Wellness
Wellness
(StatePoint) November is Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness Month, and the American Lung Association, with support from Merck, is raising awareness about one form of the condition: pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
PAH is a serious condition that can affect people of all ages. It occurs when the tiny arteries in the lungs become thickened and narrowed, which causes reduced blood flow through the lungs. This raises pressure in the pulmonary arteries and forces the heart to work harder to push blood through the narrowed vessels. While there is no cure for PAH, there is medication to help manage the symptoms and slow disease progression. Getting a correct diagnosis is essential because without the proper treatment, PAH can be fatal.
While often seen in adults, pulmonary hypertension, including PAH, can also affect children. When Jackson was diagnosed with pediatric PAH at 14 months old, his family started advocating for his care early. “From the very beginning, we’ve done everything...
(BPT) - No matter your stage in life's journey, it's never too early or late to make financial plans. For military families especially, planning helps you withstand major transitions and gives you confidence about the future. From your first Permanent Change of Station (PCS) to deployment and separation, you'll have many decisions to make and high-priority items on your to-do list, including managing your finances.
Financial Planning Month is the perfect time to work on setting goals for your financial future. Here are tips to get you started.
Begin with the basics: Savings
Developing a savings plan is a great place to start. Even when you're starting out in your career, developing the habit of setting money aside from each paycheck can help you build an emergency fund for unexpected events. One approach is to open a separate savings account for that purpose and have a small portion of each paycheck automatically deposited into that account, so you don't even have to think about it....
(BPT) - A diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer can feel overwhelming, emotionally, physically and mentally. There are many decisions to make, and one empowering way to take control is to understand as much as possible about your specific tumor.
For people diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer, this means knowing your tumor's HRD status, which can help your health care team treat your specific type of cancer.1 The more information your doctors have, the better equipped they are to recommend a treatment plan that fits you.
Understanding HRD
HRD stands for homologous recombination deficiency, a term that refers to a tumor's inability to repair certain types of DNA damage, which impacts how cancer cells grow, die and respond to different treatments.2 About 50% of people with advanced ovarian cancer have tumors that are HRD-positive, which is why testing can be so important.2
To find out your HRD status, doctors may recommend a tumor test, also known as a genomic or biomarker test.3 This...
(BPT) - By Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, Executive Director & CEO, American College of Surgeons
Your doctor has informed you that you need surgery - like 15 million other patients in the United States every year. Naturally, you and your family may want to research your hospital options to have confidence that you are getting the best care.
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) has created a new Find a Hospital search tool to help you find hospitals that meet the rigorous quality standards we set for surgical care.
The ACS has been defining quality care in surgery since our founding more than 112 years ago, and now we make it easier than ever for patients and their families to find ACS Surgical Quality Partner hospitals in their local communities and to access information to prepare for surgery.
What is Find a Hospital?
Find a Hospital is a convenient, user-friendly search tool that helps you locate hospitals that have undergone rigorous accreditation and verification from...
(BPT) - When someone in your family is diagnosed with cancer, it can raise questions. Is it a coincidence, or is there something that runs in the family that makes others more likely to get it too? For Jodi, whose mother was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 51, and whose maternal grandfather was diagnosed with the same disease at 55, those questions were top of mind from a young age. Her family history instilled a fear of the unknown - was she at elevated risk too?
For women like Jodi who have a family history of cancer, the possibility of what genetic testing might reveal can be scary, yet having answers can be empowering.
"You know, I had always been very afraid of cancer because of my family history," Jodi shared. "And not just breast cancer. I've also wondered if I'm predisposed to developing other types, too."
According to the latest Cancer Risk Survey by Myriad Genetics, 80% of women report being afraid to get screened for cancer, primarily due to fear of the results. That...