Sunny Health

Many people aren't aware when they are hit by a stroke, according to a study by Mayo Clinic. As a result, they do not seek treatment until their condition becomes very serious.

Scott Silvers, the Chair of the emergency medicine department at Mayo Clinic's Florida campus says that time is crucial in treating stroke, adding that this will ensure that the effects of the stroke are limited and the patient's condition can be kept under control to prevent further damage and improve recovery.

Immediate treatment of a stroke can prevent a major disability. Here's some of the symptoms:

Sudden numbness, weakness, or paralysis of your face, arm or leg — usually on one side of the body
Sudden difficulty speaking or understanding speech (aphasia)
Sudden blurred, double or decreased vision
Sudden dizziness, loss of balance or loss of coordination
A sudden, severe headache or an unusual headache, which may be accompanied by a stiff neck, facial pain, pain between your eyes, vomiting or altered consciousness
Confusion or problems with memory, spatial orientation or perception

If you are experiencing any of the above, please seek IMMEDIATE medical help. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Source: Mayo Clinic. http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2008-jax/5123.html

Nanotechnology is the way of the future. These particles are so miniscule that they can be used to build pretty much anything we want, from biological constructs to space elevator ropes.

As you might imagine, this new technology is also being used on the cancer frontier and research is currently being carried out with it in this aspect.

For example, recently MIT engineers have found a way to turn carbon nanotubes into sensors for cancer drugs and other DNA-damaging agents inside living cells.

Sensors like these could be used to gauge the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments, a measure which can prove to be useful in providing a greater degree of control of these treatments as chemotherapy makes use of extremely potent drugs, which kills both cancerous and healthy cells alike.

These sensors are safe because they are wrapped in DNA, which makes them living cell-friendly. The interaction between the DNA and DNA disruptor changes the intensity and/or wavelength of the fluorescent light emitted by the nanotube.

On top of being programmed as sensors, nano-organisms are also being used to deliver cancer drugs more effectively to deal with cancer cells, going by the research being performed at Penn State's Hershey Medical Center and University Park campus in Pennsylvania.

Scientists there have reported success in using nanoparticles 1/5,000 the diameter of a human hair encapsulating an experimental anticancer agent, to kill human melanoma and drug-resistant breast cancer cells growing in laboratory cultures. Going further down this avenue could see the development of new anti-cancer drugs that are more specific in their anti-cancer drug delivery, thus being safer and more effective.

However, the research still has some way to go in-terms of seeing practical results as many of the nanoparticles used are unable to dissolve in body fluids and are toxic to cells as well.

Source: CancerNews, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081215151147.htm,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081214190951.htm

Most of us know that cancer is a persistent threat, and I'm sure many of us would want to know all that we can about it. Of course, you can try to read up on cancer in books and on the net, but it can be quite confusing -especially with all the jargon being thrown around.

More food-related news today – Pork products from Ireland are being pulled off shelves wherever its sold as cancer-causing dioxins were found in them.

Ireland is major producer of pork, and it exports them to countries like England, Scotland and Wales.

Animal feed contaminated with these dioxins were understood to have been the cause.

But a professor Alan Boobis, from the Department of Health Toxicology Unit at Imperial College London, said studies suggested that dioxins do not have the same impact on human genes as they do on animals

So do you want to take his word for it? He looks knowledgeable enough to make an accurate statement, though I also believe that safety cannot be taken for granted.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1092544/Irish-pork-cancer-scare-forces-British-supermarkets-pull-meat-shelves.html

W.

It now seems likely that Broccoli will be a compulsory food on any cancer patient's diet in the future, given the increasing amount of research that touts its benefits. Case in point: American researchers from the University of California in Berkeley have found an anti-cancer compound in broccoli and cabbage that lowers the activity of an enzyme associated with rapidly advancing breast cancer.

This wonder compound, known as indole-3-carbinol is already undergoing clinical trials in humans because it was found to stop the growth of breast and prostate cancer cells in mice. However up till now, no one has been able to explain how indole-3-carbinol actually works. With these results, scientists will be able to develop newer versions of the chemical that can be used as a more effective drug, and also against more types of breast and even prostate cancers.

The team from Berkeley found in previous research that indole-3-carbinol not only interferes with cancer cell proliferation, but also disrupts migration and alters its adhesion properties. It also counteracts the ability of cancer cells to survive. All these factors are involved in cancer cell growth.

