B Vitamins Protect Seniors From Cancer

While headlines this week blared that a study conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that B vitamins did not protect against cancer, the media virtually ignored the fact that the study found substantial protection in those over 65.

The study followed over 5,400 women who had high blood pressure or high cholesterol and were at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The women, whose average age was 63, were followed for seven and a half years.

Researchers examined the effects of taking a daily supplement containing folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12. During the study, 379 cases of invasive cancer were diagnosed. Although the vitamin group had a total of five fewer cancers than the placebo group (187 vs. 192), the researchers concluded there was no significant difference. But in women over the age of 65, they found a reduction of 25 percent in the risk of developing any type of cancer and a 38 percent reduction in the risk of developing breast cancer.

Lead author Shumin Zhang wrote: “The results may have public health significance because the incidence rates of cancer are high in elderly persons. The finding is biologically plausible because elderly individuals have increased requirements for these B vitamins.”

Other studies have found that people who have diets high in folic acid lower their risk of developing cancer.

Cancer Risk Aside, Cell Phones are Dangerous

There has been much speculation over the last few years about whether cell phones increase the risk of developing a brain tumor. Research has not conclusively answered this question, which has left consumers confused. The majority of studies that have been published in scientific journals do not have sufficient evidence to show that cell phones increase the risk of brain tumors. The problem is that cell phone technology is in its infancy, so none of these studies could analyze long-term risks. This unknown is a particular issue for children, who will face a lifetime of cell phone usage. While the cell phone/brain tumor connection remains inconclusive, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) cautions that cell phones present plenty of other risks to people’s neurological health, as illustrated by these few real-life scenarios:

~A 29-year-old male was talking on his cell phone while on an escalator, fell backwards, and lacerated his head.

~A 25-year-old male was talking on his cell phone and walked into a street sign, lacerating his head.

~A 43-year-old female fell down 13-14 steps while talking on her cell phone, after drinking alcohol. She suffered a neck sprain and contusions to her head, back, shoulder, and leg.

~A 50-year-old female suffered nerve damage which was related to extensive cell phone usage. She felt pain in her fingers and the length of her arm while holding her cell phone, and was diagnosed with cervical radiculopathy.

~A 39-year-old man suffered a head injury after crashing into a tree on his bicycle while texting

~A 16-year-old boy suffered a concussion because he was texting and walked into a telephone pole.

Several studies show cell phones are a leading cause of automobile crashes. It is estimated that drivers distracted by cell phones are four times more likely to be in a motor vehicle accident. The following are some sobering statistics:

~According to a Harvard University study, an estimated 2,600 people die and 12,000 suffer serious to moderate injuries each year in cell phone-related accidents.

~A Canadian study analysis of 26,798 cell phone calls made during the 14-month study period showed that the risk of an automobile accident was four times higher when using a cell phone.

~National statistics indicate that an estimated 50,000 traumatic brain injury-related deaths occur annually in the United States, 25,000-35,000 of which are attributed to motor vehicle accidents.

Cell Phone Injury Prevention Tips

~Talk hands free by using an earpiece or on speaker mode whenever possible.

~Follow all cell phone laws applicable to your city and state – these vary greatly.

~Use your cell phone only when safely parked, or have a passenger use it.

~Do not dial the phone or take notes while driving, cycling, skateboarding, rollerblading, etc.

~Never text message while driving, walking, cycling, skateboarding, rollerblading, etc.

~Never text message or use a cell phone while performing any physical activities that require attention.

~If your phone rings while driving, let the call go into voice mail and respond later when you are safely parked.

For more information on injury prevention, visit the AANS Web site at: http://www.neurosurgerytoday.org/what/patient_safety/.

Tomatoes Could Help Endometriosis

By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard



Lycopene, a potent antioxidant found in tomatoes that gives them their red color, could ease the pain of endometriosis. In addition, it could help treat fibroids and scars caused by surgery.


Endometriosis, which affects up to 10 percent of women, is characterized by the growth of tissue outside the uterus that is similar to endometrium, the tissue that lines the womb. The tissue reacts as if it were inside the womb, growing during each monthly cycle and causing bleeding. In addition to pain, the condition also causes infertility.


A laboratory study conducted by researcher Dr. Tarek Dbouk of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, found that lycopene suppresses the proteins that encourage the growth of endometrial-like tissue outside the womb by between 80 and 90 percent.


“What we found in our laboratory study is that lycopene can help with the adhesions that these conditions cause,” said Dr. Dbouk. “One of the major complications of endometriosis is that it causes inflammation which induces adhesions. The inflammation basically causes scarring.”


