Red Meat, Dairy Nutrient May Raise Colon Cancer Risk

TUESDAY, Aug. 7 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that a nutrient in red meat, poultry and dairy products may contribute to the development of intestinal polyps, which can lead to colon cancer.

The study, which involved women only, was preliminary, and no one is yet suggesting a change in diet as a result.

However, the research into the nutrient, called choline, could ultimately lead to new dietary recommendations, said Eunyoung Cho, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"There may be some impact," Cho said. "But this is one study, and it's hard to make any conclusion based on this study."

The role played by choline, a nutrient required by the body, has been unclear. Some researchers had thought it might provide protection against colon cancer, which kills an estimated 52,000 people in the United States each year, according to the American Cancer Society. The disease is the second biggest cancer killer in the United States after lung cancer. ...more

Fitness plays a key role in battling cancer

So. You get the worst news of your life: cancer.

You dutifully sign on for chemo, surgery, radiation. You also vow to eat better. More fruits and veggies, less saturated fat -- all that good stuff should tip the odds in your favor, right?

There's actually surprisingly little evidence that such dietary changes prolong survival -- except perhaps for colon cancer.

What is crystal clear, though, is the importance of exercise and weight control. Gone is the folklore that people with cancer should avoid getting too thin. The real threat, say cancer nutritionists, is becoming or remaining overweight. At a basic metabolic level, excess weight and lack of exercise may not only add diabetes and heart disease to your cancer troubles, but can impair immune function and even boost levels of hormones, including insulin and estrogen, that may drive some tumors. ...more

Experts issue new physical exercise guidelines

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Adults should engage in moderately intense exercise for at least 30 minutes five days a week or vigorous exercise at least 20 minutes three days each week, experts recommended on Wednesday.

Two leading health groups issued new guidelines on physical activity, updating influential recommendations issued in 1995 while also crafting advice tailored specifically for those 65 and older.

The guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend weight lifting and vigorous aerobic exercise while also being more specific on how many days a week people should work out.

The advice comes amid rising health problems stemming from sedentary lifestyles and obesity among Americans, as well as people in many other nations.

"I think physical inactivity is the biggest public health problem we face. I think it actually accounts for more morbidity and mortality than anything except maybe cigarette smoking," said Steven Blair of the University of South Carolina, one of the experts who crafted the recommendations.
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UPDATE 1-Common vitamins no help for women's hearts - study

CHICAGO, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Middle-aged women at risk for heart disease received little benefit from taking vitamins C, E or beta carotene, researchers said on Monday.

Though vitamin supplements provided no heart benefit, eating a diet rich in those vitamins does make for healthier heart, their study noted.

Experts believe a nutritious diet rich in these vitamins protect the body's cardiovascular system by counteracting compounds known as "free radicals." These harmful compounds build up in the body and can damage artery linings, encourage blood clots and alter the function of blood vessels.


"Single antioxidants (vitamins) may not reflect the complex vitamins and nutrients found in foods, which may explain the discrepancies between most intervention trials and studies of fruits and vegetables," wrote study author Nancy Cook of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. ...more

Pot Bellies Point to Heart Risk

MONDAY, Aug. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Banish the belly, not just the pounds: That's the heart-healthy advice from a new study that finds that "pot" bellies may be a big indicator of future heart disease.
"What we're seeing is a quite strong association between the pot-belly, apple shape among a relatively young group of people and the build-up of plaque in the arteries," said study co-author Dr. James A. de Lemos, an associate professor of medicine and director of the Coronary Care Unit at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

"Ten to 15 years down the road, this can lead to major cardiac problems, such as a heart attack," he said.

The findings are published in the Aug. 21 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), more than 870,000 Americans die from heart disease each year, making it the leading killer of both men and women. ...more

Red meat diet linked to colon cancer recurrence

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Colon cancer survivors with diets heavy in red meat and fatty foods are more than three times as likely to suffer a recurrence of their disease or die from it than those who avoid such foods, a study found.

Previous studies had shown that a high-fat diet, especially one with lots of red meat, may increase a person's risk of developing colon cancer, a leading cancer killer.

