Cook With Stainless Steel

Aluminum may be a risk factor for breast cancer. To be cautious, avoid aluminum pots and pans, and aluminum-based deodorants.

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/breast-cancer-risk-factors/prevent-breast-cancer-aluminum-47100115#ixzz0aZim81P0

Like cadmium, aluminum is a metal that mimics estrogen. In addition, laboratory studies have shown that aluminum can cause direct damage to DNA in several biological systems. Although studies have not shown a direct causal link between aluminum and breast cancer risk (little work has been reported in this area), breast tissue has been shown to concentrate aluminum and it is found in highest levels in the quadrant of the breast near the underarm region, the same area where the highest proportion of breast cancers are originally diagnosed.
Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/breast-cancer-risk-factors/prevent-breast-cancer-aluminum-47100115#ixzz0aZis1mTL
Use alternatives to cooking utensils made out of aluminum, especially those that are older. Instead use pots or pans made out of stainless steel or cast iron. Newer anodized aluminum pots and pans are considerably safer than older, non-anodized forms as the process of anodizing prevents the aluminum from leaching into food as it is being cooked.

One other possible source of aluminum in breast tissue may be use of underarm antiperspirants. Try to avoid using underarm cosmetics that contain aluminum. Check for safer alternatives at the Environmental Working Group’s Safe Cosmetics database or use home-made solutions like diluted baking soda.

Try Meditation to Lower Your Blood Pressure and Protect Your Heart

Meditation is no longer just for the groovy folk. A just published study in the American Journal of Hypertension suggests the practice may bring cardiovascular and mental-health benefits. The research, conducted at American University in Washington, followed 298 students, half of whom practiced transcendental meditation for 20 minutes once or twice daily over three months and half of whom did not. Results: A subgroup of subjects in the meditation group who were at increased risk for hypertension significantly lowered their blood pressure and psychological distress and also bolstered their coping ability. The average reduction in blood pressure in this group—a 6.3-mm Hg decrease in the top (systolic) number of a blood pressure reading and a 4-mm Hg decrease in the lower (diastolic) number, compared with the control group—was associated with a 52 percent reduction in the risk of developing hypertension in the future. Meditators who were not at increased risk for hypertension saw a reduction in psychological distress, depression, and anxiety as well as increased coping ability but no significant lowering of blood pressure.

The results are particularly meaningful at a time when "improvement in mental health is of great concern as greater numbers of college students are being treated for anxiety and depression than ever before," says lead study author, Sanford Nidich, professor of physiology and health at the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Iowa.
Lately, meditation has been garnering attention from a host of medical and scientific researchers. More than 120 meditation studies are listed on clinicaltrials.gov, a clearinghouse for research supported by the National Institutes of Health, investigating the intervention in patients with conditions from cancer and heart disease to post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, and binge eating. It's no cure-all, but early research is suggesting meditation could play a helpful role in mediating the stress response that contributes to a number of physical and mental conditions.

In a country famous for medical innovation and high-tech treatments—not to mention their high cost—Americans, too, have begun to embrace complementary and alternative interventions like meditation, acupuncture, and "natural" supplements. According to a recent study sponsored by the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, more than 1 in 3 adults sought such healthcare in 2007—and collectively spent $40 billion out of pocket. But with the exception of the classes, books, or CDs one might buy to learn the ins and outs of "om," focusing on one's breath, or becoming more mindful, the practice of meditation is free.

One simple thing seems clear: Find a type of meditation that you like. "What's really important," says Richard Davidson, neuroscience and meditation researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison," is that a person find a particular style [of meditation] they're comfortable with so they continue to practice." Some styles train practitioners to focus on an object or a mantra; others cultivate positive emotions; others still aim to train practitioners not to judge thoughts that arise but to just accept them and not get attached. More meditation, it seems, offers stronger effects; Davidson's research on monks who had practiced for tens of thousands of hours in their lifetimes managed to change their brains' functioning and structure. Benefits appear to be attainable with less of a time commitment, he adds—perhaps somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes daily.

That Tap Water Is Legal but May Be Unhealthy

The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal.

Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Government and independent scientists have scrutinized thousands of those chemicals in recent decades, and identified hundreds associated with a risk of cancer and other diseases at small concentrations in drinking water, according to an analysis of government records by The New York Times.

But not one chemical has been added to the list of those regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2000.

