Tonight we look at one way to help protect your heart. Older adults with high levels of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in their system may be less likely to develop an irregular heartbeat. Researchers took blood samples from more than 3,000 people over the age 65 and tracked their health over 14 years. They discovered adults with the highest amounts of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in their bloodstream at the beginning of the study were about 30% less likely to end up with an irregular heartbeat. Study authors note their findings don’t prove eating fish lowers your risk of atrial fibrillation; but they believe Omega-3 Fatty Acids found in fish may stabilize the excitability of heart muscle cells. Further research is needed to see how fish oil might be used as a potential preventive measure against arrhythmia. These findings appear in the journal “Circulation.”

Health Matters: Omega-3 Fatty Acids is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

Think you don’t consume much sugar? Think again. Sugar doesn’t just come from obvious sources like dessert, soda or candy.

Here are three common hidden sugar culprits.
1) flavored yogurt.
Commercially prepared fruited yogurt is high in sugar and low in fruit. Instead start with plain yogurt and add your own fresh or frozen fruit.
Even if you add a small amount of sweetener, it will still be less than what the manufacturer typically adds.
2) sports drinks.
Most of us aren’t athletes, so we don’t need to consume a fourth of a cup of sugar in the form of sports drinks. You should know water and a small snack are sufficient after an hour of exercise.
3) and power bars.
Although there are dozens on the market, few are actually good choices. Power bars tend to be filled with so many calories and sugar that it ends up being the same as a candy bar. They may be convenient, but you’re probably better served by eating real food.

Sugar intake matters. In excess, it’s known to increase fat storage, cause mood swings and even make you age quicker.

Health Matters: Where Sugar Hides is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

ATLANTA (AP) — Fifteen teenage girls report a mysterious outbreak of spasms, tics and seizures in upstate New York. But tests find nothing physically wrong.

Scores of adults in Northern California report crawling skin sensations and other bizarre symptoms. Government doctors find no physical cause after an extensive study.

The conclusion by experts is that these are just the latest examples of what used to be called mass hysteria. Now known as conversion disorder, sufferers experience real, but psychologically triggered symptoms.

It’s rare, but scores or even hundreds of outbreaks have been recorded through the decades around the world.

It’s a diagnosis that’s often reached after other causes are ruled out, and is usually traced to a stress-causing trigger. Individual cases are common, even the kind involving tics and other movement-related symptoms. On average, the National Institutes of Health gets reports of two such cases each week, said Dr. Mark Hallett, who heads the branch that fields those calls.

Outbreaks, however, are unusual. Most involve females, often teenagers. Why is not clear. Some think it has to do with the way girls are socialized to deal with stress. Others say that females are just more likely to seek medical help – and thus appear in medical reports.

Symptoms seen in outbreaks vary, and cases have included blindness, headaches, nausea, paralysis and inability to speak. As in infectious disease outbreaks, they often seem to begin with one person who gets the symptoms and then it spreads to people she knows. Experts believe that these first “index” cases often are people who have symptoms caused by a physical illness, but subsequent cases are subconscious mimicry.

Recent examples include:

-In the fall of 2007, at least eight girls at a Roanoke, Va., high school developed strange twitching symptoms similar to those in upstate New York. The school district spent $30,000 to check the school, but investigators found no environmental cause.

-Earlier in 2007, a mysterious illness swept through a Catholic boarding school in Chalco, Mexico, causing 600 girls to suffer fever, nausea and buckling knees that left many unable to walk. Batteries of tests found no physical cause.

-In 2002, 10 teenage girls at a small, rural North Carolina high school had epileptic-like seizures and fainting. The school buildings were inspected, but nothing was found to explain the outbreak.

Allegations of fakery sometimes surface, but most experts believe these patients have real symptoms that they can’t consciously control.

One thing they often have in common, is some kind of precipitating stress in their lives.

That was the case in Le Roy, N.Y., the site of the latest example of this disorder. Dr. Jennifer McVige, a pediatric neurologist based in nearby Batavia, has seen 10 of the teens. “All of the kids had something big that happened,” like divorcing parents or some other upsetting situation, McVige said, declining to go into detail.

The Le Roy Central School District paid for an inspection of the school, checking for formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, molds, solvents and other volatile organic compounds and even lighting levels. No environmental cause for the cases was found.

