A BETTER CANCER SCAN

If you cone up clean after a colonoscopy, you’re almost certainly cancerfree. Bat the keyword is “almost “As good as the testis, itisn’tperfect, which is hv scientists at Avantis Medical S stems developed the third-eve retroscope, a device that can rotate 180 degrees to let physicians inspect areas of your colon that can be missed during a regular colonoscopy. In a recent Indiana University study, the retroscope detected significantly more growths than standard scoping did. Check with your gastroenterolo— gist for availability.

Risks associated with oral sex:

Oral sex refers to sexual activities involving the stimulation of the genitalia by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat.

What are the Risks of Oral Sex?

There is a commonly held belief among many lay people that oral sex carries little or no risk. In fact, some consider oral sex a safer sex alternative. But the truth is, like any other sexual activity, oral sex carries a risk of transmitting –

•Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)

•Chlamydia

•Gonorrhea

•Herpes

•Hepatitis

•HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)

If the receiving partner has wounds or open sores on their genitals, or if the giving partner has wounds or open sores on or in their mouth, or bleeding gums, this poses an increased risk of STDs transmission. Brushing the teeth, flossing, undergoing dental work, or eating crunchy foods, such as chips relatively soon before or after giving oral sex, can also increase the risk of transmission, because all of these activities can cause small scratches in the lining of the mouth.

These wounds, even when they are microscopic, increase the chances of contracting STDs that can be transmitted orally under these conditions. Such contact can also lead to more mundane infections from common bacteria and viruses found in, around, and secreted from the genital regions. The risk is even greater in serodiscordant couples (one partner is HIV positive while the other is negative), people who are not monogamous, or in people who inject drugs and/or share needles and syringes.

British scientists have decoded the mystery of why ‘instant cancers’ seemingly appear out of nowhere.
The finding from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK contradicts the long-held theory that thousands of mutations over a lifetime cause cancer.
It also helps explain why some people are diagnosed with cancer only months after x-rays or other tests fail to detect traces of the disease, the journal Cell reports.
The discovery was based on the genetic flaws in 750 tumours. In most cases, the damage to chromosomes upheld the conventional picture of cancer creeping up over the years, according to the Daily Mail.
But at least one tumour in 40 didn’t fit the pattern. Instead, the damage appeared to have been done almost overnight.
Researcher Peter Campbell said: “The results astounded us. It seems that in a single cell, in a single event, one or more of the chromosomes explode – literally into hundreds of fragments.”
If the cell then botches the repair, stitching the fragments back together in a ‘higgledy piggledy’ fashion, the damage to its genome, or cache of DNA, leaves it ripe for the rapid development of cancer.
Campbell said: “They attempt to reconstruct the unreconstructable and they wind up with a disastrous genome that shortens the road to cancer.”
The phenomenon is particularly common in bone cancers, where the distinct pattern of damage is seen in up to one in four cases. But it is thought to be to blame for more than one in 40 of all cases of the disease.

Cancer is a man-made disease triggered by the excesses of modern life, says a new study.

Tumours were rare until recent times when pollution and poor diet became issues, the review of mummies, fossils and classical literature has found.

Despite slivers of tissue from hundreds of Egyptian mummies being rehydrated, just one case of cancer has been confirmed, reports the journal Nature Reviews Cancer.

And references to cancer-like problems in ancient Egyptian texts are more likely to have been caused by leprosy or varicose veins, according to the Daily Mail.

Michael Zimmerman, the visiting professor at the Manchester University, Britain, said: “The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies must be interpreted as indicating their rarity in antiquity.”

“This indicates that cancer-causing factors are limited to societies affected by modern industrialisation.”

Co-researcher Professor Rosalie David said: “There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be down to pollution and changes to diet and lifestyle.”

“The important thing about our study is that it gives a historical perspective to this disease.”

“Data from across the millennia has given modern society a clear message – cancer is man-made and something that we can and should address,” David said.

A strict diet two days a week comprising only vegetables, fruits, milk and a salty beverage could prevent breast cancer.
Women who cut back to just 650 calories a day, twice a week, had significantly lower levels of cancer-causing hormones in their blood, according to a new study.
Researchers said women at high risk of breast cancer could be put on similar diets for the rest of their lives to try to prevent tumours.
The study examined 50 overweight women aged 30 to 45 years who were at a high genetic risk of developing breast cancer as either their mother or sister had suffered from the disease, the Daily Mail reported.
For two days each week, they were limited to eating just a third of the recommended 2,000 calorie daily intake for women, the International Journal of Obesity said.
This had to include four portions of vegetables, one piece of fruit, two pints of semi-skimmed milk or green tea, a diet soft drink or a salty beverage such as a cup of hot Bovril.
For the remainder of the week, they were allowed to eat as much as they wanted, as long as they stuck to healthy food that was relatively low in fat.
After six months, scientists found that the women had far less leptin and insulin in their blood – hormones that can cause cancer.
Leptin fell by an average of 40 per cent and insulin by an average of 25 per cent.
The women also lost an average of 6.3 kg in weight and recorded a 15 percent drop in levels of the potentially harmful C-reactor protein, which is also known to increase the risk of breast cancer, in their blood.
Michelle Harvie, a dietician specialising in breast cancer, who led the study at the Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, said: “On the two-day diet you can restrict your calories far more than you would be able to if you were on a diet every single day.”

