The Health Blog

Many people tend to abuse multivitamins to stay in shape and to boost their resistance. But little do they know that taking too much vitamins could bring their health at risk. A study by the National Cancer Institute found out that taking too many multivitamin supplements could increase the risk of prostate cancer.

The researchers found no association between multivitamin use and the risk of localized prostate cancer. But taking a multivitamin more than seven times a week was associated with a 30% increased risk of advanced prostate cancer and a doubling of the risk of death from the disease.

Regular multivitamin use (one to six times a week) did not appear to increase cancer risk, and excessive vitamin use was not associated with an increased risk of early, or localized, prostate cancer.

A study published in the New England Journal found out that the same virus that causes cervical cancer, which is the human papillomavirus or HPV, increases the risk of throat cancer for both men and women engaging in oral sex.

The study involved 100 patients with throat cancer and 200 without it, found that those infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV) were 32 times as likely to develop one form of oral cancer than those free of the virus. This makes it clear that oral HPV infection is a risk factor for throat cancer. The research suggests that unprotected oral sex is a major reason people are contracting throat cancer — not just smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, as previously believed.

Step 1: Begin by looking at your breasts in the mirror with your shoulders straight and your arms on your hips.

Here’s what you should look for:

* breasts that are their usual size, shape, and color.

* breasts that are evenly shaped without visible distortion or swelling.

If you see any of the following changes, bring them to your doctor’s attention:
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* nipple discharge

* dimpling, puckering, or bulging of the skin.

* a nipple that has changed position or an inverted nipple (pushed inward instead of sticking out).

* redness, soreness, rash, or swelling.

Step 2: Now, raise your arms and look for the same changes.

Step 3: While you’re at the mirror, gently squeeze each nipple between your finger and thumb and check for nipple discharge (this could be a milky or yellow fluid or blood).

1. Calorie restriction in obese individuals with hypertension is recommended. Other wise normal individuals need the daily-recommended calorie according to the age, sex and physical activity.

2. In severe hypertension the protein has to be restricted to 20 gm/day where as the mild and moderate hypertensive can have 1 gm/kg body weight. For example if the person is 60kg then he can have 60 gms of protein/day.

3. It is advisable to reduce the fat consumption since hypertension has greater risk of arteriosclerosis. It is better to avoid high intake of animal fat or hydrogenated oils, which contain saturated fatty acids. The cholesterol rich foods such as liver, meat, organ meat, egg yolk, lobster, crab and prawns should be minimised in the diet. The dietary fats should consist of vegetable oil like corn oil, olive oil and sunflower oil.

4. Low fat, low sodium and high potassium diet will help to lower high blood pressure. Moderate sodium restriction 2- 3 gm per day decreases diastolic blood pressure 6- 10 mm of Hg and enhances the blood pressure lowering effect of diuretic therapy.

Lifestyle and diet modifications are vital to management of hypertension, defined as a consistent elevation in blood pressure. Researchers, in an effort to stop and prevent this pandemic, which kills millions of people worldwide, continuously find diets or foods that may lower blood pressure.

Some foods and supplements have been suggested to have beneficial effects on high blood pressure. These include fish oils, olive oils, Vitamin C, and potassium.

Fish Oils: Several studies have shown that replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat in the diet can help lower blood pressure in hypertensive individuals. Fish oils containing eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), for example, have been found quite effective in lowering both blood pressure and triglyceride levels.

A University of Cincinnati study found that supplementation with large amounts of fish oil (5-15 grams/day) lowers blood pressure significantly in hypertensive individuals. They concluded that daily supplementation with low doses of fish oil is indeed effective in lowering blood pressure in mildly hypertensive patients. Further, fish oil supplementation reduced diastolic pressure (sitting) by an average of approximately 4.4 mm Hg and systolic pressure by an average of 6.5 mm Hg when compared to values obtained prior to the start of treatment. But these beneficial effects stop once supplementation is discontinued.

