Haunted by their family history, women and men are opting for genetic testing. The results can bring new agony.BREAST CANCER has crept its way through Lisa Lujan's life like an insidious, destructive weed. Her oldest sister was diagnosed at age 35 and again at 50.
Lifestyle changes and drugs can help, but neither has been studied in women with the cancer-linked mutation. At the extreme, there's preventive surgery.Women who carry the genetic mutations for breast and ovarian cancer have several options to help prevent the diseases. Some of the options are fairly easy to implement, but don't lower the risk by much. Others greatly reduce risk, but are difficult to maintain or are harshly life-changing.
Some breast-test kits might aid in detection. But researchers wonder if monthly self-exams are even needed.TAKE two pieces of polyurethane, put a lubricating gel between them, seal it all up and what have you got?
Today on the web: Drugs can make a difference -- but only if patients take them * Americans may be too happy, study suggests * Breast cancer awareness efforts may be misplaced * Many try to eat healthfully only to overcompensate with side dishes * A brave reporter gets sloshed, then tries to fly the space shuttle.
The football team has been ferocious in its fight against resistant staph. Gyms may not be following suit.These days, USC's football players might seem more like fussy disciples of the TV detective Monk than scrappy athletes. They use paper towels on the practice field and at games, and they shower before setting foot in the training room. Their laundry is washed at a constant 140-degree temperature, which is regularly monitored. Portable cold therapy tubs are drained and cleaned after each use, and the team brings its own soap to away games.
Antisnoring throat sprays do almost nothing for snoring but may help with congestion. Go figure.The products: Over the years, inventors have patented hundreds of gadgets to combat snoring. If necessity breeds invention, it's safe to say that lots of people desperately need a quiet night's sleep. The National Sleep Foundation estimates that 37 million Americans snore habitually, which translates to millions of bleary-eyed partners and probably billions of nights spent on the couch.
New doctors still take a pledge, but the trend has been to modernize Hippocrates' version.Many of today's doctors, upon receiving their degrees, swore by the Hippocratic oath -- one of the oldest and most familiar texts in the field of medicine. But as times have changed, so has the pledge. Today, more and more medical schools are forgoing the ancient text in favor of something more modern.
As mountain bikers demand more, ski resorts beef up bike trails with dizzying new drops and other thrills. It's part of the sport's evolution.FLYING off a rocky buttress, the mountain biker soars through the air, experiencing a few seconds of adrenaline-heightened sensory awareness before coming back to earth -- or in this case a wooden ramp -- with a bike-jarring thump.
