage linked to better health, or is it simply a question of living with another person? Although studies vary, the answer seems to be a little of both. People living with unmarried partners tend to fare better than those living alone, but men living with their wives have the best health of all.

Numerous studies conducted over the past 150 years suggest that marriage is good for health. More recently, scientists have begun to understand why married men enjoy better health than their single, divorced, and widowed peers. But before we turn to the why, let's look at how marriage affects specific diseases, including America's leading killers, cardiovascular disease and cancer.


Are educated wives heartbreakers?

In the 1980s, several studies suggested that men whose wives had more education than they had were more likely to die from coronary artery disease than men married to less educated women. With more and more women getting advanced degrees, that might give some single guys pause. But a 2002 study found that the more educated a man's wife, the lower his risk for coronary artery disease and risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol, smoking, and lack of exercise. And a 2009 study reported that men married to more educated women also enjoyed a lower death rate than men married to less educated women. In the contemporary world, smart wives promote healthy hearts.



Marriage and the heart

If marriage protects health, the heart would be a likely beneficiary. Japanese scientists reported that never-married men were three times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than married men. And a report from the Framingham Offspring Study also suggests that marriage is truly heartwarming. Scientists evaluated 3,682 adults over a 10-year period. Even after taking major cardiovascular risk factors such as age, body fat, smoking, blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol into account, married men had a 46% lower rate of death than unmarried men.

In the Framingham study, marital happiness did not seem to influence the overall protective effect of marriage. But in other studies, marital unhappiness and stress have been linked to an important cardiac risk factor, hypertension. Over time, in fact, marital stress is associated with thickening of the heart's main pumping chamber, but job stress does not take a similar toll on the heart.

Coronary artery disease and hypertension are among the most important causes of heart failure, a chronic disabling condition that results when the weakened heart muscle is unable to pump all the blood that the body's tissues need. But even after this serious problem has developed, a supportive marriage is associated with improved survival.
Marriage and cancer

The well-established links between stress, depression, social isolation, and heart disease make it easy to see how a good marriage might protect the heart. But cancer is a different matter. Indeed, there is little evidence that marriage reduces the overall risk of getting cancer. Still, marriage can influence the outcome. For example, a study of 27,779 cancer cases found that unmarried individuals were more likely to have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis than married persons. Unmarried patients were less likely to receive treatment than married patients — but even among people who received cancer therapy, marriage was linked to improved survival. Patients who have intact marriages when cancer is diagnosed have better survival than patients who are separated at the time of diagnosis.

Prostate cancer is a particular concern for men. To find out how marriage affects survival, scientists from the University of Miami investigated 143,063 men with the disease. Over a 17-year period, married men survived far longer (median 69 months) than separated and widowed patients (38 months); men who had never married had an intermediate survival rate (49 months). And researchers from Harvard and UCLA have identified similar survival benefits for married patients with bladder cancer, a predominantly male disease.
Other health issues

Although the data are sparse, marriage appears to have a positive effect on a variety of health outcomes. Mental health is the most prominent; married men have a lower risk of depression and a higher likelihood of satisfaction with life in retirement than their unmarried peers. Being married has also been linked to better cognitive function, a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, improved blood sugar levels, and better outcomes for hospitalized patients. In contrast, widowhood boosts the likelihood of sexually transmitted diseases in men, but not women.


Couples "therapy"

It's often said that old married couples come to resemble each other. That may or may not be true, but according to Italian researchers, married couples do have similar cardiac risk factors. In their 2009 report, the scientists reviewed 71 earlier studies that covered more than 100,000 couples. All in all, the spouses demonstrated many shared risk factors, including hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol, obesity, and smoking. Some of the similarities can be explained by the tendency for people to choose spouses like themselves, and some of the shared risk factors depend on lifestyle habits partners have in common. That's why Australian doctors have reported success with a program that seeks to improve nutrition and exercise habits in both spouses simultaneously. That's couples therapy with a new twist.



