Glands

President Bush's doctors said Tuesday they believe they have found the cause of his recent heart irregularity--a mildly overactive thyroid gland that is expected to be easily treatable. In a briefing at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, Bush's chief physician, Dr. Burton Lee, said he was "pleased by this turn of events" because it cleared up questions about the cause of Bush's ailment and because such problems are "usually resolved within a short time."

About 30,000 years ago, a tiny mutation arose in a gene known as EDAR and began to spread rapidly in central China, eventually becoming common in the region. This week, scientists at Harvard University offered some explanations for why the EDAR mutation may have been so successful - by observing how it affects mice, animals long used in disease research but never before pressed into service for the study of human evolution. The small change, substituting one chemical letter of DNA for another, may have helped humans in Asia survive crippling heat and humidity by endowing them with extra sweat glands, the scientists reported Thursday in the journal Cell.

Research in animals suggests that treatment with a hormone called epidermal growth factor may help in treatment of a rare genetic disorder that makes humans unable to sweat properly, Canadian researchers reported last week. About one in every 10,000 babies is born with the disease, called hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, which causes them to have few or no sweat glands, no hair and dental abnormalities.

Mike Butcher was not overly concerned in mid-January when a routine visit to a doctor for a bone spur in his neck led to the discovery of a small growth and a trip to a specialist for a biopsy. "There was no doubt in my mind I didn't have anything wrong," the Angels' pitching coach said. "I thought maybe it was a cyst. " When test results showed he had papillary thyroid cancer, "My immediate reaction was 'Whoa,' you don't want to hear the C-word," said Butcher, 45. "I was shocked.

In the first operation of its kind in California, surgeons at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center have implanted adrenal gland tissues into the brain of a 43-year-old man with Parkinson's disease, it was announced Tuesday. The patient, a former Los Angeles carpet layer, is at least the 46th Parkinson's victim in the world to undergo the experimental surgery and the 11th in the United States. The first U.S. patient underwent the test procedure on April 9 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Saliva is a humdrum liquid, the stuff of giggles, dribbles and schoolyard grossness. It's hardly something to take seriously--until, that is, you lack it. When your glands no longer pump out a normal and robust 2 to 3 pints daily, then you'll come to appreciate spit for the wondrous substance it is--one that does far more than render food slimy and digestible. Saliva, science has revealed, is much more than water. It is packed with proteins that help control the teeming hordes of microbes in our mouths.

President Bush is suffering from Graves' disease, a common and treatable thyroid condition that is not life-threatening, his physicians announced Thursday. "The President remains in excellent spirits, is in good health, without adverse symptoms of any kind," said Dr. Burton Lee, Bush's personal physician. He said that he and Bush's other physicians have urged the President to relax his schedule temporarily.

There are more than 25 diseases that are transmitted sexually. Many have serious and costly consequences. Some of the most common and serious STDs include: Chlamydia * Used to Be Called: Non-gonoccocal urethritis. * Cause: Bacteria. * Number Affected: About 4 million new cases each year in the United States. * Infection Rate: Highest among 15- to 19-year-olds, followed by 20- to 24-year-olds. * At Risk: Everyone, but female teens are more likely to be infected because of immature cervix.

President Kennedy's Addison's disease, which came to light only after his election in 1960, was most likely caused by a rare autoimmune disease, according to a Navy doctor who reviewed Kennedy's medical records. The disease, autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 2, or APS 2, also caused Kennedy's hypothyroidism, according to a report published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Hard though it is to believe these days -- when a celebrity's smallest sneeze is analyzed -- Kennedy's family and advisors were able to keep his medical history virtually secret.

Oprah Winfrey recently informed the nation on "Good Morning America" that she "blew out her thyroid" at the end of last season because of stress. But that isn't exactly a medical term. No one blows out a thyroid, says endocrinologist Dr. Terry Smith of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. "What is that? Like a right rear tire on a Ferrari?" he asks.

Medications, laser treatment and surgery can all arrest the growth of an enlarged prostate gland, but only surgery can produce an improvement in symptoms, particularly a reduction in incontinence, researchers said Saturday. The surgery, known as transurethral resection of the prostate, or TURP, is generally reserved for those who have failed to respond to drug treatment or who cannot tolerate the medications, but the new findings suggest it might be useful to introduce it earlier in the course of the disease, said Dr. Amy Krambeck of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

BOSTON -- Just what baseball needed before its most eagerly awaited game of the postseason -- a performance-enhancing-drug scandal involving a popular player on the Cleveland Indians, who had enough on their plates trying to prepare for Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night.

Oprah Winfrey recently informed the nation on "Good Morning America" that she "blew out her thyroid" at the end of last season because of stress. But that isn't exactly a medical term. No one blows out a thyroid, says endocrinologist Dr. Terry Smith of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. "What is that? Like a right rear tire on a Ferrari?" he asks.

If Marshall McLuhan was right that "the medium is the message," in the case of wildly popular fake news, the message must be: Laugh your head off or you'll just end up crying your eyes out. But what if a few angry and motivating tears are what we need? What if all this laughing is pacifying us, making us inert? I hate to say it -- I love my Amy Poehler fix as much as the next gal -- but I fear that therapeutic irony is rendering us politically impotent.

The day may come when doctors ask a surprising question to evaluate a male patient's risk for prostate cancer: "How's your sex life?" This spring, a pair of studies suggested that a man's sexual habits and history might influence the likelihood that he would develop prostate cancer, which kills nearly 30,000 men in the United States each year. The research adds to a body of evidence gathered during the last four decades.

A combination of two widely used drugs can sharply reduce the risk that enlarged prostate glands will get worse, offering millions of men a dramatically more effective way to fend off the most miserable effects of one of the most common male afflictions, researchers reported Wednesday.

The products: We all carry the residue of modern living deep within our bodies. We get mercury from fish, pesticides from apples and polyvinyl chlorides from that "new-car smell." A 2005 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of more than 2,000 people across the country found traces of more than 60 toxic compounds, including such nasty stuff as dioxins and uranium, in the blood and urine of participants.

Some people toss them in the trash. Others roast them for a snack. The most ambitious among us collect them and press them to produce pumpkin seed oil ? an increasingly popular culinary oil that's also used in supplements for prostate health. Over a century ago, American farmers noted that when their livestock munched on pumpkin seeds, they seemed to urinate more often. They weren't the first to notice the seeds' effects. The Iroquois had long used pumpkin seed as a diuretic, and the Cherokee gave it to children to control bed-wetting, since it seemed to help empty the bladder before falling asleep.

Millions of Americans take Synthroid or its generic equivalent each day to treat an underactive thyroid gland, but some still complain they don't feel right. They may be sluggish, forgetful or put on extra pounds. Synthroid, also called levothyroxine, is a synthetic form of the thyroid hormone thyroxine, called T4. The body converts it into an active form of thyroid hormone called triiodothyronine, or T3.

Having struggled with acne for more than a decade, Aaron Goldberg had tried everything from antibiotics and prescription skin creams to Accutane, pills that often clear stubborn acne but carry many side effects. When his acne gradually returned about a year after finishing a course of Accutane, Goldberg, a 24-year-old law student, thought he had run out of options. He was wrong.