Advancing Your Health

More and more people in Georgia are considering weight loss surgery as an option for returning to a healthy body weight. Because those who are overweight are at a higher risk for the development of conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, for many people, weight loss surgery means both regaining activity and mobility via a healthier body weight and the possibility of a longer, healthier life in general. Because the demand for information on surgical weight loss options is growing, Dr. Edward Lin of the Emory Bariatric Center has been taking big action to help educate the community. Today, he held an online chat on the topic of surgical weight loss options (check out the transcript) to help answer questions on the pros and cons of weight loss surgery and dig deeper into the differences between each type of weight loss surgery. Dr. [...]

Emory’s David Pasion, MPT, physical therapist at the Emory Orthopaedics and Spine Center was recently interviewed by the team at CNN in response to a recent article in the New York Times titled, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.” As Pasion put is, "Reading that article, if somebody wasn't familiar with yoga or let's say they were planning on doing yoga, if they read that article, they'd say, let me find something else to do. And so, in that aspect, no, I don't think it was fair. There was too many negatives thrown out." While David Pasion agrees that it is possible to sustain injuries while practicing yoga, he also believes the article was “alarmist” and lacked context to present a fair assessment of the health benefits and risks of practicing [...]

Joan Jahnke, Emory Clinic patient and patient of Emory Heart & Vascular physician, Dr. Habib Samady, shares her journey through her diagnosis and treatment of Cardiac Microvascular Endothelial Dysfunction with Vasopastic Angina. I have led an active life and thought I was doing everything possible to keep my heart healthy - eating right, exercising and not smoking, and trying to maintain a relatively low stress life. I was also a cardiac nurse and knew what it meant to be healthy, and why I wanted to remain healthy. So when I closed in on retirement age, I was surprised when I started clutching my chest first, with shortness of breath then with chest pain. I was diagnosed with Cardiac Microvascular Endothelial Dysfunction (MVD) with Vasospastic Angina in 2008 during a drug challenge catheterization test at Emory Healthcare [...]

Who could have imagined that a three-letter virus – HPV -- could generate so much confusion and controversy? Oh, wait, there is precedence for all the political posturing, fear and mis-information about HPV, the human papillomavirus, one of the most common sexually transmitted infections. We saw the same take place around HIV, a far more deadly virus and one that continues to wreak havoc and claims thousands of lives a year. And it took decades of advocacy, much of which is still ongoing, to bring attention to the need to stop HIV in its tracks, before it leads to AIDS. That same advocacy and public health campaigning is now underway to help consumers better understand HPV and what people can do about it, and how important it is for young people to receive vaccines that [...]

A recent study found that family members living with patients who underwent weight loss surgery dropped significant amounts of weight and made more positive lifestyle changes.  In this study, 35 morbidly obese patients underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. Overweight spouses and family members living with the patient attended three lifestyle counseling sessions before surgery and five sessions after surgery. At these sessions, patients and their family members learned about healthy eating habits (portion control and a healthy diet) and how to increase physical activity. At one year after surgery, patients lost an average of 100 pounds and decreased their body mass index (BMI) from 48.7 to 33.3. In addition, their overweight spouses and family members lost an average of 10 [...]

For years, triathlete Denise Novicki suffered from excruciating spinal pain in her lower back. Founder of Tri2Remember, a triathlon club that raises money to fight Alzheimer’s disease, Denise had always led an active lifestyle, but her back pain made it difficult, if not impossible, to enjoy her favorite pastime. “I was in such immense pain that I was looking for some very trusted resources to manage my pain,” Denise says. She chose the Emory Spine Center at the Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital for assessment and a solution. “What we’ve tried to do here at the Emory Spine Center is take the worry and the guessing out of a spine or back problem," says Dr. Scott Boden (pictured left), director of the Center. “When people come here, we help them figure out what’s wrong and give them lots of different options.” Before [...]

Current estimates are that more than 80 million Americans suffer from varicose veins and/or spider veins. While cosmetic improvement is often a factor in seeking treatment of varicose veins, relief from pain is a concern for many patients. If you or someone you know suffers from varicose veins, join us on Tuesday, January 24 at 12:30 p.m. for an interactive, online Q&A web chat on the topic of varicose and spider veins. Emory physician assistant Stephen Konigsberg will be available to answer questions and discuss various topics about varicose veins, including symptoms, prevention and treatment options, such as low-impact treatment methods (i.e. compression stockings to support and compress veins and improve circulation) and corrective approaches (i.e. procedures like sclerotherapy, Endolaser™ ablation or phlebectomy). ...]

Emory University Hospital transplant nurse Allison Batson has spent many years caring for patients in need of a life-saving organ transplant. She has seen many patients’ lives saved because of the gift of organ donation … and many others lost because a matching organ simply could not be located in time. Recently though, Allison was not only in the position to provide care and comfort at the bedside of a transplant patient in desperate need of a kidney transplant, she selflessly gave of herself – literally- by becoming an organ donor to 23 year-old Clay Taber of Columbus, Georgia. Clay graduated from Auburn University in August and is soon to marry his college sweetheart in a few months. While he has been eagerly looking toward his [...]

January is Cervical Health Awareness Month. To help raise awareness around cervical health and cervical cancer, this is the first of a two-part blog post series on the topic. Before we dig deeper into cervical cancer types and risk factors, here a few cervical health-related statistics you should be aware of:

• Cervical cancer was previously the leading cancer-related cause of death for women in the U.S. In the last 40 years, however, the number of deaths from cervical cancer has dropped. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) & CDC, the decline is largely “the result of many women getting regular Pap tests, which can find cervical precancer before it turns into cancer."
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U.S. News & World Report released their 2nd Annual Best Diets.  The annual rankings were designed to help dieters determine what the best diet for them is.  Emory Heart & Vascular Center physician Laurence Sperling, MD was one of the 22 nationally recognized experts who judged the diets.  According to the “Best Diets 2012” rankings, the 22 experts evaluated 25 different diets and concluded that the five Easiest Diets to Follow are:

1. Weight Watchers
2. Jenny Craig
3. Mediterranean Diet
4. - (tie) Slim-Fast and Volumetrics

If you made the resolution to lose weight and start a heart healthy diet this year, try one of Emory’s Heart Healthy Recipes for Wellness!  We have recipes for all categories including appetizers, breakfasts, entrees, soups, salads and [...]