Doctors On Health Audio Newsletter

Symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome include extreme fatigue and weakness, headaches, tender lymph nodes, and muscle and joint aches. Although the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome is still unknown, doctors think it might be derived from anemia, hypoglycemia, or an environmental allergy.

Symptoms of testicular cancer include a painless lump or swelling in the testicle and acute pain in the scrotum. Other symptoms of testicular cancer can be an ache in the lower back as well as in the groin and a collection of fluid in the scrotum as well. Early diagnosis of testicular cancer is critical, which is why it's important for men to be performing a testicular self exam every month to screen for testicular cancer.

In summer, heat waves can strike areas of the country where cooler climates are the norm. In these areas, many homes do not have air conditioning, and surviving in the extreme temperatures becomes a challenge for everyone. There are steps you can take to keep cool during a heat wave even if you don't have air conditioning.

Jellyfish stings are an all-too-common health hazard for beach vacationers. While most jelly fish stings are harmless (with a few exceptions), they can be extremely painful. The stinging sensation results when stingers at the ends of the tentacles of jellyfish and other aquatic animals come into contact with human skin, usually while wading or swimming in the ocean.

It's very important to remember to take all the medication your doctor has prescribed and for the length of time. Antibiotics tend to work fairly rapidly so, many people feel better after they take a few doses or a few days worth of antibioitics and then they stop taking the remainder of the prescription. You should never stop taking your medication before the recommended length of time.

American Idol runner-up recently disclosed her battle with bulimia. The risk of developing bulimia may come from: family history, substance abuse, cultural and social differences, etc. Medical complications may include: erosion of tooth enamel, ulcers, intestinal complications, and more. There is no known way to prevent bulimia but it helps to know the signs.

Over 10.2 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed in the U.S. in 2005, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. If you're considering a cosmetic procedure, listen to Dr. Melissa Stoppler discuss questions you should be asking to help you choose the right doctor.

Hello this is Dr. Eric Daar calling from Denver, Colorado from the 13th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections or CROI 2006. Last day of conference (February 8th). It has been an extremely exciting day with some very important presentations in the area of complications of antiretroviral therapy and new treatments. The first presentation was from the CDC describing the experience in Uganda in over a thousand individuals started on antiretroviral therapy for the first time. There has been a major rollout of therapy in the developing world and this one with another report, were one of the largest to describe the tolerability of such therapy. This looked at over 1,000 individuals from 2003-2004 started on standard first line regimen in the developing world.

Hello this is Dr. Eric Daar calling from Denver, Colorado from the 13th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections or CROI 2006. Update on meeting on second full day (February 7th). There were actually a series of world presentations all dealing with the related topic of treatment interruptions. Recently, a great deal of attention came to this area with the announcement of the data safety monitoring board closing one of these very important studies that was presented as a late breaker. The study was called SMART. It was a study through the CPCRA and the strategy was to determine whether you could take individuals with greater than 350 T cells and randomly assign them to either continue on their current therapy or interrupt their treatment with the plan of them restarting therapy if their CD4 count should drop to less than 250.

Hello this is Dr. Eric Daar calling from Denver, Colorado from the 13th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections or CROI 2006. This meeting opened with a Plenary session and keynote lecture on Sunday, February 5th. The keynote was presented by Dr. James Kern on 25 years of the HIV pandemic, where he described his experience at the CDC in the first reported cases of AIDS in 1981 in Los Angeles. He emphasized the many advances in the following years as well as the obstacles overcome and the obstacles that are left to be overcome both with prevention, the development of vaccine, and the potential hope for eradication