Around 10 million women at high risk of breast cancer are eligible to take a drug called tamoxifen to prevent the cancer. Yet, very few women choose to take the drug for prevention.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center recently studied women at high risk of breast cancer who were eligible for the drug. They developed custom decision aids explaining the risks and benefits of tamoxifen for each woman in the study.

Despite the availability of information about tamoxifen, most women in the study elected not to take the cancer-preventing drug. Of the 632 women in the study, 80% …read more

Several groups have been working hard to get the word out to women that a woman’s heart attack symptoms may vary greatly from a man’s. However, a new Canadian study reveals something different.
According to the study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009, there were no gender differences among the 305 angioplasty patients studied in rates of chest discomfort or other typical heart attack symptoms: arm discomfort, shortness of breath, sweating, nausea, indigestion-like symptoms and clammy skin. Angioplasty may briefly cause symptoms similar to a heart attack.

The study found that while men and women both may experience typical or non-typical …read more

I was never nauseous when I was pregnant. Not one day. Not even before Truman, when that blighted ovum sat in my uterus fooling me by placing a plus-sign on my pee stick. But I thought about it. I thought once while opening the fridge that I might feel a little queasy. I was so excited I called my husband. But that feeling passed even before my husband picked up the other line. I was fine.
If I had a wave of anything remotely like nausea it would be when I thought about or walked into Italian restaurants. I kept this …read more

Phew, I’m glad that bout of illness is mostly over with. I say mostly because I still have a nasty cough, but my stomach is back to normal, I have a real appetite again, and no fever or headache for DAYS! Woo! Now I just have to swallow the sick feeling I have when I think about how much catching up to do!
One nice thing about being sick is that I got some great advice to alleviate some of my symptoms. My two favorite tips came from the same person, a client of mine who is an absolute guru when …read more