Many men diagnosed with prostate cancer win the battle and are cured. Unfortunately some do not. The little girl you’re about to meet lost her dad to prostate cancer. And she turned an event that was extremely tragic into something hopeful. At age 10 she participates in triathlons to raise money for prostate cancer research.

Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar, Mayo Clinic hematologist, discusses the first systematic study to determine association of Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS) with all diseases in 17,398 patients, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/…

Click on the following link to hear Dr. Rajkumar talk about this study.

Dr. Rajkumar MGUS Study

Dr. Barbara Yawn, Director of Research at Olmsted Medical Center, provides an overview of her study on Health Care Utilization and the Cost Burden of Herpes Zoster, published in the September 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The full text of the article is available at http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/content/84/9/787.full

Click on the link below to listen to Dr. Yawn talk about her research.

Mayo Clinic Proceedings Shingles Study

Memory loss, personality changes, a shrinking ability to do daily tasks. It’s not easy to watch a loved one suffer from dementia. It’s also not easy at times for doctors to know exactly what kind of dementia a person may have. That’s because there’s not been a test that can differentiate between, say, Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body Dementia. Now, researchers at Mayo Clinic have developed a way to look at the living brain and more accurately tell what type of dementia a person has. And this may help get patients on the right treatment.

Stomach pain, nausea, heartburn, trouble swallowing : Common symptoms that prompt many people to head to the doctor’s office. But it’s not always easy for doctors to find out what’s causing them. That’s especially true if the culprit is a certain type of food allergy which can contribute to particular medical conditions. There just hasn’t been a reliable and accurate way to test them until now.

Hypothermia can be deadly. Getting too cold from being in icy water or frigid temperatures can cause your body temperature to drop dangerously low. Mayo Clinic Dr. David Freeman, talks about how using hypothermia can help save the lives of stroke patients.

Hypothermia for Stroke-Extended Interview

A living nightmare. That’s how the woman you’re about to meet describes her experience with a rare disease called myasthenia gravis. The condition caused her to become so weak she couldn’t walk, talk or swallow. After seeing several doctors, she ended up at Mayo Clinic where medication and a minimally invasive approach to surgery helped her regain her strength and her life.

This is a story about beating the odds. The woman you’re about to meet was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told she had months to live. But before she had major surgery and chemotherapy to try to keep the devastating disease at bay, she got a second opinion. A new diagnosis with the promise of life.

Suffering patients know the importance of human touch. The power of personal contact to the sick or post-surgical patient can be profound. Whether it’s a massage or knitting a shawl, health care volunteers like the ones you’re about to meet know there is healing in caring hands.

Brain aneurysms can be very deadly. The ballooning vessel can rupture, leaking blood into your brain. If that happens there’s a 60% chance you won’t make it. Doctors agree that it’s vitally important to fix aneurysms at risk of bleeding. Let’s go to Mayo Clinic to learn about a new technique for repairing aneurysms. It’s less invasive than traditional surgery and some patients can go home the same day.