Category Archives: cancer

Fasting may reduce chemotherapy side-effects

Posted on April 4, 2008 by continuum wellness| 1 Comment

This is an important bit of research. Other studies suggest that eating less overall also fosters longevity.

Short-term starvation may help avoid hair loss, nausea and other ills
April. 1, 2008

WASHINGTON – A few days of fasting might help protect patients from some of the unpleasant and dangerous side-effects of cancer chemotherapy, researchers reported on Tuesday.

They said mice given a high dose of chemotherapy after fasting thrived while half of a group of well-fed mice died, they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers stressed that people should not try this on their own yet but said the findings might lead to a way to use chemotherapy to more effectively kill tumors while sparing healthy cells.

Valter Longo of the University of Southern California and colleagues first tested yeast cells, then human cells in lab dishes. They found healthy cells starved of nutrients survived the ravages of chemotherapy – but not cancer cells.

“In theory, it opens up new treatment approaches that will allow higher doses of chemotherapy. It’s a direction that’s worth pursuing in clinical trials in humans,” cancer researcher Pinchas Cohen of the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, said in a statement.

Longo and colleagues said:

animals fed a low-calorie diet live longer, in part because their cells can resist stress better. They also noticed that starved cells go into a kind of hibernation mode, while cancer cells form tumors because they lack an “off” position, growing uncontrollably.

Chemo affects all cells, not just cancer.

Longo wondered if the starvation response might be a way to differentiate healthy cells from cancer cells. One reason chemotherapy causes side-effects is that it affects all active and growing cells – tumors, but also hair follicles, the lining of the intestines and other cells.

“Here, we tested the hypothesis that short-term starvation or low glucose/low serum can protect mammalian cells but not or to a lesser extent cancer cells, against high doses of oxidative damage or chemotherapy,” they wrote.

“We administered an unusually high dose of etoposide (80 mg/kg) to … mice that had been starved for 48 hours. In humans, one-third of this concentration of etoposide is considered to be a high dose and therefore in the maximum allowable range,” they wrote.

The high dose killed 43 percent of the mice that were fed normally but just one starved mouse. The starved mice regained their lost weight within four days.

An even higher dose killed all of the well-fed mice from a different genetic strain but none of the starved mice, and again the mice that fasted regained their weight.

Skipping food won’t harm most patients

Other cancer experts said a few days of fasting would not harm most cancer patients.

“This could have applicability in maybe a majority of patients,” said Dr. David Quinn of the University of Southern California.

“We have passed the stage where patients arrive at the clinic in an emaciated state. Not eating for two days is not the end of the world,” agreed Felipe Sierra, director of the Biology of Aging Program at the National Institute on Aging.

Copyright 2008 Reuters.

Posted in cancer, healing, health beliefs, health care, healthy body, side effects, tips

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Mobile Phones “More Dangerous Than Smoking”

Posted on April 3, 2008 by continuum wellness| Leave a comment

By Geoffrey Lean – The Independent UK – Sunday 30 March 2008

Brain expert warns of huge rise in tumours and calls on industry to take immediate steps to reduce radiation.

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take “immediate steps” to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.
It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people to minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called for exposures to be reduced.

Professor Khurana – a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over the past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientific papers – reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper based on the research is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a scientific journal.

He admits that mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but concludes that “there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumors”. He believes this will be “definitively proven” in the next decade.

Noting that malignant brain tumors represent “a life-ending diagnosis”, he adds: “We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation.” He fears that “unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps”, the incidence of malignant brain tumors and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to intervene medically.

“It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking,” says Professor Khurana, who told the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.

Late last week, the Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana’s study as “a selective discussion of scientific literature by one individual”. It believes he “does not present a balanced analysis” of the published science, and “reaches opposite conclusions to the WHO and more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews”.

Posted in adolescents, adverse events, brain, cancer, cell phones, Health, teens

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Those Most At Risk, Referred Less for Colonoscopies

Posted on March 26, 2008 by continuum wellness| Leave a comment

This is not surprising based on the research that demonstrated that if you do not have insurance, you are not tested for certain serious conditions until it may be too late. I posted the article earlier, click here to read it.

(HealthDay News) — Even when there is a family history of colon cancer, blacks are much less likely to get colonoscopies than their white counterparts are, a new study finds.

While blacks who have an increased chance of developing colon cancer continue to lag behind their white counterparts in colonoscopy rates, the lack of a doctor referral stood out as the primary reason why high-risk patients of either race had not been screened.

For people who have close relatives that have been diagnosed with colon cancer, the recommended screening is a colonoscopy every five years after the age of 40.

“People with a family history of colon cancer have a two to four times increased risk of developing the disease compared with people who don’t have such a history,” explained lead researcher Dr. Harvey J. Murff, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

“When you look at people who have more than one close relative diagnosed with colon cancer, African-Americans were about half as likely to have reported undergoing the appropriately recommended screening as compared to whites,” Murff said.

The reasons for this disparity aren’t clear, Murff said. It could be that doctors don’t perceive blacks as having an increased risk for colon cancer, he speculated. It may also be that doctors are remiss in collecting a complete family medical history, he said.

“If providers aren’t aware of family history, they may be less likely to recommend the test,” Murff said. “There is a problem collecting family history and using it to risk-assess patients.”

Other conditions that limit access to care, such as not having health insurance or a usual care provider, may also play a role, Murff said.

The report was published in the March 24 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In the study, Murff’s group collected data on 41,830 people aged 40 to 79. Among these, 32,265 were black and 9,565 were white. The researchers specifically looked at how these patients were screened for colon cancer.

