Blushing Drinkers Are Prone to Cancer

It was an interesting article posted on the New York Times news service: "People whose faces turn red when they drink alcohol may be facing more than embarrassment. The flushing may indicate an increased risk for a deadly throat cancer, researchers report."

There are other indicators, including nausea and a rapid heartbeat, which may or may not appear in such cases. The problem comes from an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called ALDH2, and can mostly be found in people of East Asian ancestry.

This deficiency results in an inability to metabolize alcohol, which leads to an accumulation in the body of a toxin called acetaldehyde.

Some people have such violent reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. The ironic part is that this reaction actually protects them against the increased risk of cancer since they can't consume too much and become heavy drinkers.

Mary Tyler Moore's Book on Diabetes

I read in USA Today yesterday (March 23, 2009) that Mary Tyler Moore, the actress from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show, has written a book about handling diabetes in her life.

She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 30. The book, Growing Up Again, offers a personal account of living with this disease.

When she first learned she had Type 1, she had a vision of "languishing on a chaise lounge, nibbling chocolates." She soon learned about sticking herself to check her glucose level, and injecting herself with a syringe.

She has now lost a lot of her vision, which means she can't enjoy a lot of her hobbies. But she remains upbeat and courageous.

How to Lower Your Blood Pressure

In Best Life magazine (April 2009), someone wrote into the health column, asking if an orange a day would automatically reduce his blood pressure.

No, replied cardiologist Steven E. Nissen, MD.

But he did offer this advice:

"To lower your blood pressure without (or in addition to) medication, exercise vigorously for 30 minutes a day, lose weight, consume a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, and reduce your salt intake. The last two strategies alone can lower your blood pressure by up to 14 points."

Cancer Victims Helped By New Government Program

This from John Hopkins Medical Letter: Health After 50 (April 2009):

"Social Security benefits are now quicker and easier to get for people who have certain cancers and debilitating diseases. A new program, Compassionate Allowances, speeds up claims processing for people with qualifying conditions. For more information, check the program's website."

Giving to Breast Cancer Research for Broadway Cares

My partner Ruth and I attended the San Francisco performance of "Wicked" yesterday, and we had a blast.

During the curtain call, actor Nicolas Dromard, who plays Fiyero in the play, announced that they were doing several things for Broadway Cares to benefit AIDS and breast cancer research. In addition to the usual t-shirts, etc., they were selling photo opportunities with the two witches, Elphaba and Glinda. Of course, we couldn't pass that up.

So the photo shows me, actress Kendra Kassebaum (Glinda), actress Vicki Noon (Elphaba in green face), and Ruth. I had a hard time pushing into the billowing Glinda dress to get reasonably close to her; it's extremely substantial and weighs a ton, according to one of the stage hands, the one who has to transport Glinda's dresses. But I managed. And it was wonderful to actually meet these performers, still see them in their wonderful costumes.

It's a very cool play if you haven't seen it, and turns the Wizard of Oz myth on its ear in several respects. And you'll be humming the songs when you exit. And if you get a chance, support Broadway Cares in its very worthy causes.

Sleep for Weight Loss

One of our readers sent us the below article. She found it on AOL. Be sure and read the numbered pieces of advice at the end, a prescription for how to set yourself up for more sleep.

We don't want to give the impression that this makeover was effortless; finding time for more sleep does take work. In fact, one of our testers, Natasha Crawford, 33, wasn’t able to stick to the plan for more than two or three nights a week because of a crazy job schedule. But even though she didn’t lose weight, by the end of the plan she had still lost a total of two and a half inches off her waist, bust and hips.

At least two dozen studies have documented that people tend to weigh more if they sleep less, says Sanjay Patel, M.D., a researcher at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. In a 16-year study of almost 70,000 women, Dr. Patel and his colleagues found that those who slept five hours or less a night were 30 percent more likely to gain 30-plus pounds than those who got more rest. In fact, some experts believe lack of sleep is one reason for America’s obesity epidemic. The average woman gets six hours and 40 minutes of sleep most nights, according to the National Sleep Foundation -- much less than the seven-and-a-half-hour minimum our experts say healthy women need.

What exactly is the sleep-weight connection? Science shows that sleep deprivation wreaks havoc on hormones that control appetite, cravings and the metabolism of fat. See how these findings translate to your body.

Whether you notice it or not, you probably eat more, sometimes much more, when you’re tired. Proof: Researchers at the University of Chicago allowed people to sleep five and half hours one night and eight and a half on another, then measured how many free snacks the participants downed the next day. They ate an average of 221 calories more when sleepy -- an amount that could translate into almost a pound of fat gained after two weeks! “When women are deprived of sleep, they have an increase in ghrelin -- what we call the ‘go’ hormone -- because it makes you want to go eat more,” says Breus, clinical director of the sleep division at Southwest Spine & Sport in Scottsdale, Arizona, and author of Beauty Sleep. “They also have a drop in leptin, the ‘stop’ hormone that tells you to stop when you’re full.” Not only do you want more food when you’re sleep-deprived, you also want junkier food: Your body craves simple carbohydrates (chocolate, pastries, candy) that it can break down fast for quick energy, explains Breus. “I used to eat a ton of sugar every afternoon,” "Glamour" volunteer Johnson says. “But now I can have just a small piece and feel satisfied.”