But the belief that there must be a physical cause drew national news attention, and finally, California environmental activist Erin Brockovich. She wanted to investigate whether a 1970 derailed train carrying chemicals may have contaminated groundwater with trichloroethene, or TCE. State health officials say no TCE was found at the school, and on Wednesday they reported no sign of that chemical or other threatening contaminants in the school or village water supply.

The idea that it’s a stress-induced psychological disorder has been hard for some of the girls and their parents to swallow. Some have appeared on national and international TV voicing that view.

On NBC’s Today Show last month, senior Thera Sanchez told how her Tourette-like tics worsened to the point where she couldn’t even attend class. She had some psychological counseling, which she says didn’t resolve her condition. “I want an answer. A straight answer,” she said on the show.

Doctors familiar with the girls’ treatment say the continuing news coverage has slowed progress they were making. They have recommended that all the girls see therapists. But that’s easier said than done. There’s a shortage of pediatric psychologists in that part of the state, McVige said.

Experts elsewhere have looked on curiously at the Le Roy story. One piece of footage prompted laughter this week among a group of physicians. They were watching a BBC report on the cases, which showed one girl with a jerking arm that suddenly became very controlled as she applied eyeliner and then jerked around again when she was done.

“It’s almost impossible to conceive of a true neurological disorder that can allow for that complexity of switching back and forth,” said Dr. Jose Maldonado, chief of psychosomatic medicine at Stanford University, who mentioned the group’s reaction. “It also looks very purposeful. I’m not saying she’s making it up. I’m just saying that it doesn’t look neurological.”

The AP was unable to reach the girl or her mother.

McVige acknowledged the other doctors’ reaction. She recalled one examination in which the tic in one girl’s arm stopped when a doctor forcefully held it, but then the other arm started moving. That also is not something generally seen in neurological disorders.

She said the Le Roy outbreak, at its core, is no hoax. But “now I think there’s an overlay of some of the girls trying to prove `there’s something wrong with me,’” she added.

Calls from the AP to three of the girls were not returned. Brockovich did not respond to an email request for an interview, either.

Last week, while those cases were in the news, government doctors coincidentally released a long-awaited report on their investigation into an illness known as Morgellons (mor-GELL-uns).

The condition is marked by some bizarre symptoms, including sores, crawling sensations on the skin and – perhaps worst of all – mysterious fibers that the patients believe sprout from their skin. Anecdotal and media reports about cases six years ago led to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency found no environmental or physical cause for the cases; tests showed the fibers came from fabric, like clothing or blankets. Psychological evaluations suggested conversion disorder, said a neurologist who worked on the study.

Some specialists argue it doesn’t fit in that category. Some believe Morgellons is a form of psychosis. Others insist these patients are not psychotic, but suffer from a less severe kind of psychological disorder which isn’t well understood yet.

Also, at least some of the Morgellons patients probably don’t have a psychological problem at all, said Dr. J. Michael Bostwick, a psychiatrist at Mayo Clinic who has studied delusions of infestation.

It turned out one woman had itchy skin that was caused by high calcium levels that developed from parathyroid tumors.

In past outbreaks, the symptoms of conversion disorder have tended to disappear in a matter of weeks or a few months. In Le Roy, many of the cases appeared around the beginning of the school year and were improving, but about half of the girls got worse after the wave of media attention and disputes about the cause of the illness.

Indeed, McVige said she has stopped forwarding media requests to her patients.

Anxiety and suspicion are continuing, fueled by YouTube, Facebook and other social media that weren’t prevalent in earlier outbreaks, observed Robert Bartholomew, a sociologist who has studied mass hysteria for many years.

“There is a good chance that symptoms could spread to other students and last for several more months – even years,” Bartholomew said in an email from New Zealand, where he teaches at a university.

Mass hysteria rare, but usually seen in girls is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

NEW YORK (AP) — Supporters are rallying around Planned Parenthood after renowned breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure decided to cut breast screening grants to the reproductive health organization.

Besides $400,000 in smaller donations from 6,000 people, Planned Parenthood is receiving $250,000 from a family foundation in Dallas and a $250,000 pledge announced Thursday by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to match future donations.

