Sandra Wilson, M.D., Inc.

Even Light Exercise May Have Benefits for Joint Function

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:16:40 +0000

Exercise may help prevent disability from arthritis, and it doesn’t seem to take a whole lot of activity to start reaping that benefit.

People with arthritis are often reluctant to exercise because they fear it will make their condition worse. But new research shows that being active actually improves joint function.

Experts from Northwestern University studied more than 3,500 people in their 50s and 60s with arthritis. They were interested in whether exercise could prevent disability from arthritis.

Magnet therapies ‘have no effect’

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:12:51 +0000

Magnet therapies which are claimed to cure conditions ranging from back pain to cancer have no proven benefits, according to a team of US researchers.

Sales of the so-called therapeutic devices, which are worn in bracelets, insoles, and wrist and knee bands, top $1 billion worldwide, they said.

But a major review showed no benefits, a British Medical Journal report said.

The team also warned self-treatment with magnets risked leaving underlying medical conditions untreated.

Professor Leonard Finegold of Drexel University in Philadelphia and Professor Bruce Flamm of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in California said turning to magnetic therapies could also cause “financial harm”.

“Money spent on expensive and unproved magnet therapy might be better spent on evidence based medicine,” their report said.

Green tea may fight chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:09:43 +0000

A green tea extract may help patients with a form of leukaemia, a study says.

The tea, discovered in China nearly 5,000 years ago, has long been thought to have health benefits.

But the team from the Mayo Clinic in the US found it appeared to improve the condition of four patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).

Experts said the Leukaemia Research journal study was interesting but more research was needed.

Read more at BBC Health News [Via Digg.com]

Mystery Painkiller

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:05:01 +0000

“Most of us assume that a hospital injection must have medicine in it to do any good, but University of Michigan psychiatrist Jon-Kar Zubieta proved that assumption wrong. He found that if he told patients that an injection contained an experimental painkiller–even though it actually contained nothing but salt water–most of them reported a decrease in the pain they felt from a previous shot. We may call it “mind over matter”; doctors call it the placebo effect.”

Read more at ScienCentral [Via Digg.com]

New Website

admin — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 22:03:20 +0000

Dr. Wilson’s office has a new presence online. Today a fresh website was launched. The site is powered by Wordpress, a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform. It is using a modified version of Sebastian Schmieg’s Blix theme with icons by Kevin Potts. The forum is powered by Kris Bailey’s XDForum plugin and other plugins are by Brent Loertscher and Mark Jaquith. The site was assembled by Liam Keane and is managed by Don Wilson.