HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: drake@monarch.rtp.dg.com (Chris Drake)
Subject: Skin Cancer
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 23:52:07 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC

My mother is 63yrs. old and has had skin cancers (all benign so far)
since she was in her late forties. The rate is one or two per year;
she knows her dermatologist too well...

The damage, of course, occurred years ago due to sun exposure, radiation,
and her fair Celtic skin. Luckily, she heals quickly and well; but,
understandably, she's tired of watching for potential cancers.

Are there any treatments for someone who's so likely to continue
having problems with skin cancer? She's been using Retin-A, and that
seems to have helped some over the past couple years. She's thinking
about a chemical peel--what could that accomplish that the Retin-A
is not already accomplishing? Any other ideas are welcome. BTW,
she uses sunscreen and stays out of the sun as much as possible.

Chris Drake
drake@dg-rtp.dg.com
From: ark@alice.att.com (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Physician's Incomes
Keywords: income
Date: 16 Dec 92 13:48:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: alice.24418
Reply-To: ark@alice.UUCP ()
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ

In article <gdavis.724433998@griffin> gdavis@griffin.uvm.edu (Gary Davis) writes:

>  According to the December Scientific American,American physicians
> are among the best paid in the world.
> The lead article,which describes problems and policies concerning
> the control of health-care costs,cites USA MDs making a 120,000
> per year salary which equates to 5.1 times the salary of the average
> professional wage.

Two comments:

	1. How much of that salary do they get to keep?  In this
	   country, physicians pay through the nose for malpractice
	   insurance; is that true elsewhere?

	2. $120K/year doesn't sound like all that much, considering
	   the amount of training required.  It's not far off what
	   airline pilots make, for example, or even good system
	   administrators on Wall Street.  (Seriously!)
-- 
				--Andrew Koenig
				  ark@europa.att.com
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: jwm3@vivaldi.psu.edu (James Walter Martin)
Subject: EMF worries: are they silly?
Organization: Penn State Center for Academic Computing
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 08:23:40 GMT

 what ever happened to the electromagnetic field worries?
 
 i always figured that unless one works on power lines the concern was
 ridiculous because the Earth's own EMF is so much stronger.
 
 am i right about this? i.e., if my compass points North, am i o.k.?
 
-jim
From: chorley@vms.ocom.okstate.edu
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Strep Throat
Date: 16 Dec 92 16:19:21 GMT
Article-I.D.: vms.1992Dec16.101921.1
Organization: OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine

In article <1992Dec16.122908.21648@polaris.utu.fi>, eepee@polaris.utu.fi (Esa-Pekka P{lvim{ki) writes:
> In article <BzB5D1.JD7@csn.org> garys@teal.csn.org (Gary F. Stevens) writes:
>>In article <1992Dec14.222759.21149@unlv.edu> robert@unlv.edu (Robert Cray) writes:
>>>How can you tell the diference between a bad cold and strep throat?
>>>I've been told that strep needs to be treated lest it damage the heart,
>>>however I feel rather foolish showing up at the doctors office with what
>>>is in all probability a cold.  Does strep really need to be treated, or is
>>>the heart thing a rare occurance?
>>>
>>As far as I know a cold will not cause white spots on your throat. These
>>spots to not always = strep. It is never foolish to want to know what is
>>wrong with you are to want to feel good.
> 
> Actually, most of the "strep throats" treated with antibiotics are not 
> caused by streptococcus at all. Many different viral infections are 
> indistinguishable from beta-hemolytic streptococcus infection by any other
> method than the culture test specific for strep. Sore throat caused by a
> virus can be just as painful, just as red-hot, just as full of white spots,
> and so on. 
> 
> The ideal(istic) way of dealing with this is to go get the test done (don't
> know about your state, but here (Finland) you don't need to see the doc
> first, just walk straight to the lab), and if positive, start the antibiotics,
> preferrably V-penicillin.
> 
> Inadequately treated strep throat (no antibiotics, not enough rest..) may
> present a risk of a myocardial infection and thus should be taken seriously.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Point of clarification: the sequelae due to strep throat are not due to a
myocardial infection, but an autoimmune (rheumatic) response which destroys
heart valves.
	Indiscriminate use of penicillin will eventually select genetically for
penicillinase producing strep. sp. which will require more expensive drugs such
as augmentin (pen. + clavulinic acid) to treat.
Doctors will be informed of instances of penicillinase resistant strep
outbreaks and be aware of when to prescribe more expensive drugs.

