Over the past few months, several studies have surfaced information on some possible causes and triggers of asthma. These factors could be lurking in our environment, or we could be unwittingly inhaling or consuming them.
Not surprisingly, the big culprits are household chemicals as well as pharmaceutical drugs. (more…)
With the passage of time, Man develops better and safer methods of detecting and diagnosing disease. As long as the profit interests of certain parties do not dominate, it is hopeful that overall progress will be made.
Here, we have news of a promising development with regard to asthma diagnosis - the use of a breath test. Read more about New Technology Could Allow Asthma Diagnosis via Breath Test at Natural Health News Articles.com. (more…)
Asthma is a frightening disease, especially when it hits children. And, if this condition is not properly managed, it is a potentially fatal disease.
The number of asthmatics in the developed world are on the rise. Conventional medicine’s way of dealing with this ailment largely centers around the use of drug medications and inhalers (which are also drugs, taken in via another channel). (more…)
Don’t you just love the feeling of being in amongst nature, enjoying the serenity and fresh air? I most certainly do, and, compared to the polluted and noisy cities, it really feels like a different world altogether.
And it’s not just about feelings, too. There are clear, quantifiable health benefits, as the following studies outline. (more…)
Have you been diagnosed with asthma? Modern medicine is a lot about diagnoses and intervention, mainly in the form of drug medications.
However, have you ever wondered about the accuracy of diagnostic procedures? I’m sure you have. And this Canadian study gives us a sneek peek into the world of asthma diagnosis and treatment. (more…)
Numerous studies have linked obesity or extra weight with a list of various diseases. Now, a recent study has found that, during a car crash, obese or overweight children have double the risk of suffering injuries to their arms, legs and feet, as compared to children in the normal weight range.
The study had looked at a group of boys and girls aged between 9 and 15 years and was published in the December issue of Injury Prevention. (more…)
Recent research has shown that countries whose people bike, walk or take public transport more are less obese. Not exactly rocket science, is it?
The study had covered 17 industrialized nations in Europe, North America and Australia, and it used each nation’s own health and travel data. (more…)
Want to reduce your risk of getting type 2 diabetes? The findings of a recent study have given us two suggestions – watch less television, and spend more time exercising, either via vigorous physical activity, or simply through brisk walking.
This particular study had focused on African-American women, which is a high-risk population for this disease. (more…)
A Brazilian study has found that doing aquarobics during pregnancy helped reduced the amount of pain-killing drugs requested by the women during labor.
The study, which was published in the journal Reproductive Health, looked at 71 pregnant women. Half of the group went through three sessions of aquarobics each week during their pregnancy, with each session lasting 50 minutes. The other half was the control group. (more…)
Pregnant woman who smoke are increasing the risk of their children getting serious cancer later in life.
This was revealed in a study commissioned by the newspaper “The Australian” and carried out by the Cancer Institute in New South Wales. (more…)
Would you allow a car mechanic who does not know how, or does not dare, to fix his own car, to fix yours?
Would you dare to live a house whereby the person who constructed it did not feel it safe enough to step into? (more…)
The role of food, diet and nutrition in the development of chronic and degenerative diseases, including cancer, cannot be overstated. As the saying goes, you are what you eat.
With specific regard to lung cancer, do you know someone, or heard of people, who got the disease despite not having smoked at all? (more…)
I have been seeing some stories lately about how colonoscopy is only effective for detecting cancer in the left side of the colon (i.e. the descending colon), and not the right side of it (i.e. the ascending colon).
What really alarms me is how I have seen several headlines which go ‘colonoscopies only prevents X% of colon cancer’, or something along those lines. (more…)
A study, called the Four-Corners Breast Cancer Study, was carried out to ascertain how specific dietary choices affected breast cancer risk. Women from 4 states in the United States – Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah – were involved in the study.
The dietary habits of breast cancer sufferers were compared with those of randomly selected women. These were obtained through a questionnaire. (more…)
A study has suggested that almost 600,000 out of the 1.6 million women who undergo breast biopsies are in fact going through unnecessary surgical procedures.
This was stated in an article on kdka.com, which was reporting on what was on CBS News. (more…)
A study carried out in Italy has revealed that smoking increases the risk of getting colorectal cancer by about 18%, as well as of dying from the disease by about 25%.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (more…)
Breast cancer patients who use moisturizers, please take note – you may be putting oestrogen into your bodies without even realizing it. In fact, ladies who do not have the disease should take note too.
Dr Adrienne Olson of Breastlink in Hawthorne, California, had analyzed 16 widely available moisturizers and found that, although none of the creams actually stated the presence of any oestrogen content in their ingredients list, 6 of them in fact contained estriol or estrone. (more…)
According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), a long-term study has revealed that workers in the trucking industry who have been regularly exposed to diesel as well as other kinds of vehicle exhaust had heightened risk of getting lung cancer with more years of work.
