A common test to diagnose gestational diabetes — a temporary condition which can harm both mother and child if left untreated — also has predictive power for Type 2 adult-onset diabetes, a new Tel Aviv University study finds.

Dr. Gabriel Chodick of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine has proven that women who “fail” the glucose challenge test, a series of four blood tests conducted over a single four-hour period, have a higher chance of developing adult onset diabetes later in life. In his latest published research, Dr. Chodick found that nearly half the women who fail all four of the four-part tests, demonstrating an elevated blood sugar level, developed Type 2 diabetes within ten years.

Dr. Chodick’s study statistically proves what has been anecdotally believed by healthcare practitioners in the past. “While doctors take this into consideration, there usually isn’t close follow-up in the clinical setting,” says Dr. Chodick. He says that women in the highest risk group (those who fail all four of the tests) should be given special counseling and intervention to prevent the onset of diabetes, which can greatly diminish quality of life and lead to adverse effects including heart disease, blindness and liver cancer.

In the retrospective study, Dr. Chodick, Dr. Varda Shalev and their colleagues collected data on more than 185,000 women in Israel who took the glucose challenge test, then acquired information from the health registry as to what percentage of these women contracted diabetes later in life.

Dr. Chodick and his colleagues ascertained that women who failed all four glucose challenge blood tests had a nearly 50% chance of developing Type 2 diabetes within the ten years following the test. Those who failed three of the four tests had a 20% overall chance of developing the disease within the same period.

“This is the first-ever study to show the long-term health of those who failed the glucose challenge test,” says Dr. Chodick.

While doctors commonly advise that women with gestational diabetes exercise and supplement their diet with fiber and fruit (and, in the most extreme circumstances, take insulin injections), women who take the advice usually have the health of their child in mind, not themselves. After giving birth, they resume adverse eating and lifestyle habits.

Dr. Chodick, whose life’s work is focused on preventative medicine, hopes to change attitudes and policies through his new study. Gestational diabetes currently affects 3 to 5% of all pregnant women in the U.S., and rates are continuing to rise, Dr. Chodick says. “It’s an epidemic that can be stopped with information and action.”

Diabetic Medicine, July 2010 American Friends of Tel Aviv University (2010, July 8). Women with gestational diabetes: Common glucose test also accurately predicts adult-onset diabetes.

Popping a couple of pain pills helped Laurie J. Besden study night after night. They helped her pass the Pennsylvania bar exam. They helped her get more done in a day than many of her colleagues. Then they helped her land in jail.

Besden doesn’t seem like any drug addict you’d picture. She’s smart, motivated — and an overachiever. But she’s one of an alarming number of women who have turned to prescription pills to get ahead — or even just to keep up.

Almost 6 percent of American women, that’s 7.5 million adult women, report using prescription medicines for a boost of energy, a dose of calm or other non-medical reasons, according to the latest numbers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

While street drug use has been declining in recent years, prescription drug abuse has been up since the 1990s. The trend has been most striking in women because unlike with most drugs, which are more commonly abused by men, women are just as likely to abuse prescription drugs, says Susan R.B. Weiss, chief of NIDA’s Science Policy Branch.

Blame what some are calling the superwoman syndrome. Overworked, overwhelmed and overscheduled women juggling families, friends and careers are turning to stimulants, painkillers and anti-anxiety meds to help launch them through endless to-do lists.

“Women load their lives with so much that they get in over their heads, and some turn to prescription pills to cope,” says Talia Witkowski, a psychologist in Los Angeles.

Witkowski, 30, began abusing her prescription attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs in high school, and has been clean for three years.

“For many women, even those whom you would never suspect, pills offer an escape,” she says. But what many women don’t realize is that they are conducting a dangerous experiment on their health and their mind.

Start of a secret addiction
After graduating from the Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University in 1999, Laurie Besden felt overwhelmed by the pressure to pass the bar. So she stole a box of Vicoprofen, which contains the narcotic painkiller hydrocodone, from her ex-boyfriend’s father’s house and popped two pills. She had heard the medication could offer a burst of energy and ability to focus.

“I had energy to study for 12 hours and then clean the house like a superwoman,” recalls the 35 year old from Plymouth Meeting, Penn. Eventually, her two-a-day habit grew to 20 a day.

After she passed the bar, she tried to quit, but couldn’t. “If I didn’t take them, I was going to be sick,” she says. “I needed the pills to get out of bed so my heart wouldn’t go into palpitations.”

Then she started a prestigious — and demanding — clerkship, and realized she was completely dependent on her secret stash of pills to get through the day.

For years, she hid this addiction from her friends and family. She no longer even tried to imagine life without her little helpers. Then her source — a doctor who prescribed these pills for any phony condition — had his medical license revoked. Besden figured out how to call in her own prescriptions, using false names and impersonating doctors.

In 2002, she was arrested for the first of what would be five times before she was convicted in 2004 for prescription fraud and jailed for almost a year.

