Can Working Indoors Give You Skin Cancer?

Many skin cancer screenings are held during May, which is Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention month. To find a free skin cancer screening in your area, you can click on the link below. You should note that skin cancer screenings tend to be rapid and are not a substitute for a full skin examination by your own dermatologist or physician.This makes May a good time to spread the word that, despite the persistent myth, healthy UVB exposure is not the cause of melanoma. This is why an epidemic of melanoma has broken out among indoor workers. In fact, indoor workers get three to nine times LESS solar UV exposure than outdoor workers get, yet only indoor workers have increasing rates of melanoma -- and the rates have been increasing since before 1940.In fact, UVB light, which causes your skin to produce vitamin D, is protective against cancer.

Colon Cancer Caused by Western Diet

A so-called Western diet eaten by the majority of Americans and many Europeans is loaded with meat, fat and processed foods. It also lacks complex carbohydrates. Put these facts together and you have a perfect recipe for developing colon cancer, Professor Stephen O'Keefe from the University of Pittsburgh, stated before the Society for General Microbiology meeting at Harrogate International Centre in the UK on March 31.So what specifically is the connection between diet, colon cancer and other diseases of the colon? According to Dr. O'Keefe, evidence has accumulated showing foods directly influence the amount and kind of microbes in the human gut. "Our investigations to date have focused on a small number of bacterial species and have therefore revealed but the tip of the iceberg. Our colons harbor over 800 bacterial species and 7,000 different strains. The characterization of their properties and metabolism can be expected to provide the key to colonic health and disease," Dr. O'Keefe told scientists attending the conference.In a statement to the media, he explained that when people eat a healthy diet with lots of complex carbohydrates, they have significant internal populations of bacteria called Firmicutes. These micro-organisms take undigested residues of both proteins and starches in the colon and turn them into short-chain fatty acids and vitamins, including folate and biotin, which maintain a healthy colon. One type of these fatty acids, called butyrate, not only keeps gut walls healthy but also keeps cell growth and differentiation under control -- probably the reason butyrate has been shown in human studies to reduce the risk of colon cancer.However, gut microbes can also make health-harming toxins from food residues, too. If you eat a lot of meat, for example, sulphur is produced that hampers the activity of "good" bacteria. The result, Dr. O'Keefe pointed out, is an increase in the production of hydrogen sulphide and other suspected carcinogens. "A diet rich in fiber and resistant starch encourages the growth of good bacteria and increases production of short chain fatty acids which lessen the risk of cancer, while a high meat and fat diet reduces the numbers of these good bacteria," he said in a press statement.According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the U.S. The American Cancer Society (ACS) web site states that approximately 108,070 new cases of colon cancer (53,760 in men and 54,310 in women) and 40,740 new cases of rectal cancer (23,490 in men and 17,250 in women) were diagnosed in 2008."Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in adults in Westernized communities," said Professor O'Keefe. "Our results suggest that a diet that maintains the health of the colon wall is also one that maintains general body health and reduces heart disease".

For more information:http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/colorectal/statistics/http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_1x_What_Is_Colon_and_Rectum_Cancer.asp?rnav=crihttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/sfgm-cca032709.php

Big Pharma CEO Fakes Cancer while Pill-Pushing Doctor Fakes Clinical Trial Results for Bextra, Effexor and Celebrex

