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Health Care

To Your Good Health: Colon ‘Burned’ By Radiation

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Dear Dr. Roach: In 2008, I was treated for prostate cancer with radiation. A couple of months later, I started passing blood during bowel movements. I went to a gastroenterologist, who found that my colon was “burned” by the radiation. After several treatments I am still bleeding, though not as badly. I use Canasa suppositories every night. I also had cardiac stents placed in 2012. My cardiologist put me on …

Residents of the William P. Clough Extended Care Center at New London Hospital were recently recognized for their support of the New Hampshire Food Bank. Wanda Walker, left, and Phyllis Taylor, resident council vice-president and president, respectively, hold a certificate from the food bank and the New Hampshire Health Care Association. Photograph by Jen Ellms

At the Hospitals: June 16, 2013

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Valley Regional Chief Medical Officer Leads N.H. Delegation to D.C. Claremont — Dr. Oliver Herfort, chief medical officer of Valley Regional Hospital, led the New Hampshire delegation of seven doctors to the annual American College of Physicians leadership meeting last month in Washington, D.C. More than 200 physicians from 49 states participated. Herfort …

Dementia And Delirium Not the Same Thing

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Dear Dr. Roach: My father, 79, used to play 18 holes of golf three times a week, but after a recent gallbladder removal, he started showing some unusual symptoms. He appeared to be a totally different person: helpless and unable to walk. The doctors diagnosed him as having dementia. I kept telling the doctors and nurses that his washroom smelled horrible and that …

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Mike Cotroneo, a barn restorer, sets up scaffolding around the lowered steeple of the Norwich Congregational Church in Norwich yesterday. Work to restore its rotted framing will take about two months. (Valley News - Sarah Priestap) Steeple Repair in Norwich
Randolph catcher Ross Caswell hugs teammate Alex Gilbert after the Galloping Ghosts won the Vermont Division III championship last night at Centennial Field in Burlington. (Valley News - Sarah Priestap) Motivation Works for Ghosts: Unusual History Lesson Lifts Randolph to Baseball State Crown
Randolph vs. BFA-Fairfax in the VPA D-III baseball championship in Burlington, Vt., on June 17, 2013. Randolph won, 3-2. (Valley News - Sarah Priestap) Photo Gallery: Randolph vs. BFA-Fairfax Baseball Championship
Other Local News
Man Hospitalized in Enfield Fire That Destroys Garage
From News »
Hartford Seeks Healing After Suicides
From News »
Hanover Buddies Planning a Unique Wiffle Ball Field
From Sports »
Chasing the Dream, Welch Detours Back to Morey
From Sports »
From Opinion »
Editorial: Otherwise Engaged; In Vermont, It’s a Labor of Like
From Opinion »

New Anxiety App Aims to Help

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Anxiety disorders can be debilitating. For people who don’t seek professional help, a new iPhone app offers guidance. AnxietyCoach ($4.99) allows people to track their worries. Based on a user’s responses, the app suggests therapeutic exercises. Users select situations, such as talking to authority figures or being observed …

Scientists Devise Tiny ‘Net’ to Catch Bedbugs

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Melville, n.y. — A team of Long Island, N.Y., scientists and entrepreneurs have developed a new way to kill bedbugs, using webs of tiny fibers that capture the bloodsuckers much like wire snares trap larger animals. The stress of being trapped kills the loathed pests faster, the developers …

Reducing Salt for Blood Pressure

Friday, June 14, 2013

Dear Dr. Roach: I have type II diabetes and high blood pressure, which I generally keep below 130/80 with medication. My doctor is concerned about my salt intake. When I pointed out that my sodium level from a recent blood test was in the middle of the normal …

Study: More Terminally Ill Choosing Hospice Over Hospital

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Lebanon — More Medicare patients are choosing to spend their final days in hospice care rather than die in a hospital, a sign of what experts say is a change for the better that will lead to lower costs even as spending on end-of-life care has risen , …

N.H. Murder Raises Concerns Over Mental Health System

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Laconia — The 19-year-old man charged Monday with killing a fellow resident at an Laconia apartment house for the mentally ill had been discharged from the state hospital Friday after an overnight stay, his sister said. But Debra Riley said her brother, Kasey Riley, who spent two days …

Ninety-one-year-old Ned Coffin, of Strafford, makes a joke while asking a question about the aid-in dying law passed in Vermont last month during a discussion at Norwich Congregational Church in Norwich last night. (Valley News - Sarah Priestap)

Questions of Life and Death: Vt. Aid-in-Dying Law Examined in Norwich

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Norwich — The political wrangling over Vermont’s aid-in-dying law may be over for now, but the work of figuring out what it will mean for patients and their families has just begun. A crowd of around 60 turned …

Anita Rager, 77, works out on a treadmill for 50 minutes as part of an exercise study conducted by UT Southwestern and Texas Health Presbyterian at the Cardiovascular Fitness Center at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas in Dallas, May 7, 2013. The study aims to discover if exercise by older adults helps delay or prevent early stages of dementia. (Sonya Hebert-Schwartz/Dallas Morning News/MCT)

Doctor Sees Hope for Alzheimer’s Cure

Monday, June 10, 2013

Alzheimer’s disease is on the rise, but researchers like Dr. Michael Devous expect the numbers to shift into reverse. “I think we’re going to cure Alzheimer’s disease, and we’re not far away from it,” said Devous, a professor …

Don’t Worry, Be Happy: Ways to Ease Your Stress

Monday, June 10, 2013

I was trying not to feel stressed as the traffic backed up and then stopped. I was, after all, on my way to a seminar entitled “Stress, Anxiety and Depression.” I took a deep breath — which was later confirmed as a great stress reliever — and was …

Health facility cleaners Melissa Gagnon and Travis Josselyn clean items in the J2 wing of the New Hampshire Hospital in Concord on Friday, June 7, 2013. The wing, which has a new sprinkler system, will reopen for patients on Monday, June 10, 2013. (TAEHOON KIM / Monitor staff)

New Hampshire Hospital to open 12 new beds this week

Monday, June 10, 2013

Concord — In the first expansion of mental health care services in the state in years, 12 new beds at New Hampshire Hospital will be available for patients starting this week. The new capacity brings the available beds …

FILE - In this May 30, 2013 file photo provided by the Murnaghan family, Sarah Murnaghan, center, celebrates the 100th day of her stay in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with her father, Fran, left, and mother, Janet. A federal judge in Philadelphia on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 made the dying 10-year-old eligible to seek donor lungs from an adult transplant list. Who gets the next donated organ is a life or death matter, and now a judge is allowing two dying children in Pennsylvania to essentially jump the line. It’s an unprecedented challenge to the nation’s transplant system that specialists say raises serious questions of fairness. (AP Photo/Murnaghan Family, File)

Judge’s Ruling Challenges U.S. Transplant System

Monday, June 10, 2013

Washington — It’s a life or death matter: Who gets the next scarce donated organ? In an unprecedented challenge to the nation’s transplant system, a federal judge has allowed one dying child — and a day later another …