Tuesday April 21, 2009

New Study Finds Removing Ovaries During Hysterectomy Increases Risk of Death, Outweighs Benefits
Business Wire 04-20-09
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Apr 20, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Results of a landmark study led by a doctor at John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Health Center raises serious questions about the long-term survival benefits of removing a woman's ovaries during routine hysterectomy. The study, appearing in the May 2009 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, compared women with benign (noncancerous) reproductive disease who were given a hysterectomy, with either bilateral oophorectomy (removing both ovaries) or ovarian conservation (leaving the ovaries intact).
For decades, bilateral oophorectomy has been a common practice to eliminate the possible risk of developing ovarian cancer. However, the new study shows that while women receiving bilateral oophorectomy do have a decreased risk of contracting ovarian cancer and breast cancer, they face a higher risk of death overall, a higher risk of fatal and nonfatal coronary heart disease, and a higher risk of lung cancer. In addition, removing the ovaries does not appear to provide any overall increased survival benefit.
The investigation, titled "Ovarian Conservation at the Time of Hysterectomy and Long-Term Health Outcomes in the Nurses' Health Study," pulled together an international team under the direction of William H. Parker, M.D. of John Wayne Cancer Institute and researchers from Harvard Medical School. In 2004, Dr. Parker, a practicing gynecological surgeon and researcher, began to question the value of removing a woman's ovaries for prophylactic reasons, since the average risk of ovarian cancer is relatively low. Ovarian cancer accounts for about 3% of all cancers in women, and is responsible for less than 1% of all causes of death in women.
Dr. Parker turned to the Nurses' Health Study, one of several large-scale studies that provide researchers with decades of reliable health data on older women. Started in the mid-1970s, the first Nurses' Health study has continuously tracked 121,700 female registered nurses to assess risk factors for cancer and cardiovascular disease.
The team focused on a set of 29,380 women from the study: 16,345 had hysterectomy with bilateral oophorectomy, and 13,035 had hysterectomy with ovarian conservation. They evaluated incident events and death from coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, total cancers, hip fracture, pulmonary embolus, and death from all causes. Women were divided into age groups to reflect pre- and post-menopausal status at the time of hysterectomy, as well as whether or not they had received estrogen replacement therapy.
After adjusting for multiple independent risk factors, the researchers found several striking trends: Removing both ovaries was indeed associated with a markedly lower risk of ovarian cancer, as well as a reduced risk of breast cancer and cancer overall. However, women with oophorectomy had a significantly higher risk of CHD, stroke and lung cancer.
Looking at survival rates, women with oophorectomy had a higher risk of death from CHD, lung cancer and all cancers. The risk of death from all causes was significantly greater for women who were younger than age 50 at the time of surgery. The study concluded that for every 24 women having bilateral oophorectomy, at least one woman will die prematurely from any cause as a result of the procedure.
While the risk of dying from ovarian cancer did decrease dramatically after oophorectomy, the risk to women whose ovaries had been conserved was also extremely low (34 deaths out of 13,305 women, or 0.26%).
Importantly, no analysis or age group showed an increased survival associated with oophorectomy.
"For the last 35 years, most doctors have been routinely advising women undergoing hysterectomy to have their ovaries removed to prevent ovarian cancer," said Dr. Parker. "We believe that such an automatic recommendation is no longer warranted."
Dr. Parker asserted that women who are at high risk of ovarian cancer should indeed consider oophorectomy as part of hysterectomy: this includes women with a family history of ovarian cancer, and women who carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations that increase the risk of ovarian cancer.
"Certainly, some women do have a high risk of ovarian cancer, but this is relatively rare in the general population," Dr. Parker explained. "For the majority of women, the risk of ovarian cancer is very low. While taking out the ovaries will effectively prevent ovarian cancer, this study shows that it significantly increases the risk of other diseases that are much more likely to kill you, such as heart disease, stroke and lung cancer, which are far more common causes of death."
The study report notes that ovarian cancer kills 14,700 women in the U.S. each year, while CHD accounts for 326,000 deaths, and stroke accounts for approximately 86,900 deaths annually.
"We believe these results highlight the need for a new conversation between the patient and doctor, framed by the patient's specific risk factors and personal concerns," Dr. Parker said.
"Before menopause, the ovaries make a lot of estrogen, plus androgens including testosterone and androstenedione. These hormones keep the heart, bones and blood vessels healthy," Dr. Parker explained. "After menopause, the ovaries make less estrogen, but continue to produce androstenedione and testosterone, which are converted by fat and muscle cells into estrogen. So there is a continued source of estrogen from these hormones that continues to protect the blood vessels. If you remove the ovaries, you lose the estrogen and the androgens, and the benefits to the blood vessels."
Interestingly, although the protective effects of estrogen have been known for decades, no researchers had investigated the oophorectomy connection until now.
"Nobody to date had thought to look at the big picture," Dr. Parker said. "That is, how does the survival data actually inform the decision about whether to take out the ovaries or not?"
Reflecting on his motivation to develop the study, Dr. Parker explained, "I have been in private practice for many years, and this is something my patients and I have to deal with on a regular basis. After a while, the common knowledge appeared to be wrong. It didn't make sense to me to advise women to have their healthy ovaries removed when there might be benefits that we hadn't accounted for."
"We need to tell our patients that they should consider the benefits of keeping their ovaries over the long term," Dr. Parker concluded. "And in my experience, most women intuitively think this is the right answer."
Ovarian Conservation at the Time of Hysterectomy and Long-Term Health Outcomes in the Nurses' Health Study. William H. Parker, Michael S. Broder, Eunice Chang, Diane Feskanich, Cindy Farquhar, Zhimae Liu, Donna Shoupe, Jonathan S. Berek, Susan Hankinson, JoAnn E. Manson. Obstetrics & Gynecology, Vol. 113, No. 5, May 2009
John Wayne Cancer Institute
Since 1981, the John Wayne name has been committed by the Wayne family to groundbreaking cancer research and education in memory of their father, who died of cancer. The John Wayne Cancer Institute has received worldwide acclaim for advances in melanoma (skin cancer), breast and colon cancer as well as for immune therapy of cancer. Other areas of research include prostate and liver cancer. With its unique ability to rapidly turn scientific breakthroughs into innovative approaches to treatment and early detection, the JWCI provides immediate hope to cancer patients around the globe.
Saint John's Health Center
Since its founding in 1942 by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Saint John's Health Center has been providing the patients and families of Santa Monica, West Los Angeles and ocean communities with compassionate, advanced medical care. Saint John's provides a spectrum of treatment and diagnostic services with distinguished areas of excellence in cancer care, cardiac care, orthopedics, women's health and specialized programs such as the internationally acclaimed John Wayne Cancer Institute. Saint John's Health Center is dedicated to bringing to the community the most innovative advances in medicine and technology.
SOURCE: Saint John's Health Center
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=8161&Section=Disease