Although Dr. Dbouk said lycopene could help ease the symptoms and complications of endometriosis, he said it’s not known how much a woman would need to eat. “It’s certainly possible that you could get the amount you need from your diet,” he said. “Or if the patients did not like tomatoes, you could give them the lycopene as a supplement.”

GM Crops Affect Fertility in Mice

Genetically-modified maize can affect reproduction in mice, an Austrian study has found, although its authors have dismissed warnings by environmental groups that it could also harm humans.


The long-term study, which was commissioned by the Austrian health ministry, found that female mice that had been given a diet consisting of 33 percent genetically-modified (GM) maize had fewer babies and fewer litters than those fed on non-GM food after a few generations.


But the authors of the study were keen to point out that these were only initial findings and that further tests were needed to confirm the effect of GM foods on other animals and on humans.


"This is an isolated case and the results cannot in any way be applied to humans," the Austrian health and food safety agency AGES, which presented the study by Vienna's University of Veterinary Medicine (VUW) Tuesday, said in a statement.


"Confirmation of these preliminary results is urgently needed through further studies," the study's author, Juergen Zentek, added.


Environmental groups like Global 2000 and Greenpeace were quick to seize on the study to call for a ban on all GM crops.


"Considering the severity of the potential threat to human health and reproduction, Greenpeace is demanding a recall of all GE (genetically-engineered) food and crops from the market, worldwide," the group said in a statement.


Distributing GM foods was "like playing Russian roulette with consumers and public health," added Greenpeace's GM expert Jan van Aken.


EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou has requested a copy of the study and will then pass it on to the European food safety authority for expertise, her spokeswoman said.

Herbal Tea May Lower Blood Pressure

Sylvia Booth Hubbard



Drinking herbal tea containing hibiscus may lower blood pressure in those who are prehypertensive or have mild hypertension. Researchers at Tufts University in Boston found that drinking the tea over a six weeks period significantly lowered blood pressure.


In the small, randomized trial of 65 men and women, those who drank the hibiscus tea had an average reduction of 7.2 mm Hg in systolic pressure compared with a 1.3 mm Hg drop with placebo. Hibiscus tea also reduced diastolic and mean arterial pressure.


The study’s participants were ages 30 to 70 and were prehypertensive or mildly hypertensive (systolic ranging from 120 to 150 and diastolic 95 or lower) and were not taking blood pressure medications. They were given three cups of herbal tea daily or a tea containing artificial hibiscus.


The results were most dramatic among participants whose systolic pressure was greater than 129. Their systolic pressure dropped 13.2 mm, twice as much as the average, and over ten times the reduction for those drinking the placebo tea.


Although the overall decline was relatively small researchers noted that only a 3 mm decline in systolic pressure reduced deaths from stroke by eight percent and deaths from coronary artery disease by five percent.

Intimacy Fights Stress

Couples who hug, kiss and otherwise find ways to get close everyday may have fewer stress hormones coursing through their bodies, a new study suggests.


The findings, reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, point to one potential reason that close relationships -- and marriage, in particular -- have been linked to better health.


Researchers found that among 51 German couples they followed for one week, those who reported more physical contact during a given day -- whether it was sexual intercourse or just holding hands -- generally had lower levels of the "stress" hormone cortisol.


This was especially true of couples who reported more problems at work, suggesting that some physical affection between mates may be a buffer against work stress.


Many studies have suggested that chronic stress may have widespread effects in the body, from dampening the immune system response to contributing to heart disease. Meanwhile, other research has found that married people -- at least those in happy unions -- tend to be in better health and live longer lives.


It's possible that the reduced stress response seen with physical affection helps to explain that link, according to Dr. Beate Ditzen of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, the study's lead researcher.


Ditzen and her colleagues recruited 51 working couples who were living together, most of whom were married. Over 1 week, participants kept detailed records of their daily activities, including instances of physical affection with their partner, and collected saliva samples so that the researchers could measure the daily fluctuations in cortisol levels.


The couples also recorded their mood at various points of each day -- either positive ("good, relaxed, alert") or negative ("bad, tired, fidgety").


In general, the researchers found, the more physical affection couples reported in a given day, the lower their cortisol levels.


Importantly, Ditzen noted, the results suggest that intimacy worked its magic by boosting study participants' mood.


Ditzen told Reuters Health that she would not recommend that couples "express more intimacy, per se," but instead they should find activities that create positive feelings for both partners.


