From Web MD

Want to shed 14 years off your age? Don’t smoke, get at least half an hour of daily physical activity, drink moderately, and eat five or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables.

That’s the message from a new British study of healthy and not-so-healthy lifestyles and death rates among more than 20,200 men and women.

When the 11-year study began, participants were 45 to 79 years old. They reported their health history, drinking, smoking, and physical activity. They also got their height, weight, and blood level of vitamin C checked.

The researchers used blood levels of vitamin C as sign of which people ate five or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables, which are rich in vitamin C.

During the study, nearly 2,000 participants died. The death rate was four times lower for people with the following four health habits compared to those without any of those health habits:

No smoking

At least half an hour of daily physical activity

Moderate drinking (between one and 14 alcoholic drinks per week)

Eating at least five daily servings of fruits and vegetables (based on blood levels of vitamin C)

Having all four of those health habits “was equivalent to being 14 years younger,” write the University of Cambridge’s Kay-Tee Khaw, PhD, and colleagues. And having one, two, or three of those healthy behaviors was better than nothing.

Social class didn’t explain the results. But keep in mind that doctors don’t advise teetotalers to start drinking, and that it’s wise to get a doctor’s approval before starting a new fitness program, especially if you’ve been inactive for a while.

Khaw’s study appears online in Public Library of Science Medicine.

More salads, exercise, can keep lung tumors at bay, one study found

From HealthDay

While genes and environment can affect your risk for cancer, so can everyday lifestyle choices on things such as diet, exercise and smoking, new research shows.

The findings were to be presented Friday in Philadelphia at an American Association for Cancer Research conference on cancer prevention.

One study found that people who quit smoking can further reduce their risk of lung cancer by eating plenty of vegetables (four or more servings of salad a week or equivalent). The researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center also found that former smokers who get exercise through gardening are 45 percent less likely to get lung cancer than former smokers who don’t garden.

Current smokers who ate three servings or less of salad a week were two times more likely to develop lung cancer than current smokers who ate four or more salads a week. Current smokers who gardened were 33 percent less likely to get lung cancer than current smokers who didn’t garden, the Texas team found.

“Although this is a very preliminary analysis, it give us some important clues about how everyone — smokers and non-smokers alike — might be able to reduce their risk of developing lung cancer,” Michele Forman, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas, said in a prepared statement.

“If you are worried about lung cancer risk, this study shows that you may benefit from eating a healthy diet and being physically active,” she said.

A second study suggests that males may be more prone to developing cancer than females because of gender differences in antioxidant levels and the ability to repair DNA damage.

The Ohio State University study found that the same degree of damaging ultraviolet (UV) light caused more damage to the skin of male mice than to that of female mice. As a result, the male mice developed more squamous cell skin cancers, and these tumors grew more quickly and aggressively than the same type of tumors on the skin of female mice.

The findings may help explain why men develop three times as many squamous cell skin cancers than women and why men are more prone to developing cancer in general, the researchers said.

“Men get more skin cancer than women, and it has classically been thought that the reason for this is lifestyle — men spend more time outside and are less likely to use sun protection,” Kathleen Tober, a research scientist in OSU’s pathology department, said in a prepared statement. “Our data suggests that while that may be a factor, an even more critical reason for this difference is that female skin may be better able to combat the damaging effects of UV exposure.”

“Based on our data, it would be a reasonable hypothesis that one of the underlying mechanisms for this is that men might have less overall antioxidant levels and diminished DNA repair capacity,” Tober said.

A third study found that black Americans may have a more difficult time giving up smoking, because they have much lower levels of an enzyme (glucuronide) that metabolizes nicotine and nicotine byproducts than whites. This means that blacks may experience higher nicotine levels when smoking, which makes it more difficult for them to kick the habit.

“Smokers adjust their level of smoking to maintain blood levels of nicotine, which are determined in part by rates of nicotine metabolism, and, while we can’t say from this study that differences in metabolism definitively account for lower quit rates (among blacks), it could very well have an impact,” Jeannette Zinggeler Berg, an M.D./Ph.D. student in biochemistry, molecular biology, and biophysics at the University of Minnesota, said in a prepared statement.

From USATODAY.com

Lilly Branka, 5, a kindergartner in Medfield, Mass., and Richard Zarate, 12, a seventh-grader in San Antonio, live in different worlds, but they have something in common: diabetes.

Until recently, almost all children had the type of diabetes Lilly has: type 1, the form of the disease caused by the immune system’s destruction of cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. People with type 1, who account for 5%-10% of those with diabetes, require daily injections of insulin to survive.

Richard and a growing number of children and teens have the more common form of diabetes, type 2, which used to be called adult-onset diabetes because it did not occur in children.