Marital strife and divorce

A good marriage can improve a man's health, but marital discord can take its toll on both happiness and health. In the MRFIT study of 10,904 American married men, for example, men who divorced were 37% more likely to die during the nine-year study than men who remained married. Similarly, a British study of 9,011 civil servants linked stressful relationships to a 34% increase in the risk of heart attacks and angina. And an Israeli study of 10,059 men found that stressful family relationships appeared to increase the risk of dying from a stroke by 34%. Divorce also triggers a sharp increase in the rate of suicide by men, but not women.
Bereavement

Because women live longer than men, women are far more likely to lose a spouse than are men. But spousal bereavement is actually more serious for men, and a study from California tells just how serious it is. The study did not measure the psychological and socioeconomic burdens of bereavement. Instead, the researchers focused on another impact of spousal bereavement, the mortality of the surviving spouse.

The study tracked 12,522 married people over a 14- to 23-year period. During that time, 1,453 men and 3,294 women lost their spouses. Subsequently, 30% of the bereaved men died themselves, while only 15% of the women succumbed. Healthy men who lost a wife were 2.1 times more likely to die during the study period than healthy men who were not bereaved; for men with preexisting medical problems, bereavement boosted the rate of death 1.6 times. The risk was greatest from seven to 12 months after the loss, but an elevated death rate persisted for more than two years. Shakespeare was right when he wrote of "deadly grief."

Research from around the world confirms that the death of a spouse increases the likelihood of illness and disability in the surviving spouse, and that men are more vulnerable than women. One reason that widowers fare so poorly is that nutrition and other health habits deteriorate when men are on their own; even a wife's hospitalization is hazardous to her husband's health. Another factor is social isolation. And a study of 1,667 men in the Boston area linked the death of a spouse to a decline in testosterone levels comparable to the drop that occurs during 10 years of aging.


Same-sex couples

Do the health benefits of marriage extend to same-sex spouses or partners in civil unions? Because such parings are uncommon and new in the U.S., no American data are available. But same-sex partnerships were sanctioned in Denmark in 1989, and a study evaluated 4,914 men and 3,419 women who entered such relationships between 1989 and 2004. The men who were in same-sex partnerships before highly effective anti-HIV drug therapy became available in 1995 had a high mortality rate. Women and men who entered same-sex unions after 1995 had mortality rates similar to the general population after a small excess during the first few years of their union. But since the researchers did not compare the mortality rates of homosexual couples with those of unmarried gays and lesbians, it's impossible to know whether same-sex unions are associated with health benefits comparable to those enjoyed by married heterosexuals.



Explanations

Good marriages promote health and longevity, but stressful and shattered marriages have the opposite effect, especially for men. Why?

The explanations fall into three categories: biological, behavioral, and psychological.

The biological explanations center on stress. Martial conflicts produce elevated levels of stress hormones such as adrenaline, which raise blood pressure. Marital stress also triggers the production of cytokines, small proteins that set the inflammatory cascade in motion. Inflammation is a newly recognized cardiac risk factor, and divorced men have higher levels of inflammatory markers than married men.

The behavioral factors are no less important. Unmarried, divorced, and widowed men don't eat as well as married men. They are less likely to exercise but are more likely to smoke, drink excessively, and engage in other risky behaviors. In contrast, married men are more likely to get regular medical care and to benefit from a higher standard of living. But while senior citizens who live with a spouse get better preventive care than those who live alone, elders who live with an adult child do not get better care.

Loneliness, depression, and social isolation also contribute to the excess mortality associated with bereavement, divorce, or never having married. A Harvard study reported that socially isolated men have an 82% higher risk of dying from heart disease, compared with men who have strong interpersonal relationships. And the New England Research Institute reported that 66% of men rely on their wives for their primary social supports; only 21% rely on other people, and 10% have no such supports. Clearly, subtracting a wife greatly increases a man's risk of isolation.
Perspectives

Many men marry for love, some for money, and others for a variety of personal and family reasons. Until now, at least, few have married for health. Should that change?

Not really. Happily married men might add health to the things they thank their wives for. Unhappily married men should work with their wives to reduce stress and improve their relationship. But instead of marrying for health, unmarried men should try to achieve some of the health benefits they're missing. That means making wise choices about diet, exercise, alcohol, and other health behaviors. It means seeing your doctor even if you don't have a wife to drag you in, and it means seeking ways to reduce stress and build social ties and mutually supportive relationships. None of this will earn a marital deduction on your 1040 form, but it will improve your health.

Health.harvard.edu

Methods to Stop Uterine Cancer

Protection against uterine cancer can be a obligatory for any person who would like to survive the kitchen connoisseur. Uterine Cancer is rather risky and is among the all 5 malignancies that affect women. The article has comprehensive techniques to prevent uterine cancer, if entirely applied uterine cancer may well some thing of the past.

