Something You Didn’t Know About Winter Sports

If you enjoy winter sports, or have been watching the 2010 Winter Games a surprise health fact has emerged. It is well documented that alpine athletes are particularly in danger of developing skin and lip cancers due to prolonged exposure to harmful ultraviolet radiation while training and competing at high altitudes. If you enjoy two weeks skiing it is probably not a concern to you, but be aware that the damaging radiation largely occurs when the sun reflects off the surface of the ice and snow.

This year the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to screen a record number of athletes for oral cancer. This type of preventive health care is virtually unknown in the sports world and with 70 dentists on hand to deal with normal dental problems they took the opportunity to actively promote an increased oral screening campaign that included education for athletes on the importance of applying sun-cream to help prevent mouth cancers

Mouth cancer can affect the lips, tongue, cheeks and throat and kills one person every five hours in the UK, with the number of new cases rising faster than almost any other cancer.

Traditionally mouth cancer was considered to be an older man’s condition, but recent years have seen more and more women and young people affected. Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter, said that early detection is vital to a patient’s long–term survival, which means regular visits to the dentist. Don’t grit your teeth at the thought, apparently we are very dilatory in taking care of our mouth and teeth and tend to ignore a seemingly trivial symptom which can lead to the prospect of major surgery, and concern that cancer may return in the future.

What to look out for? Dr Carter suggests if you have a mouth ulcer which does not heal within three weeks, or notice any discomfort or other changes in your mouth, then get it checked. At least once a year visit your dentist to look for the signs of cancer and you are a heavy smoker, drinker or use chewing tobacco, make sure your dentist is aware of this.

For more information on mouth cancer call the National Dental Helpline on 0845 063 1188, or visit www.mouthcancer.org

Women with Gout at Increased Heart Risk

Although gout is characterised as a disease of old colonels who have drunk too much port, the reality is it can affect men and women who may never have had a drink in their lives. It is often genetically inherited and although more common in older men and women after the menopause, the most vulnerable group are usually men over 30.

Now equality has caught up and although it is known that gout increases the risk of a heart attack in men what has just been revealed is that women with gout are at greater risk of a heart attack than the men are.

This research (I know, all research to be taken with a pinch of metaphorical, not actual, salt) was recently published in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases and based on a study of more than 9500 gout patients and 48, 000 people without the disease, aged 65 and older in British Columbia, Canada.

The study took place over 7 years and tracked cardiovascular health and they found that compared with women who did not have gout, those who did were 39% more likely to have a heart attack of any kind and 41% more likely to have a non-fatal heart attack. The surprise in the study was that the risks were significantly higher among the women than among the men as men with gout were only 11% more likely than those without the disease to have a fatal or non-fatal heart attack.

Gout is common and caused by inflammation in the joints as a result of excess uric acid deposits, that are a feature of western diets. Factors that can produce gout include other forms of arthritis obesity, weight gain, high alcohol intake, high blood pressure, poorly functioning kidneys and certain drugs.

If you are wondering if you have it, then look for redness, pain and inflammation of the joints, particularly toes and fingers. Natural remedies suggested to help with gout include dietary help by avoiding alcohol and organ meats, particularly liver, tart cherry juice, celery seed, apple cider vinegar and yoga.

Lies, Research and Drug Companies

Pfizer are I believe the second largest drug company in the world, and research articles published on their drugs run into the thousands. Now in the US, Dr. Scott Reuben, a former member of Pfizer’s speakers’ bureau, has agreed to plead guilty to faking dozens of research studies that were published in medical journals.

He was given a $75,000 grant from Pfizer to study Celebrex, a drug to help reduce pain after surgery, and his research on it has been used by hundreds of other doctors and researchers as “proof” that it was effective. Now it turns out that he never ran a trial on it, no patients were ever enrolled in the study and he made up the entire thing. Nor was this his first fraud, as reports in the Wall Street Journal have shown, as he was also found to have faked study data on Bextra and Vioxx drugs. Even more incredibly an internal audit at the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachussets, where he worked, found that he had been faking research data for 13 years.

Dr. Reuben has reportedly done a deal with the prosecutors to pay back $420,000 to the drug companies and faces up to ten years in jail. That should be a terrible warning you would think, but there is so much money at stake in the drug industry that there are widespread concerns that this is certainly not a one off.