In Washington, 26 U.S. senators – all Democrats except for independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont – signed a letter calling on Komen to reconsider its decision.

“It would be tragic if any woman – let alone thousands of women – lost access to these potentially lifesaving screenings because of a politically motivated attack,” the senators wrote.

According to Planned Parenthood, its health centers performed more than 4 million breast exams over the past five years, including nearly 170,000 as a result of Komen grants.

Komen, meanwhile, has been deluged with negative emails and Facebook postings, accusing it of knuckling under to pressure from anti-abortion groups, since The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the charity was halting grants that Planned Parenthood affiliates used for breast exams and related services. The grants totaled $680,000 last year.

Some of Komen’s local affiliates were openly upset, including all seven in California, and at least one top official has quit, reportedly in protest.

Komen’s top leaders, in their first news conference since the controversy erupted, denied Planned Parenthood’s assertion that the decision was driven by pressure from anti-abortion groups.

“We don’t base our funding decisions … on whether one side or the other will be pleased,” said Komen’s founder and CEO, Nancy Brinker, depicting the criticism as a mischaracterization of the charity’s goals and mission.

Komen has said the decision stemmed from newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations under investigation – affecting Planned Parenthood because of an inquiry by a Republican congressman acting with encouragement from anti-abortion activists.

Brinker said Thursday there were additional factors, notably changes in the types of breast-health service providers it wanted to support. But she said grants would continue this year to three of the 19 Planned Parenthood affiliates – in Denver, California’s Orange County, and Waco, Texas – because they served clientele with few other breast-screening options.

A source with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen’s headquarters in Dallas gave a different account, saying the grant-making criteria were adopted with the deliberate intention of targeting Planned Parenthood. The criteria’s impact on Planned Parenthood and its status as the focus of government investigations were highlighted in a memo distributed to Komen affiliates in December.

According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, a driving force behind the move was Karen Handel, who was hired by Komen last year as vice president for public policy after losing a campaign for governor in Georgia in which she stressed her anti-abortion views and frequently denounced Planned Parenthood.

Brinker, in an interview with MSNBC, said Handel didn’t have a significant role in the policy change.

The source also said that Mollie Williams, who had been Komen’s director of community health programs, had resigned in protest over the grant cutoff.

Williams, in an email, said she could not comment on her departure for reasons of professional confidentiality, but she was clear about her views.

“I have dedicated my career to fighting for the rights of the marginalized and underserved,” she wrote. “And I believe it would be a mistake for any organization to bow to political pressure and compromise its mission.”

Williams said she was saddened by the rift because she admired both Komen and Planned Parenthood.

“I am hopeful their passionate and courageous leaders, Nancy Brinker and Cecile Richards, can swiftly resolve this conflict in a manner that benefits the women they both serve.”

Among Komen’s affiliates, there were clear signs of discomfort with the decision. The Connecticut branch received scores of supportive emails after expressing frustration about the cutoffs and good will toward Planned Parenthood.

All seven Komen affiliates in California, in a joint letter to their congressional delegation, said they were “strongly opposed” to the policy change and were working to overturn it.

“Our commitment to our mission is unwavering,” the letter said. “This is a misstep in that journey and … we will do whatever it takes to do what is right for the health of women and men in California.”

In New York City, a member of the Komen affiliate’s medical advisory board said she would resign if the decision wasn’t changed soon.

“Komen is a wonderful organization and does tremendous things for women, but this is straying from their mission,” said Dr. Kathy Plesser, a radiologist. “It’s sad.”

The board of the Arkansas affiliate issued a statement noting that the decision was made at Komen headquarters “without input from affiliates,” and called for the new policy to be changed.

“We hope Komen national will reverse its position on granting to organizations under investigation because we feel decisions of this nature should be made only after the investigation is complete,” the statement said.

At the Orange County affiliate in Costa Mesa, Calif., executive director Lisa Wolter said there have been lots of exchanges with headquarters.

“We’re very troubled by the reaction, and we want to make sure there are clarifications,” she said.

The American Association of University Women, in protest over Komen’s decision, said it was scrapping plans to offer a Komen Race for the Cure as one of the activities at its upcoming National Conference for College Women Student Leaders.