Tips on how to protect against Symptoms of Cervical Cancer are a great worry in the majority of reproductive : women. Recent studies have said that regarding 75% of reproductive system girls have an improved prospect of contradicting the sickness. Uterine Cancer can develop inside the feminine reproductive : over time plus keep unnoticed after some time. Uterine Cancer might ooze via slight difficulties including endometrial hyperplasia. Uterine Cancer is a perilous disease and for that reason demands immediate know-how in addition to tips on how to stop uterine cancer. Uterine Cancer in the event that clinically diagnosed first looking at the cautionary warning signs may perhaps be treatable. Therefore understanding of the signs is a wonderful step up removing uterine cancer.

This article explores the several methods to avert uterine cancer. Each of the techniques mentioned while in the article typically be based upon you actually, your energy inside adopting the tips is vital with uterine cancer protection. The following tips are crucial with protection against uterine cancer.

Hereditary info. You need to figure out no matter if in the immediate spouse and children anyone has got lived with uterine cancer. The passing with family genes have been connected with spread of uterine cancer.

Possibility components. You need ample information about chance variables which might be gonna be connected with uterine cancer. The everyday threat elements tend to be being overweight, the inability to conceive in addition to hormone treatments.

Health concerns. Quite a few disorders like diabetes may very well result in uterine cancer. Other people are equally early and also later menstresion.

Balanced lifestyle. Existing a healthy own life is really necessary around protection against every sickness which include uterine cancer. Ingesting of healthy diet plan along with regime workouts could go a considerable ways in protecting against uterine cancer. A number of studies have revealed that those who folks who survive the kitchen connoisseur possess minimum risk of contracting some types of melanoma, uterine cancer is no remarkable.

Halt bodily hormone treatment plans. Contraceptive approaches plus hormone solutions have been instantly connected to uterine cancer. Avoid this sort of methods and behavior as this is going a long way inside making sure a person's uterine cancer totally free. Even though several bills were also earmarked in lessening probabilities of uterine cancer. In this instance it smart to talk to your health practitioner to recognise which is match in your case during having children.

Weight control.You'll be able to control your weight during the day healthy and balanced plus foodstuff loaded with nutritional requirements. Weight-loss have been connected to more affordable circumstances associated with uterine cancer and plenty of additional health conditions.

Smear smear. However smear smear is probably not a definative technique of checking out uterine cancer, Urinary Tract Infection Symptoms,using a normal pelvic is a aspect in minimizing the shrinkage

Blood pressure level manage. A lot of individuals diagnosed with uterine cancer were also found rich in blood pressure levels; hence managing your strain is just about the very best easy methods to avoid uterine cancer. Blood pressure is usually handled we are not meals that are fitted with low salt written content.

Canceling virtually any uterine cancer indicators to the health practitioner. The most popular warning connected with uterine cancer will be unnatural plus typical swelling. This kind of indications when detected earlier plus precautionary and treatment steps considered can certainly drastically help out with treatment of uterine cancer.

In South Korea, Plastic Surgery Comes Out of the Closet

Dr. Park Sang-hoon, head of a top-ranked clinic in southern Seoul, consulted with Chang Hae-jin after her double-jaw surgery, a procedure that involves cutting and rearranging the upper and lower jaws.

SEOUL — With a blue pen, Dr. Seo Young-tae drew arches on Chang Hyang-sook’s eyelids, marking where to cut and stitch to create a new fold to make her eyes look larger and rounder. It is an operation so common here that most women on Seoul streets seem to have a double fold, though only one of every five Koreans is born with one.

“Promise you’ll do a great job on my eyes,” Ms. Chang said to Dr. Seo. “Never mind the pain. I can take it.”

For Ms. Chang, 25, a makeup artist, the 2.3 million won, or about $2,000, eye job is just the finishing touch in a program several months long to remake her face. In the previous two months, Ms. Chang had not only had her teeth rearranged, but her jaw bones cut and repositioned, for 22 million won.

“You must endure pain to be beautiful,” she said, adding that an eye job is so routine these days “it’s not even considered surgery.”

Cosmetic surgery has long been widespread in South Korea. But until recently, it was something to keep quiet about. No longer.