Other recent studies have found that even some chemicals regulated by that law pose risks at much smaller concentrations than previously known. However, many of the act’s standards for those chemicals have not been updated since the 1980s, and some remain essentially unchanged since the law was passed in 1974.

All told, more than 62 million Americans have been exposed since 2004 to drinking water that did not meet at least one commonly used government health guideline intended to help protect people from cancer or serious disease, according to an analysis by The Times of more than 19 million drinking-water test results from the District of Columbia and the 45 states that made data available.

In some cases, people have been exposed for years to water that did not meet those guidelines.

But because such guidelines were never incorporated into the Safe Drinking Water Act, the vast majority of that water never violated the law.

Some officials overseeing local water systems have tried to go above and beyond what is legally required. But they have encountered resistance, sometimes from the very residents they are trying to protect, who say that if their water is legal it must be safe.

Dr. Pankaj Parekh, director of the water quality division for the City of Los Angeles, has faced such criticism. The water in some city reservoirs has contained contaminants that become likely cancer-causing compounds when exposed to sunlight.

To stop the carcinogens from forming, the city covered the surface of reservoirs, including one in the upscale neighborhood of Silver Lake, with a blanket of black plastic balls that blocked the sun.

Then complaints started from owners of expensive houses around the reservoir. “They supposedly discovered these chemicals, and then they ruined the reservoir by putting black pimples all over it,” said Laurie Pepper, whose home overlooks the manmade lake. “If the water is so dangerous, why can’t they tell us what laws it’s violated?”

Dr. Parekh has struggled to make his case. “People don’t understand that just because water is technically legal, it can still present health risks,” he said. “And so we encounter opposition that can become very personal.”

Some federal regulators have tried to help officials like Dr. Parekh by pushing to tighten drinking water standards for chemicals like industrial solvents, as well as a rocket fuel additive that has polluted drinking water sources in Southern California and elsewhere. But those efforts have often been blocked by industry lobbying.

Drinking water that does not meet a federal health guideline will not necessarily make someone ill. Many contaminants are hazardous only if consumed for years. And some researchers argue that even toxic chemicals, when consumed at extremely low doses over long periods, pose few risks. Others argue that the cost of removing minute concentrations of chemicals from drinking water does not equal the benefits.

Moreover, many of the thousands of chemicals that have not been analyzed may be harmless. And researchers caution that such science is complicated, often based on extrapolations from animal studies, and sometimes hard to apply nationwide, particularly given that more than 57,400 water systems in this country each deliver, essentially, a different glass of water every day.

Government scientists now generally agree, however, that many chemicals commonly found in drinking water pose serious risks at low concentrations.

And independent studies in such journals as Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology; Environmental Health Perspectives; American Journal of Public Health; and Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health, as well as reports published by the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that millions of Americans become sick each year from drinking contaminated water, with maladies from upset stomachs to cancer and birth defects.

Drinking cups of tea and coffee 'can prevent diabetes'

Tea and coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a large body of evidence shows.

And the protection may not be down to caffeine since decaf coffee has the greatest effect, say researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine.

They looked at 18 separate studies involving nearly 500,000 people.

This analysis revealed that people who drink three or four cups of coffee or tea a day cut their risk by a fifth or more, say researchers.

The same amount of decaffeinated coffee had an even bigger effect, lowering risk by a third.

Type 2 diabetes usually starts after the age of 40 and develops when the body can still make some insulin, but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly. Type 2 diabetes is treated with a healthy diet and increased physical activity. In addition to this, medication and/or insulin is often required.

If the findings prove true, doctors may well start advising people to put the kettle on as well as take more exercise and watch their weight, say the researchers.

When the authors combined and analysed the data, they found that each additional cup of coffee consumed in a day cut diabetes risk by 7%.

Lead researcher Dr Rachel Huxley, from the University of Sydney in Australia, said because of the finding with decaffeinated coffee, the link is unlikely to be solely related to caffeine.

Instead, other compounds in coffee and tea - including magnesium and antioxidants known as lignans or chlorogenic acids - may be involved.

Special brew

"The identification of the active components of these beverages would open up new therapeutic pathways for the primary prevention of diabetes mellitus.

"If such beneficial effects were observed in interventional trials to be real, the implications for the millions of individuals who have diabetes mellitus, or who are at future risk of developing it, would be substantial."