Indole-3-carbinol is currently available as a supplement, but researchers are also working on an improved version. In fact, the Berkeley researchers have already chemically modified the compound and boosted its activity in cell culture by at least a factor of 100.

What are you waiting for... there's no better time than now to start chomping down on those flowery and tasty vegetables!

Source: ScienceDaily; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081203092435.htm

W.

Don’t give yourself excuses not to go for a cancer screening, or to embark on a healthier lifestyle. According to research from Harvard University, these have greatly helped to lower cancer mortality rates by 13 percent since 1990.

Focusing on mainly lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers, the research was performed by David Cutler, an Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

His research found that screening and behavioral changes have contributed both equally and substantially to the decline in cancer mortality rates. For lung cancer, behavior changes, which include smoking cessation, has had the most impact.

Cutler said that while screening is expensive, “…it has led to significantly longer life expectancy for those diagnosed with colorectal or breast cancer.” For colon cancer, Colonoscopies have had a major hand in preventing its formation.

On the whole, cancer treatment was the least effective in cutting cancer mortality rates.
Cutler said: “A health care system working for cancer would prevent people from getting it, catch it early, and then treat people accordingly. If our healthcare sys-tem was focused in this way, there could be a huge benefit."

Source: ScienceDaily; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081202133224.htm

W.

The human mind is both complex and unique. It is also extremely powerful. Think about the placebo effect, which is generally believed linked to our psychological ability, and has resulted in people healing themselves by simply believing that they are in better health. That goes to show how much we can accomplish when we untap the full potential of our mental strength.

This ability to harness the power of our mind to overcome any obstacle cuts across all areas, including cancer. In fact, here's an article that shows how it can work:

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Intervention Program Boosts Survival In Breast Cancer Patients

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2008) — A new study provides the best evidence to date that a psychological intervention program designed for breast cancer patients not only improves their health – it actually increases their chance of survival.

Researchers at Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center found that patients participating in an intervention program reduced their risk of dying of breast cancer by 56 percent after an average of 11 years.

Participants in the program, which taught strategies to reduce stress, improve mood and alter health behaviors, also reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 45 percent.

“The results suggest that we can help breast cancer patients make positive steps that may help them live longer and make recurrence less likely,” said Barbara Andersen, lead author of the study and a member of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of psychology.

“We already knew a psychological intervention program could help breast cancer patients to handle their stress, function more effectively, and improve their health. Now we know it does even more.”

In addition to improving survival and reducing recurrence, the intervention program had other positive effects, said Andersen.

Among patients who died of breast cancer, those who participated in the intervention program lived longer – an average of 6.1 years for program participants versus 4.8 years for those who were simply assessed.

Intervention participants were also less likely to die from causes other than breast cancer, such as heart disease or other cancers. For those who died of any cause, participants in the intervention lived an average of 6 years compared to 5 years for those who didn’t.

“Many of the strategies patients learned in the intervention program, such as stress reduction, may have protected them from heart disease and other causes of death,” said Andersen, a member of Ohio State’s Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.

Andersen said this study was unique in several ways. In the 1980s and 90s, two separate studies found higher survival rates for cancer patients who participated in intervention programs; one study involved breast cancer patients whose disease had already recurred, and the other study included newly diagnosed melanoma patients. But these studies were not designed to look at how the interventions affected survival rates. When other researchers tried to replicate these results, they found no effect for intervention programs.

This new study, though, was designed to look specifically at recurrence and survival rates, Andersen said. In addition, the intervention program is different and so are the participants in the study.

Participants in the Ohio State study had Stage II and III breast cancer, which means their chance of survival were better than those with Stage IV cancer (which means the cancer has spread to other parts of the body), but not as good as those diagnosed with Stage I.

“We wanted those patients in the middle, where we felt we had the most chance of influencing their future course with the disease,” she said.

How did the intervention program help cancer patients?

“We believe the significant psychological improvements and behavior changes may have been critical,” according to Andersen.

For example, the researchers found that patients in the intervention group who had the greatest reductions in distress and physical symptoms were those who practiced progressive muscle relaxation most frequently. They also understood and remembered that continued stress could hurt their health and now knew several ways to reduce stress.

“We found a strong relationship between patients’ use of the intervention strategies we taught them and better health,” she said.

