Greetings…
Hope everyone had a VERY MERRY Christmas!
In today’s section of ‘Health Tip’ I featured 6 ways to
reduce your breast cancer risk. This applies to both men and
women, but please forward this or that section of the newsletter
to all loved ones.
Enjoy today’s issue…
Be Well,
Kris
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HEALTH TIP: 6 Ways to Reduce Your Breast Cancer Risk
The risk of breast cancer rises with age, but so does the
determination to avoid or beat the disease. And researchers
know more than ever about how to lower your odds of getting
this illness—or getting it again.
Trim the fat In a Harvard study, women who dropped 20 pounds
after menopause and kept it off cut their breast cancer risk
by 57 percent.
Shake a leg Exercise also reduces your risk, and “it˘s never
too late to start,” says Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., of Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Her research
shows that two and a half hours of moderate exercise weekly
(think walking, swimming, dancing) lowers risk by 20 percent.
Veg out Breast-cancer survivors who exercised and ate at least
five servings of fruits and vegetables per day were less
likely to have a recurrence of the disease than those who did
not, according to a study at the University of California, San
Diego.
Dim the lights Women who live in cities that are brightly lit
at night are 73 percent more likely to get breast cancer than
those in the darkest areas, a recent study in Israel found. So
keeping your bedroom dark might protect your health—and it
can˘t hurt.
AARP: Health Care and Pharmacy Benefits for People 50 and Over
AARP member benefits include access to health and life insurance
options, discounts on prescription drugs and tips on staying
active. Joining online is fast, easy and only $12.50/year.
Grin and bare it Regular mammograms mean a greater chance of
survival if you˘re diagnosed. And don˘t let your mom convince
you she˘s too old: researchers at the University of Texas M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center showed that mammography offers survival
benefits even to women in their 80s. (Since men can also get
breast cancer, they should report any new lumps to their doctor
ASAP.)
Watch out for age bias Some docs are slow to recommend chemo-
therapy and radiation to women in their 50s, 60s, or 70s—
although older women tolerate them as well as patients under
50. Christa Corn, M.D., a breast surgeon at Phoenix Baptist
Hospital & Medical Center in Arizona, advises: ask about all
your options, and if your doctor says “not at your age,” seek
a second opinion.
Some T cells linked with Lyme disease
LA JOLLA, Calif., — U.S. scientists say they’ve identified
a group of natural killer T cells that play an important role
in fighting Lyme disease. Led by the La Jolla Institute for
Allergy & Immunology and Albany Medical College, the resear-
chers said their finding — based on a mouse model of the
disease — demonstrates white blood cells are central to
clearing the bacterial infection and reducing the intensity
and duration of arthritis associated with Lyme disease. “Our
findings are that the NK T cells are critical to preventing
the chronic inflammatory infection that causes Lyme arthritis
and they participate in clearing the bacteria which cause
it,” said Mitchell Kronenberg, president of the La Jolla
Institute and the study’s co-senior author. “What this study
demonstrates is that NK T cells are an important part of our
defense against Lyme disease,” said Albany College Associate
Professor Timothy Sellati, co-senior author of the study.
“This offers the possibility that we can exploit that know-
ledge therapeutically and potentially develop immunological
agents that can trigger more NK T cells to aide in fighting
this disease.” The research was reported in last week’s on-
line edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
Boost Your Brain With Smart Pills?
The never-ending search goes on for new ways to boost our
brainpower. From consuming caffeine, to popping ginkgo biloba
pills or fighting to swallow fish oil capsules with omega-3
fatty acids, we do it all in hopes of gaining improved brain
function. But where should we stop? Should healthy people
have the right to boost their brains with drugs, such as those
prescribed for hyperactive children and those used to treat
memory impairments in the aging? According to one group of
researchers, the answer is yes. Henry Greely of Stanford Law
School in California, Barbara Sahakian, a psychiatry professor
from the University of Cambridge in Britain, along with sev-
eral others argue that the use of brain boosting drugs in
healthy adults is a reasonable method of improving brain
power and just as legitimate as education, the use of the
internet and other learning tools. The seven authors hail
from the United States and Britain and include ethics experts
and scientists, as well as the editor-in-chief of Nature.
They voice their arguments in a provocative commentary rec-
ently published in the journal Nature. And, even some health
experts agree that the issue deserves consideration. In the
commentary, the experts write, “We should welcome new methods
of improving our brain function,” and suggest that using
pills to achieve this is no more ethically unacceptable than
practicing healthy eating or being well rested. The group
also notes that college students routinely take prescription
stimulants like Ritalin illegally to help them improve their
studies and that the demand for these types of drugs will
just continue to grow elsewhere. The editorial suggests the
need for more research and a broad array of steps to take for
risk management.
