Rochelle Pemberton opened her mail one day to find a brochure from a local med-spa with a “personal” invitation for a free skin care consultation. She bit.

“It was fun getting my skin imaged and talking to someone about my skin,” she says. “But they sure did want me to buy something!”

Rochelle ended up not purchasing anything at that med-spa. “I want a place where I really feel like they want the best for my skin. Not where they want to sell me something.”

And so Rochelle, like many women, turned to the internet.

Women Go Online for Healthcare and Skin Care Information

Traffic at health-care sites hit 72 million visitors last year, up 14% over the previous year, according to comScore Inc., an online consulting firm. And women are using the internet more, partly as more women over 50 become comfortable with a computer.

Women are clearly hungry for reliable information on skin care products and anti-aging treatments. Like Rochelle, they want accurate, unbiased information. And doing it in the privacy of their home is an added benefit.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that Clarcon Biological Chemistry Laboratory Inc. of Roy, Utah, is voluntarily recalling some skin sanitizers and skin protectants marketed under several different brand names because of high levels of disease-causing bacteria found in the product during a recent inspection. The FDA is warning consumers to not use any Clarcon products.

Consumers should not use any Clarcon products and should throw these products away in household refuse. Analyses of several samples of over-the-counter topical antimicrobial skin sanitizer and skin protectant products revealed high levels of various bacteria, including some associated with unsanitary conditions. Some of these bacteria can cause opportunistic infections of the skin and underlying tissues. Such infections may need medical or surgical attention, and may result in permanent damage. Examples of products that should be discarded include:

- Citrushield Lotion
- Dermasentials DermaBarrier
- Dermassentials by Clarcon Antimicrobial Hand Sanitizer
- Iron Fist Barrier Hand Treatment
- Skin Shield Restaurant
- Skin Shield Industrial
- Skin Shield Beauty Salon Lotion
- Total Skin Care Beauty
- Total Skin Care Work

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Cancer patients who are older than 65 years have poorer physical health and, in some cases, mental health when compared with people of the same age group without cancer, according to a study in the June 9 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Because health-related quality of life (HRQOL) before cancer is not often measured, the impact of cancer on HRQOL is poorly understood.

To quantify the changes before and up to 2 years after cancer diagnosis, Bryce B. Reeve, of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues looked at changes in HRQOL from 1998 through 2003 in 1,432 patients aged 65 years or older. They compared the patients who were enrolled in Medicare managed care plans with 7,160 matched control subjects, by using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry linked with Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (MHOS).

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Most people, especially children, love to be out in the summer sun, but parents should remember that no tan is a good tan.

“Remember that if you form a tan, you will have ultraviolet radiation damage,” Dr. Alfred Lane, a pediatrician and researcher at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, said in a news release from the northern California facility. “Unfortunately, the body really doesn’t forget this damage. It accumulates from childhood through adolescence and adulthood, and this can lead to skin cancer.”

Lane, who is also a professor of dermatology and pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, offers tips to help protect young and old from sun damage:

• Always use a waterproof sunscreen with at least a 30 SPF (sun protection factor) — the higher, the better for protection from ultraviolet damage and skin cancer — before going outside in the daylight.
• Wear clothing with high SPF. Even then, don’t forget to put sunscreen on all exposed skin.
• The format of the sunscreen — stick, lotion or spray — doesn’t matter as long as it is used. However, to avoid getting sunscreen in the eyes and mouth, a stick might be best to use around those areas.
• Because sunscreens are not recommended for children younger than 6 months, dress infants in a hat, long sleeves and long pants and keep them in the shade whenever possible. Carefully applying a little sunscreen on their exposed face or hands should be fine.

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Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) introduced the Trilogy100 portable at-home life-support ventilator. The highly versatile, lightweight (11 lb / 5 kg) device marks a milestone in home ventilation from a recognized leader in respiratory care. Respironics first introduced bi-level positive airway pressure for noninvasive ventilation nearly 20 years ago.

Today, Philips Respironics offers a broad range of clinically proven solutions intended to support breathing in the intensive care, sub-acute, and home care settings. Developed to meet the needs of a wide range of patients, Trilogy100 offers both volume- and pressure-control ventilation for adult and pediatric use with features intended to help caregivers and clinicians administer patient care in the home and alternative care settings such as skilled nursing facilities. A growth area, the number of home ventilator-dependent patients has risen in the 1980s and 1990s — a result of increased survival rates of critically ill patients and technological advances, such as noninvasive ventilation, which can prolong and improve quality of life.1

“When developing the Trilogy100 ventilator, we focused on areas for clinicians and caregivers that are most important in delivering home respiratory care - ease of use, versatility and portability,” explains John Frank, vice president and general manager, Home Respiratory Care, Philips Home Healthcare Solutions. “The integration of the three makes Trilogy100 a significant advancement in home respiratory care.”

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