My 2p worth

> given that one is an otherwise healthy individual, even streptococcal infection
> will leave no permanent harm, {not always}


Usual disclaimers apply

D. Chorley, sorcerer's apprentice
From: amigan@cup.portal.com (Mike - Medwid)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: female condom availability?
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 23:12:56 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: na
  <71461@cup.portal.com> <1992Dec11.085752.21534@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com>

The 12.5% failure rate was in a US trial.  But evidently in other countries
in certain age groups the failure rate was as high as 30%.  
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: lamontg@stein.u.washington.edu (Lamont Granquist)
Subject: Re: post-Prozac reactions
Organization: 'Operation: Mindcrime'
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 13:31:17 GMT

mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Mark D. Kline) writes:
>In article <724028452.AA00000@blkcat.UUCP> Diane.Mayronne@p99.f349.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Diane Mayronne) writes:
>>Does anyone know of any studies that have been conducted on people once they're
>>no longer taking Prozac?  Are there any after-effects?
>
>No adverse consequences of long term Prozac administration or discontinuation
>are known.  There are no "after effects."  There is substantial risk of 
>recurrent illness for many patients successfully treated with Prozac.  
>The recent literature on treatment of depressive disorders suggests longer
>periods of treatment with full dose (as opposed to lower, "maintainence"
>doses) and broader acceptance of indefinite (potentially lifelong) treatment
>with medications when a person has had several or very severe depressive
>episodes. 

Blah.  So then why did I experience a week-long episode of depressive
ideation after I got off of Prozac that was not characteristic of
my past history?  No, I wasn't "depressed" that the drug didn't work --
It was about the 4th one I tried, and I was pretty used to drugs
failing by that time, and hadn't experienced this on discontinuation
of other drugs before...  I've also got another anecdotal report of
someone having the same kind of atypical (for them) dysphoric mood
after stopping Prozac...

I'm beginning to think that the side effects that show up on studies are
only the ones which psychiatrists think will show up.

Anyway, I was on 40mg/day which is a healthy dose of Prozac, and the
depressive "dip" that came after Prozac wasn't unmanageable and went
away really fast...

-- 
Lamont Granquist  lamontg@u.washington.edu
  "When dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases."
                                      -- Robert Anton Wilson
From: zorrilla@cattell.psych.upenn.edu (Eric Zorrilla)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Peter Breggin, _Toxic Psychiatry_ (Q)
Date: 13 Dec 92 16:33:24 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <17762@pitt.UUCP> geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:

>>The effect of ECT is only TEMPORARY!!! After some time (weeks, months),
>>the person is as ill as he was before ECT. And the long series of
>>ECT cause severe brain damage.

>I know of many cases who were cured of their depression by ECT and the
>depression has not returned.

Though, in statistical terms, it is wise to maintain some sort of pharmacothe-
rapy after ECT to curb the high likelihood of recurrence/relapse in the
absence of any such intervention.

>Depression does tend to be a recurrant
>problem, so no matter what modality you use, recurrance may happen.

Certainly, but it IS useful to see if there appears to be differential
recurrence across any modalities.  It is here that cognitive therapy appears
to outperform pharmacotherapy and ECT.  The question then becomes if it is
more a property of the treatment or of the selected patient sample.

>If I had a depression
>not controlled by medication in myself or family member, this would
>be the treatment I would choose.

My decision tree for a case of depression would be:
1] Conjunctive cognitive therapy + pharmacotherapy
	If success, goto 4:
2] ECT treatment
	If response, goto 1:
3] Goto 2 after some wait
4] Get on with life.

The point being that we shouldn't forget that CT+drug therapy appears to be
the best AND that some additional, maintained treatment CAN be useful after
ECT to prevent relapse.