Even before seeing the number on the scale drop much, our testers noticed other changes. Three weeks into the plan, Braverman easily put on a pair of pants that used to be too snug. And at the two-month mark, Hamilton-Romeo told us, “My stomach is getting flatter and my love handles smaller.” By the end of 10 weeks, she’d shaved almost five inches off her waist, hips, bust and thighs -- even though, at 5’4” and 133 pounds, she wasn’t overweight to begin with. The explanation? “During deep sleep, your brain secretes a large amount of growth hormone, which tells your body how to break down fat for fuel,” explains Breus. “Deprive your body of deep sleep, and when extra calories get stored as fat, there isn’t enough growth hormone to break it down. So your body takes a shortcut and packs it away in your butt, thighs, belly -- wherever you tend to put on weight.” Says Braverman, who lost a total of two and a half inches: “The changes in my body fascinate me, because I really haven’t changed anything except my sleep habits. I eat the way I always have and exercise the same amount, maybe even less because my schedule is tighter now that I have to go to bed earlier!”

Perhaps not surprisingly, all of the women on our plan said they felt much less tired. And though we told them not to make any conscious exercise changes, a couple of them couldn’t help themselves. “I’ve always worked out,” Barr told us, “but I’m spending more time at the gym because I finally have the energy!” Says Foley, “I used to have days when I’d want to go home and just veg out on the couch; now I’d rather run or do something physical -- a complete revolution in my lifestyle.” Breus wasn’t surprised. “Your perception of how hard or easy exercise is to do is directly affected by how sleep-deprived you are,” he says.

1. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day.
Write down the time you need to get up in the morning, then count back seven and a half hours. That is the time you need to be in bed. But we're not out to kill all your fun: On Friday or Saturday nights, you can go to bed one or two hours later than usual and sleep in one or two hours the next morning -- as long as you get your required seven and a half hours.

2. Start a bedtime routine.
Create a presleep ritual -- such as light reading, a hot bath, stretching -- beginning somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour before the time you've planned to close your eyes. Pretty soon, your body will start to associate specific actions with relaxation and falling asleep. And turn off your TV, computer, BlackBerry and cell phone before that time begins. "When your brain senses light shining in your eyes, it stimulates the wake response and lowers melatonin, the hormone that cues you to feel drowsy," says Steven Park, M.D., author of "Sleep, Interrupted."

3. Watch your caffeine and alcohol habits.
Don't have any caffeine after 2:30 P.M. (including caffeinated tea and soda), and avoid sipping alcohol three hours before bedtime. Booze may knock you out at first, but it keeps you from getting deep sleep, says Breus. As the sleep-inducing powers wear off, you may even wake up.

4. Experiment with exactly how much sleep you really need.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, some women require as many as nine hours of sleep a night. If you're snoozing seven and a half hours and still can't wake up without your alarm, you need more. Try hitting the sack 15 minutes earlier each night until you reach the perfect time for you -- it may take a week or so before you reach your own ideal sleep number.

What to Say to the Doctor

I was talking to a young friend the other day. She was complaining about various aches she had, and that whenever she went to the doctor she would bring up one and then get sidetracked and forget the others.

Remedy Magazine (Spring 2009) had an article suggesting the best way of approaching that doctor's meeting.

Have an Agenda. Decide what you want to accomplish in your visit. This includes getting to the cause of your various symptoms as well as less urgent concerns, like prescription medication refills.

Prioritize. Write down your complaints or symptoms, then list them from most urgent to least. That way, if you get sidetracked or forget to go down the list, you'll have covered the most important issues.

Know Your Medications. Review your medications -- and why your doctor put you on them -- when you visit the doctor in order to avoid problems and dangerous interactions of the meds. The simplest way to do this is to bring the bottles with you.

Speak Up. If your doctor suggests a treatment plan that will be hard for you to follow, ask for adjustments. Doctors' orders should take in to effect your lifestyle and values. But your doctor won't know unless you tell them.

Early Detection for Cancer

Thanks to a reader for sending me this link to a recent Wired magazine article on early detection of cancer. Our reader says, "It's an interesting piece on how money is being spent to fight cancer and the potential for getting an edge on the disease through better early detection."

Optimists Live Longer than Pessimists

A new study (as reported in today's USA Today, March 12, 2009) suggests that you'll live healthier and longer if you're the glass-is-half-full kind of person.

The study analyzed 100,000 women in the Women's Health Initiative and found that optimists -- women who expected that good things, not bad, would happen -- were 30% less likely to die of heart disease during the course of the study than pessimists.

And "trusting" women were 23% less likely to die of cancer than their "cynically hostile" -- or highly mistrustful -- counterparts.