Middle Eastern herb shows potential against pancreatic cancer

Nutraingredients.com, 21-Apr-2009

An extract from the Middle Eastern herb Nigella sativa may not only stop the growth of pancreatic cancer, but inhibit the development of the tumours, suggest new results from the US.
Thymoquinone, the major constituent of the herb’s oil, was found to have anti-inflammatory activity resulting in lower levels of inflammatory compounds linked to pancreatic cancer, according to findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 100th Annual Meeting 2009 in Denver.
The study findings, which have been accepted for publication in the Oxford journal Hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB), suggest that, if future studies back up the early promise, the herb extract could offer potential benefits to people with chronic pancreatitis or those at risk of development or recurrence of pancreatic cancer.
The seed and oil of Nigella sativa have been used extensively in traditional medicine in many Middle Eastern and Asian countries, said the researchers, for the treatment of a range of conditions, including some immune and inflammatory disorders.
"These are very exciting and novel results," said lead researcher Hwyda Arafat, MD, PhD, from Thomas Jefferson University. “These potent effects show promise for the herb as a potential preventive and therapeutic strategy for pancreatic cancer. More importantly, the herb and oil are safe when used moderately, and have been used for thousands of years without reported toxic effects," she added.
According to the US National Cancer Institute almost 38,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer are diagnosed every year in the US, with almost 34,000 deaths from the disease. British charity Cancer Research UK states that the pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis overall since most cases are diagnosed quite late. Indeed, only one in every 50 cases will still be living five years after diagnosis, highlighting the importance of prevention for this type of cancer.
Dr Arafat told NutraIngredients.com that his team first reported the potential anti-cancer benefits of the herb last year at the Digestive Disease week in San Diego.
“This year, we're showing the anti-inflammatory activities and the effect of treating animals with xenografts of human pancreatic cancer,” she said.
“So, yes, you can consider this as the first (or second) report about the anticancerous effect of NS in pancreatic cancer by our group. To my knowledge, no one else published about NS in pancreatic cancer.”
Availability
The herb is available on many websites, according to Dr Arafat. “There are few websites that sell good product that is well manufactured and packed. So, it is available,” she explained.
Study details
The earlier results showed that thymoquinone could inhibit compounds called histone deacetylases (HDACs), which play a role in gene expression and have been linked to cancer progression. For the new study, Dr Arafat and her colleagues compared the anti-inflammatory properties of thymoquinone with trichostatin A, a known HDAC inhibitor previously reported to improve inflammation-associated cancers.
Using pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) cells pre-treated with the cytokine TNF-alpha to induce inflammation, the researchers report that the Nigella sativa extract could almost completely inhibit the expression of several inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-alpha, interleukin-1beta (IL-1b), IL-8, Cox-2 and MCP-1. Moreover, the effect was superior to that observed from trichostatin A.
Furthermore, when animal with pancreatic cancer were given thymoquinone, 67 per cent of the tumours significantly shrank, with corresponding levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines significantly reduced.
On-going study
Dr Arafat confirmed that this remains a very active area of investigation. She is currently in the process of attaining funding for a “more aggressive program to get more information from preclinical studies”.
Once funding is in the place, the researchers would “actively proceed to a phase I clinical trial. I'm currently in discussions with the medical oncologist to write a clinical trial for a small number of patients. After we obtain some preliminary data, we can then proceed to bigger trials for either prevention or therapy,” he said.
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/
Middle-Eastern-herb-shows-potential-against-pancreatic-cancer

Soy and breast cancer – isoflavones don’t affect breast density, says trial

Nutraingredients.com, 21-Apr-2009

Soy isoflavones do not increase or decrease the density of breasts, say results of a new clinical trial from the US that support the safety of the supplements.
Postmenopausal women given two different doses of soy isoflavones did not experience any changes in the density of breast tissue, according to results of the Osteoporosis Prevention Using Soy (OPUS) study published in the Journal of Nutrition.
“These findings offer reassurance that isoflavones do not act like hormone replacement medication on breast density,” wrote the authors, led by Dr Gertraud Maskarinec from the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii.
Soy isoflavones are naturally occurring oestrogen-like compounds, and supplements are currently marketed as a way of reducing symptoms of the menopause and offer an alternative to hormone replacement therapy.
Conflicting reports however have clouded the picture about the beneficial effects of soy isoflavones, with some studies indicating that breast cancer cells in mice were stimulated by the isoflavones. Population studies have shown that women with a high-soy diet generally have lower rates of breast cancer.
“Although we did not observe a beneficial effect of soy-derived isoflavones on mammographic densities during a 2-y randomized trial with .300 women, there was also no sign of any adverse effects,” wrote Maskarinec and her co-workers.
“These findings do not exclude the possibility that breast cancer risk may be reduced as a result of isoflavone exposure earlier in life or through alternate mechanisms of action than through mammographic densities.”
Indeed, findings of a study published last month (Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-08-0405) suggested that high intakes of soy during childhood may reduce a woman’s risk of breast cancer later in life by 58 per cent. Furthermore, the study, limited to Asian Americans, found that high soy intakes during adolescence and as adults were associated with a 20 to 25 per cent reduction.
New data
Dr Maskarinec and her co-workers recruited 358 postmenopausal women with an average age of 55 and randomly assigned them to receive a placebo or one of two soy isoflavone groups (80 or 120 mg per day) for two years.
The authors note that these doses are equivalent to the amounts of isoflavones provided in two to four cups soy milk every day.
Results of mammograms revealed a yearly decrease of 1.6 per cent across all the groups, with no difference between the groups when the results were controlled for age and obesity.
“The fact that hormone replacement therapy interventions, primarily those with progestins, and not those with estrogens alone, modify breast density while soy isoflavones do not, offers some reassurance to those who have been concerned about adverse effects of soy supplementation on breast cell proliferation,” wrote the researchers.
“Furthermore, when adult soy exposure was analyzed in relation to breast density, women reporting regular soy intake had a faster decline in mammographic densities than those who did not consume soy foods,” they added.
While some questions remain over isoflavones and breast cancer risk reduction, the compounds remain popular as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy for those wishing to control menopause symptoms without resorting to drugs.
The other authors were affiliated with the University of California, Davis, Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Georgia, Athens, Northern California Fertility Medical Center, and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
Source: Journal of Nutrition
May 2009, Volume 139, Pages 981-986
“Various doses of soy isoflavones do not modify mammographic density in postmenopausal women”
Authors: G. Maskarinec, M. Verheus, F.M. Steinberg, P. Amato, M.K. Cramer, R.D. Lewis, M.J. Murray, R.L. Young, W.W. Wong
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/
Soy-and-breast-cancer-isoflavones-don-t-affect-breast-density-says-trial

Moms who breastfeed less likely to develop heart attacks or strokes

University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, 21-Apr-2009
PITTSBURGH, April 21 – The longer women breastfeed, the lower their risk of heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular disease, report University of Pittsburgh researchers in a study published in the May issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
"Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, so it's vitally important for us to know what we can do to protect ourselves," said Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology, and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. "We have known for years that breastfeeding is important for babies' health; we now know that it is important for mothers' health as well."
According to the study, postmenopausal women who breastfed for at least one month had lower rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, all known to cause heart disease. Women who had breastfed their babies for more than a year were 10 percent less likely to have had a heart attack, stroke, or developed heart disease than women who had never breastfed.
Dr. Schwarz and colleagues found that the benefits from breastfeeding were long-term ― an average of 35 years had passed since women enrolled in the study had last breastfed an infant.
"The longer a mother nurses her baby, the better for both of them," Dr. Schwarz pointed out. "Our study provides another good reason for workplace policies to encourage women to breastfeed their infants."
The findings are based on 139,681 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative study of chronic disease, initiated in 1994.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/uops-mwb041709.php

Radiation exposure associated with more aggressive thyroid cancer, worse outcomes

JAMA, April 20, 2009
Patients with thyroid cancer who have previously been exposed to radiation—for example, in the workplace, through environmental exposure or for treatment of acne or another condition—appear to have more aggressive disease and tend to have worse outcomes in the long term, according to a report in the April issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
"Thyroid cancer is one of the well-known malignant neoplasms [tumors] associated with radiation exposure," the authors write as background information in the article. "It often induces characteristic histologic changes in thyroid tissue, and it is a well-established risk factor for both benign and malignant thyroid tumors. This is supported by epidemiologic studies in atomic bomb survivors and in children living in contaminated areas around Chernobyl, Ukraine, after the 1986 nuclear reactor accident."
Raewyn M. Seaberg, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, studied 125 patients who had been exposed to radiation at least three years before surgical treatment for thyroid cancer. All the patients were treated at one academic teaching hospital between 1963 and 2007.
Most (56 percent) had a history of direct radiation exposure to the head and neck, usually for the treatment of acne or another benign condition. Six percent had direct radiation exposure to other parts of the body; 23 percent had occupational or diagnostic exposures, such as radiographic technicians, dental assistants or patients exposed to repeated imaging procedures; 11 percent had environmental exposures, such as those in Chernobyl; and 4 percent had received radioactive iodine treatment. The average age at first exposure to radiation was 19.4 years, and cancers were diagnosed an average of 28.7 years later.
Patients were followed for an average of 10.6 years. During this time, 16 percent experienced a recurrence of the disease in the thyroid and 9 percent had cancer that had metastasized (spread) to distant areas. At the last follow-up, 86 percent were alive and free of disease, 4 percent were alive with recurrent thyroid cancer, 4 percent were alive with distant metastases, 4 percent had died of the disease and 2 percent had died of unrelated causes.
These patients were compared with a group of 574 patients of similar ages and sex distribution who also were treated for thyroid cancer but were not exposed to radiation beforehand. The radiation-exposed group was more likely to undergo total or near-total thyroidectomy (removal of the thyroid, 83 percent vs. 38 percent), require additional surgery (23 percent vs. 2 percent), have stage IV disease (16 percent vs. 5 percent), have distant metastases (9 percent vs. 2 percent), have thyroid cancer at follow-up (8 percent vs. 3 percent) or have died of the disease (4 percent vs. 1.5 percent).
"Therefore, this study suggests that patients who have been exposed to radiation have more aggressive disease and worse clinical outcome than other patients with thyroid cancer and, therefore, may require more aggressive treatment," they conclude.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/jaaj-rea041609.php

Too much sugar is bad, but which sugar is worse: Fructose or glucose?