Pills all around
Abuse of prescription drugs has risen right along with increases in the number of prescriptions for stimulants and painkillers seen since the early ’90s, experts note. According to IMS Health, a research firm that tracks prescription use, the use of stimulants has nearly tripled over the past decade.

And as the drugs have become more commonplace, our attitude has become increasingly cavalier. After all, a kid can be given an amphetamine for ADHD, couldn’t Mom benefit from a little extra focus, too?

“Many people may not consider what they’re doing abuse because they’re using a prescribed drug,” says Weiss, of NIDA. “Many of these medications are being taken as performance-enhancers.”

What’s more, studies have found that women are more likely to be prescribed an abusable prescription drug, especially narcotics and anti-anxiety drugs. “Not surprisingly, availability increases use patterns,” Weiss says.

Women aren’t just abusing their own prescriptions; they’re also dipping into friends’ supplies. In one survey, 29 percent of  U.S. women admitted to sharing or borrowing somebody else’s prescription drugs in their lifetime. This study, published in the Journal of Women’s Health, found the rate of borrowing was highest among women ages 18 to 44.

That stat is backed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which found that the main source of prescription drugs among non-medical users — a whopping 56 percent — was free drugs from friends and family.

The most commonly abused pills are opiod painkillers, stimulants and central nervous depressants, generally used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders. But these drugs are used for specific brain chemical imbalances, and if you are healthy, you risk tweaking your brain’s natural abilities to sleep, focus and calm down.

These pills can also undermine your confidence if you begin relying on a pill versus your own strengths and capabilities to get through the day, Weiss says.

Popping too many pills also can trigger an irregular heartbeat and lead to cardiac arrest — and even death. In fact, there’s been an exponential rise in the number of unintentional drug poisoning deaths, which spiked nationwide by more than 68 percent between 1999 and 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accidental overdose often happens when users build up tolerance to the drugs and must take more and more for the same effect.

Another big worry is that these pills can interact with many other common medications. When combined with over-the-counter cold medicine, for instance, stimulants can drive up blood pressure to dangerously high levels.

But the potential for addiction is the most serious consequence, experts warn.

At age 15, Witkowski, the Los Angeles psychologist, started abusing medications including the Ritalin she’d been prescribed. Once she got into college, she began experimenting with other drugs. “I knew I was living a lie, but I couldn’t stop,” she says.  Finally she got help from a treatment program called Heal Your Hunger.

As Witkowski learned, addicts can recover, especially under the guidance of a therapist or program that specializes in addiction.

“An addiction specialist will be able to offer a solid assessment on how much control the addict has lost and what treatment plan is best,” says Dr. Ken Thompson, medical director of Caron, an alcohol and drug addiction treatment center headquartered in Wernersville, Penn. He advises women pursue gender-specific treatment.

“Women often have different motivations than men in abusing prescription drugs, and by being in a women’s-specific program, they’re able to deal with those reasons more effectively,” he says.

A true addiction is a lifelong struggle  ”This doesn’t mean they’re always going to suffer or be miserable, but they will have to pay attention to their recovery and do things to support staying clean,” Thompson says. At Caron, for instance, addicted women who are in the process of healing are encouraged to eat healthy, exercise, relax and do mind-body activities like yoga.

Dr. Harold C. Urschel III, co-founder of Enterhealth, an addiction recovery program in Dallas, says these are the same strategies he recommends all women follow, especially if they’re turning to a pill to relieve stress or anxiety, even just once. “You’re cheating yourself when you use a pill,” he says.

That’s a message Besden has come to accept, especially in jail, which she says saved her life. “I was forced to get clean, something I didn’t think would happen until I died,” she says. After jail, she sought treatment at Caron where she learned how to live without drugs. Since then she’s been rebuilding her life.

Clean now for six years, Besden’s had her license to practice law in Pennsylvania reinstated. She’s a working attorney in civil law who finds satisfaction in every day activities — like swimming, hanging out with her dog Marcus and helping other lawyers recover from addiction. 

Yet she’s also an addict in recovery, attending five support meetings weekly and touching base with her sponsor, and hopes she can inspire other women who have a secret addiction to get help. “Getting clean was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she says, “but getting clean and maintaining my sobriety is by far the biggest accomplishment of my life.”

Karen Asp, a freelance journalist who specializes in fitness, health and nutrition, is a contributing editor for Woman’s Day and writes regularly for Self, Prevention, Real Simple, Women’s Health, Shape and Men’s Fitness.  

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35526012/ns/health-behavior/

Friday, August 28, 2009 7:11 AM

By Newsweek

By Michelle Allison

Let’s start with this: I identify as fat because, well, I’m fat, and also because I don’t think being fat is necessarily a bad thing─it’s just a thing.

But calling myself a nutritionist feels like a fantastic act of audacity. I’m still technically a student, though I’ve completed the work core to my nutrition degree and am now taking a psychology minor.

