The Centenarian

Specialists say that wearing open-toed footwear can increase the chance of getting lesions as the skin becomes exposed to intense sunlight, a key cause of skin tumours, or melanomas.

Cancer that affects the feet is known as “acral melanoma” and typically occurs on the sole of the foot, between the toes or under the toenails.

Research shows that only half of patients with foot melanomas survive, compared with four out of five people who develop cancer elsewhere on their legs.

Doctors advice applying factor 15 sunscreen or above to feet, including the soles.

One clinic has seen at least two patients with sun-related foot cancer in the past three months.

Anthony Kontos, head of the clinic at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, said patients often mistook skin cancer on the feet for bruising.

The podiatric surgeon said: “With the increasing popularity of open-toed sandals and flip-flops, feet often have a sudden blast of intense sunlight.

“Our feet are enclosed in shoes most of the year and then we pack our sandals for a holiday in very hot temperatures. This means feet are particularly susceptible to sunburn.

“People are generally aware of checking other parts of their body for suspicious moles but they’re unlikely to examine their feet” he added

Exposure to sun in childhood is the biggest risk factor for melanomas.

Initial discomfort is hard to spot and is often diagnosed at a late stage which by then has spread to other parts of the body.

A British Skin Foundation spokesman said: “The fact is that all types of skin cancer are on the rise.

“Women especially are susceptible because any lotion applied to the bridge of the foot gets rubbed off by sandals.”

Bob Marley, the reggae singer, died from a melanoma on his foot he believed was a football injury. The singer refused to have his toe amputated for religious reasons and died when the cancer spread.

Filed under: Body on June 13th, 2008 | No Comments »

For the first time, U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years, the government reported Wednesday. The increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates in almost all the leading causes of death, federal health officials said. The average life expectancy for babies born in 2006 was about four months greater than for children born in 2005

However, the United States continues to lag behind about 30 other countries in estimated life span, according to World Health Organization data.

Japan is No. 1 on the list, with a life expectancy of 83 for children born in 2006. Switzerland and Australia were also near the top of the list.

”The international comparisons are not that appealing, but we may be in the process of catching up,” said Samuel Preston, a University of Pennsylvania demographer. He is co-chair of a National Research Council panel looking at why America’s life expectancy is lower than other nations’.

The new U.S. data, released Wednesday, come from the National Center for Health Statistics. It’s a preliminary report of 2006 numbers, based on data from more than 95 percent of the death certificates collected that year.

Life expectancy is the period a child born in 2006 is expected to live, assuming the mortality trends observed in that year stay constant.

The 2006 increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates for nine of the 15 leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, accidents and diabetes.

”I think the most surprising thing is that we had declines in just about every major cause of death,” said Robert Anderson, who oversaw work on the report for the health statistics center.

Health statisticians noted declines of more than 6 percent in stroke and chronic lower respiratory disease (including bronchitis and emphysema), and a drop of more than 5 percent in heart disease and diabetes deaths. Indeed, the drop in diabetes deaths was steep enough to allow Alzheimer’s disease — which held about steady — to pass diabetes to become the nation’s sixth leading cause of death.

The U.S. infant mortality rate dropped more than 2 percent, to 6.7 infant deaths per 1,000 births, from 6.9.

Perhaps the most influential factor in the 2006 success story, however, was the flu. Flu and pneumonia deaths dropped by 13 percent from 2005, reflecting a mild flu season in 2006, Anderson said. That also meant a diminished threat to people with heart disease and other conditions. Taken together, it’s a primary explanation for the 22,000 fewer deaths in 2006 from 2005, experts said.

U.S. life expectancy has been steadily rising, usually by about two to three months from year to year. This year’s jump of fourth months is ”an unusually rapid improvement,” Preston said.

Life expectancy was up for both men and women, and whites and blacks. Although the gaps are closing, white women continue to have the highest life expectancy (81 years), followed by black women (about 77 years), white men (76) and black men (70). Health statisticians said they don’t have reliable data to calculate Hispanic life expectancy, but they hope to by next year.

Increases in female smoking are a major reason that men’s life expectancy is catching up with the women’s, Preston said. Improvements in the care of heart disease — a major health problem for black Americans — helps explain an improving racial gap, he said.

About 2.4 million Americans died in 2006, according to the report.

Filed under: News on June 12th, 2008 | No Comments »

Scientists have been aware for many years that if cancer patients are not able to deal with the stress associated with being sick, the cancer will progress faster than in calmer patients. To counteract this phenomenon, physicians encourage treatments that help cancer patients handle their stress. Scientists theorized that the stress relief may have come as a result of increased beta-endorphin peptide (BEP), the “feel good” hormones in the brain that are released during exercise, a good conversation, and many other aspects of life that give humans pleasure.

Researchers at Rutgers hypothesized that BEP producing neurons do not just make us feel good, but also play roles in regulating the stress response and immune functions to control tumor growth and progression. In a paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Dr. Dipak K. Sarkar and his colleagues demonstrate the physical mechanisms that support their hypothesis.

“Our findings show promise for future therapeutic treatments for bolstering the immune function,” said Sarkar, professor of animal sciences and director of the Endocrinology Program at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and principal investigator of the research project.

Previous research has shown that too few, or inactive, BEP neurons are associated with various diseases. For example, low numbers of BEP neurons have been identified in the brains of patients with depression and schizophrenia. Neurons that produce too little BEP are found in many obese patients. In both these cases the patients also had higher levels of infection and more incidence of cancer.