Journal of Clinical Investigation, April 20, 2009
In 2005, the average American consumed 64kg of added sugar, a sizeable proportion of which came through drinking soft drinks. Now, in a 10-week study, Peter Havel and colleagues, at the University of California at Davis, Davis, have provided evidence that human consumption of fructose-sweetened but not glucose-sweetened beverages can adversely affect both sensitivity to the hormone insulin and how the body handles fats, creating medical conditions that increase susceptibility to heart attack and stroke.
In the study, overweight and obese individuals consumed glucose- or fructose-sweetened beverages that provided 25% of their energy requirements for 10 weeks. During this period, individuals in both groups put on about the same amount of weight, but only those consuming fructose-sweetened beverages exhibited an increase in intraabdominal fat. Further, only these individuals became less sensitive to the hormone insulin (which controls glucose levels in the blood) and showed signs of dyslipidemia (increased levels of fat-soluble molecules known as lipids in the blood). As discussed in an accompanying commentary by Susanna Hofmann and Matthias Tschöp, although these are signs of the metabolic syndrome, which increases an individual's risk of heart attack, the long-term affects of fructose over-consumption on susceptibility to heart attack remain unknown
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/joci-tms041609.php

Pesticide exposure found to increase risk of Parkinson's disease

Study finds exposure may have occurred years before symptoms appear

Mark Wheeler, UCLA School of Public Health | 4/20/2009
The fertile soil of California's Central Valley has long made it famous as one of the nation's prime crop-growing regions. But it's not just the soil that allows for such productivity. Crops like potatoes, dry beans and tomatoes have long been protected from bugs and weeds by the fungicide maneb and the herbicide paraquat.
 Scientists know that in animal models and cell cultures, such pesticides trigger a neurodegenerative process that leads to Parkinson's disease. Now, researchers at UCLA provide the first evidence for a similar process in humans.
 In a new epidemiological study of Central Valley residents who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, researchers found that years of exposure to the combination of these two pesticides increased the risk of Parkinson's by 75 percent. Further, for people 60 years old or younger diagnosed with Parkinson's, earlier exposure had increased their risk for the disease by as much as four- to six-fold.
 Reporting in the April 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, Beate Ritz, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health, and Sadie Costello, a former doctoral student at UCLA who is now at the University of California, Berkeley, found that Central Valley residents who lived within 500 meters of fields sprayed between 1974 and 1999 had a 75-percent increased risk for Parkinson's.
 In addition, people who were diagnosed with Parkinson's at age 60 or younger were found to have been at much higher risk because they had been exposed to maneb, paraquat or both in combination between 1974 and 1989, years when they would have been children, teens or young adults.
 The researchers enrolled 368 longtime residents diagnosed with Parkinson's and 341 others as a control group.
 Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs motor skills, speech and other functions. It has been reported to occur at high rates among farmers and in rural populations, contributing to the hypothesis that agricultural pesticides may be partially responsible.
 Until now, however, data on human exposure has been unavailable, largely because it has been too hard to measure an individual's environmental exposure to any specific pesticide.
 "Because pesticides applied from the air or ground may drift from their intended treatment sites — with measurable concentrations subsequently detected in the air, in plants and in animals up to several hundred meters from application sites — accurate methods of estimating environmental exposures in rural communities have long been sorely needed," said Ritz, the study's senior author and vice chair of the School of Public Health's epidemiology department.
 So Ritz, Costello and colleague Myles Cockburn from the University of Southern California, developed a geographic information system–based tool that estimated human exposure to pesticides applied to agricultural crops. This GIS tool combined land-use maps and pesticide-use reporting data from the state of California. Each pesticide-use record includes the name of the pesticide's active ingredient, the amount applied, the crop, the acreage of the field, the application method and the date of application.
 Research subjects were recruited between 1998 to 2007; telephone interviews were conducted to obtain their demographic and exposure information. Detailed residential history forms were mailed to subjects in advance of their interviews and were reviewed in person or over the phone. The researchers recorded and added lifetime residential histories and estimated ambient exposures into the system for all historical addresses at which participants had resided between 1974 and 1999, the period covered by the pesticide-use data.
 "The results confirmed two previous observations from animal studies," Ritz said. "One, that exposure to multiple chemicals may increase the effect of each chemical. That's important, since humans are often exposed to more than one pesticide in the environment. And second, that the timing of exposure is also important."
 Ritz noted that this is the first epidemiological study to provide strong evidence that maneb and paraquat act synergistically to become neurotoxic and strongly increase the risk of Parkinson's disease in humans.
 Of particular concern, Ritz said, and consistent with other theories regarding the progression of Parkinson's pathology, is that the data "suggests that the critical window of exposure to toxicants may have occurred years before the onset of motor symptoms when a diagnosis of Parkinson's is made."
 In addition to Ritz and first author Costello, study authors included Jeff Bronstein, UCLA professor of neurology, and Xinbo Zhang of USC. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
 The research was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program. In addition, initial pilot funding was provided by the American Parkinson Disease Association.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/pesticide-exposure-found-to-increase-89084.aspx

Grapefruit juice boosts drug's anti-cancer effects

University of Chicago Medical Center, April 20, 2009
In a small, early clinical trial, researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center have found that combining eight ounces of grapefruit juice with the drug rapamycin can increase drug levels, allowing lower doses of the drug to be given. They also showed that the combination can be effective in treating various types of cancer.
For two decades, pharmacists have pasted DO-NOT-TAKE-WITH-GRAPEFRUIT-JUICE stickers on various pill bottles because it can interfere with the enzymes that break down and eliminate certain drugs. This interference makes the drugs more potent. In data presented at the AACR 100th Annual Meeting 2009, the Chicago researchers examine ways to exploit this fruit's medication-altering properties.
"Grapefruit juice can increase blood levels of certain drugs three to five times," said study director Ezra Cohen, MD, a cancer specialist at the University of Chicago Medical Center. "This has always been considered a hazard. We wanted to see if, and how much, it could amplify the availability, and perhaps the efficacy of rapamycin, a drug with promise for cancer treatment."
This trial was designed to test "whether we could use this to boost rapamycin's bioavailability to the patient's advantage, to determine how much the juice altered drug levels, and to assess its impact on anti-cancer activity and side effects," he said.
The study followed 28 patients with advanced solid tumors, for which there is no effective treatment. The dose of the drug increased with each group of five patients, from 15 milligrams up to 35. Patients took the drug by mouth, as a liquid, once a week.
Beginning in week two, they washed it down with a glass of grapefruit juice (Citius paradisi), taken immediately after the rapamycin and then once a day for the rest of the week.
Twenty-five participants remained in the study long enough to be evaluated. Seven of those 25 (28%) had stable disease, with little or no tumor growth. One patient (4%) had a partial response, with the tumor shrinking by about 30 percent. That patient is still doing well more than a year after beginning the trial.
"My first cancer doctor gave me five years to live," said that patient, Albina Duggan of Bourbonnais, IL. "That time runs out next July."
Duggan, mother of four, has a rare cancer, an epitheliod hemangioendothelioma that originated in the liver and subsequently spread to two vertebrae in the neck and to the lymph nodes. She had surgery and radiation therapy and was evaluated for a liver transplant, but evidence of cancer beyond the liver made her ineligible for a transplant. She "shopped around" for other therapies and was able to keep the disease in check for a year with sorafenib, a drug approved for kidney and liver cancers.
After a year of stable disease, however, her tumor began growing again and she had to look for an alternative therapy. Her doctors at the University of Chicago offered three clinical trials. The most appealing to her was the rapamycin plus grapefruit juice study. She took her first dose March 11, 2008, and is still on the drug-juice combination.
"My tumor is smaller and it's no longer growing. I feel fine. I can do whatever I like and I have no real side effects," she said. "What's not to like?"
Trial subjects do not like the taste of rapamycin. "It's not pleasant," Duggan admitted. She has also tired of grapefruit juice.
Many patients in the study did report side effects. More than half experienced elevated blood sugar levels, diarrhea, low white blood cell counts or fatigue.
Duggan, more fortunate than most, has had milder side effects, including fragile toe and finger nails and curly hair. "I now have very curly hair," she said, "seriously curly. I have to adjust to it."
Rapamycin, also known as sirolimus, was originally developed to suppress the immune system, preventing rejection in patients receiving a transplanted kidney. Cancer specialists became interested in the drug when they learned that it disrupted a biochemical pathway involved in the development of the new blood vessels that tumors need to grow. But the drug is expensive and poorly absorbed. Less than 15 percent of rapamycin is absorbed when taken by mouth.
This study showed that substances known a furanocoumarins, plentiful in some forms of grapefruit juice, can decrease the breakdown of rapamycin. This makes the drug reach higher levels in the bloodstream, two to four times the levels seen without a juice boost, and thus increases the amount of the drug that reaches its targets.
"That means more of the drug hits the target, so we need less of the drug," said Cohen.
Many of the newer cancer medications, precisely focused on specific targets, are now taken as pills rather than intravenously. Some of these drugs, including rapamycin, can cost thousands of dollars a month. Hence, "this is an opportunity for real savings," Cohen said. "A daily glass of juice could lower the cost by 50 percent."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/uocm-gjb041909.php