“AAUW is disappointed that some are playing politics with women’s health and jeopardizing care for the most vulnerable among us,” said Lisa Maatz, the association’s director of public policy.

Though comments posted on Komen’s Facebook page seemed to be mostly critical of the grant decision, Brinker said at her news conference that donations to the charity had increased since Tuesday.

She also said there were other organizations receiving Komen grants that might be adversely affected by the new criteria about investigations, but she did not identify them.

Online:

Susan G. Komen for the Cure: http://ww5.komen.org/

Planned Parenthood: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/

Supporters rally around Planned Parenthood is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

We’re talking about the company Pfizer recalling one million packets of birth control pills in the US. The drug maker says a packaging error could raise the risk of an accidental pregnancy. The company reports some packets have too many active tablets, while others have too few. Oral birth control products use a series of 21 hormone tablets and 7 inactive sugar tablets to regulate the menstrual period. Pfizer says the recall is not safety related. Some doctors, like Dr. Manny Alvarez of the FOX News Medical “A” Team, disagree. The recalled products are “Lo Ovral 28″ and “Generic Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol.” The packets have expiration dates ranging between July 2013 and March 31, 2014. The drug maker releasing a statement saying quote: “Pfizer has responded rapidly to ensure that its products continue to meet the company’s high quality standards.” According to a report, nearly 80 million birth control prescriptions were filled in 2010 here in the US. The drugs were distributed to clinics and retail pharmacies throughout America. Patients with the affected packets should return them to the pharmacy.

Health Matters: Birth Control Pill Recalls is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Birth control pills are known to be nearly 100 percent effective when taken properly, but a recall of the drugs could send a shudder through women of childbearing age.

A manufacturing mix-up by Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drug maker, led to some packets being distributed with the pills out of order. That means a patient could have unknowingly skipped a dose and raised her risk of an accidental pregnancy.

Pfizer has recalled about 1 million packets of Lo/Ovral-28 and its generic equivalent, but the company estimates that only about 30 packets were flawed. The pills were made and shipped last year.

Each packet contains 28 days’ worth of the prescription, with 21 pills containing the active ingredient that prevents pregnancy and seven placebo pills. The pills are normally color-coded to note the difference.

Women are supposed to take the pills in order and not mix the placebos with the active pills. Doctors say taking three placebos or more in a row negates the pregnancy protection.

“Women who are potentially on this particular product need to be aware of (the recall) and take this quite seriously,” said Dr. Steven R. Goldstein, a New York University professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

The packaging mistake worries Kendra Mifflin even though she takes a different brand of the pill.

“You take it for a reason, and if that gets messed up … it could change your life,” she said. “It has a big impact, just a simple mistake like that.”

The student at Butler University in Indianapolis said her pills change color as she gets closer to the placebo. Mifflin, who has been taking them for about six months, said she thinks she would notice if the color were out of order, but she’ll probably pay closer attention now.

The drug is not among the more commonly prescribed brands of birth control. The brand Lo/Ovral ranked 64th in U.S. birth control sales last year. The generic version, called norgestrel and ethinyl estradiol, ranked 30th, according to data firm IMS Health.

Doctors and pharmacists say Lo/Ovral is an older version of the pill that is not as widely prescribed anymore. They do not expect many panicked calls about the mix-up.

“Patients are pretty savvy,” said Dr. Adam R. Jacobs, division director of family planning at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He said most women taking the pill would notice that the colors are out of order.

Company spokeswoman Kristen Neese said the drug maker learned about the problem when a customer called late last year to report finding a pink placebo tablet in the middle of her white birth control pills. The company found a manufacturing problem and fixed it immediately.

It issued a nationwide recall in late December asking pharmacies to pull the affected lots from their shelves. It then announced the recall Tuesday to consumers and the media after the Food and Drug Administration requested that.

Pfizer did not announce the recall publicly in December due to the relatively small size of the problem and the low risk to patient safety, Neese said.

The recall includes 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of the generic version. Both products are manufactured by Pfizer and sold in the U.S. by Akrimax Rx Products. A lot is a product batch or production run, made at one time and place and can include tens of thousands of individual packages, each with the same identification code for tracking.

Pfizer said the packets are pink with the drug’s brand name or generic name on it, along with the Akrimax name. Pfizer’s logo does not appear on it.

