The new system, called a tumor-microenvironment-on-chip (T-MOC) device, will allow researchers to study the complex environment surrounding tumors and the barriers that prevent the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents, said Bumsoo Han, a Purdue University associate professor of mechanical engineering. …
“We found that the use of low-dose aspirin was associated with cutting the risk of pancreatic cancer in half, with some evidence that the longer low-dose aspirin was used, the lower the risk,” said Harvey A. Risch, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut…
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140528163741.htm
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140515163824.htm
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140504182212.htm
"Many women who have breast cancer often experience distress but sometimes are surprised that they also may experience a variety of positive outcomes following diagnosis," said Suzanne Danhauer, Ph.D., associate professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the study. The study, which is published in the current online edition of the journal Psycho-Oncology, examined change in post-traumatic growth (PTG) over two years in 653 women. PTG is defined as the positive psychological change experienced as a result of a struggle with highly challenging life circumstances. …
source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/24/michael-jackson-how-long-can-survive-without-sleep/
The artificial sweetener sucralose (sold under the brand name Splenda) could potentially pose health risks, so it needs to be better understood before the sweetener should be assumed to be safe, one advocacy organization says. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit watchdog group, said today that it was downgrading its safety rating of sucralose from “safe” to “caution,” meaning that the additive “may pose a risk and needs to be better tested.” The change was spurred by a recent study from researchers in Italy that found that sucralose caused leukemia in mice, according to the CSPI. This study has not been published, and needs to be reviewed by other scientists to determine whether the findings are credible. While sucralose may turn out to be safer than other artificial sweeteners, “the forthcoming Italian study warrants careful scrutiny before we can be confident that the sweetener is safe for use in food, said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. The CSPI recommends people avoid the artificial sweeteners saccharin (Sweet N Low), aspartame (NutraSweet and Equal), and acesulfame potassium (Sunett and Sweet One). The issue of whether artificial sweeteners pose health risks is controversial. Many of the studies showing risks, including the new Italian study, have been done in animals, and it's not known whether the same effects would be seen in humans. In addition, rodents, like humans, may develop cancer as a result of old age, and not exposure to chemical additives. This issue has caused some to question the results of studies showing that aspartame-fed rats are at increased risk for cancer over their lifetimes. Even the CSPI says that it considers drinking diet soda, which often contains artificial sweeteners, to be safer than drinking regular soda. Regular soda “poses the greater and demonstrable risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, gout, tooth decay, and other health problems,” the CSPI said in a statement. To avoid both the risks of sugar and artificial sweeteners, the CSPI recommends drinking water, seltzer water, flavored unsweetened waters, seltzer mixed with some fruit juice or unsweetened iced tea. It's worth noting that the CSPI also gives caffeine a safety rating of “caution.” Caffeine “keeps many people from sleeping, causes jitteriness, and affects calcium metabolism,” the CSPI says. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/12/how-safe-is-splenda-group-urges-caution-for-artificial-sweetener/
Women who are obese during pregnancy may be at increased risk of giving birth too early, a new study from Sweden suggests. In the study, obese women were more likely than normal-weight women to give birth to extremely premature babies those born between 22 and 27 weeks of pregnancy. (Pregnancy typically lasts 40 weeks.) In addition, the more obese a woman was, the greater her risk of preterm birth was, the study found. For women with severe obesity defined as having a body mass index (BMI) between 35 and 39.9 the risk doubled, and for women with extreme obesity (a BMI of 40 or higher), the risk was triple that faced by normal-weight women (those with a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9). Although these increases in risk were considerable, very few babies are born this prematurely. Most obese women in the study did not give birth to extremely premature babies. In the study, extremely premature birth occurred in 0.17 percent of normal-weight women, 0.21 percent of overweight women, 0.27 percent of mildly obese women, 0.35 percent of severely obese women and 0.52 percent of extremely obese women. Still, “considering the high morbidity and mortality among extremely preterm infants, even small absolute differences in risks will have consequences for infant health and survival,” the researchers wrote in the June 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study found an association, and cannot prove a cause-effect link between obesity and premature birth. However, the findings agree with the results of previous studies that have also shown such a link. Obesity is known to increase the risk of “medically indicated” premature birth that is, premature birth that is deliberately initiated by doctors, with a cesarean section or by inducing labor. This is because obesity increases the risk of medical disorders in pregnancy, such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. However, the new study also found a link between severe obesity and spontaneous extremely premature birth. The study examined information from more than 1.5 million births in Sweden between 1992 and 2010. Overall, about 5 percent of babies were born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy), including 4.36 percent who were moderately premature (between 32 and 36 weeks), 0.47 percent who were very premature (between 28 and 31 weeks) and 0.23 percent who were extremely premature. The findings still need to be confirmed in other populations, the researchers said. Because obesity in pregnancy can increase the risk of health problems for the mother and the baby, experts recommend that obese women limit their weight in pregnancy. The Institute of Medicine recommends normal-weight women gain 25 to 35 lbs. during pregnancy, overweight women gain 15 to 25 lbs. and obese women gain 11 to 20 lbs. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/11/obese-expectant-mothers-at-increased-risk-preterm-birth/
The younger and healthier a small business's workforce, the greater its chances of facing a big spike in health-insurance premiums next year. That is because the Affordable Care Act's impact on small employers will split largely on generational and industry lines, putting entrepreneurs like Eileen Hasson, owner of a technology-services firm with mostly male employees in their 20s and 30s, at a disadvantage. Starting in January, insurers will no longer be able to set premiums for small-group plans—which apply to employers with fewer than 50 or 100 employees, depending on the state—based on a firm's industry or the health or gender of its staff. Insurers will still be able to take into account the age of a firm's workers, though to a lesser extent, and whether or not those people use tobacco. The result: the cost of health care will be more evenly spread among small businesses, as employers with mostly young and healthy workers pick up the costs of firms that comprise the opposite. The rebalancing will drive up premiums for some companies in industries with lots of young, healthy workers, such as technology, while moderating rate increases for firms with older and sicker workers, and in higher-risk industries such as industrial manufacturing. Click for more from The Wall Street Journal. source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/07/how-new-health-law-could-raise-costs-for-young-healthy-employees/