Archive for » September, 2010 «
For such a small gland (it’s roughly the size of a walnut), the prostate has a very important job. If a man didn’t have a prostate, the sperm couldn’t survive. The main purpose of the prostate is to produce fluid and other compounds that help support sperm survival.
Prostate cancer affects many men each year. Screening includes a digital rectal exam, tests for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS). Each of these tests takes less than half an hour to perform.
The age-old question is, “Are they effective”?
New Mayo Clinic research studied the association between prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and prostate size and found that routine annual evaluation of prostate growth is not necessarily a predictor for the development of prostate cancer. However the study suggests that if a man’s PSA level is rising quickly, a prostate biopsy is reasonable to determine if he has prostate cancer. Researchers are working on developing effective methods to screen for prostate cancer. However, it has not yet been shown that screening for prostate cancer decreases the chances of dying from prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer found in American men, other than skin cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 179,300 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States this year, and about 37,000 men will die of this disease. For an American man, the lifetime risk of dying from prostate cancer is 3.4%.
Although men of any age can get prostate cancer, it is found most often in men over age 50. In fact, more than 8 of 10 men with prostate cancer are over the age of 65.
African-American men are at higher risk than Caucasian men. Men with a family history of prostate cancer are at higher risk too. Family history means that your father or a brother had prostate cancer.
The prostate gland is part of the male reproductive system. The prostate makes a fluid that mixes with sperm and other fluids during ejaculation. A normal prostate is about the size of a walnut.
Your doctor may examine your prostate by putting a gloved, lubricated finger a few inches into your rectum to feel your prostate gland. This is called a digital rectal exam. A normal prostate feels firm. If there are hard spots on the prostate, your doctor may suspect cancer. A more sensitive test measures prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, a protein manufactured by the prostate gland. An elevated level indicates an abnormality of the prostate.
An elevated PSA can be due to benign prostatic hypertrophy (an enlarged prostate), which affects nearly all men as they grow old. It can also signal prostatitis, an inflammation of the prostate. Both conditions may or may not warrant treatment, depending on the severity of symptoms. Neither problem is potentially fatal. But a high PSA level could indicate cancer.
An abnormal PSA test often leads to a biopsy to determine if cancer is present. In recent years, health professionals have questioned whether the PSA test is an effective way of detecting prostate cancer. Does it miss too many cancers? Does it lead to too many unnecessary biopsies? Is there a better way to screen for prostate cancer?
Although the PSA test is not perfect, it is the best currently available test for early detection of prostate cancer. Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is a protein made in the prostate. Normally, very little should be found in the blood. Rising levels of PSA in the blood indicate a problem with the prostate, which could be cancer but could also be an enlarged prostate (BPH).
While the PSA test is considered a major advance in diagnosing early-stage prostate cancer, it has some drawbacks. For 100 men over 50 at average risk for prostate cancer, the following would be found if they all had a PSA test:
Ten of the 100 men would have a PSA level higher than normal (over 4.0). The 10 men would need further testing to clarify their abnormal levels.
Three of the 10 men would be found to have prostate cancer.
Seven of the 10 men would be found not to have prostate cancer. They would have an elevated PSA for other reasons—most likely an enlarged prostate (BPH).
Ninety of the 100 men would have PSA levels in the normal range (less than 4.0).
One or 2 of these 90 men would be found to have significant prostate cancer that becomes life threatening.
This shows that the PSA test is moderately sensitive. Of 100 men with prostate cancer, it will detect only about 70 of them. But the positive predictive value of the PSA test is low. Only 3 out of 10 positive results were cancer. And 7 out of 10 positive PSA results (i.e., greater than 4.0) are false-positive results; this means that 2 out of 3 men who are told that they may have cancer after taking the PSA test actually do not have it. When the PSA is greater than 10.0, the test is more accurate. There is about a 50-50 chance of having cancer at this level of PSA!
Other things you and your doctor may want to consider:
Your age. Doctors may use Age-adjusted PSA ranges to account for the natural increase in PSA with age when considering further testing.
The size of your prostate. PSA Density is a measure that relates your PSA level to the size of your prostate, to account for the increase in PSA caused by prostate enlargement.
Your weight. Body Mass Index, a measure of obesity, may also be a factor. The relationship between obesity and lower PSA levels may cause doctors to miss early prostate cancer cases in overweight men.
Ejaculation within 48 hours before taking a PSA test can also cause a higher reading of your PSA level.
Refinements of the PSA test have been developed to reduce the number of false positive results. If your PSA is found to be high, ask your primary healthcare practitioner to discuss your cancer risk and the possible use of other evaluations of PSA before having a biopsy. Men should be counseled about the benefits and risks of detecting and treating an indolent tumor (this cancer may not have caused symptoms). The treatment may cause urinary and sexual problems.
Keep in mind that the ultimate goal of the PSA test is not to decide who should be biopsied and who should not. It is to save lives.
Thank you Mr. Glenn Ellis
President Barack Obama is praising comedian Jon Stewart’s upcoming “Rally to Restore Sanity,” saying it may help instill more “courtesy” in American political life.
