Health Tip: Pregnancy Affects the Skin

(HealthDay News) -- Pregnancy affects much of your body, even your skin.

Here's a list of changes to the skin that can occur while you're pregnant, provided by the American Pregnancy Association:

• Stretch marks -- pink or reddish streaks that can occur on your abdomen or breasts.


• Melasma -- dark spots that can appear on the face, especially the cheeks and forehead.


• They are caused by a change in hormones, which affect the skin's pigmentation.


• Oily skin on the face, or acne.


• Varicose and spider veins, both caused by increased blood circulation.


• Dry, itchy skin on the belly.


• Darkening of the linea nigra -- a dark line that runs from the belly button to the pubic bone.


• Moles and freckles that turn darker.


• Excess skin that forms beneath the breasts or arms.

Diabetes' Toll Continues to Grow

(HealthDay News) -- News from the diabetes front seems to grow more discouraging by the day.
Rates of the disease, fueled by obesity and sedentary lifestyles, have risen unchecked in the United States, with diabetes now affecting about 7 percent of the population. That's an estimated 20.8 million adults and children, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Federal projections estimate that by 2050, some 48 million Americans will have type 2 diabetes. And the disease will bring with it complications such as blindness, hearing loss, kidney disease, nervous system disorders and amputations of extremities.

"Studies have suggested that for the first time in history, the generation of people born in 2000 is probably going to have shorter life expectancy than their parents," said Dr. Sue Kirkman, vice president of clinical affairs for the American Diabetes Association. "That's attributable to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Is that what we want for our children?"

What's worse, one of the most promising medicines for treating type 2 diabetes -- Avandia -- now appears to increase a person's risk of heart attack and heart failure, according to recent studies.

Still, medical experts say the fight against diabetes can be won -- if everyone decides to do what's best for themselves and their families.

That fight will get its yearly boost on Tuesday when the American Diabetes Association will "sound the alert" about diabetes on the 20th annual American Diabetes Alert Day. It's a one-day "call to action" to encourage those at risk for developing type 2 diabetes or those with loved ones at risk to take the Diabetes Risk Test and, if they score high, to schedule an appointment to see their health-care provider. The Diabetes Risk Test is available in English and Spanish by calling the association at 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383) or online at www.diabetes.org/alert.

But the finding on Avandia calls into question the safety of the entire class of drugs known as thiazolidinediones. For now, Avandia -- and other thiazolidinediones such as Actos -- remains on the market. But last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated stricter labeling, including "black box" warnings, for the medications.

Medical experts recommend that each person discuss with their physician the risks and rewards of using Avandia.

"Every patient is different," said Kirkman. "Every patient has different risk factors. Every patient has reasons why one medicine might be better for them than another."

But medicines are only part of the solution. A better response would be drastic changes to American lifestyles, starting with improved diets and more exercise, to avoid type 2 diabetes in the first place.

"The statistics are pretty gloomy, but we also know people who are at risk for diabetes can do a lot to prevent it from coming on," Kirkman said. "There's a lot people can do to try and control their fate."

Diabetes comes in two types.

The most common form, type 2, or what used to be called adult-onset diabetes, occurs when either the body does not produce enough of the hormone insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. The body needs insulin to transport sugar in the blood to cells for energy. Being overweight, an unhealthy diet, and lack of exercise are common contributors to this form of the disease.

Type 1 diabetes, usually diagnosed in children and young adults, occurs when the body isn't capable of producing insulin.

Researchers reviewing data from the National Health Interview Survey found that from 1990 to 2005, cases of diabetes increased 4.6 percent each year. They rose from 26.4 cases per 1,000 people to 54.5 per 1,000 people in the most recent year available.

The diabetes epidemic has grave implications for America, said Martha Funnell, a clinical nurse specialist for the University of Michigan and a past president of the American Diabetes Association. Health care costs are expected to soar as more people with diabetes complications fill doctors' offices and emergency rooms.

Even the U.S. economy will be affected as potentially healthy people find themselves unable to work. "You're losing folks in the prime of their years, and that has an impact on society and our economy," Funnell said.

Fortunately, there are steps that can be taken, both large and small, to help fight diabetes.

On the large-scale side, Kirkman said, governments should spend more money on physical education in schools and on public transportation, instead of new road construction.

"We know people who take public transportation are more physically active," she said. "Do we choose to encourage that?"

On a more personal level, people can make healthy lifestyle choices and help pass those choices along to their children, Funnell said.

But is anyone listening and willing to try?

"The messages are those same old 'eat healthy and exercise,' and we hear those to the point where we think, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody knows we need to do these things,' " Funnell said.

However, even small measures -- standing more often during the day or walking during a lunch break or eating an apple instead of ice cream -- can help make a difference.

"Maybe it would seem to outsiders as a small step, but it's just taking that one step and the next step and the next," Funnell said. "Like global warming, it's saying, 'What can I do for myself and my family this week, this month, this year, that will make a difference?' "

More information
To learn more, visit the American Diabetes Association.

Health Tip: Canker Sores

(HealthDay News) - Canker sores are painful ulcers inside the mouth that most often occur on the base of the gums, inside the cheeks or lips, on the soft palate, or on the tongue. They typically do not require treatment and go away on their own.

Certain risk factors can increase the likelihood of developing canker sores. Here's a list, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine:

• Family history of canker sores.
• Weakened immune system.
• Dental work.
• Biting the inside of the cheek or the tongue.
• Stress, anxiety or changes in hormone levels.
• Malnutrition, particularly deficiencies in iron, folic acid or vitamin B-12.
• Allergic reaction to food.
• Viral infection.

Dogs Could Be a Diabetic's Best Friend

(HealthDay News) -- Irish researchers hope to prove that a dog's keen sense of smell gives it the ability to watch over the blood sugar levels of diabetics.

Canines have already shown themselves capable of leading the blind, alerting the deaf, and helping the physically disabled with daily tasks.

But researchers at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, are taking the "helpful companion" idea one step further by gathering scientific evidence that could verify dogs can reliably detect dangerous blood sugar level drops in diabetics.

"Anecdotal reports suggest that some dogs can perform early warning of hypoglycemia by using their sense of smell to 'sniff out' if their owner's blood sugar levels are dropping," said lead researcher and psychology professor Deborah Wells.

More than 20 million U.S. children and adults have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. Those with the disease do not produce enough insulin, a hormone the body needs to convert sugars, starches and other food into energy.

Diabetics must test their blood glucose level regularly, even sometimes in the middle of the night to avoid the peaks and valleys that can cause organ failure, say experts.

Wells hopes to find out what cues dogs pick up on so they can officially be recognized and trained as early-warning systems for diabetics.

At least two organizations in the United States already train dogs to detect low glucose levels. But exactly what the canines notice when a person experiences a blood sugar low is still a mystery, said Mark Ruefenacht, founder of Dogs for Diabetics, in Concord, Calif.
The organization is working with a forensic laboratory to identify a possible odor.

"We just haven't come up with the right answers," he said. "Every time we think we have the answer, we find that we don't."

