Category Archives: Cancer

Your 5 worst gluten-free mistakes

After experiencing some wacky symptoms, I was recently tested for celiac disease, and while the report came back negative, I've noticed that I do feel better when I avoid gluten. Many of my clients are in the same boat, but others seek me out after going gluten free and feeling worse, or even gaining weight, which seems to be increasingly common.  The truth is, navigating the gluten-free landscape can be pretty darn tricky. Here are five common missteps I see, and how to resolve them. Not 'getting' gluten One client recently said to me, “I'm not really sure what gluten is, but I know it's bad, right?” I think a lot of people are a little in the dark about the issue at large, and it is complicated, but in a nutshell, here's what you need to know: gluten is a type of protein naturally found in wheat (including spelt, kamut, farro, and bulgur) and other grains, like barley and rye. In people who have celiac disease, consuming even small amounts of gluten triggers unwelcome symptoms, including belly pain and bloating. This happens because gluten causes the immune system to damage or destroy villi, the tiny, fingerlike structures that line the small intestine like a microscopic plush carpet. Healthy villi absorb nutrients through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream, so when they become damaged, chronic malnutrition occurs, which is typically accompanied by weight loss and exhaustion. Other symptoms may include bone or joint pain, depression, and skin problems. In people with this diagnosis, the only way to reverse the damage, and the accompanying symptoms, is to completely avoid gluten. People like me, who test negative for celiac disease, may be experiencing a condition called gluten intolerance, or gluten sensitivity, which means that while not celiac, consuming gluten causes bothersome side effects, which can include flu-like feelings, bloating, and other gastrointestinal problems, mental fogginess, and fatigue. Unfortunately, there is no real test for gluten sensitivity at this time, and the symptoms may be related to other issues, including stress (who doesn't have that?!), which makes it a not-so-black-and-white issue. Health.com: Will a Gluten-Free Diet Improve Your Health? Confusing 'gluten free' with 'wheat free' or refined grains As I noted above, gluten isn't only found in wheat. I've heard numerous people say they eat gluten free, but all they've really done is replace foods like white bread with hearty whole grain versions, which may include spelt (in the wheat family), and rye (which, while not wheat, also contains gluten). If you don't have celiac disease or gluten intolerance, these swaps may make you feel great, and lead to weight loss, because trading refined grains for whole grains ups your intake of <a href=”http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20553010,00.html”>fiber</a>, boosts satiety, so you feel fuller longer, and better regulates blood sugar and insulin levels. These are all good things, but, in this case, totally unrelated to gluten. Health.com: 15 Gluten-Free Recipes Thinking gluten free equals weight loss You may have seen a friend, co-worker, or celebrity suddenly slim down after proclaiming to give up gluten. And while going gluten free may absolutely lead to dropping a dress size (or more), the weight loss is generally caused by giving up foods that contain gluten, which are loaded with dense amounts of refined carbs, like bagels, pasta, crackers, pretzels, and baked goods. Axing these foods altogether, or replaced them with more veggies and healthy gluten-free whole grains, like quinoa and wild rice, automatically cuts excess carbs (which may have been feeding fat cells), ups fiber and nutrients, and results in soaring energy. However, going gluten free can also lead to weight gain. Health.com: Best Superfoods for Weight Loss Loading up on gluten-free junk food Because gluten free has exploded in popularity, there are dozens of gluten-free options in markets these days, including carb-laden (but gluten free) versions of… bagels, pasta, crackers, pretzels, and baked goods! One popular brand of gluten free cookies pack 60 calories each, more than a “regular” sandwich cookie. And some gluten-free foods are made with refined gluten-free grains, which have been stripped of their fiber and nutrients, like white rice. The bottom line is, simply going gluten free doesn't guarantee the loss of pounds and inches—quality and quantity still matter most. Health.com: Are You Making These Dieting Mistakes? Ignoring the rest of your diet In addition to quality and quantity, balance is critical for feeling well and achieving weight loss. I've seen people trade white pasta for healthy whole grains like quinoa or wild rice, but still eat portions that are far too large, and therefore not see weight loss results. Others believe it's OK to eat unlimited amounts of healthy gluten-free foods, like fruit and nuts. But sadly, any time you eat more than your body can use or burn, even from healthy foods, you create surpluses, which get shuttled straight to your body's storage units—fat cells. If you have celiac disease (get tested if you suspect you do, but you're not sure), you absolutely must avoid gluten, and it's important to note that it lurks in many products, from salad dressings and seasoning mixes, to vitamins, and even lip balm, so eliminating it completely is a big commitment. And if you think you may be gluten intolerant, try to avoid gluten, and monitor your how you feel. But in either case, the single most important thing you can do is to strive for a healthy, balanced, whole foods diet, the true keys to both optimal health and weight loss. Cynthia Sass is a registered dietitian with master's degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she's Health's contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Her latest New York Times best seller is S.A.S.S! Yourself Slim: Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches. This article originally appeared on Health.com.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/14/your-5-worst-gluten-free-mistakes/

