Get Healthy

Federal task force counters American Cancer Society’s long-standing recommendation

A 33-year cancer survivor, Ann Peters recalls finding a malignant lump in her breast herself. Now 66, Peters was shocked Monday to hear a government task force is advising not only that women wait until age 50 to get mammograms but that breast self-exams are of no value.

“I can’t imagine not doing it,” Peters said. “I don’t know a woman who wouldn’t share my thoughts.” Peters is president of the Pink Ribbon Society, which provides services to scores of breast cancer patients and their families throughout Northwest Indiana.

The new guidelines were issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, whose stance influences coverage of screening tests by Medicare and many insurance companies. The panel recommends getting a mammogram every other year after age 50. The advice is a major reversal that conflicts with the American Cancer Society’s long-standing recommendation of annual screening starting at 40.
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Freddy Ortega, a Clark High School junior, wears the T-shirt he designed to support breast cancer awareness. (Photograph courtesy of Michelle Kominsky.)

The National Football League’s decision to designate October’s games as American Breast Cancer Awareness games scored big with Freddy Ortega, 16.

Ortega has two aunts who are breast cancer survivors and always wears a pink wristband to show his support for them. He liked how the NFL and its teams promoted breast cancer awareness messages with pre-game and in-stadium initiatives and by having coaches and staff personnel and players wear pink ribbons and pink uniform gear.

So after the game, the George Rogers Clark High School student headed to town. He went into The Junk Yard to see if there was something there in line with the cause. Within a few moments, he decided to customize a shirt. He chose a royal blue T-shirt—Clark’s color—and had the initials of his school, ‘GRS’, printed on the upper right collar. Below the letters he added ‘class of 2011.’ In the center, he had the word ‘Supports’ printed next to a pink ribbon twisted in the shape of a heart.
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While the general rule at one time was “once a cesarean, always a cesarean,” that way of thinking isn’t true anymore. With the option of Vaginal Birth after Cesarean (VBAC), women who have had a c-section aren’t destined to have another. However, VBACs have been on the decline in recent years.

“It’s been more discussed in the last 25 years, but the number has gone down,” said Dr. Karl Schwartz, a Munster Obstetrician/Gynecologist. “It’s not as commonly seen as it was 10 years ago and 15 years ago.” It’s a change he said has resulted from the liability involved. While uterine rupture is rare, it is a risk that comes with the procedure that can involve fetal brain damage and even death.

Those woman who have a successful VBAC have the advantage of a quicker recovery, less bleeding and a faster return to normal activities, said Schwartz.
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HOW TO BE A SUPER WOMAN

You’re busy. You’re tired. You have to worry about a million other things before your own health. But neglecting your well-being is starting to take a toll. You’ve become moody. Overweight. And who knows what else is going on inside of you. You may think it’s a phase but it might not be.

It’s time you start paying attention.

Check out all of the articles here:

• Mood in Motion
• Pelvic Pain Reliever
• Target Those Trouble Spots
• Obesity and Heart Disease

Increased levels of obesity and increased levels of heart disease: is there a connection? While it may seem a natural connection to make, it is more complex than a simple concept of weight-goes-up/heart-gets-stressed. According to cardiologists, there is a little more to the cause and effect.

There has been an increase in obesity from 25 to 33 percent over the last few decades, according to Dr. Sandhya Donepudi, MD, FACC, an interventional cardiologist at St. Margaret Mercy hospital in Hammond. A full third of us are officially obese. And it appears that health factors accompanying such obesity are responsible for the heart disease rates that are also rising.
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Doctors consider new tool in quest to catch breast cancer earlier

Dr. Anthony Gentile stands with the new HALO breast pap test, a new kind of breast cancer detection system that takes things up a notch in the detection of breast cancer, Dr. Gentile said. HALO uses a noninvasive technology to suction out nipple aspirate fluid (NAF), which is then tested for precancerous cells. A small group of cells won't turn up on a mammogram or ultrasound, but having abnormal cells in your nipple fluid is related to an increased risk for breast cancer. (Photography by John Luke/The Times.)

Current statistics on breast cancer have women on edge. The fact that one in four cancers diagnosed in American women is breast cancer, that death rates are higher than any other cancer besides lung cancer, and that one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, have researchers seeking ways to get in front of the disease.

Finding women at risk for developing breast cancer, who may harbor atypical cells years before a lump forms is the idea behind collecting and analyzing nipple aspirate fluid, essentially a Pap test of the breast.

A device popping up in gynecology offices across the country, albeit rare and slow to catch on in Chicagoland, is emerging as another tool in the armamentarium doctors use to zero in on breast cancer earlier.
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Catherine Patterson [not her real name], from Valparaiso, suffered for many years with pelvic pain. As a child it was difficult for her to ride a bike or wear jeans. Later in life, sex was painful for her and led to the breakup of her first marriage. Twenty years later, she was finally diagnosed with vestibulitis, a condition that causes pain and burning at the entrance to the vagina and urethra.

Patterson is not an unusual case. It may take a woman many years and several doctors before she receives a proper diagnosis. Undiagnosed and untreated pelvic pain takes a physical and emotional toll on women and their partners.
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Mood swings in women can be caused by a range of things—from serious mental illness to temporary situations that make one happy or sad.

“The term ‘mood swings’ is used somewhat loosely,” says Jaswinder Singh, PhD, HSSP, a licensed clinical psychologist and licensed mental health therapist at Mid-American Psychological and Counseling Services in Merrillville.

Singh explains that life’s situations—single motherhood, financial struggle, trying to balance career and home life—can bring on mood swings that are not psychiatrically based but rather resulting from stress. Stress that, if not addressed by adequate support and help, can ultimately lead to psychiatric illness.
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(Photograph by John J. Watkins.)

Dr. Marylyn Rosencranz practices at the Indiana Breast Center, located within Diagnostic Specialties, in Crown Point. Graduating from Chicago Osteopathic in 1981, Rosencranz started out in general radiology, eventually specializing in mammography. The Indiana Breast Center focuses on diagnosis, using the latest technologies to perform routine screenings, biopsies and tumor evaluations.

Q. Why does breast cancer seem more prevalent now than, say, 20 years ago?

A. A couple of theories: there’s a question of pollution. There’s a question of hormones in food. You have hormones being placed in chickens and other meat. Last is that it is not necessarily occurrence, but that we are finding breast cancer better. Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to women and fitness, it seems there is always that one stubborn body part that we lament upon, the one that makes us cringe when we look in the mirror, the one that despite our best efforts, it seems, just refuses to budge.

June Puzon, a trainer at Fitness Pointe in Munster, says the most heavily complained-about areas among her clients tend to be the abs, glutes, outer thighs (a.k.a. “saddlebags”), triceps (the “friendly” muscle that keeps waving long after you’ve said hello) and, ugh, back fat.

Puzon’s picks for the best overall strengthening exercises for the common trouble spots are the plank and bicycle for abs, squats and bridge for the butt/hips, kickbacks for triceps and abduction for outer thighs. As for back fat, she says, cardio is the best bet.

In general, Puzon suggests working up to about 16 to 20 repetitions of each exercise. When that becomes easy, add more sets or hold some weight. Don’t forget to give the muscles you’ve worked a day of rest, as that is when the rebuilding of a stronger muscle takes place.
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