Potty Mouth?

In need of an extra incentive to brush your teeth this Monday morning?  Well, they don’t come much better than this. According to a new study published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe a common type of mouth bacteria may contribute to colorectal cancer.

Colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in the US. The American Cancer Society estimates that almost 143,000 people will be diagnosed in 2013 and that more than 50,000 will die of the disease.

The bacteria  at issue –  Fusobacterium nucleatum is a key component of periodontal plaque and plays a role in periodontal disease.  But, according to the researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, it can also attach to colon cells and trigger a sequence of changes that lead to colon cancer.  Although they noted that levels of F. nucleatum are much higher in people with gum disease, than in those without, it was not possible to prove a cause and effect relationship.

Nevertheless, the findings emphasize the importance of good oral hygiene.

The research team also found a way to prevent the bacteria from attaching to colon cells. “This discovery creates the potential for new diagnostic tools and therapies to treat and prevent colon cancer,” says lead investigator Yiping Han.

Until such time, SRxA’s Word on Health will be focused on flossing.

The Scoop on Poop

What are your bowel movements telling you?

Whether you love or hate the Quilted Northern TP ads on TV,now’s the  time to get real about what happens in the bathroom. Before March morphs into April we need to spread the scoop about poop in recognition of colorectal cancer awareness month.

Bottom line, (excuse the pun), we all poop. So now it’s time to stand up, or sit down, and take notice of what our bowel movements are telling us.

Signs of everything from disease to stress may show up in your bathroom bowl. The key is knowing what to look for — and what the signs may mean.

First off, there is no normal. People are different. So are bowel movements. The size, shape and consistency of feces will change greatly from person to person.

So instead of looking for “normal,” look for change. Are you going less, or more often? Has the consistency altered? Have you gone from runny to solid? If you experience a noticeable change that lasts, it’s time to see your doctor.

Are you seeing red?

If there is blood in your feces on a recurring basis, you need to see a doctor, stat. Blood can be a sign of polyps or colorectal cancer. It also can be caused by benign conditions such as hemorrhoids and anal fissures. In any case, it’s worth getting checked out.

Also, keep an eye out for other symptoms: weight loss, fever, chills. When they come together, those are “high-alert” symptoms of bowel disorders.

Size does matter!

If you used to have sizeable stools but now they are always pencil thin and hard to pass, consult your doctor. In certain types of colorectal cancer, the bowel gets narrow, and so can your bowel movements. And while thin stools do not automatically mean cancer you should still see your doctor and have a  colonoscopy just to be on the safe side.

Consistency, consistency, consistency

We all have bouts of diarrhea from time to time, usually as a result of food poisoning or an infection. But if you have frequent diarrhea it could be a sign of an inflammatory bowel condition such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.

The scoop on stress

Your body as well as your brain reacts to things that go on around us. The impact of stress and unresolved issues may show up in your bathroom.

So next time you go to the bathroom instead of simply wiping and flushing take a moment or two to look and learn what your bowel movements are telling you.

No s**t!

 

Does Belly Fat cause tumors to go Belly Up?

People store fat in two ways – one you can see and one you can’t. The fat you can see is just under the skin in the thighs, hips, buttocks, and abdomen. That’s called subcutaneous fat. The fat you can’t see is deeper inside, around the vital organs – heart, lungs, digestive tract, liver as well as in the chest, abdomen, and pelvis. That’s called visceral fat.

Many people are self-conscious about the fat they can see. But actually, it’s the hidden visceral fat that may be a bigger problem, even for thin people.  Having too much of it is linked to a greater chance of developing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and certain cancers.

According to a new study published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, visceral fat is directly linked to an increased risk for colon cancer.

“There has been some skepticism as to whether obesity per se is a bona fide cancer risk factor, rather than the habits that fuel it, including a poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle,” said Derek M. Huffman, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y. “Although those other lifestyle choices play a role, this study unequivocally demonstrates that visceral adiposity is causally linked to intestinal cancer.

Prior research has shown that obesity markedly increases the likelihood of being diagnosed with, and dying from, many cancers. In this animal study, Huffman and his colleagues wanted to see if removing visceral fat in mice genetically prone to developing colon cancer might prevent or lessen the development of these tumors.

To do this they randomly assigned the mice to one of three groups. Mice in the first group underwent a sham surgery and were allowed to eat an unrestricted “buffet style” diet, which resulted in them becoming obese. Those in the second group were also provided an unrestricted diet and became obese, but they had their visceral fat surgically removed at the outset of the study. Mice in the third group underwent a sham surgery, but were then put on a calorie restricted diet causing them to lose visceral fat.