I initially got interested in nutrition by going on a diet to lose weight when I was 21. I did it to feel better about myself, because I hated my body, hated being fat. What I told everyone, naturally, was that I was losing weight for the good of my health.

Except I didn’t get healthy. I was constantly injured from overexercising, and I came down with a virus that developed into really nasty pneumonia that I couldn’t seem to shake.

What kept me on the diet was the intoxicating sense that, for the first time in my life, I was following the rules. I was doing it right. I was compliant. I was a model eater and exerciser. My habits were above reproach.

In the end, I lost 30 pounds and gained a bunch of disorder behaviors. And I hated my body more intensely than before.

I knew that wasn’t how it was supposed to work─you were supposed to lose weight and feel great about yourself and be healthy.

But when I asked all of my dieting friends, no one could give me an answer. We were all so focused on eating the right number of calories and getting the right amount of exercise that no one had managed to figure this part out yet─how to actually be healthy? How to stop hating yourself?

Around this time, I stumbled onto fat acceptance and Health at Every Size.

In a nutshell, fat acceptance is the idea that human bodies naturally come in a range shapes and sizes, and that being fat is not necessarily pathological. It recognizes that there is a strong prejudice in our culture against fat people, resulting in yet another form of appearance-based discrimination─which is morally wrong, and requires a political response.

Health at Every Size is complementary to fat acceptance─it’s the belief that people can do positive things for their health (like eat well and exercise) in a positive, compassionate, nonpunishing way, without pursuing weight loss, and that even fat people can be healthy by all other objective measures. It’s the belief that self-acceptance, whatever your size, is good for you─especially when combined with other health-promoting behaviors.

After discovering these things, I decided to make nutrition my profession, and no one has ever questioned my credibility or competence based on my body size.

Even when I worked in one of the more traditional areas of nutrition practice, diabetes, my superiors never seemed bothered by my weight. I was hired even after competing against thin applicants, after all. And I believe my presence in the diabetes clinic as a nice-looking, intelligent fat lady, often with doughnut in hand, was perhaps comforting to patients, and deeply subversive to the notion of “nutrition equals weight control.”

I think people assume nutritionists all eat “perfectly.” Well, I don’t, and I don’t know any dietitians, even thin ones, who do. I’ve been lucky to work with dietitians who have all loved food and would never turn down a homemade brownie.

As for myself, I’m genuinely positive about food and my body. I’m no longer at war with either one.

When I stopped dieting, it was extremely difficult to relearn “normal” eating. I read a lot of books and struggled on my own for five years. In the end, it was a dietitian who practiced Health at Every Size who taught me how. I learned to eat lovely, nourishing food without worry and stress, and my weight finally settled into a stable, happy place.

Four years after being her client, I’m still doing well, and I want to help other people the way she helped me, now that I have the education and experience to do so.

I’ve done some hard thinking about what it means to be healthy. First, I learned to separate a person’s state of health from their value as a human being. Second, I stopped seeing healthiness as an end in itself, or as a reward for good behavior.

Instead, I now define health as a combination of the cards you’ve been dealt, and the way you choose to play them. Even if you’re dealt a s–tty hand that can’t be changed, you can still play your cards well enough to enjoy a meaningful life.

Acceptance─that is, learning to accept the things you cannot change─is key to health. This philosophy is embodied by the Serenity Prayer, by Jean-Paul Sartre’s concepts of facticity and transcendence, by mindfulness theories, and, lastly, by fat acceptance and Health at Every Size.

─Allison blogs at The Fat Nutritionist.

In the study on mice corroles, the Israel-US team was able to shrink breast cancer tumors at doses five times lower than standard chemo treatments (based on a drug called doxorubicin). Also, the corroles could be injected straight into the bloodstream and not into the tumor, making the treatment, if developed clinically, easier to administer.

 By Karin Kloosterman, Israel 21C,  June 10, 2009

With the alarming incidence of breast cancer in America — one in eight women can expect to get it sometime in their life — new solutions for women, their mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters and friends, cannot come fast enough.
An Israeli-American research team has stumbled onto a new and interesting find – a non-radiation based therapy that may provide relief for an aggressive and hard to treat breast cancer cell known as HER2+, but which could also have wider applications for treating all kinds of cancer.
Breast cancer alone is the most common form of cancer among US women, and the second leading cause of death after lung cancer. About 200,000 women in the US alone had breast cancer in 2008, and about 40,000 will die from it each year.
Prof. Zeev Gross, from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has played no small role in the new research paper that shows positive results for the new non-radiation based therapy based on the chemical compound gallium corroles.
Published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Israel-US team, including scientists from the California Institute of Technology and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, were able to show positive pre-clinical results on the new treatment that homes in on HER2+.