The thing that saddens me is that alternative medicine is frequently dismissed as having ‘no scientific basis’ and being purely anecdotal, as if the patient’s experience is somehow not valid. However, if Dr Reuben is anything to go by at least the alternative market can point to actual trials on real people, and somehow I would far rather put my trust in that than in a study paid for by the company who is going to profit from marketing a new drug.

Prostate Cancer and Nitro-glycerine

If you are suffering from angina, you may well carry a drug containing nitro-glycerine to put under the tongue in the event of an attack. Nitro-glycerine is used because it dilates the vessels to lower the blood pressure and dilates the coronary arteries to bring rapid relief from symptoms such as heaviness in the chest and shortness of breath.

Now it is also being suggested it could also slow and even halt the progression of the disease without the severe side effects of current treatments. Researchers at Queen’s University, Belfast have been conducting the first ever clinical trial of nitro-glycerine to treat prostate cancer. Their two year study was conducted on 29 men with increasing levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) following prostate surgery or radiation.

What they found that the PSA levels (a key predictor of cancer progression) showed a significant slowing in the progression of the disease when given very low doses of a slow-release nitro-glycerine in a skin patch. This is good news as safe and effective treatments for men with rising PSA levels following surgery or radiation are limited.

Obviously this is a small study but it is encouraging news as of the 17 patients who completed the study, all but one showed a stabilization or decrease in the rate of cancer progression, as measured by their PSA Doubling Time. Of men who have undergone radical prostatectomy and/or radiation treatment, it is estimated that 30 to 50 percent will experience a recurrence of cancer so anything that can slow its progress, or halt it has the potential to offer prostate cancer patients a new non-invasive treatment option.

Broader clinical trials will be undertaken this year to confirm and expand these results

Acupuncture Helps Young Patients with Chronic Illness

There is plenty of evidence to support acupuncture for pain relief, and I personally am a big fan of it after it cured me of pain from a trapped sciatic nerve in my hip, and now doctors at Rush University Medical Center in Illinois but little has been studied for its effects on children.

Rush Children’s Hospital offers both Chinese and Western medicine to patients and this has prompted this new study to analyze and document how acupuncture might help in reducing pain in children and increase quality of life. The children have been diagnosed with chronic illnesses and they are testing acupuncture therapy to help ease the pain and negative side effects like nausea, fatigue, and vomiting caused by such conditions and intensive treatments such as chemotherapy.

Dr. Paul Kent is an oncology expert at the hospital and it is the lack of options for pain management in children that has prompted the study. Research indicates that up to 70 percent of paediatric patients experience pain and those with chronic illnesses often do not have adequate relief or prevention of pain. This is because as many of the solutions for adults such as narcotics and other serious pain medications carry too many risks of serious side effects in children. Dr Kent has no doubt it will be useful from his own experience at the hospital, he said that many children with chronic or acute health issues turn to complementary or integrative approaches after all other conventional treatment options are exhausted and that integrative therapies like acupuncture can be helpful from the onset of disease and can have a tremendously positive influence on a child’s quality of life.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) in the United States has published a statement concluding that acupuncture is effective for treating adults for nausea following chemotherapy and for pain after dental surgery. In children, both they and their parents have stated that acupuncture treatments were both helpful and relaxing so the therapy is being offered to patients between the ages of 5-20 years of age.

Those children in the study will receive eight acupuncture treatments at no charge.

Want to Predict Your Heart Risk with a Web-Based Calculator?

Now if you are too busy to go to the doctor, or tend to avoid them until the last possible minute, a new research tool could be just the thing for you. Cardiff University Medical School has developed an Internet site where you can assess their future risk of having heart disease.

I am all in favour of being proactive and having information is the first step in any process to make changes. Heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK and still many of people do not know they are at risk, but by taking part in this research project you help expand the database of knowledge on heart disease, and you get a free assessment to know where you stand.

They are looking for volunteers aged between 45 and 64 who have not been previously diagnosed with heart disease, had a cardiac event (such as a heart attack or angina) or a stroke. I took the online survey and it is a model of an easy to use site and it doesn’t take long. They will even send you a copy of your results if you want to take them to your doctor, but remember they are a guide to whether you are at risk over the next ten years, not a definitive diagnosis, and hopefully a spur to taking action.

You are not only helping the researchers but for every volunteer who visits the website and completes the study, £1 will be donated to the British Heart Foundation so just go to www.myheartrisk.co.uk to check yourself out.

