This week in health and science – 8/18/07
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All week I had planned to write another post but everyday something came up and prevented me from doing it.
Women’s Health
Hsien-Hsien at Eye on DNA wrote this week about “What happens after a positive breast and ovarian cancer (BRCA) genetic test?“. Most people apparently don’t change anything in their llife.
Nutrition
At Eating Fabulous there is a post about 10 superfoods. They were orginally written for men’s health – but apply to women too.
Heart Disease
It may be that a person’s waist to hip ratio is a better indicator of future heart problems.
Smoking
I’ve written a bit about smoking lately – The Cheerful Oncologist writes this week about what goes through the mind of someone smoking for the first timd and last time?
Aging
A 94-year-old great-great-grandmother who left school at the age of 12 just got a master’s degree! We need more people like this to help eliminate many misperceptions of aging.
Other
At www.scientificblogging.com there is a post about a paper in The Lancet about how 90% of the population in developed countries have high blood pressure. Lifestyle factors are largely to blame – low physical inactivity, a high salt, high fat diet, alcohol and smoking.
Ruth reported this week about the new vaccine for multiple sclerosis that is being tested. The vaccine seems to help people with MS and there is currently a trial taking involving 290 more patients.
Tris at The Homely Scientist writes about West Nile Virus and how it is leading to a better understanding of mutation and lethality.
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Related Posts:
- This week in health and science – 8/11/07
- This week in health and science – 9/14/07
- FDA approves vaccine to prevent cervical cancer
August 11, 2007
This week in health and science – 8/11/07
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I’m a little late this week. Here’s what I think are the most interesting blog posts and news of the week:
Genes and DNA
Hsien-Hsien Lei wrote about a disease associated with aging: exfoliative glaucoma and how it has been discovered that one gene – lysyl oxidase-like 1 (LOXL1) is responsible for it. Exfoliative glaucoma can result in glaucoma and possibly cataracts, lens dislocation, and central retinal vein occlusion resulting in blindness. About 10-20% of people after age 60 are affected to some degree by exfoliation syndrome.
Penny at Genetics and Health reports that there may be evidence of a genetic link between inflammatory bowel disease and ankylosing spondylitis.
Razib at ScienceBlogs has a post about lactase persistence and how it spread through human populations, which I found interesting as I am very lactose intolerant.
Women’s Health
Gloria of Cancer Commentary blogged about how although exposure to sunlight raises the risk of skin cancer the higher vitamin D levels acquired has benefits also. Most recently some data suggesting a connection to breast cancer: “the lower the levels of vitamin D in a woman’s blood-stream, the greater the risk of her developing breast cancer at post-menopausal stage.”
Aging
Elizabeth at GenBetween writes about how older workers who are not retiring are “driving corporations to offer flexible work arrangements“. Baby Boomers seem to be a driving force of change in many aspects life like work, healthcare, etc. I can’t wait to see what they do next!
Kendra at A Hearty Life blogged about how many elderly patients refuse treatments recommended by their doctors. Treatments refused include cardiac catheterization and surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, intubation, dialysis, and transplantation. I think that if more medical procedures were more effective and less physically painful/uncomfortable that less people would refuse them.
Nutrition
David Bradley from Sciencebase discusses how taking multivitamins, mineral supplements, and antioxidants can be dangerous. In particular he writes about how “copper ions sometimes act as antioxidants and sometimes as pro-oxidants”. Personally, for now I prefer to eat right and not take any supplements – someday more will be known about what and how much to take is safe or helpful.
Ruth at Eating Fabulous reviewed Fiber One Chew Bars (Oats and Chocolate) recently. She says they were “texture just right: chewy, but not rough, not dry, doesn’t crumble, and doesn’t take ages til you can swallow without injuring your throat.”. Generally I try to avoid anything with added sugar anymore, but if in a hurry they sound like a good choice to keep in mind.
Other
Dr. Val has a good post about the dangers of drinking raw milk – cows are not clean animals and can carry bacteria that are harmful to people. There are reasons why we started pasteurizing milk: “This process has virtually eliminated milk borne illness in this country, including the transmission of Tuberculosis, Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria.”
Dr. Val also writes about how to report side effects of medications directly to the FDA – I had no idea this was possible to do!
The Biotech Weblog reports that E. coli has been linked to Crohn’s Disease and that a possible new target for treating high cholesterol may developed: “proprotein convertases may play a role in regulating the concentrations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)”.
Elisa at HealthyConcerns.com writes about her experience with a corneal ulcer – something to be aware of if you wear contacts.
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Related Posts:
- New cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines for women
- This week in health and science – 8/26/07
- This week in health and science – 7/27/07
August 9, 2007
Smoking Part 2: What should be done?