Dr Victoria King, of Diabetes UK, said: "Without full information about what other factors may be influencing the type 2 diabetes risk of the studies' participants - such as their physical activity levels and diet - as well as what the active ingredient in tea or coffee appears to be, we cannot be sure what, if anything, this observed effect is down to.

"What we can be sure of is that the development of type 2 diabetes is strongly linked to lifestyle, which means that many cases could be prevented by keeping active and eating a healthy balanced diet that is low in fat, salt and sugar with plenty of fruit and vegetables."

Antidepressants linked to increased stroke risk

MIddle-aged women who take antidepressants are at an increased risk of stroke, a major study has found.

A large study of women who have been through the menopause found those taking antidepressants were 45 per cent more likely to suffer a stroke than those of the same age not on the medicines.

The research also found that overall death rates were 32 per cent higher in women on the drugs.

Experts said patients would have to weigh the benefits of the drugs against the increased risk, adding that depression was a serious condition in itself that could prove fatal.

Antidepressants are one of the most commonly prescribed medicines in Britain and in 2008 there were 36 million prescriptions dispensed in England. It means around three million people were taking antidepressants in England last year.

The findings are from an analysis of the wider Women's Health Initiative Study and involved 136,000 women aged between 50 and 79.

Comparisons were made between the 5,500 women were had been prescribed antidepressants since being enrolled in the research and those who had not. There was no difference in the rates of heart attacks but those on antidepressants were 45 per cent more likely to suffer a stroke.

It is not known why there is a link and the researchers said they could not rule out that some of the effect may be due to the depression rather than just the drugs.

The drugs may affect how blood clots, the study said.

The findings were published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Lead author Dr Jordan Smoller, of the Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, America, wrote: "Although these results raise concerns about adverse effects of antidepressants, it is important to note that depression itself has been implicated as a risk factor for coronary heart disease, stroke, early death, and other adverse outcomes. In addition, inadequately treated depression is associated with substantial disability, impairments in quality of life, and health care costs.

"Nevertheless, our results suggest that physicians should be vigilant about controlling other modifiable cardiovascular risk factors in women taking antidepressants. Further research is needed to clarify the risk-benefit ratio of antidepressant use among older women."

The researchers said the risk of an individual woman suffering a stroke is low so even with the increase it remains relatively rare.

They said in the study the chance of an individual woman suffering a stroke in one year was 0.3 per cent for those not taking antidepressants and was 0.43 for those on the medicines.

They added that despite this, because antidepressants are prescribed in such large volumes there are important implications for public health.

Dr Jordan Smoller said: "While this study did find an association between antidepressants and cardiovascular events, additional research needs to be done to determine exactly what it signifies.

"Older women taking antidepressants, like everyone else, should also work on modifying their other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as maintaining a healthy weight and controlling cholesterol levels and blood pressure."

Joanne Murphy, Research Liaison Officer for The Stroke Association said: "This study seems to show a link between antidepressants and stroke; however the overall risk for women taking antidepressants is relatively small. More research needs to be done to determine the actual causes.

"We are already aware of links between depression and the risk of stroke and we are currently funding further studies to look into this.

"Everyone can help reduce their risk of stroke by making lifestyle changes, such as reducing their blood pressure, giving up smoking, reducing alcohol intake, improving their diet and getting plenty of exercise. Anyone who is at all concerned should consult their GP."

Body clock link to heart disease

Scientists have raised the possibility that cardiovascular disease is linked to disturbances in the body's 24-hour clock.

Working on mice, the Japanese team found a genetic risk factor for a form of high blood pressure is influenced by 24-hour or circadian rhythms.

The study appears online in the journal Nature Medicine.

Malfunctions in the body clock - which influences much of the body's chemistry - have been linked to many diseases.

And lead researcher Professor Hitoshi Okamura said the latest study was in line with data which suggested shift workers, long-distance flight crews and people with sleep disorders have a heightened risk of heart problems.

High blood pressure - known as hypertension - can lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney damage, and many other medical problems.

Many genes have been identified as being essential elements making up the circadian clock.

For example, mice lacking a pair of molecules known as cryptochromes have an abnormal circadian rhythm.

The latest study, by Kyoto University, found these mice were vulnerable to high blood pressure because of abnormally high levels of a hormone called aldosterone that prompts water retention in the kidneys.

Strong correlation

The researchers showed that the circadian clock directly controls a gene that plays a key role in production of the hormone.