CNN anchor says she has breast cancer, is getting mastectomy

CNN anchor Zoraida Sambolin says she has breast cancer and is getting a double mastectomy. Sambolin, who anchors CNN's “Early Start” morning show, talked about her condition on the show Tuesday while discussing the recent double mastectomy of actress Angelina Jolie. Sambolin said wanting to be there for her children helped her make the decision. In a New York Times op-ed, Jolie announced she has had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer. Jolie writes that she made the choice with thoughts of her six children after watching her own mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, die too young from cancer.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/14/cnn-anchor-is-getting-mastectomy/

Doctors should ask patients about alcohol misuse, panel says

Primary care doctors should ask adults how much and how often they drink alcohol and counsel those with risky and dangerous drinking habits, a government-backed panel said today. Based on a review of studies conducted since 1985, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) determined there is good enough evidence both that screening can accurately detect alcohol misuse and that counseling can reduce heavy drinking in people age 18 and older. Screening “takes hardly any time at all, and it works pretty well,” said Dr. Michael LeFevre, co-vice chair of the Task Force and a family medicine doctor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia. “From my point of view as a family physician, the shorter and easier the better,” he said. Risky drinking is defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as more than four drinks in a single day or 14 drinks per week for men and more than three drinks in a day or seven in a week for women. Research suggests about one third of U.S. adults misuse alcohol. Asking men the last time they had five drinks in one sitting, and women the last time they had four, is a good start, according to LeFevre. “If they can name a time, that means we should be talking to them more about what their alcohol consumption looks like,” he said. If that time was for the patient's birthday, and the only time in years the patient had binge drank, it's probably not a big deal. But if that happens on a regular basis, he said, that would point toward alcohol misuse. The review behind the new recommendations included 23 trials that randomly assigned risky drinkers to behavioral counseling or normal care. Overall, counseling interventions led to a 12 percent absolute increase in the proportion of people who reported no heavy drinking episodes one year later, and an average reduction in weekly drinks from 23 to 19. Brief counseling sessions, the USPSTF noted, are more likely to help people who have a few too many drinks on occasion than those who abuse or are dependent on alcohol. People with a serious drinking problem may need more specialty treatment, according to the Task Force, which published its recommendations Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “A brief intervention as applied by, say, a primary care physician in practice is probably not going to be adequate intervention for people on the alcohol dependence end of the spectrum,” LeFevre said. The USPSTF said there weren't enough data for it to weigh the possible benefits and harms of asking younger teenagers about their alcohol use. “The Task Force felt that it would be inappropriate to assume that what we have learned about the best ways to screen and manage adults (is) in fact applicable to adolescents,” LeFevre said. However, he added, that's not a recommendation against asking teens about their alcohol use - it's just a call for more studies to figure out the most effective way to do that. Dr. Sharon Levy said she hoped doctors didn't choose not to talk to teens about alcohol based on the new recommendations. “We recognize that there's not a lot of data, but we also recognize that alcohol use is one of the most significant contributors to (illness) and mortality in adolescents,” said Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program at Children's Hospital Boston. “There's no question that alcohol use is a serious problem for this age group,” she said. Levy, who wasn't involved in drafting the new guidelines, co-authored a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending that doctors screen adolescents for drug and alcohol use. She said the type of brief interventions recommended for adults who drink too much are also “developmentally appropriate” for teens. “They work with adults and they seem really adaptable,” Levy said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/14/doctors-should-ask-patients-about-alcohol-misuse-panel-says/

