A JAMA study of 2,482 women carrying BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations found prophylactic removal of the breasts, or of the ovaries and fallopian tubes, significantly lowered cancer risk compared with intensive screening. Because surgery cannot remove all breast tissue, some risk remains.
Section archive
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Avoiding Illness
How diet and lifestyle affect cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other illnesses.
- All desks
- Abortion
- Accutane
- Acetaminophen
- Acid Reflux
- Acidic Foods
- Acne
- Acrylamide
- Acupuncture
- Additives
- ADHD
- Adiposity
- Advisories
- Aerobic Exercise
- Aflatoxin
- Agave
- Agent Orange
- Aging
- Agriculture
- AIDS
- Air Pollution
- Airline Passengers
- Airport
- ALA
- Alcohol
- Alcoholic Beverage
- Alerts
- Allergy
- Alli
- Aloe Vera
- ALS
- Alternative Medicine
- Aluminum
- Alzheimer's
- Amalgam
- AMD
- Ampyra
- Amygdala
- Anal Cancer
- And
- Anemia
- Angiogenesis
- Animal Protein
- Animals
- Anorexia
- Anthocyanins
- Anthrax
- Anti-Angiogenesis
- Anti-Obesity
- Antibacterial
- Antibiotic
Avoiding Illness
AAP Issues Flu Vaccine Guidelines
The American Academy of Pediatrics now urges flu vaccination for everyone 6 months and older, and stresses it for household contacts, daycare providers of children under 5, children with asthma, diabetes or neurological disorders, health care workers and pregnant women.
Cancer
Breast Cancer Survivors Carry on - Despite TDM1 Hault
Roche says the FDA found its Phase II data for T-DM1, a conjugated antibody that shrank tumors in HER2-positive breast cancer, did not meet the standard for accelerated approval because other treatments had not been exhausted. Roche plans a submission from the Phase III EMILIA study in mid-2012.
Cancer
Breastfeeding Benefits Abound
A study of 2,200 women aged 40 to 78 found those who never breastfed were twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as those who did. Lead author Eleanor Bimla Schwarz attributes the difference to breastfeeding reducing maternal belly fat, a known diabetes risk factor.
Diabetes
Breastfeeding cuts risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus
Among 2,233 women aged 40 to 78, those who never breastfed were almost twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as those who breastfed at least a month, with 27 percent of the non-breastfeeding group affected. Researchers point to belly fat as a possible link.
Cancer
Cancer's Favorite Food - Found in Everything You Eat?
A Cancer Research study found pancreatic tumor cells handle fructose and glucose in different ways, using fructose to divide and proliferate. The finding challenges the idea that all sugars act alike and may bear on earlier links between fructose and pancreatic cancer.
Cancer
Fighting Back: New Drug for Melanoma
A genetically targeted drug aimed at the BRAF mutation shrank tumors in 80 percent of metastatic melanoma patients in a study led by Keith T. Flaherty, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. Only two FDA-approved drugs currently treat the metastatic disease.
Diabetes
On Diabetes, Mid-Life and Alzheimer's
A Neurology study tracked 135 people in a Japanese village for 10 to 15 years and found those with type 2 diabetes or related traits such as obesity, insulin resistance and high blood pressure were significantly more likely to develop the brain plaques seen in Alzheimer's.
Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus (Type 2) linked to Alzheimer's disease
Researchers followed 135 Japanese adults for 10 to 15 years and examined their brains after death: Alzheimer's plaques appeared in 72 percent of those with insulin resistance versus 62 percent without. No link emerged with tangles, and the lead author says cause is unproven.
Cancer
Breast Cancer Linked to Nicotine, Alcohol
Two studies in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute: Taiwanese researchers found the alpha-9 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit overproduced in 276 breast tumour samples, more so in advanced disease, while a second examined alcohol and breast cancer subtypes in 88,000 women.
Cancer
PSA Screening May Exaggerate Familial Predisposition
Swedish researchers led by Dr. Ola Bratt matched 13,975 prostate cancer patients with 22,511 of their brothers to test whether PSA screening inflates the apparent familial risk. Brothers of patients were diagnosed more often than men of the same age in the general population.
Autoimmune Diseases
Mutation: HIV's Achilles' Heel
Rather than slowing HIV's rapid mutation, University of Minnesota researchers tried speeding it up. Screening FDA-approved drugs, they found the cancer drugs decitabine and gemcitabine together cut HIV infectivity by 73% in lab tissue, at concentrations with minimal antiviral activity alone.
Autoimmune Diseases
Controversy Surrounds Link Between CFS and HIV
Researchers from NIH, FDA and Harvard Medical School report in PNAS finding gene sequences from MRV-related viruses in the blood cells of 33 of 37 chronic fatigue syndrome patients, against 3 of 44 healthy people. Four earlier studies had failed to confirm a 2009 Science report of such a link.
Obesity
Wanna Lose Weight? Try Drinking More H20
In a 12-week study of overweight adults aged 55 to 75 on a low-fat, low-calorie diet, those told to drink two cups of water before each meal lost 15.5 pounds on average against 11 pounds. Brenda Davy's team found the tactic does not work for 18- to 35-year-olds.
Cancer
Dodging Colorectal Cancer Under 40
The American Cancer Society estimated about 102,900 new colon cancers, 39,670 rectal cancers and 51,370 deaths in the United States for 2010, with death rates falling for 15 years as screening finds and removes polyps before they turn cancerous.
Heart & Blood
Lethal Combo:Alcohol and High Blood Pressure
Researchers in Seoul followed 6,100 adults for 21 years and found that among men with blood pressure of at least 168/100, moderate binge drinkers faced four times the stroke or heart attack risk of nondrinkers and heavy bingers twelve times.
Diabetes
Green leafy vegetables cut diabetes mellitus (type 2) risk
Pooling six studies covering 220,000 adults, Leicester researchers found that eating an extra one and a half servings of green leafy vegetables a day was associated with 14 percent lower type 2 diabetes risk. Fruit and vegetables in general showed no clear benefit.
Avoiding Illness
Salmonella-Rich Eggs Recalled
Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa is recalling shell eggs that may carry Salmonella Enteritidis, which can cause serious illness in children, the elderly and the immune-compromised. The eggs went out under brands including Lucerne, Ralph's and Farm Fresh.
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