Bacon and Bladder Cancer

New research that looked at more than 135,000 people over the course of 22 years has indicated that people who eat bacon five times a week or more are almost 60 percent more likely to develop bladder cancer. The study also showed that those who ate skinless chicken with a similar frequency had a 52 percent greater risk of developing the illness.

Nitrosamines, which are present in some meats, including bacon, are known to cause bladder cancer. But most studies on the subject before this one did not attempt to determine the effects of different kinds of meat.

Heterocyclic amines, which are carcinogenic chemicals formed when meat is cooked at high temperatures, are also a likely causative factor. Cooked chicken with skin is known to contain a smaller amount of heterocyclic amines than skinless chicken.

People who frequently indulged in bacon and other processed meats were also more likely to smoke and less likely to exercise.

Bacon is among the worst processed meats you can eat. And adding one ounce of processed meat to your daily diet elevates your stomach cancer risks by as much as 38 percent. Among the likely contributors: Nitrates, along with excess salt and smoking that extend the shelf-life of such products.

Meat cooked at high temperatures can also contain as many as 20 different kinds of heterocyclic amines, or HCAs for short. Many people feel that it is important to cook food well in order to avoid bacterial infection, but these same people do not realize that cooking meat, poultry, or fish at high temperatures for long periods of time can also be dangerous to your health.

In one study, researchers found that those who ate their beef medium-well or well-done had more than three times the risk of stomach cancer than those who ate their beef rare or medium-rare. Other studies have shown that an increased risk of developing pancreatic, colorectal, and breast cancer is associated with high intakes of well-done, fried, or barbequed meats.

According to strict metabolic typing guidelines pork does well for protein types and mixed types. Ideally, it should be from non-farm-raised animals fed organically. I personally avoid most pork but primarily base this on Levitical guidelines, which clearly may be flawed.

Additionally, many of our patients seem to do well on clean pork products. Ultimately, it is a decision each individual needs to make for themselves.

If you're eating meat loaded with pesticides and hormones, then cook it at high temperatures, you're asking for trouble. That's why I limit my meat choices when possible to grass-fed and organic meats.

Hands Free Mobile Phones May Increase Radiation Exposure

Contrary to previous assumptions, hands-free mobile phone kits can significantly boost the brain's exposure to radiation, according to new research conducted by British consumer research magazine Click Here to Cross Reference
The new findings confirmed claims that the magazine first published in April that using hands-free earpieces could more than triple the brain's exposure to radiation compared to a conventional mobile phone call. That original report was dismissed in August by the British government, which commissioned research that showed the kits did cut exposure levels.
The independent lab conducting the test took thousands of measurements to explore what was causing the changes in EMF emissions. It found that one critical factor was the distance between the top of the phone's aerial and the ear.
But consumer magazine said the methodology used in the government research was flawed. They found that the shape of the test rig used in the government tests made it impossible to get the hands-free kit wire into the position that gave the highest readings. According to the report:
We have found two possible explanations for this. First, the design of the SAR test rig doesn't replicate how someone would normally use a hands-free kit. Most importantly, the wire couldn't hang down straight - as it did when we took the highest readings in our other tests. Second, we found that the SAR test system looks for the point in the head where there is the highest level of radiation - and gives a final reading for only this area. But we found that kits and phones emit the highest levels of radiation in different places: kits emit most at the ear; phones emit most at the user's jaw and cheek.
The new research confirmed that hands-free kits could act as an aerial that channeled radiation to the ear.
The level of emissions depended on the distance between the tip of the phone's aerial and the earpiece, which varied according to how the phone was held. The government tests did not allow for this, Click Here To Find Out
According to the magazine's editor:
... it's clear that consumers can't rely on hands-free kits to reduce radiation emissions at the brain from mobile phones. Although these kits can reduce radiation, they can also increase it significantly, depending on where you position the phone and kit. Unfortunately, there is no way that consumers can work out the best position to reduce radiation.
Scientists agree that electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones warms brain tissue, some strains of mice have developed cancer in tests in Australia and Finland and that others become disorientated.
The kits could cut emissions by 10 to 90% in some positions.
In other positions they could increase them by a factor of up to 3.5.
One reason that the government's tests did not show this increased exposure is that they used only one position which did not allow the wire to hang straight down.
Not surprisingly, mobile phone maker Ericsson played down the new findings in a public statement.
It was impossible to recommend a "safe" position for holding a phone. Both short and long distances between the aerial and the earpiece produced increased emissions, with only a short length in the middle generating lower emissions than conventional mobile phone calls. They recommend that "if you're concerned, the most important safety-first advice is to keep the number and duration of calls to a minimum, whether you use a phone with or without a hands-free kit."
To see the original report. CLICK HERE

