Dr. Starpoli's Blog

I came upon this post on the endonurse.com web site.  For those who will be having colon cancer screening with colonoscopy, this application may be of value.  If the colon is not cleaned well, the risk of poor visualization is high and, therefore,abnormalities such as polyps or cancerous growth can be missed.

I came upon this article in healthday news, on January 11, 2011, that drives home the financial impact of obesity in our country and Canada.  The total economic cost of overweight and obesity in the United States is $270 billion per year while the cost in Canada is about $30 billion a year, a new study shows.

As reported in MedWire (12/31, Albert) reported that after reviewing 16 studies, UK researchers concluded "that the prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) does not increase with age, but that esophageal symptoms of sufferers become more severe as they get older." According to the paper in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the "largest of these studies (n=11,945) showed that the prevalence of severe reflux esophagitis increased significantly with age from 12% in those younger than 21 years to 37% in those aged 70 years or above," but "heartburn was less common in older than younger GERD patients." Investigators also pointed out that "esophageal 24-hour acid exposure time increased by 1.1% for each additional decade in age," while "ineffective esophageal motility increased and abdominal lower esophageal sphincter length decreased with age."