The culture of deceit and fraud that permeates conventional medicine became even more apparent today with the announcement that Howard Richman, the former vice president of a pharmaceutical company named Biopure, faked his own cancer and even impersonated a doctor in order to convince a federal judge that he was dying from colon cancer.This bizarre deceit was an effort by Richman to squirm out of an SEC lawsuit that accused Richman of misleading investors. According to the Associated Press, Richman misled investors about the potential for FDA approval of a blood replacement product called Hemopure, which is made from cow's blood. By faking his own cancer and forging a doctor's note, Richman was able to get a postponement of judgment in the SEC lawsuit, which effectively ended the legal action he would have otherwise faced.It all makes you wonder just how low the integrity standards really are at drug companies these days. If a highly-paid executive can fake his own cancer in order to avoid a lawsuit brought against him because he lied to investors, what other sorts of fabrications and deceits might be going on at these companies?
Faking clinical trial data for Vioxx and CelebrexMeanwhile, a researcher at Baystate Medical Center in Massachusetts, Dr. Scott Reuben, was found to have faked the data used in 21 "scientific" papers published in peer-reviewed medical journals from 1996 - 2008.The Associated Press is reporting today that journals have begun retracting papers authored by Dr. Reuben. The journal Anesthesia & Analgesia has retracted 10 studies authored by Dr. Reuben, and the journal Anesthesiology has also started retracting studies.But the damage has already been done: Dr. Reuben's work was reportedly relied on very heavily by pull-pushing doctors and medication advocates, who cited his studies to "prove" these drugs are safe and effective. In reality, though, it was all just made up!
The fictions of Big Pharma and clinical trialsThis is actually the story on just about everything Big Pharma pushes these days: It's all just fiction shrouded in scientific-sounding language, led by dishonest, corrupt drug company CEOs and deceitful doctors who lie to the world in order to make more money pushing dangerous prescription medications.Even when drug company executives aren't lying to their investors or lying to judges, they're still lying to the FDA and their own customers about the safety of their drugs. Through the cherry-picking of drug trials (and the burying of negative results), they lie to the entire scientific community about the real dangers of their chemical products.Modern medicine is largely one big lie. It doesn't work. People aren't getting any healthier from drugs and surgery, but they sure are becoming increasingly bankrupt.The "grand clinical trial" of medicating an entire nation and observing the results has proven quite conclusively that drugs and surgery do not produce a healthy nation. That's the one drug trial they will never report, of course: While people suffer from sky-high rates of degenerative disease, depression, obesity and chemical intoxication, the drug companies hilariously try to convince people they're somehow getting healthier by popping patented pills. But the results speak for themselves: Big Pharma is a big lie, and the people pushing the Big Pharma agenda are, themselves, some of the most dishonest and despicable human beings to ever walk the planet.It is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that if the entire drug industry shut down tomorrow, and all the doctors went on strike, and all the oncologists overdosed on chemotherapy and died, the health of the population would immediately improve.Modern medicine has become the enemy of good health, and those who advocate drugs and surgery have become well-paid destroyers of lives. We would all be better off simply abandoning nearly all of modern medicine and advocating nutrition, exercise, sunlight and the avoidance of man-made synthetic chemicals.

Sources for this story include: Associated Press: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSSGpOq9PM6kA-2JQ4kTstTk0G0QD96S346O0Associated Press:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jjpBsTFN9SEtQu-xyDltivC2GJ8AD96S2KVO0

An Apple A Day Keeps Cancer Away

Over the past 12 months, half a dozen studies published by Rui Hai Liu, Cornell associate professor of food science and a member of Cornell's Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, show apples fight cancer. Dr. Liu's research adds to a mounting body of data that apples, as well as other fruits and vegetables, are powerful ways to help prevent breast cancer.In a study just published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Dr. Liu found fresh apple extracts significantly inhibited the size of mammary tumors in rats. In fact, the more extracts they gave the animals, the more breast tumors were inhibited. This research backs up earlier findings of another study conducted by Dr. Liu in rats that was published in 2007.In his new study, Dr. Liu found that a highly malignant type of breast cancer called an adenocarcinoma developed in 81 percent in the control animals. However, it developed only in 57 percent, 50 percent and 23 percent of the animals that received a diet supplemented by low, middle and high doses of apple extracts (the equivalent of one, three and six apples a day in humans), respectively, during the 6 month study.Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed invasive cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in U.S. women. The anti-cancer property of apples is particularly important because adenocarcinoma is the main cause of death of breast-cancer patients, as well as of animals with mammary cancer."That reflects potent anti-proliferative [rapid decrease] activity," Dr. Liu said in a statement to the media. "We not only observed that the treated animals had fewer tumors, but the tumors were smaller, less malignant and grew more slowly compared with the tumors in the untreated rats."The Cornell studies emphasize the valuable, health-protecting role of phytochemicals, such as phenolics or flavonoids, found in apples as well as other fruits and veggies. In additional research published in the same edition of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Dr. Liu announced a variety of new phenolic compounds he has discovered in apple peelings that also have "potent antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities" on tumors.In still another Cornell study published in the same journal, Dr. Liu reported on his research group's discovery of the specific modulation effects that apple extracts have on cell cycles. What's more, Liu and his colleagues have also uncovered the fact phytochemicals in apples inhibit an important inflammation pathway (technically known as NFkB) in human breast cancer cells.