Ruefenacht, a diabetic, started the organization three years ago, inspired after a puppy he was raising for Guide Dogs for the Blind woke him one night. Ruefenacht forgot to check his blood sugar before going to sleep, and he thinks he had a seizure that alarmed the pup.

Since then, the all-volunteer group has placed 30 trained canines in the homes of Northern California residents with type 1 diabetes.

Demand for the dogs is high; more than 100 people are on the waiting list.

Dogs for Diabetics uses Labrador retrievers that don't graduate from guide dog school. These dogs usually flunk for reasons such as refusing to walk in the rain or step onto an escalator -- all skills important for being a working dog, but not a general assistance one.

Ruefenacht said his dogs undergo three to four months of training similar to what is used to prepare dog to detect narcotics or explosives. The 2-year-old canines are first taught to detect scent samples of low blood sugar. Then they learn to find that scent on people, and alert others by holding in their mouth a soft tube that hangs from around their neck.

Dogs that successfully complete training are 90 percent accurate, Ruefenacht said.

These clever canines aren't the only ones that must learn new tricks.

Mary Simon has battled diabetes for more than three decades, and she now drives four hours each week from her home in Fresno to attend the required class.

"I need this dog desperately," said Simon, a diabetic who is also medical director for the Diabetic Youth Foundation in Concord, Calif.

Medication she takes hampers her ability to feel nighttime lows, she said, and the special glucose sensor she wears doesn't always work.

When Simon first learned of the hypoglycemic detection dogs a few years ago, she didn't think their talent was needed because glucose sensors were about to hit the market. Since then, she's changed her mind.

"My own personal experience is we need [the dogs] right now," she said.

Not everyone is so quick to put their trust in the canines' ability.

Larry Myers, a veterinarian and professor at Auburn University in Alabama, has trained dogs to detect everything from drugs to agricultural pests for 25 years. He said the jury is still out on whether dogs can truly detect low blood sugar levels, but he believes it's a possibility worth exploring.

Even though dogs have amazing olfactory abilities, he said they are not universally sensitive to all chemicals.

"Do hypoglycemic individuals, in fact, emit an odor that is characteristic? I don't know, and I don't think anybody does know right now," he said.

A possibility other than scent is the dogs are picking up on visual cues, which is thought to be the case with seizure detection dogs. Such dogs allegedly can pick up on extremely subtle physiological changes in their human companion that may begin five to 45 minutes before an actual attack. The dogs then warn the humans so they can find a safe environment or take precautionary measures.

"It turns out what the dogs are really sensitive to is subtle changes in behavior of the individuals just prior to seizing," Myers said. "It's more of a fact that dogs are very, very, very observant of human behavior."

More information
To learn more about diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.

Cannabis Compound May Stop Metastatic Breast Cancer

(HealthDay News) -- A non-toxic, non-psychoactive compound in marijuana may block the progress of metastatic breast cancer, according to a new study by researchers in California.

"This is a new way to treat a patient that is not toxic like chemotherapy or radiotherapy. It is a new approach for metastatic cancer," said lead researcher Sean D. McAllister, an associate scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco.

The compound found in cannabis, called cannabidiol (CBD), inhibits a gene, Id-1, that researchers believe is responsible for the metastatic process that spreads cells from the original tumor throughout the body.

Opting for a musical metaphor, senior researcher Pierre-Yves Desprez likened Id-1 to "an [orchestra] conductor. In this case, you shoot the conductor, and the whole orchestra is going to stop. If you shoot the violinist, the orchestra just continues to play."

In humans, the Id-1 gene is found only in metastatic cancer cells, said Desprez, a staff scientist at the institute. Before birth, they are present and involved in the development of human embryos, but after birth, they go silent -- and should stay that way, he said.

But in metastatic cancer "when [the genes] wake up, they are very bad," he said. "They push the cells to behave like embryonic cells and grow. They go crazy, they proliferate, they migrate." Desprez said, "We need to be able to turn them off."

According to the study, CBD does exactly that.

"We are focusing on the latest stages of cancer," Desprez added. The cancer cell itself is not the problem, because a tumor can be "removed easily by surgery," he said. The problem is the development of metastatic cells which is "conducted" by Id-1.

McAllister and Desprez said they are not suggesting that patients with hormone-independent metastatic breast cancer smoke marijuana. For one thing, a sufficient amount of CBD could never be obtained in that way, they said.

The research that has been done on marijuana and its compounds, however, is helpful, McAllister, said. CBD has been around for a long time, and researchers have found it is not psychoactive, and its "toxicity is very low," he added.

The new findings are published in the November issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
If McAllister's and Desprez's work results in the development of a cancer treatment, someone with metastatic cancer might be placed on CBD for several years. That means low toxicity is important, McAllister explained.

McAllister also suggested that Id-1 is "so important in providing the [metastatic] mechanism in these cells in so many types of cancers" that they "provide us an opportunity potentially to target other types of cancers."

The study's findings were "were a serendipitous discovery, in a way," McAllister said. Desprez noted that he had been working on the Id-1 gene for 12 years. His lab had demonstrated that it was a key gene for invasive breast cancer and tumor progression, and Desprez had found a way to inhibit it in mice, but not in humans.

Then, two years ago, McAllister -- an expert on cannabinoids -- and Desprez, a cancer researcher, started to work together. Through their combined forces "what we found is actually what I was looking for for the last 12 years," Desprez said.

Further study is needed before CBD can be conclusively identified as a treatment option, McAllister and Desprez said. "We need to involve a team of physicians, because we are bench [basic] scientists," McAllister said.

One expert called the findings intriguing but preliminary.

"This is the first evidence that a cannabinoid can target the expression of an important breast cancer metastasis gene," noted Manuel Guzman, a Spanish expert on cannabinoids and cancer. He described the California study as giving "preliminary insight into the question of whether CBD could be used clinically to treat metastatic breast cancer."

However, "all the experiments in the paper have been conducted in cultured cells and none of them in any animal model of breast cancer, which would be one of the steps for further research," added Guzman, who is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Complutense University in Madrid.

Guzman also noted that "Id-1 is just one of many genes involved in breast cancer metastasis" and that future research also needs to examine the impact of CBD on these other metastasis genes.

More information
There's more on breast cancer at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Emotional State Doesn't Affect Cancer Survival

(HealthDay News) -- Neither positive nor negative emotional states predict how long a person with cancer will survive, a new study finds.

University of Pennsylvania researchers say that among head and neck cancer patients, emotional health -- good or bad -- is not an independent factor affecting prognosis.

"We anticipated finding that emotional well-being would predict the outcome of cancer. We exhaustively looked for it, and we concluded there is no effect for emotional well-being on cancer outcome," said study author and University of Pennsylvania psychologist James Coyne. "I think [cancer survival] is basically biological. Cancer patients shouldn't blame themselves -- too often we think if cancer were beatable, you should beat it. You can't control your cancer. For some, this news may lead to some level of acceptance."

The study, expected to be published in the Dec. 1 issue of Cancer, culled data from almost 1,100 patients enrolled in two phase III clinical trials for new head and neck cancer treatments.