-- 
[--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------]
| Eric Zorrilla - Dept. of Psychology  | zorrilla@cattell.psych.upenn.edu     |
| University of Pennsylvania           | 3815 Walnut, Philadelphia, PA 19104  |
[--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------]
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: an3029@anon.penet.fi
Subject: dupuytren's contracture
X-Anonymously-To: sci.med
Organization: Anonymous contact service
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 03:43:43 GMT

Does anyone have any information of the new technique for treating
dupuytren's contracture with triamcinolone?  Also, my path book was thoroughly
useless as far as suggesting a cause, other then mentioning that there
appeared to be a genetic disposition.  
Thanks!
-heather


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Newsgroups: sci.med
From: mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Mark D. Kline)
Subject: Re: What is Klonopin?
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 19:40:36 EST

In article <1992Dec12.115452.6198@desire.wright.edu> sbishop@desire.wright.edu writes:
>Has anyone ever heard of proscribing Klonopin for 'restless leg syndrome'?
>
>My pulmonary specialist wants me to take this.  I tried it for one day,
>was incredibly sleepy the next day, so cut doseage down to 1/4 tablet
>at bedtime.  I'm still taking it occasionally, have no info on what this
>stuff is and what it does.  Don't tell me to ask the doctor, this man
>zooms into the examining room and zooms out, leaving me with my mouth
>open trying to ask questions.

Klonopin (clonazepam) is a benzodiazepine, a cousin of Valium (diazepam)
and Xanax (alprazolam).  Klonopin is prescribed as an adjunctive
anticonvulsant, for anxiety, for mania (in manic depressive (Bipolar)
disorder) and for nocturnal myoclonus (restless legs).  

Side effects include sedation and psychomotor impairment; tolerance
generally develops rapidly to these effects when the dose is in a
reasonable range.  Klonopin has a relatively long duration of action
and half life - this means that you may feel it the next day after a
bedtime dose.  This may be a bug or a feature, depending on what you're
taking it for.  Stopping Klonopin abruptly can result in rebound
insomnia, anxiety, and seizures (the latter generally only in 
susceptible individuals).

Taking Klonopin for restless legs at night involves a trade off.
If the restless legs are severe, and interfering significantly with
sleep, and the Klonopin settles down the restless legs, then you may
feel more alert the next day (your bed partner may also sleep better
if you stop kicking while asleep).  On the other hand, Klonopin can
cause next day sedation.  It should be possible weigh out these
effects after getting the dose adjusted (and adjusting to a dose)
over a couple of weeks.

================================================================= 
mark kline                              mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu
suny health science center, syracuse    voice: (315) 422-1050
================ courtesy of syracuse university ================
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu (David Nye)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Info sought on TMJ
Date: 20 Dec 92 21:44:47 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

[reply to heine@casbah.acns.nwu.edu]
 
Look for someone, either a dentist, or better yet, an oral surgeon, who has
special expertise in TMJ and go see them.  There is little you can do on your
own for this, and it may get worse if neglected.  The problem is a combination
of joint derangement and tightness of the temporalis muscle that closes the
jaw.  It often is triggered by gritting the teeth at night (bruxism).  An
interocclusal splint worn at night often does wonders for the problem.
Sometimes anti-inflamatory meds or muscle relaxants are needed.  Occasionally
surgery is necessary.

David Nye
nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: lucyc@suite.sw.oz.au (Lucy Chubb)
Subject: Re: sleep paralysis /hypnogic hallucinations/ night terrors
Organization: Softway Pty Ltd
Date: 17 Dec 92 04:51:24 GMT

From article <17790@pitt.UUCP>, by geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks):
> In article <ffb2l4a@rpi.edu> kaminl@aix.rpi.edu (Matt Garretson) writes:
> 
>>An interesting thing was, that the combination of misery from too much
>>work to do and the sleep deprivation and the onslought of caffeine
>>gave me what seemed like "waking nightmares" or something. Maybe they
>>were just bouts of panic, but my perspective was kinda whacked at the time.
> 
> They were hallucinations.  You need REM sleep, which occurs with
> dreaming.  If you don't sleep long enough, you'll start getting
> the REM sleep while you're awake, and the dreams will occur
> as hallucinations.