And as society has become more open about the practice, surgeries have become increasingly extreme. Double-jaw surgery — which was originally developed to repair facial deformities, and involves cutting and rearranging the upper and lower jaws — has become a favorite procedure for South Korean women who are no longer satisfied with mere nose jobs or with paring down cheekbones to achieve a smoother facial line.

Celebrities have helped to drive the trend, as they scramble to keep ahead of digital technology that mercilessly exposes not only their physical imperfections, but any attempts to remedy them, said Rando Kim, a professor of consumer science at Seoul National University.

“Wide-screen and high-definition TV put pressure on them to look good in close-ups,” Mr. Kim said. “And with the Internet, where people like to post ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures, they can no longer hide it. So they go public, often talking proudly about it on TV.”

That, in turn, has encouraged greater openness among ordinary South Koreans.

“It used to be all hush-hush when mothers brought their daughters in for a face-lift before taking them to match-makers,” said Dr. Park Sang-hoon, head of ID Hospital. “Now young women go plastic surgery shopping around here.”

Dr. Park’s is a top-ranked clinic in Seoul’s “beauty belt,” a swarm of hundreds of plastic surgery clinics clustered around a string of subway stations in the upscale districts of southern Seoul.

“Where did you get it?” asks one of the ads for clinics that cover the walls at the entrances of the Apgujeong subway station, the center of the beauty belt. “What about your nose? And your chin?”

Parents may promise their daughter an eye job if she passes her college entrance exam. In Apgujeong, it is not hard to find young women shopping in department stores immediately after their surgeries, wearing masks or sunglasses.

“Korean women want a revolution with their face,” said Dr. Park, a leading practitioner of double-jaw surgery.

“What we do in double-jaw surgery is to reassemble the face,” said Dr. Park, whose clinic has performed 3,000 such procedures in the past six years. “Normal people become, sort of, super-normal, and pretty people prettier.”

In traditional Korea, tampering with the body bestowed by one’s parents was a violation of Confucian precepts that also discouraged cremation and, later, organ and blood donations.

But in recent decades, cosmetic surgery has become a weapon in Koreans’ efforts to impress others, “like buying an expensive handbag,” said Whang Sang-min, a psychologist at Yonsei University.

Cosmetic surgery is not covered by national health insurance, making it difficult to determine the exact size of the industry. A survey last year by the Seoul city government found that 31.5 percent of residents 15 or older were willing to undergo surgery to improve their looks. In 2007 the percentage was 21.5.

In a 2009 survey by the market research firm Trend Monitor, one of every five women in Seoul between the ages of 19 and 49 said they had undergone plastic surgery.

The number of doctors trained as plastic surgeons has almost doubled in the past decade to 1,500. But 4,000 clinics provide cosmetic surgery, most of them in Seoul’s beauty belt, because the law allows other doctors to switch to this lucrative field. As competition heats up, some clinics host “Cinderella events,” where patients are given free surgery and appear in their ads.


Doctors say their main patients are young women entering the marriage and job markets. “As it gets harder to find jobs, they’ve come to believe they must look good to survive,” said Choi Set-byol, a sociologist at Ewha Woman’s University.

When the government imposed a 10 percent tax on five popular types of cosmetic surgery in July, civic groups as well as surgeons protested that this discriminated against women and the poor.

One consequence of the boom is that young women look increasingly alike, doctors say. “They come in with photos of starlets whose face they want to copy,” Dr. Park said.

“Koreans agree on what constitutes a pretty face,” he said. “The consensus, now, is a smaller, more sharply defined youthful face — a more or less Westernized look. That makes 90 percent of Koreans potential patients because they’re not born with that kind of face.”

Not everyone is happy with this development.

The film director Im Kwon-taek says it has become all but impossible to find an actress who still has a traditional Korean face. “They all have that surgery to have their eyelids scrolled up,” he said. “What kind of eye is that?”

He said that one day he was watching a provincial beauty competition on television and almost jumped up when he saw a young woman with a relatively round face with natural eyes.

He cast her in a movie set in old Korea.

In August, the Education Ministry issued a booklet warning high school students of “plastic surgery syndrome,” citing Michael Jackson and a local woman whose addiction to plastic surgery left her with a grotesquely swollen face. Last November, a woman hanged herself after her double-jaw surgery went wrong. “Every waking minute is hell,” she wrote in her diary of the pain.