Using a new-to-science organic chemical called a corrole, described about 10 years ago, Gross was able to develop a powerful method that synthesizes these chemicals for practical use in medicine. From being able to make a couple of milligrams in two years, Gross’ team could produce two grams in two days.
Lights up and kills cancer
The beauty of the new chemical compound, waiting for an investment in order to go to clinical trials, is that it not only works in diagnostics, lighting up and showing doctors where the cancer cells are, it is also somehow able to kill the cancer at the same time. Gross has also found it works for treating arterial sclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which leads to heart disease.
“We started in cancer wanting to take advantage of a property of this compound,” Gross tells ISRAEL21c. “They are highly florescent and we wanted to use them to detect cancer. We found at the cellular level [gallium corroles were] useful for imaging, but also found it could kill cancer with high specificity and could be an alternative to chemotherapy.
“We were surprised,” he continues. “It could be used for selective killing of cancer cells. Focusing on breast cancer cells, our collaborators developed a vector, a virus based gene delivery protein, and we said let’s use it for corroles.”
Testing this idea, the researchers were pleased to see the dual effects of this chemical. Gross explains: “In most cases, if people want to get a closer look at a drug in vivo, they have to attach a fluorescent probe to it – and that turns it into a different molecule.
“But in our case, the active molecule we’re tracking does the fluorescing. We get to track the original, unmodified molecule and are hence able to follow its distribution among different organs in live animals.”
Fewer side effects than chemotherapy
In the new study the international team combined a gallium corrole with a protein carrier so that the corrole would show an affinity to cancer cells. According to the researchers, when tried on mice with breast cancer, it became a targeted cancer therapy able to both detect and eliminate tumors in mice. They report fewer side effects compared to other breast cancer treatments.
Corroles are similar in structure to porphyrin molecules used today in a well-researched cancer treatment called photodynamic therapy, or PDT. Porphyrin compounds are injected into the body and are then exposed to specific wavelengths of laser light. The light causes the porphyrins to create tumor-killing oxygen radicals.
The difference between porphyrins and the team’s corroles, explain researchers, is that corroles don’t need laser light to be activated, in effect it’s killing “cancer cells in the dark,” they say.
In the study on mice corroles, the Israel-US team was able to shrink breast cancer tumors at doses five times lower than standard chemo treatments (based on a drug called doxorubicin). Also, the corroles could be injected straight into the bloodstream and not into the tumor, making the treatment, if developed clinically, easier to administer.
“Using lower concentrations means less toxicity. Doxorubicin tends to have significant heart toxicity; this therapy seems likely to be much less damaging to the heart,” Daniel Farkas, a co-researcher in the study and the director of Cedar-Sinai’s Minimally Invasive Surgical Technologies Institute tells ISRAEL21c.
Putting statins out of business?
But the Israeli team finds it could work in heart disease as well: iron corroles are also able to provide reversal effects of arterial sclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, says Gross. With a different mode of action than gallium corroles, “We took mice prone to develop arterial sclerosis and treated them with the same family of compounds. It’s a very potent antioxidant,” he says. “It’s interfering with the process causing arterial sclerosis.”
“We already know about green tea, red wine, or pomegranate,” he explains, noting that his innovation is better than natural antioxidants that at same stage can also attack vital biomolecules. The therapy was shown to work in successful pre-clinical studies, while the medicinal value of corroles, says Gross, was something his Technion lab initiated 10 years ago.
“We discovered how to synthesize corroles and are the main people pushing forward the fundamentals science,” says Gross, noting the applications are wide and three-fold in catalysis, in medicine, and in renewable energy.
The Technion lab’s senior scientist Dr. Atif Mahammed, an Israeli Arab is “a leading figure in this whole project,” says Gross, who says his lab is also enriched with a team of gifted scientists from the former Soviet Union.
Funding for the research was provided by the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, the National Science Foundation in the US, the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Defense, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the Donna and Jesse Garber Award, the Gurwin Foundation, and the US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

© 2001-2008 ISRAEL21c.org. All rights reserved.

Arts and Crafts group at Yad Sarah provides crucial social and emotional support

Press Release, Yad Sarah, February 8, 2009

(Jerusalem, Israel) For some, it happened in a moment. For others, it progressed over a period of years. All were once active and productive citizens. Today, their deficits in motor and language skills interfere with their ability to function in society. So they all come to Yad Sarah several times per week for a comprehensive, holistic approach to rehabilitation therapy. Besides the standard clinical services such as occupational, physical, and speech therapy, there are additional programs to provide the crucial social and emotional supports. An integral part of this program is the Arts and Crafts workshop. Every Monday morning the participants get three hours of recreation, therapy, and socialization. But that’s not all they get. “Coming to Yad Sarah gives them joy and purpose in life,” says Devorah Zwick, a volunteer at the program.