“Our sham-operated obese mice had the most visceral fat, developed the greatest number of intestinal tumors, and had the worst overall survival,” Huffman said. “However, mice that had less visceral fat, either by surgical removal or a calorie-restricted diet, had a reduction in the number of intestinal tumors. This was particularly remarkable in the case of our group where visceral fat was surgically removed, because these mice were still obese, they just had very little abdominal fat.”

The researchers then subdivided the groups by gender. In female mice, the removal of visceral fat was significantly related to a reduction in intestinal tumors, but calorie restriction was not. In male mice, calorie restriction had a significant effect on intestinal tumors, but removal of visceral fat did not.

These finding suggest what most women have known for years i.e., that there are important gender differences when it comes to weight. But it also provided an explanation for how belly fat, diet and cancer risk are linked.  In addition, the study emphasizes the need to promote strategies that reduce abdominal fat in obese individuals.

So how can you get rid of this dangerous deep belly fat?  According to experts, there are four: exercise, diet, sleep, and stress management.

Exercise: Vigorous exercise trims fat, including visceral fat. It can also slow down the build-up of visceral fat that tends to happen over the years. But forget spot-reducing. There aren’t any moves you can do that specifically target visceral fat. Half an hour of vigorous aerobic exercise, done four times a week is ideal.  Jog, if you’re already fit, or walk briskly at an incline on a treadmill if you’re not yet ready for jogging. Vigorous workouts on stationary bikes and elliptical or rowing machines are also effective.

Diet: There is no magic diet for belly fat. But when you lose weight on any diet, belly fat usually goes first.  A fiber-rich diet may help. Research shows that people who eat 10 grams of soluble fiber per day, without any other diet changes, build up less visceral fat over time than others. That’s as easy as eating two small apples or a cup of green peas.

Sleep: Getting the right amount of shut eye helps. In one study, people who got six to seven hours of sleep per night gained less visceral fat over 5 years compared to those who slept five or fewer hours per night or eight or more hours per night.

Stress: It’s unavoidable, but what you do with your stress matters. When you’re stressed you  tend not to make the best food choices when they’re stressed. Getting social support from friends and family, meditating, and exercising can all help to tame stress.

Short on time? If you could only afford the time to do one of these things, exercise probably has the most immediate benefits, because it tackles both obesity and stress.

A Breath of relief for Colorectal Cancer diagnosis

According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the second leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the United States.  In 2008, 142,950 people were diagnosed and 52,857 people died from it.

Although early diagnosis can often lead to a complete cure, many people who should get tested, don’t.  Maybe it’s because the current diagnostic tests for colorectal cancer include colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy.

Few people in America will forget that day almost 12 years ago when  Katie Couric underwent a colonoscopy, live on the “Today” show in an effort to encourage screening after her husband, Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer in 1998.  And while she did her best to show that the procedure does not have to be either uncomfortable or embarrassing, and there was a 20% spike in colonoscopies in the years that followed, according to the CDC half of colorectal cases are still being diagnosed in the late stages

This is, please excuse the pun, a huge bummer, because if found in the early stages, colon cancer has a survival rate of over 90 percent.

Which is why SRxA’s Word on Health was excited to read a new study, published in a supplement to the British Journal of Surgery, which showed that a simple breath analysis could be used for colorectal cancer screening.

Apparently, cancer tissue has different metabolism compared to normal healthy cells and produces some substances which can be detected in the breath of these patients. Analysis of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) linked to cancer represents a new frontier in cancer screening.

Donato Altomare, MD, of the Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation and his team of researchers at the University Aldo Moro of Bari, collected exhaled breath samples from 37 patients with colorectal cancer and 41 healthy controls.

Results showed that patients with colorectal cancer have a different selective VOC pattern compared with healthy controls. Tests based upon these VOC’s are able to discriminate patients with colorectal cancer with an accuracy of over 75%.

“The technique of breath sampling is very easy and non-invasive, although the method is still in the early phase of development,” Altomare notes. “Our study’s findings provide further support for the value of breath testing as a screening tool.”

A previous pilot breath test study showed that the technique is not only able to detect cancer, but it can also differentiate between the four most common forms of cancer: lung, bowel, breast and prostate.

While this is all still at an early stage there is no doubt that simplifying the methods for early diagnosis of cancer, will have a significant impact on cutting death rates.

Beating the Mets?

As fans of the New York Mets know all too well, in recent years they’ve been all too easy to beat.  However, another type of mets have remained somewhat harder to beat.

Metastatic cancer, more commonly referred to as “mets” is cancer that has spread from the place where it first started to another place in the body. The process by which cancer cells spread to other parts of the body is called metastasis.

