Can Gut Bacteria Cause Cancer, Diabetes?

Some of the hundreds of bacteria found in the digestive systems of humans may be linked to specific diseases like cancer, diabetes, and obesity, an international team of scientists said in a paper on Thursday.

Researchers, led by Chinese scientist Wang Jun, said in the latest issue of Nature they found more than 1,000 different species of bacteria in the human gut.


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New Advice on Prostate Cancer Screening

New advice from the American Cancer Society puts a sharper focus on the risks of prostate cancer screening, emphasizing that annual testing can lead to unnecessary biopsies and treatments that do more harm than good.

The cancer society has not recommended routine screening for most men since the mid-1990s, and that is not changing. But its new advice goes further to warn of the limitations of the PSA blood test that millions of American men get now. It also says digital rectal exams should be an option rather than part of a standard screening.

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Pesticides Increase Thyroid Disease

Exposure to certain types of pesticides could up the risk of thyroid disease in women, according to a new study of thousands of women married to licensed pesticide applicators.

Problems with the thyroid gland are more common among women than men, Dr. Whitney S. Goldner of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha and colleagues note in their report. The thyroid is located at the base of the throat and plays an important role in regulating the body's energy use.

There is growing evidence for a link between exposure to pesticides and thyroid problems, the authors note. They studied more than 16,500 women living in Iowa and North Carolina who were married to men seeking certification to use restricted pesticides in those states during the 1990s.

Overall, 12.5 percent of the women reported having thyroid disease; 7 percent had underactive thyroid glands (hypothyroidism) and 2 percent had overactive thyroids (hyperthyroidism).


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'Diabetic effect' in dolphins offers new hope for type 2 diabetes cure

Dolphins are the only animals apart from humans to develop a natural form of type 2 diabetes, according to new research. The discovery offers important insights into a disease that is linked to one in 20 deaths.

American scientists have discovered that bottlenosed dolphins show a form of insulin resistance very similar to that seen in human diabetes. Unlike patients with the condition, the marine mammals can turn this state on and off when appropriate, so it is not normally harmful.

The findings indicate that dolphins could provide a valuable animal model for investigating type 2 diabetes, which promises to advance research into new therapies. If researchers can learn how the animals switch off their insulin resistance before it becomes damaging, it could be possible to develop a cure.

Stephanie Venn-Watson, a veterinary epidemiologist at the US National Marine Mammal Foundation, who led the research, said that it could have profound implications for a disease that affects an estimated 2.75 million adults in Britain.

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Vitamin D Slashes Heart Disease, Diabetes

Vitamin D has long been known to build strong bones, but a British study has found that middle-aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D reduce their risk of developing heart disease or diabetes by 43 percent.

Researchers at Warwick Medical School reviewed 28 studies that examined vitamin

D and cardiometabolic disorders, which include cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. The 99,795 participants included men and women from a variety of ethnic groups.

Those participants with the highest levels of vitamin D lowered their risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 33 percent, their risk of Type 2 diabetes by 55 percent, and their chances of metabolic syndrome by 51 percent when compared to those with low levels of the vitamin.

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Breast Cancer Fears Grow Around Household Cleaners

That fresh clean smell that American's love may be boosting cases of breast cancer in the U.S.-- and possibly even causing breast cancer in young children, let alone their moms.

Doctors and environmental scientists are growing more concerned that chemicals found in many household cleaning supplies, such as floor cleaners and glass cleaners, are behind the ongoing increase in breast cancer cases in the U.S. According to the New York Times, the chances that a 50 year-old white woman will develop breast cancer has increased from 1% in 1975 to 12% today. Anecdotal evidence from some of the latest epidemiological data suggests that younger women (and a growing number of men) are contracting the cancer.

Environmental Factors Outweigh Genetics, Health

Some of this increase likely results from better detection. But many of these problems appear to stem from a person's surroundings rather than their genetics or health. For example, researchers have found that Asian women living in the U.S. have much higher rates of breast cancer than Asian women living in Asia. This implies that the problem is something environmental.

"It is highly likely that environmental toxins in air, food, dust, soil and drinking water have contributed to increasing rates of cancer in Americans of all ages, including our children," reported Dr. Philip Landrigan, Director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in testimony before Congress. "The known and suspected causes of childhood cancer include benzene, other solvents, radiation, arsenic, parental smoking, certain pesticides and certain chemicals in the environment that have the potential to disrupt the function of the endocrine system."

Household Items May Be at Fault

Other chemicals that scientists suspect of playing a role in the rise of these illnesses include simple bleach, flame retardants (many of which have been banned in Europe) and components of plastics used in packaging for food, canned goods, and, until recently, children's bottles and sippy cups. The American public may already be sensing the danger as sales of green cleaning products are skyrocketing. Industry, too, is changing its tune. Both Clorox and cleaning products company S.C. Johnson have begun to reveal ingredients lists for their products, although its still hard to ascertain the true impact of the chemicals they list due to the multiple forms these chemicals could take.

The new disclosure policies are clearly due in part to impending green labeling initiatives by retailing giant Wal-Mart (WMT) and to aggressive rating and disclosure policies by GoodGuide, an online product rating site that focuses on environmental and health impacts of household cleaners, cosmetics and health products. Cleaning products company Clorox (CLX) rolled out a green line of cleaners and the entire segment of green cleaning is growing at triple-digit rates, according to product research firm MinTel.

But many of the substances that health care experts are worried about tend to persist in the environment for many years. So even as Americans switch to a greener cleaning regime, the trends in health problems that may be resulting from these more toxic substances may not slow or reverse for decades. In other words, even if Americans can learn to ditch the happy smells, they are hardly ouf of the woods on breast cancer or other potentially deadly ailments.

Battling Cancer? You Have Options, Says Suzanne Somers

Suzanne Somers was handed a death sentence last year. Her oncologist gave her the gut-wrenching news that she had cancer, and it had metastasized throughout her body. "I have never seen so much cancer," she remembers him saying.

During six days in the hospital, six different doctors confirmed the grim diagnosis and said her cancer was inoperable, incurable, and hopeless.

On day six, however, the doctors realized they had made a terrible mistake. Somers, who had already fought a successful battle with cancer ten years before, was actually cancer-free.

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Kill Cancer With Cabernet and Chocolate

Cabernet and chocolate are potent medicine for killing cancer, according to research.

Red grapes and dark chocolate join blueberries, garlic, soy, and teas as ingredients that starve cancer while feeding bodies, Angiogenesis Foundation head William Li said at a prestigious Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference.

"We are rating foods based on their cancer-fighting qualities," Li said. "What we eat is really our chemotherapy three times a day."

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Dark Chocolate Chases Wrinkles

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Chocolate can help protect the skin from wrinkle-causing UV damage, but it's not the type typically found in heart-shaped boxes. It's a special dark chocolate that is high in flavanols, which means it's loaded with naturally occurring, beneficial antioxidant plant compounds.

Chocolate has been used medicinally for more than 3,000 years, variously used as a treatment for angina, dysentery, fevers, constipation, and a host of other illnesses. Modern medicine started taking chocolate seriously in 1997, when a Harvard professor discovered that high-flavanol cocoa relaxes the blood vessels, thereby acting as a protectant against heart disease and hypertension. more>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Can Soft Drinks Cause Pancreatic Cancer?

Drinking two or more soft drinks a week increases the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by two-fold compared to people who do not drink soft drinks, says a report in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.


People who drink soft drinks on a regular basis tend to have poor behavior patterns overall, but the effects of soft drinks on pancreatic cancer may be unique, Mark Pereira, Ph.D., senior author of the study and associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, said in a statement MORE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>