(no subject)
Who Spread False Tales of Heroism?
It's like Reagan/Oliver North all over again, except I actually kinda agreed with them. These guys are covering up for the sake of covering up.
***
Do Breast Self-Exams Do Any Good?"
... Researchers from the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research, came to that conclusion after reviewing two previously published population-based studies involving 388,535 women. In both trials - conducted in Russia and China - investigators randomly assigned women to one of two groups. One group was taught how to perform breast self-exams and was instructed to do them regularly; the control group was not. Among the 587 participants who died of breast cancer during the course of the studies, 292 women had dutifully performed breast self-exams and 295 had not - a minuscule difference that suggests there is no benefit from self-checks.
But the authors go further, issuing a strong warning that breast self-exams may do unnecessary harm, because they put women at risk for unneeded treatment. In the two studies, women who performed breast self-exams underwent 3,406 biopsies with benign results, nearly twice as many as women in the control groups. Dr. Peter Gotzsche, director of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Denmark and a co-author of the review, says biopsies are often the first step on the path toward further testing and increasingly invasive diagnostic tests. The report cites studies suggesting that women who travel that route often emerge with scars, breast deformities and emotional wounds. A benchmark study from 1998, published in the Journal of Public Health Medicine, indicates that five months after a benign surgical biopsy, 61% of women still struggled with symptoms of anxiety and psychological distress, including trouble sleeping, change in appetite and a general malaise fueled by thoughts of breast cancer.
... Once again, the official answer is decidedly undecided. "Our recommendation is that women who want to do a breast self-exam should go ahead and do it as long as they realize the limitations and that there may be extra biopsies," says Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecological cancer for the American Cancer Society. And for many women, to be sure, the risk of possible extra biopsies is far outweighed by the chance of catching a malignant tumor. Still, Saslow is unwavering on one key point: "Women who don't want to do breast self-exams shouldn't feel guilty about it."
I guess since I only remember to do 'em a few times a year, I get the best of both worlds?
***
William Petersen's run on 'CSI' coming to end
Nooooooooooo!!! He's my favorite character! It's not just CSI, it's The Gruesome Grissom Show! They damn well better find someone great to replace him.
*sulks*
(However, if it turns out that Horatio Caine from CSI Miami is indeed dead, I will do the happy dance. Number one most annoying major character from the shows we watch.)
***
Still flaring. Nothing major, pain meds and exercise take care of it. But I would really like this shit to be over and done with. This is not my idea of how to enjoy the dog. Although it's entirely possible that dog-sitting is contributing. She's a total sweetheart, which has me thinking about Lady all the damn time, which has me in a near-constant state of semi-stress. *grump*
Completed the Star Trek and Humanism handout on Monday morning; sent it to friend K., the resident Trekkie, for his approval. Hopefully I'll hear back today so I can send it out (or, theoretically possible, start over from scratch). But I think I did a pretty good job on it.
Have found myself daydreaming/pipe dreaming about getting into college, and then just never leaving. Going straight from student to teaching. Which, of course, won't happen. But they're very nice daydreams.
Am reading (quasi-simultaneously) Generation Kill, by Evan Wright, A Handbook in the History of Philosophy, by Albert E. Avey, and Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages, by Maurice DeWulf. And somehow, idiotic war seems to go together with philosophy like peanut butter and chocolate, which just proves for the zillionth time how whacked my brain really is. (Also, I think I'm in love with the Scholastics.)
I want one of those Ped Egg thingies for my elbow calluses, which seem to have become miniature horns almost overnight. Urgh.
Yoga this morning! Hopefully some good down dogs and chatarangas will loosen up the offending joints. And for the rest of the day, laundry like mad. Again. Think I'll keep the laundry room door cracked today so I can hear the dryer as soon as it stops.
Happy Wednesday to all!
It's like Reagan/Oliver North all over again, except I actually kinda agreed with them. These guys are covering up for the sake of covering up.
***
Do Breast Self-Exams Do Any Good?"
... Researchers from the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research, came to that conclusion after reviewing two previously published population-based studies involving 388,535 women. In both trials - conducted in Russia and China - investigators randomly assigned women to one of two groups. One group was taught how to perform breast self-exams and was instructed to do them regularly; the control group was not. Among the 587 participants who died of breast cancer during the course of the studies, 292 women had dutifully performed breast self-exams and 295 had not - a minuscule difference that suggests there is no benefit from self-checks.
But the authors go further, issuing a strong warning that breast self-exams may do unnecessary harm, because they put women at risk for unneeded treatment. In the two studies, women who performed breast self-exams underwent 3,406 biopsies with benign results, nearly twice as many as women in the control groups. Dr. Peter Gotzsche, director of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Denmark and a co-author of the review, says biopsies are often the first step on the path toward further testing and increasingly invasive diagnostic tests. The report cites studies suggesting that women who travel that route often emerge with scars, breast deformities and emotional wounds. A benchmark study from 1998, published in the Journal of Public Health Medicine, indicates that five months after a benign surgical biopsy, 61% of women still struggled with symptoms of anxiety and psychological distress, including trouble sleeping, change in appetite and a general malaise fueled by thoughts of breast cancer.
... Once again, the official answer is decidedly undecided. "Our recommendation is that women who want to do a breast self-exam should go ahead and do it as long as they realize the limitations and that there may be extra biopsies," says Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecological cancer for the American Cancer Society. And for many women, to be sure, the risk of possible extra biopsies is far outweighed by the chance of catching a malignant tumor. Still, Saslow is unwavering on one key point: "Women who don't want to do breast self-exams shouldn't feel guilty about it."
I guess since I only remember to do 'em a few times a year, I get the best of both worlds?
***
William Petersen's run on 'CSI' coming to end
Nooooooooooo!!! He's my favorite character! It's not just CSI, it's The Gruesome Grissom Show! They damn well better find someone great to replace him.
*sulks*
(However, if it turns out that Horatio Caine from CSI Miami is indeed dead, I will do the happy dance. Number one most annoying major character from the shows we watch.)
***
Still flaring. Nothing major, pain meds and exercise take care of it. But I would really like this shit to be over and done with. This is not my idea of how to enjoy the dog. Although it's entirely possible that dog-sitting is contributing. She's a total sweetheart, which has me thinking about Lady all the damn time, which has me in a near-constant state of semi-stress. *grump*
Completed the Star Trek and Humanism handout on Monday morning; sent it to friend K., the resident Trekkie, for his approval. Hopefully I'll hear back today so I can send it out (or, theoretically possible, start over from scratch). But I think I did a pretty good job on it.
Have found myself daydreaming/pipe dreaming about getting into college, and then just never leaving. Going straight from student to teaching. Which, of course, won't happen. But they're very nice daydreams.
Am reading (quasi-simultaneously) Generation Kill, by Evan Wright, A Handbook in the History of Philosophy, by Albert E. Avey, and Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages, by Maurice DeWulf. And somehow, idiotic war seems to go together with philosophy like peanut butter and chocolate, which just proves for the zillionth time how whacked my brain really is. (Also, I think I'm in love with the Scholastics.)
I want one of those Ped Egg thingies for my elbow calluses, which seem to have become miniature horns almost overnight. Urgh.
Yoga this morning! Hopefully some good down dogs and chatarangas will loosen up the offending joints. And for the rest of the day, laundry like mad. Again. Think I'll keep the laundry room door cracked today so I can hear the dryer as soon as it stops.
Happy Wednesday to all!