Man dies after toothpick gets stuck in throat

A Swedish man has died after doctors failed to spot a toothpick stuck in his throat. The man, who was in his 60s, accidentally swallowed a toothpick while eating a sandwich, The Local reports. The next day, he was taken to the emergency room after having trouble swallowing. However, the doctors who examined him failed to find any problem and sent him home. Ten days later, he developed a hole in his windpipe and an infection that required emergency surgery. The man hemorrhaged during the operation and died the next day. Click for more from news.com.ausource : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/14/man-dies-after-toothpick-gets-stuck-in-throat/

Snack before you shop

Maybe you’ve heard that going supermarket shopping while hungry can cause you to spend more money. But, did you know that researchers at Cornell University found that hungry grocery shoppers are more apt to slip high-calorie foods into their cart? You can keep your food bill and your waistline in check simply by eating something before heading out to the grocery store. Grabbing a quick snack is probably easier on the weekend than it is after work when you are tired and your stomach is growling.  Choosing sugary candy and cookies from the office vending machine isn’t very diet-friendly nor will these hold you for long. Your best bet is to plan ahead and have a healthy, satisfying grab-and-go snack at the ready.  Here are some simple and tasty ideas: String cheese and grapes This refreshing sweet and salty combo could not be easier to pack. You can count on the natural sugar in the grapes to give you a nice energy boost while the protein in the cheese will digest slowly, keeping hunger in check until you sit down to dinner. Hummus and veggies Talk about smart substitutes! Let some baby carrots or sliced peppers answer the call for something crunchy, and by pairing them with hummus you have a light yet savory alternative to a bag of fatty deep-fried chips. Apple slices with peanut butter Simply cut an apple in half and core it. Then fill each cavity with a spoonful of creamy peanut butter. You get the fruity-nutty taste of a PB&J sandwich without the bread, plus a lot more tummy-filling fiber and protein.   Gorp!   This acronym stands for “good old raisins and peanuts,” but with some creative license it covers a healthy trail mix, too. Prepare a batch in minutes by mixing some dried fruit, almonds, high fiber cereal, and whole wheat pretzel sticks. Then fill zip-lock baggies with 1/2 cup portions.   Strawberries and Cream Start with a single serving of Greek yogurt and top it with juicy ripe sliced strawberries.  Greek yogurt is creamier than traditional yogurt and much higher in protein, which keeps you feeling full longer. The berries provide natural sweetness and tang and feel free to add a drizzle of sugar-free chocolate sauce over the strawberries to make this healthy snack seem more like a decadent dessert. For more tips, delicious high fiber meal plans, recipes, and proven ways to lose weight and look great, check out my new book The Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear – with Fiber! Tanya Zuckerbrot MS, RD, is a registered dietitian in New York City and the bestselling author of The Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear – with fiber, and The F-Factor Diet: Discover the Secret to Permanent Weight Loss.  Follow Tanya on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and visit her website Ffactor.com  source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/14/snack-before-shop/