As a sort of aside: this sort of hallucination was happening to me
for about 15 years before I was diagnosed as having sleep apnea and
began to be treated for it. It made interacting with people really
difficult as I kept going off into the never-never during the middle
of things.

		Lucy Chubb.

Softway Pty Ltd,		Phone: +61 2 698 2322;
P.O. Box 305,			Fax: +61 2 699 9174;
Strawberry Hills,		Email: lucyc@softway.sw.oz.au
NSW 2012,
AUSTRALIA
From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: "reflexology"?
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 13:29:52 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

Quoting from _Helping_Yourself_with_Foot_Reflexology_ by Mildred
Carter (Parker, 1969) page 75:

"I dug in, starting with the pituitary reflex in the center of his big
toe.  That had improved considerably during the time he had been
coming, even though I had not massaged it very heavily.  The
thyroid had improved somewhat, too.  As I went over each reflex
I massaged quite deeply, and he sat there and hung onto the chair
arms, gritting his teeth, but taking it like a man.  Then I came to the
liver reflex, my fingers pressing into the spongy area under the little
toe on the right side.  I thought I had lost both arms of my chair for
sure!  A congested, sluggish liver.  What could make a person more
tired than a malfunctioning liver?  No wonder the poor man was
called lazy all of his life.  He wasn't lazy;  he was sick, not enough to
be sick in bed or complain about it, but he had a reason for his
chronic fatigue."
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: heine@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Eric Heine)
Subject: Info sought on TMJ
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 05:14:39 GMT


I was diagnosed some years ago as having TMJ, but for financial and
insurance reasons have not yet sought medical care. I am noticing, however,
that in the last few months my symptoms have grown more severe. I would
like to be able to attribute this to the increased stress I am experiencing
as my company is going through an acquisition, but I am wondering:

	a) Is this a degenerative disease that will continue to worsen as
	time goes by, or is the severity of its symptoms correlated to
	environmental factors such as stress-induced grinding of the teeth
	while asleep, etc.?

	b) Are there treatments available for TMJ? If so, are they
	surgical, or do they rely on drug therapy? Or perhaps physical
	therapy and appliances?

	c) I am regrettably acquainted with the symptoms of TMJ, but I am
	uncertain as to the physiological phenomenon/phenomena associated
	with the disease. Is this actually a problem with cartilage tissue,
	or something else?

Your net.wisdom and net.advice are welcome. Responses via e-mail to
e-heine@nwu.edu are preferred.

Thanks,

Eric Heine
From: habersch@husc9.harvard.edu (Oren Haber-Schaim)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Adiposity 101
Date: 12 Dec 92 20:51:46 GMT

>In article <1992Dec03.222011.3803@omen.UUCP> caf@omen.UUCP 
(Chuck Forsberg) writes:
>>Is obesity caused by a character imperfection, or by abnormal partitioning of
>>dietary nutrients between body function, lean and adipose tissue.

>Chuck, get real!  I don't know *any* obesity researcher who thinks
>it is caused by a character imperfection.  That went out many
>years ago.  Character imperfection is not the alternative to
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>accepting your theories that physics doesn't apply to the obese.


Why are we mature enough to recognize and acknowledge physical
imperfections (e.g. baldness, acne, missing limb, lousy coordination,
you-name-it...even extreme fatness dare I say) but not mature enough
to recognize and acknowledge 
character imperfections?   Is it taboo?  Did the coverage of the
recent presidential election make it "politically incorrect"?

We all have them, in a myriad of different guises.  


O. Haber-Schaim 
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: drand@spinner.osf.org (Douglas S. Rand)
Subject: Re: "stigma" of psychiatric treatment, again
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: 18 Dec 92 11:18:41

In article <BzF97G.C4v@unx.sas.com> sasghm@theseus.unx.sas.com (Gary Merrill) writes:

   In article <24430@alice.att.com>, ark@alice.att.com (Andrew Koenig) writes:
   |> I just heard a news story about a man in Quincy, Illinois.
   |> Apparently he showed up in an ER complaining of chest pains
   |> shortly after a robber had held a gun to his head.  They
   |> checked him out, found nothing wrong with his heart, and
   |> suggested he was probably suffering from "post-traumatic
   |> stress syndrome" and that he should stay overnight.