The group consists of about 15 women with varying degrees of neurological disabilities, brought on by strokes, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or various other disorders. They all have difficulties with fine motor and communication skills. According to speech pathologist Elana Kravitz, who was trained in New York and immigrated to Israel, “Their weaknesses in communication skills may vary from mild difficulties with verbal recall and verbal synthesis to more severe dysarthrias, apraxias, and aphasias.” That is, many have difficulty, producing coherent and intelligible speech, though their cognitive skills are usually age appropriate. Though the women are also receiving clinical services from occupational and speech therapists, the arts and crafts program provides them with additional opportunities to improve visual motor coordination and fine motor skills in a recreational and social setting. The latter also provides significant emotional support and mental health benefits. According to Irit Nahaloni, Director of the Day Rehabilitation Center, “Their participation in community activities is important. Instead of staying home with minimal socialization, the women have become part of an active community. Their ability to produce something that is creative and useful improves their feelings of self-worth. Their participation in community activities helps them realize that they can still be productive and their social life isn’t over yet.”

The instructor for the class is Beverly Marcus, a retired art teacher who immigrated to Israel three years ago from New Jersey. Beverly took a tour of the Yad Sarah facilities and was impressed by the myriad of services provided to the community. At the time, Irit was looking for an experienced art teacher who might be able to provide long term service. It was a match made in Heaven. “I’m very proud to be a part of this community of volunteers that contributes so much to Israeli society. There is immense gratification from the appreciation and progress demonstrated by the participants in the group,” noted Beverly.

Another instructor in the class is Louzia Krishevsky, a young woman who is fulfilling her requirements for national civil service. Louzia noted that there is an emphasis on producing attractive and useful items that can be used in the home or given as gifts to children and grandchildren. These may include items such as trivets, picture frames, embroidery, note holders, and serving trays. “Seeing their creative work put to practical use, helps to promote their self-esteem because they realize that they can still be productive and appreciated,” Louzia observed. Irit, who has been involved with the program since its inception over 15 years ago, added that that some of the future products may be sold in the Yad Sarah gift shop so to give the participants an increased sense of gratification by contributing to Yad Sarah as well. Irit aslos observed that, “The social networks and friendships that the participants have established also provides further encouragement to get out of the home and into social environments that provide even more opportunities to improve their communication, motor skills, and emotional well-being.” Yad Sarah assists in these endeavors as well by providing transportation and mobility services to those that need them.

Devorah Zwick, a volunteer who divides her time between New York and Jerusalem, explained how the projects are completed, “They usually work on two projects in each session because it may take time for glue or paint to dry. Each project can be completed in one or two sessions. The projects use common materials and don’t require sophisticated skills. We provide them with guidance and assistance, according to their individual needs, but we don‘t do the project for them, they do it themselves.” Devorah, who has a background in commercial art and jewelry design, emphasized that she enjoys volunteering in the program because it also provides her with self-satisfaction, “These women really appreciate what we’re doing for them and are grateful for the interactions. They appreciate the patience and understanding that we extend to them, that they may not get elsewhere. I enjoy interacting with them as well. Since their cognitive abilities are basically intact, they’re eager to tell their stories, and I enjoy listening to them. Despite their disabilities, they have a lot to offer. We all benefit, it’s fun and stimulating.” Irit added, “This program has been active for a long time. The longevity of the program, the devotion of the numerous volunteers that have been involved, and the persistence of the participants, attests to its success. We’re very proud of it.” Though the participants may not be able to speak well, the expression on their faces is enough to show that they agree.

Exercising 30 to 60 minutes a day may offer needed protection, experts say.

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay Reporter, November 2, 2008

SUNDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) — Obesity can wreck a person’s health for many reasons. But for women, too much weight tacks on an additional danger: Studies have linked obesity and breast cancer in a variety of ways.

Doctors aren’t sure why this link exists and are trying to figure out what ties weight gain to breast cancer. But they are more and more convinced the link is there, and they are urging women to watch their weight and increase their exercise to help stave off what is the most common cancer among females, nonmelanoma skin cancer aside.

“There are a lot of factors we need to figure out,” said Dr. Jennifer A. Ligibel, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “There are a lot of things we don’t know.”

An estimated 182,500 women in the United States will be found to have invasive breast cancer in 2008, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 40,480 women will die from the disease this year. Currently, there are about 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

Studies have found that, in general, obesity is linked to cancer. The higher a person’s body-mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height), the more likely she or he will develop cancer, according to recent research by scientists at the University of Manchester in England. Other studies have found similar links to increased body fat.

Still other studies have found that women with breast cancer are more likely to live shorter lives and suffer a recurrence of their cancer if they are overweight.

For example, in a recent study conducted at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, more than two-thirds of women with stage III locally advanced breast cancer were either overweight or obese. The study also found that a greater proportion of obese patients were likely to be diagnosed with a rare and more deadly form of breast cancer, known as inflammatory breast cancer.

Scientists vary in their opinions on why this link exists, and what it means.

Some believe that obesity may make tumors harder to detect, so a woman’s breast cancer will be further developed before it is discovered.

“It could be because there’s more breast tissue, a lump would be less evident,” Ligibel said.

Researchers also believe that the systemic effects of obesity might do something to spur cancer on. For example, obesity or overweight can lead to fluctuations in hormone levels in the body.