Although some types of metastatic cancer can be cured, most cannot. In general, the best that can be done is to control the growth of the cancer or to relieve symptoms caused by it. In some cases, metastatic cancer treatments may help prolong life, but sadly, most people die of metastatic disease.

Now it seems there may be a way to beat the mets off the baseball field as well as on it.

Researchers are harnessing viruses to infect and subsequently destroy cancer cells without affecting normal tissue. Several types of viruses have been developed to date: adenovirus, poxvirus and picornavirus.  Even the herpes simplex virus is under consideration.

As are reoviruses, which are currently being studied by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  Early results indicate that reoviruses could be especially effective in treating metastatic cancers.

Reoviruses are found everywhere in nature. They have been isolated from untreated sewage, river and stagnant waters. These viruses choose to colonize certain types of mutated cancer cells while sparing normal cells that lack these mutations. Approximately two-thirds of human cancers have the mutation that makes them a prime target for reoviruses.

One of the new drugs based on reovirus is known as REOLYSIN^®, an acronym for Respiratory Enteric Orphan Virus, which is widely found in the environment. By adulthood, most people have been exposed to this reovirus. As it is non-pathogenic, infections are typically asymptomatic.

REOLYSIN^®  was developed, based upon research conducted by Dr. Matt Coffey.  He found that the reovirus was able to infect and selectively destroy cancer cells. When a normal cell is infected with the reovirus, an antiviral response is activated, which prevents the virus from replicating within the cell. However, inside a cancer cell with one or more mutations on a growth pathway called the Ras pathway, there is an aberrant antiviral response that is unable to prevent the virus from replicating. This abnormality allows the reovirus to multiply to an extent that is fatal to the cancer cell.

Additionally, reovirus appears to spread particularly easily to organs where metastasis is common, so a concentration of the drug can be built up in those regions of the body.

REOLYSIN is currently being studied in combination with the chemotherapy drugs in six of the ten most common cancers diagnosed in men and five of the ten most diagnosed in women, including patients with head and neck cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, castration-resistant prostate cancer, drug-resistant ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer. All of these indications are associated with metastatic disease.

The American Cancer Society estimates there will be more than 1.6 million new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States alone in 2012; more than 1,500 people a day are expected to die from the disease.

So, could a sewage water virus be the answer? SRxA’s Word on Health will be watching out for the results of these studies and let our readers know if they’ve truly found a way to  “beat the mets.”

Fit to be President?

President Barack Obama knows a thing or two about fitness. Photographers have snapped him playing golf in Hawaii on Christmas Eve, doing impromptu pull-ups before giving a speech in Montana, and even playing a game of pick-up basketball on Election Day. His love of these sports, coupled with his well-documented gym habits and disciplined diet, has led the media to herald Obama as the new face of presidential health.

But, as SRxA’s Word on Health has learned, not all American presidents have been such model specimens of health. Some of them, far from it.  In fact, disease, injury, and destructive habits have run rampant in the 43 commanders-in-chief.

To mark this President’s Day we decided take a look at some the least healthy presidents in American history.

James Monroe, the Fifth President (1817-1825) was shot with a bullet during the Battle of Trenton.  To save his life, a doctor stuck his index finger into the wound to stop Monroe from bleeding out. In 1785, Monroe contracted malaria while visiting a swampy area of the Mississippi River. Sporadic feverish flare-ups plagued him for years afterwards.

In August 1825, Monroe suffered a severe seizure. Though the cause was never pinpointed, it’s speculated that it was triggered by either mushroom poisoning, a stroke, or cerebral malaria.

In 1830, Monroe developed a chronic lung illness that crippled him for several months, leaving him with labored breathing, fever, night sweats, and a nagging cough that sometimes had him spitting up blood. Though never officially diagnosed his symptoms are strongly suggestive of tuberculosis.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President (1901-1909) was a frail and sickly child. In the hope of alleviating his asthma and other ailments Roosevelt was encouraged to do lots of physical activity. Boxing became one of his favorite hobbies. However, after being elected to the White House, he suffered a blow to his left eye resulting in a detached retina which left him blind on that side. Later he also lost the hearing in his left ear as a result of surgery necessitated by a middle ear infection

Roosevelt then contracted malaria and suffered an infected leg wound during an expedition into the Amazon rainforest. These injuries resulted in chest pains, high fever, and delirium. Though he didn’t die, he returned to America in a decrepit physical state, and was often unable to leave his bed for years afterwards.

Ronald Reagan, the 40th President (1981-1989) had many well documented health problems. Just like Roosevelt, these included hearing and sight issues. Reagan was so nearsighted that he was disqualified from serving during World War II. Later, when he got glasses, he was surprised to see that trees had leaves – something he’d never known before.

