Attention, chocolate lovers: You may not be able to help yourselves. Swiss and British scientists have linked the widespread love of chocolate to a chemical "signature" that may be programmed into our metabolic systems.
Read more health news
Survey Reveals How Female Docs Watch Their Health
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 10 (HealthDayNews) -- Does your female obstetrician/gynecologist practice what she preaches? Most likely she does. That's the finding of a new Gallup survey just released by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Some 300 female doctors offered women a rare look at how physicians treat themselves, as they voiced their personal choices about everything from Pap smears to birth control, having a baby to hormone replacement therapy, mammograms to taking vitamins and more. "Because these doctors are also women, they can bring a unique perspective to many of the health challenges women face every day. They can give advice not only from the physicians perspective, but also from the woman's point of view," says Dr. Vivian M. Dickerson, ACOG president-elect. Among the more controversial topics explored by the survey was menstrual suppression -- the continuous use of birth control pills to stop monthly periods. While 99 percent of the doctors favored the treatment and 69 percent felt it is safe for long-term use, 30 percent believed the method safe only when used occasionally. Still, slightly more than half revealed they personally used this method to manipulate their monthly cycles. One of every two doctors chose oral contraceptives as their personal method of birth control, while 18 percent chose an IUD, 10 percent selected the flexible vaginal ring (which releases birth control hormones directly into the reproductive tract), 8 percent favored the birth control patch, and 7 percent preferred the diaphragm. When it comes to treating menopause symptoms -- another area of controversy and concern -- the findings were somewhat less definitive. Before the halting last year of part of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study, which showed hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can contribute to health problems, approximately 50 percent of the doctors surveyed admitted using hormones to quell their own symptoms. After the trial was stopped, the majority of the doctors stopped using HRT. But ACOG contends the sample size is too small to be considered statistically significant. "Because we tried to include women doctors of all ages in this study, as it turns out there were only 60 in the menopausal age group," Dickerson says. So, while she says 38 of those 60 women stopped using HRT after the WHI results were published, she adds, "statistically, this was too small a group to form an opinion." Thirteen percent of the doctors said they chose antidepressants to quiet their menopause symptoms, particularly hot flashes, while an additional 13 percent turned to natural or alternative therapies. Nineteen percent chose to "white knuckle" their way through, using no treatment. The biggest split among the doctors concerned opinions on patient-choice Caesarean sections -- the use of unnecessary surgical procedures to deliver a baby at the mother's request. Of those doctors who had a Caesarean delivery themselves, more than three-quarters said the procedure was medically necessary in their cases. However, 22 percent admitted they elected to have a Cesarean birth, without medical need. As to how they would treat their own patients, slightly more than a third said they would not perform a patient-choice Caesarean, while 22 percent said they would. Twenty-eight percent said they'd make the judgment on a case-by-case basis. The survey also revealed the following health habits practiced by the doctors:
The one area where even the doctors seemed to fall short in their own health care was colorectal cancer screenings. Just 6 percent admitted ever having had a sigmoidoscopy, while only 13 percent said they had had the more detailed colonoscopy. However, with age came wisdom, the survey found: The number of doctors screened for colon cancer jumped to 39 percent after age 48. Finally, when it came to concerns about their patients, the doctors said the greatest health threat to women today is obesity, cited by eight of 10 doctors. The next greatest concern is menopausal symptoms (61 percent), followed by stress (57 percent), depression (56 percent), smoking (53 percent), heart disease (52 percent) and cancer (50 percent). "As women, and as doctors, it's clear we're thinking very globally about women's health -- not just gynecologic and obstetric health -- but general health. And we are enforcing the idea that there can be no such thing as 'cookbook' medicine for women. We are all individuals in need of individual care," Dickerson says. More information To learn more about achieving optimum health care, visit The National Women's Health Information Center or The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists .
|