Contraception and birth control Archive

Undetected low levels of thyroid hormone may underlie subtle changes that can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.

For a gland only two inches in size, the thyroid has a huge influence on our health. It produces a hormone that is carried in the bloodstream to all parts of the body. Thyroid hormone plays a major role in regulating metabolism—the process by which body cells convert nutrients into energy—and thereby helps regulate body temperature, heart rate, and even brain function. So when thyroid hormone levels fall, the body slows.

You're probably aware of the common symptoms of low thyroid hormone—fatigue, fuzzy-headedness, weight gain, cold hands, and dry skin. But if you're like most of us, you're likely to blame your diet and exercise regimen instead of your thyroid if your cholesterol levels and weight are creeping up, especially if you don't have any of the other symptoms of low thyroid. "Symptoms are often nonspecific, and since women over 60 generally have more of these nonspecific symptoms, their doctors may not think to test for hypothyroidism," says endocrinologist Dr. Jeffrey Garber, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and author of The Harvard Medical School Guide to Overcoming Thyroid Problems.

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Q. Do men have to worry about bone health, and if so, what are the best exercises to keep my bones strong?

A. Most men have the advantage of continuing to produce bone-protecting testosterone throughout life. But the level of the male hormone declines with age and therefore may not be sufficient to keep bones strong as a man hits his later years.

Men weighing treatment options for intermediate- or high-risk cancer that is still localized to the prostate can face a tricky question. A standard approach in these cases is to give radiation to the prostate along with drugs that block testosterone, a hormone that makes the cancer cells grow faster. For how long should this hormone […]

Biomarkers are molecular signatures of both normal and abnormal processes in the body. Here is a more formal definition proposed by a "definitions" working group associated with the National Institutes of Health: "A characteristic that is objectively measured and evaluated as an indicator of normal biologic processes, pathogenic processes, or pharmacological responses to a therapeutic intervention."

Proteins, fragments of proteins, enzymes, DNA, the RNA molecules that "read" DNA—they all can serve as biomarkers. Blood is an ideal source material because it's easy to collect and examine, but biomarkers can also be found in other body fluids, like urine, and in tissue itself. Biomarkers can inform decisions before, during, and after treatment.

Statins and other drugs that lessen cardiovascular disease risk by lowering blood lipids rank among the world’s most prescribed medications. And for the men who take them, accumulating evidence has for years pointed to another added benefit: a lower risk of developing prostate cancer. Now researchers are reporting that long-term statin use (more than 10 […]

There's a lot you can do to improve your outcome if you're taking an active surveillance approach to your diagnosis.

 Image: © Nastasic/Getty Images

About 90% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer have the localized kind, which means the cancer is confined to the prostate gland. And for many, a reasonable approach is active surveillance, in which men choose to monitor their cancer instead of going straight into invasive treatments, such as surgery or radiation therapy.

Active surveillance includes a doctor visit about every six months, most often with a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test and digital rectal exam.