If you are one of the more than two million people in the US today who suffer from gout, you probably aren’t comforted by knowing you have what has been termed “the disease of kings”. Gout can be extremely painful and limiting to the sufferer.

Gout occurs when there is an accumulation of sodium urate crystals in the joints which form as a result of an abnormally high level of uric acid in the blood. Sixty percent of those who suffer a first attack of gout may expect it to recur, often within one year. Untreated, gout can lead to permanent joint damage and chronic pain.

The Gout & Uric Acid Education Society have a website dedicated to education for gout sufferers on the disease itself, treatments and lifestyle changes to assist the gout sufferer with regaining quality of life.

Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis in men over 40 and women past menopause.

For information and education about gout, visit the Gout & Uric Acid Education Society.

It’s often said that laughter is the best medicine. Norwegian researcher Sven Sveback says he’s got the data to prove it.

Sveback, of the medical school at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, has released a study of 54,000 individuals whom he tracked for seven years after they filled out a questionnaire on how much humor they found in life. He found a direct correlation between having a sense of humor and longevity.

According to Sveback’s research, humor cut the chances of death for cancer patients by 70%.

“Humor works like a shock absorber in a car,” he says. “You appreciate a good shock absorber when you go over bumps, and cancer is a big bump in life.”

A Laugh A Day May Help Keep Death Further Away

Transcendental Meditation can reduce the incidence of factors that can lead to heart failure and even lessen the severity of congestive heart failure.

In conjunction with the usual health care, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania gave participants in a study either TM education or traditional health education. The participants were 23 African American men and women, average age 64, who were recently hospitalized with New York Heart Association class II or III congestive heart failure. African Americans have twice the mortality rate from congestive heart failure as white Americans.

The group practicing TM showed greater improvements in the six-minute walk test at three months and six months and continued to experience improvements in quality of life and depression. They also required fewer hospitalizations.

Transcendental Meditation likely works to improve heart function by reducing sympathetic nervous system activation associated with stress.

Another recent study showed that older adults don’t ask their doctors about complimentary or alternative medicine for treatment of their conditions. According to the above research, it seems they may be missing some simple techniques that could greatly improve quality of life.

Transcendental Meditation for the Heart

I found this article about a website where you can check the disciplinary records of physicians. It’s important when choosing a physician to make an informed decision. Physicians may have disciplinary action taken if they have provided incompetent or negligent care, over-prescribed drugs, committed sexual misconduct or if other things, such as substance abuse problems, compromise their ability to provide competent care to their patients.

The Castle Connelly website offers a search facility that will search individual states or all 46 states and the District of Columbia. Four states, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina and South Dakota, are not included.

I ran a few test searches on the website, both in single state and nationwide. Parts of the site seem to still be under construction and a 46-state search only returned an error screen. I was able to perform single state searches, however.

To verify that the information contained on the site is up-to-date, I checked with my state’s Board of Registration in Medicine for the names of physicians who have been disciplined in the last year. I tried several searches on names of physicians that I know have had disciplinary action taken by the board - in one case, a doctor who has had his license to practice medicine revoked by the state board. Unfortunately, in each case, the Castle Connelly search turned up no information regarding any disciplinary action. I decided to try the website of the American Medical Association, which offers a doctor-finder search facility for patients.

The AMA website wasn’t much help either as it didn’t return any information on doctors who are not AMA members. The doctor who had his license revoked apparently was an AMA member and so his name did bring search results, but no mention was made of any disciplinary action and he seemed to be a member in good stead. The AMA doctor finder even provided a link to this physician’s website, in spite of the fact that his license to practice is under complete revocation and has been for four months. The physician in question is an orthopedic surgeon.

The four states not included in the Castle Connelly search facility have their own state-wide physican profile page. In fact, many states do make public the disciplinary and malpractice records of physcians licensed in that state. In most cases these can be easily found by googling “Board of Medicine+your state’s name”. The information found on these pages is usually current and verifiable. If your state doesn’t provide physician profiles online, usually you will be able to contact the state board in charge of licensure and registration of medical doctors by phone. Check your state’s government website for information.

When searching for a specialist or even a new primary care physican, take the time to research your choices and find the best match for your health issues.