Hot MedFax

As if men didn't have enough to worry about, now a new study  links sudden declines in testosterone to Parkinson's disease symptoms, and possibly, the disease itself. According to newswise.com, you can relax.  It's only happening in mice.  “While scientists use different toxins and a number of complex genetic approaches to model Parkinson’s disease in mice, we have found that the sudden drop in the levels of testosterone following castration is sufficient to cause persistent Parkinson’s like pathology and symptoms in male mice,” Dr. Kalipada Pahan, lead author of the study and the Floyd A. Davis endowed professor of neurology at Rush, was quoted by the Web site. Still, since men's testosterone levels are "coupled" with many diseases, according to Pahan, it makes sense to look further when levels drop suddenly.  Drops in testosterone levels due to stress or other drastic events in a man's life can predispose him to Parkinson's-like symptoms, Pahan ...

Wouldn't it be great if, instead of having to go for a colonoscopy (and all that icky prep), you could just, well, breathe. A new device using people's breath is now diagnosing diseases from asthma to kidney and liver disease. According to a story at mdtmag.com, "The highly sensitive, low-power, low-cost infrared emitter developed by Cambridge CMOS Sensors (CCMOSS) is capable of identifying more than 35 biomarkers present in exhaled breath in concentrations as low as one part per million, and is being developed for use as a non-invasive medical testing device and other applications." In English this means you just breathe into a tube and software does all the rest.  Asthmatics (like me) emit higher than normal levels of nitric oxide (news to me!), while glucose can be a sign of kidney failure. Experts are coming up with new ways to do just about anything non-invasively.  A new test can tell whether you have or will develop Parkinson's simply by talking on th...