PS – if you are suffering from angina, also have a look at the item on prostate cancer and nitroglycerin.

Health Bite:

Now if you are feeling guilty over that large box of chocolates you got for Valentine’s Day, and which disappeared faster than you like to admit to – or is that just me – then here’s some good news. Eating chocolate may lower your risk of having a stroke, and lower the risk of death after one, according to an analysis of available research presented at a recent American Academy of Neurology meeting in Toronto.

They hedge their bets by calling for more research, which probably means eating more chocolate and conclude that they are not sure ” whether chocolate truly lowers stroke risk, or whether healthier people are simply more likely to eat chocolate than others”. Well I am healthy and I eat chocolate so I think should volunteer, and if you want facts to back up your chocoholism then remember that it is rich in antioxidants called flavonoids, which may have a protective effect against stroke, and their research showed that those who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke than people who ate no chocolate and those who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46 percent less likely to die following a stroke than people who did not eat chocolate.

One study found no link between eating chocolate and risk of stroke or death so go forth and consume with a clear conscience, though remembering that chocolate is also rather high in fat, so that 50 grams a week is probably a good (though stingy) guide.

Depression and the Internet

It’s not often I comment on a mainstream news item, but The Guardian has reported that a new study links depression and excessive internet use. Now as someone who could not make a living without the Internet for research, it caught my eye as I am also someone who has experienced depression since my early teens. So in the current age of heavy internet use, particularly by teens, just how much is too much?

Work has been done in South East Asia on this, but nothing to date in the UK until researchers at Leeds University did a study on a group of young people and adults to see at what point their Internet use became a problem. It’s already known that for a small proportion of users it becomes an addiction but less well known is that people in this group were more likely to be depressed than non-addicted users, particularly males with an average age of just over 18.

It seems to be a chicken and egg situation: which comes first – are depressed people drawn to the internet or does the internet cause depression? What is useful, particularly for parents, is that it is clear is that, for a small subset of people, excessive use of the internet could be a warning signal for depressive tendencies according to Dr Catriona Morrison of the University’s Institute of Psychological Sciences.

A more worrying concern for me is that addicts spend proportionately more time browsing sexually gratifying websites, online gaming sites and online communities and that the research concurs that these again reinforce the belief that over use of the Internet is serving to replace normal social function. In other words, keep a close eye on the amount of computer online time is being spent – not always easy when most teenagers have their machines in their bedrooms, or have laptops so monitoring use is even more difficult.

If you also find that depression is affecting memory, whatever age, then Ginkgo appears to be as effective in younger people as it is in the elderly. It can also be useful as a short term supplement (5-7 days) before exams to help with focus and short term retention.

Could Vitamin B replace Cholesterol Drugs?

A recent study found that niacin (vitamin B3), is far more beneficial to heart patients with high cholesterol than the most popular cholesterol drug.  Dr. Anthony DeMaria is a leading cardiologist and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and believes that these new findings will eliminate the need for such drugs.

Anti cholesterol drugs are aimed at reducing the levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad cholesterol”, but niacin is much more effective at boosting the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good cholesterol”.

Niacin significantly reduces plaque build up on arterial walls, improving blood supply to the brain, while cholesterol drugs can slightly increase such arterial plaque build up.  In addition, niacin is considerably cheaper than such drugs and can be bought over the counter.
Studies consistently show that therapeutic doses of niacin alone can raise HDL levels by up to 35 percent and lower LDL levels by 20 percent. When incorporated into a well-balanced diet with regular exercise, the benefits increase even more. Proper diet and exercise will actually cause arterial plaque to dissipate over time, unlike statin drugs which have never been proven to break up arterial plaque.

Niacin is naturally found in dairy products, lean meats, fish and poultry, nuts, eggs, and whole-grain or sprouted breads. Diets rich in plant-based sterols, soluble fibre, and balanced sources of omega-3 and omega-6 oils will also contribute significantly to maintaining proper cholesterol levels and a healthy heart.

Precautions when taking niacin are given for those suffering from diabetes as it can increase blood sugar and anyone with a history of liver or gallbladder disease or peptic ulcers need.  Side effects associated with niacin are usually mild and are redness and flushing of the skin, particularly the face.

