Healthbeat by Deirdre Cox Baker

In the near future, women might be able to avoid painful mammograms by the use of an alternative device that takes a thorough look at breast tissue without compressing it, causing undue pain to the patient.

Believe me: A typical mammogram hurts, and the new digital mammograms feel just about the same as the more traditional type. I’ve had a few of these tests by now (age 50), and I believe there’s been no improvement in comfort.

There certainly are nice nurses who rush to get the X-ray taken, and also keep up a friendly chatter while the patient waits, freezing in one of those drafty tie gowns. There are perky office personnel who take appointments and manage billing procedures, etc.

There remains a certain amount of hysteria and a whole lot of angst when in comes to women and the topic of breast cancer. Cold, hard statistics fortunately show both the incidence rate and death rate are going down.

According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, breast cancer among women has decreased 3.5 percent each year, from 2001 to 2004. Deaths from breast cancer decreased by 2.2 percent each year, from 1990 to 2004. But 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, making it the second most common type of cancer that women get. (Skin cancer is most common.)

Nevertheless, most women my age know at least one person who’s had the disease, and one who has died from it. It gets complicated because most women I know also dread the mammogram test, and do not do the monthly breast exam.

Here’s welcome news on both topics:

1. Painless mammograms: A new procedure, called dedicated breast computed tomography, or CT scan, requires a woman to lie face down on a special table with one breast suspended through an opening. A CT scan rotates around the breast and collects data that is reconstructed into a three-dimensional image. Total radiation dose is the same as a conventional mammogram.

This alternative is being presented at a conference this week, to the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Clinical trials show the prototype is good at finding masses, but not so effective at detecting tiny clusters of calcium that can sometimes signal breast cancer.

Researchers will not make the claim that this device is better than the more typical one.

2. Self-exams debunked. Many doctors recommend self tests despite little evidence of benefit. New research shows that in the end, self-exams do women more harm than good.

   A review of two studies involving nearly 400,000 women in Russia and China found that those who performed self-exams underwent almost twice as many biopsies (invasive procedures that remove fluid or tissue that is then analyzed for signs of cancer) that did not find tumors as women who did not examine themselves. There was no meaningful difference in the two groups’ death rates.

 Note: I’m interested in speaking to a woman who uses a specific type of contraceptive, introduced to the public in the last few years. If you use Implanon, or either the Mirena or Paragard IUD, I’d like to ask about your experience. Contact me by e-mail (dbaker@qctimes.com), telephone (563/383-2492), or as a comment on this blog.

The resident 18-year-old in our house just got a new cell phone. So did her parents, by the way, but only one of us chose a phone that’s especially good at text messages.

This teen is like many others who spend a large amount of time communicating with friends by text. The brand new phone, with a new battery, has to be charged every day because of the use it’s getting.

That’s compared to my husband and I, who need to charge our phones about once a week or 10 days. We don’t make a lot of phone calls, and certainly send just a few text messages.

I suspect texting is a fad, and the number of texts will decrease as time goes on. For one thing, some of these kids might eventually deal with carpel tunnel syndrome considering all the finger movement they do!

The nation’s emergency physicians are reporting a rise in injuries and death related to texting at inappropriate moments, such as while walking, driving, biking or roller-blading.

The injuries are mostly minor, of course, but one California physician reported actually witnessing a pickup truck as it hit a young woman who was texting and walked off a curb into the street. She died of massive head trauma.

Here are some safety suggestions from Dr. Linda Lawrence, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, Washington, D.C.

1. Don’t text or use a cell phone while engaged in any physical activities that require sustained attention. These include walking, biking, boating, rollerblading or even intermittent-contact sports such as baseball, football or soccer.

2. Never text or use a hand-held cell phone while driving or motorcycling, and use caution even with headsets.

3. Avoid becoming distracted by rummaging through purses, backpacks or clothing by keeping cell phones and blackberries in easy-to-find locations, such as phone pockets or pouches.

4. Ignore the call or message if it might interfere with concentration during critical activities that require attention. Better yet, turn off the device beforehand during times when incoming calls or messages might prove to be a dangerous or even simply embarrassing or annoying interference.

5. Be mindful of the distraction and corresponding reflex-response delay that texting can cause, and don’t text in any environments in which excessive inattention can cause safety concerns, such as while sitting alone at night, waiting for a bus, or in a crowded area, where one could easily become a victim of a personal theft.

The best time during the Quad-City Times Bix 7 weekend is the downtown street festival, in my opinion. I love to get something to eat and drink, and listen to the live music. People-watching is unparalleled, compared to any other event in this town.

I write this after having walked and run in the QCT Bix 7 road race for eight years. That was very cool, too, but hard on the body. I quit it after I messed up my ankle. I also attended the Bix Jazz Festival for more than a decade, in the company of my dad, the jazz music lover.

But I’ll be walking around the street festival this weekend, and at the Great Mississippi Valley Fair, which starts next week. Thousands of local residents attend both events, and many of us will stroll outdoors, in the bright sunshine.

As a person of Irish, English  and Norwegian descent, I have fair skin, dark hair and blue eyes, the exact coloring of those who are supposed to be very cautious when exposed to sunlight.

I protect myself with lotion, but sometimes I miss a spot or two and get a little burned. Assuming some of you have the same experience, I’ll pass along treatment tips from the ever-helpful Farmer’s Almanac.

Here are several at-home remedies:

— Apply gel from the leaves of the aloe plant. This is perhaps the best-known natural treatment for sunburn. While bottled aloe is commercially available, many people already grow this fleshy plant right in their kitchens.

— Mix lavender oil and yogurt and apply to skin.

— Soak a piece of cloth or cotton gauze in cold whole milk and apply carefully to the burned skin. Leave it on for 15 to 20 minutes and then wash with cold water.

— Mix instant mashed potato mix with crushed ice for instant relief.

— Slice open a cool cucumber and wipe it directly on your skin.

— Apply a mixture of one part tomato juice and six parts buttermilk to burned areas.

— Rub on Preparation H to take down swelling and relieve pain.

The Baker’s favorite 18-year-old is headed off to college in about a month, and is concerned about staving off the weight gain experienced by so many in the freshmen class.

This teen — quite used to home-cooked meals, courtesy of Dad most nights — has been coached in the way of healthy food choices.

But the folks who study this topic note that the start of college is a new, exciting change for a teenager, and the priority of smart food choices often goes right out the window.

In fact, nutrition is often not even on the minds of many college students as they experience freedom from parental control and the ability to make their own choices, to no end.

Back in my day, at Iowa State University, I remember that new-found sense of freedom. It also translated to extra pounds in this case.

The hardest meal to cover was Sunday nights. The dorm cafeteria did not serve food on Sundays in those days, and I often had a milkshake and Doritos as the main meal. Sometimes we’d splurge on a dessert pizza, all cream cheese and canned fruit. Sundaes were a favorite on Sundays.

Thankfully, today’s colleges seem to be rising to the nutritional challenge by adding fresh foods to the cafeteria menus, and having all sorts of ways to challenge teens who, no matter their schedule, “have no time to eat.”

The University of Northern Iowa, for example, offers “healthy choice” care packages to take the place of a mom’s tendency to mail loved ones chocolate chip cookies and snacks.

Students who don’t have time to sit down and eat in a Northern Iowa cafeteria have several options. Places called “Cafe on the Way” and “Dashes” feature grab-and-go soups, sandwiches, hot entrees, salads, chips, fruit, cookies and beverages.

If it’s made easy for teens to make good choices and decisions, they probably will.