HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rick@posms.cactus.org (Rick Kirchhof)
Subject: Sleep apnea
Organization: Department of Redundancy Dept., Austin
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 20:30:27 GMT
Summary: What are the options

I have just undergone a sleep study and have been diagnosed with severe
obstructive sleep apnea.  A CT scan of the nasal area was also done, and
leads my physician to believe that surgery has a less than 50% chance of
being effective.

The recommendation at this time is to use a CPAP machine.  This was done
for the later half of the sleep study, and proved to be effective.  

I guess I have known that I have the disorder, but had never given it
much thought.  The heavy and persistant snoring along with the "really
scary" delays in breathing caused my wife to force me to look into it.

I don't relish the thought of a face mask every night of the rest of my
life, and would like to seek other information on sleep apnea.  I have
the CT scan and sleep study reports.  If anyone can point me to
alternatives and/or additional information, I would be very grateful.

Please E-mail to save net bandwidth.  I will summarize and mail to anyone
who asks.

-- 
Rick Kirchhof   Austin, Texas                   | Experience is what you
Domain: rick@posms.cfi.org                      | get when you don't
Bang path: ...!cs.utexas.edu!peyote!posms!rick  | get what you want.            
===========================================================================
From: wsun@jeeves.ucsd.edu (Fiberman)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: hydrocortisone
Date: 10 Jan 93 22:25:50 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

Hydrocortisone is used in some medication to treat hemorrhoids.
Are there any side-effects of using cortisone?

-fm
From: llama@tramp.cc.utexas.edu (sine nomine)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Adiposity 101
Date: 5 Jan 93 20:26:26 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

Chuck Forsberg (caf@omen.UUCP) wrote:

: Sine nomine, you haven't provided nearly enough data to make a
: serious observation.  Your signature suggests there is more to
: the story than has been told.  Please use the data in my posting
: as an example of the necessary completeness if you wish to see
: some informed speculation.

from this i assume you want a history of lifetime weight gain/loss. i
don't have numbers, but i wasn't obese as a young child. i first began
putting on weight a year or so after my mother's death (i was 7 when
she died). by the time i was 10 i weighed about a hundred pounds. i
don't know how tall i was then, but i was about average compared to
others in my grade. my father remarried around this time, and over the
next six months or so i lost the excess weight. from ages 11 until
about 15, i was of roughly normal weight. by the time i graduated high
school, i was 5'8" and weighed about 160-165. at 19 i got married;
shortly after this the first major depression began. when i was 21, in
1984, i started being treated for it; at this time i weighed about 240
pounds. i separated from my husband, lost about 30 pounds, then
reunited with him in 1987. by 1989, when i divorced him, i weighed
nearly 300 pounds (i had been weighed at 270 six months earlier and
had been afraid to weigh since because my dress size had increased
twice. 300 is just a guess). seven months after the divorce, my weight
was at 190, where it stayed for nearly two years (i got tired of
dieting and just ate whatever i felt like. i did a lot of walking
during this time but nothing special). in early 1992, i had a second
episode of depression and my weight went up to 215. the day after
halloween, i started the diet i'm on now and i'm down to 184 or so.

as a side note, i have abnormally high levels of androgens and have
been told that this might affect my weight (and my fat seems to be
deposited in a "male" pattern (mostly abdominal) instead of a female
pattern).

still, if dieting damages your metabolism, i should have gained a
great deal of weight during 1990 and 1991. the diet i was on in 1989
was very very low in calories and i went from it to a more or less
"normal" eating pattern.

for me, at least, weight loss and gain is related to how much i eat
and how much i exercise. metabolism doesn't seem to be an issue at
all. and i can't believe that my ideal weight (by setpoint theory) is
somewhere near 300 pounds.

i think gordon's right; right now, all we have is diet and exercise,
and they *can* be effective.