“When women are heavier, their estrogen levels are higher,” Ligibel said. “That could be a pathway through which weight affects breast cancer. Other studies have shown that when insulin levels are high, there’s more chance a cancer will come back.”

Another link to obesity was found in a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that showed that obese women are more likely to skip screenings for breast and cervical cancer. Without those screenings, women are less likely to catch breast cancer at a more treatable stage.

Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecologic cancer at the American Cancer Society, said it’s not completely clear what role obesity plays in breast cancer risk.

“For obesity, which is independent of breast size, I would think two factors would come into play,” Saslow said. “One, a positive, is that the breasts may be fattier, which would make a mammogram easier to read. The second, a negative, is indirect: Obese women are less likely to go to a doctor.”

Menopause appears to be a critical time, Ligibel said. Obesity creates a greater risk for breast cancer post-menopause, while pre-menopausal women actually have a reduced risk.

“Gaining weight around the time of menopause is a risk factor in developing breast cancer,” Ligibel said.

The increased risk of developing breast cancer and dying of it after menopause is believed due to increased levels of estrogen in obese women, said Colleen Doyle, director of nutrition and physical activity with the American Cancer Society.

There is good news. Studies have shown that exercise — 30 minutes to 60 minutes a day of moderate-to-high intensity physical activity — decreases breast cancer risk, Doyle said.

“Physical activity reduces breast cancer risk both directly, by decreasing circulating estrogens, and also indirectly, by helping with weight control,” she said. “Women are so concerned about breast cancer risk. Communicating that there are key things you can do to reduce risk — watch your weight and be more active — are valuable messages.”

Ligibel agreed, noting that exercise might be valuable enough to counteract the strain on the body caused by obesity.

“You might not need to lose weight if you exercise,” Ligibel said. “Exercise could affect the hormone levels and help keep cancer from occurring or recurring.”

(SOURCES: Jennifer A. Ligibel, M.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; Debbie Saslow, Ph.D., director of breast and gynecologic cancer, American Cancer Society, Atlanta; Colleen Doyle, M.S., R.D., director of nutrition and physical activity, American Cancer Society, Atlanta)

More information

To learn more visit the American Cancer Society.

Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

HealthDayNews articles are derived from various sources and do not reflect federal policy. healthfinder.gov does not endorse opinions, products, or services that may appear in news stories. For more information on health topics in the news, visit Health News on healthfinder.gov.

Cigarette Smoke May Enhance HPV And Increase Risk Of Cervical Cancer

New research suggests a direct interaction between cigarette smoke carcinogens and the human papillomavirus that may lead to increased risk of cervical cancer.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2008) — For the first time researchers from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine suggest a direct interaction between cigarette smoke carcinogens and the human papillomavirus that may lead to increased risk of cervical cancer. They report their findings in the January 2008 issue of the Journal of Virology.

Cervical cancer is the third leading cancer type in women worldwide. Over 90% of the cases presented have been linked to human papillomavirus (HPV). Many women unknowingly carry HPV and the virus naturally regresses on its own over time. HPV will only progress into cervical cancer in a small percentage of women, but past studies have proposed cigarette smoking to be a likely influence.

HPV types 16, 18, and 31 are the most commonly associated with cervical cancer. In the study researchers detected benzopyrene (BaP), a major carcinogen in cigarette smoke, in the cervical mucus and tested its interaction with HPV. Levels of HPV type 31 increased by 10-fold following exposure to high concentrations of the BaP carcinogen. Levels of HPV types 16 and 18 were also elevated after exposure to BaP.

“Overall, BaP modulation of the HPV life cycle could potentially enhance viral persistence, host tissue carcinogenesis, and permissiveness for cancer progression,” say the researchers.

Reference: S. Alam, M.J. Conway, H.S. Chen, C. Meyers. 2008. The cigarette smoke carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene enhances human papillomavirus synthesis. Journal of Virology, 82. 2: 1053-1058.

Adapted from materials provided by American Society for Microbiology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Reprinted from Science Daily

From HealthNewsDigest.com, Dec 24, 2007

Top Five Women’s Health Stories of 2007 as Selected by the Society for Women’s Health Research

(HealthNewsDigest.com) – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Society for Women’s Health Research announced its top five women’s health stories of 2007 today. The list covers advances of particular interest to women and new sex-specific treatments.
“The medical news in 2007 show how important it is that researchers continue to focus on women’s health and sex differences,” said Phyllis Greenberger, M.S.W, president and CEO of the Society for Women’s Health Research, a Washington, D.C., based advocacy organization. “We applaud the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation for forging a national consensus on ovarian cancer symptoms. And we commend cardiologists working to answer questions about sex differences in heart disease. We look forward to more advances in 2008.”
The top women’s health stories of 2007 as determined by the Society for Women’s Health Research are:
1. First Consensus on Ovarian Cancer Symptoms
The Gynecologic Cancer Foundation (GCF) announced in June the first national consensus on ovarian cancer symptoms. Ovarian cancer has been long considered a silent killer because of the perceived lack of warning signs. According to GCF, ovarian cancer is the fifth deadliest cancer among U.S. women killing 15,000 annually. There is a 90 percent cure rate when women are diagnosed in Stage I of the disease. The announcement and promotion of the consensus statement should lead to earlier diagnosis and earlier intervention for many women.