This study, published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was the first to show how diet affects whether colon cancer returns in people previously treated for it, the researchers said.

The study tracked 1,009 people treated with both surgery and chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer -- cancer that had spread from the large bowel area to the lymph nodes but not other organs. They were followed on average for five years. ...more

Health Tip: Warning Signs of Dehydration

(HealthDay News) -- Dehydration occurs when the body doesn't have enough fluids, either because it's lost too many fluids, a person hasn't drunk enough fluids, or both.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine lists these common warning signs of significant dehydration:

Not being able to urinate, or urinating very little.
Urine that is very concentrated and dark yellow in color.
Not being able to produce tears.
Sunken eyes.
In infants, the soft spot on the head is significantly sunken.
Lethargy, dizziness or lightheadedness.

Dehydration should not be ignored, and you should see a doctor immediately if you or your child has any of these symptoms....more

8 Ways Soda Fizzles Your Health

We would wager money that many of you are “doing the dew” or “doing what tastes right” this very moment. Before you take another gulp from your soft drink can, here are 8 facts about soda to consider that may drastically affect the quality of your health.

pH of Soda = pH of Vinegar
For one, soda, no matter who makes it, is the most acidic beverage you can buy, with a pH of about 2.5, about the same as vinegar. Why does that matter? Acid oxidizes whatever it comes in contact with. If you put soda or vinegar on metal, it will rust it quickly. Check out this table of acid levels of your favorite sodas.

Drink Soda, Leach Calcium
If you drink soda, which also contains high levels of phosphorous, you will leach calcium from your bones. Dr. Michael Murray from the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine concluded, “It appears that increased soft drink consumption is a major factor that contributes to osteoporosis.” Furthermore, Dr. Elson Haas, author of The Detox Diet states, “Tooth loss, periodontal disease, and gingivitis can be problems, especially with a high phosphorus intake, particularly from soft drinks.”
...more

8 Ways Soda Fizzles Your Health

We would wager money that many of you are “doing the dew” or “doing what tastes right” this very moment. Before you take another gulp from your soft drink can, here are 8 facts about soda to consider that may drastically affect the quality of your health.

pH of Soda = pH of Vinegar
For one, soda, no matter who makes it, is the most acidic beverage you can buy, with a pH of about 2.5, about the same as vinegar. Why does that matter? Acid oxidizes whatever it comes in contact with. If you put soda or vinegar on metal, it will rust it quickly. Check out this table of acid levels of your favorite sodas.

Drink Soda, Leach Calcium
If you drink soda, which also contains high levels of phosphorous, you will leach calcium from your bones. Dr. Michael Murray from the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine concluded, “It appears that increased soft drink consumption is a major factor that contributes to osteoporosis.” Furthermore, Dr. Elson Haas, author of The Detox Diet states, “Tooth loss, periodontal disease, and gingivitis can be problems, especially with a high phosphorus intake, particularly from soft drinks.”
...more

9 Reasons why An Apple a Day Really Keeps the Doctor away

An apple a day keeps the doctor away”…but why? Do you really know what makes an apple so special? Why is it that we never hear an orange or a banana a day keeps the doctor away?
Apples have properties that no other fruits have and its benefits have been proven overtime. You will be able to get the benefits of these properties individually with other fruits, but an apple combines everything and makes it simpler. It has been shown over and over that if it’s not simple, easy and fast, people won’t take care of their health.

1-Apple contains Vitamin C. Vitamin C helps greatly your immune system. A lot of people who lack Vitamin C in their diet have poor healing, bruise easily and have bleeding gums.

2-Prevent Heart Diseases. The reason it can prevent both coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease is because apples are rich in flavonoid. Flavonoids are also known for their antioxidant effects.

3-Low in calories. A regular size apple has between 70-100 calories. Eating an apple when craving for candy or chocolate can make the desire disappear since apple in itself contains sugar, but gives you only ¼ of the calories.
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Meatless Meals Benefit Your Health

"What do you eat?!” may be the question most often heard by vegetarians, as if meat is the only food group available. Obviously, as the five million thriving vegetarians in America have shown, there’s a lot to eat, without choosing meat—and they’re healthier as a result.