--
deb martinson
what's red and invisible?
no tomatoes.
From: rrb@corona.CSS.GOV (Robert Blandford)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Physician's Incomes
Summary: Consumer's Reports shows Physician's Income Outpaces Median Wage
Date: 4 Jan 93 17:08:24 GMT



Subject: Re: Physician's Incomes

In article <17956@pitt.UUCP> geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:
>In article <=thr35c@dixie.com> jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) writes:
>
>>In the venerable words of someone, "Tough shit, son".  Your personal
>>financial situation is of no concern to your prospective patients and 
>>should certainly not be of concern to those who now set reimbursement 
>>rates.
>
>Do you think that you can just set the rates to whatever you want
>and have no consequences?  The lower the rates get, the less service
>and the less quality the service becomes.  Look at the welfare
>mills in cities like Chicago where all the clients are medicaid.
>Note that I said client, not patient.  You couldn't call what they
>get medical care.  Yet some of the doctors that run these have
>the highest incomes.
>
>>If you don't like the debt load or can't afford the bill, perhaps you 
>>could do the same thing the  rest of us do - alter your lifestyle
>>accordingly.  You COULD work your way through school. Or you could
>
>
>So you advocate only those with very rich daddies going to medical
>school?  The average Joe could never do it without hocking his ass.
>Certainly I agree that something needs to be done, but I'm not sure
>what it is.  The bills for training have to be paid by someone.  If
>you refuse to allow the professional to make enough profit to pay
>his training debts, then you have to subsidize the training.
>-- 


In the recent Consumer Reports series on health care they plotted
the median US wage, the median doctor's salary, and the median specialists
salary from 1970 to present.  The median US wage was flat, the doctor's
salary had increased by a factor of 3 and the specialist's salary by
a factor of 10.

No one ever gets the money that he thinks he deserves; but it is not clear
to me why doctors should make more than they used to as compared to the
average person.

The cause of this increase, I speculate, has been the rise in insurance;
no matter who pays for it, the company or the government. The only cure,
I imagine is to put the consumer back in charge somehow.. so the doctor
knows that the money is coming out of the consumer's pocket.  I have
proposed a solution in terms of a fixed lifetime personal entitlement.
Another approach would be to severely tax all except catastrophic
($10,000) insurance; and to provide about $250 of basic preventative
care free to everyone.


>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bwhite@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (William E. White )
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: 5-HT1A Agonist Anxiolytics (was Re: Xanax...)
Date: 10 Jan 93 22:52:01 GMT
Organization: Ohio University, Computer Science Department

In article <C0IDsA.CCu@acsu.buffalo.edu> oispeggy@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Peggy Brown) writes:

>o At the end of the 8 weeks, 78 percent of peole taking Xanax 
>  were panic-free, complared with 81 percent of those opn 
>  imipramine and 75 percent of the people on placebo - virtually 
>  identical numbers.

Imipramine for anxiety?  Yowch!  Sorta the shotgun effect; maybe what we
need is a rifle instead?  I saw some interesting results on 5HT1a agonists
as antianxiety drugs -- very good results, not always quite so powerful
as benzodiazepines, but with a *lot* fewer side effects (and given the
specificity, probably much fewer side effects than fluoxetine, and heaven
knows fewer than a MAOI.  Besides, cheese is good food).  Look in MEDLINE
for references -- hopefully 5HT1a agonists will turn out to be as good as
they look on paper ....


-- 
|  Bill White   +1-614-594-3434     | bwhite@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu             |
|  31 Curran Dr., Athens OH  45701  | bwhite@bigbird.cs.ohiou.edu (alternate) |
|  SCA: Erasmus Marwick, Dernehealde Pursuivant, Dernehealde, Middle Kingdom  |
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: johnp@gr.hp.com (John Parsons)
Subject: Fallen arches - toddler
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 05:46:01 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard / Boise, Idaho
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1.8 PL6]

Our daughter finally started walking at 18 months.  Thats when we
noticed she has fallen arches.  She seems to walk without pain or
unusual difficulty, but her arches collapse and her feet point outward.

Weve been to two podiatrists.  One says the cause is loose ligaments
and recommends immobilizing her feet in casts to stiffen them up in the
proper position.  He says this would take around 3 months, possibly
followed by the use of orthotics.