2. Technology Advances Aid Fight against Breast Cancer
The FDA approved in February a molecular test that determines the likelihood of breast cancer returning within five to 10 years after a woman’s initial cancer. In August, research was published noting that magnetic resonance imaging enables radiologists to better identify tumors missed by mammography and ultrasound in women at high-risk for breast cancer. These developments underscore the growing role advanced medical technology is playing in the fight against breast cancer.
3. Mounting Evidence of Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease
Women with heart disease are 50 percent more likely to die from it than men with the disease. More women than men suffer from small vessel heart disease. More women than men are having a stroke in middle life. Women have a poorer quality of life after a stroke than men. These are just a few of the headlines from 2007 that confirm great differences in cardiovascular disease between the sexes. Scientists are just now beginning to understand these differences and treatments to account for them have generally not yet been developed, underscoring the need for greater research support.
4. Improved Model Predicts Breast Cancer Risk in African-American Women
National Cancer Institute researchers have developed a new model for calculating invasive breast cancer risk that has been found to give better estimates of the number of breast cancers that would develop in African American women 50 to 79 years of age than an earlier model which was based primarily on data from white women. This is a great advance because earlier models likely underestimated breast cancer risk in African American women. As a result they might not have received counseling about actions they could take to reduce their risk. The new model, called the CARE model, was unveiled in November.
5. Young Girls’ Obesity Rates Rising
Four-year-old girls are six times more likely to have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more than they were 20 years ago, according to research published in April. A BMI of 30 and over is considered obese by the National Institutes of Health. The findings point to recent changes in children’s environment and lifestyles, which merits monitoring, further research and action, given the health risks associated with adulthood obesity such as increased risks for cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes.

Source: www.HealthNewsDigest.com

Those of childbearing age risk neural tube defects in babies without it, study says

THURSDAY, May 10 (HealthDay News) — There are racial and ethnic differences among U.S. women of childbearing age in the intake of folic acid, which can prevent serious neural tube defects that affect the brain and spinal cord.

That finding is published in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires moderate folic acid (folate) supplementation of enriched cereal-grain products, most women of childbearing age don’t get the recommended 400 milligrams of folic acid a day, the study noted.

Researchers analyzed data on 1,685 women, ages 15 to 49, who took part in the 2001-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Of those women, 69.9 percent were non-Hispanic white, 13.5 percent were non-Hispanic black, and 17 percent were Hispanic.

Overall, the women consumed an average of 221 milligrams of folic acid a day from fortified foods and diet supplements, and an additional 151 milligrams a day from naturally occurring folic acid in foods, such as dark, leafy vegetables.

The study found that 40.5 percent of non-Hispanic white women, 21 percent of Hispanic women, and 19.1 percent of non-Hispanic black women got 400 milligrams or more of folic acid a day from all sources.

Among the women who did get the recommended amount of folic acid, 76 percent consumed folic acid supplements. Supplement use was lower among non-Hispanic black women and Hispanic women than among non-Hispanic white women.

These findings may help explain why non-Hispanic black women have a higher risk of having babies with neural tube defects, the study authors said.

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more about folic acid.

(SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, news release, May 10, 2007)

In the fight against breast cancer, researchers are discovering the benefits of regular exercise before and after the dreadful diagnosis

By Carolyn M. Kaelin, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S., and Francesca Coltrera

Newsweek, March 26, 2007 Issue

 Four times a week, Anne Rinn, 28, a psychology professor in Bowling Green, Ky., whose mother died of breast cancer, goes to kickboxing, aerobics or Pilates classes. Liz Usborne, a 64-year-old breast-cancer survivor, lobs tennis balls over the net and circuit-trains at a women’s gym near her home in Bonita, Calif. The thread binding them? Concern about getting—or surviving and thriving after—breast cancer.

The American Cancer Society estimates that this year, 241,000 women will learn they have breast cancer and 40,000 women will die of it. Fortunately, a growing list of effective therapies developed during the past decade has helped extend lives, one reason that deaths from breast cancer have been dropping slowly since 1990. Living among us are more than 2 million women who have undergone breast-cancer treatments.

Modern miracle drugs like Tamoxifen and Raloxifene routinely cut risk for breast cancer in women whose medical histories or genes make them especially vulnerable to it. But reams of research also suggest that exercise—an activity as old as the human race—substantially reduces the odds of ever getting the disease, lengthens survival and considerably enhances quality of life for women with breast cancer.