Diet can increase risk of kidney cancer
Last Updated: 2009-04-20 14:24:49 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating red meat may increase a person's risk of developing the most common type of kidney cancer, while eating vegetables may provide a protective effect, new research in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association shows.
Principal investigator Dr. Nabih R. Asal of the University of Florida, Gainesville and associates also found that people who ate lots of white bread and white potatoes were at greater risk of the disease than their peers who ate these foods less frequently. The relationship was particularly strong among women.
In an interview with Reuters Health, co-author Suzanne Dolwick Grieb said it's possible these foods could boost cancer risk because of their high glycemic index. Glycemic index indicates how quickly blood glucose rises after eating a particular food. "Foods that have a high glycemic index are known to affect insulin resistance and also insulin-like growth factors," Grieb noted. "Those two things have been implicated in other cancers."
Kidney cancer is on the rise in the United States, Grieb and her team point out in their report. The best-documented risk factors for the disease are obesity and cigarette smoking, they add. Studies, to date, on diet and renal cell carcinoma -- which accounts for 85 percent of kidney cancers -- have had "inconclusive" results.
Grieb and her colleagues investigated whether certain types of foods or food groups might influence the risk of renal cell carcinoma by comparing 335 people with renal cell carcinoma with 337 healthy controls. All of the study participants reported how frequently they ate a variety of different foods.
While eating spinach and other greens, as well as tomatoes, reduced cancer risk in all study participants, especially men, white potatoes -- including both fried and non-fried -- increased it, the researchers found, with the strongest effects seen in women.
White bread also increased the cancer risk in study participants, with the strongest association seen in women; those who ate white bread five or more times a week were three times more likely to develop renal cell carcinoma than women who ate white bread less than once a week.
The researchers found no relationship between fruit and dairy food consumption and renal cell carcinoma. However, both men and women who ate red meat five or more times a week were more than four times as likely to develop the disease compared to people who consumed red meat less than once a week.
There were not enough African Americans in the current study to look at whites and blacks separately, the researchers note, but future studies of renal cell carcinoma risk factors should look at a variety of ethnic groups, they say, because there are "clear racial disparities" in trends in the incidence of the disease.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Dietetic Association, April 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/20/eline/links/20090420elin003.html

Obama names USDA chiefs for research, nutrition
Last Updated: 2009-04-20 10:17:48 -0400 (Reuters Health)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has selected Kevin Concannon to run the government's public nutrition programs and Rajiv Shah to oversee agricultural research and education, the White House said on Friday.
Both posts, as undersecretary at the Agriculture Department, require Senate confirmation. USDA is expected to spend more than $65 billion this fiscal year on nutrition programs such as school lunch and food stamps.
Concannon is director of the Iowa Department of Human Services, which is responsible for Medicaid, food assistance and low-income programs. He held similar positions in Maine and Oregon before appointment to the Iowa post in 2003.
Shah is director of agricultural development for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which awards grants to improve food quality and output in developing nations. In a previous post at the foundation, he helped develop and launch a project that raised $5 billion for child immunization. A medical doctor, Shah was medical advisor in Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000.

Why Hospitals Are Dangerous to Your Health

by David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) More than one-third of patients receiving injected medication in the intensive care unit of a hospital may experience an error, according to a study conducted by researchers from Rudolfstiftung Hospital in Austria and published in the British Medical Journal.

"It is a really serious problem," lead researcher Andreas Valentin said. "The administration of injected medication is a weak point in patient safety."

The researchers examined 1,300 patients receiving injected medication in one of 113 intensive care units in 27 countries over the course of one 24-hour period. They found that 441 patients, or 34 percent, experienced at least one error in the administration of their medication. Nearly half of these experienced more than one error in the study period. Seven patients suffered severe harm from the errors, and in five cases the errors contributed to a patient's death.

The most common errors involved medication being given at incorrect times, or a scheduled dose not being given at all. Other errors included incorrect dosages or administration of the wrong drug altogether. A full 69 percent of the errors occurred during routine, rather than emergency, care.

Among the drugs involved were insulin, blood thinners and sedatives.

Medical staff attributed one-third of the errors, in part, to stress and tiredness. Other factors leading to errors included recent changes to the names of drugs, failure to follow hospital protocol and poor communication between staff members.

Responding to the study, the Intensive Care Society called for improved training and protocols to reduce the error rate in high-stress medical settings.

"The urgency of treatment can ... mean that these drugs have to be located rapidly, prepared efficiently and administered quickly to prevent further deterioration," the group said. "Unfortunately, this pressure does mean that the combined total incident rate is almost inevitably higher than in care areas where fewer medicines are required."

Valentin agreed that changes to hospital procedure could significantly reduce error rates.

"With the increasing complexity of care in critically ill patients, organizational factors such as error reporting systems and routine checks at shift changes can reduce the risk of such errors," he said.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026090.html

Many Doctors are Clueless about Alternative Medicine Research

by Sherry Baker, NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) It's no secret that Americans are turning to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in droves. In fact, last December the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the National Center for Health Statistics (part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) released new findings that revealed about 38 percent of adults (four in 10) and approximately 12 percent of children (about one in nine) are using some form of CAM. What's more, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has invested more than $2 billion into CAM research over the past ten years.

However, a new study just published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine indicates a large number of American health practitioners, including MDs, simply aren't aware of the serious scientific attention being given to CAM by the federal government. The report concludes only one in four practicing clinicians are aware of two major federally funded clinical trials of alternative therapies -- and many doctors don't seem to have confidence in their ability to interpret results of CAM research. This could be keeping many physicians from incorporating helpful alternative therapies into their practice.

"For evidence from clinical research to have an impact on medical practice, health care professionals must first be aware of the research. Once aware, health care professionals must be able to interpret these findings, judging both their validity and their implications. Finally, they must apply the scientific evidence to their own practices," the authors of the study wrote.

To gather information about health care professionals' awareness of CAM research, Jon C. Tilburt, M.D., M.P.H., of the NIH and Mayo Clinic and his research team surveyed 2,400 internists and rheumatologists as well as practicing acupuncturists and naturopaths about their awareness of CAM research and their attitudes toward findings in this field.

Out of the total of 1,561 clinicians (65 percent) who completed the survey, 59 percent were aware of at least one of two major clinical trials recently published on CAM therapies for osteoarthritis of the knee (one researched acupuncture and the other studied the impact of the supplement glucosamine). However, only 23 percent were aware of both trials. Acupuncturists (46 percent) and rheumatologists (49 percent) were more often aware of the acupuncture study than the naturopaths (30 percent) and only 22 percent of the general internists knew about the research. But alternative health practitioners aren't always aware of the latest in CAM research, either. When it came to the glucosamine trial, more internists (59 percent) and rheumatologists (88 percent) were aware of the study than the acupuncturists (20 percent) and naturopaths (39 percent).