For couples who do want to fire up their physical intimacy, though, there is a range of ways to do it, according to Ditzen. She pointed out that "intimacy" meant different things to different couples in the study; to some it was sex, to some it was an affectionate touch.


"This means that there is no specific behavior that couples should show in everyday life," Ditzen said. "Rather, all kinds of behavior which couples themselves would consider intimate...might be beneficial."


SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine, October 2008.



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Low Potassium Linked to High Blood Pressure

As a risk factor for high blood pressure, low levels of potassium in the diet may be as important as high levels of sodium—especially among African Americans, according to research being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 41st Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

"There has been a lot of publicity about lowering salt or sodium in the diet in order to lower blood pressure, but not enough on increasing dietary potassium," comments lead author Susan Hedayati, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and the Dallas VA Medical Center. The new study suggests that low potassium may be a particularly important contributor to high blood pressure among African Americans, and also identifies a gene that may influence potassium's effects on blood pressure.

The researchers analyzed data on approximately 3,300 subjects from the Dallas Heart Study, about half of whom were African American. The results showed that the amount of potassium in urine samples was strongly related to blood pressure. "The lower the potassium in the urine, hence the lower the potassium in the diet, the higher the blood pressure," says Dr. Hedayati. "This effect was even stronger than the effect of sodium on blood pressure."

The relationship between low potassium and high blood pressure remained significant even when age, race, and other cardiovascular risk factors—including high cholesterol, diabetes, and smoking—were taken into account.

Previous studies, including the landmark “Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension” study (DASH), have linked potassium deficiency to high blood pressure. The new results support this conclusion, and provide important new data on the relationship between potassium and blood pressure in a sample that was 50% African American. "Our study included a high percentage of African-Americans, who are known to consume the lowest amounts of potassium in the diet," according to Dr. Hedayati.

Research performed in the laboratory of Dr. Chou-Long Huang, a co-author of this study, has found evidence that a specific gene, called WNK1, may be responsible for potassium's effects on blood pressure. "We are currently doing more research to test how low potassium in the diet affects blood pressure through the activity of this gene," adds Dr. Hedayati.

The conclusions are limited by the fact that people in the Dallas Heart Study weren't following any specific diet. The researchers are currently performing a study in which participants are on fixed potassium diets while measuring the activity of the WNK1 gene to see if WNK1 is responsible for this phenomenon.

Meanwhile, they urge efforts to increase the amount of potassium in the diet, as well as lowering sodium. "High-potassium foods include fruits such as bananas and citrus fruits and vegetables," says Dr, Hedayati. "Consuming a larger amount of these foods in the diet may lower blood pressure."

Green Tea Compound May Prevent Diabetes

A compound found in green tea could slow or even prevent the development of type 1 diabetes, new research in mice suggests.

Green tea contains several antioxidants that have been shown to curb inflammation, prevent cell death, and possibly even ward off cancer.

In the current study, Dr. Stephen D. Hsu of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and colleagues tested the effects of green tea's predominate antioxidant known as EGCG in laboratory mice with type 1 diabetes and Sjogren's syndrome, which damages moisture-producing glands causing dry mouth and eyes.

They fed the mice plain water or water spiked with 0.2 percent EGCG.

EGCG, the investigators found, reduced the severity and delayed the onset of salivary gland damage associated with Sjogren's syndrome -- a condition with no known cure.

EGCG also dramatically slowed the development of type 1 diabetes in the rodents. At 16 weeks, they found, 25 percent of the mice given the green tea compound had developed diabetes, compared to 67 percent of the mice given water. At 22 weeks, 45 percent of the EGCG group had diabetes, while 78 percent of the control group did.

"Our study focused on Sjogren's syndrome, so learning that EGCG also can prevent and delay insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes was a big surprise," Hsu said in a statement.

Both type 1 diabetes and Sjogren's syndrome are autoimmune diseases, which cause the body to attack itself.

Hsu and his team also found that the salivary gland cells that were under autoimmune attack were actually multiplying, but EGCG slowed this proliferation. Such rapid cell division has also been shown to occur in psoriasis.

The current study supports earlier research showing EGCG's impact on helping prevent autoimmune disease, the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: Life Sciences, October 24, 2008.