But the nationwide trend toward more high-fat food and less high-activity play has run smack into a genetic predisposition for diabetes in some communities, especially those with large Latino populations, sparking what pediatrician Jane Lynch of the Texas Diabetes Institute calls a “very scary, very alarming” epidemic of type 2 diabetes in children.

“We have close to 300 children we follow with type 2 diabetes,” some as young as 7, Lynch says. “When I trained in the early ’90s, it was essentially unheard of.”

The increasing incidence of diabetes in children threatens to offset the benefits of improved diabetes treatment that have led to reductions in many of the disease’s deadly or disabling complications.

Richard is being treated at the diabetes institute as part of a national study, Treatment Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth (TODAY), and his mother, Christine Zarate, who also has diabetes, is grateful.

She had long suspected her only child, who she says always has been overweight, might also have the disease, because he had an area of darkened skin on the back of his neck, a marking doctors call acanthosis nigricans. It is often caused by high levels of insulin, which can occur when people are overweight and their bodies don’t use insulin efficiently. The body tries to compensate for that by churning out extra insulin.

Zarate, who works as a private nurse, says she recognized the discoloration and knew what it meant. “I’ve tried to get him diagnosed since he was about 6 or 7, but the pediatrician he had at that time

I didn’t have insurance

she never did a blood test on him.”

Two years ago, at age 10, Richard began having symptoms, such as unusual thirst and frequent urination, and his mother checked his blood with her own glucose meter. The reading indicated Richard’s blood sugar level was about five times higher than normal. She took him to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed and given insulin. They were told to see a diabetes specialist, but local doctors had months-long waiting lists.

The diabetes institute “was a godsend,” Zarate says. As a participant in a clinical trial, Richard gets free diet and exercise counseling, medications and regular checkups. He is “doing wonderful,” his mom says. He’s taking two medications but is off insulin. “He’s real careful, watches his carbs,” she says. But “he’s still a kid who wants to eat a hamburger.”

Bleak future for type 2 kids

For doctors, type 1 diabetes is familiar in children, but treating kids with type 2 is uncharted ground. Only insulin and the drug metformin are approved for use in children, but insulin as a first-line treatment can cause weight gain in kids who already are overweight, Lynch says, and metformin alone is often not enough.

In one arm of the TODAY study, children, including Richard, are given metformin and Avandia, a drug that improves the body’s ability to respond to insulin and appears also to preserve the functioning of cells in the pancreas that produce the hormone. But Avandia has been linked to an increased risk of heart attack in adults. That hasn’t been seen so far in children, she says, but they’re being closely monitored.

“It’s alarming to be in the midst of this,” she says. “We are seeing here 7-year-olds, 8-year-olds with pure type 2 diabetes. They’re very obese, and within five years, we’re seeing kidney complications, we’re treating 10-year-olds for hypertension, high lipids and having to see how (the drugs to treat those conditions) interact with diabetes.”

Lynch predicts that by the late teens, many children with type 2 diabetes will be facing health problems that a generation ago didn’t occur until midlife.

“We have children with declining (kidney) function who are 17,” she says. “We’ve had kids on multiple drugs for high blood pressure who are 18. We find ourselves using a lot of adult medications,” and studies have not been done to assure their safe use in children. “This has been a huge, scary learning curve for us in this study. We keep venturing further and further out on that limb.”

Diet and exercise counseling have proven successful in the trial, but insurance companies may not cover the cost of a nutritionist or diabetes educator, “and it takes intensive education and reinforcement” to cause behavior changes, Lynch says.

“We definitely underestimate the degree of psychological and nutritional nursing support it takes to keep these kids on track.”

A new wrinkle is that some children appear to have symptoms of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, a hybrid known as double diabetes.

Dorothy Becker, chief of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, who coined the term, says it’s a combination of the failure of insulin-producing cells that is a hallmark of type 1, and insulin resistance, which is associated with obesity in type 2. If a child with type 1 diabetes is also overweight, whatever remaining insulin-producing cells are still functioning can’t keep up with the greater need for insulin.

Schools get involved

Becker says her team has found up to 30% of type 1 children are overweight at the time of diagnosis and have characteristics of type 2 diabetes, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. “This has increased over the last two decades,” she says, the same time period when the national waistline has been expanding.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is tracking diabetes in children, last year reported about 154,000 children have been diagnosed, the majority with type 1. How many remain undiagnosed is not clear, but doctors say both forms are increasing, and schools have noticed, too.

Many have taken steps to ensure that kids with diabetes get the support they need. The American Diabetes Association’s Safe at Schools program trains teachers and school nurses to help young children monitor their blood sugar levels and administer insulin.