A minority of clinicians in all groups said they were "very confident" in their ability to critically interpret CAM research literature (20 percent of acupuncturists, 25 percent of naturopaths, 17 percent of internists and 33 percent of rheumatologists); more described themselves as "moderately confident" (59 percent of acupuncturists, 64 percent of naturopaths, 67 percent of internists and 59 percent of rheumatologists).

Bottom line: the translation of CAM trial results into clinical practice appears to vary widely and the researchers say this is most likely based on the health practitioners' training, attitudes and experiences. "For clinical research in CAM (and conventional medicine) to achieve its potential social value, concerted efforts must be undertaken that more deliberately train clinicians in critical appraisal, biostatistics and use of evidence-based resources, as well as expanded research opportunities, dedicated training experiences and improved dissemination of research results," the authors concluded.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026087.html

Chrysin is Natural Alternative to Toxic Breast Cancer Drugs

by Barbara Minton, NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) Women receiving the standard of care for breast cancer are often prescribed one of the aromatase inhibiting drugs as follow-up treatment. Patients are told the drug will prevent a recurrence of their disease. Aromatase inhibiting drugs are usually prescribed for the long term, with some women taking them for up to ten years. There are long lists of frightening side effects associated with these drugs, and eventually they stop working. Unfortunately, women are not told by their oncologists that nature has provided highly effective natural compounds that will also prevent disease recurrence. These compounds have no such side effects and can be used for as long as a woman desires to use them. Many research studies have demonstrated that chyrsin is the most effective of these compounds.

Aromatase inhibitors work by reducing levels of unbalanced estrogen in the body

Aromatase inhibitors are prescribed as follow-up treatment for hormone sensitive cancers of the breast, ovaries or uterus. These kinds of cancers are dependant on unbalanced estrogen in the body to fuel their growth. Aromatase inhibitors reduce levels of unbalanced estrogen in the body.

Excess unbalanced estrogen can be a problem for women of any age. While declining levels of estrogen are generally thought to be the hallmark of menopause, it is actually common for women to experience surges of abnormally high estrogen that is not balanced by progesterone and testosterone during any stage of adult life. For many women, estrogen dominance develops later in life, sometimes as a result of poor diet, liver impairment, lack of exercise, environmental factors, or as the result of menstrual cycles during which ovulation does not occur. When there is no ovulation, less progesterone is produced which can result in estrogen imbalance.

Women with estrogen dominance frequently exhibit unexplained weight gain, fibrocystic breast disease, PMS, migraines, irregular and heavy bleeding, endometriosis, fibroids, and ovarian cysts. Petroleum products, air pollution, plastics, and chemicals in food can make matters worse by acting as xenoestrogens, meaning they are estrogens foreign to the body. Xenoestrogens act like estrogens produced by the female body and can boost unbalanced estrogen levels.

Aromatase is an enzyme produced in the body that is needed for the final step in the production of estrogen as part of the hormonal cascade during which hormones are made from other hormones in a series of conversions. Without the aromatase enzyme, excessive production of estrogen stalls. This process is what makes aromatase inhibitors effective against hormone sensitive tumor growth.

Aromatase inhibitors can be prescribed for a variety of reasons such as the maintenance of healthy breast tissue, as a means of keeping estrogen at a proper level, to promote the development of lean muscle mass, or to counteract uterine fibroids. However, most prescriptions for aromatase inhibitors are written for women as part of breast cancer treatment.

Aromatase inhibiting drugs are toxic to the body

The main problem with aromatase inhibiting drugs is the fact that they are drugs. All drugs have unpleasant side effects and aromatase inhibitors are no exception. One of the most popular, Arimidex, has a list of side effects that includes hot flashes, nausea, weakness or fatigue, headaches, arthritis, general pain, joint pain, sore throat, bone pain, back pain, cough, difficulty breathing, osteoporosis, vomiting, broken bones, insomnia, swelling or water retention in the arms or legs, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, high cholesterol, infections, weight gain, breast pain, dizziness, urinary tract infections, and loss of appetite. Some of these side effects such as bone pain and arthritis may not go away even when use of the drug is discontinued.

Drugs are foreign substances that do not occur in nature. As such the body must detoxify them through the liver, placing a huge strain on the liver's detoxifying function. Livers that are stressed from prolonged drug use can become enlarged and even cancerous. And because drugs are foreign substances they are identified by the immune system as invaders of the body, and the immune system mounts a defense against them. Since another dose of the drug is ingested each day, the immune system is continuously overworked and not available to do the job for which it was intended, which is keeping the body healthy and well.

Because aromatase inhibitors are drugs, they do not work indefinitely. Eventually the immune system is able to render them ineffective. Women who have relied on aromatase inhibitors to keep them safe from a recurrence of breast cancer are then left unprotected and uneducated as to what to do to protect themselves.

There is still one more unfortunate effect of aromatase drugs. They take the focus off the real issue which is why a breast cancer developed in the first place. Since cancer is an obvious wake up call that something is radically wrong in the body, this something needs to be addressed. Aromatise inhibitors may keep breast cancer away for awhile, but how about the rest of the body? If the conditions that promoted the breast cancer have not been addressed, there is danger of cancer to other organs and tissues as well as chance for other degenerative disease to get started because this is a body that has already exhibited a willingness to promote disease.

Chrysin found as effective as aromatase inhibiting drug

Chrysin is a flavonoid from Passiflora incarnate, commonly called passion flower. In a study at the University of Minnesota, published in 1993, chrysin and several other flavonoids were compared to an aromatase inhibiting drug used to treat hormone sensitive cancers. Chyrsin was found to be the most effective of all the flavonoids tested, and was found to be equal in potency to the drug.

Chrysin provides several other cancer fighting benefits not found in drugs

Chrysin has additional benefits that aromatase inhibiting drugs do not have. It a potent antioxidant that possesses vitamin-like activity in the body. It is an effective anti-inflammatory through the inhibition of the Cox 2 pathway.

Chrysin has recently been found to block the suppression of natural killer (NK) cells that are seen during surgery. NK cells are part of the immune system. They go after cancer cells and destroy them. During surgery the production of NK cells is suppressed by the body because of the traumatic nature of the event. However, during cancer surgery is the time when NK cells are needed most, so they can go after and kill any cancer cells escaping into the bloodstream that may seed new cancer growths elsewhere in the body. Additionally, chrysin is a potent inhibitor of breast cancer resistance protein, keeping patients who have chosen traditional drug treatments from developing multi-drug resistance.

Since the landmark study published in the September, 1993 Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, many other studies have confirmed the conclusion that chrysin is nature's most effective aromatase inhibitor. A study reported in the May, 2006 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry studied the effects of several polyphenols on aromatase activity. Again, chrysin was found to be the most capable at inhibiting estrogen production. This study showed red wine, green tea, and black tea also significantly impacting aromatase activity, though to a lesser degree than chrysin.

The ability of chrysin to inhibit aromatization has not been lost on drug companies. Studies have been conducted to determine the effectiveness of altered forms of chyrsin that could qualify to be patented. Because natural substances cannot be patented, drug companies must alter them in some in order to stake a proprietary claim on them. The most recent of these in late 2007 studied methylated forms of chrysin for their effectiveness.

Chrysin should be taken with Piperine for enhanced bioavailability

Piperine is an alkaloid from black pepper that has been shown repeatedly to substantially increase the bioavailability of nutrients from supplements and foods. It has been found to significantly boost the bioavailability of chrysin according to the Life Extension Foundation.

Diet and lifestyle have a lot to do with aromatase

One's chosen diet and lifestyle are large factors in determining the amount of the aromatase enzyme in the body. Although chrysin is found in flowers, many flavonoids with lesser aromatase inhibiting abilities are found in common fruits and vegetables. Apples, cabbage, onions and garlic are good sources of quercetin, a powerful flavonoid. The flavonoid apigenin is found in parsley, celery and chamomile. Genistein and diadzein are isoflavones found in fermented soy. Red wine is still another source of healing flavonoids. Although alcohol may increase aromatase activity, the flavonoid components of red wine more than make up for it. Chrysin and other flavonoids from flowers are found in significant amounts in bee propolis and bee pollen. Any woman with signs of estrogen dominance may benefit from adding these flavonoid containing foods to her diet.