Patients who received a packet from one of the affected lots should call their doctors immediately, Jacobs said. If they have had unprotected sex in the past five days while on one of those pill packets, they may want to consider emergency contraception.

The affected packets have expiration dates ranging between July 31, 2013, and March 31, 2014. Lot numbers are available athttp://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm289770.htm .

Pfizer recalls 1M birth control packs after mix-up is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — At first, David Oliver ignored the bump on his neck that he noticed while shaving. The medical school professor assumed it was calcified scar tissue from a previous surgery.

But the growth didn’t go away, and his sore back grew more painful. A doctor’s diagnosis confirmed the worst: He had a form of upper throat cancer called nasal pharyngeal carcinoma. It had spread to his lymph nodes and bones.

Then Oliver, who has spent a career teaching medical students and hospital workers how to care for dying patients, took an unusual step. He made a video to break the news to colleagues. And when the clip spread far beyond this Missouri college town, Oliver undertook a bigger mission: documenting his treatment in regular videos and promoting an unusually public conversation on medicine and mortality.

“If there was ever a time to be a good teacher, this is it,” he said. “I’ve got a chance.”

Oliver, a 69-year-old specialist on aging and a former health care executive, at first struggled to absorb the diagnosis in September. His cancer is considered treatable but not curable.

He wanted to avoid the inevitable stares from colleagues at the University of Missouri’s medical school, even those whose jobs often required them to confront terminal illness. He knew there would be whispers in the hallway and uncertainty about how – or even whether – to discuss the disease.

Oliver’s initial video was meant to “put them at ease when they saw me. I’m still David,” he said. “I might have five years. I might have six months. But I want you to be comfortable.”

The video quickly spread after Oliver’s five adult children shared the three-minute clip with Facebook friends, who in turn shared it with their own friends. A short time later, he started a video blog and a YouTube site.

For his followers, the updates alone weren’t enough. Questions soon followed.

A viewer from Japan, his stepdaughter’s former study abroad teacher, wanted advice on how to comfort his own friend with cancer. Medical students probed for suggestions about patient care. A college professor in Florida asked permission to use the video in class.

A former Vietnam War protester who four decades ago entered the then-nascent field of gerontology, Oliver spent decades sharing lessons on how to die. Now, buoyed by the power of social media, he was showing others how to live.

Anyone who expected to feel sorry for Oliver was quickly disabused of that notion after watching his first diary entry. A die-hard Missouri Tigers fan, Oliver made sure to highlight the two “puke buckets” he planned to obtain for chemotherapy and radiation treatments: one emblazoned with the rival Kansas Jayhawks logo, the other bearing an Oklahoma Sooner, another foe.

Beyond the humor, Oliver realized his illness provided a chance to help prepare patients and their loved ones, to trade whispers for matter-of-fact observations, to push the conversation from the shadows into the virtual public square.

The second video installment featured Oliver getting his head shaved, his full crop of grayish-blond hair falling to the salon floor before the chemo drugs took their toll.

By the third video, his bald head was gleaming. Oliver stood behind a dozen pill bottles containing a wide range of drugs – from the steroid dexamethasone to morphine. He talked about dealing with “chemo brain,” the persistent mental fog that trails the otherwise lucid professor post-treatment.

In mid-December, a noticeably subdued Oliver appeared on camera to chronicle the 21 days between his three chemotherapy treatments to that point. He talked about the highs of the first few days, fueled by energy-boosting steroids that made him feel “ready to run a triathlon.” Then comes the crash, Oliver explained, five days of agony marked by dizziness, diarrhea, constipation, mouth sores, confusion, tingling, hand cramps, rashes and disorientation.

“It’s a trick,” he said about the initial euphoria. “The Kryptonite comes. Superman is dead on the fifth day.”

Ever the professor, he used a bar graph to illustrate his three-week cycles.

Four months of treatment have also given Oliver a window into modern health care from the patient’s perspective. He hasn’t liked all that he’s seen, particularly the limited interaction between doctors and nurses. He makes sure that his caregivers are also watching his video dispatches.

“I’m in a position to be extremely critical while they’re giving me treatment,” Oliver said. “They consider me an advocate. They want me to help with their patient training.”

