Breast cancer patients may not need lymph nodes removed, study finds

To contact us Click HERE

Removal of multiple nodes has been standard practice, but a study finds it doesn't affect survival rates. The procedure can have side effects.

Some women with early-stage breast cancer may be cured without the need to remove multiple lymph nodes, which has been the standard practice, researchers reported Tuesday.

Breast cancer surgery traditionally includes removal of lymph nodes near the tumor so that doctors can check for evidence that the cancer has spread. However, a new study found that people with early-stage breast cancer that has spread to a nearby lymph node fared just as well after treatment without the removal of additional lymph nodes in the armpit area.

Taking out those extra nodes, called axillary nodes, has a distinct downside because it can leave some women with swelling and stiffness in the arm.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., examined 891 patients who had an early-stage tumor. All of the patients had their tumors removed via lumpectomy — meaning just part of the breast is removed, not the entire breast — and then had radiation therapy. Most of the women also had chemotherapy.

All the women in the study had evidence of cancer in the one or two nodes closest to the tumor, known as the sentinel lymph nodes. In about half of the women, however, doctors also removed at least 10 axillary lymph nodes. The average number of axillary nodes removed was 17.

Cancer was found in the axillary lymph nodes in 27% of the women in the study. Nevertheless, after an average of about six years, the study showed little difference in cancer recurrence or survival between the women who had many nodes removed and those who had only the sentinel nodes removed.

The five-year survival rate was 91.8% in the women with axillary-node removal, compared with 92.5% with sentinel-node-only removal. This difference was not statistically significant.

As expected, the patients who had axillary nodes removed had more complications from surgery, including infections and swelling. Swelling from excess fluid in the lymph tissue, called lymphedema, can persist long after recovery from the cancer, noted the authors of the study, which was led by Dr. Armando E. Giuliano of the John Wayne Cancer Institute atSt. John's Health Center in Santa Monica.

The findings add to a collection of studies that "have shown that less surgery combined with more radiation and chemotherapy have improved survival for women with breast cancer," said Dr. Grant Walter Carlson and Dr. William C. Wood of Emory University in Atlanta, the authors of a commentary accompanying the study.

Moreover, they said, because survival rates were so high at the five-year mark, it is unlikely that differences in the two groups' survival rates will arise at the 10-year mark or later.

"This is really a move toward less radical surgery" for breast cancer patients, Giuliano said.

Lymph nodes are tiny structures linked by a network of vessels throughout the body that are part of the disease-fighting immune system. When cancer spreads, it typically travels first to nearby nodes.

About a third of the women diagnosed every year with breast cancer have disease that has spread to the lymph nodes, the National Cancer Institute said.

shari.roan@latimes.com

Times wire services contributed to this report.Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Teens with dogs are more active

To contact us Click HERE

People are more active when they own a dog. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Dog ownership appears to make teens more active, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Virginia.

They surveyed 618 pairs of adolescents and their parents living in the Minneapolis area about the number of dogs in the home and how much time they spent physically active. About half of the teens also wore accelerometers -- devices that measure activity -- for one week.

The teens in dog-owning families logged about 15 additional minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week after the researchers controlled for factors such as gender and socioeconomic status.

Could it be that kids actually walk the family dog instead of the parents (after begging for a dog and promising their parents they would walk the dog)?

Well, no.

"Children and adolescents may not have the primary responsibility of walking the dog but may actively play with the family dog, thus contributing to their overall minutes engaging in physical activity," the authors wrote.

Other studies show that adults who have dogs are more physically active. Even if people don't walk their dogs regularly, just having a dog makes one more active because of chores such as getting up to feed the dog, letting it outside or cleaning up after it, the researchers said.

The study will appear in the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.


Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Chocolate's Startling Health Benefits

To contact us Click HERE
The food police may find this hard to take, but chocolate has gotten a bad rap. People say it causes acne, that you should eat carob instead, that it's junk food. But these accusations are not only undeserved and inaccurate, they falsely incriminate a delicious food that turns out to have profoundly important healing powers.There is in fact a growing body of credible scientific evidence that chocolate contains a host of heart-healthy and mood-enhancing phytochemicals, with benefits to both body and mind.For one, chocolate is a plentiful source of antioxidants. These are substances that reduce the ongoing cellular and arterial damage caused by oxidative reactions.You may have heard of a type of antioxidants called polyphenols. These are protective chemicals found in plant foods such as red wine and green tea. Chocolate, it turns out, is particularly rich in polyphenols. According to researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, the same antioxidant properties found in red wine that protect against heart disease are also found in comparable quantities in chocolate.How does chocolate help to prevent heart disease? The oxidation of LDL cholesterol is considered a major factor in the promotion of coronary disease. When this waxy substance oxidizes, it tends to stick to artery walls, increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke. But chocolate to the rescue! The polyphenols in chocolate inhibit oxidation of LDL cholesterol.And there's more. One of the causes of atherosclerosis is blood platelets clumping together, a process called aggregation. The polyphenols in chocolate inhibit this clumping, reducing the risks of atherosclerosis.High blood pressure is a well known risk factor for heart disease. It is also one of the most common causes of kidney failure, and a significant contributor to many kinds of dementia and cognitive impairment. Studies have shown that consuming a small bar of dark chocolate daily can reduce blood pressure in people with mild hypertension.Why are people with risk factors for heart disease sometimes told to take a baby aspirin every day? The reason is that aspirin thins the blood and reduces the likelihood of clots forming (clots play a key role in many heart attacks and strokes). Research performed at the department of nutrition at the University of California, Davis, found that chocolate thins the blood and performs the same anti-clotting activity as aspirin. "Our work supports the concept that the chronic consumption of cocoa may be associated with improved cardiovascular health," said UC Davis researcher Carl Keen.How much chocolate would you have to eat to obtain these benefits? Less than you might think. According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, adding only half an ounce of dark chocolate to an average American diet is enough to increase total antioxidant capacity 4 percent, and lessen oxidation of LDL cholesterol.Why, then, has chocolate gotten such a bum reputation? It's the ingredients we add to it. Nearly all of the calories in a typical chocolate bar are sugar and fat.As far as fats go, it's the added fats that are the difficulty, not the natural fat (called cocoa butter) found in chocolate. Cocoa butter is high in saturated fat, so many people assume that it's not good for your cardiovascular system. But most of the saturated fat content in cocoa butter is stearic acid, which numerous studies have shown does not raise blood cholesterol levels. In the human body, it acts much like the monounsaturated fat in olive oil.Milk chocolate, on the other hand, contains added butterfat which can raise blood cholesterol levels. And it has less antioxidants and other beneficial phytochemicals than dark chocolate.Does chocolate contribute to acne? Milk chocolate has been shown to do so, but I've never heard of any evidence incriminating dark chocolate.Dark chocolate is also healthier because it has less added sugar. I'm sure you don't need another lecture on the dangers of excess sugar consumption. But if you want to become obese and dramatically raise your odds of developing diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's disease, foods high in sugar (including high fructose corn syrup) are just the ticket.Are chocolate's benefits limited to the health of the body? Hardly. Chocolate has long been renown for its remarkable effects on human mood. We are now beginning to understand why.Chocolate is the richest known source of a little-known substance called theobromine, a close chemical relative of caffeine. Theobromine, like caffeine, and also like the asthma drug theophylline, belong to the chemical group known as xanthine alkaloids. Chocolate products contain small amounts of caffeine, but not nearly enough to explain the attractions, fascinations, addictions, and effects of chocolate. The mood enhancement produced by chocolate may be primarily due to theobromine.Chocolate also contains other substances with mood elevating effects. One is phenethylamine, which triggers the release of pleasurable endorphins and potentates the action of dopamine, a neurochemical associated with sexual arousal and pleasure. Phenethylamine is released in the brain when people become infatuated or fall in love.Another substance found in chocolate is anandamide (from the Sanskrit word "ananda," which means peaceful bliss). A fatty substance that is naturally produced in the brain, anandamide has been isolated from chocolate by pharmacologists at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. It binds to the same receptor sites in the brain as cannabinoids -- the psychoactive constituents in marijuana -- and produces feelings of elation and exhilaration. (If this becomes more widely known, will they make chocolate illegal?)If that weren't enough, chocolate also boosts brain levels of serotonin. Women typically have lower serotonin levels during PMS and menstruation, which may be one reason women typically experience stronger cravings for chocolate at these times in their cycles. People suffering from depression so characteristically have lower serotonin levels that an entire class of anti-depressive medications called serotonin uptake inhibitors (including Prozac, Paxil, and Zooloft) have been developed that raise brain levels of serotonin.Since I am known as an advocate of healthy eating, I'm often asked about my food indulgences. One of my favorite desserts is a piece of dark organic chocolate, along with a glass of a fine red wine.I do have a policy, though, to eat only organic and/or fair trade chocolate. This is because of what I have learned about child slavery in the cocoa trade.May your life be full of healthy pleasures.
John Robbins is the author of many bestsellers including "The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World," the classic "Diet For A New America," and "The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less." He is the recipient of the Rachel Carson Award, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, the Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award, and Green America's Lifetime Achievement Award. To learn more about his work, visitwww.johnrobbins.infoPublished at: The Huffington Post