The aromatase enzyme resides in fat cells. This is why overweight and obesity are linked with breast and other hormone sensitive cancers. With fewer fat cells in the body, less unbalanced estrogen is produced. High levels of insulin, a big factor in weight gain and fat mass accumulation, promote production of the aromatase enzyme. Keeping insulin levels under control by avoiding processed and chemicalized foods will result in lower levels of aromatase and as a consequence, lower levels of unbalanced estrogen in the body. Maintaining adequate zinc levels also helps inhibit production of aromatase.

Grapefruit is a special case

A compound found in grapefruit and grapefruit juice produces an amazing effect according to research from the University of Hawaii. This compound, known as cytochrome p450, inhibits an enzyme group in the same complex as the aromatase enzyme. This enzyme inhibited by grapefruit is involved in breaking down and metabolizing sex hormones. If estrogens are not metabolized, excessive levels can accumulate in the body.

This prospective study, reported in the British Journal of Cancer, July 10, 2007, was based on data collected for the Multiethnic Cohort Study that involved 50,000 postmenopausal women spanning five ethnic groups. It found that grapefruit intake was significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. The increased risk was comparable to the increased risk seen in women taking hormone substitution drugs as part of traditional HRT.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026086.html

Injuries, Deaths Caused by Medications Skyrocket 38 Percent

by David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) The number of serious injuries and deaths linked to the use of prescription medications reached a new high in the first quarter of 2008, according to a report issued by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

Researchers found mention of 4,825 deaths and approximately 21,000 serious injuries among voluntary adverse event reports submitted by doctors to the FDA between January and March. These numbers were 38 percent higher than the quarterly average for 2007 and a striking 200 percent higher than the first quarter of 2007.

The researchers estimate that because adverse event reports are voluntary, the numbers represent less than one-tenth of the actual prescription drug-related injuries and deaths taking place.

Together, 10 drugs were responsible for killing more than 100 people each, thereby accounting for more than 20 percent of all deaths. This contrasted with prior quarters studied, in which only one to three drugs killed that many people.

The two single most lethal drugs were the anti-smoking drug varenicline -- marketed as Chantix -- and the blood thinner heparin. While heparin was responsible for killing a 102 people and injuring 779, the vast majority of these cases were associated with a batch of contaminated medication imported from China. Since the discovery of the tainted drugs, injuries and deaths from heparin have dropped off.

Chantix, in contrast, continues to cause high rates of injury and deaths, accounting for 50 fatalities and 1,001 serious injuries in the first quarter of the year. Since its approval in 2006, the drug has been implicated in 112 fatalities and 3,325 serious injuries. Many of these injuries were self-inflicted and stemmed from the drug's psychiatric side effects, while others stemmed from seizures, blackouts, loss of consciousness and sudden heart arrhythmia.

Other drugs in the top 10 included the common over-the-counter painkillers acetaminophen and ibuprofen, as well as prescription pain killers and narcotics.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026083.html

Rosemary Found to Offer Best Protection against Radiation Poisoning

by Barbara Minton, NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) The U.S. is turning into radiation nation. In the twenty-three years since Chernobyl, Americans seem to have forgotten the impact of radiation on health. Swept up in the euphoria over an endless parade of wireless devices, we have turned our backs on the common sense that informed us that Chernobyl was a really big deal when we heard the news. Today Americans act as though they are addicted to radiation and completely oblivious of the jack-hammering effect it has on human cells. They appear willing to accept cancer and even death as small prices to pay for the ability to communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime. As the nation eagerly anticipates the rollout of WiMAX, promising bone-incinerating coverage of 3,000 square miles from a single tower, those who object find they have no voice and no choice. However, recent research has shown there are steps to take in self-preservation. Carnosic and rosmarinic acids naturally deter radiation poisoning.

RF/microwave exposure leads to cancer development

It has been know for a decade that RF/microwaves from cell phones and tower transmitters cause damage in human blood cells that results in nuclei splintering off into micronuclei fragments. The development of micronuclei heralds the development of pre-cancerous conditions. Many victims of Chernobyl developed blood cell micronuclei that rapidly turned into full blown cancers.

Numerous animal studies have demonstrated that mobile phone radiation quickly causes DNA single and double strand breaks at levels well below the current federal "safe" standards. A six-year industry study showed that human blood exposure to cell phone radiation had a 300 percent increase in genetic damage in the form of micronuclei, suggesting a health threat much greater than smoking or asbestos.

Compounds from rosemary fight against mutagenic effects of radiation

In two separate studies, scientists in Spain found that nothing fights radiation damage to micronuclei like a simple garden herb known as rosemary. They noted that ionizing radiation causes the massive generation of free radicals that induce cellular DNA damage. They studied the protective effects of several compounds against gamma ray induced chromosomal damage in micronuclei testing by adding various compounds to human blood before and after irradiation. When the compounds were added after gamma-irradiation treatment, the protective effects relied not on scavenging ability, but on activity against free radicals already present in the cells, such as lipoperoxy radicals which are mainly responsible for continuous chromosomal oxidative damage.

The fact that carnosic acid and carnosol found in rosemary are fat soluble allows them to provide highly asignificant protective anti-mutagenic activity. Even the most powerful water-soluble antioxidants lack the capacity to protect against gamma ray induced damage. This study can be found in the British Journal of Radiology, February 2 edition.

In their second study, the generation of radiation induced cellular DNA damage to skin from free radicals was the focus. The researchers sought to demonstrate that rosmarinic acid from rosemary would act as a photo-protector both by acting as a scavenger of free radicals and as an inducer of the body's own endogenous defense mechanisms by regulating tyrosinase activity and stimulating melanin production. They found that formulation of toxic malonyldialdehyde was delayed by the use of rosmarinic acid, and the protection factor was 3.34 times greater than for other compounds studied, as measured in micronucleus testing. In vivo testing showed the capacity of orally administered rosmarinic acid to inhibit skin alterations as a result of UV radiation exposure. This study was reported in the February edition of Food and Chemical Toxicology.

Common food compound protects lymphocytes against radiation

In a study from India, scientists investigated the radio-protective potential of caffeic acid against gamma radiation-induced cellular changes. A dose of 66 microM of caffeic acid showed the optimum protection of micronuclei and was used to investigate the radio-protective effects of the compound. Lymphocytes were pre-incubated with caffeic acid and controls were not. All the lymphocytes were exposed to different doses of radiation. Genetic damage and biochemical changes were measured. Gamma irradiated control lymphocytes showed a radiation dose-dependent increase in genetic damage and a significant decrease in antioxidant status. Caffeic acid pretreated lymphocytes positively modulated all radiation induced changes. This study is found in the 2008 Journal of Biochemical and Molecular Toxicology.

Food sources offering significant amounts of caffeic acid are apples, citrus fruits, and cruciferous vegetables.

RF/microwave radiation has the same effect on health as gamma rays

A pile of research has confirmed that non-ionizing communications radiation in the RF/microwave spectrum has the same effect on human health as ionizing gamma wave radiation from nuclear reactions. This means that Chernobyl has effectively come to America. Injuries resulting from radioactive radiation are identical with the effects of electromagnetic radiation. In the U.S., deadly high frequency radiation is now blasting from tens of thousands of cell towers and rooftop antennas all over the country. The tiny city of San Francisco, has over 2,500 licensed cell phone antennas positioned at 530 locations to nuke its citizens around the clock.

There is no safe dose of radiation

RF/microwave and gamma waves are identical in their abilities to produce gene damage and cancer at the cellular level, and there is no safe dose of either. Cell damage is not dependent on a certain level of exposure because at any time in that exposure, breaks in DNA can occur.

Communication antennas saturate the environment with multiple electromagnetic frequencies simultaneously. The response to this endless cellular jiggling is graphically described by Amy Worthington in her article on the radiation poisoning of America. "Human DNA hears this energetic cacophony loud and clear, reacting like the human ear would to high volume country music, R&B plus rock and roll screaming from the same speaker simultaneously. Irradiated cells struggle to protect themselves against the destructive dissonance by hardening their membranes. They cease to receive nourishment, stop releasing toxins, die prematurely and spill micronuclei fragments into a sort of tumor bank account." According to an expert quoted in her article, 2000 hours of cellular phone exposure, or a latency period of about 10 years, increases the risk of brain cancer by 240 percent.