Oliver, a former executive at Heartland Health System in St. Joseph, knows he can engage with his doctors on a level of familiarity that most patients cannot. That’s another motivation for his videos, to help level the playing field.

“I’m not intimidated by physicians. I realize they are people like everybody else,” he said. “They make mistakes like everybody else. … This is my opportunity to talk about these flaws and disappointments.”

As the disease lingers, he and his wife of 16 years, Debra Parker Oliver, must also plan for life after his death.

A few short months ago, that talk consisted mostly of retirement, visits with the grandchildren and their next ocean cruise. Now it means stressful sessions with financial advisers and making plans for his memorial service.

“I am not afraid to die,” Oliver said. “I am a gerontologist. I know that none of us get out of this alive.”

His wife, an associate professor and former hospice worker who also works in the family and community medicine department, is less certain.

“Maybe he’s not afraid to die, but he’s afraid of dying,” she said, her husband by her side. “The idea of this man being confined to a bed, maybe not being able to speak, is much more scary than what you are willing to admit.”

On a recent visit to the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, the couple received some encouraging news: A scan showed no visible lesions, meaning all were less than 1 centimeter in length. He will return later this month for two final rounds of chemotherapy followed by three months of freedom from medical procedures before getting another scan.

Best of all, the good news buys him time.

Time for a long-awaited cruise to Istanbul and Rome. Maybe time to travel to the NCAA basketball tournament in March to watch his beloved Tigers as the team seeks its first-ever Final Four berth.

The cancer is “still there. It will grow back,” he said. “Eventually it will grow back and kill me.”

No one knows how much time remains. If it’s more than a year, he added, “we can produce a lot more videos.”

David’s Cancer Journey, http://dbocancerjourney.blogspot.com

Professor documents cancer battle in online videos is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

That’s right. As long as you reduce your calorie intake, there’s no difference between these four diets: Low-Carb, Low-Fat, High-Carb or High-Protein. The point is calories count, the source doesn’t. Researchers randomly assigned several hundred overweight or obese people to one of the four diets mentioned. Each was designed to eliminate seven hundred fifty calories a day. After six months and again at two years after the diets started, researchers checked on people’s weight, fat mass and lean mass. They found no difference in weight loss or fat reduction between the four diets. Study authors note since many people struggle with dieting, each individual should choose what is easiest for them and stick with it. These findings appear in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. For serious weight loss, consult a dietitian. Reporting on Health Matters, I’m Jessica Solis.

Health Matters: Calories Count, Source Doesn’t is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

The most common defects at birth are congenital heart abnormalities, which are in the structure of the heart and vessels. Experts don’t know all of the causes for the heart defects; but tonight we tell you about one definite way to avoid it.
Dutch researchers studied nearly 800 fetuses and babies strictly with congenital heart defects.
According to the Journal “Heart”, results showed women who were both overweight and smoking during pregnancy were 2.5 times more likely to have a baby with heart defects.
It doesn’t stop there. The team also found babies born to the overweight moms who smoked have a risk of blood flow reduction to the heart that triples compared to other babies.
Women should maintain a healthy weight and completely avoid smoking while pregnant.
This study adds to reports that smoking and being overweight while pregnant is linked to miscarriages, stunted growth and premature birth. If you would like to know if your weight gain during pregnancy is normal, you should consult a doctor.

Health Matters: Birth Defects is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV

There are many things to be said about acne. It’s not just teens who have to deal with it; and some people never outgrow it.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, the number of adults with acne keeps rising. In fact, the most common skin condition here in the United States is adult acne.
Experts have yet to figure out why more women are being diagnosed these days. This means the number of women, from their 20’s to beyond their 50’s, with adult acne keeps increasing.
Acne appears in several forms. Contrary to belief, it is more than just pimples. There are blemishes like whiteheads, blackheads and cysts.
You should know acne appears on the upper body like the neck, shoulders, chest, and upper arms. Sometimes even down the back side.
Studies show that acne is more than visible. Experts noticed patients with acne can have low-self esteem, depression, dark spots and scars.
Chances are you or someone you know has acne. If you have any signs of it, you should consult a dermatologist to prevent permanent marks or scars.

Health Matters: Adult Acne is an Article from: Fox Rio 2 News RGV