Recently, a local television station secretly filmed a hospital official trying to sell a double-jaw procedure to a woman. “You want to get married?” he asked. “Then you have to do this, you have to take the risk.”

Chang Hae-jin, 21, an art student who was self-conscious about her slightly protruding teeth and chin decided to take that risk with Dr. Park. For weeks after the operation, she could not speak with her heavily bandaged swollen face. But it was worth it, she said.

“It opened a new world for me,” she said. “In the train today, a man sitting next to me talked to me. He said I looked younger than I am.

“My life has become much brighter.”

TheNewYorkTimes

Ways to Get Eliminate Stomach Ulcers

Your self, you're the most essential in enabling gone stomach ulcers. Altering your diet program and also routines may considerably possess a extended deal in getting gone stomach ulcers.

Tummy ulcer normally described people peptic ulcer is situated your intestinal system. This section of the abdomen is actually acid in addition to becoming infected with abdomen ulcer can be quite hurtful. It is actually frequently activated by simply infection regarding helicobacter pylori bacteria. It can be wrong to imagine in which stomach ulcers come from anxiety in addition to weak diet. The regular signs and symptoms of stomach cancer tend to be burning up discomfort within the abs portion of the stomach and if the agony is linked so that you can feeding on as well as diet regime. This information looks at approaches plus recommendations which you can use within ways to get eliminate stomach ulcer.

Look at the physician often. Stomach Ulcers have become distressing and therefore need to be addressed. Some people have lost their own lives for that reason scourge. The physician is capable of doing exams and find out the reason for this ulcer plus whether it be related to Heli-copter pylori and allow the best medicinal drugs.

Ulcer medicinal drugs. Possibly one of the most effective for you to learn to get eliminate Stomach Ulcer Symptoms is by taking ulcer medicinal drugs. If you are clinically diagnosed by way of the medical professional from stomach ulcers in that case is getting ready to grab the whole serving involving health-related solutions. Taking antacids or perhaps plaque created by sugar blockers may significantly eliminate stomach ulcers. Starting off your medicines tremendously decreases heli pylori. Using antibiotics in essential quantities with respect to the amount with the stomach problems is usually a fantastic therapy on the way to do away with belly ulcer.

Stay away from particular kinds. Non-steroidal and also anti-inflammatory drugs are highly assigned to become one of many major reasons associated with stomach ulcers. Most of these medication incorporate aspirin, a large number of prescription medication is bought non-prescription and simply accessible, doing their own solution to waistlines. If you are encountering pain you need to prevent acquiring of these prescription drugs. These types of prescription drugs eradicate a gastro large intestine.These kind of drug treatments likewise reduce the number of mucous developed and also get a new eliminating bicarbonates.

Proper diet. Several forms of foodstuff are proved to increase the seriousness of Stomach Cancer. Any kind of diet program which adds to the volume this acidity in the abdomen could have adverse reactions on the sores. I really suggest the absorption regarding ingredients rich in necessary protein and get these people regularly although a small amount. Many of the liquids similar to alcoholics that raise sores within your abdominal. People deteriorate mucus within the abs cellular lining as a result causing skin cells along with tissues publicity. You should keep away from liquor and coffee as they can cause more damage for you.

Milk. Products and solutions such as milk, mozzarella dairy product and also ghee can stop the particular stomach ulcers. These people counteract the actual chemical p inside the stomach. It is therefore smart to increase the level of absorption regular to obtain alleviate from the ulcers.

Additional tips. The following advice have likewise helped other individuals in getting eliminated stomach ulcers and so are worthy of to generally be highlighted. Putting on little therapeutic massage can reduce the agony inflicted by way of stomach ulcers. You may execute the particular restorative massage oneself and also get aid from someone. Using heating is also advisable, some tranquilizing warm put on from the ab vicinity can aid in eliminating this.

Clearing clogged arteries in the neck

Balloon angioplasty is getting better at unblocking carotid arteries, but surgery still has the edge.
Opening a blocked heart artery with a balloon and then propping it open with a wire-mesh stent has become a near-equal partner with bypass surgery for restoring blood flow to the heart. Although coronary angioplasty plus stenting isn't quite as durable as bypass surgery, it is much easier on the body, since it doesn't require opening the chest. Giving up a tiny bit of effectiveness for a much shorter recovery is an excellent trade-off for some people.

