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Despite the widespread use of mammography screening, the incidence of de novo metastatic breast cancer has not declined and represents 3% to 6% of new breast cancer diagnoses in high-income countries and 10% to 30% in low-income countries. De novo metastatic breast cancer refers to breast cancer that has already spread to distant sites (liver, brain, lung or bone) at a patient’s initial diagnosis and has a five-year survival rate of around 29%.

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As many people are making plans to enjoy the great outdoors this spring and summer, Wake Forest Baptist Health’s Wilderness Medicine experts are sharing some important information to help make it a safe and enjoyable time for the whole family. Seth Hawkins, M.D., wilderness medicine expert, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and medical director for N.C. State Parks, offers the following tips.

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How do you know if the nasal congestion and sneezing you’re experiencing is spring allergies or COVID-19?

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A study by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that while approximately 30 million American adults have obstructive sleep apnea only about 6 million, or 20%, have been properly diagnosed and treated.

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Clinical pastoral education is an interfaith professional program that helps theological students, ordained clergy, members of religious orders and qualified laypersons develop the interpersonal skills needed to work as chaplains or spiritual care providers in hospitals and other settings.

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While the donation and transfusion of blood are very common, and relatively simple as far as medical procedures go, the path from donor to recipient is more complex than most people may realize.

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Concussion is the most common and mildest type of traumatic brain injury, but it should never be taken lightly. Any concussion, however slight, temporarily disturbs vital brain activity and can cause a range of physical, mental and emotional symptoms that vary in number and severity from case to case.

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Osteoarthritis can produce joint pain and stiffness sufficient to limit and even prohibit the performance of everyday tasks. It becomes more common with age, once it starts it typically gets worse and there’s no known cure. But there are therapies that can relieve pain and maintain joint function.

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If you let the sun burn your skin you’ll pay a price right away, with painful redness, peeling and possible blistering. But sunburn can also generate long-term problems, such as premature aging of the skin and skin cancer.

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You just have to be smart about what you grill and how you grill it, and be willing to broaden your view of what qualifies as proper cookout fare.

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Roughly four out of five people won’t ever experience memory issues more serious than the “senior moments” of normal aging.

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Hospital medicine is a relatively new discipline – the term for those who practice it, hospitalists, dates only to 1996 – but it is one of the fastest growing fields in medicine today because of dramatic ways health care has changed over the past two decades.

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There’s currently no good way to tell when – or even if – congenital heart defects will become apparent. Even defects that are identified and treated in childhood can resurface and cause problems in adulthood.

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“Addiction is something we’re all going to encounter no matter what kind of medicine we end up practicing,” said Shane Stone, a fourth-year student at Wake Forest School of Medicine who led the effort to establish a student interest group in addiction medicine at the school.

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The often-misunderstood specialty employs low doses of radioactive materials and advanced imaging technologies to diagnose and treat a variety of diseases.

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“The increase in diabetes in our society is almost certainly driven by the increase in obesity,” says Alain Bertoni, M.D., of Wake Forest School of Medicine. “But not everybody who has diabetes is obese and not everybody who is obese has diabetes. There are definitely other factors at work.”

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Enjoying good times around the holiday table can sometimes be difficult for people with food allergies.

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Ultrasound-guided percutaneous ethanol ablation for thyroid conditions is a minimally invasive procedure that is quick and cost-effective, with side effects about the same as those of a flu shot.

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In addition to following a balanced diet, young competitors need to know when to eat what types of food to allow enough time for the digestion and absorption of the nutrients they need to perform at their best.

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Recognizing your limits, knowing where you’re going and what you might encounter there, and being aware of the environment you’re in are the best ways to avoid the bites, stings, cuts, sprains and other mishaps that can spoil outdoor activities

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The majority of skin problems – including the most common, acne – occur in people of every ethnicity and skin color. However, the amount of melanin, which is the pigment that gives skin its color, an individual has can greatly influence their risk of and reaction to many different conditions.

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Sessions with patient actors give medical students and other prospective providers the opportunity to develop both clinical skills and “bedside manner” before they begin to practice medicine for real.

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People with heart and vascular conditions have benefited from technologies and treatments introduced in recent years. But traditional qualities such as expertise and teamwork are essential in making the most effective use of new products and procedures, says David Zhao, M.D., chief of cardiovascular medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

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Jo Cleveland, M.D., professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, knows from experience that making lifestyle changes can be difficult for older adults. But she says there are four areas in which seniors can take some non-drastic steps to improve their chances of “aging optimally.”