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, vegetarians have lower rates of cancer, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and asthma. While simple recipes abound for tasty meatless fare, vegetarianism is a leap that many aren’t prepared to take. But you can still have many of the health benefits of a vegetarian diet without trading your turkey for Tofurkey by trying "flexitarianism" on for size. Flexitarians, or semi-vegetarians, are “sometimes" vegetarians, meaning people who reduce some of their meat consumption and fill the gap with other plant-based food groups—eating a mostly vegetarian diet, yet remaining flexible.
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How Long Foods Stay Fresh In Fridge

(CBS) It's easy to put something in the refrigerator and forget about it.
But foods don't stay fresh in the fridge forever, and the day will come when you take something out and wonder if it's still good to eat or has gone bad.

On The Early Show Monday, ShopSmart magazine Editor in Chief Lisa Lee Freeman had the lowdown on how long foods last in the fridge.
ShopSmart consulted a panel of experts to determine which foods could be spoiling by just sitting in the fridge.

Freeman says it's not always the best idea to rely on labels. Some foods don't have them, and the ones on others can be confusing.
Also, most people don't realize that once they open certain popular items found in containers or cans, a new freshness clock starts ticking.

So, it's important to know which foods have a shorter lifespan once placed in the fridge.
If items that have been sitting in the fridge too long are eaten, they can lead to food poisoning and, in some cases, serious health problems. ...more

Workers are told to shape up or pay up

Looking for new ways to trim the fat and boost workers' health, some employers are starting to make overweight employees pay if they don't slim down.

Others, citing growing medical costs tied to obesity, are offering fit workers lucrative incentives that shave thousands of dollars a year off healthcare premiums.

In one of the boldest moves yet, an Indiana-based hospital chain last month said it decided on the stick rather than the carrot. Starting in 2009, Clarian Health Partners will charge employees as much as $30 every two weeks unless they meet weight, cholesterol and blood-pressure guidelines that the company deems healthy.

"At first, I was mad when I thought I would be charged $30 for being overweight," said Courtney Jackson, 28, a customer service representative at Clarian. "But when I found out it was going to be broken into segments — like just $10 for being overweight — it sounded better."

Jackson said she was going to try to slim down before the plan took effect. "If I still have weight to lose when it starts," she said, "I'll deserve to pay the $10."

Employers are getting serious about penalizing workers "because they've run out of other options" said Joe Marlowe, senior vice president at Aon Consulting, a national benefits consulting firm....more

Family, Friends May 'Spread' Obesity

WEDNESDAY, July 25 (HealthDay News) -- Friends don't let friends get obese.
This may be literally true, according to Harvard researchers who suggested in the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that obesity, or the trend to thinness, is socially contagious, "spreading" through social ties.

"This reinforces the idea that because people are interconnected, their health is interconnected," said study author Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a professor at Harvard University. "It takes seriously the embedded-ness of people within social networks and gives new meaning to the concept of public health."

While this may cause people to look differently at their friends and acquaintances (both overweight and thin), the real value of the research is in pointing to new ways to combat the growing epidemic of overweight and obesity, experts said.

"Trying to address the problem on an individual level has been so hard, and it may be because we're not addressing the network, which could be family, neighborhood, community, school," said Dr. Julio Licinio, chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "This is a fascinating way to look at the problem, and it may be a very good reason why treatments have been so difficult, because we're only addressing one member of the network."
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Health coaches nag employees to better care

NEW YORK - For Myrtha Suralie, keeping things rolling at UPS' New York sales office is no sweat, but keeping her diabetes in check during her pregnancy was another story.

She was confined to a hospital bed her entire third trimester, with a blood sugar level of 400, almost four times as high as that of a healthy person, potentially life-threatening to her and her baby.

That was when she received a life-changing call from a health coach hired by her company.
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Vitamin C useless for preventing or treating colds

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For the average person, popping vitamin C pills is unlikely to ward off the common cold or shorten its length or severity. However, for people exposed to short bouts of extreme physical exercise or cold temperatures, vitamin C may markedly reduce their risk of catching a cold.

