Article: Health

More than 10,000 New York City office cleaners and building service workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize the Local 32BJ Bargaining Committee to call a strike if the commercial real estate industry refuses to maintain affordable, quality health coverage for its workers.

If you are a male over 50, or are over 40 and at increased risk for prostate cancer because you have a family history of prostate cancer or are of African-American descent, your doctor should screen you for prostate cancer during your yearly examination by conducting a prostate physical examination (the digital rectal test), a urine evaluation, and a PSA test.

Because of the prostate’s location, your physician performs the physical examination of the prostate (also known as the Digital Rectal Examination or DRE) by briefly inserting a gloved, lubricated finger into the rectum to feel the back wall of the prostate. The examination allows your doctor to check for any areas in the back wall of the prostate for firmness, hard nodules, lumps or irregularities.

The fatty acids found in fish may slightly lower a man’s risk of prostate cancer, but another type of fatty acid found in a range of foods may raise the risk, a large study suggests. Researchers found that among nearly 48,000 U.S. men followed for 14 years, those with the highest intakes of two fatty acids found in oily fish were 26 percent less likely than men with the lowest intakes to develop advanced prostate cancer.

Pfizer Inc has announced the pharmaceutical industry’s most comprehensive initiative to expand access to prescription medicines across the United States with a specific focus on enabling America ’s 43 million uninsured to obtain Pfizer medicines at significant savings.

The higher your cholesterol, the greater your risk for heart disease. High cholesterol is a health problem for African American women. However, African American women have lower cholesterol levels than white women. Control your cholesterol by getting your cholesterol checked, exercising, eating foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol, and keeping a healthy weight. Ask your health care provider about how often you should get your cholesterol checked.