Many studies have shown that workers exposed to RF/microwave radiation routinely have inflated cancer rates, and the latency period between exposure and disease development is short. Some suspect that communications carriers exceed FCC exposure limits. Once equipment is installed and inspections are completed, it can be cranked up to create wider coverage. The FCC has sole regulatory authority over the communications industry, but has neither the money nor the employees to conduct verification testing. Even if they could do the monitoring, their guidelines are obsolete based on current scientific findings that have shown damage to human cells occurs at levels thousands of times lower than current standards permit. In other countries the allowed exposure levels are much less. Russia's standards are 100 times more stringent than those in the U.S., because their scientists have found that human hearts, kidneys, livers and brains are damaged at much lower exposure levels.

When is comes to protecting against radiation, we are on our own

Since the beginning of the wireless revolution, there have been no federally funded studies to determine the impact of constantly escalating levels of radiation on public health. Most people remain blissfully unaware of their proximity to towers and transmitters. They are also unaware of their levels of exposure in their workplaces where wireless transmitters may be located just a few feet away from them.

Some of the symptoms of overexposure to radiation are heart palpitations, diminishing hearing ability, headaches, sleep disturbance, chronic fatigue, endocrine problems, short term memory difficulties, sleep disturbance, chronic fatigue, frequent infections, reproductive issues, and reduced cognitive ability and information processing difficulties. The development of tumors and cancer is one big indication that something is radically wrong, and that something may be radiation poisoning.

What is a person to do about these symptoms? Right now it looks like the best defense against radiation poisoning is the same as the best defense against all diseases. This defense begins with diet and supplements. Eating a diet high in apples, citrus fruits, cruciferous vegetables, drinking red wine, and using fresh rosemary have been scientifically shown to be effective. Supplements of rosemary extract containing carnosic and rosmarinic acids are widely available. Supplements of DIM offer higher doses of one of the most potent compounds in cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli sprouts are the best source of sulphoraphane, another highly potent compound in cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli sprouts are available as supplements too. Making a pitcher of fresh vegetable juice several times a week for all family members to drink is a great way to fortify everyone against an environment that has turned against them. The juice should contain high amounts of broccoli, cabbage or other cruciferous vegetables. Adding a small slice of fresh ginger will give the juice an appealing flavor. Use only organic or fresh locally grown vegetables if they are available.

Although it may not seem like it, living without the use of wireless devices is possible. Until giant steps are taken in that direction, demanding that wireless emissions from transmitters be drastically reduced is fairly pointless. Demanding the government conduct routine compliance testing at all transmission sites and update federal radiation exposure standards is something that can be done right now.

We can break our radiation addition by giving up wireless internet systems and cell phone calls. Once knowledge is instilled about the devastating health consequences of wireless, it may no longer be fun to play wireless games and chatter on the phone while driving or shopping. If people do not buy WiMAX devices and their related services, the increased brutal bombardment of radiation it promises will be derailed.

OSHA standards say that no environment should be deliberately made hazardous. Armed with the knowledge of what radiation does to human cells, people can refuse to work or shop in environments that endanger their health. They can demand that wireless devices be removed from their children's schools and from their work and entertainment places.

As a nation we bought into the advertisement that cell phones were necessary for an emergency. Yet the emergency happening now is the cell phone. What we thought would keep ourselves and our families safe now threatens to kill us. A look at our teenagers shows that convenience has been replaced by addition. These teens rarely talk directly to each other, preferring endless communication through text messaging that is already producing teens with carpal tunnel syndrome. It really doesn't have to be this way.

If we as a people are unable to break away from radiation addiction, Mother Nature will take control of the situation. Those lucky enough to adapt to radiation nation will survive and reproduce. Those who cannot keep up genetically will end up like the dinosaurs.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026079.html

California has approved spraying MSG, milk protein, and carcinogens on a variety of crops
In May, 1999, spraying MSG on wine grapes (calling the spray a fertilizer) was approved by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Steven D. Wong, Branch Chief, Agricultural Commodities and Regulatory Services (916/654-0574) told us that there was no demonstration that use according to label directions would present a significant health hazard to workers, consumers of products grown with the aid of the MSG-containing product, or to the general public. To have a product approved for use as a fertilizer in California, a company need do little more than make application.
In April, 2000, and again in July, 2001, spraying MSG on wine grapes (calling it a fungicide) was approved by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR). Barry Cortez, Branch Chief, CDPR, first told us that the CDPR would only turn down a product if it appeared to be ineffective, and AuxiGro didn't appear to be ineffective.  After reading the law, however, we found that according to Section 12825 of the Food and Agricultural Code:
"Pursuant to Section 12824, the director,...may cancel the registration of, or refuse to register, any pesticide:
 (a) That has demonstrated serious uncontrollable adverse effects either within or outside the agricultural environment.
 (b) The use of which is of less public value or greater detriment to the environment than the benefit received by its use.
 (f) Concerning which any false or misleading statement is made or implied by the registrant or his or her agent, either verbally or in writing, or in the form of any advertising literature."
And AuxiGro meets each of those three criteria.
Does spraying processed free glutamic acid onto crops and into the environment pose a problem? We think it does. Does applying processed free glutamic acid to the soil pose a problem? Yes, we think so, and we have made our thoughts known. On June 8, 1999, even though we knew full well that the glutamate industry had been generous in funding chemists and food scientists at UC Davis, and that those chemists and food scientists, or their friends at Davis or working for the CDFA or the CDPR, might be asked to evaluate our comments, we first formally presented our concerns to the CDPR.
It was not until the spring of 2001, however, that we found that AuxiGro contained more awful ingredients than the "L-glutamic acid" -- the neurotoxic, endocrine disrupter that can cause adverse reactions such as asthma, migraine headache, heart irregularities, and seizures in people who were sensitive to it.  AuxiGro, we learned from government documents, contains hydrolyzed casein (milk) protein, a substance known to have caused the death of milk-sensitive children who consumed minute quantities of milk protein hidden in processed food.  AuxiGro, we learned from other government documents, also contains carcinogens.
As of August 20, 2004, California had already approved the following crops for spraying with MSG  (http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/cgi-bin/label/label.pl?typ=pir&prodno=46388)
ALMOND
APRICOT
CANTALOUPE
CHERRY
GRAPES
GRAPES (ALL OR UNSPECIFIED)
GRAPES, WINE
MELONS
NECTARINE
ONION (DRY, SPANISH, WHITE
PEACH
PLUM (INCLUDES WILD PLUMS)
PRUNE
TOMATO
TOMATOES, FOR PROCESSING
WATERMELONS
On July 9, 2004, California proposed to also allow cole crops to be sprayed with MSG.  Cole crops include
BROCCOLI
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
CABBAGE
CAULIFLOWER
KALE, COLLARDS
TURNIPS
RUTABAGA
MUSTARD
WATERCRESS
KOHLRABI.
We suggest that produce treated with AuxiGro be avoided.  We suggest that family and friends avoid grapes and wine entirely, or at least ask their grocers and wine merchants to certify that the grapes and wine they buy haven't been sprayed with AuxiGro or any other fertilizer/fungicide/growth-enhancer that contains processed free glutamic acid (MSG).
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/cdpr.html

