Archive for December, 2009

British Scientists have unlocked the entire genetic code of two of the most common cancers – skin and lung – this will revolutionise cancer care.

All cancers are caused by damage to genes — mutations in DNA — that can be triggered by environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, harmful chemicals or ultraviolet radiation, and causes cells to grow out of control.

The scientists found the DNA code for a skin cancer called melanoma contained more than 30,000 errors almost entirely caused by too much sun exposure.

The lung cancer DNA code had more than 23,000 errors largely triggered by cigarette smoke exposure.

From this, the experts estimate a typical smoker acquires one new mutation for every 15 cigarettes they smoke.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8414124.stm

By Prof. David Servan-Schreiber

The H1N1 flu has now flared into an epidemic in many countries: almost 6000 deaths have been attributed to the virus around the world. This situation is worrying to many of us, and it’s good to recall that several studies demonstrate the benefit of life-style changes, to permit the body to reinforce its ‘terrain’ and protect us from viral infections.

On his deathbed, Louis Pasteur, the man who discovered viruses and bacteria and who invented the first vaccine, is reported to have said, “Microbes are nothing – it’s the terrain that counts!” What did he mean? Our “terrain” – our immune defenses, or antioxydant and anti-inflammatory capacity – is usually much stronger than viruses or bacteria. Currently we’re being bombarded with information about swine flu: it’s a good time to remember that essential message.

During the 1918 epidemic of so-called “Spanish Flu”, some people resisted the virus much better than others. In his upcoming book on the subject (1), a French author, Thierry Souccar, recounts experiments that were made at the time (and which would be unthinkable today). Dr. Milton Rosneau, in Boston, reportedly infected more than 100 young US Navy recruits with secretions of patients who had fallen ill with the flu — these secretions were directly injected into the nostrils, throats and eyes of the recruits. After ten days, none of them had developed flu! Their healthy “terrain” had vanquished the virus. Today, several studies demonstrate the importance of a number of factors that contribute to reinforcing the terrain against viral infections.

Sleep: Sleeping for eight hours or more every night decreases the risk of developing a cold following exposure to a virus to one-third of the risk encountered by persons who sleep seven hours or less (2). So if you can, sleep more – you’ll benefit from it as if it were an antiviral medication.

Physical activity: moderate physical activity (for example, thirty minutes of walking, five days a week) stimulates the immune system and considerably increases resistance to infections (3).

Daily diet:

• Reduce sugary foods and those based on white flour, as well as all fats. Prefer olive oil and canola oil.
• Increase – by a factor of seven — your daily rations of fruits and vegetables. “Anticancer” foods are also antivirals, for the same reasons (the presence of flavonoides and de polyphenols). Eat garlic, onions, and shallots – and remind yourself that during the First World War, smart soldiers ate two or three cloves or raw garlic every day to protect themselves from influenza.
• Eat broccoli, cabbages and mushrooms (pleurotus, reishi, maitake, shitake, enokitake, crimini and portobello), which are employed as immune stimulants in Japanese hospitals.
• Drink green tea — three to six cups a day, if possible distant from meals, so as not to reduce absorption of iron. EGCG, the catechin of green tea, is very active against cancer and is also a powerful antiviral. An American study (4) has demonstrated that it reduced by one-third the risk of developing flu.
• Add herbs and Mediterranean spices (oregano, thyme, turmeric) to your diet, in at least one meal every day, because of their antiviral and anti-inflammatory effect.

It’s encouraging to note that the elements that reinforce our terrain are indiscriminately effective against all the diseases we seek to keep at bay, from influenza to cancer. Pasteur was indeed a genius, and his intuition was right — it’s the terrain that counts.

1. “Protection and Cure of Influenza (Prévenir et guérir la grippe) by Thierry Souccar (Thierry Souccar Éditions, 2009).
2. “Sleep habits and susceptibility to the common cold” by Sheldon Cohen et al., in Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009.
3. “Current perspective on exercise immunology” de David C. Nieman, in Current Sports Medicine Reports, 2003.
4. “Specific formulation of camellia sinensis prevents cold and flu symptoms and enhances gamma, delta T cell function” by Cheryl A. Rowe et al., in Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2007.

A number of cancer treatment studies published in major medical journals involve conflicts of interest, according to a report in the journal Cancer dated June 15, 2009. Clinical trials with conflicts of interest were more likely to report positive survival outcomes than studies with no industry ties, according to lead investigator Dr. Reshma Jagsi of the University of Michigan and assisting colleagues.

Industry involvement today goes beyond drug companies simply paying for studies of their products, the researchers note; some investigators “receive consulting fees, own stock, and hold leadership positions within organizations that profit from selling the very drugs and devices that are the subject of the researchers’ investigations.” And many studies, they add, have shown that this kind of involvement can bias findings in industry’s favor.