Metabolic Syndrome Affects One-Fourth US Workers

The combination of health risks known as metabolic syndrome affects slightly less than a quarter of the U.S. workforce and is linked to increased absenteeism and poorer health status, reports a study in the October Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

Analyzing health risk appraisal data on 5,512 employees of a large financial services corporation, the researchers found that 22.6 percent of the workers had metabolic syndrome. The lead author was Dr. Wayne N. Burton of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Metabolic syndrome is defined as having at least three of five disease risk factors: large waist circumference (more than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women), high triglyceride levels, reduced levels of high-density cholesterol (HDL, or "good" cholesterol), high blood pressure, and high glucose levels. People with metabolic syndrome are at high risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

In the workplace sample, men and women had similar rates of metabolic syndrome, although men had a higher average number of risk factors. As the number of risk factors increased, so did the rate of lifestyle health risks such as obesity, low physical activity, high stress, and smoking. Workers with metabolic syndrome were also more likely to rate their own health as fair to poor, compared to workers with fewer risk factors.

Workers with more risk factors missed more work days because of illness. The percentage of workers with three or more sick days in the previous year increased from 25 percent for those with no risk factors to 39 percent for those with all five risk factors.

Metabolic syndrome was not linked to increased "presenteeism"—days the employee was at work but performing at less than full capacity because of health reasons. There was a trend toward higher rates of short-term disability, but this was not significant.

Affecting approximately 69 million U.S. adults, metabolic syndrome has major health and economic consequences. The new study is one of the first to examine the effects of metabolic syndrome in the working population.

The results draw attention to the high rate and impact of metabolic syndrome among U.S. workers. Dr. Burton and colleagues call for further studies to assess the impact of metabolic syndrome in the workforce, as well as to evaluate programs to identify and treat these high-risk workers.

The researchers were surprised to find that metabolic syndrome did not affect on-the-job productivity or short-term disability. They speculate that the major consequences of metabolic syndrome have not yet been realized in their relatively young study sample (average age 41 years). Dr. Burton and colleagues write, "This is encouraging in that employers may still have time to provide employees with the education and tools they need to improve their health risks before experiencing the consequences of diabetes or heart disease."

Female sexual dysfunction a distressing problem

Boston, October 31: A study assessing the prevalence of female sexual problems shows that about 40 percent of the women have sex dysfunction and 12 percent are significantly distressed by it.

A survey of more than 32,000 women aged 18 and more, published in Obstetrics and Gynecology (The Green Journal), showed that one in ten experienced diminished feelings of sexual desire.

Sexual problems persisted in high numbers in women over 65 but this group displayed the lowest levels of distress. The rate of depressiondefine was highest in the mid-age bracket of 45-65 years. The lowest distress symptoms were found among the young ladies.

Sexually related personal distress, medically termed Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), is closely associated with female sex problem. Unfortunately, the condition is largely under-diagnosed and under-recognized.

The study failed to clarify why older women who had the maximum sex related problems were the least affected by them. Conditions like diabetes, blood pressure and cardiacdefine arrests that plummet a man’s sexual appetite, displayed no evidence of suppressing the female carnal needs.

Women prone to depression were more vulnerable to sex dysfunction. Feelings of guilt, frustration, stress, anger, embarrassment and unhappiness were some reasons cited for lack of desire. Also poor self assessed health, anxiety, thyroid and urinary incontinence could be responsible for the predicament.

Study leader, Dr Jan Shifren, of Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology Service of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, said that inspite of sex dysfunctional problem being quite rampant in women, “for sexual concern to be considered a medical problem it must be associated with distress, so it is important to assess this in both research studies and patient care.”

Dr Shifren felt that physicians should evaluate the patient’s level of distress in relation to the problem. “As distressing sexual problems were identified in approximately one in eight women, health care providers need to ask the patients about sexual concern, and whether they are causing unhappiness, frustration or other distressing feeling that may be impacting their quality of life,” Shifren said.

Sheryl Kingsberg, chief of behavioral medicine at McDonald Women’s Hospital, Cleveland, believed it to be a ‘wake up call’ for physicians. She elaborated that, “48 percent of patients have sex concerns and 12 percent have enough of a concern that it is a significant dysfunction in life. This needs to be addressed.”

The research was funded by Beohringer Ingelheim International, makers of flibanserin, a drug being tested for female dysfunction.

Earlier studies have also reported estimates of the problem at hand, but the most widely circulated figures are those of U.S. National Health and Social Life Survey. According to this report 43 percent of the respondents experienced some level of sexual dysfunction. Nearly 39 percent complained of low levels of desire, 26 percent problems of arousal and 21 percent had difficulty attaining orgasm.

This issue has been handled for years by clinical psychologists, mental health experts and sex therapists. It is only recently that flibanserin is considered a medical option to tackle the problem.

With more than a few researches in progress, Dr kingsberg sees a ray of hope to dispel this sexual dilemma. “Right now there is very limited option but I think it is coming up.”