Stress and Cancer

Norepinephrine, a hormone produced during periods of stress, may increase the growth rate of cancer.
The norepinephrine can stimulate tumor cells to produce two compounds (matrix metalloproteinases called MMP-2 and MMP-9) that break down the tissue around the tumor cells and allow the cells to more easily move into the bloodstream.
Once there, they can travel to other organs and tissues and form additional tumors, a process called metastasis.
Norepinephrine may also stimulate the tumor cells to release a chemical (vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF) that can aid in the growth of the blood vessels that feed cancer cells. This can increase the growth and spread of the cancer.
Researchers traced the harmful effect of norepinephrine after applying it to cancer cell lines used to study nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), an incurable head and neck cancer associated most frequently with those of Chinese descent.
Cancer Research November 1, 2006; 66(21): 10357-10364
Science Daily November 3, 2006

UV rays can damage your eyes

Most people know the sun's ultraviolet rays can harm their skin, but many are blind to another kind of risk.
Research shows that in many countries, 80 per cent of people know about the potential risk of skin cancer, but only 4 to 12per cent are aware of fhe damage their eyes can suffer. And an umbrella or sunglasses are not enouh of a shield. . ,

Accordingto the World Healfh Organisations Global UV Project report, countries in the equatorial belt are exposed to greater levels of UV radiation. Even with cloud cover, there is no protection — up to 80 per cent can pass through clouds.

The two types of ultraviolet rays, UVB and UVA, are both invisible, high-energy rays that lie beyond the violet/blue end of the visible spectrum of llght.

On a sunny day, skin cancer is a known risk if you sunbathe or let yourself bake, but less well known is the fact that more than 90 percent of all UV-related skin cancers occur above the neckline — so also an estimated 10 per cent of all non-melanoma skin cancers. Tumours of the eyelid are divided into melanoma and non-melanoma cancers. The former tend to spread to surrounding tissues and can be
deadly. The latter are more common and tend to grow locally, occurring on the eyelids.

The area around the eyes requires special attention to limit UV exposure. Long-term exposure can also result in damage to the eye's surface, resulting in pingueculae, benign yellowish growths, and pterygia, which are triangular, fleshy red growths on the eyes. Shorter-term effects include sunburn on the eye's surface, a painful condition known as photokeratitis,which can cause temporary vision loss.

Then there are cataracts, which are a clouding of the eye's natural lens. The World Health Organisation says that of the 16 million cases of cataract-related blindness each year, over three million are the result of UV exposure. And people with brown eyes are 80 per cent more likely than blue-eyed individuals to develop cataracts, according to a 2002 study in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

If you start protecting your eyes now, you will reduce the risk of damage, says Ms Bette Zaret, vice-president of global strategic marketing at Transitions Optical, the company producing variable tint or photochromic lenses. These look like regular spectacle lenses indoors but turn dark in sunlight and block all UVA andUVB rays. Whether your vision needs corrective treatment or not,she says, you still need protective eye wear "against light you can see and light you can't.

This is even more important with children. Studies have showed that UV damage is cumulative, and 80 per cent occurs before age 18 - no surprise, given how much time children spend outdoors.

If you wear contact lenses, always wear good quality sunglasses. For children
short -term damage may be signalled by a burning sensation in the eyes that will subside. Long-term damage may not show up for many years. Just as not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer not everyone exposed to UV rays will go blind - but, why take chances?