Speaking 2 languages may delay getting Alzheimer's

To contact us Click HERE

New studies suggest bilingual ability increases executive control in the brain, which could fight mental disease

Mastering a second language can pump up your brain in ways that seem to delay getting Alzheimer's disease later on, scientists said Friday.

Never learned to habla or parlez? While the new research focuses mostly on the truly long-term bilingual, scientists say even people who tackle a new language later in life stand to gain.

The more proficient you become, the better, but "every little bit helps," said Ellen Bialystok, a psychology professor at York University in Toronto.Much of the study of bilingualism has centered on babies, as scientists wondered why simply speaking to infants in two languages allows them to learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. Their brains seem to become more flexible, better able to multitask. As they grow up, their brains show better "executive control," a system key to higher functioning -- as Bialystok puts it, "the most important part of your mind."But does that mental juggling while you're young translate into protection against cognitive decline when you're old?Bialystok studied 450 Alzheimer's patients, all of whom showed the same degree of impairment at the time of diagnosis. Half are bilingual -- they've spoken two languages regularly for most of their lives. The rest are monolingual.The bilingual patients had Alzheimer's symptoms and were diagnosed between four and five years later than the patients who spoke only one language, she told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.Being bilingual does nothing to prevent Alzheimer's disease from striking. But once the disease does begin its silent attack, those years of robust executive control provide a buffer so that symptoms don't become apparent as quickly, Bialystok said."They've been able to cope with the disease," she said.Her work supports an earlier study from other researchers that also found a protective effect.What is it about being bilingual that enhances that all-important executive control system?Both languages are essentially turned on all the time, but the brain learns to inhibit the one you don't need, said psychology professor Teresa Bajo of the University of Granada in Spain. That's pretty constant activity.That's not the only area. University of British Columbia psychologist Janet Werker studies infants exposed to two languages from birth to see why they don't confuse the two, and says bilingual babies learn very early to pay attention better.Werker tested babies in Spain who were growing up learning both Spanish and Catalan. She showed the babies videos of women speaking languages they'd never heard -- English and French -- but with the sound off. By measuring the tots' attention span, Werker concluded that babies could distinguish between English and French simply by watching the speakers' facial cues. It could have been the different lip shapes."It looks like French people are always kissing," she joked, while the English "th" sound evokes a distinctive lip-in-teeth shape.Whatever the cues, monolingual babies couldn't tell the difference, Werker said Friday at the meeting.But what if you weren't lucky enough to be raised bilingual? Scientists and educators know that it becomes far harder to learn a new language after puberty.Partly that's because adults' brains are so bombarded with other demands that we don't give learning a new language the same attention that a young child does, Bialystok said.At the University of Maryland, scientists are studying how to identify adults who would be good candidates to master a new language, and then what types of training are best. Having a pretty strong executive control system, like the lifelong bilinguals have, is among the good predictive factors, said Amy Weinberg, deputy director of the university's Center for Advanced Study of Language.But people don't have to master a new language to benefit some, Bialystok said. Exercising your brain throughout life contributes to what's called cognitive reserve, the overall ability to withstand the declines of aging and disease. That's the basis of the use-it-or-lose-it advice from aging experts who also recommend such things as crossword puzzles to keep your brain nimble."If you start to learn at 40, 50, 60, you are certainly keeping your brain active," she said.Published at: Salon

Scientists Discover Mice's Hearts Can Heal Themselves, Are Other Mammals Next?