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A recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that 1 billion people will die from diseases related to tobacco in this century. However the number of deaths could be reduced dramatically if governments banned smoking in public and work places, banned cigarette advertisments and increased tobacco taxes.
Despite the fact that right now 5.4 million people are still dying each year due to tobacco, in some places smoking levels are beginning to decline. For example the New York City smoking rate has decreased by 20% since 2002 to only 17.5% of the population. NYC achieved this rate in part through anti-smoking ads as well as through higher taxes and bans on smoking in public places.
The dangers of cigarette smoke are very severe. One carcinogen from tobacco is called NNK (4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone) and is known to cause lung cancer – it is only found in people’s bodies due to tobacco. Recent research has shown that 2nd hand exposure to tobacco smoke increases levels of NNK by 6% for each hour of exposure!
Given all the dangers of tobacco smoke – and how many lives could be saved if people were not exposed to it – it seems that banning smoking in all public places is the only logical thing to do.
As non-smokers also bear some of the costs of smoking related illnesses – including tax payer funded research into these illnesses which could be better spent on non-lifestyle preventable diseases – aggressive campaigns to discourage smoking also seem justified. What do you think?
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August 3, 2007
This week in health and science – 8/3/07
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It’s World Breastfeeding Week – from August 1st to the 7th! Read more at Health Observances.
Cancer
ramunas lists some very nice characteristics of hereditary, familial and sporadic cancers.
Gloria at Cancer Commentary wrote about the new technique that is being developed for detecting pancreatic cancerusing light. Pretty cool stuff, and one that is close to my heart as my dad had pancreatic cancer.
Allergies
I wish I could afford a hypoallergenic cat! Still way too expensive for me! Maybe in a few years – read more: Hypoallergenic Cat, Anyone?
Healthy Choices
Kristen at Lively Women has a great list of 5 things young people should do to stay healthy – do you have anything to add?
Other
Earlier this week I wrote about the problem of hospital cleanliness including problems with MRSA. This week Penny at Genetics and Health wrote about how the bacteria mutated and evolved in one dying man.
I hope I never need one, but if I do, I’m glad to hear they are making big improvements in artificial hips.
MyDocHub Blog has a great list of the Early Symptoms of Pregnancy – I didn’t know pregnancy could cause all of these. Of course they could be symptoms of something else too.
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Related Posts:
- What not to do – if you want a long, healthy life
- Help! Our hospitals are filthy!
- This week in health and science – 9/14/07
July 27, 2007
This week in health and science – 7/27/07
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(With so many good blog posts and news stories out there – more than I can write about – I’m going to test posting once a week with highlights of the stories that caught my attention. Hopefully you will find them interesting too!)
Allergies
The journal Allergy reports that a new sublingual immunotherapy, called ‘SLIT’, shows promise in treating cat allergies by placing allergen containing drops under the tongue.
In other allergy news, Ruth from Allergizer reports that a new process to inactivate peanut allergens has been discovered.
Cancer
At Lively Women Kristen discusses the recent survey conducted by the American Cancer Society indicating that many Americans do not really have a good understanding of cancer – many people tend to believe popular wisdom rather than facts about cancer.
New data suggests that dietary calcium may reduce the risk of developing breast cancer – read more from Gloria at Dairy Calcium May Reduce Risk of Breast Cancer
Ramunas has a really informative post at www.cancer-genetics.com about gene-expression profiling oncotests: Gene-expression Profiling in Cancer | A Brief Review
That whole cancer and low cholesterol thing that came out this week – I was avoiding it, but thankfully Dr. Val wrote a good post about it. She describes it as a “gross misinterpretation of the metanalysis”.
Biotechnology
Two really cool things this week: a neuroprosthetic chip made to be implanted in the brain which may make it possible in the future for paralyzed people to control a prosthetic device with their thoughts. And a robotic ankle that is light and flexible and also allows people to walk more normally.
Nutrition
At Eating Fabulous Ruth brought up a good point about eating fruit peels and pesticides – we’re usually told the peeling is good for you – has more vitamins, fiber, etc. – but much pesticide residue is left behind?
Longevity
FuturePundit reports the news that in states where people take the latest drugs they have longer life expectancies. I wouldn’t have expected this and didn’t know which state you lived in made that much difference.
Other News
Hsien-Hsien Lei ran a poll on her blog concerning whether or not you would like to have your whole genome sequenced. She also wrote about the Personal Genome Project – which sounds pretty cool, except there is no way I would have my medical records made public – my DNA – yes!, but not the medical records.
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Related Posts:
- This week in health and science – 8/11/07
- This week in health and science – 9/21/07
- Another alternative for high risk, post-menopausal women to prevent breast cancer.
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