The situation is different in the carotid arteries, which convey oxygen-rich blood to the brain. In that territory, carotid angioplasty plus stenting (CAS) hasn't quite proved itself to be the equal of endarterectomy, an operation to clean out a clogged carotid artery. Results from one long-awaited clinical trial showed that CAS is nearly as safe and effective as carotid endarterectomy when done by an expert, while results from a second trial indicate that surgery is still the best bet for most people.
An often-silent disease

The right and left carotid arteries branch off the aorta soon after it emerges from the heart and run up to the brain along either side of the neck. These vitally important arteries are prone to atherosclerosis, the damaging process that clogs arteries in the heart, kidneys, legs, and elsewhere.

A buildup of plaque in the carotids usually goes unnoticed. Sometimes it is discovered when a doctor hears "bruits" (BROO-ee) through a stethoscope in one or both carotid arteries. These soft, whooshing sounds are caused by turbulence as blood tumbles through a narrowing in a carotid artery. Clogged carotids are sometimes found during ultrasound exams of the neck and head. For most people, though, the first sign of trouble is a transient ischemic attack or a stroke.

Just as a heart attack is the big worry with cholesterol-clogged coronary arteries, brain attack (stroke) is the main hazard of plaque-narrowed carotid arteries. Plaque in a carotid artery can cause a stroke by restricting blood flow to part of the brain, or by breaking loose and completely blocking a smaller vessel in the brain.


Clearing a carotid artery



Endarterectomy removes fatty plaque through an incision in the neck. Angioplasty plus stenting opens the narrowing from the inside with a balloon and leaves behind a stent to hold the artery open.



Opening a clogged carotid

There are two main ways to open a narrowed carotid artery.

Endarterectomy involves physically removing plaque from inside the carotid artery. A surgeon makes an incision in the neck to expose the artery, clamps the artery, then opens it lengthwise in the region of the narrowing. After scraping the fatty plaque out of the artery, the surgeon enlarges the artery with a diamond-shaped patch, stitches the artery together, then closes the skin of the neck.

Carotid angioplasty begins with a small incision into the femoral artery in the groin. A thin tube called a catheter is gently pushed into the artery and maneuvered up through the aorta into the narrowing in the carotid artery. An umbrella-shaped filter is placed beyond the narrowing to catch any dislodged plaque or debris. Once everything is in place, a balloon on the catheter is inflated, mashing the plaque into the artery wall and expanding a stent. The balloon is deflated; the catheter and filter are removed, leaving the stent in place to hold the artery open; and the incision in the groin is closed.
Downside of treatment

The main goal of carotid endarterectomy or angioplasty is to prevent a stroke from happening in the future. Both do this quite well. What makes deciding which procedure to have — or whether to have one at all — difficult is that both endarterectomy and angioplasty sometimes cause a stroke, the very problem they are trying to prevent, or, even worse, death.

Most people — upward of 90% — sail through CAS or carotid endarterectomy without a hitch. Nationally, about five people in 100 have a stroke or die as a result of a procedure to clear a clogged carotid artery. The rate is much lower when the procedure is performed by a doctor who has done it many times.

In the first report from the Carotid Revascularization versus Stenting Trial (CREST), carotid surgery and CAS were, on the surface, equally safe and effective. But when the investigators drilled down into the data, some important differences emerged. Stroke was more common after CAS (4.1%) than after surgery (2.3%), while heart attack was more common after surgery (2.3%) than after CAS (1.1%). However, most of the heart attacks were mild, while most of the strokes caused some disability and reduced quality of life. As seen in other trials, individuals over age 69 did better with surgery than with CAS. The results were presented in February 2010 at an American Stroke Association conference in San Antonio.