Jagsi and colleagues defined conflict of interest as industry funding, any conflict of interest declared by the authors, or any study authors who took a job in industry when the research was done, and therein reviewed funding sources for 1534 oncology studies published in eight journals in 2006 to investigate conflicts of interest in cancer research in more detail.

The researchers found that at least Twenty-nine percent of the papers had some type of conflict of interest, with 17 percent reporting industry funding and 12 percent having authors who were industry employees.

By region, conflicts of interest were seen in 33 percent of studies from North America, 27 percent of studies from Europe, 5 percent of studies done in Asia and 40 percent of studies done elsewhere.

While 62 percent of the industry-funded studies had a “major focus” on treatment with the goal of a cure, only 36 percent of non-industry-funded studies shared this aim.

The researchers also found, “most disturbingly,” that industry-funded randomized trials were more likely to have positive outcomes than those that didn’t receive industry funding.

They conclude that, “in light of these findings, attempts to disentangle the cancer-research effort from industry ties merit further attention, and medical journals should be supported in embracing both rigorous standards of disclosure and heightened scrutiny when conflicts exist.”

Sourced from: Cancer, June 15, 2009.

By Prof David Servan-Schreiber

To stimulate your natural defenses and boost your health, you don’t necessarily have to start jogging. Even your normal, everyday physical activity can make a big difference.

Everyone knows now that physical exercise can activate the body’s natural defense mechanisms against illness — whether it be infection, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stress, depression or cancer. But most people remain intimidated by the idea of “going to the gym,” or “taking up sports.” Many feel that they’re not athletic, and that sports are simply not for them.

Dr.Jeremy N. Morris died this November, at the marvelous age of 99 and a half (his daughter insists that the “half” meant a lot to him). He was the first person to demonstrate — as long ago as 1953 — that it’s not so much athletic activity that benefit health, but simply the level of physical activity — even when it’s just part of everyday life. [1]

In his first study, Dr. Morris compared the health of London bus-conductors who worked on “flat” buses with those who worked on double-deckers — those two-storey red buses that have become an icon of the city of London. These conductors all lived in comparable circumstances, and they had similar family backgrounds and dietary habits (including cigarette and alcohol consumption). Yet, almost without noticing it, the conductors who worked on double-deckers were walking up and down 600 steps a day to check their passengers’ tickets. And during a five-year observation period, they had half as many heart attacks as their colleagues!

Later Morris demonstrated similar results among postal workers. Although they were all comparable initially, those who delivered mail on foot or by bike — rather than working behind a desk at the neighborhood post-office — were also, to a considerable extent, protected against heart disease.

This past week a new study of prostate cancer has been published in the Journal of Urology. [2] Researchers and oncologists at Duke University confirmed again that a moderate quantity of physical activity can reduce the risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer — by more than 85%. The activity involved varied: one hour of walking per week, at normal walking speed (truly a minimum, you’ll agree), or 60 minutes of jogging spread out through the week, or the equivalent of a total one hour a week spent walking up stairs. (Morris would probably have found the same benefit in terms of prostate cancer among his London bus-conductors if he’d looked for that at the time).

Even housework counts. In a study of cleaning women working in Boston hotels, researchers found that the simple realization that their work — cleaning bathtubs or changing bed-linen — qualified as physical exercise significantly improved their health after a few months (weight loss, reduction of body fat and blood pressure). [3]

Why shouldn’t we all become London bus-conductors? All of us can find a way to walk up a few stairs every day, or to walk part of the way to work (or to a meeting with friends), or to bicycle to the neighborhood supermarket. It’s seems simple, and yet it’s also a big step towards much better health.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Hevesi, D., Jeremy Morris, Who Proved Exercise Is Heart-Healthy, Dies at 99½ in The New York Times. 2009: New York, USA.
2. Antonelli, J.A., et al., Exercise and Prostate Cancer Risk in a Cohort of Veterans Undergoing Prostate Needle Biopsy. Journal of Urology, 2009. 182(5): p. 2226-2231.
3. Crum, A.J. and E.J. Langer, Mind-Set Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effect. Psychological Science, 2007. 18: p. 165-171.

According to Dr. Ulrich Laufs, MD, of Saarland University in Hamburg, Germany, and colleagues, explored the effects of physical activity on telomere biology using both mice and humans and concluded that middle-aged marathoners and triathletes who had been training for a while had significantly less telomere erosion than their more sedentary counterparts.

source: Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association

Werner C, et al “Physical exercise prevents cellular senscence in circulating leukocytes and in vessel walls” Circulation 2009; DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.861005.

And

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/ExerciseFitness/17221