Podiatrist #2 says that using casts would be a waste of time, that they
should only be used in extreme cases, and he would just prescribe
orthotics to encourage her feet to grow in the proper direction.

Same girl, same symptoms, two widely different opinions.  Before I flip
a coin, would anyone care to comment?


Thanks,
John Parsons       johnp@gr.hp.com
Hewlett Packard, Greeley, Colorado
From: barinaga@netcom.com (Marcia Barinaga)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: help wanted with med questions
Date: 13 Jan 93 02:59:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: netcom.1993Jan13.025905.22270
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

I write a weekly science and medicine Q&A column
for the San Jose Mercury News, and I have some pesky 
questions that I have not been able to find reliable, 
authoritative answers for, most likely because these 
aren't hot subjects for research, so even experts in 
the various fields can only speculate. 

But I know from experience that there often are experts 
with reliable answers hiding out there, and the trick is 
finding them. I would appreciate any tips on who to call 
who may be able to help me find answers to these questions.

1. Why do joints ache when the weather is bad? 
Is it dampness or atmospheric pressure that triggers the 
aching, and how does it do it?

2. Why do you often sneeze when you look at the sun?

3. Why can't we tickle ourselves?


I am not very expert on newsgroup discourse, and would 
appreciate it if anyone who wants to offer assistance could 
send their messages to my e mail address on the Internet.

Thanks in advance,
Marcia Barinaga
barinaga@netcom.com
From: fbap2004@nusunix1.nus.sg (KWA KIM CHIONG)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Imigran for Migraine
Date: 10 Jan 93 14:42:35 GMT
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]


What is the best treatment for Migraine? A doctor recently prescribed a
new drug called "Imigran" to me which cost $10/pill, but he is not
absolutely sure of the side effects as it is quite new. Does anybody
know?
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: carl@aoa.aoa.utc.com (Carl Witthoft)
Subject: Re: Physician's Incomes
Organization: Adaptive Optics Associates
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 20:16:01 GMT

In article <17956@pitt.UUCP> geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:
>In article <=thr35c@dixie.com> jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) writes:
>>rtoptan@lucpum.it.luc.edu (Richard Z Toptani) writes:
>>>In addition, PhD's do not have to pay the large malpractice premiums, or 
>>Probably 'cuz PhDs don't harm as many people as MDs.
>Yeah?  Tell it to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
x
Off the original thread, but I'm tired of that old "scientists blew
up the world" routine.
Name a scientific discovery/development in physics, engineering, 
chemistry, or biology which was not exploited to its fullest as
a military tool at some time in history.
And, of course, for the specific example of the A-bomb, far more people
died during saturation firebombing of Tokyo w/ conventional explosives.

Of course, MDs do far less harm than the lawyers suing them would have
you believe, but that's another flame for another day :=)


-- 
Carl Witthoft @ Adaptive Optics Associates
aoa!carl@bbn.com  carl@aoa.utc.com
54 CambridgePark Drive, Cambridge,MA 02140 617-864-0201
"88 is 55 if you want to fly."
From: nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu (David Nye)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Non-physician bashing
Date: 6 Jan 93 21:13:30 -0600
Organization: University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

[reply to kim@techbook.com]
 
>>>I suggest that the large majority of these good, upstanding citizens
>>>who stay away from quacks do so for the wrong reason.  They do it
>>>because it is the establishment thing;  if a quack system was the
>>>establishment thing, they would do that instead.
 
>>No, I think the opposite is true.  Patients of mine who don't see
>>alt.practitioners tend not to for reasons other than because they worry
>>about what the neighbors will think.  Around here, most of their
>>neighbors are likely to recommend a chiropracter first for certain
>>problems.  These patients are looking for the treatment most likely to
>>succeed and aren't taken in by the claims of quacks.  Those that go to
>>alt.practitioners (other than chiropracters) on the other hand often go
>>because it is novel and trendy.  They also seem to be more superstitious
>>than mainstream patients, believing in things like luck, fate, and
>>common superstitions.  These are the same people who would go to a
>>fortune teller.
 
