Nerdy Science Blog

A team of researchers at Rockefeller University found that Western diet, which is high in fat, and low in fiber, vitamin D and calcium, is associated with colorectal cancer.

Researchers found that high fat diets induce inflammatory response in mice colon, and such inflammation could be the cause for carcinogenesis in mice colon. Carcinogenic process is a process normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. High fat diets will induce oxidative stress and alter immune responses, and this will eventually increases the risk of colorectal cancer.

The result was published in November 2009 issue of The Journal of Nutrition.

Colon cancer is a deadly disease that affects millions of people around the world today and appears to be the third most common form of cancer worldwide. There are also evidence shows that consumption of red meat, processed meat and alcohol are also likely to increase the risk of colorectal cancer.

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Breast Cancer is the most common cause of cancer in women and as per statistics, the second most common cause of death in women in the U.S. aged between 45 and 55. No one knows the exact cause of breast cancer but there are women with certain risk factors that are more likely to develop the disease. It should be mentioned that a even when a woman with risk factors develops breast cancer, it is hard to know just how much these factors contributed to her cancer. There are certain risk factors like gender, race and ethnicity, family history, aging and dense breast tissues that you cannot change. But there are certain lifestyle risk factors that you can keep track of to reduce the chances of the disease. Let us take a look at these lifestyle risk factors that can cause breast cancer.

1. Child-bearing factor. A woman who has her first child after the age of 35 stands a greater chance of getting breast cancer than a woman who has her first child around age 20. The older she is, the greater the risk of developing breast cancer. Further, having more than one child at an earlier age reduces her risk of the disease and having no children at all increases the risk. Pregnancy reduces a woman’s total number of lifetime menstrual cycles, which may be the reason for this effect.
2. Recent Use of Birth Control Pills. Women who are recent users of oral contraception have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. The risk is highest for women who start using oral contraceptives as teenagers. However 10 or more years after they have stopped taking oral contraceptives, the risk comes down considerably. Women who plan to take oral contraception must discuss the side-effect of breast cancer with their doctor.
3. Not Breast Feeding. Women that do not breast feed their babies stand a slightly higher chance of breast cancer than women that breast feed their babies for a long period of time like 1-2 years. This could be attributed once again to the reduced number of menstrual cycles that goes with breast feeding.
4. Lack of Physical Exercise. When women do not include exercise as a part of their daily routine, they elevate their risk of breast cancer. A sedentary life style with absolutely no physical activity makes them susceptible to the disease. An ideal exercise program to reduce the risk would be about 45-60 minutes, 5 days a week.
5. Alcohol Consumption. The more the alcohol intake of women, the higher the risk of breast cancer. Alcohol consumption is clearly linked to an increased risk and it has been found that women who have about 2-5 drinks daily have about 150 % higher chance of breast cancer than those that do not consume alcohol at all. It is suggested for women to limit their alcohol consumption to one drink a day if they have to drink at all.

There are other factors too like post menstrual hormone therapy, obesity and high fat diets that are said to expose women to breast cancer. Keeping a check on these factors after discussing them with your health team will help reduce the risk of the disease.

By-line:

This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of the certification for geriatric nursing. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com

Hormone plays an important role in stimulating cancer cells proliferation, hence causing prostate cancer.  Man’s sex drive is also stimulated by hormone.  Scientists at University of Nottingham studied the relationship between men sex drive and prostate cancer, and they really found a link between the two.  According to the study involved 800 men, men who had frequent sex and masturbation are more likely to have higher risk of getting prostate cancer.  However the risks diminish with age.  The study was published in January issue of BJU International.

So would you like to enjoy life earlier and longer but suffering health problem, or shorter happy days but healthier life?

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“Resting to walk a longer distance,” is a Chinese proverb.  It has the same meaning as English proverb “after dinner sit a while, after supper walk a mile.”  This ‘resting’ philosophy has been proved by a recent study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.

The study showed that exercise is important in reducing women’s cancer risk, and sleeping itself is also essential in prevention.  The lead author, James McClain, who is also cancer prevention fellow at the National Cancer Institute said that consistent exercise may alter hormone levels, immune function, and body weight to prevent cancers, including breast and colon cancers.  The study focused on the connection between physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE), sleep duration, and risk of beast and colon cancers.  The study started in 1998, following 5968 women who are at least 18 years through the Washington County Cancer Registry and Maryland State Cancer Registry.  The study showed that women slept less than seven hours a day had higher cancer risk.  The link between physical activity and sleeping is not clear yet.  Researchers will investigate the potential mechanisms involved in cancer prevention, and also assess the effect of insufficient and prolonged sleep duration.

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ADI-PEG 20 is a cancer drug that is developed by TDW Pharmaceuticals.  TDW Pharmaceuticals is the Taiwanese subsidiary of the US-based Polaris Group of pharmaceutical companies.  ADI-PEG 20 is a cancer drug for liver and cancer and metastatic melanoma, which is safer than Sorafenib.  It is ready for Phase III clinical trials to test on large patient groups.  The drug is promising for pancreatic, prostrate and kidney cancers treatment.  Unlike conventional cancer drugs which destroy cancer cells’ DNA, ADI-PEG 20 is a protein drug that breaks down arginine (required by cancer cells to grow and survive) in human blood, hence inhibit the proliferation and growth of cancer.  Another advantage of ADI-PEG 20 is that it only need to be injected once a week and won’t affect the survival of normal cells.  The drug is expected to release into market at the end of 2011.

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Colon cancer has been America’s second biggest killer.  The use of colonoscopy has scared many people from colon cancer screening.  The use of X-ray colon cancer is cheaper and less invasive than the colonoscopy.  The success rate of the new ‘virtual colonoscopy’ a.k.a. computed tomogrpahic (CT) colonography in detecting colon cancers or abnormal growth, which are detected by normal colonoscopy, is as high as 90%.  However misinterpretation of the X-ray can lead to the spotting of polyps, therefore follow-up results are needed to confirm the analysis.  There are other drawbacks of this new technology in detecting colon cancer which need to be further investigated and improved.

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Came across this blog post and it grab my attention – a true story of a cancer survival, twice. For 2 more days, on 24^th April, it will be the cancer survival, Benjamin Rubenstein’s bone marrow’s 5 year old birthday, also his 5 years anniversary of cancer free life. Congratulate to Benjamin.

His wrote his cancer survival story but no publisher wants it. Thanks to blogger.com, he published it in blogspot, have a read when free.

I’ve Still Got Both My Nuts

• ch.1 The Golden Age
• ch.2 Teeter Totter of Life
• ch.3 Welcome to the Good Life
• ch.4 Welcome to the Cancer Life
• ch.5 Bombs Over September
• ch.6 Again
• ch.7 Fix Me

He life was saved by stem cells obtained from a little girl’s umbilical cord. One more true case of stem cell’s treatment saved life.