For more information:http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb09/apples.breastcancer.sl.htmlhttp://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_2_1X_What_is_breast_cancer_5.asp

Extra Virgin Olive Oil Helps People With Cancer

Researchers from the Catalonian Institute of Oncology (ICO) in Girona and the University of Granada in Spain have discovered that extra virgin olive oil appears to be a powerful weapon against breast cancer. In a study just published in the scientific journal BMC Cancer, the scientists report polyphenols -- powerful natural antioxidants found in abundance in extra virgin olive oil (the least processed form of the oil) -- have bioactivity against breast cancer cell lines.In laboratory experiments, the researchers documented how phenolic compounds directly extracted from extra virgin olive oil were effective against both HER2-positive and HER2-negative breast cancers cells. That's particularly significant because HER2-positive breast cancer is a breast malignancy that tests positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) -- a protein which promotes the growth of cancer cells and makes HER2-positive breast cancers usually more aggressive than other kinds of breast cancer and less responsive to treatment. The research, conducted by Javier A. Menendez, coordinator of the Translational Research Unit of the ICO and doctors Alberto Fernandez Gutierrez and Antonio Segura Carretero, confirms that polyphenols (especially those known as secoiridoids and lignans) found in extra virgin olive oil not only inhibit the activity of cancer-promoting HER2 activity but also promotes the protein's degradation.Humans have safely consumed olives and olive oil, and the secoiridoids and lignans these foodstuffs contain, for thousands of years. In a statement to the media, the researchers noted this fact, along with the results of their research, shows phytochemicals could be an excellent and safe basis for the design of new anti-HER2 cancer-fighting treatments.In a review of olive oil research set for publication in the March edition of the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition (2009 Mar;49(3):218-36), scientists from Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, point out the health benefits of the so-called Mediterranean diet (such as a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis as well as several types of cancers) have been partially attributed to the regular consumption of virgin olive oil by Mediterranean populations.The Australian researchers conclude this is likely due to the healthy physiological effects of virgin olive oil. For example, laboratory studies as well as those in humans and animals have shown that olive oil phenolics have a host of positive physiological effects, including preventing oxidative damage, quelling inflammation, regulating platelet and cellular function, and fighting infections.

For more information:http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/udg-ssc020509.phphttp://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-and-nutrition/AN01037

Better Berries to Fight Cancer

The next time you toss a handful of berries into your morning smoothie, reach for freeze-dried instead of fresh or frozen. Science now indicates that freeze-dried berries, specifically black raspberries, inhibit cancer development by restoring hundreds of cancer-altering genes to their normal state.

"There are certain genes that play a role in the development of cancer, and while most cancer treatments only target one gene at a time, the berries have a 'genome-wide' effect, meaning they target many cancer-causing genes at once." says lead researcher Gary D. Stoner, professor of pathology, human nutrition, and medicine at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Berries are about 90 percent water and freeze-drying them removes the water while leaving the structure intact. This concentrates the cancer-preventive compounds-vitamins, minerals, phenols, and phytosterols, about ten times, explains Stoner. He adds that fresh and frozen berries are probably protective as well, but we'd have to eat a lot more of them to get the same benefits. Also, keep in mind that some nutrients are lost when the fruit is heated or cooked, so it's best to eat your berries (freeze-dried or fresh) just as they are.

Are You Living Well With Cancer?

For people dealing with cancer, living well might mean living longer. After asking 3,700 people with late stage cancer to rate their quality of life on a scale of 0 to 10, Mayo Clinic researchers determined that those with as score of 5 or higher lived 7.5 months longer than people with a poor quality of life.

One of the best ways to improve quality of life is through stress reduction. "We don't have an anti stress pill," says Moshe Frenkel, M.D., medical director of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Integrative Medicine Program, "but research shows that mind-body techniques can relieve stress and support the immune system, which is especially helpful for patients with cancer." What's more, many practices can ease cancer-specific problems: Yoga, for instance, may promote sleep, and acupuncture can ease pain and nausea.

Eat Berries to Beat Cancer

Berries are bursting with compounds that could help thwart cancer at its earliest stages, a recent study from Cancer Research finds. In tests on rats, scientists found that a diet rich in black rasberries restored more than 20 percent of carcinogen-damaged genes to normal activity.

Berries of all types offer antioxidants, minerals, and a unique blend of phytochemicals that seem to boost the production of enzymes that knock out carcinogens, says Karen Collins, R.D., nutrition advisor to the American Institute for Cancer Research. Since the frozen and freeze-dried fruit still packs an anticancer punch, Collins suggests choosing them when fresh berries aren't available.