Speaking Wednesday in Richmond, Virginia, the president welcomed the idea behind the October 30 rally, which Stewart described as an effort for people who expect common sense and courtesy in daily interactions.
The event is a thinly veiled dig at right-wing icon Glenn Beck’s “Restore America” march on Washington’s National Mall last month.
“I was amused,” Obama said of ‘The Daily Show’ host’s rally.
“They may not be following every single issue, because they just don’t have time. But they are just expecting some common sense and some courtesy in how people interact,” he said about average people simply “going about their business,” “looking after their families” and “working hard every day.”
“And having those voices lifted up is really important.”
After Stewart’s announcement, Stewart’s alter-ego Stephen Colbert used his own TV show on Comedy Central to invite Americans to attend another rally, which he dubbed the “March to Keep Fear Alive.”
Leave it to Fox News to take President Obama’s inclusion of Jay-Z, Nas and Lil Wayne on his iPod and turn it into this headline on its website:
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES LOVES GANGSTA RAP
As previously reported, Jann Wenner’s interview with the president in the latest Rolling Stone ended with a question about the music he’s been listening to lately.
Obama answered:
My iPod now has about 2,000 songs, and it is a source of great pleasure to me. I am probably still more heavily weighted toward the music of my childhood than I am the new stuff. There’s still a lot of Stevie Wonder, a lot of Bob Dylan, a lot of Rolling Stones, a lot of R&B, a lot of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Those are the old standards.
A lot of classical music. I’m not a big opera buff in terms of going to opera, but there are days where Maria Callas is exactly what I need.
Thanks to Reggie [Love, the president's personal aide], my rap palate has greatly improved. Jay-Z used to be sort of what predominated, but now I’ve got a little Nas and a little Lil Wayne and some other stuff, but I would not claim to be an expert. Malia and Sasha are now getting old enough to where they start hipping me to things. Music is still a great source of joy and occasional solace in the midst of what can be some difficult days.
Foxnews coverage is the most racist news network on television today in my opinion.
Larry Elder today returns to his old radio stomping grounds, KABC/790 AM in Los Angeles.
The libertarian talk show host will be on from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays as part of the station’s return to basics following a new direction, according to the Orange County Register.
“I was called and asked if I was interested and I was, and we got together. It was not very long ago, and it was really no more complicated than that,” Elder said in a phone interview. He declined to go into contract specifics, but did say, “I see where the station is going, and I believe they are committed to making this work.”
Elder left in December of 2008. Back then, KABC owner Citadel Broadcasting Corp. was seeing radio revenues falling, and cutting costs was a priority. In December of 2009, it filed for bankruptcy, listing assets of $1.4 billion and $2.4 billion in debt. Last June, it exited bankruptcy with a reorganization plan. Farid Suleman remained CEO of the company, the third largest radio group with 224 radio stations in the U.S.
Locally, Bob Moore, ex-KLSX-FM, moved over to run KABC and KLOS in February 2009. Two months ago, Jack Silver, also ex-KLSX, joined him at KABC as program director, replacing David G. Hall. One way to shake up KABC and bring the FM audience to AM was former KLSX personalities Frosty, Heidi & Frank. That experiment lasted one year, ending Sept. 24.
Elder’s programs will also be available online at www.kabc.com. He said he recognizes the need to talk about issues impacting local listeners in Orange County as well as Los Angeles. “I believe this is a teachable moment for the country. It is time for a re-assessment and to get back to basic principles,” he said.
Embattled mega church preacher Bishop Eddie Long came as close to confessing his sexual debauchery as any debaucher could come without actually confessing.
He cryptically told his singing, shouting, handclapping flock that he wasn’t a perfect man, and that he would face some painful situations. This was a good step forward for Long.
He didn’t do the usual soft shoe, duck and dodge around the issue. Or worse, defiantly claim that he was being persecuted for being a pure and righteous man of God. Or even worse still, break out in a teary eyed plea to family and flock for forgiveness.
These are the stock ploys that a bevy of celeb preachers, politicians and a Pope snatch at when caught with their sexual hypocrisy exposed. Long didn’t go there. He simply spun his hypocrisy as that of a man engaged in a thoughtful and reflective soul search.
Long now should take one more step in his soul search and apologize for his greatest sin. That’s his near decade long, relentless, gay bash. Long didn’t just do what many conservative fundamentalist black preachers do and quietly twist scripture and verse to make the case that God condemns gays to eternal hell and damnation.
He actively led crusades against gay marriage, and by extension gays, railed against them on his websites, in fiery sermons, loudly backed George W. Bush’s federal amendment banning gay marriage, and led a slanderous march to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s gravesite to denounce gay marriage. Each new accusation that Long used his youth training academy as a cover to procure kid sex, may ultimately prove him to be not just a hypocrite, but a full blown sexual predator.
