4 states require payment for prostate screening, Healthfinder for
kids, New diabetes drug

December 26, 2000

In this issue:
Screening guidelines for your organization's members
NY joins 3 other states to require prostate screening payment
Healthfinder for kids
New diabetes drug promises relief
Hospitals offering alternative therapies
Ebola, death, and religion
Clinical Trials web site
Early puberty and father's presence
Office of Men's health

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Keep your group healthy. Distribute the MHN health screening
guideline. Choose "Brochures" in the Book Store at:
http://www.menshealthweek.org
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New York joins Texas, New Jersey, and Alaska as states that require
payment for prostate screening.

This legislation requires health-insurance companies to provide
coverage for prostate cancer screening tests. Under the bill, health-
insurance contracts will have to provide annual prostate-testing
coverage for men with a prior history of prostate cancer, males aged
50 and over who are asymptomatic and males aged 40 and over who have
a family history of prostate cancer-related risks.

The bill takes effect January 1, 2001

Pataki signs bill to mandate prostate cancer screening

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Gov. George Pataki on Thursday required health
insurers to cover screening for prostate cancer in a move that could
save countless lives through earlier detection.
. . . . .
The prostate cancer screening law will require health insurers to
cover annual screenings for men with a history of prostate cancer,
for all men 50 years old and older, and for all men 40 and older with
a family history of prostate cancer or other prostate cancer risk
factors.
. . . . .
''Early detection of prostate cancer offers the most practical means
of reducing morbidity and mortality,'' said Nassau County Republican
Sen. Dean Skelos. ''Additionally, for reasons not currently known,
African Americans have the highest incidence rate in the world.''

In June, the state Senate dismissed a bill that would have required
insurance coverage for women's health measures like mammograms and
pap smears. Later that day, the Senate approved the prostate cancer
screening bill.
. . . . .
Democratic Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli of Nassau County pushed the
bill for eight years.

''It is my hope and expectation that by requiring standard health
insurance coverage for diagnostic screening not only will more men be
induced to regularly schedule checkups, but early detection and
treatment will undoubtedly reduce medical costs associated with later
discovery.''

Read the bill its legislative record in the MHN Library at:
http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/library/ProstateScreenNY.rtf

Read about the surprisingly harsh response from advocates for women's
health at:
http://www.newsday.com/ap/regional/ap696.htm
http://www.bergen.com/region/nybills200012229.htm
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Healthfinder for kids

Healthfinder is an one-stop health information gateway to the World
Wide Web operated by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Healthfinder just announced a section targeted to kids.

This from Healthfinder:
Today we released a new section on the Healthfinder web site intended
for kids 8-12 that brings together health, safety, and science
information from many federal government agencies and nonprofit
organizations.

The URL is:
www.healthfinder.gov/kids
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12/22/2000

AP Health-Science

FDA Approves New Diabetes Drug

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration approved a new
diabetes drug Friday to help patients control their blood sugar after
meals.

. . . . . clinical studies show Starlix is able to stimulate insulin
production quickly in the pancreas, addressing a basic defect in Type
2 diabetes. By this action, Starlix lowers overall blood sugar levels
and blunts the effect of ''mealtime glucose spikes.''
. . . . . . .
Ginger Kanzer-Lewis, president of the American Association of
Diabetes Educators, said: ''This glucose control can help prevent
serious complications of the disease like kidney failure, amputations
and blindness.''

Read about it at:
http://www.newsday.com/ap/text/healthscience/ap666.htm
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The Unconventional Is In

Hospitals, yielding to patient demand, now offer more alternative
therapies

SUNDAY, Dec. 24 [ 2000 ] (HealthScout) -- Alternative therapies are
increasingly mingling with mainstream medicine at some of the
nation's leading hospitals.

From Los Angeles to New York, physicians and their staffs are giving
patients the option to complement their care with procedures that
range from aromatherapy, biofeedback and clinical imagery to
homeopathy, meditation and naturopathy, a form of health care focused
on natural healing methods.

· At the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, psychiatrists
are prescribing herbal medicines to help patients overcome
depression.
· Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, offers
complementary treatments for cancer patients, including meditation,
massage therapy, yoga and art therapy.
· Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City this year opened
a specialized Center for Health and Healing, where physicians work
alongside chiropractors and practitioners who specialize in
homeopathy, clinical imagery and other alternative treatments.
· And Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has just
completed testing the potential for alternative programs in heart
surgery.
. . . . .
Hospitals are embracing alternative care for several reasons.
For one thing, new scientific studies have validated some of the
practices.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, for example, reports
that patients who used self-hypnotic relaxation techniques during
surgery needed less pain medication, left the operating room sooner
and had more stable vital signs during the operation, according to
research published in the British journal The Lancet.
. . . . .
In addition, the National Institutes of Health's National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine has worked to foster greater
understanding of alternative medical practices by those in mainstream
medicine. Last spring, for example, it arranged a meeting between
alternative medicine practitioners and mainstream researchers to
exchange ideas, report on current studies and discuss ways to
increase collaborative research in cardiovascular, lung, and blood
treatments.
. . . . .
Read the complete story by choosing HealthScout at:
http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/
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Ebola, death, & religion

From the NY Times Magazine:

Grief in Africa is often allayed by a belief in the good that the
newly dead can do for the living. In traditions that endure among
Christians and Muslims alike, the recently deceased, if properly
buried, are believed to be able to watch out for their kinfolk and
guard them from catastrophe.

Outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Africa lay waste not just to
human life, but also to the scant comforts of death.

The highly infectious virus -- an outbreak of which has killed more
than 150 people in Uganda in recent months -- causes vomiting,
diarrhea and massive bleeding. There is no cure. Treatment is a
frantic attempt to replace body fluids. Ebola kills about half the
people it infects. When it kills, a corpse becomes a lethal and
untouchable reservoir of contagion.

Read the remainder of this tragic story at (simple registration may
be required):
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20001224mag-ebola.html
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Clinical Trials web site

The U.S. National Institutes of Health, through its National Library
of Medicine, has developed ClinicalTrials.gov to provide patients,
family members and members of the public current information about
clinical research studies. Before searching, you may want to learn
more about clinical trials and more about this Web site. Check often
for regular updates to ClinicalTrials.gov.

http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui/c/r
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Early puberty and father's presence

In an exhaustive story in the New York Time Magazine on the phenomena
of early puberty, researchers find:
"There are also some brand-new studies out saying that in households
without biological fathers, girls seem to go through puberty earlier."

"The Making of an 8-Year-Old Woman" explores several possibilities
for this emerging phenomena.

Read the complete story at (a simple registration is required):
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20001224mag-puberty.html
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Support the establishment of an Office of Men's Health. MHN makes it
easy.
http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/omh.html

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