Medical Procedure in Obesity Control

Clinically severe obesity is considered a chronic disease that is difficult to treat through diet and exercise alone. The condition is a major health problem not only in the West, but also in countries which are becoming more affluent. It is typically defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more. For Asians, it is a BMI of 32 to 36.9 for people with problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure; and a BMI of more than 37 for others. About 1.15 billion people are either overweight or obese. In the United States, more than 12 million people suffer from severe obesity. From this condition stem other medical, psychological, social and economic problems including job loss and higher insurance fees. According to medical literature, people suffering from severe obesity find it impossible to achieve long-term weight loss with just dietary or behavioral modifications alone. There is 100 per cent failure rate and this series of failures, known as the Yo-yo Syndrome, puts further stress on these already high-risk patients. Surgery is recommended for these patients.
GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY a procedure was adapted 50 years ago from surgery performed on patients with stomach cancer. It makes the stomach smaller and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine so one feels full more quickly than when the stomach was its original size and so, eats less. As calorie intake drops, one loses, weight. The most common operation is a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass where a small pouch at the top of the stomach is created by using surgical staples or a plastic band. The smaller stomach is connected directly to the middle portion of the small intestine, bypassing the rest of the stomach and the upper portion of the small intestine. Risks include infection in the incision, a leak from the stomach into the abdominal cavity or where the intestine is connected, and a blood clot in the lung. The stomach size is reduced as much as between 80 and 90 per cent, and the length of the intestines is also shortened so a leak is likely to result if the surgery is not carried out properly. After a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, an iron and vitamin B12 deficiency occurs more than 30 per cent of the time; about half of those with an iron deficiency develop anemia; and the connection between the stomach and the intestines narrows 5 to 15 per cent of the time, leading to nausea and vomiting after eating.
VERTICAL BANDED GASTROPLASTY OR STOMACH STAPLING
The procedure is formed by making a small pouch at the top of the stomach with a capacity of one ounce (28g). The outflow from the pouch into the rest of the stomach is reinforced with a band to prevent stretching. This technique works by limiting the amount of food that can be consumed. It produces the least amount of weight loss, about 40 to 60 per cent of excess body weight. One advantage of the procedure is it is completely reversible. The stapling can be removed if necessary without affecting the body in any way, for instance, in cases where the stomach stretches by continuous eating or when the staples break. It also causes no nutritional deficiencies. The disadvantage is the patient must stick to his diet and is bound to vomit if he eats too fast and does not properly chew his food.
INTRAGASTRICBALLOON SYSTEM
A silicon balloon is orally inserted into the stomach with the help of an endoscope while the patient is heavily sedated — to create a “full” sensation. The balloon is filled up with blue saline water from 450ml to 600 ml through its tube, then the tube is removed. Should the balloon burst for any reason, the patient would know because the blue dye is passed out in the urine. The patient would then need to have the balloon removed. The balloon can be inserted for up to six months as stomach acids will weaken the silicon material. It is a quick procedure, but patients are kept for observation in hospital for a day or two because they might have trouble adjusting to the balloon in the stomach. The weight loss averages about 15kg in six months. Side effects include cramps, nausea and vomiting, especially in the first week. Reflux could happen and it is dealt with the use of acid suppression tablets.
LAPAROSCOPIC GASTRICBANDING OR LAP-BAND
The Lap-Band procedure was introduced to the medical community during the Third Scientific Congress for University Surgeons of Asia, held at the National University Hospital in August 1998. Dr Ravintharan, who has performed some 80 such operations, said more than 300 Lap-Band procedures have been performed in Singapore to date, with the youngest patient being 17 years old. An adjustable silicon gastric band is introduced through 1cm incisions in the abdomen and then wrapped around the upper part of the stomach to create a small pouch. It restricts the size of the stomach, thus the volume of the food intake, and helps patients feel satisfied on smaller meals as the small pouch is rapidly filled up. The pouch also empties slowly through the constriction so the patient does not get hungry fast. The operation is performed under general anesthesia and takes between 30 minutes and an hour. The patient is required to stay in the ward for a night. Once implanted, the band can be tightened or loosened, via a port implanted under the patient’s skin. This is done under local anesthesia. Dr Ravintharan said the band could be tightened every two to three months if the patient so chooses, until the desired healthy weight is reached and this method can reduce the patients’ excess weight by half. Advantages include no cutting of the stomach; pouch and stomach size can be adjusted to the patient’s needs with no operation; laparoscopic removal is possible and the procedure is fully reversible. However, as Lap-Band is a major operation, the downside includes risks of anesthesia and operative complications, such as deep vein thrombosis, bleeding from the perforation of the stomach, and infection at the band or port site. Such major complications are however, uncommon, and the chances of the patient dying as a result of the operation are 1 in 1,000, according to medical literature. Most patients stay in hospital for three days and return to work in two weeks.