The researchers say a similar gene is found in humans.

They stress more work is needed to determine whether a misfiring circadian clock can lead to high blood pressure in humans.

But Professor Okamura said the research raised the prospect of new ways to treat hypertension.

Professor Bryan Williams, an expert in hypertension at the University of Leicester, described the study as "fascinating".

He said: "We know that there is a strong correlation between time of day and cardiovascular events, which often coincide with the early morning surge in blood pressure.

"So this does provide some insights into the mechanism that might underpin blood pressure deregulation in some people."

Professor Williams said some people with high blood pressure were known to have high levels of aldosterone.

But he added: "What we don't know is how common this mutation might be in human hypertension."

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Hypertension is common, but the genes controlling blood pressure are not well understood.

"Their identification will help design better treatments for high blood pressure."

But he also stressed more research was needed before it became clear whether the study had identified a potential target for new treatments.

Fat in diet won't affect weight gain over time

The percentage of calories that a person got from fat, as opposed to protein or carbohydrates, had nothing to do with how much weight they gained in the coming years, the research team found.

The kinds of fat they ate didn't matter either, Dr. Nita Forouhi of the Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK and her colleagues found.

The findings, Forouhi noted in an email to Reuters Health, show that "it is more important to aim for a healthy lifestyle including a balanced healthy diet and regular physical activity, than to focus on fat intake alone as a factor for weight gain."

The role of dietary fat content in obesity and weight gain is still controversial, Forouhi and her team note. To investigate, they looked at data on nearly 90,000 men and women from six different countries participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Study. Participants were followed for up to 10 years.

Average fat intake ranged from 31.5 percent to 36.5 percent of total calories. On average, people gained about a quarter of a pound every year. But analyses that accounted for several factors found no relationship between how much weight people gained and how much fat they ate, or their intake of polyunsaturated fats versus saturated fats.

The findings shouldn't be seen as showing that people can eat as much fat as they want, Forouhi said. "That would be absurd, given so much evidence that already exists on the potential harms of diets high in saturated or trans-fats for heart health for instance," the researcher said.

In the US, she added, dietary recommendations state that people should maintain a fat intake that is 20 percent to 35 percent of total calories, and eat "healthy" fats from fish, nuts, and vegetable oils instead of "unhealthy" saturated and trans fats.

She added: "The healthiest way to avoid weight gain is to make sure that, when appropriate, total calorie intake is limited by reducing one's intake of added sugars, fats, and alcohol, which all provide calories but few or no essential nutrients, to watch portion sizes of food (so food portions consumed do not increase in size over time), and at the same time take regular physical activity."

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 200

Antioxidants may boost colon health: Study

Selenium-based antioxidant supplements may prevent the development of new colon polyps in people with a history of polyp formation, says a new study.

Over 400 people participated in the study, which saw them receive either placebo or a antioxidant-rich supplement containing selenomethionnine, zinc, and vitamins A, C, and E. At the end of the study people in the antioxidant group experienced a 40 per cent reduction in the incidence of new polyps of the large bowel.

“Our study is the first intervention trial specifically designed to evaluate the efficacy of the selenium-based antioxidant compound on the risk of developing metachronous adenomas,” said lead researcher Luigina Bonelli, MD, from Italy’s National Institute for Cancer Research in Genoa.

The study represents another step on the ladder of supporting the potential anti-cancer effects of the mineral. Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration said there is “no credible evidence” to support qualified health claims for selenium dietary supplements and a reduced risk of urinary tract cancers other than bladder cancer, lung and other respiratory tract cancers, colon and other digestive tract cancers, brain cancer, liver cancer, or breast cancer.

The research findings are being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference, held in Houston. NutraIngredients has not seen the full data.

Adenomatous polyps (or adenoma) are benign lesions of the large bowel that, in time, could progress to cancer, explain the researchers. Even though only a small proportion of adenomas will develop into cancer, it is said that almost 70 to 80 per cent of colorectal cancer stems from an adenoma.

Study details

Bonelli and her co-workers randomly assigned the 411 participants aged between 25 and 75 to receive either placebo or the antioxidant supplement. The supplement provided daily doses of 200 micrograms of selenomethionnine, 30 milligrams of zinc, 6,000 IU of vitamin A, 180 milligrams of vitamin C, and 30 milligrams of vitamin E. All the participants had already undergone surgery to remove one or more colorectal adenomas.