Listening to tunes on an iPod may be great for putting a skip in your step, but it can also play havoc with a heart pacemaker, a new study found.

A study by a Michigan high school senior along with several doctors found out that the portable music players caused pacemakers to malfunction in 50 percent of patients.

The biggest concern is that pacemakers store the history of a heart’s rhythms, said Jay Thaker, the Okemos High School student, who worked with several doctors on the research. “If a physician was to go back and look at that (history), the physician might think that the patient was having abnormal heart rhythms,” he added.

This effect may pose danger to heart patients which might be treated for conditions that aren’t really present. Further, if an iPod stopped a pacemaker from working in a patient who was totally dependent on their pacemaker, it could cause the heart to stop.

The development of HPV Vaccine is one of revolutionary contributions to cervical cancer treatment. HPV or Human papillomavirus is considered the causative agent for cervical cancer.

The FDA or Food and Drug Administration recently licensed the vaccine Gardasil® which is said to protect against four HPV types, which together cause 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts.

Who should get the vaccine?
The HPV vaccine is recommended for 11-12 year-old girls, and can be given to girls as young as 9. The vaccine is also recommended for 13-26 year-old girls/women who have not yet received or completed the vaccine series.

“Cutting back on saturated fats can lower your disease risk” Forbes.com reports.

Eating foods that contain high levels of saturated fats raises your cholesterol and your risk of heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

Cooking certain meats at high temperatures may produce chemicals that are experimental animal carcinogens and are believed to be potential human carcinogens. Other studies have shown that high intakes of well-done, fried or barbecued meats may increase the risk of developing colorectal and potentially breast cancer.

Health Tips:

1. Because the body can’t store protein, you’ll eliminate it through urine if you eat more than you need, putting an extra strain on your kidneys to metabolize it. Experts recommend limiting meat to 3 to 4 ounce servings.

2. Avoid eating burnt meat because of their carcinogenic content.

“Daily Aspirin may reduce cancer risk, bBut the high dose needed brings its own dangers, experts warn”, says an article from HealthDay News.

A daily aspirin may lower the odds of colon, prostate and breast cancer for people at high risk for those malignancies, researchers at the American Cancer Society report.

The researchers found that taking daily aspirin for at least five years was linked with about a 15 percent relative reduction in overall cancer risk. This decrease did not reach statistical significance in women, however.

In addition, aspirin was associated with a 20 percent reduction in the risk of prostate cancer and a 30 percent reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer in both men and women, compared with people who didn’t take the medicine, Jacobs’s team found.

Aspirin had no effect on risk of lung cancer, bladder cancer, melanoma, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, pancreatic cancer, and kidney cancer, the researchers noted. Also, aspirin use for less than five years did not lower the risk for cancer.

LONDON - In an “extraordinary development” in the fight against AIDS, a medical journal article published Friday says that conclusive data shows there is no question circumcision reduces men’s chances of catching HIV by up to 60 percent.

The question now is how to put that fact to work to combat AIDS across Africa.

The findings were first announced in December, when initial results from two major trials — in Kenya and Uganda — showed promising links between circumcision and HIV transmission. However, those trials were deemed so definitive that the tests were halted early.

The full data from the trials, carried out by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, were published Friday in The Lancet.

A recent study shows that women who switch from the breast cancer pill tamoxifen to a newer class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors live longer, Italian researchers reported on Monday. This study adds to a growing body of evidence that the new drugs are far safer, preventing cancer with fewer side effects than tamoxifen.

However, aromatase inhibitors are only for women who are post-menopausal. Tamoxifen is still the best choice for younger patients.

Tamoxifen transformed breast cancer therapy when it was shown to reduce the risk of cancer coming back by close to 50 percent. It was also an easy-to-take pill. But the drug raised the risk of death from strokes and endometrial cancer. Then a newer class of drugs, the aromatase inhibitors, was developed. Reuters