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Skin damage from unprotected exposure to the sun can occur any time of year, even during the winter.

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Child life specialists are dedicated to helping children and their families cope with all aspects of hospitalization and making their experiences at the hospital as positive as possible – especially during the holiday season.

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An estimated 35 percent of this country’s 250 million adults experience occasional problems sleeping while roughly 20 percent have short-term or acute insomnia and approximately 10 percent have long-term or chronic insomnia. The reasons behind this widespread sleeplessness are numerous, but so are ways to address the problem.

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Integrative medicine? That’s stuff like acupuncture, yoga and meditation, right? Yes, they can be part of it, but for many practitioners integrative medicine is about prevention and wellness as well as treatment and incorporates more conventional approaches than alternative or complementary therapies.

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It’s truly small-scale work. But researchers in nanomedicine – the study, development and application of materials under 100 nanometers in size to diagnose and treat disease – are making some big-time advances.

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Although it’s the third most prevalent illness in the world, migraine is widely misunderstood and frequently undiagnosed. Until quite recently a common “remedy” for migraine was to lie in a dark room and wait for the pain to pass. But today there are treatments that work – and new medications formulated specifically for migraine are in the pipeline.

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Computerized models have not replaced crash dummies in assessing the protective properties of motor vehicles, military equipment and other products. But virtual figures offer many advantages over mechanical manikins and are becoming more widely used in injury biomechanics and other fields.

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How can parents help their student-athletes gain a competitive edge? By boning up on nutrition basics.

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The simple sandals that produce the unmistakable thwack-thwack sound effect are clearly the warm-weather footwear of choice for many Americans. But they’re simply not a good fit for every activity.

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The long list of conditions that smoking can cause, contribute to, increase the risk of or worsen runs from high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and stroke to gum disease, arthritis and erectile dysfunction.

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There is nothing better on a hot summer day than a refreshing dip in a pool, stream, lake or ocean. However, bacteria and parasites can lurk in all kinds of water and put a real damper on summertime fun unless people practice a few, simple measures.

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Kinesio tape first gained widespread public attention when it was spotted on athletes during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but it has been around since the 1970s.

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“Your brain has a reaction when you like or don’t like something, including music," says Jonathan Burdette, M.D.. "We’ve been able to take some baby steps into seeing that, and ‘dislike’ looks different than ‘like’ and much different than ‘favorite.’”

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A miniaturized pacemaker that doesn’t have any wires and a coronary stent that gradually dissolves in the body – both approved by Food and Drug Administration within the past year – are being put to good use by heart and vascular specialists.

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The MRI-guided laser ablation method is far less invasive and time-consuming than conventional surgery and has produced good results for people with medial temporal lobe epilepsy.

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Listen up ladies. Women simply don’t metabolize alcohol in the same way as men. It’s called the telescoping effect.

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The notion that having a drink can cure a hangover has been around since the 16th century. That doesn't mean it's true.

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When it comes to what certain foods can do to or for you, it’s probably best to take motherly advice, familiar sayings and other bits of conventional wisdom with a grain of salt.

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If the last blast of winter has you longing for sun-soaked beaches in tropical locales, be sure to stop at the drug store for sunscreen and insect repellant before leaving for spring vacation.

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If your eyes feel like the Sahara desert or your vision seems blurrier than usual, don’t panic. It may just be seasonal dry eye.

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“Not only is the current older population more active, they’re not as willing as people once were to live in pain and tolerate it,” said Mark Shields, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “And the current technology for hip and knee replacements is simply better than it was.”

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Often called the suicide headache because of the excruciating intensity of the pain, cluster headaches are three times more likely to strike men than women.

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Roughly 86 million Americans have prediabetes, and the vast majority of them don’t even know they have it. But the progression from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes is not inevitable, and there’s a simple blood test that can determine whether a person’s blood glucose levels need attention.

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Therapies designed to help the body's immune system attack cancer cells are proving to be effective for some patients with advanced cases of the disease.

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People with serious weight problems who are not interested in or candidates for bariatric surgery can turn to physician-supervised weight-loss programs go beyond diet and exercise to tackle obesity from multiple angles.

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Medical researchers, policymakers and providers are paying greater attention to race, national origin, immigration status and a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic factors in addressing the health of the country's large, growing and diverse Hispanic population.