Health Bite:
There is another reason why your face may flush, and that is one to seriously pay attention to if you are a regular drinker.  Doctors at the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism report that when drinking results in facial flushing, it’s time to call your doctor to schedule an endoscopic cancer screening.

It could be that you have an inherited deficiency in an enzyme known as ALDH-2 which prompts facial flushing after just a couple of drinks.  This warning sign suggests a much higher risk of oesophageal cancer compared to the general population and as it has a very low survival rate (less than five years) it is worth paying attention.

If you regularly experience flushing after drinking go see your doctor, and monitor your intake because flushing can also occur with the additives in some wines so keep a record of what causes your face to go red so you can eliminate that first.

The Real Differences Between Teenage Boys and Girls

One of most commonly quoted facts about the differences between boys and girls is that the girls do better academically. What’s not so well known is that boys have higher rates of suicide, conduct disorders, emotional disturbance, premature death and juvenile delinquency than girls of their age.

This startling conclusion came from a paper on the “The State of American Boyhood,” published in the Journal ‘Gender’ and based on work done at the University of Alaska. They acknowledged that depression, suicide attempts and eating disorders are common in teenage girls but that the boys problems are more serious.

Young people themselves have negative stereotypes as to why boys do less well, and centre on three themes: young men are lazy, they don’t plan ahead and they are prone to peer pressure. The result is that they get little respect and so have even less enthusiasm for continuing education and low self esteem is made even worse.

Another difference between the sexes in the teens is that overweight girls tend to enter puberty early but overweight boys may begin puberty later than thin boys. Being a bouncy chubby baby is one thing, but when it persists it is setting a pattern for health problems later in life. As rates of obesity among teenagers has nearly tripled since the 1960s, this late development of puberty in boys may well become a cause for concern as it can lead to loss of self esteem with peers and this can increase comfort eating, and obesity, still further.

Antidepressants Can Affect Breast Feeding

If a woman is planning on breast feeding, and has been having treatment for anxiety or depression that involves taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs may find that it delays their ability to produce breast milk after their baby is born.

This study at the University of Cincinnati was just reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and its findings are significant.  Although this is only a small study, 87.5% of women on SSRI drugs had delayed milk delivery compared to 43.5% of those not taking the drugs.   Delayed milk production is an early breastfeeding difficulty faced by many women, particularly those who are first term time mothers, and defined as being over 72 hours after giving birth.  This difficulty also contributes to the mother ceasing to breastfeed before the recommended time. These women also are at risk of early cessation of breastfeeding.

SSRI drugs are the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants and are typically used to treat ‘baby blues’ depression.  A more natural solution would be to turn to natural medicine such as St John’s Wort, or more particularly natural progesterone as that is the hormone that drops most dramatically after giving birth and the one that could most help elevate mood without any ill effects for the baby.

Health Bite:

Smoking in Pregnancy can Permanently Affect a Baby’s Blood Pressure

A Swedish study has shown that babies born to women who smoked during pregnancy show evidence of persistent problems in blood pressure regulation that start at birth and get worse throughout their first year.

The study was reported in the journal of the American Heart Association and raises serious concerns that the seeds being sown in pregnancy will reap a lifetime of ill health for the baby. Normally, when a person stands, the heart rate increases and the blood vessels constrict to keep blood flow to the heart and brain and so there is a standard repositioning test to see how a baby’s blood pressure responds to tilting them upright during sleep. The results were dramatically different in those born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy compared to those who did not.

The non-smoking mothers (on average 15 cigarettes a day) saw only a 2% increase in blood pressure in their babies when they were tilted upright at one week of age and later a 10 percent increase in blood pressure at one year. But, the babies of smoking mothers saw the exact opposite with a 10% increase in blood pressure during a tilt at one week and only a 4 percent increase at one year. At three months and one year, the heart rate response to tilting in the tobacco-exposed infants was abnormal and highly exaggerated, researchers reported.

The concern obviously is that early life exposure to tobacco can lead to long-lasting reprogramming of the baby’s blood pressure control mechanisms. The researchers found that such babies have a hyper-reactive system in the first weeks of life because the blood pressure increases too much when they are tilted up, but at one year they under-react and are less effective in adapting to an upright position. Despite any amount of health warnings some mothers still do smoke, and one argument I have heard is that it is better to smoke as it reduces the mother’s stress levels. A stressed mother is certainly not good for the baby, but this research shows the long-term implications are even more serious if she continues to smoke – or those around her do.

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