Cancer, Genitourinary
PSA Screening Results in 30 Percent Over-Diagnosis
For women, a telephone call reporting that mammography has detected an abnormality, and a second picture is needed, triggers instant fear of breast cancer. For men, an elevated PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) test has the same devastating effect. They dread the thought that they've developed cancer of the prostate gland with all its grim implications. But how accurate is the PSA test? And if a malignancy is present, what is the best treatment? A report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is hardly reassuring about the accuracy of the PSA test. Researchers studied men ages 60 to 84 between 1988 and 1998. They estimated the PSA test over-diagnosed prostate cancer 29 percent of the time in white men and an...Read More
Genitourinary
New Treatment For The Fractured Male Organ
"So you're the doctor who wrote that column!" I'm still greeted by that remark even though it's 11 years since I first wrote about "The Fractured Male Organ". I know doctors shouldn't make light of a patient's medical problems. But I couldn't stop chuckling when I first researched this malady. Now there's a new treatment for this embarrassing problem. A man was admitted to the emergency department at 1:00 A.M. in obvious distress. He was agitated, his skin cold and clammy suggestive of blood loss. Doctors were shocked to find a markedly swollen penis as the cause which required immediate surgery to remove a large blood clot. The $64.00 question, how did it happen? He was reluctant to explain, but finally admitted...Read More
Genitourinary
Urinary Incontinence, A Little Tape Can Cure It
A woman recently complained to me, "I'd give all I own to be rid of the continual loss of urine. I'm embarrassed and I've become a social outcast. It's ruined my life." Today, with an aging population, 12 million North American women suffer from this disabling problem. And for years the ingenuity of surgeons has been taxed in the effort to ease their suffering. Now, a new technique is curing thousands of incontinent women. All it takes is a small piece of Tension-Free Vaginal Tape (TVT). Urinary incontinence occurs when the pressure inside the bladder exceeds the pressure in the urethra, the tube that conveys urine to the outside. The first symptom is often a feeling that something is falling down...Read More
Genitourinary
Your Kidneys And a Brown Paper Bag
Can a brown paper bag decrease the epidemic of renal disease in this country? Today, more than 20 million North Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease. That's 1 in 9 adults. Another 20 million are at risk. But the number of cases is growing. A report from Johns Hopkins University claims the number of people with advanced kidney disease has doubled during the last 10 years. And the number with end-stage kidney disease who require renal dialysis is growing at the rate of 7 percent a year. And it's creating a huge economic problem. Some people are more prone to renal disease than others. Getting older gradually decreases kidney function. Certain ethnic groups such as African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics have a higher...Read More
Genitourinary
Feeling a Little Sexy and Wonder Why? – Natural Viagra
Are you feeling a little sexy lately and have no idea why it's happening? If that's the case you had better check your medicine cabinet. You may be taking a well-known product sildenafil (Viagra) approved for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED) without knowing it. How can this happen? Health Canada recently issued an alert to health care professionals about the safety of a herbal product called Hua Fo. Manufacturers claimed it was the "natural" Viagra for men. The suggested dosage, two tablets twice a day. What medical consumers don't know is that each tablet of Hua Fo contains 9.2 milligrams of sildenafil. That means a dosage of 36.8 milligrams of sildenafil a day. The recommended dose of Viagra for ED is from...Read More
Genitourinary, Orthopedics
Low Testosterone and Fractured Bones
"What makes men act the way they do?" one annoyed woman asked her friend. She replied, "It's testosterone, stupid." One of the reasons men differ from women is that they produce 10 times more testosterone. But like most things in life "10 times" doesn't last forever. There's mounting evidence that males experience their own menopause (andropause). And that the dwindling of the male hormone has far reaching consequences for males, particularly on bones and sexual drive. During the 3rd World Conference on "The Aging Male" held in Berlin, Germany, I interviewed Dr. Robert Josse, a renowned endocrinologist at the University of Toronto. Professor Josse said, "No one in the past has seriously looked at osteoporosis in men. We used to think that...Read More
Genitourinary
Is Circumcision Why We Need Viagra ?
When I researched this column on circumcision my initial reaction was "Wow". I thought the topic would be as easy to write about as rolling off a log but it consumed hours. I hadn't realized the male foreskin had triggered so many medical articles and so much controversy. Now I'm convinced that most families make a decision on circumcision without knowing much about this procedure. The question is, has male circumcision has increased the sale of Viagra? For some families the decision is easy. They believe circumcision should be performed for religious as well as for sound medical reasons. But if that's not the case, what should you do? A good start is a lesson on anatomy and its sexual implications. First,...Read More