“Our results indicated that individuals who consumed antioxidants had a 40 per cent reduction in the incidence of metachronous adenomas of the large bowel,” said Bonelli. “It is noteworthy that the benefit observed after the conclusion of the trial persisted through 13 years of follow up.”

Selenium and prostate health – controversial or convincing?

While the science may be lacking for selenium and colon health, a greater body of science exists for the mineral and prostate health. However, this subject is controversial. A number of studies, most notably the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer study and the Alpha-tocopherol, Beta-carotene Cancer Prevention study, have reported that the nutrients, alone or in combination, may reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

With over half a million new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed every year world wide, and the cancer directly causing over 200,000 deaths, potential preventive measures are highly desirable. Despite great promise over vitamin E and selenium, recent results from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) reported no significant differences between any of the groups in relation to prostate cancer risk.

The results were greeted with disappointment, while many in both academia and industry indicating that, given positive results from previous clinical trials and epidemiological studies, the design of SELECT, including the supplements used, may have undermined the results.

Oxygen Therapy Can Help Cluster Headaches

"It feels like a burning hot poker being shoved through your eye while an elephant stands on your temple, while someone is punching you in the back of the head and pulling on your hair," said Justin Ott, 31, when describing the pain of a cluster headache.

Ott has suffered from cluster headaches for 10 years, and was motivated to chronicle the debilitating pain -- sometimes called a "suicide headache" -- in a documentary film.

Doctors estimate only 0.3 percent of the population suffers from cluster headaches, and that men are much more likely to be affected.

"From when you first feel it start, and when it comes to full strength, it's five minutes, maybe," said Ott, a writer, producer, director and cinematographer from Weehawken, N.J. "Everybody's different, but if left untreated it can go on for 30 minutes to 60 minutes."

Now, new research suggests that sufferers like Ott can take advantage of a relatively simple treatment to help control the excruciating pain of cluster headaches -- a treatment called oxygen therapy.

Once a person feels a cluster headache coming on, he or she can often stop the headache in its tracks by breathing with a high-flow oxygen face mask.

Oxygen therapy has been used by some headache specialists for 30 years, but has, until now, been considered experimental because there have been no clinical trials proving its effectiveness. Researchers in the United Kingdom treated 76 adults with either high-flow oxygen or a placebo of high-flow normal air for 15 minutes.
Their study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 78 percent of those on oxygen reported immediate relief compared to only 20 percent receiving the placebo.

Dr. Allan Purdy of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Center in Canada said that he thought the research was an "excellent study… an evidence-based trial to confirm what we have known and used in practice for years."

Although the study was one of the first to investigate using oxygen to treat cluster headaches, Ott and other cluster headache survivors have taught each other to use the treatment for years.

"Oxygen really, is the best thing. If I'm at home and I get an attack, that's my first thing, is the oxygen," said Ott. "I have tanks all around my house."

Adequate sleep tied to healthier diets in truckers

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Getting plenty of sleep not only helps keep truck drivers safe and alert on the road, it also seems to fuel healthy eating habits, new research hints.

In surveys of truckers working at U.S. trucking terminals, those who felt they regularly got adequate sleep tended to consume more fruits and vegetables and fewer sugary drinks and snacks, Dr. Orfeu M. Buxton, at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues found.

These real-world findings are consistent with laboratory studies showing that insufficient sleep increases hunger and "induces greater eating, especially unnecessary snacking," Buxton noted in an email to Reuters Health.

Buxton and associates assessed self-reported diet, sleep, and job-related factors of 542 male Teamster union members who were 49 years old on average.

Sixty-six percent worked as pick-up and delivery truck drivers, 20 percent as over-the-road truckers, and 15 percent served dual roles as dockworkers and truck drivers, they note in the American Journal of Public Health.

Most of the workers (87 percent) were satisfied with their job and a little more than half (52 percent) said they got enough nightly shuteye "to feel rested upon waking up."

These well-rested truckers also said they ate an average of about 3 servings of fruits and vegetables (not including French fries), less than one serving of a sugar-added drink, and less than half a serving of a sugary snack daily.

By contrast, truckers reporting insufficient sleep reported eating about two fruit and vegetable servings, and slightly more than one sugary drink and nearly one sugary snack each day.

The investigators conclude that workplace programs to encourage adequate worker sleep may have positive benefits on employee health