(ANNALS OF INTERNAL MEDICINE) 5 August 2008

For men over the age of 75, prostate screening can do more harm than good. This is according to the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF). They are recommending that doctors NOT screen for prostate cancer in their patients over 75 years old.

This is because prostate cancer tumors grow slowly in most cases. If a man is already 75 years or older and enjoying a vigorous life, he may die of another cause before the prostate cancer becomes an issue. However, if he is found to have cancer, his quality of life in his last years may be diminished by the cancer treatments.

(Reuters) 3 July 2008:

One of the archetypes of old age is the image of the mad old woman: not that we use that loaded description any more, using instead dementia. Recent studies show that, as with so many stereotypes, there is some truth in the matter.

Amongst those over 90 28 % of the men had dementia of one form or another and 45% of the women did.

Quite why this divide between the sexes is unknown: the researchers have two thoughts on the matter, but neither are proven. The first is that women live longer after a diagnosis of dementia, raising their relative numbers. The second is that so few men live beyond 90 that those who do have to be considered “hardy survivors” and simply less likely to get anything.

A question that clearly requires further research.

(Alternet) 3 July 2008:

Up to 67% of women frequently experience sleep problems but there’s not a great deal being done about it. For 75% of all the research upon sleep has been done upon male subjects.

When women are indeed studied directly the problems turn out to be much less psychological, the manner in which they are usually treated, and more physically or hormonally based. Certainly, the surges of estrogen during the monthly cycle make women more susceptible to the influences of cortisol, the main stress reaction hormone.

The real import of the story is that while we do indeed need to treat men and women equally, that means having to take account of, as in this medical sense, the occasions when they are in fact different.

(US News) 26 June 2008:

No, skin cancer isn’t one of those things you can get from sex: well, not unless you’re doing it outside a lot without sunscreren. However, there are major differences in the way that men and women suffer from the disease.

Men both get more cases of the various types of skin cancer and also are more likely to die of it if they get it. There is some evidence that male skin is simply more likely to become cancerous, but the major reasons seem to be twofold. The first is that men work outside more and thus gain more exposure, the second that they use much less sunscreen than women.

Another way of putting that last is that women simply pay more attention to the state of their skin overall: although might that change with the rise of metrosexuality?

(REUTERS) 2 June 2008:

We know that there are differences between men and women, but it’s only recently that we’ve been finding out quite what they are in detail, as opposed to the old stereotypes.

One difference is that men and women seem to metabolize fructose, a simple sugar, differently. When tested on a high fructose diet men became at risk of both cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes and women did not.

The surprise comes from the fact that the natural source of fructose is fruit, something which we are all told we should eat much more of. And given the high levels which would have been found in pre-historic diets, it’s very odd that there is a sex difference in its effects.

(MensHealth.com) May 30 2008

Most men experience a drop in testosterone levels equal to about 1 percent a year beginning in their 50s. A man in his 70s might have only half the testosterone he had when he was 25. But researchers behind the Massachusetts Male Aging Study — which has been tracking behavioral and physiological traits for 1,709 men born between 1916 and 1945 — noticed something strange. Men born more recently had T levels that were surprisingly low. The 60-year-old in 2003 had about 15 percent less testosterone than the 60-year-old in 1988, according to Thomas G. Travison, Ph.D., lead author of the testosterone study. Sixty was looking like the new 70. Had something happened? Could we be in the middle of some broad biological or environmental change affecting all men simultaneously?

(REUTERS) 29 May 2008:

According to a recent study, the more children a woman has, the more teeth she will lose during her lifetime. The knee-jerk reaction is to say that women in the lower socioeconomic groups tend to have more children and also can’t afford to go to the dentist.  The surprising thing about the study, however, is that the tooth loss occured at all socioeconomic levels.  Why? Well scientists say it could be because women are more prone to gingivitis during pregnancy. Women may also be less likely to see a dentist while pregnant. It’s also hard to go sit in a dentist’s chair for an hour when you are primary caregiver for several children.

(REUTERS) 23 May 2008:

French researchers revealed the results of a hormone replacement therapy study that suggested menopausal women who take these drugs more than double their risk of developing a life-threatening blood clot. Oddly enough, this may only hold true for pills, not patches. This may be because pills travel through the digestive system and are processed by the liver. David Sturdee, president of the International Menopause Society still characterizes the risk as very low.  “Although this relative risk is raised in hormone users when compared to non-users, the absolute risk is indeed very small as blood clots do not often occur in this age group in healthy women on no treatment,” he said.

(MSNBC.COM) 14 May 2008:

High fashion teen model Alexandra Michaels was too fat at 109 pounds and 5′ 9″. She started her career at 130 pounds and was told to lose weight. She did, managing to diet down to 102 pounds. She got lots of work on the runways. Unfortunately, she started experiencing signs of malnutrition, including her hair falling out in clumps and loss of menstruation.  She decided to put on 7 pounds, making her 109 pounds, which is still well below the average for her height. She was told she was fat and given work by one designer.

(SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE) 9 May 2008:

In the general population, men commit suicide about four times as often as women do.

However, among doctors the rates are about equal between men and women and much higher than they are for the general population. There has been some puzzlement about this: doctors are highly paid and well respected, not the sort of things that tend to drive people to taking their own lives.

The explanation now offered is that doctors actually know how to do it swiftly, cleanly, and painlessly. It’s thus not so much that more doctors attempt suicide, but that more succeed. In this scenario, the difference between male and female is thought to be a combination of women being less successful when they try and their not using the more effective but messier and violent methods that men do.