The study was led by E. Garshick and published in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ journal, Environmental Health Perspectives. It is titled “Lung Cancer and Vehicle Exhaust in Trucking Industry Workers” and examined lung cancer deaths from 1985 to 2000, according to job type in 31,135 Teamsters Union members. (more…)
A recent study has suggested that psychological counseling may boost breast cancer patients’ likelihood of survival.
By undergoing sessions which focused on improving mood, effective coping and altering health behaviors, it seemed the patients’ stress levels were reduced and this helped them to live longer. (more…)
A long-term study conducted by Dutch researchers has linked smoking and drinking to three subtypes of esophageal and stomach cancer.
The study was conducted on almost 121,000 people and spanned about 16 years. Its findings were presented at the annual cancer prevention conference of the American Academy of Cancer Research, held in Washington DC. (more…)
A pre-clinical study conducted by researchers from the Colorado State University has suggested that eating potatoes and beans regularly could help lower the risk of getting breast cancer.
The study will later move on into a clinical trial involving breast cancer survivors. (more…)
A recent study released last year supposedly found that vitamin D does NOT protect against getting breast cancer.
Unfortunately, this is yet another piece of misleading information revealed to the public. A statement from a vitamin D expert which was published on NewsWire.ca explains why. (more…)
Conventional medicine, or, as it is called in the present day, allopathic medicine, had, many decades ago, declared a “war on cancer”. It has been so many years, yet, nothing very much has changed - the savage methods of surgery (cutting), radiation (burning) and chemotherapy (poisoning) are still widely used.
What has changed, is that the rates of people getting cancer are increasing all the time, and the number of people dying from the disease is climbing too. (climbing, or flying?) (more…)
According to a recent study, post-menopausal women who are obese and who have never before used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may have higher risk of getting ovarian cancer, as compared to women who are in the normal-weight range.
This, however, does not seem to apply to obese women who have used HRT for menopausal symptoms – those women did not face heightened risk for ovarian cancer. (more…)
Food on the shelves and even food prepared in restaurants today often contain a compound which makes them taste better than they otherwise would – monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as it is more commonly known as.
“It’s a pretty powerful flavor enhancer. You’re eating a lot of MSG and you probably don’t even realize it. It’s just a baseline across a lot of foods,” said Melanie Pearsall, a nutritionist. (more…)
A study conducted by researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City has found that women who have high blood insulin levels seem to have a higher risk of getting breast cancer, as compared to those with lower blood insulin levels.
This, according to them, might be the reason behind the link between obesity and risk of breast cancer. Previously, an association has already been established between obesity and high blood levels of insulin. (more…)
Welcome to the world of magic beans!
Beans are a great source of nutrients and a wonderful addition to a healthy diet. Studies have shown their many health benefits, including the prevention of diseases like cancer, helping to maintain healthy weight, being high in protein, having good amounts of fiber; furthermore, there is just such a great variety of beans to eat, and they taste great too! (more…)
Exercise is critical for good health.
A study published in the November issue of Cancer Causes and Control has indicated that exercise and physical activity helps to reduce one’s risk of getting colon cancer and rectal cancer. On the flip side, lack of physical activity increases the risk. (more…)
Intuitively as well as scientifically, we have a feel of how stress and diet both play large roles in cancer development. A study published in August 2008 in the International Journal of Oncology has given us some clues of how these two factors may interact to affect cancer risk.
In gist – stress induces certain hormones which promote growth, and this in turn seems to promote the growth of cancer cells. The good news is that we can inhibit this process by eating cruciferous vegetables. (more…)
The use of mobile phones is getting more prevalent by the year. And recent research conducted at Tel Aviv University in Israel has found that heavy users of mobiles phones have a 50% higher risk of getting cancer of the salivary glands.
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology and compared the cell phone use of 500 Israelis with salivary gland tumors to that of 1300 Israelis who did not suffer from the disease. (more…)
With the effectiveness and safety of mammograms coming into question, and even coming under fire, the next issue becomes – what is the alternative for women to turn to? The answer could be thermograms.
Thermograms use heat which radiates from one’s own body to detect problems in the breast, and involve a combination of advanced digital technology as well as ultra-sensitive infrared camera imaging. (more…)
I cringe when I read about long lines of women queuing up to have their annual mammograms. I cringe even more when I read about how they are doing this in a bid to “prevent cancer”, or to attempt to lower their chances of succumbing to the disease.
Soon, all that cringing turns to anger, as it often does when it comes to many aspects of conventional medicine. (more…)
Do conventional diagnostic procedures like X-rays and mammograms actually do their part in causing cancer? Does conventional cancer treatment meddle with cancerous conditions which otherwise might have been successfully dealt with via the body’s own defence mechanisms, without the need for invasive intervention?