For optimal cancer protection, it's important to broaden your approach beyond berries, adds Collins. "Berries do provide some pieces of the cancer prevention puzzle, but you're going to need other foods that deliver different compounds," she says. Aim for a broad variety of cancer fighting foods every day, including dark-green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, legumes, and whole grains.

Many Cancer Survivors Ignore Lifestyle Changes

Cancer survivors who make healthy lifestyle changes and alter their diets to eat more fruits and vegetables, stay physically active and avoid tobacco have a higher quality of life than those who do not do these things.

The bad news, according to a study published in May 2008 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is that many cancer survivors are not eating right and aren't exercising enough.

"We all know that living a healthy lifestyle, eating well, being physically active and not smoking reduces the risk of physical problems and improves overall physical health," said Kevin Stein, director of Quality of Life Research at the American Cancer Society's Behavioral Research Center and lead author of the Clinical Oncology study. "Here we have additional evidence that it not only reduces disease burden but also improves emotional health and quality of life and, moreover, the effect appears to be cumulative. The more you comply, the better your quality of life."

Unfortunately, the message doesn't seem to be getting through enough so that people can really grasp the importance of what they do in their lives in terms of how it affects what happens to them. This includes behaviors engaged in both before and after a cancer diagnosis and treatment.

After dodging a bullet, having a second chance to live a healthy lifestyle, reduce the risk of a second cancer and improve their quality of life, it seems old bad habits die hard.

Double Whammy

What's good for the heart is good for the prostate.

New research suggests that men who eat a diet low in fat and red meat and high in vegetables and lean protein, and who drink alcohol in moderation, are doing both their hearts and prostates a favor.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 2008

Can Hair Dyes Give You Cancer?

Hairdressers and barbers are at increased risk of developing cancer as a result of their use of hair dyes. These risks could also extend to personal use of the dyes.

A panel of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France reviewed the evidence and found a consistent risk of bladder cancer in male hairdressers and barbers. A second review of the evidence on personal hair dye use found some studies suggested a possible association with bladder cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia.

However, the panel found that the evidence was inadequate to classify the carcinogenicity of personal hair dye use.

IARC Monographs

Does Sunshine Really Cause Skin Cancer?

Dermatologist Dr. Bernard Ackerman devotes many hours of his time diagnosing cases of cancer. On a recent trip, he didn't seem worried about the potential risk of the disease while he sunbathed without the use of sunscreen or a hat.

Ackerman, an expert in the field of dermatology, said that the connection between melanoma and the sun is both inconclusive and inconsistent.

Commonly held assumptions on the sun and melanoma:

• If a person is badly sunburned, to the point of blistering at an early age in their life, they will develop skin cancer later on in life. Ackerman pointed out there were contradictions in the studies supporting this theory.
• Another common assumption is that sunscreen is that sunscreen acts as a protetion against melanoma. To counter this theory, Ackerman referred to a study completed in a dermatology journal on the subject that didn't provide any factual evidence to support this theory.

The more intense the exposure to the sun, the greater the liklihood of developing melanoma. Ackerman claimed that much of the epidemiological research is innaccurate and doesn't evaluate cause and effect findings.

Ackerman advised keeping out of the sun if you're concerned about premature aging or if you're very fair-skinned due to the increased risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma, a less dangerous form of cancer. Otherwise, Ackerman said it was not wise to hold onto the beliefs that included avoiding the sun and using sunscreen as ways to protect against melanoma.

ContraCosta Times

Cut Colon Cancer Risk with Blueberries

Adding blueberries to your diet may be a natural way to prevent colon cancer, according to researchers at Rutgers University, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In a study of 18 rats with colon cancer, those fed a diet supplemented with the blueberry compound pterostilbene had 57 percent fewer pre-cancerous lesions after eight weeks compared to the control group. Pterostilbene also inhibited genes involved in inflammation, which is thought to be a risk factor for colon cancer.

A past study has found that blueberries are beneficial; when blueberry skins were fed to animals, their cholesterol was lowered. It's thought that pterostilbene may prevent colon cancer by lowering lipids in your body.

Blueberries are rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins, and are a good source of ellagic acid, which in known to block metabolic pathways that may lead to cancer. There are 30 different blueberry species native to North America.

Clinical Cancer Research