Believe it or not, traffic pollution can double a woman’s chances of getting breast cancer.
Breast cancer incidence was clearly higher in areas with increased levels of nitrogen dioxide, the Daily Mail quoted researchers as saying.
Mr Mark Goldberg from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in Canada said:”We found a link between post-menopausal breast cancer and exposure to nitrogen dioxide, a marker for traffic-related air pollution.”
Across Montreal, levels of nitrogen dioxide varied between five parts per billion to over 30 parts per billion, he said, according to the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
We found that risk increased by about 25 per cent with every increase of nitrogen dioxide of five parts per billion, Mr Goldberg said.
Another way of saying this is that women living in the areas with the highest levels of pollution were almost twice as likely to develop breast cancer as those living in the least polluted areas, he added.
Mr Goldberg warned that the disturbing results should be interpreted with great caution. First of all, this doesn’t mean nitrogen dioxide causes breast cancer.
This gas is not the only pollutant created by cars and trucks, but where it is present, so are the other gases, particles and compounds we associate with traffic – some of which are known carcinogens.
The study by researchers from McGill University and the University of Montreal combined data from several studies.

Women who regularly work up a sweat exercising have a 30 per cent lower risk of developing endometrial cancer, a new study says.
Researchers at the United States’ National Cancer Institute analysed 14 previous studies and found physical activity cuts the risk of endometrial cancer by 20 to 40 per cent when compared to sedentary women. The study was published online Wednesday in the British Journal of Cancer. It was paid for by the National Cancer Institute.
Scientists have long known that exercise cuts yourrisk of cancersincluding the breast, colon, esophagus and kidney. Excess body fat sometimes leads to higher hormone levels, which in turn, may elevate the risk of cancer.
“We already knew that maintaining a healthy body weight is an important way to reduce the risk of womb cancer, but our study showed that physical activity has a protective effect of its own,” said Mr Steven Moore of the National Cancer Institute, the study’s lead author.
But experts still aren’t sure exactly how much physical activity is needed to lower their risk. One study showed more than 20 per cent of womb cancers could have been avoided if women had exercised vigorously for about 20 minutes at least five times a week.
In related research, Mr Moore and colleagues also considered past studies that tracked how much time women spent sitting. They found women who sat for more than nine hours a day had double the risk of endometrial cancer compared to women who sat fewer than three hours a day. In developed countries, women have about a 1 in 40 chance of getting womb cancer.
“This new research provides clear evidence that the more active women are less likely they are to develop womb cancer,” said Ms Sara Hiom, the director of health information at Cancer Research U.K. She was not linked to the research.
Ms Hiom said exercise helped reduce potentially harmful levels of estrogen. “Keeping active and doing plenty of exercise as well as spending more time on your feet will help reduce the risk of womb cancer.”

Tomatoes can protect people against prostate cancer and may even slow the growth of a tumour, say scientists.

The study was done on mice and researchers found those fed a meal each day consisting of 10 percent cherry tomato powder had lower rates of cancer and survived longer than those mice on a normal diet, reports express.co.uk.

The University of Naples study stated that daily consumption of a tomato-rich diet was highly effective in preventing prostate cancer in mice.

But Joanna Owens, from Cancer Research Britain disagrees and said: “This study doesn’t provide enough evidence that tomatoes can reduce the risk of prostate cancer or prevent progression of the disease in humans.

“Other risks such as age, family history and ethnicity are likely to play a much greater role than diet alone.”

Certain plant substances found in grapes, berries and walnuts, when given in combinations, have shown promise in preventing skin cancer.

The compounds, which occur naturally in a number of plant-based foods, were tested on mice that had been engineered to develop skin cancer, according to a Texas University statement.

“On the basis of our research, supplements and creams or sunscreens may be developed, tested in humans and then used to prevent skin cancer,” said Zbigniew Walaszek, associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Texas Health Science Centre.

The natural cancer fighting agents include resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes and grapeseed extract.

Others are calcium D-glucarate, a salt of D-glucaric acid, which is present in the human bloodstream and in many fruits and vegetables, and ellagic acid, found in a host of berries and in walnuts.

Each of these compounds work in a different way, so giving them in combination is most protective.

Black rice, revered in ancient China, could be the greatest ‘superfood’. Low in sugar, the grain is packed with healthy fibre and plant compounds that combat heart disease and cancer, say experts.

Scientists from Louisiana State University analysed samples of bran from black rice grown in the southern US and found it boosted levels of water-soluble anthocyanin antioxidants, reports the Daily Mail.

Anthocyanins impart dark hues to fruits and vegetables, which includes blueberries and red peppers and also turn rice ‘black’.

Research suggests that anthocyanins, which mop up harmful molecules, can help protect arteries and prevent the DNA damage that leads to cancer.

Food scientist Zhimin Xu said: “Just a spoonful of black rice bran contains more health promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than are found in a spoonful of blueberries, but with less sugar, and more fibre and vitamin E antioxidants.”

“If berries are used to boost health, why not black rice and black rice bran? Especially, black rice bran would be a unique and economical material to increase consumption of health-promoting antioxidants.”

It is occasionally known as the ‘Forbidden Rice’ because Chinese nobles forbade common people from eating it. Today black rice is mainly used in Asia for food decoration, noodles, sushi and desserts.

But food manufacturers could potentially use black rice bran or bran extracts to make breakfast cereals, beverages, cakes, biscuits and other foods healthier, said Xu.

When rice is processed, millers remove the outer layers of the grains to produce brown rice or more refined white rice – the kind most widely consumed in the West.

Brown rice is said to be more nutritious because it has higher levels of healthy vitamin E compounds and antioxidants.

But according to Xu’s team, varieties of rice that are black or purple in colour are healthier still.