Interim results from the ongoing International Carotid Stenting Study (ICSS) seem to tell a different story. They showed a higher rate of stroke, heart attack, or death with CAS (8.5%) than with surgery (5.2%) within 120 days of the procedure (The Lancet, March 20, 2010).
Clearer picture for CAS

To clarify these results, we polled the chiefs of vascular and endovascular surgery at Harvard Medical School's three main teaching hospitals: Dr. Michael Belkin of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dr. Richard A. Cambria of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Frank Pomposelli of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

All agreed that the differences between CAS and surgery are getting smaller due to the improvements in CAS since it was first introduced. In expert hands, they say that CAS can be a viable alternative to carotid endarterectomy. A big reason for the differences in results between the two trials is that doctors had to demonstrate considerably more expertise to participate in CREST than in ICSS. That means the ICSS findings likely reflect what will happen with CAS when done by doctors of varying skill.
Differences remain

When carotid angioplasty was first developed, doctors hoped it would be just as effective as carotid endarterectomy but easier on the body. That hasn't panned out. Both procedures take an hour or two to perform, and both require only a one-night stay in the hospital. Full recovery is a bit quicker from CAS than from endarterectomy, but this difference isn't nearly as big as it is between coronary angioplasty and bypass surgery.

On the safety side, carotid endarterectomy has set a high bar. As operations go, it is quite safe, with rates of stroke, heart attack, or death as low as 1% to 2% in centers where the operation is performed often (at least once a week) by experienced teams. CAS comes close to this when done in centers of excellence, as shown by the CREST results, but doesn't quite match it.

There is another difference between the two procedures with as-yet unknown consequences. During CAS, when the catheter is pushed through the narrowing in the carotid artery, platelets and bits of fatty plaque break free and get into the bloodstream. Umbrella-like devices are used to capture these particles (called emboli) before they get too far, but some escape and reach the brain. Surgery releases far fewer particles because the artery is clamped before the operation begins. Whether this shower of particles affects brain function is a matter of research and dispute.
Choosing a procedure

So, what to do if you have a narrowed carotid artery?

If it isn't too severe (less than 70% narrowed) or causing any symptoms, your best bet is medical therapy. If the narrowing is severe, or if it has already caused a transient ischemic attack or full-blown stroke, carotid artery surgery has a small edge over CAS for most people.

More important than which procedure you choose is the experience of the doctor who will perform it and how well his or her patients fare afterward. Don't be shy about asking for numbers: How many carotid artery procedures do you perform each year? What percentage of your patients have a stroke or die from the procedure? These are tough questions to ask, but they are the most important ones in your decision-making process.

Health.harvard.edu

How to Get Eliminated Thyroid Problems

Thyroid Problems can happen to anybody. These problems are certainly frequent today due to your selective meal plans. This information will assist you to stay clear of in addition to manage these types of disorders.

Thyroid is situated in our fretboard. Thyroid creates growth hormones to blame for our bodies metabolic process. While Problems with your thyroid arises helps make the thyroid human gland to execute under the specified standards. This condition is related on the adhering to signs; extra weight, irregularity and weariness. Even though this problem can be hurtful and also critical, the good news is that you can get gone thyroid problems. This information looks at numerous proven ways, tips and techniques in order to remove thyroid problems

Diet. Proper diet is important to get remove thyroid problems. You need to conserve a healthy diet program and also at duration steering clear of foodstuff which could injury ones thyroid human gland. The foods that will in a wrong way could very well trigger really serious issues arevegetables just like him, sugary potatoes and kids. Attempt different fruit and vegetables other than this to be able to advertise typical performing of one's thyroid glandular.

Roughage foodstuff. Roughage food items need to be your family consumption. The meals that are rich within fiberinclude fruits in addition to cereals. Also you can choose roughage supplements that could be purchased in just about any groceries. The necessity of typical intake involving roughage should be to make sure digestion is usually total and processes well. Everybody knows bowel irregularity is often a characteristic of thyroid problems and as a consequence acquiring with foods rich in fiber comes to an end the problem.

Lose fat. Quite a few ingredients which have been related to extra weight has to be definitely avoided. Foods which improvement in putting on weight include fat, glucose as well as all kinds of sugar. While shedding pounds will likely not heal you from thyroid problems it eliminate are generally known. Reducing your weight can make the sickness unsuitable in your soul.

Doing exercises. Plan physical exercise will go a considerable ways in establishing eliminate thyroid problems. Cardio will be the recommended. The item not simply helps to keep your weight within your management. Workouts facilitate muscle pastime and also level of sensitivity. This is very important inside simulator with thyroid glands so that you can exude thyroid secretion. Your own work outs ought to be governed about four moments per week. Other exercises which might be tested out tend to be swimming, riding a bicycle plus going for walks as they quite simply aid in weight reduction.