The patients completed questionnaires about their attitude and social networks at the beginning of the study and at follow-up. The questionnaire included five questions to assess emotional well-being, including such items as "I am sad" and "I am losing hope in my fight against my illness."

By the end of the five-year study, 646 patients died. When the data was analyzed, the researchers found that emotional status had no effect on the course of the cancer or the patient's survival.

Although there is no evidence that psychotherapy or support groups contribute to the chance of survival, Coyne said that if cancer patients need mental health help to improve their quality of life, they should pursue it.

Study co-author Dr. Benjamin Movsas agreed, saying that quality of life may indeed be a factor in a patient's survival of cancer, but it is a much bigger concept than mood and attitude.

"In a separate study, we found that single males with head and neck cancer appeared to be at risk for lower survival... and in another study, we found single males with cancer had among the lowest quality of life," said Movsas, who is chairman of radiation oncology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

About 40,000 new cases of head and neck cancer are diagnosed each year, and about 11,000 people die from these cancers annually, according to the American Cancer Society.

The role of the patient's attitude in cancer treatment has been in debate for years. This is not the first study to assess whether emotional state could affect the course of cancer. However, this study had a larger number of deaths than some other studies had enrollees, the researchers noted, allowing them greater control over issues of chance that could affect the study results.

One advantage to working with people in a clinical trial, Coyne said, is knowing that they are all receiving the same treatment.

But positivity or negativity are not the issue, suggested Dr. David Spiegel, associate chairman of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. What matters is the way in which a cancer patient approaches the stresses in his or her life, Spiegel said.

"The authors vastly overstate the quality of their data and the findings," said Spiegel. "They used a subscale of a quality-of-life measure which is hardly a reliable measure of depression and provides, by definition, limited variance in mood, making it, by design, difficult to show a relationship with any other variable."

Spiegel also noted that head and neck cancers generally have a "very poor prognosis," are not hormone-sensitive, and usually require serious surgery and radiotherapy -- all of which has social and psychological consequences.

"Our research shows that it is not a positive attitude but rather facing and dealing well with the ups and downs of life with cancer that is, at the least, psychologically helpful," Spiegel said.
But an Australian study released in the February issue of Cancer showed similar results for lung cancer patients. Patients in that study also completed questionnaires about their outlook before treatment and after treatment.

As with the current study, the Australian research team found no relationship between attitude, positive or negative, and outcome.

Another study released in the Nov. 1 issue of the British Medical Journal analyzed data from 26 studies of emotional outlook and cancer survival and came to the same conclusion: A positive outlook may be a good thing in general but has no impact on cancer outcomes. The same was true for negativity.

But more research is needed, argued Spiegel. The connection between true depression and the course of cancer is still not well understood.

"Patients in my support group joke, 'Am I living longer yet?' They grieve deaths when they occur, but feel they grow stronger doing so," said Spiegel. "They joke about the prison of positive thinking. The connection between mood and cancer is not about 'positive thinking,' it is about managing the very real stressors of life-threatening illness."

Another expert said he wasn't surprised by the Pennsylvania findings.

"People are more likely to find this news a relief than a disappointment," said Dr. Michael Fisch, an associate professor of gastrointestinal medical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston.

Survival depends on the location of the cancer, the risk factors for the cancer, and how advanced the cancer is when it's diagnosed, said Fisch.

According to Fisch, who treats head and neck cancer patients in Houston, survival also has more to do with access to health care and the biology of the cancer in question than attitude. Good social support and a spiritual sense of something greater than yourself are also beneficial, said Fisch.

Fisch pointed out that probably only 5 percent of head and neck cancer patients ever enter a phase III clinical trial, and those that do are likely to already have more social and medical support than their peers. In other words, they came into the study with an advantage which would make data based on their reported attitudes difficult to generalize to other cancer patients.

Fisch favors a concept he calls "rooting styles" -- comparing the way people approach cancer with the way they root for a sports team. Some are diehard, never-say-never fans, and others may allow for the possibility of losing a game or a season, but both fans are backing the same team.

"Some people have a style where they are optimistic. Some have a style where, if you ask them what they think the outcome will be, they are less certain. They have a coping style that is not a positive-attitude coping style, but it keeps them edgy and works for them," said Fisch.

In fact, Fisch added, trying to encourage a person with a less positive way of talking about their cancer to think more positively would just cause them more stress. That's what he calls the "tyranny of the guilt systems," where others imply that a patient has some mental control over their cancer's outcome.

Clashes between different rooting systems can become a challenge when families or couples have different styles, Fisch said. The key is to find what works for the patient and support that.

More information
For advice on talking to someone diagnosed with cancer, head to the American Cancer Society.

More Prostate Cancers Might Be Prevented

(HealthDay News) -- Prostate cancer prevention studies conducted since the 1990s are poised to revolutionize the field in the next five years, a Canadian analysis concludes.

"I am optimistic that for the coming generation, beginning with men in their 20s and 30s, we will have a viable strategy to decrease the chance of developing prostate cancer later in life," said study lead author Dr. Neil Fleshner.

A professor of surgery, Fleshner heads the division of urology at Princess Margaret Hospital, part of the University Health Network at the University of Toronto.

His team's overview of the last 15 years of prostate cancer prevention research is published in the Nov. 1 issue of Cancer.

According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), cancer of the prostate is the most common non-skin cancer among American men. Most patients diagnosed with the disease do not ultimately die of it. However, because of its high prevalence, prostate cancer remains the third biggest cancer killer for men in the Western world.

By age 40, one-third of men have already developed small carcinomas of the prostate, the researchers noted. By age 60, that figure rises to 60 percent, and, in North America, one in seven men will develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives.

But the disease is also often slow-moving, sometimes taking decades to develop from a single prostate cancer cell to advanced-stage illness.

That fact has led to the hope that doctors could intervene in ways that could halt disease progression at an early stage.

One such study reviewed by Fleshner and his colleagues was the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), overseen by the NCI.

In this instance, NCI researchers looked at the ability of finasteride -- a so-called 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (5ARI) medication -- to impede the growth-promoting impact of hormones such as testosterone on prostate cancer.

Designed to interfere with the body's ability to uptake testosterone and other male hormones, finasteride was offered to half the almost 19,000 men over the age of 55 who participated in the seven-year study.

At the study's start, all the men screened as "normal" following digital rectal exams. As well, all had registered low-scoring prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. An elevated level of PSA in the blood is an indication of prostate cancer.

Yearly digital rectal exams and PSA screenings revealed that almost 25 percent of the men on placebo went on to develop prostate cancer. However, just a little over 18 percent of those taking finasteride got the disease.

Fleshner and his associates noted, however, that most of the cancer cases prevented appeared to be of the early stage, low-grade variety. More serious, higher-grade disease actually appeared to become more common among patients taking finasteride. This raises concern that the medication might actually hasten disease progression, the Canadian group cautioned.

Nevertheless, their review concluded that finasteride might, in the near future, become an effective prevention tool for men with a strong family history of the disease.