Which am I? Well, I have always considered myself an optimist but a cautious one. However, I do have friends who say I'm negative about possible outcomes. I mean, when I go to an event, I won't bother trying to seek out the closest parking space but will grab the first one I can as long as it's reasonably near.

I certainly don't see myself as "cynically hostile." Do you see yourself that way?

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, California and the United States.

Getting screened via colonoscopy is the most important thing you can do for yourself in regards to this deadly disease. Do it now, and schedule it regularly (once every 10 years for those at low risk) in concert with your doctor's advice.

MRI Doesn't Reduce Risk for High-Risk Women

This is from the National Breast Cancer Coalition. Basically, they found that surgery on the healthy breast once a woman is found with breast cancer only reduces the risk of cancer from 0.7% to 0.04%, but that women often choose the surgery anyway. And that MRI of the opposite breast in such women has shown no overall survival benefit.

"Many women who are diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast fear that they are at increased risk of getting cancer in their other breast. Actually, the risk of that happening is, on average, 0.7% per year. In recent years, more and more radiologists are doing MRI screenings of the healthy breast in diagnosed women. Is there any benefit of using MRI to look at a woman’s healthy breast when she has been diagnosed with breast cancer? What are the benefits and risks?

"In his presentation, Dr. Tuttle showed that the expanded use of breast MRI among newly diagnosed patients is one of the main factors behind the doubling of contralateral prophylactic mastectomies (removing of the opposite, non-affected breast before breast cancer is found in that breast). Although prophylatic surgery reduced the risk of cancer development in the opposite breast by 95%, it is important to remember that the annual risk was small to begin with. That means that prophylatic surgery reduced the risk from 0.7% to 0.04%. Dr. Tuttle noted that there was no proven survival benefit from such aggressive surgery, but many patients still opted for it.

"In multiple prior studies, researchers found that MRI screening of the opposite breast at the time of initial diagnosis led to a large proportion of women undergoing unnecessary biopsies. Prior research has also shown no overall survival benefit from contralateral prophylactic mastectomies. We are also concerned that prophylactic mastectomies create complications that can delay recommended chemotherapy or radiation. NBCC’s analyses points out that while existing guidelines recommend MRI screening for high-risk women (positive BRCA 1 or 2 mutation), there is no proof that vigilant surveillance and screening save lives.

"No studies have shown that MRI reduces a woman’s risk of dying from breast cancer."

Researchers Find Enzyme Behind Cancer Spreading

This is very exciting news, reported by BBC News. The Institute of Cancer Research scientists have found that an enzyme called LOX is crucial in promoting metastasis, as reported by the Cancer Cell journal.

Drugs to block this enzyme's action could keep cancer at bay.

These results were found in mice, but researchers are confident there is a corollary to humans.

LOX, which stands for lysyl oxidase, sends out signals to prepare a new area of the body for an invasion by cancer cells. If a part of this preparation process were removed, cancer would not grow.

Lead researcher Dr. Janine Erler said, "This new discovery provides real hope that we can develop a drug which will fight the spreading of cancer." She describes the discovery as "the crucial missing piece in the jigsaw that scientists have been searching for."

(The photo to the right shows breast cancer cells.)

Cheese

The University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter (March 2009) sums up the good and bad news about cheese.

Calcium. Like all dairy foods, cheese provides calcium and protein, as well as some vitamin A, B12, riboflavin, zinc and phosphorus. It's also a source of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fat that may have anti-cancer, weight-reducing, and heart-protective effects. However, you'd have to consume a lot of cheese to get meaningful amounts of CLA, which also means you'd also get a lot of saturated fat and calories. Low-fat cheese contains less CLA; nonfat cheese contains none.

For cavity resistance. Cheese may help prevent cavities. In a small study from Turkey last year, people who ate cheese (1/3 ounce) after rinsing with a sugar solution had a rapid decrease in acidity, which lowers the risk of cavities.

For weight loss. Studies here disagree. A new study in Nutrition & Metabolism, funded by the National Dairy Council, suggests that cheese and other dairy foods may help prevent weight gain after dieting. Another study found that regular cheese eaters gained less weight over time than those who ate cheese less often. But other studies, including one from Johns Hopkins in 2008, have found that people who eat more cheese tend to be more overweight.

Cancer connection. This is another debatable topic. A large Swedish study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition a few years ago found a link between cheese (at least 2 ounces a day) and reduced risk of colorectal cancer in women. Other studies have not found this benefit. A few have even linked dairy products, including cheese, to increased prostate and ovarian cancer -- though others have found no such link.

Heart disease. Cheese may not be especially good for your heart, but some research suggests that it may not be so bad for it either, at least when it's part of an overall healthy diet. The Mediterranean diet, which is associated with many health benefits including a lowered risk of cardiovascular disease, allows for moderate amounts of cheese. And dairy foods, including cheese, are an important part of the anti-hypertension DASH diet.

The conclusion: "Think of cheese as a flavor enhancer -- a supporting player in a meal. A thin slice with fruit makes a nice dessert. An ounce or two of cheese, even daily, is reasonable -- as long as you can afford the calories and your diet is not otherwise high in saturated fat."