Carry products. Any kind of supplement that will control Throat Cancer Symptoms problems and its outcomes is tremendously advised. This should be section of the vitamin supplements, iodine ascorbic acid as well as N. they are to blame for damaging manufacture of thyroid.

Alter practices. As a regular tobacco user plus wine-drinker you then need to end right away. Liquor plus tobacco happen to be instantly associated with root of hypothyroidism.

Iodized salt.Ensure you a lot more iodized salt with your foodstuff. Iodine would be the popular remedy employed for the years with treatments for thyroid problems.

Medicine. Methimazole can be utilized around treatments for thyroid problems. This kind of medication adds to the production of thyroid secretion along with growth hormones. If at any rate prescription drugs may not operate then an glands ought to often be taken off. Man made thyroid bodily hormones could also be used as being a management of thyroid problems.

Herbal remedies.Thyroid Problems are treated simply by make use of herbal products for instance moss in addition to algae. These types of herbal products are widely-used throughout bodily hormone development insufficiency. Additionally, they increase metabolic costs.

Many people are afflicted by Thyroid Disease Symptoms problems, though the treatment is based on all-natural techniques which have been easily available. Following previously mentioned suggestions you can easily get rid of thyroid problems.

All 5 Instant Recommendations in Working with Depression

Depression may last for a shorter and also while which often depends upon the fact that person refers to the idea. You can do something being an quick measures in an effort to relieve the particular hurting under the point out associated with depression. The idea doesn’t entirely cure just one, nevertheless it will make him far better received this individual not really did it.

Depression comes in various forms and it's the result of lots of things. It's the deviation connected with feelings in the one who seemed to be great along with instantly changes into a depression think. Your depression leads to a domino impact for many other suggestions any particular one might have installed, over a certain evening. The idea right has an effect on one’s feelings, therapy to individuals all-around him, function, scientific studies and in some cases his / her outlook on life in the direction of themselves. The danger of depression can be a matter of issue since it can make persons irrational as well as unfit to be accomplishing the right thing. And so, so that you can eliminate a misery inside the depression express, below are great tips in order to deal with the idea.

Perspective. To enable that you reduce the uneasiness within a depression state, this individual can be aware of the wording with their depression. The context is definitely the 1st step mainly because it understands what's causing the actual depression and in what way them started. Truly, it takes someone to mention how it happened and be able to recognize the issue or maybe cause to be able to deal with this having various option activities.

Speak. It's possible to find somebody, someone who has the particular determination to listen for anything a single might have to point out, or maybe talk with yourself. Nothing is improper which has a conversation with yourself since in a state associated with depression, a couple of personas conflict, 1 searches for quietness and serenity, the other which induces to consider issues that boost depression. Within this point, a person has a strong unclouded brain for the reason that conversation presently taken off some of the problems plus ache.

Eat well. It might noise absurd due to the fact, commonly, a feeling hopeless particular person, either, consume a lot or don’t get your meals at many. Both the already mentioned were dimensions, as well as which is not something is definitely risky in addition to detrimental. Feeding on effectively has been doing items perfect considering that the condition of depression sometimes is definitely lengthy owing to unfilled bellies or even the sense of finding body fat. Don’t let your painful tummy push people more.

Remainder perfectly. On occasion, the response to depression is ease and comfort. One might obtain it from a buddy, household, and various persons. Convenience will also be attained by using a very good relax. Ease and comfort your self by simply experiencing the nightfall inside the shore, this piace of cake from the marine, and the actual softness of your mattress. These are typically uncomplicated items that one fails considering that the thoughts are contaminated while using thought of becoming stressed out.

Pray properly. One and only thing than a discouraged man or woman neglected to understand will be the occurrence as someone who is better than your pet. He or she may be the one that is aware of every little thing about the struggling yet others in addition. You can truly wish to the Depression Test that he is suffering from. Prayer is among the most highly effective application that certain has as it's specifically wondering originating from a man or woman identified as Goodness or maybe whatsoever he is staying referred to as simply by other individuals.

The 5 ideas associated with addressing symptoms of depression are merely essential tactics so as to lower the uncomfortable emotion and prevent disastrous occasions that might transpire. The idea doesn’t warranty someone to restrain depression when using fast. Them exclusively shows that if one individual features a dilemma, he's going to usually go back to his inside do it yourself so as to find out his or her condition along with help deal with the issues connected with depression.