New approaches give women more options for breast cancer surgery

CHICAGO – & Treating breast cancer almost always involves surgery, and for years the choice was just having the lump or the whole breast removed. Now, new approaches are dramatically changing the way these operations are done, giving women more options, faster treatment, smaller scars, fewer long-term side effects and better cosmetic results. It has led to a new specialty -- “oncoplastic” surgery -- combining oncology, which focuses on cancer treatment, and plastic surgery to restore appearance. “Cosmetics is very important” and can help a woman recover psychologically as well as physically, said Dr. Deanna Attai, a Burbank, Calif., surgeon who is on the board of directors of the American Society of Breast Surgeons. Its annual meeting in Chicago earlier this month featured many of these new approaches. More women are getting chemotherapy or hormone therapy before surgery to shrink large tumors enough to let them have a breast-conserving operation instead of a mastectomy. Fewer lymph nodes are being removed to check for cancer's spread, sparing women painful arm swelling for years afterward. Newer ways to rebuild breasts have made mastectomy a more appealing option for some women. More of them are getting immediate reconstruction with an implant at the same time the cancer is removed rather than several operations that have been standard for many years. Skin and nipples increasingly are being preserved for more natural results. Some doctors are experimenting with operating on breast tumors through incisions in the armpit to avoid breast scars. There's even a “Goldilocks” mastectomy for large-breasted women -- not too much or too little removed, and using excess skin to create a “just right” natural implant. Finally, doctors are testing a way to avoid surgery altogether, destroying small tumors by freezing them with a probe through the skin. “Breast surgery has become more minimalistic,” said Dr. Shawna Willey of Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Women have more options. It's much more complex decision-making.” Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women around the world. In the U.S. alone, about 230,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Most can be treated by just having the lump removed, but that requires radiation for weeks afterward to kill any stray cancer cells in the breast, plus frequent mammograms to watch for a recurrence. Many women don't want the worry or the radiation, and choose mastectomy even though they could have less drastic surgery. Mastectomy rates have been rising. Federal law requires insurers to cover reconstruction for mastectomy patients, and many of the improvements in surgery are aimed at making it less disfiguring. Here are some of the major trends: IMMEDIATE RECONSTRUCTION Doctors used to think it wasn't good to start reconstruction until cancer treatment had ended -- surgery, chemotherapy, radiation. Women would have a mastectomy, which usually involves taking the skin and the nipple along with all the breast tissue, followed by operations months later to rebuild the breast. Reconstruction can use tissue from the back or belly, or an implant. The first operation often is to place a tissue expander, a balloon-like device that's gradually inflated to stretch the remaining skin and make room for the implant. A few months later, a second surgery is done to remove the expander and place the implant. Once that heals, a third operation is done to make a new nipple, followed by tattooing to make an areola, the darkened ring around it. The new trend is immediate reconstruction, with the first steps started at the time of the mastectomy, either to place a tissue expander or an implant. In some cases, the whole thing can be done in one operation. Nationally, about 25 to 30 percent of women get immediate reconstruction. At the Mayo Clinic, about half do, and at Georgetown, it's about 80 percent. SPARING SKIN, NIPPLES Doctors usually take the skin when they do a mastectomy to make sure they leave no cancer behind. But in the last decade they increasingly have left the skin in certain women with favorable tumor characteristics. Attai compares it to removing the inside of an orange while leaving the peel intact. “We have learned over time that you can save skin” in many patients, Willey said. “Every single study has shown that it's safe.” Now they're going the next step: preserving the nipple, which is even more at risk of being involved in cancer than the skin is. Only about 5 percent of women get this now, but eligibility could be expanded if it proves safe. The breast surgery society has a registry on nipple-sparing mastectomies that will track such women for 10 years. “You really have to pick patients carefully,” because no one wants to compromise cancer control for cosmetic reasons, Attai said. “The preliminary data are that nipple-sparing is quite good,” but studies haven't been long enough to know for sure, Willey said. “It makes a huge difference in the cosmetic outcome. That makes the woman's breast recognizable to her.” Dr. Judy Boughey, a breast surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, said the new approach even has swayed patients' treatment choices. “We're seeing women choosing the more invasive surgery, choosing the mastectomy,” because of doctors' willingness to spare skin and nipples, she said. It helped persuade Rose Ragona, a 51-year-old operations supervisor at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. She had both breasts removed on April 19 with the most modern approach: Immediate reconstruction, with preservation of her skin and nipples. “To wake up and just see your breasts there helped me immensely,” she said. She chose to have both breasts removed to avoid radiation and future worry. “I felt it was a safer road to go,” she said. “I can't live the rest of my life in fear. Every time there's a lump I'm going to worry.” FREEZING TUMORS Attai, the California breast surgeon, is one of the researchers in a national study testing cryoablation. The technique uses a probe cooled with liquid nitrogen that turns tumors into ice balls of dead tissue that's gradually absorbed by the body. This has been done since 2004 for benign breast tumors and the clinical trial is aimed at seeing if it's safe for cancer treatment. “The technology is amazing. This is done in the office under local anesthesia, a little skin puncture,” Attai said. In the study, women still have surgery at some point after the freezing treatment to make sure all the cancer is destroyed. If it proves safe and effective, it could eliminate surgery for certain cancer patients. “I'd love to see the day when we can offer women with small breast tumors a completely non-operative approach, and I do think that's coming soon,” Attai said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/14/new-approaches-give-women-more-options-for-breast-cancer-surgery/