Long then should issue a statement, better still do what he does best, and deliver a sermon on tolerance. That’s tolerance toward all those who have a different sexual preference. He should invite the leaders of the nation’s top gay rights organizations to take a front row seat at his church and look them square in the eye, as he preaches his sermon on tolerance. He should then make it plain to his mostly black congregation that he does not want them to mindlessly and blindly shout “Jesus Jesus” and “it’s time to praise him,” and sang hymns such as “white as snow” as they did when he made his kind of sort of admission of guilt from the pulpit. This reinforces the despicable notion that blacks are narrow, bigoted, and brain dead zombies who will give a pass to even the most blatant and outrageous criminal and sexual behavior and exploitation as long as it’s done in the name of Jesus and the offender is black.
A U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia, acting on orders from the Supreme Court, will again review the death sentence of death-row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal in a hearing scheduled for Nov. 9, reports the AP.
Abu-Jamal, 56, has been on death row since his 1982 conviction for killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner the year before.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2008 granted the one-time radio reporter and former Black Panther a new sentencing hearing based on what it deemed were flawed jury instructions. But the Supreme Court this year upheld a death sentence in an Ohio case with similar jury issues — and ordered the Philadelphia court to revisit its Abu-Jamal ruling.
“The case is indistinguishable from the Ohio case, which is why the Supreme Court sent it back,” Assistant Philadelphia District Attorney Hugh J. Burns Jr. said last Wednesday. Defense lawyer Robert Bryan does not believe the Ohio case seals Abu-Jamal’s fate. He argues that they involve different facts that will enable the three-judge appeals panel to reach a different conclusion.
The appeals court last Tuesday agreed to hear arguments again on the issue, a decision Mr. Bryan saw as positive. The judges could have ruled solely based on written briefs.
Abu-Jamal “was humbled by the good news. We are cautiously encouraged that the federal court has taken this step,” Mr. Bryan said in an e-mail to supporters.
Abu-Jamal has argued in numerous appeals that racism by the trial judge and prosecutors corrupted his 1982 conviction at the hands of a mostly white jury. Those appeals have so far failed.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, have fought a federal judge’s 2001 decision to grant Abu-Jamal a new sentencing hearing because of the flawed jury instructions.
The flaw relates to whether jurors understood how to weigh mitigating circumstances that might have kept Abu-Jamal from being executed. Under state law, jurors did not have to unanimously agree on a mitigating circumstance.
Last Tuesday, the officer’s widow, Maureen Faulkner, attended the Philadelphia premiere of a new film about the case. The movie, “The Barrel of a Gun,” discusses Abu-Jamal’s brushes with the Black Panther movement and the radical Philadelphia group MOVE, which had deadly clashes with city police in 1978 and 1985. [See trailers below.]
Abu-Jamal also himself called into a discussion that followed the screening of a starkly different take on his case called “Justice on Trial.” That film, which debuted across town, argues that evidence was suppressed or tampered with.
In California, state officials called off the scheduled execution of a convicted murderer on Wednesday, hours after the state’s Supreme Court intervened in the case and made it all but impossible to carry out the death sentence, reports the LA Times.
The attorney general’s office had begun the day by asking a federal appeals court to allow the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown Jr. to proceed but later asked the court to dismiss the request. Brown had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 9 p.m. Thursday.
“A new execution date will be sought in accordance with applicable law and in conformity with all court orders,” said Christine Gasparac, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office.
Maybe you’ve attended a three-year old birthday party that extends into the wee hours of the night at a hall, but certainly that should still seem unusual. Right? The birthday party in question took place outside Cincinnati in an area called Elmwood Place. According to Cincinnati.com, about 30 children were present about 1 a.m. to see the fight between 75 adults.
Ramon Marcelo-Hernandez, 26, of Norwood is the father of the three-year old girl who was supposed to be celebrating when her daddy was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct while intoxicated. Police arrived from Cincinnati and other nearby agencies responded to the riot-like affair.
Once police swarmed on the scene, there was blood, broken bottles and injuries everywhere. There were nearly 150 people in the midst of chaos. But since everyone spoke Spanish a lot of the details are still blurry.
The number of unmarried couples living together rose 13 percent from the previous year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
This year, there are 7.5 million opposite-sex unmarried couples living together – up from 6.7 million in 2009, reported the bureau on Thursday. The year before had witnessed a two percent drop after a five percent rise in co-habiting couples between 2007 and 2008.
Demographers say a poor job market is likely a factor in the rise of co-habiting couples in 2010.
According to 2010 data, unmarried couples who recently began living together usually have one partner unemployed. Only 49 percent of cohabiting couples this year are ones where both partners are employed. This figure is down from 59 percent in 2008 and 52 percent in 2009.
“Pooling resources by moving in together may be one method of coping with extended unemployment of one of the partners,” said Rose Kreider, a demographer in the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division at the Census Bureau, according to Agence France-Presse.
Kreider noted the sharp rise in co-habiting this year – three years after the official beginning of the Great Recession, is likely due to people “exhausting” other ways to stay financially afloat – unemployment benefits, saved money, available credit, or assistance from friends and family.