The findings stem from a review of 30 published studies involving 11,350 people who took at least 200 milligrams of vitamin C each day.

Based on pooled data, regular ingestion of vitamin C did nothing to lower the risk of the common cold in the ordinary population, report reviewers in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

There was a slight reduction in the duration and severity of common cold symptoms with vitamin C, compared with placebo, but the magnitude of the effect was so small its clinical usefulness is doubtful, the experts report.


Therefore, it is senseless for most people to take vitamin C every day to reduce their risk of catching a cold, according to co-author Harri Hemila of the University of Helsinki, Finland and her colleagues.
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Study predicts 75 percent overweight in U.S. by 2015

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If people keep gaining weight at the current rate, fat will be the norm by 2015, with 75 percent of U.S. adults overweight and 41 percent obese, U.S. researchers predicted on Wednesday.

A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore examined 20 studies published in journals and looked at national surveys of weight and behavior for their analysis, published in the journal Epidemiologic Reviews.

"Obesity is a public health crisis. If the rate of obesity and overweight continues at this pace, by 2015, 75 percent of adults and nearly 24 percent of U.S. children and adolescents will be overweight or obese," Dr. Youfa Wang, who led the study, said in a statement.

They defined adult overweight and obesity using a standard medical definition called body mass index. People with a BMI of 25 or above are considered overweight, while those with BMIs of 30 or above are obese and at serious risk of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers.

Studies show that 66 percent of U.S. adults were overweight or obese in 2003 and 2004. An alarming 80 percent of black women aged 40 or over are overweight and 50 percent are obese.
...more

High Triglyceride Levels Linked to Cardiac Risk

TUESDAY, July 17 (HealthDay News) -- In findings that could change the way cholesterol tests are done, two studies show that high blood levels of the fats called triglycerides are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart attack.
But that holds true only if the triglycerides are measured in the hours immediately after a meal.

The studies, one done in Denmark, the other in the United States, found such a relationship in what are called "nonfasting tests." One study found no relationship when blood fat levels were measured in the usual way -- after a 12- to 14-hour fast.

The nonfasting test results were striking, said Dr. Borge G. Nordestgaard, professor of medicine at Herlev University Hospital in Denmark and lead author of one of the two reports in the July 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The main and most important finding is that people with very high triglyceride levels had a major increase in myocardial infarct [heart attack]," Nordestgaard said. "So far, this has mainly been ignored by clinicians. They have focused on cholesterol." ...more

Avoid Alzheimer's with good cholesterol

Boosting your levels of good cholesterol might help protect you from Alzheimer's disease, according to a landmark study of older Australians.

Dementia researchers in Perth have found that people with higher levels of the so-called good cholesterol, HDL, tend to have lower levels of a small protein strongly linked to Alzheimer's disease.

The finding, presented at an international neuroscience conference in Melbourne, suggests that raising HDL levels - most effective through exercise, and consuming red wine and dark chocolate - may help protect against dementia.

It is not understood what causes Alzheimer's but research suggests that genetics, environment and lifestyle factors come together to trigger oxidative stress and build up of a protein called beta amyloid, and, ultimately, death of brain cells.
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Trimming the waist may trim diabetes, heart risks

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who manage to reduce their waistlines may also lower their risk for diabetes and heart disease, a study suggests.

French researchers found that men and women whose waistlines expanded by 3 inches or more over nine years were at increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome -- a collection of risk factors, including high blood pressure and unhealthy cholesterol levels, that raise a person's odds of diabetes and heart disease.

In contrast, women who shed just an inch or more from their midsections had a lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome than women whose waistlines stayed the same.