Gene Variant Makes Children Eat More Calories
In a UK study on children’s food intake and energy use, re-
searchers found that those carrying a variant of a gene known
to be linked to obesity, ate an average of 100 extra calories
per meal suggesting the gene influenced food intake and
choice. The study was the work of corresponding author Dr -
Colin Palmer of the Biomedical Research Institute, Ninewells
Hospital and Medical School, University of Dundee, Scotland,
and colleagues from other universities in Scotland and
England, and is published online on 11 December in the New
England Journal of Medicine, NEJM. When they compared the
food intake of children carrying a particular variant of an
obesity-linked gene called FTO to children who did not have
that variant, Palmer and colleagues found that while they
ate the same weight of food, their energy intake was higher,
regardless of their own body weight, suggesting that the
children with the gene variant were choosing to eat food
richer in calories. This led them to suggest that perhaps
the FTO variant was evidence of a “hyperphagic phenotype”,
a genetic make up that makes people to eat too much. Several
studies have shown strong links between variants of the FTO
gene and obesity but how it affects energy use and food in-
take is not so clear. For this study, Palmer and colleagues
studied 2,726 Scottish children aged from 4 to 10 with known
height and weight and who had had tests to see if they had
a particular variant of the FTO gene known as rs9939609.
They also studied a small subset of the children, 97 in all,
and measured their food intake, body fat, and energy use and
looked for links between those variables and the FTO variant.
Spinal muscular atrophy genetic test urged
BETHESDA, Md., — The American College of Medical Genetics
says a genetic test for spinal muscular atrophy should be
offered to all couples. The statement appears in the November
issue of the organization’s journal Genetics in Medicine.
ACMG officials said spinal muscular atrophy is a severe
neuromuscular genetic disease caused by mutations in the
SMN1 gene. It affects approximately 1 in 10,000 infants,
causing progressive muscle weakness and death. The ACMG said
tests to identify carriers of the gene responsible for SMA
have generally been offered only to people with a family
history of the disease. “Because SMA is a common genetic
disorder in all populations, carrier testing should be
offered to all couples regardless of race or ethnicity,”
said Ohio State University Professor Thomas Prior, the author
of the recommendation issued by the ACMG’s Professional
Practice and Guidelines Committee. “It is important that all
individuals undergoing testing understand that a carrier is
a healthy individual who is not at risk of developing the
disease, but has a risk of passing the gene mutation to
his/her offspring,” according to the statement. “The new
recommendation to extend SMA carrier screening to the general
population is a good example of the way in which technical
capabilities and knowledge in the field of genetics are
advancing to the point that entire populations stand to
benefit,” said Dr. James Evans, editor-in-chief of the
journal.
A Simple Cure for Heel Pain
From morning til night, you spend a good portion of your day
on your feet. From getting to the bathroom to the kitchen to
your car to the bus, walking around work, standing in line
at the grocery store or the gas pump, most of our lives are
sitting or standing. Imagine being one of the million
Americans each year living with pain in their heels that
make normal everyday activities annoying and often severely
uncomfortable. New research suggests an easy form of relief
that can act quickly and takes mere minutes to conduct.
Plantar fasciitis, the most common form of heel pain, is
caused when the connective tissues (called plantar fascia)
running from the base of your foot to the ball become in-
flamed as a result of conditions such as obesity or a bone
spur—a growth that forms along the joints on bones as a
result of foot stress. Previous treatment alternatives
include prescribing anti-inflammatory medications, exercises
for stretching, wearing foot splints overnight and arch
supports that can take up to a year to provide any comfort
or significant results. A radical approach in the past has
been painful shockwave therapy where doctors produce sound
waves against the part of the heel where the pain is re-
corded. The study conducted at the University of Genoa in
Italy found an effective treatment that uses a noninvasive
formula. By combining “dry-needling”—the technique of
applying local anesthetic then poking the area of inflam-
mation repeatedly with a solid needle—and injections of
steroids through ultrasound, this new approach had a success
rate of 95 percent. Lead author of the study, Dr. Luca M. -
Sconfienza, doctor of experimental medicine, says that the
procedure is safe and effective, “Overall, the ultrasound
guidance allows performing the procedure in total safety.”
Sconfienza, in a telephone interview, continued to speak
about the rate of success for the recent study results,
“On a long-term basis, patients recover almost completely
from their fasciitis.”
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Health Tips: 6 Ways To Reduce Your Breast Cancer Risk
28 Dec 2008, 11:11 AM
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