Atherothrombosis

Atherothrombosis is a leading cause of death in many developed countries and yet not many people are familiar with the condition. When people talk about cardiovascular disease, they are seldom aware that heart attack, stroke and peripheral arterial disease have a common underlying condition. This is atherothrombosis, a condition that is linked to serious and often fatal diseases. Nearly 12 million people worldwide die every year of diseases associated with atherothrombosis, yet awareness of the condition remains low. The word atherothrombosis describes the process by which a blood clot forms on a fatty deposit in the wall of blood vessels and that the formation of a blood clot is called thrombosis and the fatty deposit in the blood vessel is called an atheroma. When the atheroma ruptures, a blood clot is formed and it obstructs the flow of blood through the artery. When this happens in the heart, it is called a heart attack. When it happens in the head, we call it stroke.
Atherothrombosis play a central role in heart attacks because it causes the blockage that obstructs the flow of oxygenated blood to the heart. The starved heart muscle begins to die and, depending on the size of the blockage and the time taken to get to emergency room, the heart may lose some or all of its ability to contract and pump blood. This is why people who think they may be suffering from a heart attack should get medical help as soon as possible. Within a couple of hours, the damage is small and we can salvage the heart muscle. But beyond four hours, the results are not so good. When atherothrombosis occurs in artery of the brain, it can starve brain cells in a similar way. This causes irreversible brain damage and neurological problems. While people are aware of heart attack and stroke as medical emergencies, peripheral arterial disease (PAD), also a serious illness often goes undiagnosed. The disease occurs when arteries that supply blood to the legs get blocked. Reduction of blood flow to the lower limbs is dangerous because it can ultimately lead to amputation of the limb. PAD can manifest itself in fairly mild ways such as intermittent pain in the calf muscles or a non-healing foot wound. People often do not think it can be connected to anything as serious as atherothrombosis and, hence, may not seek medical help for it. So, to avoid atherothrombosis and its complications, understanding more about them is important.

RAISING THE ALERT LEVEL OF BIRD FLU PANDEMIC

WHO should consider raising the bird flu pandemic alert going by recent US actions and Indonesia’s cluster cases? The world may be much closer to a bird flu pandemic than when the first human case of H5N1 infection was diagnosed in late 2003. This could well be what the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recent flurry of activity to clarify its pandemic alert system may have implied. That clarification came after questions arose as to why even a large cluster of human cases in Indonesia seemed to not have nudged the pandemic alert level up a notch.
Most of Indonesia’s reported human cases have come from the Jakarta area or nearby locations In West Java, until its largest cluster to date which involved eight members of a family in North Sumatra. Of these, seven have died. This arguably called for the alert level to be increased to Phase 4. But the WHO did not do so. Instead, it set up a dedicated website about Indonesia’s bird flu situation.
Now consider two recent decisions made by the United States. On March 25, the US decided to use a strain of the virus isolated in Sumatra to make its new pandemic Vaccine. Then, it decided to send a supply of Tamiflu to Asia to prepare for an H5N1 outbreak.
Taken together, these actions suggest some urgency on the part of experts in the know. After all, the US has less of Tamiflu in stock-piles than most industrialized countries, so its deployment in Asia suggests that the situation here could be worse than is let on. Last week, the US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt even said that while he refused to specify the amount or the location, he want to make clear that they are beginning to deploy it”.
Reading between the lines, the WHO’S recent attempt to “clarify” its pandemic alert
system suggests that H5N1 spread from human to human has already become more efficient. This is no scare-mongering either. Some folks who survived the Yogyakarta quake on May 27 are taking shelter in chicken sheds where they could be exposed to infected poultry. After all, in 2004, H5N1 was isolated from poultry in Yogyakarta. Meanwhile, in the rest of Indonesia, the virus is now spreading from the thousands of backyard farms found in both urban and rural areas, including Jakarta, where free-range chickens are to be found in many of its neighborhoods.
WHO epidemiologist Steven Biorge told reporters in Jakarta last week: “There is a pandemic in birds.” It is already entrenched in the environment in Indonesia, he added, which is why low-risk groups — not poultry workers — including children and students, are making up to 50 per cent of the cases. He also noted that there was a practice that promoted the bug’s spread — trade in chicken droppings as fertilizer. It is big business in Indonesia but one that helps move the bug across the far-flung archipelago. And that is talking only about the risk of spread from poultry to humans. Reading between the lines, the WHO’S recent attempt to “clarify” its pandemic alert system suggests that H5N1 spread from human to human has already become more efficient.

For in the Sumatra cluster, spread from person to person to person, a three-person chain had been observed for the first time. Despite acknowledging so, however, the WHO has thought best not to raise the alert level, even though, by its own recent explanation, this would be necessary when “small cluster(s)” of human cases appeared.
Since June 3, a family in Pamulang, West Java, with five members who have already fallen ill looks set to become Indonesia’s second-largest cluster to date. Perhaps it is already time to raise the alert level.
The implications for neighboring countries, Singapore included, are enormous if we are that much nearer to a pandemic.
Public health education campaigns may have to be stepped up, businesses might have to start dry runs of their contingency plans sooner rather than later, checks at border entry points might have to be tightened, and so on. While GlaxoSmithKline broke ground for a huge vaccine manufacturing facility in Singapore this week, it will be ready only in 2010. We can only pray that it will come online in time to help us combat a pandemic.