by Kathleen Doheny

Thursday, January 12, 2012

For several years, researchers have studied a possible link between substances called parabens — widely used as a germ-fighting preservative in cosmetics such as deodorant/antiperspirants — and breast cancer.

Investigators have learned that parabens, also found in some drugs and food products, can mimic weakly the action of the female hormone estrogen — an established risk factor for breast cancer. And the fact that a disproportionate number of breast tumors occur nearer the underarm also had scientists wondering.

But now, British researchers who examined breast tissue samples from 40 women who had mastectomies have found that traces of parabens are widespread in tissues, even in the seven women who said they’d never used underarm products.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Studies have shown that vitamin D is critical for bone health and could have a protective benefit for the heart, but new research suggests that too much of it could actually be harmful.

“Clearly, vitamin D is important for your heart health, especially if you have low blood levels of vitamin D. It reduces cardiovascular inflammation and atherosclerosis, and may reduce mortality, but it appears that at some point it can be too much of a good thing,” study leader Dr. Muhammad Amer, an assistant professor in the division of general internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a Hopkins news release.

In conducting the study, published in the Jan. 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology, researchers examined five years of data from a national survey of more than 15,000 adults. They found that people with a normal levels of vitamin D had lower levels of a c-reactive protein (CRP), a marker for inflammation of the heart and blood vessels.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

We’ve all heard that exercise can help stave off illness by offering an immune system boost, but what kind of activity is best? According to one expert who surveyed the research, moderate exercise — things like taking a brisk walk or playing touch football with friends — can reduce our risk of getting colds and flu viruses. But in a case of “less is more,” the same is not true of prolonged, intensive training, like the kind undertaken by marathon runners and elite athletes. Unlike an average workout, a marathon can actually increase the likelihood that an athlete will get sick.

A totally sedentary person is likely to contract a yearly average of two to three upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) — the medical term for viral infections of the ear, nose and throat, like colds, flu and sinus infections. But a moderately active person can expect to reduce that rate by almost a third, according to Mike Gleeson, a professor of exercise biochemistry at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, U.K. By contrast, an elite endurance athlete who completes intensive training can expect two to six times as many URTIs during a year.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Women concerned about breast cancer should worry less about cellphones and hair dyes and worry more about weighing or drinking too much, exercising too little, using menopause hormones and getting too much radiation from medical tests. So says a new report on environmental risks by a respected panel of science advisers.   By environment they mean everything not governed by genes – what’s in the air and water but also diets, vitamin use and even things like working night shifts.

And while they lament that most chemicals in consumer goods get little safety testing, they find too few studies in people to say whether there is a breast cancer risk from certain pesticides, cosmetics or bisphenol A, known as BPA and used in many plastics and canned food liners, although it has been eliminated from baby bottles and many reusable beverage containers in recent years.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Before you pour your child a heapin’ bowl of sugary cereal, read this: The Environmental Working Group has just come out with its list of the 10 worst children’s cereals. Your child’s favorite might be on it.

At No. 1 is Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, coming in at 55.6% sugar by weight, followed by Post Golden Crisp at 51.9% and Kellogg’s Froot Loops Marshmallow at 48.3%. The list also includes, in descending order of sugar, Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch OOPS! All Berries (yes, that’s really the name), Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch original, Quaker Oats Oh!s, Kellogg’s Smorz, Kellogg’s Apple Jacks and Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries. In last place, a somewhat dubious achievement, is Kellogg’s Froot Loops original at 41.4% sugar by weight.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

If you want to live longer, new research suggests that maintaining your level of fitness could add years to your life, regardless of whether or not you gain weight along the way. In new findings published December 6 in the journal Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, men who maintained fitness levels or improved them over the course of 11 years were less likely to die from any illness, including heart disease and stroke — regardless of whether or not they gained weight over the years.

As you sprinkle cinnamon on your hot chocolate or spice up a cold night with cayenne pepper, you may be doing more than adding flavor. Spices are part of an “anti-inflammatory lifestyle” that can help prevent illness, said Bharat Aggarwal, author of “Healing Spices: How to Use 50 Everyday and Exotic Spices to Boost Health and Beat Disease” and cancer researcher at the University of Texas at Houston. ”Any kind of disease — cancer, diabetes, arthritis — is caused by lifestyle,” he said. “If you can control inflammation, you can control all of these diseases. How do you contol inflammation? Spices are the answer. We have found it, everybody else has found it.”Many researchers are linking inflammation to a plethora of diseases, said Judy Fulop, a naturopath at Northwestern Integrated Medicine.

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