DermHelpCentral

Notalgia Paresthetica: Successful Treatment with Exercises

The authors describe here two cases in which the condition was improved by exercises involving non-pharmacologic active range of motion and strengthening of the scapular muscles as well as stretching of the pectoral muscles.  See full article: Download Notalgia Exercise

Here is a good Overview of Notalgia from Dermnet.

Interferon for Melanoma

The bottom line:  Interferon (IFN) is not very effective in the majority of patients. A year’s worth of IFN treatment can delay the time to recurrence, although half the time this delay will be less than one year. However, it is now known that the overall chance of recurrence and the overall survival time is not improved (contrary to some early studies that showed an increased survival time of about one year).

See full article about IFN on About.com.

 

Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is a relatively common complaint of dermatology patients.  Post herpetic neuralgia (which follows some cases of shingles) is an example that quickly comes to mind. There was a recent eight minute post on TED which serves as a good introduction to this general area.

 

New Stratagems in the Quest for Hair

This is a nice review of treatments for balding.  It focuses on Latisse (which is only approved for growing eyelashes (!) -- but now is being used for small portions of scalp -- especially frontal hairline.  The article is well-written and worth perusing for any patient interested in this area.  See Quest for Hair.

Low Salt Diet Ineffective!

Gina Kolata, one of the top NY Times science writers, has an important article in the Wednesday, May 4th NY Times on "a new study [that] found that low-salt diets increase the risk of death from heart attacks and strokes and do not prevent high blood pressure, but the research’s limitations mean the debate over the effects of salt in the diet is far from over."  See:  Low-Salt Diet Ineffective, Study Finds.

It's not surprising that the dogma on salt is questioned.  The perils of salt have been a tenet of cardiologists for over fifty years.  That it may be false is troubling.  That low salt diets may actually play a role in increased mortality for a subset of the population shows how dangerous medical orthodoxy can be to the health of the public.