Additional studies are currently under way to explore the benefits of newer hormone manipulation drugs, they noted, including the 5ARI drug dutasteride and the selective estrogen receptor modifier toremifene. Results should be available in a few years.

Meanwhile, the Canadian team also uncovered evidence suggesting that limiting fat in the diet might also reduce prostate cancer risk. Various studies have highlighted unhealthful connections between fat and pesticide exposure, testosterone level increases, and the rise of oxidative stress -- all of which seem to contribute to prostate disease risk.

By contrast, evidence has mounted that increasing vitamin E and selenium intake could also protect against prostate cancer, they said. Recent research also suggests that consuming more green tea, soy, vitamin D, and lycopene (typically found in tomatoes) might confer similar benefits.
Fleshner and his colleagues hailed the new emphasis on prevention. The arrival of even more helpful prevention information might be just around the corner, they said.

"What's exciting now is that there's no doubt any longer that prostate disease is preventable," said Fleshner. "This will not necessarily translate into improved mortality rates, because it may be that we will be able to prevent more low-grade disease than high-grade."

But many men with low-grade disease currently undergo surgery and other treatments that can impact their quality of life, he noted. "So, even if we are able to reduce just the need for unnecessary treatment, this will be a good step," Fleshner said.

Not everyone shares that optimism, however.

Dr. Nelson Neal Stone, a clinical professor of urology and radiation oncology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, believes that when it comes to preventing prostate cancer, "we're still sort of at a loss."

"Today, you can't really advise a patient to do anything to prevent prostate cancer," he said. "The best study so far -- the PCPT study-- did show a 25 percent drop in prostate cancer, but that was in low-grade tumors, whereas the incidence of high-grade tumors may actually have gone up. And a lot of the dietary factors that showed promise --vitamins, selenium -- have come into question as to whether they're really helping patients."

"So, I would agree that in five year's time, we will probably come up with strategies to reduce the clinical incidence of the disease in terms of detecting low-grade cancer," he added. "But that doesn't have much meaning in a patient's life. What has meaning is the ability to prevent a high-grade tumor from metastasizing and potentially ending a patient's life. And nobody has shown that anything can reduce that."

"In my opinion, the best strategy we have now is early detection," Stone said. "If you find a patient with an aggressive prostate cancer, and it's small and in the prostate and you find it early, you save that patient's life."

More information
For more on prostate cancer prevention, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Breast Cancer Rates Drop in U.S.

(HealthDay News) -- The incidence of breast cancer in the United States dropped precipitously in 2003, and new research suggests the downward trend was the result of millions of women discontinuing use of hormone replacement therapy.

The drop was most pronounced among women over 50, and was seen mostly with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers, which are fueled by the hormone estrogen. As many as 14,000 fewer women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003 than in 2002, the researchers stated.

"This is big news," said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System, in Baton Rouge. "This has profound public health implications for women in this country."

The decline in the number of women taking HRT came just after publication of the results of the landmark Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial in 2002. That study, involving 16,608 participants, was halted after researchers found elevated health risks among HRT users, most notably for breast cancer and stroke.

Since then, a debate has raged about the utility and safety of HRT, with health officials advising women to take HRT only when needed and for as short a period as possible.

The authors of the current study looked at data on women in nine regions across the country from 1990 to the end of 2003.

Between 1990 and 1998, the incidence of breast cancer incidence in the United States increased at 1.7 percent per year. Between 1998 and 2003, incidence began to go down at 1 percent per year and, in 2003, there was a 7 percent drop in a single year.

According to the study authors, who presented their findings Thursday at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, this was the largest single drop ever in breast cancer incidence within a single year. "Something went right," study author Dr. Peter Ravdin, a research professor in biostatistics at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said in a statement.

Further analyses revealed that the decline was most evident in patients older than 50 and for estrogen receptor-positive tumors. The steepest decline (12 percent) was in women aged 50 to 69 who had estrogen receptor-positive tumors. Women in that age range with estrogen receptor-negative tumors saw a 4 percent decline in incidence.

Women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer showed an 8 percent decline vs. 4 percent for women estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer.

The incidence of breast cancer in the United States had been increasing for the two decades prior to July 2002, and experts had speculated that HRT may have played a role.

According to the researchers, about 30 percent of women over the age of 50 had been taking HRT in the first part of this decade and about half of those stopped using HRT in late 2002.

Estrogen receptor-positive tumors will stop growing if the fuel they need is cut off, which may explain the suddenness of the decline.

Still, it's not certain that HRT caused the decline, only that the association is a strong one and further studies need to be done, the researchers stated.

More information
For more on HRT, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Choose Wisely in the Organic Food Aisle

(HealthDay News) -- Not long ago, buying organic foods meant stopping at your local food co-op or a trek to the farmers' market.

You can still get organic products there, of course, but increasingly, you can also find them at mainstream markets.

"Half of organic foods sold in the U.S. are now sold by chain groceries," said Mark Kastel, co-founder and co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, in Cornucopia, Wis., a think tank and progressive farm-policy research group. "That shift has been happening the last few years."

And that trend is expected to continue. Wal-Mart Stores, for instance, recently announced it plans to double its sales of organic foods, and with its reputation for cost-cutting, the price gap between organic and conventionally grown foods may narrow, although not all experts agree with that prediction.

Costs of organic products are 25 percent to 100 percent higher than non-organic, said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association in Finland, Minn. Typically, he said, "people are willing to pay the extra costs."

With the good news about increased availability comes a caveat: Organic foods advocates say it's getting tougher to choose the best organic offerings. They say some companies are cutting corners in the interest of boosting profits, and that consumers must educate themselves on how to read labels or do research on which companies are producing the best products.

One controversy: The fact that organic milk is produced both by family farms that allow the cows to graze outdoors in pastures, and by "factory farms" that confine cows, give them feed rather than allowing them to graze, and milk them several times a day.

"Confined [milk production] is a quicker, easier way to produce," said Will Fantle, research director of the Cornucopia Institute. But Fantle and other organic advocates frown on the process and the end product.

To help consumers, the Cornucopia Institute has posted a scorecard on its Web site, giving dairy producers a "one-to-five-cow" rating, five being best. The scorecard is the result of a one-year research project in which the research team rated 68 organic dairy producers and private-label products. The institute presented their report in April to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Organic Standards Board.

Knowing how to read a label can also help you pick the best organic offerings, experts say. If meat, poultry, eggs or dairy products are labeled organic, they must come from animals given no antibiotics or growth hormones, according to the USDA, which regulates organic standards. And organic produce is grown without using "most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation," according to the USDA.

If a label says "certified organic," that means the product has been grown and processed according to the USDA national standards and then certified by one of the USDA-accredited certification organizations.

Consumers should also be aware that many companies are importing foods from outside the United States to cut costs, Fantle said. He believes domestically-grown product is better.

"Consumers need to look [at the label]," he said, "to see if the food is coming from foreign sources." If that information is not on the label, he said, "develop some sort of comfort level or relationship with the grocery story providing the foods. Ask, 'Where is this coming from?' "
And a final piece of advice: Don't confuse the word "natural" on a label with "organic."