There were 538 blacks who reported having close relatives diagnosed with colon cancer, compared with 255 whites. Among blacks, 27.3 percent reported having a colonoscopy within the past five years, compared with 43.1 percent of whites.

The main reason for not having a colonoscopy among both blacks and whites was that their doctor had not recommended one. Among blacks, 59.3 percent said their doctor had not recommended a colonoscopy, compared with 51 percent of whites.

Doctors need to be sure that they get a complete family medical history, Murff said. “In addition, it is important for patients to know what your family history is, and if you have questions related to your family history or if you are concerned that it might impact your risk of disease, it is important to talk to your physician about it,” he said.

Tips: Make sure you know possible signs, click here for more information.

Posted in African American, cancer, colon cancer, culture, Health, health care, insurance, minorities, money, poverty, Uncategorized

Study Finds Link Between Cancer Diagnosis and Insurance Coverage

Posted on March 16, 2008 by continuum wellness| 1 Comment

A recent research study found links between insurance coverage, ethnicity and a cancer diagnosis. Those who are uninsured and those who are covered by a Medicaid insurance plan often do not receive a diagnosis until the condition has reached the point of an advanced stage cancer. Twelve common cancer sites were studied: breast [female], colorectal, kidney, lung, melanoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, ovary, pancreas, prostate, urinary bladder, uterus and thyroid.

Uninsured and Medicaid-insured patients were significantly more likely to present with advanced-stage cancer compared with privately insured patients. Also more African-Americans were found to receive a later stage diagnosis. This finding was most prominent for patients who had cancers that can potentially be detected early by screening or symptom assessment. (full study here)

What If You Are Uninsured?

If you are uninsured take advantage of free cancer screenings. Many hospitals and clinics offer free screening services throughout the year or at annual health fairs.

Make health an enthusiastic priority. Many cancers develop over a 10 -20 year period. An interesting fact about the body is that our cells renew every seven years.

Learn about the symptoms and behaviors that lead to cancer.

Be Well.

Posted in African American, breast cancer, cancer, cervical cancer, Health, health care, insurance, Uncategorized

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American Teenage Girls, One in Four May Have an Sexually Transmitted Disease

Posted on March 12, 2008 by continuum wellness| 1 Comment

“What we found is alarming,” Dr. Sara Forhan, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a teleconference Tuesday. “One in four female adolescents in the U.S. has at least one of the four most common STDs that affects women.”"These numbers translate into 3.2 million young women nationwide who are infected with an STD,” Forhan said. “This means that far too many young women are at risk of the serious health effects of untreated STDs, including infertility and cervical cancer.”

These common STDs include human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, herpes simplex virus and trichomoniasis, Forhan said.

Forhan announced the results as part of the CDC’s 2008 National STD Prevention Conference, in Chicago.

“These findings are really giving us a lot of pause about how we provide care to adolescent girls who are sexually active,” said Dr. Elizabeth Alderman, an adolescent medicine specialist at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in New York City and chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Section of Adolescent Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “The numbers are really astonishing.”

Forhan noted that most of the burden of STDs falls on young African-American women. “Among African-American teenagers, about one in two were affected compared to one in five white teens,” she said.

In terms of the racial disparity, “it’s what we’ve always seen, which is very unfortunate,” Alderman said.

In the study, Forhan’s team collected data on 838 girls aged 14 to 19 who took part in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The study did not include syphilis, gonorrhea or HIV, as earlier studies found very low prevalence of these diseases in this age group.

HPV and chlamydia are the most common STDs found among teenage girls, Forhan said. “Almost one in five overall had a strain of HPV associated with cervical cancer or genital warts,” she said.

“We need to be screening adolescent girls who are sexually active and providing them with HPV vaccine,” Alderman said. “The recommendations are to screen sexually active girls, but many girls don’t disclose to their health-care provider that they are sexually active, even when asked,” she said.

As for chlamydia, 4 percent of teenaged girls had this STD, Forhan said. “The majority of chlamydia infections do not have symptoms. If left untreated, it can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, which leaves these young women at risk for atopic pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain or infertility,” she said.

In addition, the study found that 2.9 percent of young women had trichomoniasis, and 2 percent were infected with genital herpes, Forhan said.

According to Forhan, about 50 percent of the teens reported having sex, and the prevalence of STDs in this group was 40 percent. “Even for young women with only one reported lifetime sexual partner, one in five had an STD,” she noted.

“If you choose to be sexually active, you need to protect yourself and be screened for these infections,” Alderman said. “And all girls between the ages of 11 and 26 should get vaccinated for HPV.”

Among women with an STD, 15 percent had more than one infection, Forhan added.

“These data provide a clearest picture to date of the overall burden of STDs in adolescent women in the United States,” Forhan said. “The study also underscores the importance of addressing racial disparities in STD rates among young women.”

Race itself is not a risk factor for STDs, Forhan said. However, factors such as limited access to health care, poverty, community prevalence of STDs, and misperceptions about individual risk are some of the reasons that STD rates are particularly high among African-Americans, she said.

Comments:

The female population in the United States ages 0-19 is estimated to be 40,328,895. This sample consisted of slightly over 800 girls. Who were they? What is their way of life? Based on this sample, it is recommended to vaccinate all girls. There are less risky ways to foster the health (if that is the goal) of young girls.

Posted in adolescents, African American, cancer, cervical cancer, girls, Health, HPV, poverty, sexually transmitted disease, std's, vaccination, vaccines

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