Health Expert PJ Hamel shares health management news and commentary at HealthCentral.com. HealthCentral.com is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/78/index http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/78/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/78/index http://www.healthcentral.com/osteoporosis/c/78/150139/osteoporosis Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:34:58 -0500 PJ Hamel Have you been diagnosed with osteopenia? As a child, did you watch in confusion as your grandmother gradually diminished in height, eventually stooping over so far she was at eye level? Have you read articles about bone loss – and realize you’re at significant risk? You may find osteoporosis frightening, but here’s a way to allay those fears – or any kind of fear that’s stressing you out.I was diagnosed with cancer... http://www.healthcentral.com/osteoporosis/c/78/150139/osteoporosis http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/149941/70-strategies Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:58:30 -0500 PJ Hamel The vast majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer are older; only 5% of breast cancer cases occur in women under age 40, while fully one-third of all breast cancers are diagnosed in women 70 or older. If you’re at least 70 years old, your chance of developing breast cancer in the next 20 years is about 1 in 26; yet most research around treatment, including clinical trials, focuses on women much younger. Older women have special... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/149941/70-strategies http://www.healthcentral.com/osteoporosis/c/78/149760/significantly Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:15:09 -0500 PJ Hamel Oophorectomy (the surgical removal of a woman’s ovaries) is a procedure women may opt to undergo for a number of reasons, including severe endometriosis, pelvic disease, or as a way to help prevent breast cancer. However, a recent study shows that oophorectomy before age 45 drastically increases a woman’s risk of osteoporosis. Here are some factors you should evaluate if you’re considering an oophorectomy.Several years ago, as... http://www.healthcentral.com/osteoporosis/c/78/149760/significantly http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/149467/breast-boils Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:26:21 -0500 PJ Hamel Far too many women suffer from chronic breast boils and/or abscesses, and find them so embarrassing that they try to treat this painful condition without seeking medical help. While you can self-treat the occasional “pimple” around or under your breast, severe and chronic infections demand a doctor’s care.Remember those teenage years, when every pimple was a crisis? Something you anguished about, hid with Cover Girl, and worked... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/149467/breast-boils http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/149188/increased-risk Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:35:50 -0500 PJ Hamel Were you born between 1938 and 1971? Then there’s a chance your mother was prescribed a certain hormone drug to prevent miscarriage. If she was, you’re at increased risk for a host of health problems – including breast cancer.It was a miracle drug. A way for a woman prone to miscarriages to carry her baby full-term. To give birth to a healthy baby. To become a mother.Which, back in the years when the drug was prescribed, was... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/149188/increased-risk http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/148850/year-gift-time Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:43:30 -0500 PJ Hamel It’s a new year. Do you have time to enjoy your life, right now? WILL you have time, 6 months from now? Seize the day…   When you were growing up, time seemed to stretch out into the unknown future like a road disappearing on the horizon. Sometimes, like on the first day of summer vacation, this was a good thing. At other points – say, standing on the sidelines at the school dance – it seemed like an eternity. As... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/148850/year-gift-time http://www.healthcentral.com/osteoporosis/c/78/148835/resolutions Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:03:16 -0500 PJ Hamel Osteoporosis is a disease. It’s also a fear; a marketing vehicle for drug companies; and widely misunderstood. This New Year’s Day message is addressed to women without known bone loss; women with slight bone loss (i.e., osteopenia); and women with significant bone loss: osteoporosis. In other words – all women.New Year’s Day is a time to reassess your life. Right now, you may still be feeling a bit woozy from an overdose... http://www.healthcentral.com/osteoporosis/c/78/148835/resolutions http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/148422/holiday-gifts Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:13:32 -0500 PJ Hamel When you’re dealing with cancer, much of your life feels very dark – like this month of December, and its shortest days of the year. Yet, just as the soft glow of holiday candles lights the dark winter night, the few simple gifts that cancer offers can illuminate the shadowy corners of your own life – if you let them.“'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free“'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/148422/holiday-gifts http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/148244/research-sabcs Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:57:02 -0500 PJ Hamel State-of-the-art information centering on breast cancer research was delivered last week at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), held annually in Texas. Over 9,000 healthcare professionals from 90 countries gathered for a series of presentations, exhibits, and papers reviewing the very latest in research. Following are some of the conference’s highlights.Predicting recurrence: how accurate can we be?Apparently, more accurate... http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/148244/research-sabcs http://www.healthcentral.com/osteoporosis/c/78/147960/cancer-loss Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:59:04 -0500 PJ Hamel As we age, we become acquainted with the common risk factors for osteoporosis: a thin frame, a family history, growing older. We also may learn about less-common risk factors: insufficient vitamin D and calcium, a lack of weight-bearing exercise, and excessive alcohol use. But who ever tells the breast cancer survivor that those hormone drugs she’s taking to prevent a cancer recurrence are also damaging her bones? Bone loss from hormone... http://www.healthcentral.com/osteoporosis/c/78/147960/cancer-loss