   This must have resulted, of course, from the application of
   the objective criteria used in diagnosis that we have seen
   referred to recently.

Do you,  by any chance,  draw distinctions between medicine
and politics?  It would seem that this is an application of
the later and not the former,  hardly a good support for your
statement.

--
Douglas S. Rand <drand@osf.org>		OSF/Motif Dev.
Snail:         11 Cambridge Center,  Cambridge,  MA  02142
Disclaimer:    I don't know if OSF agrees with me... let's vote on it.
Amateur Radio: KC1KJ
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: caf@omen.UUCP (Chuck Forsberg)
Subject: Re: Adiposity 101
Organization: Omen Technology INC, Portland Rain Forest
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 00:09:34 GMT

In article <17744@pitt.UUCP> geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:
>In article <1992Dec05.003236.11454@omen.UUCP> caf@omen.UUCP (Chuck Forsberg) writes:
>>
>>The current Adiposity 101 cites almost 20 papers that conclude
>>the obese generally didn't get that way by feeding their faces.
>
>Well, not exactly.  If you don't feed your face you eventually will
>suffer the same fate as those currently in Somalia.

Hardly.  "Feeding your face" is a perjorative term that means extreme
hyperphagia.  It is my mistake in using a phrase that is meaningful
only to those who grew up fat at a tender age.

>Even if the obese don't eat more, they are eating too much for them.

Haven't we heard enough of this old time diet religion already?

>
>>adipose tissue.  Dietary manipulatons have not been very
>>successful in the long term control of obesity; the 95% failure
>>rate approaches that of laetrile, and I see no indication that
>>another 50 years of tinkering will improve the success rate of
>>either.
>>
>>In either case it is high time to move on to something else.
>>
>
>They are moving on, but you have to have something to move on to.

The new methods are already far better for those with adipocyte
hyperplasia.  At least they haven't been shown to increase the
severity of adipocyte hyperplasia by 10 per cent per treatment.
-- 
Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX          ...!tektronix!reed!omen!caf 
Author of YMODEM, ZMODEM, Professional-YAM, ZCOMM, and DSZ
  Omen Technology Inc    "The High Reliability Software"
17505-V NW Sauvie IS RD   Portland OR 97231   503-621-3406
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: afkazan@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (The Dinky Ukie)
Subject: Pepcid
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Cats `R' Us
Date: 11 Dec 1992 15:37 EST  

A friend of mine has been experiencing difficulties when eating.  The 
symptoms he describes are that it feels as if he can't swallow and the food 
just sticks in his esophagus.  This leads to hicupping, which seems to
relieve the discomfort.  This sounds like it could be a hiatal hernia.  His 
doctor gave him some pills to try -- 20 mg of Pepcid, famotidine/MSD.  Does 
anyone have any information on this drug or any idea of what his problem 
might be?

Chris
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: green@island.COM (Robert Greenstein)
Subject: Re: evidence for homeopathy - who pays?
Organization: Strawman Incorporated
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 23:35:25 GMT

In article <Bz0qrC.829@news.udel.edu> dave@bach.udel.edu (David Aaro Anderson) writes:

>   When he talks here about "the history of conflict" between these two systems, BSIMON is referring to the mid- to late nineteenth century, when homeopathy reached its peak in this country.  After biomedicine dropped its ineffective heroic
>treatments (bleeding, purging, and the like), and adopted effective remedies
>that didn't strike fear into the hearts of patients, homeopathy certainly
>found itself on the way out.

This is a distorted explanation of what happened. In fact, the AMA was
launched for the purpose of driving the homeopaths out of business. They
succeeded in this endeavor by conning the government into accepting
the Johns Hopkins medical school as *the* model, by which all other 
schools had to measure up, or lose funding. One by one, the homeopathic
schools closed down, until there were none left. 

As for biomedicine adopting medicine that doesn't strike fear into the
hearts of patients, they still haven't figured that one out yet. Which
is why so many patients are running to homeopaths and other alternative
practitioners. 
-- 
******************************************************************************
Robert Greenstein           Orthodoxy is the death of intelligence.            
green@srilanka.island.com            - Bertrand Russell                               
Newsgroups: sci.med