October 1, 2017

Nearly 25% of strokes each year are a recurrent event. After an initial stroke, risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, sleep apnea, and obesity should be addressed. Antiplatelet therapy, such as aspirin, clopidogrel, and aspirin/dipyridamole, is…

Testosterone therapy is becoming increasingly popular, with many prescriptions written by primary care physicians. Potential benefits include improved sexual function, mood, and well-being, and increased muscle mass and bone density; however, the evidence is mixed. There are…

Secondary hypertension, which involves an underlying and potentially reversible cause, makes up 5% to 10% of hypertensive cases. Suggestive signs and symptoms include severe or resistant hypertension, age of onset younger than 30 years (especially if before puberty), malignant…

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Most patients on testosterone are being treated for normal symptoms of aging. Given that the diagnostics are questionable and the benefits are unconvincing, the risks of testosterone, some of which may be life-threatening, are not worth taking.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is superior to placebo (mean difference [MD] = 2.61 more stools per week; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15 to 4.08), lactulose (MD = 0.70; 95% CI, 0.10 to 1.31), and milk of magnesia (MD = 0.69; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.89) at increasing the number of bowel…

Yoga improves health-related quality of life, reduces sleep disturbances, and decreases fatigue in the short term (up to 12 weeks) among women diagnosed with breast cancer who have completed cancer-related treatment or are receiving cancer treatment compared with no intervention.

Animal-assisted therapy and the medical use of the human-animal bond can be thought of as a form of alternative/complementary therapy.

Family physicians are often faced with the dilemma of balancing the benefit of stroke prevention with the risk of major bleeding when deciding on anticoagulation treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation. Over the past 10 years, several decision support tools have been…

A man presented with a lesion on his right index finger that had been growing gradually for a couple of years.

POEMs

The American College of Physicians (ACP) previously released guidelines in 2012 regarding the effectiveness and safety of oral pharmacologic treatment for type 2 diabetes; however, new evidence has emerged and new drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug…

Do children and adults eat more when offered larger quantities of food?

Calcium channel blockers or B vitamins may lead to short-term improvement in nocturnal leg cramps. Stretching has mixed results. Quinine is effective but is no longer recommended, and it is not approved for treatment of leg cramps because of potential toxicity.

In patients who are stable one year post-MI, prolonged use of dual antiplatelet therapy may be an effective treatment to decrease major cardiac events and cardiovascular mortality.

Most of the time when people have high blood pressure, the cause is unknown. This is called primary hypertension. However, a few people may have something called secondary hypertension. This means that there is an underlying and possibly reversible cause of the high blood…