Reagan used a hearing aid in his right ear early in his presidency but later started wearing one in his left ear. It’s been speculated that his hearing was damaged during his early years as a Hollywood actor, when he was exposed to repeated loud gunshot during the filming of his Western movies.

Other health problems included multiple urinary tract infections, prostate stones, colon tumors and skin cancers.  Finally, though he was famous for having a near-photographic memory during his prime, Reagan’s memory deteriorated when he hit his 70s, and he would sometimes forget the names of key staffers and visiting dignitaries. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 1994.

Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President (1913-1921) suffered from hypertension, headaches, double-vision and multiple strokes throughout adulthood. His third stroke, in 1906, left him blind in his left eye. Finally, in 1919, the president suffered a massive stroke that paralyzed his left side and forced him into a wheelchair. Wilson decided to keep his condition a secret from the public, so isolated himself in the White House, where for the last 3 years of his term his wife Edith made all presidential decisions for him.

, the 34th President (1953-1961) was a four-pack-a-day smoker. He also suffered from Crohn’s disease and gallstones, both of which required surgery. In 1955 Eisenhower suffered a heart attack so severe that his cardiologist advised the president not to run for a second term. Eisenhower ignored his advice, ran, and was reelected. His second term was marred by even more heart trouble: during a five-month span in 1968, he suffered four heart attacks and 14 cardiac arrests. These weakened him to the point where he could only be out of bed for 45 minutes a day, and he died the next year.

John F. Kennedy, 35th President (1961-1963) is remembered as a glamorous, tragic playboy, assassinated too young. What’s less well know is the litany of health problems he suffered throughout his life.

Kennedy’s childhood was riddled with health issues. At 2 years old, he contracted measles, whooping cough, chickenpox and then scarlet fever, which almost killed him. Later in his childhood, he frequently had upper respiratory infections and bronchitis, as well as allergies, frequent colds, asthma.

During his teens, Kennedy underwent an emergency appendectomy, had his tonsils removed, suffered a severe case of pneumonia, and two episodes of jaundice.

While studying at Harvard, Kennedy contracted urethritis, an inflammation of the urethra that results in painful urination. As he failed to seek immediate treatment, this became a chronic problem for many years.

After years of suffering back pains, Kennedy was diagnosed at age 30 with Addison’s disease, a rare endocrine disorder that generally results in fatigue, muscle weakness, nausea, and bronzing of the skin. Kennedy was so ill that he was given the last rites and physicians speculated that he would die within the year. However, steroid therapy and experimental medicinal implants of hormones, animal organ cells, vitamins, enzymes, pain killers and amphetamines and kept him alive. Then in 1966, he was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. The presence of two endocrine diseases raises the possibility that Kennedy had autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 2 (APS 2).

We wish all our readers a Happy and Healthy President’s Day.

An aspirin a day keeps bowel cancer away?

Aspirin is not only an effective painkiller, it is thought to help fight conditions ranging from cardiovascular disease, cancer and stroke to migraine headache and high blood pressure in pregnancy. Some studies have suggested it can double the chances of a successful IVF pregnancy while others have suggested it may even block the spread of certain viruses.

Now, researchers at Oxford University have found that a daily aspirin tablet may help to prevent both bowel cancer and bowel cancer deaths.

The study followed over 14,000 patients for a period of 20 years.  The results, published in the current edition of The Lancet, show that low-dose aspirin reduced the risk of the incidence of bowel cancer by 24% and of dying from the disease by 35%.

“Aspirin taken for several years at doses of at least 75mg daily reduced long-term incidence and mortality due to colorectal cancer. Benefit was greatest for cancers of the proximal colon, which are not otherwise prevented effectively by screening with sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy.” concluded the study authors.

The findings build on previous research on the issue and offer great hope for individuals with a high risk of bowel cancer, such as those with obesity or a family history of the disease.

One in 20 people in the US develops bowel cancer over their lifetime, making it the third most common cancer. Current figures from the National Cancer Institute indicate that there are more than 140,000 new cases of bowel cancer diagnosed in the US each year and more than 50,000 deaths.

Mark Flannagan, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, said the study provided very positive findings.  “This was a big study over a long period of time and reinforces the message that aspirin may be important in significantly reducing the number of cases and deaths from bowel cancer.”

Aspirin is already one of the most widely used medications in the world.  An estimated 40,000 tons of it are consumed worldwide, each year.  SRxA’s Word on Health wonders just how much more will be sold as a result of this.

Let us know your thoughts.