Fish oil doesn’t seem to help age-related macular degeneration

Another key finding of the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2, or AREDS 2, is that lutein and zeaxanthin may be safer than beta-carotene in reducing risk of disease progression. "If you look at all the analysis performed in the AREDS 2 study, it looks like lutein taken with zeaxanthin is at least as effective and may be better than beta-carotene," Brown said. "If you also consider that beta-carotene was associated with increased lung cancer rates in all former smokers, I no longer recommend any formulations containing beta-carotene." Researchers saw a modest decrease in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) among those who took high amounts of zinc, but that result was not statistically significant. …

Leap in leukemia treatment

CLL lives both in the blood in circulation, and in lymph nodes and bone marrow. The former is relatively easy to kill, but the disease recurs because of resistant CLL cells in the lymph nodes and bone marrow. The researchers found an innovative drug combination that targets the stubborn CLL cells. "We have been studying the mechanism in the cancer cells that causes the resistance to treatment," says Alan Eastman, the senior researcher on the team and a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, "and that in turn, led us to find drugs that target the resistance." Eastman led the team at Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center that also included Ryan Soderquist, Darcy Bates, and Alexey Danilov. …

Tumor-activated protein promotes cancer spread

The findings are published in this week’s online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Roughly 90 percent of all cancer deaths are due to metastasis — the disease spreading from the original tumor site to multiple, distant tissues and finally overwhelming the patient’s body. Lymph vessels are often the path of transmission, with circulating tumor cells lodging in the lymph nodes — organs distributed throughout the body that act as immune system garrisons and traps for pathogens and foreign particles. The researchers, led by principal investigator Judith A. …

Dr. Manny: Let the Gosnell verdict be a warning to others

The Philadelphia doctor accused of performing illegal, late-term abortions in his filthy clinic has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies. Dr. Kermit Gosnell was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of one of his patients, but acquitted in the charge of murder in the death of a fourth baby. While the defense had argued there were no live births at the clinic, prosecutors say 72-year-old Gosnell delivered the living babies before having their spines severed with scissors to kill them. They say the baby whose death he was cleared in let out a soft whimper before Gosnell cut its neck, according to the Associated Press. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. So let this verdict be a warning to others. I applaud the decision of the jury in their conviction of Gosnell of first-degree murder in at least three of these tragic deaths. As a practicing high-risk OB-GYN who delivers many premature babies, I feel that what went on in that clinic was truly horrific, and deserves the highest degree of punishment possible. Let this also be a warning to city and state officials who failed to do their jobs of checking up on this death clinic, knowing full well that they have a moral and ethical responsibility to respond when citizens file complaints. Gosnell’s clinic was hardly ever inspected, and those city and state officials should bear a degree of guilt in allowing this doctor to practice the way he did. In the aftermath of this despicable case, I hope that political pundits don’t spin this story into an issue purely of abortion, but take the opportunity to discuss how to improve women’s health services in this country.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/13/dr-manny-let-gosnell-verdict-be-warning-to-others/