" 'Natural' is not third party-certified, the way 'organic' is," he said. "It's more a marketing tool."

More information
For more on organic foods, head to the USDA.

Left handedness may be linked to breast cancer risk

Left handedness may be linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, finds new research published online by the BMJ today (26 September 2005).

Researchers in the Netherlands examined the relation between handedness and incidence of breast cancer in over 12,000 healthy, middle aged women born between 1932 and 1941.
Body measurements were taken and risk factors such as social and economic status, smoking habits, family history of breast cancer, and reproductive history were recorded.

They found that left handed women were more than twice as likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer as non-left handed women. Adjusting for risk factors hardly affected the overall association.

The origin of the association may lie in exposure to high levels of sex hormones before birth, which can induce left handedness as well as changes in breast tissue, say the authors.
"Although the underlying mechanisms remain elusive, our results support the hypothesis that left handedness is related to increased risk of breast cancer," they conclude.
From British Medical Journal

Appetite-Fighting Molecule May Fight Obesity

(HealthDay News) -- Japanese researchers have discovered a naturally occurring molecule that suppresses appetite in mammals, raising hopes that it might one day treat obesity in humans.
Over a period of 10 days, rats that received a continuous infusion of the compound, called nesfatin-1, ate significantly less food than untreated rats. They also gained significantly less weight than untreated rats (an average of 12.6 grams vs. an average of 30.4 grams), apparently without any adverse effects.

The findings, published in the Oct. 1 online edition of Nature, "indicate that nesfatin-1 might be a useful target for the development of drug therapies to treat obese persons," the study authors concluded.

A team led by Dr. Masatomo Mori, of the department of medicine and molecular science at Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, in Maebashi, say they discovered the molecule after analyzing 596 genes, nine of which are expressed in both the brains and fat tissues of mammals.

The researchers narrowed their search to NUCB2, a protein secreted by the hypothalamus, a brain region that helps regulate appetite. They suspect that a fragment of NUCB2 -- a molecule they dubbed "nesfatin-1" -- plays a key role in appetite control.

To test their theory, they injected nestfatin-1 into the hypothalamus regions of a special strain of obese rats. These rats carried a gene mutation that led them to resist the effects of leptin, a hormone thought to play a role in obesity. Obese people are also thought to be somewhat resistant to leptin's appetite-dampening effects.

The injections appeared to decrease appetite in the rats, the researchers report, "suggesting that nesfatin-1 may be effective in obese persons with leptin resistance," Mori said.

In fact, "the dose we used had the same potency as leptin in reducing appetite," he said. Compared to rats that didn't get the injections, rats receiving nesfatin-1 ate much less and cut their weight gain by more than half.

In another experiment, the researchers used a special antibody to block nesfatin-1 uptake. The result: the rats' appetites rebounded and they quickly put on weight.

There were no major side effects, Mori said, and, "so far, we have not observed any adverse behavioral changes in rats receiving nesfatin-1."

Because brain injections are not a feasible treatment for obese humans, Mori and his team have been testing other ways of administering nesfatin-1 to obese rats.

"We have preliminary data showing that peripheral [non-brain] injection of nesfatin-1 is also effective to reduce food intake in rats," Mori said. "So we are optimistic that subcutaneous injection of nesfatin-1 may become available to treat human subjects with obesity."

Overweight and obesity are a global epidemic, in developing as well as developed nations. Of the estimated 1 billion adults worldwide who are overweight, about 300 million are considered obese, according to the World Health Organization.

Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke, and some forms of cancer.

"We are really hopeful that nesfatin-1 and [similar molecules] will prove useful in treating obese persons in the near feature," Mori said.

More information
There's more on research into fighting obesity at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Hormone Therapy Ups Ovarian-Cancer Risk

(HealthDay News) -- The universe of possible health risks associated with hormone therapy just got bigger.
New research suggests that prolonged use of hormone therapy in postmenopausal women increases slightly the risk of developing ovarian cancer.
The risk does need confirmation in other studies and also needs to be weighed against other factors, the researchers cautioned.
"We've seen a growing body of evidence linking unopposed estrogen and estrogen-plus-progestin to an increased risk of ovarian cancer," said study author James V. Lacey Jr., an epidemiologist with the National Cancer Institute. "There are still some outstanding questions, but this adds more data that there is a slightly increased risk of ovarian cancer among women who used [this] hormone therapy for long durations."
Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, added, "It's another caution, but it's probably not going to be as applicable today as 10 years ago when women went on hormone therapy for longer durations."
Another study in the same publication, the Oct. 4 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that high levels of natural sex hormones, including estrogen, were associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women.
Concerns about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) were initially raised by the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a landmark U.S. study involving 27,000 participants. Researchers halted the WHI study in 2002, after they found the regimen entailed more health risks -- most notably an increased risk for breast cancer and stroke -- than benefits.
There has been conflicting information, however, regarding HRT and ovarian cancer.
The authors of the first study found that, among a group of almost 100,000 women aged 50 to 71, those with a hysterectomy who used estrogen alone for a decade or more had almost double the risk of ovarian cancer than those who received no HRT.
Women who had not undergone a hysterectomy and who used estrogen plus progestin in sequence or continuously for five or more years also had a higher risk, compared with women who used no HRT.
But this finding probably won't change medical practice, Lichtenfeld said. "To me, the message remains pretty much the same," he said. "Currently, if you go on HRT, the recommendation based on the WHI is to go on for as short a period as possible."
And other studies on HRT and ovarian cancer would be helpful. "Because this is a rare cancer, it's even more important that we see whether other studies can replicate the findings," Lacey said.
The authors of the second study looked at blood samples from 18,521 premenopausal women and found that women with high levels of a naturally occurring type of estrogen called estradiol during the pre-ovulation phase of their menstrual cycle had a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Higher levels of testosterone and androstenedione in both the pre- and post-ovulation phases were also associated with an increased risk.
But again, nothing is likely to change in doctors' offices as a result of this finding.
"This is an interesting study. It does suggest that there's a relationship, but it won't change anything we recommend to women at this time," Lichtenfeld said. "If we were able to identify those with higher circulating levels, we might change recommendations in terms of surveillance, but the reality is that this is not something that's commonly measured."
Perhaps the bigger priority, Lichtenfeld added, is making sure women get mammograms in the first place. "We can't lose sight of the real message -- that women at average risk for breast cancer over the age of 40 need to get mammograms annually," he said.
A third study in the same issue of the journal found sad news for breast-cancer survivors: They have an increased risk of suicide for up to 30 years after diagnosis. The cumulative risk of suicide 30 years after a breast-cancer diagnosis was 0.2 percent, or 37 percent higher than the general population.
According to the study, women with breast cancer account for one in five of all cancer survivors in the United States, a total of about 2 million people in 2001.
More information
For more on HRT, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Pomegranates for the Prostate?

Pomegranates for the Prostate?

Q: Is it true that pomegranate juice protects against prostate cancer?