>Wouldn't this depend on age, socioeconomic status, and possibly
>education?  In some groups, seeing an MD first is the establishment
>thing; other groups only see an MD if all else failed.
 
This depends on what you mean by "the establishment thing".  Sure, many
people might go to MDs because their peers tell them not to waste their
time and money on unscientific therapies, and the patient trusts this
advice.  My point was that I don't think they go because they worry that
people would talk about them if they went to altpractitioners.

David Nye
nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer)
Subject: Re: Temporary loss of gripping force -- a known symptom?
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 21:37:09 GMT

In article <1993Jan9.143359.12766@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE> Oliver Schoett <schoett@informatik.tu-muenchen.de> writes:
>A friend of mine reports a strange symptom that she has had all her
>life and that she seems to have in common with her mother: several
>times during a day, she loses the ability to exert gripping force with
>her hands for ten to twenty minutes.  This often happens immediately
>after waking up or after intense laughing (honest!), but also without
>discernible trigger.  The gripping force in the hands may be lost
>almost completely (after waking up) or only to some degree (during the
>day).  Dexterity of the hands seems not to be affected.  The symptom
>disappears gradually.
>It is truly amazing: when this loss occurs, she can grab my arm with
>her maximum force, and the pressure is roughly the same as when I
>simply hold my arm relaxedly with my other hand.
>Has anyone ever seen or heard of a symptom like this?

The first thing which came to my mind was a variant of periodic
paralysis, a syndrome which may be associated with hypo- or
hyperkalemia.  I have no idea if this is likely or not.

-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
Newsgroups: sci.med
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: dbailey@cix.compulink.co.uk (Diane Bailey)
Subject: Re: Baby with no father
Reply-To: dbailey@cix.compulink.co.uk
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 14:35:00 +0000


>In article <1ieua7INNfoi@transfer.stratus.com>, pfieland@citron.sw.stratus.com
(Peggy Fieland) writes:
>|> A group of us were shooting the breeze over coffee last night when
>|> two of the women announced they were planning to have a baby next
>|> year.  After the usual good wishes, someone mentioned she had
>|> heard that a clinic in Australia was combining two (human) eggs
>|> in vitro using the enzyme hyaluronidase, enabling two women to
>|> have a baby together, ie, two mothers and no father.
>|> 
>|> Is this true or only a rumor?  Any and all details will be gratefully
>|> appreciated.
>|> 
>|> Peggy
>|>
 
Belinda Rossiter <rossiter@bcm.tmc.edu> replies:
> This is not possible in humans.  There is a phenomenon called
> "imprinting" which means that some genes only work when they are
> inherited from the mother and some only work when they are
> inherited from the father.  An embryo made from two female eggs
> would not survive.
> 
> Sometimes there is an error in egg or sperm formation that causes
> a person to have two copies of a particular chromosome from the
> same parent (instead of one from each).  This can lead to serious
> problems, such as Prader-Willi syndrome or Angelman syndrome.
> Individuals with two copies of chromosome 15 from their mother
> and none from their father have Prader-Willi syndrome; the
> opposite situtation results in Angelman syndrome.


Well, that's the theoretical no-no, but has it been tried?

Is it not possible that the genes from the foreign egg would be
treated as if from a "father"?

I don't see what syndromes involving the inheritance of two sets
of genes from the same parent have to do with the case, as the
question was clearly about the use of eggs from two women.

Given that IV technology has been around for such a relatively
short time, the widely various "moral" restrictions and qualms,
or even laws that affect it, and the vast vested interests (  :-)
) that would consider themselves involved, I'd be suspicious of
such a hopeless and blanket negative prognosis.

Diane
From: jean@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Jean Jasinski)
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 20:59:24 GMT
Subject: Cu Metabolism Physician in KS?
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Newsgroups: sci.med

I am a volunteer for the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation, and I 
received a call for a physician referral in the northeastern KS
region.

I think the family is looking for a physician that can help diagnose
either osteogenesis imperfecta or some other copper metabolism 
problem.  The child is about 8 months old and has suffered some
fractures.  Social Services removed the baby from the parents'
custody about 6 months ago; the custody hearing is this week,
and the parents expect to be vindicated and given custody.  It seems 
the baby has suffered a fracture while in foster care.