To contact us Click HERE
New research published online today in the journalScience found that newborn mice can regenerate working heart tissue.So what's the big whoop? Scientists already knew that certain amphibians and fish could regenerate cardiac tissue.Well that, it turns out, is what inspired researchers at the Southwestern Medical Center in Texas to consider the possibility that mammalian hearts could also regenerate. Given the similarities in the hearts of adult zebrafish -- which can regrow tissue -- and immature mammals, researchers wondered if they couldn't "conserve," as they put it, the same mechanisms of regeneration in mice.The results? Within 21 days of scientists surgically removing a portion of the left ventricular apex from newborn mice, the tissue had completely regenerated. The problem, though, is that researchers found mice lost the capacity to regenerate cardiac tissue by the time they were seven days old.The potential implications, the scientists report, is this: "For a brief period after birth, the mammalian heart appears to have the capacity to regenerate." Which means, according to The Guardian, potentially very good things for heart attack sufferers."Now that we know that the mammalian heart indeed possesses the potential to regenerate, at least early in life," Eric Olson, one of the study's authors told The Guardian, "we can begin to search for drugs or genes or other things that might reawaken this potential in the adult heart of mice and eventually of humans."Shared from: The Huffington Post

25 Healthy eating tips

To contact us Click HERE
Healthy way of eating is important for a healthy and happy life. Proper dietary habits help prevent many disease conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart attack.

Here are some healthy eating tips that will really help you.

1. Eat regularly and naturally. Healthy way of eating is not restricting your diet, instead having a balanced diet.
2. Do not skip your meals, particularly your breakfast.
3. Eat small portions frequently. Eating six small portions each day is better than three large portions a day.
4. Include plenty of fresh vegetables in your diet. If they are not available, chose frozen vegetables that are better than canned ones.
5. Chose whole grain products. They contain adequate amounts of fiber. These cereals and grains should be the main energy source.
6. Eat slowly and enjoy your meals.
7. Don't forget to include at least one variety of fruit to each meal. Fruits should be a main part of a healthy diet.
8. Restrict the intake of sugar and sweets. Consumption of large amounts of refined sugar may lead to overweight and obesity.
9. Avoid unhealthy fats. Animal fat contain large amounts of saturated fatty acids. They are needed for the body. However, eating too much saturated fat will increase your cholesterol levels.
10. Trans fat is the worst fat. They are found in margarine and other shortenings. So try to avoid them.
11. Protein is an essential component in our meals. It is mainly found in meat, eggs, fish, and pulses.
12. Drink one or two cups of milk everyday. Milk is a good source of calcium and other nutrients.
13. One of the important tips about healthy eating that I want to share is regarding salt intake. Too much salt can raise your blood pressure. Therefore, use it sparingly.
14. Eat blueberries. They contain antioxidants that protect your body from oxidative damage. Blueberries are good for your skin.
15. Eat iron rich foods such as meat, green leafy vegetables, and grains.
16. Don't forget to include fish in your diet. They are good source of omega 3 fatty acids.
17. Eat oysters once or twice a month. They have lots of zinc. It is good for your skin and hair.
18. You need to eat vitamin C rich foods everyday. Most of the fruits contain vitamin C in good amounts. Oranges, lemon and tomatoes are some examples.
19. Carrots and pumpkins have beta carotene. Include them in your regular diet.
20. Try to avoid fast food. They are not a healthy diet.
21. Drink plenty of water.
22. Soft drinks are not good for your health.
23. Chose healthy snacks such as raisins, cereal bars, and fruits.
24. Always read the nutrition label in food packages. Look for calories, salt and fat content.
25. Teach your kids about healthy eating habits. 

Do bananas have potassium? Best answer here

To contact us Click HERE
Yes! Bananas do have potassium in good amounts. That is why bananas are recommended for lowering blood pressure in people with hypertension.

Bananas have high amounts of potassium.
Photo credit: Blog.ctnews.com

How much potassium does a banana have?

It is impossible to tell the exact amount. The amount of potassium that a banana contain depends on the size or weight of the banana.


A small size banana weighing about 100g have approximately 400mg of potassium in it. This amount is about 10 per cent of the daily requirement.

Related posts:

Top 10 potassium rich foods.

Health benefits of bananas.