A: Pomegranate juice may turn out to be very useful in the treatment of prostate cancer and, perhaps, its prevention, as well. Here’s the story: in 2005, researchers at the University of Wisconsin tested various doses of pomegranate extract on human prostate cancer cells in the lab. The higher the dose of the extract, the more cancer cells died.

Then, in tests with mice that were injected with human prostate cancer cells, the animals that received the highest concentration of pomegranate extract had the least progression of prostate cancer and declining levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a marker for prostate cancer in humans. In a comparison group of mice that received only water instead of pomegranate extract, tumors grew much faster.

And now it appears that pomegranate juice also helps humans. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) tested it on a group of 46 men whose PSA levels were rising after treatment for prostate cancer – usually a bad sign. While surgery or radiation cures two out of every three cases of early prostate cancer, the disease lingers among patients in the other third, and within 15 years, may progress to deadly metastatic cancer.

Patients with detectable PSA levels after surgery or radiation usually are treated with hormone therapy to remove testosterone from the system. This can bring on severe side effects including hot flashes, osteoporosis, fatigue, depression and muscle wasting, as well as loss of libido or erectile dysfunction. Instead, the men participating in the UCLA study drank eight ounces of pomegranate juice daily. Of the 46 patients, PSA levels declined in 16 and, in four of them, dropped by half. The researchers reported that some of the men in the study have continued drinking pomegranate juice and their PSA levels have remained stable for more than three years.

It’s little wonder pomegranate juice shows such remarkable effects. It is anti-inflammatory and rich in antioxidants. It contains some of the same polyphenols found in tea, as well as isoflavones found in soy, plus ellagic acid found in berries, which is believed to play a role in cancer cell death.

Pomegranate juice didn’t work on everyone in the study and certainly isn’t a cure, but the results were sufficiently striking to prompt the launch of a larger clinical trial to be conducted at 10 medical centers around the country. The hope is that the juice will turn out to be powerful enough to keep prostate cancer in check. As a result, the researchers said, prostate cancer patients between the ages of 65 and 70 may be able to avoid both hormonal treatment and chemotherapy and still have normal life expectancy. The UCLA study was published in the July 1, 2006, issue of Clinical Cancer Research.


Andrew Weil, M.D.

–Author of:
Eight Weeks to Optimum Health
Spontaneous Healing
The Natural Mind
The Marriage of the Sun and Moon
Health and Healing
Natural Health, Natural Medicine
From Chocolate to Morphine (with Winifred Rosen)

Ayurveda:Exploring an alternative medicine

San Mateo County Times, USA
Apr. 3, 2004 Malaika Fraley
http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/

FOSTER CITY -- When conventional Western medicine isn't working, a Foster City doctor says, more and more people are turning to Ayurveda -- an ancient Indian healing science that treats health problems through diet, exercise and herbs."In conventional medicine, we focus more on the physical body and in Ayurveda -- it means the wisdom about healthy living -- we much more focus on the body, mind and spirit," says Dr. Jay Apte, who runs a Ayurvedic clinic in Foster City. "We always believe that our mind has more control over our physical body."We focus on prevention rather than treating disease, mainly through diet and lifestyle, meditation, exercise and taking natural herbs," she adds.

Apte, who received an integrated degree in Ayurvedic and Allopathic medicine in India and a master's degree in Pharmacology from the University of North Texas, said most of her patients have health problems such as weight gain, menopausal problems, stress, allergies and poor digestion. About 80 percent are women.It's "usually after they try everything and nothing works" that they come to Ayurveda, Apte says.Apte is also the director of Ayurveda Institute of America, a weekend program offering a certificate in Ayurvedic science in Foster City, Los Angeles, Houston and Hawaii.Many of her students are already in health-related fields: massage therapists, nutritionists, yoga instructors, chiropractors and sometime medical doctors and nurses who want to incorporate Ayurvedic methods into their practices."It's always been popular in India, but Ayurveda is also becoming popular here as a contemporary alternative medicine," Apte says. "It's a 5,000-year-old science, the mother of all health science, but some people are just learning about it."What's old is new again."Alternative to HRT Redwood Shores resident Kathie Smith says she first tried Ayurveda three years ago to help a digestive problem.She started doing it again two months ago for menopausal symptoms that included intense hot flashes. Having eight to 10 hot flashes a day was interrupting her work and sleep, and she wanted to avoid hormone replacement therapy."HRT is too risky and I couldn't take it any more," Smith says. "It's (Ayurveda) taking a little time but I've noticed the frequency and intensity of the hot flashes has decreased, the fatigue is less, and the mood swings seem to be gone."Western perspective Dr. Elliot Shubin of San Mateo says that although he is unfamiliar with Ayurveda, generally people should be careful when taking herbal medicines, which are classified as dietary supplements and therefore not monitored by the Food and Drug Administration.The main reason, he says, is that there are so many herbal medicines out there, the FDA simply doesn't have the manpower."I tell them (patients) some things are good, some are untested and some potentially harmful," he says. "It's difficult to recommend something that hasn't been tested."See Apte and the Ayurveda Institute of America online at http://http://www.ayurvedainstitute.com

Can You Control PMS?

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a group of symptoms related to the menstrual cycle. They usually occur in the week or two weeks before your period and go away after your period starts. PMS may interfere with your normal activities at home, school, or work. PMS often includes both physical and emotional symptoms, such as breast swelling and tenderness, fatigue and difficulty sleeping, upset stomach, bloating, constipation, headache, irritability, and anxiety.

Symptoms vary from one woman to another. If you think you have PMS, try keeping track of your symptoms for several menstrual cycles. You can use a calendar to note which symptoms you are having on which days of your cycle, and how bad the symptoms are. If you seek medical care for your PMS, having this kind of record is helpful.

No single PMS treatment has been proven to work for everyone. If your PMS is mild or moderate, a few lifestyle changes can help you feel better:

• Adopt a healthier way of life. Exercise regularly, get enough sleep, choose healthy foods, don't smoke, and find ways to manage stress in your life.
• Try avoiding excess salt, sugary foods, caffeine, and alcohol, especially when you are having PMS symptoms.
• Be sure that you are getting enough vitamins and minerals. Take a multivitamin every day that includes 400 micrograms of folic acid. A calcium supplement with vitamin D can help keep bones strong and may help with PMS symptoms.
• In more severe cases, drugs such as diuretics, ibuprofen, birth control pills, or antidepressants may be used.
• Although PMS does not seem to be related to abnormal hormone levels, some women respond to hormonal treatment. For example, one approach has been to use drugs such as birth control pills to control ovulation. There is also evidence that a brain chemical, serotonin, plays a role in severe forms of PMS. Antidepressants that alter serotonin in the body have been shown to help many women with severe PMS.
  
  
  

Balancing Your Hormones Without Drugs... You Can Feel Good Again

Balancing Your Hormones Without Drugs... You Can Feel Good Again $19.95 [ learn more ] Hormone imbalance can be reversed! Look and feel better than ever, just take the time to learn about yourself and read the information contained in this just released e-book about reversing hormone imbalance. Are you ready to finally look and feel great? If so... read on... - E-Book Version.(BH)

Are Glandular Extracts Good for You?

