Colon Cancer | Continuum Wellness News

Study Suggest Some Cancers May Go Away

by: continuum wellness - December 2nd, 2008 Filed under: breast cancer, cancer, cervical cancer, colon cancer, Health, medical news, medicine 1 Comment

Study Suggests Some Cancers May Go Away
November 25, 2008, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25breast.html

Cancer researchers have known for years that it was possible in rare cases for some cancers to go away on their own. There were occasional instances of melanomas and kidney cancers that just vanished. And neuroblastoma, a very rare childhood tumor, can go away without treatment. But these were mostly seen as oddities – an unusual pediatric cancer that might not bear on common cancers of adults, a smattering of case reports of spontaneous cures. And since almost every cancer that is detected is treated, it seemed impossible even to ask what would happen if cancers were left alone. Now, though, researchers say they have found a situation in Norway that has let them ask that question about breast cancer. And their new study, to be published Tuesday in The Archives of Internal Medicine, suggests that even invasive cancers may sometimes go away without treatment and in larger numbers than anyone ever believed. Robert M. Kaplan, the chairman of the department of health services at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, [is] persuaded by the analysis. The implications are potentially enormous, Dr. Kaplan said. If the results are replicated, he said, it could eventually be possible for some women to opt for so-called watchful waiting, monitoring a tumor in their breast to see whether it grows. “People have never thought that way about breast cancer,” he added. Dr. Kaplan and his colleague, Dr. Franz Porzsolt, an oncologist at the University of Ulm, said in an editorial that accompanied the study, “If the spontaneous remission hypothesis is credible, it should cause a major re-evaluation in the approach to breast cancer research and treatment.”

Note: For reports from major media sources on many hopeful new developments in the battle against cancer, click here.
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Preventing Colon Cancer, a look at B-6

by: continuum wellness - October 25th, 2008 Filed under: cancer, colon cancer, food, Health, health benefits of food, health care, nutrition, nuts, wellness, Western diet, women's health Add Comment

Many of us are not getting nearly enough B6 from our diets. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (May, 2008) published a study of nearly 8,000 people showing that B6 inadequacy is common throughout the United States. “Across the study population,” the authors said, “we noticed participants with inadequate vitamin B6 status even though they reported consuming more than the Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin B6, which is less than 2 milligrams per day.” Three out of four women using oral contraceptives are vitamin B6 deficient, unless they also take vitamin B6 supplements. Smokers and the elderly are also especially likely to be at risk. Remarkably, even among people who take B6 supplements, one in ten is still B6 deficient. (4)

This indicates that we might better take more B6. But many won’t. This is because the public has been warned off of supplementing with this vitamin. So irrational is this fear that, at one point, a so-called “Safe Upper Limit” for daily B6 intake was set at only 10 mg. (6) That was only about six times the US RDA/DRI. Who set such a “limit”? Not the voters, that’s for sure. An unelected committee did it, one created by the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board. (5) They have, in a manner of speaking, recently admitted that they were wrong. The “Safe Upper Limit” is now 100 mg.

That is more like it, but still too low. Alan Gaby, M.D., in reviewing B6 toxicity, wrote that adverse effects from B6 (pyridoxine) were occurring in people taking “2,000 mg/day or more of pyridoxine, although some were taking only 500 mg/day. There is a single case report of a neuropathy occurring in a person taking 200 mg/day of pyridoxine, but the reliability of that case report is unclear. The individual in question was never examined, but was merely interviewed by telephone after responding to a local television report that publicized pyridoxine-induced neuropathy.” Dr Gaby adds that there have been no reports of B6 side effects at under 200 mg/day. (6)

Modern processed, low-nutrient diets are not providing anything close to 200 milligrams. In fact, they typically provide less that 1% of that amount. You can get some B-6 from food, if you really like to eat whole grains, seeds and organ meats. A goodly slice of beef liver contains a whopping 1.2 mg of B-6. Chicken liver is only 0.6 mg per serving, and most other foods contain less. Avocados (0.5 mg each) and bananas (0.7 mg each) lead the pyridoxine league for fruits. Potatoes (0.7 mg each) and nuts (especially filberts, peanuts and walnuts) are fairly good vegetable sources.

But people are not eating nuts, seeds, vegetables, and liver. What they are eating is way too many nutrient-poor junk foods. Our diets are low in B6, yet B6 reduces risk of colon cancer. Clearly supplementation is the way to go.

Orthomolecular Medicine News
Orthomolecular.org

Tags: preventing colon cancer, vitamin b-6

Those Most At Risk, Referred Less for Colonoscopies

by: continuum wellness - March 26th, 2008 Filed under: African American, cancer, colon cancer, culture, Health, health care, insurance, minorities, money, poverty, Uncategorized Add 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.