Monthly Archives: September 2013

09/25/2013 | Cardiology

At the heart of the disease

It seems that our heart sinks a little when we touch on the subject of coronary diseases. Fortunately, we are accustomed to reading on the Best Doctors blog about how practically every month the medical community breaks new boundaries and moves towards more accurate diagnoses, more effective treatments and a clear improvement in survival rates and quality of life of heart patients.

One of the main problems of everyday life for cardiac patients is the “cocktail” of drugs, which they must live with around the clock. A lot of these medicines have been virtually indispensable up until now.

A multiple-effect pill for heart patients The good news is that some researchers are assessing a solution to this problem: a type of "polypill" that combines different medications in composition to avoid possible losses of memory and facilitate the treatment of patients. This medical breakthrough is based on an international study that has recently shown that heart patients had a greater propensity to take aspirin, cholesterol-lowering drugs and blood pressure medication. According to Dr. Gerald Fletcher of the American Heart Association, the three aforementioned drugs could be integrated into a single drug treatment, avoiding the consumption of up to 12 pills a day Read more
09/20/2013 | Neurology

Alzheimer: the disease that erases our past

Alzheimer’s disease is definitely one of the illnesses of our time and also probably of our future, as well as being one of the most common causes of dementia.

This degenerative disease usually manifests itself through increasingly frequent forgetfulness or carelessness. However, we must remember that, in addition to our memory, it may affect the patient’s ability to communicate (language), their reasoning, their behavior and their ability to understand.

Fortunately, in the last few years significant progress has been made towards the discovery of a vaccine against Alzheimer's disease that will minimize the impact of the disease on patients, as well as improve their quality of life at all levels. Figures that we should not eliminate from our memory Taking stock of the current situation of the disease in our environment, we can review the numbers of affected people in countries such as Spain, where the figures reach 500,000 patients and where it is estimated that there could also be about 300,000 cases yet to be diagnosed. With regard to research into Read more
09/18/2013 | Oncology

Lymphoma: the cancer that threatens our lymphatic system

When we think of serious diseases surely the condition that comes to mind is the one we are going to discuss today in the Best Doctors blog: lymphoma cancer.

Lymphomas are a type of cancer that is caused by the proliferation of cells of the lymphatic tissue located primarily in lymph nodes. Therefore, one of the signs of lymphoma may be the presence of enlarged lymph nodes, although lymphoid cells exist in other parts of our body as well, such as the liver, the bone marrow or the digestive system.

There are two main types of lymphoma: Two main groups are usually identified: -       Hodgkin's disease, which usually involves about 20 % of cases -       Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) are a very diverse group of diseases which is subdivided into 30 types Hodgkin's disease This type of lymphoma is more common among young people (between the ages of 16 and 35 years) and people in middle and old age (from 50 to 70 years). The people who are infected by the AIDS virus (HIV) also have an increased risk of developing Hodgkin's disease. Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) The most common categories of NHL, which our doctors have to fight Read more