Are Glandular Extracts Good for You?
Provided by: DrWeil.com

Q: I would like to learn more about glandular extracts. Are they safe to take? Do they have the same effect as hormones? -- Shana

A: Glandular extracts come from the hormone-producing glands of animals, usually cows, but sometimes sheep and pigs.

They contain dried and ground-up raw animal glandular tissues or extracts of those tissues - from the thyroid, thymus, adrenals, pituitary, ovaries, testis, and pancreas. A prescription form of animal thyroid extract is used by a few doctors to treat hypothyroidism, but most now use synthetic hormones.

However, health food stores stock many products containing glandular extracts. Manufacturers claim that they can enhance immune function, correct hormonal imbalances, treat allergies, and combat inflammation. Some are said to have rejuvenating effects. I know of no credible evidence demonstrating that these products live up to their advertised effects.

Please be wary of the notion that a hormonal imbalance is the cause of whatever problem you're hoping to affect by taking a glandular extract.

Diagnoses such as "adrenal insufficiency" and "thymus depletion" made by practitioners without medical training (including nutritionists, chiropractors, massage therapists and health store clerks) are unlikely to be valid. If you actually have one of these conditions, you should be under the care of an endocrinologist and not treating yourself with glandular extracts.

Taking these products in the absence of a clear diagnosis can actually upset the body's delicate hormonal balance and make matters worse.

Besides, these products may contain toxic contaminants and could, theoretically, transmit diseases like mad cow disease.

Bottom line: at best, glandular extracts are a waste of money. At worst, they could be dangerous. I strongly recommend against using these products.

Andrew Weil, MD

• Hypothyroidism

Adult-Onset Diabetes—Oxygenated Blood Can Help

FRANK SHALLENBERGER, M.D.

You don’t normally think of oxygen as a treatment for diabetes, but
according to Frank Shallenberger, M.D., H.M.D., director of the Nevada
Center of Alternative and Anti-Aging Medicine in Carson City, Nevada, ozone
(a less stable, more reactive form of oxygen) can produce remarkable
improvements in both the major and secondary symptoms of adult-onset
diabetes. The connection between the ozone and diabetes is the blood
circulation, Dr. Shallenberger says, as demonstrated in the following cases.

Virginia, 51, had been diabetic for five years and was taking Glucotrol, an
oral medication for controlling blood sugar levels. However, Virginia came
to Dr. Shallenberger seeking treatment for recurrent breast cancer, a tumor
that periodically grew then diminished.

Dr. Shallenberger decided to ozonate her blood as ozone is often used as a
healing substance in alternative cancer treatments. He drew 150 cc of
Virginia’s blood then injected it with ozone gas. Ozonating the sample of
Virginia’s blood took about 40 minutes, after which it was reinfused into
her body. He did this daily to address the cancer.

What surprised Dr. Shallenberger in this case was that not only the breast
cancer responded to ozonation (it started to dissolve) but so did Virginia’s
diabetes. Her blood sugar levels began dropping too low (a condition called
hypoglycemia) indicating that the ozone and Glucotrol were controlling her
blood sugar too well. Dr. Shallenberger reduced her Glucotrol dosage to once
daily, then soon after, as the low blood sugar trend continued, eliminated
the drug altogether. “Practically speaking, Virginia didn’t have diabetes
any longer,” notes Dr. Shallenberger.

How did ozone bring her diabetes under control? Diabetics always run the
risk of complications, such as loss of vision, heart disease, nerve
dysfunction, and gangrenous limbs. Diabetics usually have considerable
circulation problems such that the actual blood flow to their tissues is
diminished, explains Dr. Shallenberger. Patients often have difficulty
digesting fats (such as cholesterol and triglycerides) and their arteries
tend to thicken and harden.

“This is compounded by the fact that what little blood reaches their tissues
is less effective than it should be and is unable to deliver oxygen to those
tissues,” says Dr. Shallenberger. “The tissues become oxygen depleted, which
explains why diabetics have problems with gangrene and why they’re unable to
resist infections.”

A prime reason the red blood cells in the diabetic’s blood are unable to
release their oxygen is that a key molecule called 2,3-diphosphoglycerate,
or 2,3-dpg for short, is in reduced supply. Under normal conditions, 2,3-dpg
stimulates red blood cells which carry oxygen to deliver it to the tissues;
but if there isn’t enough of this molecule in the system, the red blood
cells can’t deliver the oxygen.

When you introduce ozone—that is, more oxygen—into the blood, more 2,3-dpg
is produced and the oxygen-delivery system and the efficiency of blood
circulation start to improve. The ozone also appears to enhance the activity
of cellular metabolism, the continual conversion of food into energy. Dr.
Shallenberger likens the metabolism-heightening effect of ozone to a similar
benefit to diabetics obtained through vigorous exercise. It oxygenates the
tissues and gets all the body processes running better, he says.

• ozone therapy

Levels of ATP, an important molecule which stores energy in the cells, are
also enhanced through ozonation. Among other functions, ATP helps each cell
maintain the integrity of its membrane, thereby enabling it to regulate the
passage of materials into and out of the cell, says Dr. Shallenberger. If
the cell membrane collapses, the cell dies; if a lot of cells die, you start
getting tissue death, and gangrene becomes a possibility.

Gangrene in a toe was a serious diabetic complication besetting Quentin, 50.
His diabetes was poorly controlled, mainly because he was reluctant to
comply with dietary restrictions, says Dr. Shallenberger.

Specifically, he didn’t want to give up drinking beer. Even with a daily
dosage of four Micronase pills (another blood sugar–controlling drug),
Quentin’s blood sugar level was around 230; a safe, normal level ranges
between 70 and 120.

Dr. Shallenberger already had worked with Quentin for two years, prescribing
dietary changes, herbs, and supplements, but when Quentin developed gangrene
on the third toe of his right foot and conventional doctors were scheduling
him for amputation at the ankle, Dr. Shallenberger decided to try ozonation.
“Quentin’s toe was completely black and they were going to amputate his
entire foot because the rest of the tissue was on the borderline of becoming
gangrenous, too,” he notes.

For Quentin’s treatment, Dr. Shallenberger added another element to the
ozonation procedure: chelation. The chelation would help improve Quentin’s
blood circulation by removing heavy metals and arterial plaque. Dr.
Shallenberger calls his combined treatment “chezone.”

Chelation improves blood circulation to the tissues, he explains, which
means they get more oxygen. This in turn improves their metabolic rate
(energy processing efficiency) and enables them to make better use of
glucose (blood sugar). When you have higher efficiency in using glucose, you
are much closer to controlling the diabetes naturally, says Dr.
Shallenberger. Using ozone, as stated above, helps the patient utilize the
available oxygen better, due to improved circulation. Combining chelation
with ozone in effect doubles the circulation benefits.