BBC NEWS
Fears over web health revolution
Concerns have been raised about the use of the internet and new technologies to revolutionise health care.
There has been a rise in the use of online drug sales and private DNA tests and scans in recent years, says the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
But the independent group said such changes may be putting patients at risk or leading to unnecessary alarm.
Nuffield officials said more regulation may be needed and have launched a consultation to discuss the issues.
The group said it wanted to hear about patients' experiences and the views of private companies offering these services.
THE HEALTH REVOLUTION
  Body imaging - Private firms are promoting the use of MRI and CT scans to give people a so-called "MoT" to check for early tumours and heart problems, but there have been reports of misleading results and unnecessary exposure to radiation
  DNA profiling - The NHS uses more than 300 different types of genetic testing for things such as Huntingdon's disease and Cystic Fibrosis, but a host of other unproven tests are also being offered privately
  Online drug purchasing - Some 2m people in the UK use the internet to buy drugs, but the web also allows unregulated sales, which doctors have said could be potentially harmful
  Internet health information - People can use sites such as WebMD and AskDrWiki to diagnose problems, but GPs have reported a surge in the "worried well" coming to them with concerns prompted by internet searches
The council said there was a whole host of questions that needed to be addressed about a range of services.
For example, it said the information provided by DNA profiling or body imaging using MRI and CT scans could be misleading and difficult to interpret.
Professor Christopher Hood, an Oxford University expert who is heading the consultation, said this could sometimes have a knock-on effect on the NHS with people coming to it with unnecessary medical worries.
The consultation paper also raised concerns about the selling of drugs on the internet.
Last week a poll of GPs found that one in four had treated patients for adverse reaction to medicines bought online.
Professor Hood said: "Cutting out the GP may sometimes be a good thing, providing us with convenience, privacy and control over our health.
"But there is not much regulation of these new services and we may be getting information that causes more harm than good."
Benefits
But the consultation also said the advance in technology could offer opportunities to the NHS.
One of the examples given was the use of telemedicine in rural areas to allow GPs and patients to use TV link-ups for consultations.
Nuffield director Hugh Whittal said: "There is a range of benefits to be had, but it is only right some questions are asked about risks, the quality of information, equity of access and the impact on the NHS."
Professor Steve Field, president of the Royal College of GPs, said: "I think this just reinforces the need for patients to have a GP.
"Doctors should be empowering patients and help them understand and navigate their way through what is being offered."
But he also warned patients to be wary of some of the services being offered by private firms.
Meanwhile, a leading scientist has questioned the emphasis being placed on genetic research.
Since the human genome was mapped in 2003, there has been significant investment into genes in the belief that cures could be found for everything from cancer to diabetes.
But Professor Steve Jones, head of the biology department at University College London, said: "We thought it was going to change our lives, but that has turned out to be a false dawn."
He said the current "scattergun" approach needed to be re-thought as money may be better spent elsewhere.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8008361.stm

Nearly 1 In 10 Youth Gamers Addicted To Video Games

ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2009) — Parents have been saying for years that their kids are "addicted" to video games, but a new study by an Iowa State University psychology professor is the first to actually report that pathological patterns of video game addiction exist in a national sample of youth, aged 8 to 18.
In a national Harris Poll survey of 1,178 American youths (ages 8-18), ISU Assistant Professor of Psychology Douglas Gentile found nearly one in 10 of the gamers (8.5 percent) to be pathological players according to standards established for pathological gambling -- causing family, social, school or psychological damage because of their video game playing habits.
"Although the general public uses the word 'addiction,' clinicians often report it as pathological use," said Gentile, who is also director of research for the Minneapolis-based National Institute on Media and the Family. "This is the first study to tell us the national prevalence of pathological play among youth gamers, and it is almost 1 in 10."
"What we mean by pathological use is that something someone is doing -- in this case, playing video games -- is damaging to their functioning," Gentile said. "It's not simply doing it a lot. It has to harm functioning in multiple ways."
Gentile analyzed data collected in a January 2007 Harris Poll survey. He compared respondents' video game play habits to the symptoms established in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for pathological gambling. Gamers were classified as "pathological" if they exhibited at least six of 11 symptoms.
The pathological gamers in the study played video games 24 hours per week, about twice as much as non-pathological gamers. They also were more likely to have video game systems in their bedrooms, reported having more trouble paying attention in school, received poorer grades in school, had more health problems, were more likely to feel "addicted," and even stole to support their habit.
The study also found that pathological gamers were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with attention problems such as Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Gentile was surprised to find that so many youth exhibit pathological patterns of video game play.
"I started studying video game addition in 1999 largely because I didn't believe in it," said Gentile, who is co-author of the book "Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy" (2007, Oxford University Press). "I assumed that parents called it 'addiction' because they didn't understand why their children spent so much time playing. So I measured the way you measure pathological gambling and the way it harms functioning, and was surprised to find that a substantial number of gamers do rise to that level (of pathological addiction)."
But now that this study provides more scientific evidence that the condition exists, the ISU psychologist emphasizes the need for further research to determine how best to treat it.
"There is still much we do not know," Gentile said. "We don't know who's most at risk, or whether this is part of a pattern of disorders. That's important because many disorders are co-morbid with others. It may be a symptom of depression, for example. And so we would want to understand that pattern of co-morbidity because that would help us know how to treat it."
Gentile is continuing his own research, currently conducting both longitudinal and clinical studies to determine risk factors and symptoms found in pathological youth gamers.
Douglas Gentile. Pathological Video Game Use among Youth 8 to 18: A National Study. Psychological Science, May, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090420103547.htm

Turmeric: India's 'Holy Powder' Finally Reveals Its Centuries-old Secret

ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2009) — Scientists in Michigan are reporting discovery of the secret behind the fabled healing power of the main ingredient in turmeric — a spice revered in India as "holy powder."
In the study, Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy and colleagues point out that turmeric has been used for centuries in folk medicine to treat wounds, infections, and other health problems. Although modern scientific research on the spice has burgeoned in recent years, scientists until now did not know exactly how curcumin works inside the body.
Using a high-tech instrument termed solid-state NMR spectroscopy, the scientists discovered that molecules of curcumin act like a biochemical disciplinarian. They insert themselves into cell membranes and make the membranes more stable and orderly in a way that increases cells' resistance to infection by disease-causing microbes.
Barry et al. Determining the Effects of Lipophilic Drugs on Membrane Structure by Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy: The Case of the Antioxidant Curcumin. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2009; 131 (12): 4490 DOI: 10.1021/ja809217u
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090420123051.htm

Chemists Synthesize Herbal Alkaloid

Lycopodium serrata, also known as Huperzia serrata, is a traditional Chinese herbal remedy. Lycopods are some of the oldest vacular plants to populate the earth's surface. The species has been used for thousands of years as a diuretic, analgesic, hemostyptic and antispasmodic. (Credit: Tom Rau)
ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2009) — The club moss Lycopodium serratum is a creeping, flowerless plant used in homeopathic medicine to treat a wide variety of ailments. It contains a potent brew of alkaloids that have attracted considerable scientific and medical interest. However, the plant makes many of these compounds in extremely low amounts, hindering efforts to test their therapeutic value.
That is no longer a problem for what is arguably the most complex of these alkaloids, a compound called Serratezomine A: an alkaloid that could have anti-cancer properties and may combat memory loss. A team of synthetic chemists at Vanderbilt University report in the March 18 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society that they have created an efficient way to make this molecule from scratch.
It took six years to develop the process because the researchers had to invent some entirely new chemical methods to complete the synthesis. These methods should make it easier to synthesize other Lycopodium alkaloids as well as other natural compounds with therapeutic potential.
In addition to their therapeutic possibilities, the Vanderbilt chemists were attracted to these compounds because they are among the most intricately structured and functionally dense of all the small molecules produced by living organisms. The compounds consist of carbon and nitrogen atoms assembled in unique ring structures.
"This was a challenging problem," says Professor of Chemistry Jeffrey Johnston, who led the research effort. 'It takes years to develop a new chemical reaction and then apply it to the natural product target. So, once we start, we don't stop."
In the world of total synthesis chemistry, it is not enough to figure out a way to synthesize a naturally occurring molecule. The process has to produce large enough quantities of the molecule that it can be tested for biological activity. That means that the number of sequential steps in the process – what chemists refer to as the longest linear sequence – should be as small as possible to maximize production. For example, if a sequence has 30 steps and each step has an 80 percent yield, the overall yield of the sequence is about one-tenth of a percent. At the same time, one low-yield step will knock a process out of contention.
The longest linear sequence in the Serratezomine A synthesis is 15 steps and it has an overall yield of 1.7 percent, Johnston says. That is an average yield of 77 percent per step. The chemists kept the sequence this short by using a strategy called convergence. They prepared one of the key fragments in the synthesis in parallel to the main sequence.
Johnston has handed over the Serratezomine A that his group has produced to Vanderbilt's drug discovery program, which identifies novel agents suitable for preclinical testing, in order to evaluate its therapeutic value.
Members of Johnston's research team are doctoral student Aroop Chandra; Julie A. Pigza, who is now a post-doctoral associate at the University of California, San Diego; Jeong-Seok Han, who now works at CJ Pharmaceuticals in South Korea; and Daniel Mutnick, who is now an associate scientist at Novartis in San Diego. The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and Eli Lilly and Company and by a Pfizer Diversity Fellowship.