What's more, a slimmed-down middle benefited women who already had metabolic syndrome at the study's outset, the researchers report in the journal Diabetes Care. Compared with women who had metabolic syndrome and an unchanged waistline, those who lost an inch or more were nearly four times more likely to no longer have the syndrome at the study's close.
Weight loss also benefited men, but the specific effects of a trimmer waist were no longer evident when the researchers factored in changes in body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height.
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Diabetes Drug Side Effect Reports Triple

In the month after a surprising analysis revealed possible heart risks from the blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, reports of side effects to federal regulators tripled.
The sudden spike is a sign that doctors probably were unaware of the drug's possible role in their patients' heart problems and therefore may not have reported many such cases in the past, several experts said.
Moncef Slaoui,, chairman of Research and Development at GalaxoSmithKline testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this Wednesday, June 6, 2007 file photo, before the House Oversight and Government Reform committee hearing on the diabetes drug Avandia. In the month after a surprising analysis revealed possible heart risks from the blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, reports of side effects to federal regulators tripled. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh - AP)

It also shows the flaws of the safety tracking system and suggests that a better one might have detected a potential problem before the drug had been on the market for eight years.

Avandia is used to control blood sugar, helping more than 6 million people worldwide manage Type 2 diabetes, the kind that is linked to obesity. These people already are at higher risk for heart attacks, so news that the drug might raise this risk by 43 percent was especially disturbing.

In the 35 days after May 21, when the New England Journal of Medicine published the analysis on the Internet, reports of heart attacks, deaths and hospitalizations leaped. The sharp rise in reports of heart problems appears in data obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request to the federal Food and Drug Administration. ...more

Inappropriate Prescribing for Older Patients a Growing Problem

THURSDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- Too many older people are being prescribed too many medicines or the wrong drugs, and more research needs to be done to find out how to fix the problem, say two papers published in this week's issue of The Lancet medical journal.

The complexities of the prescribing process, along with other patient, provider and health system factors, are among the reasons why the use of drugs in elderly patients is often inappropriate, wrote a team led by Dr. Anne Spinewine of the Universite Catholique de Louvain, in Brussels, Belgium.

This inappropriate drug use among older patients includes being prescribed drugs they don't need, being under-prescribed medications they do need or being given inappropriate drugs.

Methods of ensuring appropriate prescribing of drugs to elderly patients include care by a multidisciplinary team of health providers; involvement of pharmacists in patient care; and including patients in the prescribing process, the Belgian authors said.

In a second paper, the team noted that older patients are at high-risk for having drug interactions, but the prevalence of these interactions is not yet well documented
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Supplement linked to diabetes in study

WASHINGTON - People who take selenium supplements in the hope of preventing diabetes may actually worsen their odds, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
An unusually well-controlled trial showed that people who took selenium pills raised their risk of diabetes by more than half, compared to similar people taking placebos.
The trial is one of a few surprising studies that have found vitamin and mineral supplements can sometimes do more harm than good.
“I would not advise patients to take selenium supplements greater than those in multiple vitamins,” said Dr. Saverio Stranges of Warwick Medical School in Britain, who led the study.
Stranges, formerly of the State University of New York at Buffalo, and colleagues were studying another idea — whether selenium supplements could prevent skin cancer.
But there was research suggesting the mineral might help prevent diabetes.
The Stranges team looked at 1,202 people taking selenium for the skin cancer trial who did not have diabetes at the beginning of the study.
50 percent greater risk
Half took a 200 microgram selenium supplement and half received a placebo pill for an average of 7.7 years.
Reporting in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the researchers said 58 of 600 people taking selenium and 39 of 602 taking placebos developed type-2 diabetes over the 7.7 years. ...more

Child's weight course is a family affair

DALLAS — Life for the Washington family has changed. Instead of fast food for dinner, they have grilled chicken and vegetables. Sugary drinks have been replaced with diet soda. Frisbee games in their yard have encroached on television time.
It's been more than two months since the Washingtons — Bill, Sue and their 9-year-old daughter Alana — completed a family program for children struggling with their weight and now they're trying to stick to their nutrition and fitness goals.

"It's been gradual," said Bill Washington on a summer afternoon as Alana snacked on grapes, low-fat crackers and low-fat cheese. "I've noticed her willingness to participate and be active in healthy decisions."

Alana misses doughnuts, but concedes that she enjoys much of the healthier fare her family has been eating. She prefers baked Cheetos to the regular ones, loves diet Mountain Dew and has even developed a love for snow peas.
...more