Scientists don’t completely understand why exercise is so important, but they’re actively looking for answers. Roughly two thirds of all breast cancers are considered estrogen-positive; that means that the hormone estrogen fuels their growth. The rest are estrogen-negative. Many experts believe regular exercise lowers the amount of estrogen circulating through the body in the bloodstream. So for certain types of breast cancer, less estrogen equals less fuel. Exercise also pares off hormonally active fat tissue. Fat manufactures a substance called Aromatase that converts hormones known as androgens to estrogen. After menopause, when the ovaries stop cranking out high levels of estrogen, this hormonal cascade becomes the major source of estrogen in a woman’s body.

Recently two large, carefully designed studies suggested exercise may work through more than just hormonal mechanisms linked to estrogen. In a study published last month in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers speculated that exercise might affect tumor aggressiveness. The researchers found that long-term moderate or strenuous activity over a lifetime cut risk for developing estrogen-negative invasive breast cancers (though not estrogen-positive cancers). Since fewer therapies are effective against estrogen-negative cancers, that’s heartening news. Some earlier research on exercise suggests it lowers risk for estrogen-positive cancers, too. Scientists are also looking beyond estrogen at the effects exercise has on insulin, Leptin and certain growth factors.

Regular exercise early in life, particularly around puberty, and exercise vigorous enough to suppress other reproductive hormones may make a difference, too. A 2005 multicenter study on lifetime activity matched more than 4,000 white and black breast-cancer survivors with controls. Researchers found a 20 percent decrease in breast-cancer risk for the most versus least active women.

After a woman is diagnosed, exercise can dramatically lengthen survival and lower the odds of another tumor. For up to 14 years, the Nurses’ Health Study tracked nearly 3,000 participants diagnosed with breast cancer. Researchers found that recurrence rates and deaths from breast cancer (and from all causes) dipped 26 to 40 percent among those who exercised most, compared with their sedentary peers. Brisk walking or equivalent energy-burning activity for three to five hours a week—about 30 minutes a day—netted the biggest benefits. But even being active for one to three hours a week reduced risk to some degree.

Excess pounds lower the likelihood of survival after breast cancer. But for many women, maintaining a healthy weight is often a struggle, especially during treatment. Chemotherapy or radiation can make women feel too tired to exercise. Steroids given to help ease certain side effects of chemotherapy prompt a ravenous appetite. Nausea can lead to almost continuous nibbling of comfort foods to settle queasy stomachs. Some anticancer medications that work by tampering with hormones may have a hand in weight gain, too. One such hormonal drug is Tamoxifen, which keeps estrogen from entering breast cells by blocking receptors atop the cells that allow access. Studies have yet to confirm a connection, but many women on Tamoxifen complain of watching the scale inch upward. No matter what the root cause is for weight gain, exercise of all sorts helps burn calories. And paradoxically, for those who feel too wiped out to fit exercise in, some evidence shows light to moderate activities may actually alleviate treatment-induced fatigue.

Doctors once believed upper-body resistance training was apt to trigger the chronic swelling and discomfort of Lymphedema in women treated for breast cancer. Lymph is a thin, milky fluid that collects in spaces between cells. Carry-ing germ-battling immune cells, it seeps through a lacy network of channels in the body before draining into the circulatory system. Lymphedema occurs when lymph backs up, often in an arm or sometimes in the torso, after surgery or radiation alters lymph channels. Several recent studies suggest that a gradual approach and proper precautions make resistance training unlikely to raise the risk of developing Lymphedema or worsening it if it already exists.

That’s important news. Resistance training helps reverse the muscle loss and fat gain called Sarcopenia that often follows chemo-therapy and hormonal therapy. It’s helpful in other ways, too. Osteoporosis, which sets the stage for life-altering bone fractures, may be hastened by certain anticancer treatments. Chemo-therapy, for example, sometimes pushes women into early menopause by pre-maturely shutting down their ovaries. Since estrogen helps protects bones, losing it speeds bone-thinning, particularly in the spine and hips, which are especially vulnerable to fractures. Also known to contribute to osteoporosis is a class of breast-cancer drugs called aromatase inhibitors that cut off the most plentiful supply of estrogen after menopause by interrupting the process that converts androgens into estrogen. Resistance training slows bone loss and may even strengthen bones.

Quality of life counts, too. In clinical trials, moderate to vigorous exercise programs notched up progressively to 45-minute sessions at least three times a week eased anxiety and depression, enhanced mood and self-esteem, and helped counter fatigue.

Thus far, there are few studies of exercise in women with advanced breast cancer, although early evidence suggests that physical activity offers benefits here, too, such as less fatigue. More rigorous studies investigating links between breast cancer and exercise are underway. Don’t settle back to await developments, though. Rise from your reading and head out for a walk.

Kaelin is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the staff of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She and COLTRERA, a Boston-area medical writer, are coauthors of “The Breast Cancer Survivor’s Fitness Plan” (McGraw-Hill, 2006) and “Living Through Breast Cancer” (McGraw-Hill, 2005). For more information on exercise and breast cancer, go to health.harvard.edu/NEWSWEEK.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17662260/site/newsweek/