Previous research with the same women in this study showed that women in the intervention showed signs of improved immune function compared to those who did not participate. That is most likely related to the lower levels of distress they felt, Andersen said.

Overall, the results show a promising new way to help treat cancer patients, she said.

“If psychological interventions to reduce stress are delivered early, they can improve mental health, health, and possibly even their odds of survival.”

Source: ScienceDaily; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117082040.htm

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Could this be proof that we can rope in a natural, free resource -that of our sheer mental capacity -in our fight against cancer? It might very well be. In any case, keeping a positive attitude about life everyday is the best thing to do. At the very least, it will allow you to stay happy no matter what you do, or what condition or place you are in!

W.

I previously reported on a team of cancer scientists doing some research on how to stop cancer by starving them. It looks like they're not alone in this approach, as another team of Belgium scientists are trying something similar, though in a much different way:


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Preventing Tumor Cells From Refueling: A New Anti-cancer Approach?

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2008) — New data, generated in mice, by Pierre Sonveaux and colleagues, at Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, have identified a potential new target for anticancer therapeutics.

Not all cells in a tumor are equal, for example, some are in regions rich in oxygen, whereas others are in regions deprived of oxygen (hypoxic regions). It had been thought that the tumor cells in these two regions used the same type of fuel to generate energy, specifically glucose.

However, Sonveaux and colleagues have now shown that although hypoxic tumor cells use glucose to generate energy, well-oxygenated tumor cells use a different fuel, lactate. Further, the lactate used by the well-oxygenated tumor cells as a fuel was released from the hypoxic tumor cells as a waste product of the chemical reactions that burned glucose to generate energy, leading the authors to suggest that the different tumor cells exist in symbiosis.

More detailed analysis revealed that well-oxygenated cells took up lactate via the protein MCT1 and that inhibiting MCT1 made the well-oxygenated cells switch to using glucose as a fuel to generate energy. This disrupted the symbiotic relationship between the hypoxic and well-oxygenated tumor cells and in two mouse models of cancer led to decreased tumor growth, as the hypoxic tumor cells became deprived of glucose, and rendered the remaining cells sensitive to irradiation.

As MCT1 expression was detected exclusively in nonhypoxic regions of human cancer biopsy samples, the authors suggest that MCT1 is a potential new target for anticancer therapeutics.

In an accompanying commentary, Greg Semenza, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, discusses this concept further as well as other therapeutic implications.

Results were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more people die from lung cancer than any other cancer type. In fact, according to 2004 data, more people died from lung cancer than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined.

Smoking is the biggest risk factor for developing lung cancer, even after quitting for long periods of time. "More than 50 percent of newly diagnosed lung cancer patients are former smokers," said Emily A. Vucic, a graduate student at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre, Vancouver, B.C. "Understanding why some former smokers develop lung cancer is clearly important to the development of early detection, prevention and treatment strategies."

The researchers studied how DNA methylation contributes to lung cancer development in former smokers. Methylation is an important event regulating gene expression during normal development. As we age and in cancer, proper patterns of DNA methylation become deregulated throwing off the tight control of gene activity that normally exists.

Using an endoscope, Vucic and colleagues collected bronchial epithelial cells, which are cells that line the lungs, from 16 former smokers. The participants quit smoking more than 10 years ago. Eight participants had surgical removal of non-small cell lung cancer; eight were disease free.

Their results showed differences in methylation levels in lung epithelial cells between former smokers with and without lung cancer.

"Alteration to DNA methylation might potentially explain why some former smokers sustain additional genetic damage resulting in lung cancer," Vucic said. "As methylation is a reversible DNA modification, this knowledge could prompt the development and application of chemopreventive agents and unique therapeutic strategies that target DNA methylation in these patients."

Exposure to cigarette smoke is a major culprit in disease development. "In addition to DNA sequence mutations, cigarette smoke also causes widespread errors in DNA marks, such as DNA methylation, used to regulate gene function and genome stability," Vucic said.

Cigarette smoke exposure has been shown to activate genes that promote cancer and deactivate genes that stop tumor growth, she said. "Studies examining tumors at all levels of DNA disruption will identify events involved in lung cancer development in former smokers."

The researchers are pursuing additional studies to confirm their initial results, Vucic said.

Source: ScienceDaily; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081120171319.htm

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How many ways are there to starve something? Not enough, apparently, and as it applies to cancer cells, that's always a good thing.

W.