Would an endocrinologist be of help to determine if there is a 
copper problem?  A geneticist?   An orthoped?

Are there copper metabolic problems that can cause fractures?
I have heard of Wilson's Disease but didn't think Wilson's
involved fractures.

The family lives in Oregon now but will be going to KS after
the hearing.  They have asked for names in KS so they might be
moving permanently to be near family.

Any recommendations for physicians?  Either names or type of
physician is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Jean Jasinski
From: pburch@roc.mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu (Paula Burch)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Swallowing difficulties
Date: 7 Jan 1993 19:53:28 GMT
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: roc.mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu
Originator: pburch@roc.mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu


In article <17994@pitt.UUCP>, geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:
> In article <45063@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> tlin@eeyore.Berkeley.EDU (Tony Lin) writes:
> 
> >SUMMARY:  Looking for information regarding inability to swallow in a 6 
> >	  month old infant who was born 6/92 with a mild sacral spina bifida 
> >	  with an associated Arnold Chiari malformation.
> 
> The only thing that comes to mind other than a structural problem
> is infantile botulism.  They hadn't fed her any honey in her formula
> had they?

Most cases of infantile botulism do not involve honey. Honey itself
increases the risk more than any other single factor, but cases involving
honey are in the minority. 

Paula Burch
pburch@bcm.tmc.edu
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: amt@linus.mitre.org (Anne Tallant)
Subject: Re: Migraine Medication
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 17:48:47 GMT


>In article <AMT.92Dec21125820@dunvegan.linus.mitre.org> amt@linus.mitre.org (A>nne Tallant) writes:
>>
>>If verapamil proved to be ineffective as a migraine prophylactic for a
>>migraine sufferer, would propranolol be any better?  Are the medications
>>significantly different enough for migraine control?  Would their
>>in/effectiveness depend upon the individual?

In article <17943@pitt.UUCP> geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) responds:

>Yes, yes, and yes.
>
>In my experience, propranolol is more effective than verapamil, although
>more people have side effects.

One of these side effects is depression.  Take a hypothetical case where
an individual, who is already taking an antidepressant for depression,
experiences this side effect (ie. experiences depression despite the fact
that the antidepressant had controlled the original source of depression).
What are the possible courses of action that could be taken to offset the
depression that appears to be a side effect of the propranalol?

Thanks in advance,
Anne


--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Anne Tallant                                      amt@linus.mitre.org
Newsgroups: sci.med,soc.motss
From: miguel@boytoy.csd.sgi.com (Michael/Miguel Sanchez)
Subject: Re: Baby with no father
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 03:20:09 GMT

In article <1ieua7INNfoi@transfer.stratus.com>, pfieland@citron.sw.stratus.com (Peggy Fieland) writes:
|> A group of us were shooting the breeze over coffee last night when
|> two of the women announced they were planning to have a baby next
|> year.  After the usual good wishes, someone mentioned she had
|> heard that a clinic in Australia was combining two (human) eggs
|> in vitro using the enzyme hyaluronidase, enabling two women to
|> have a baby together, ie, two mothers and no father.
|> 
|> Is this true or only a rumor?  Any and all details will be gratefully
|> appreciated.
|> 
|> Peggy
|> 


interesting...if I remember my genetics correctly..they would only 
be able to have a female child since the male cares the Y chromosone
for male offspring...I think this is right...

hmmm....

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miguel (Michael) J. Sanchez
miguel@csd.sgi.com			
Member Technical Staff, Silicon Graphics, Inc.         
From: Robert.Lewy.MD@f9453.n106.z1.fidonet.org (Robert Lewy MD)
Sender: Usenet@f-454.fidonet.org
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Skin Problem.
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1993 11:30:06 -0600

This is a common problem, and most dermatologists attribute it to "atopy", a
term which menans that the person has
a lot of allergies or is allergy-prone. An allergist should be able to help you.
Good Luck

Newsgroups: sci.med