To test their hypothesis about the role of BEP in controling tumor growth and progression, the Rutgers scientists took neural stem cells, transformed them into BEP neurons by treating them with particular chemicals, and then transplanted them into brains of live rats. The authors studied tumor growth in the rats that had been given carcinogens to induce prostate tumors. The authors noted that the BEP neurons boosted the immune system by increasing the activity of particular immune cell types and decreasing inflammation.

The neurons also protected the rats against prostate cancer 90 percent of the time. The researchers discovered that the “natural killer,” or NK cells that typically attack cancer cells in the body, are activated by the inserted BEP neurons. The NK cells reduced inflammation around the cancer cells, which slowed down caner cell growth and killed many of these cells.

“We are optimistic that this research can be applied to human medicine,” said Sarkar. “Instead of transplanting cells, we will investigate whether we can increase BEP using a chemical approach.”

Filed under: Mind on June 10th, 2008 | No Comments »

A sun bather enjoy the unusually hot May weather near the sea side city of Dhermi, Albania. A study found that men who are deficient in the so-called sunshine vitamin — vitamin D — have more than double the normal risk of suffering a heart attack.

Medical researchers are homing in on a wonder drug that may significantly reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and many other diseases — sunshine.

A study released today found that men who are deficient in the so-called sunshine vitamin — vitamin D — have more than double the normal risk of suffering a heart attack.

Just last week, another study found that low levels of vitamin D increased the risk of diabetes, and a study last month linked deficiencies to an increased risk of dying from breast cancer.

The findings join a growing body of evidence indicating that an adequate level of the vitamin, which many people can get from 20 minutes in the sun, is crucial to maintaining good health.

Not every scientist agrees that vitamin D is so crucial to well-being, and there is controversy about what should be considered an adequate level of the compound in the blood. But sentiment is gradually shifting toward a higher intake.

“We don’t have a cause and effect relationship here yet” proving that higher doses of vitamin D prevent such diseases, said biochemist Hector DeLuca of the University of Wisconsin, who was the first to demonstrate how the vitamin interacts with the endocrine system, which manages the body’s hormonal balance.

But the links are so suggestive “that we have to pay attention to keeping blood levels up where they will protect,” he said. Until the protective effect is proved, he added, “what’s wrong with keeping an adequate level of vitamin D in the blood in case it is?”

Until recently, vitamin D was viewed primarily as a protective agent against diseases of the bone, such as osteomalacia (known as rickets in children) and osteoporosis. Current recommendations for the vitamin are based on preventing these disorders and call for a relatively small intake — a minimum of 400 international units, or IUs, per day, and perhaps twice that for the elderly, who may not get outdoors as often.

The vitamin is produced from natural precursors in the body by exposing skin to ultraviolet B in sunlight. Caucasian sunbathers can get 20,000 IUs in 20 minutes at noon in summer. But any further exposure simply damages skin.

Darker-skinned people need three to five times the exposure to produce the same amount. Sunblock interferes with production by screening out ultraviolet light.

The primary sources of vitamin D in the diet are milk, which is fortified to yield about 100 IUs per glass, and oily fishes, which have a high content.

To have an adequate intake, most people must take supplements or spend more time in the sun — a recommendation that dermatologists generally oppose because of the risk of skin cancer.

Current guidelines call for blood levels of about 30 nanograms per milliliter. By that definition, perhaps 10% to 15% of white people in the U.S. and 50% of the black population is deficient in summer, with the percentages rising in winter when there is less sunlight.

Many researchers say that people should be striving for average blood levels of 50 to 60 nanograms per milliliter, at which level the bulk of the U.S. population would be considered deficient.

Most researchers in the field now take supplements of at least 1,500 IUs per day. Most recommend taking no more than 4,000 IUs because of potential toxicity.

Experts attribute the vitamin D deficiency, in part, to modern lifestyles, which have taken people off the farm and into offices and factories. Video games and computers have brought children indoors from the playing field, minimizing their exposure to sunlight. Fear of cancer and increasing use of sunblock may also have contributed.

In the new analysis, Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Public Health and his colleagues studied 18,225 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, a subgroup of a much larger ongoing study. The men all submitted blood samples when they enrolled in the study, mostly in 1993 to 1995, and the samples were stored.

In 10 years of follow-up, the team identified 454 men who had a heart attack. They carefully matched these men with about 900 other study members who did not have an attack, then measured vitamin D levels at study entry.

They reported in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine that men with blood levels below 15 nanograms per milliliter had 2 1/2 times the risk of having an attack or dying.

Filed under: Body on June 10th, 2008 | No Comments »

1. Decaffeinated coffee has 69 calories, two cups over a year is 50,370 calories or about 15 pounds. Try something else.

2. Do weight training even though cardio burns more calories weight training burns calories all day long.

3. Avoid refined carbs like white bread (change to wheat bread) and pasta. Refined carbs trigger the storage of fat. Also wheat bread will keep you fuller longer from the added fiber.

4. Change to diet soda, if you drink 5 per week you will cut out 9,500 calories.

5. Eat early so your body has plenty of time to digest, never eat within 2 hours of sleep.

6. Change your exercise every 6 weeks, you will have a stronger core and create more endurance.

7. Take vitamins to make sure you have your nutritional needs.

8. Get a full eight hours of sleep, stress causes more weight gaining then anything else. Just chill out for a better body.

9. Walk or hike once a week, the fresh air and full body movement make a huge differance.

10. Do more of a incline on treadmills and walking. Just raising it 10 degrees will burn 106 more calories in 30 minutes (5 mph)

Filed under: Body on June 10th, 2008 | No Comments »