In addition to chezone, Dr. Shallenberger put an ozone extremity bag around
Quentin’s right foot, filled it with ozone gas, and left it in place for 20
minutes. In this way, the ozone was absorbed through the skin, an approach
that has proven successful in treating chronic sores and skin ulcers, says
Dr. Shallenberger.

Each time he gave Quentin a chezone treatment (ten in all, one per day), he
also ozonated his foot. After about two weeks, the foot was much improved;
the area between the ankle and gangrenous toe had healed which meant only
the toe would have to be amputated.

After the surgery, Quentin hurt his foot in such a way that the stitches
broke open and a large ulcerating sore formed. His doctors talked about
amputation again, but after another six weeks of chezone and foot ozonation
treatments, Quentin’s foot healed again. Following the first two weeks of
intensive treatments, Dr. Shallenberger gave him a chezone once weekly and
foot ozonation three times weekly. In ensuing months, Quentin received
maintenance treatments.

About ten weeks after the first chezone treatment, “the lesion in Quentin’s
foot was entirely healed and he was down to only two Micronase pills a day,”
says Dr. Shallenberger. “If I had been able to treat his toe before it went
black, I probably could have saved it.” As it turned out, Dr. Shallenberger
did save Quentin’s right foot twice. “I’m not convinced you can get all
diabetics off their medication. To me the point is how well you can control
the blood sugar.”

In the case of Leonard, 64, controlling his sugar intake was central to
being able to get his diabetes and gangrene complications under control.
Leonard, who developed diabetes six years earlier, was on insulin and
Glucophage (another diabetes drug) to control his blood sugar levels.

However, Leonard developed a blister on the sole of his foot; when this
became infected, his doctor cleaned out all the infected tissue, leaving a
hole in his foot. Over a three-month period, this wound failed to heal even
with antibiotics and Leonard’s doctors were talking about amputating his
foot.

Dr. Shallenberger started Leonard on the same combination chezone and foot
ozonation program that had worked so well for Quentin. Then he added a piece
of advice. “You must cut down on your sugar intake.” Leonard ate a lot of
white sugar in his diet and none of his conventional doctors apparently made
the link between high dietary sugar intake and the inability of his
infection to heal. “White blood cells, the immune cells that fight
infection, cease to function in the presence of elevated glucose levels,”
says Dr. Shallenberger.

After two treatments, Leonard’s foot was noticeably improved and his energy
levels were heightened. The initial progress motivated Leonard to comply
fully with the program. Dr. Shallenberger started Leonard on a series of
nutrients and remedies including chromium and vanadium, to help his body
utilize its natural pancreatic insulin.

People with adult-onset diabetes produce insulin but their system becomes
unable to use it, a condition called insulin resistance. In fact, the
pancreas of such a patient generally produces too much insulin; as the body
fails to act on this insulin, the pancreas produces yet more. The minerals
chromium and vanadium break this cycle and support the body in making use
again of pancreatic insulin, says Dr. Shallenberger.

Among the other elements of Leonard’s program were pancreatic enzymes (to
support pancreas function and to improve digestion; 400-800 mg three times
daily), the hormone melatonin (to bolster the immune system; 3 mg once
daily), and the hormone DHEA, levels of which tend to be about 50% below
normal in diabetics.

Low DHEA levels may help explain the characteristic weight gain in people
with adult-onset diabetes, says Dr. Shallenberger. He notes that DHEA doses
will vary with each patient. “Women should take enough (usually 10-25 mg
daily) to raise the serum DHEA-sulfate to between 2,000 and 3,000 mg/ml,
while men should take enough (usually 50-100 mg daily) to raise it to
between 3,000 and 4,000 mg/ml.”

He also gave Leonard a specialized product (made from the fungus Mucor
racemosus) called Mucokehl, developed in Germany by the Sanum company, and
now used selectively (as part of a line of several dozen similar substances)
by North American physicians. The Mucokehl would help regulate
microorganisms which affect the thickness and texture of the blood.

After a month of treatments, Leonard’s foot was completely healed, says Dr.
Shallenberger. As his blood sugar came under better control, Leonard was
able to lower his daily insulin intake and resume his busy life.

More info at:

• Chelation
• Live Blood Cell Analysis
• Leica Microscope & Equipment
• ozone therapy

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The Skinny on Metabolism Boosters

By John Eliot, Ph.D.There are scores and scores of sports nutrition companies marketing “metabolism boosters” to help athletes reduce body fat. The products range from simple herbs such as Ginseng, to chemical derivatives of thyroid and adrenal hormones. The theory is constant: by increasing the body’s natural metabolism, it will burn more calories and thus, more fat. On paper this looks good. The basic science behind metabolism and body composition makes for slick advertising, and plenty of products sold. The trouble is there is little education regarding how to use metabolites effectively, and when to use them in the first place.For athletes—and in fact, for the general public as well—body composition is a much more accurate measure of fitness than body weight. The leaner an athlete, the greater the force he or she will be able to generate per pound. With a leaner structure, the longer it will take to fatigue the system. All crucial issues to peak performance. It seems to make sense that active metabolism supplements would be of benefit. But this is rarely the case.First, the body’s metabolism has a set point. It’s quite similar to a thermostat—a good metaphor since one of the main jobs of metabolism is to produce body heat. When you crank up metabolism by dietary means, the body will turn off it’s own production in order to restore the set point. This means that any long term use of herbs and metabolites serves only to deregulate your system. That’s going the wrong direction from teaching the body to perform at a higher level.Second, the increased caloric utilization that goes with higher metabolism is not all good from an athletic standpoint. Burning more calories and more fat causes the body to store less glycogen, the main energy source for muscles. If athletes can’t store maximum amounts of glycogen between workouts, their subsequent training and performance will likewise be sub-maximal.So for athletes, the best bet is to steer clear of active metabolism altering supplements. The body’s set point can be slowly altered, but only through training over time rather than mucking with it ergogenically. That way it will be a lasting, natural change, and it won’t interfere with glycogen replenishment. If a body composition change is required in getting to peak performance, herbs and amino acids can be used, but never continuously for more than a week or two to avoid systemic metabolism deregulation, and only the empirically supported supplements such as L-Carnitine or standardized G115 Ginseng.JOHN F. ELIOT, PH.D., is an award winning professor of management, psychology, and human performance. He holds faculty appointments at Rice University and the SMU Cox School of Business Leadership Center. He is a co-founder of the Milestone Group, a consulting firm providing training to business executives, professional athletes, physicians, and corporations. Dr. Eliot’s clients have included: SAP, XEROX, Disney, Adidas, the United States Olympic Committee, the National Champion Rice Owl's baseball team, and the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Eliot’s cutting edge work has been featured on ABC, MSNBC, CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports, NPR, and highlighted in the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, Entrepreneur, LA Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and the New York Times. Dr. Eliot serves on numerous advisory boards including the National Center for Human Performance and the Center for Performing Arts Medicine. His latest book is Overachievement: The New Model for Exceptional Performance. For more information, visit Dr. Eliot’s site at http://www.overachievement.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Eliot,_Ph.D.

more info at: www.dreddyclinic.com