My own gut feel to both questions has always been yes, and yes. Now, recent research in Norway seems to indicate so, too. (more…)
Have you ever heard of a substance called noscapine? I would guess not; I have not, either.
Noscapine is said to be a naturally-occurring substance which is a non-addictive derivative of opium. It has been effectively and safely used as a cough suppressant for more than half a century. And recent research carried out on mice has found the natural substance to be effective against advanced prostate cancer. (more…)
Most of the time, I am a harsh critic of many areas of conventional medicine, and in particular, conventional cancer treatment. In fact, how it can pass off as “treatment”, I have no idea.
Bottom line – conventional cancer therapy only concentrates on the tumor. In doing so, it is dealing with the wrong thing, and that explains, in large part, its woeful results. (more…)
Yet another piece of research has linked one’s level of physical activity to the risk of getting cancer. As expected, there is an inverse correlation. And this particular study is said to be the first conducted on a non-Western population.
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology and was carried out at the National Cancer Center and Public Health Center in Japan. (more…)
Smoking plays a huge part in causing lung cancer and other respiratory problems – this is common knowledge. But it also greatly raises the risk of getting bladder cancer, something which most of us are unaware of.
Research at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center looked at information from other studies in the MEDLINE database which had been carried out to find the link between smoking and bladder cancer. Those studies were conducted from 1975 to 2007. (more…)
Cruciferous vegetables are well-lauded for their antioxidant properties and anti-cancer effects. And recent research carried out at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute has further affirmed the latter.
Two separate studies were recently reported, one of which was conducted on rats, which have shown the ability of these vegetables to fight bladder cancer. (more…)
The effects of exercise against cancer are multi-faceted. It can prevent the disease, slow its development, improve recovery from it, as well as prevent it from resurfacing.
How does exercise fight cancer? There are several ways in which the link could be down to. (more…)
A molecule introduced into the body when one consumes red meat or milk could trigger a state of chronic inflammation in one’s body, a situation which then increases the likelihood of cancer developing.
The said molecule is N-glycolylneuraminic acid, or Neu5Gc for short. (more…)
Consumption of red meats and processed meats has long been linked to colorectal cancer.
Now, recent research which was reported in Cancer Research has given an indication that these foods might also cause small intestine cancer, a disease which has been on the rise since the 1970s. (more…)
A recent study at the University College London has found that stress raises the risk of heart problems, including heart attack, by steering people toward undesirable lifestyle habits.
Published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the study had tracked 6,576 participants of the Scottish Health Study for a period of 7 years. (more…)
According to recent research at the Stony Brook University Cancer Center, Avastin, the cancer drug, increases the risk of blood clot in the veins by about 33% when taken together with chemotherapy. (more…)
A study recently published in the November issue of the journal Diabetes Care has suggested a link between eating eggs and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. This applied to both men and women.
For the study, the team examined data from two previous studies, the Physicians’ Health Study I, which involved 20,703 men and ran from 1982 to 2007, as well as the Women’s Health Study, which ran from 1992 to 2007 and involved some 36,295 women. (more…)
A recent study at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has found that hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes and other chronic health ailments have increased in incidence among the elderly. This was more or in South LA and the Central Valley.
The study, led by Steven P Wallace, a UCLA professor of public health and co-author of the study, which was based on data from the California Health Interview Survey. The said survey polls some 50,000 households across California every two years. (more…)
A study conducted at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has revealed that people with HIV have a higher risk of getting cancer.
Presented recently at the American Association for Cancer Research, the study, which looked at 11 previous American and international studies, found that people with HIV were twice as likely as the general population to develop cancer. (more…)
According to recent research in Italy, being exposed to benzene, an industrial solvent, increases the risk of getting multiple myeloma. It also increased the risk of developing chronic lymphoid leukemia.
The risk of chronic lymphoid leukemia was also increased with exposure to two other oil-derived industrial chemicals, namely xylene and toluene. (more…)
I’m sure you have heard of the phrase, “clean and green”. Now, we perhaps need to coin a new one – “clean and slim”.
According to a study conducted at the Indiana University School of Medicine, living in a neighborhood with more greenery actually lowers the risk of children being obese. (more…)
The health benefits of eating fish are quite well renowned.
And a recently-reported study which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that consumption of fish may improve prostate cancer survival. (more…)
Vitamin D has been linked to an incredible number of health outcomes. In specific relation to cancer, it has been shown to be a strong protector against many types of cancer.
Recently, research led by Kimmie Ng, M.D., M.P.H., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has revealed that vitamin D can improve the survival rates of people with colorectal cancer. (more…)