Articles By Jack Cush, MD
FDA Says Cryotherapy Lacks Evidence, Poses Risks
Cryotherapy is a non-FDA approved treatment that has been promoted to treat post-athletic injury, osteoarthritis,rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, alzheimers, migraines, asthma, multiple sclerosis, etc. Cryotherapy may be as simple as ice packs on a localized portion of the body, such as the lower back, or may involve whole body cryotherapy.
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Academic Female Physicians Paid Less than Male Counterparts
Female academic physicians at public medical schools had lower average salaries than their male counterparts, a disparity that was only partly accounted for by age, experience, medical specialty, faculty rank and other factors, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
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EULAR Revised Recommendations for Fibromyalgia
The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) has published updated recommendations on the management of fibromyalgia in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (Citation source http://buff.ly/29I7e8C).
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Vagal Stimulation Improves Cytokine Production and Rheumatoid Disease Activity
PNAS has published a study wherein an inducible “inflammatory reflex” delivered by vagus nerve stimulation was shown to inhibit the production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), an inflammatory molecule that is a major therapeutic target in an animal model of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
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Time for a Paradigm Change in Rheumatoid Arthritis
How many clues are needed for a rheumatologist to know something is wrong with the therapeutic soup he/she is trying to concoct? One patient's tale leads to rethinking the RA treatment paradigm.
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Lupus Patients Genomically Stratified to Explain Treatment Responses
Systemic lupus is a clinically heterogeneous disorder, unified by requisite clinical features and exuberant humoral response to unknown triggers. While the diagnosis is easy, the disease course and management can be complicated and challenging.
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Angiogenic Biomarkers Predict Adverse Outcomes Pregnancies in Lupus
The PROMISSE (Predictors of Pregnancy Outcome: Biomarkers in Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) study has revealed several important lessons in lupus care.
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Sclerostin Inhibition May Worsen Rheumatoid Arthritis
Sclerostin, an inhibitor of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, negatively regulates osteoblast differentiation and has anti-anabolic effects on bone formation. Thus, inhibition of sclerostin is currently being studied as therapy for postmenopausal osteoporosis.
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Patient Reluctance to Take Bisphosphonates
The NY Times reports that millions of Americans with osteoporosis are driven to stop or not take bisphosphonate therapies over the fear of exceedingly rare side effects - osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) and atypical femoral fractures (AFF).
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faSScinate Study Shows Tocilizumab to be Effective in Systemic Sclerosis
The results of the faSScinate trial were published in Lancet showing that treatment with Actemra (tocilizumab) resulted in a reduction in skin thickness and an improvement in lung function in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc).
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