At Memorial School in Medfield, outside Boston, nurse Mary Ellen Zappulla went through the program earlier this month at the Joslin Diabetes Center to brush up the skills needed to help Lilly, one of two children with type 1 diabetes in the kindergarten class.

Each day, Lilly reports to Zappulla’s office to get her blood sugar level tested and to adjust her insulin pump as needed.

“This is the first little girl I’ve had with an insulin pump,” says Zappulla, who hasn’t had any problems with the procedure. “These little ones are very knowledgeable” about their disease, she says. “She’s very aware of her body” and knows when her sugar levels are off track.

But just in case, Lilly’s teacher carries a radio device to call the nurse if needed.

In the Bronx section of New York, Montefiore Medical Center operates clinics in 15 schools where students are screened and treated for diabetes. The largest school health program in the country, it provides medical care to 15,000 students, and as part of a community health effort, it offers weekend and after-school nutrition, cooking and walking programs for students and their families.

“A big focus is prevention of obesity and exercise,” says pediatrician John Leo. “We’ve opened a food co-op in the South Bronx, making available healthy food choices to the community,” but it’s “not a quick fix.”

“We can diagnose overweight, screen for diabetes, strategize a plan to maintain or lose weight, but what’s really important is educating the students and family about risk factors for diabetes and metabolic syndrome,” a cluster of symptoms that puts someone at risk for heart disease, Leo says. “A lot of parents are not even aware their child is overweight.”

The perils of processed food

There are plenty of overweight kids in San Antonio, too, Richard’s mom says. “They’re obese because of the way people eat here. Too much fast food, and the Mexican foods we have here are made with too many processed things.”

Zarate encourages Richard to take care of himself, but “trying to get him to eat vegetables takes an act of God and Congress.”

Nor is he much for sports. “He’s a video-game nut. I say, ‘You want to sign up for basketball?’ He’ll say no.” Her sister tries to get him to walk around the apartment building, “and he complains the whole time.”

But doctors at the clinic have been impressed that Richard is “so cooperative. He takes care of himself,” Zarate says. “It’s because when he’s not taking care of himself, he doesn’t feel good. I said, ‘It’s up to you.’ “

FromRevolution Health

What people eat and how fast they grow are both significant causes of cancer, but many Americans still incorrectly believe that factors such as pesticides on food are bigger causes, experts reported on Wednesday.

Breastfeeding reduces the risk of cancer for mother and child, and tall people have a higher risk of cancer than shorter people, the report found.

(Dr. Julie Silver explains this new report.)

“We need to think about cancer as the product of many long-term influences, not as something that ‘just happens,’” Dr. Walter Willett, a nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts, told a news conference.

The report, released jointly by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, is the result of five years of study by nine teams of scientists.

They reviewed 7,000 studies on diet, exercise, weight and cancer.

Most of what they recommended is in line with what health experts, including governments and the World Health Organization, have long been advising — that diets based on fruits, vegetables and whole grains and that go easy on red meats, dairy products and fats protect against heart disease, diabetes and cancer. (Read 10 ways to avoid cancer.)

They found evidence that factors such as hormones that cause the body to grow quickly may be involved in some cancers.

“We found that tallness is also probably linked to increased risk for ovarian, pancreatic and pre-menopausal cancer as well,” said Willett. He stressed that tall people are not destined to get cancer but should take care to maintain healthy habits.

The groups make keeping a healthy weight their No. 1 recommendation to reduce the risk of cancer.

AS LEAN AS POSSIBLE

“Be as lean as possible within the normal range of body weight,” the 400-page report reads. That means keeping a body mass index, they said, of between 21 and 23. BMI is a calculation of height to weight, and the normal range is usually considered to be 18 to 25, with anything over 25 being overweight.

Exercise is also key. “Be physically active as part of everyday life,” is the second of 10 recommendations made by the expert panel. The recommendations also include eating mostly plant foods, such as fruits, vegetables and grains, avoiding calorie-dense foods such as sugary drinks, and limiting red meat, alcohol and salt.

The American Institute for Cancer Research also released a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults that show most do not understand these risks. Only 38 percent knew of the link between cured and processed meats and cancer, 49 percent knew that diets low in fruits and vegetables raised the risk of cancer and 46 percent knew that obesity was a well-documented risk.

But 71 percent thought that pesticide residue on produce was a cause — something that has never been shown; 56 percent thought stress causes cancer, again not proven; and 49 percent believed hormones in beef cause cancer.

“Americans are increasingly likely to attribute cancer to factors over which they have no control, and for which no proven links to the disease exist,” the report reads.

“This reflects an ‘everything causes cancer’ mindset,” it adds.

The meat industry quickly denounced the report.

“WCRF’s conclusions are extreme, unfounded and out of step with dietary guidelines,” said American Meat Institute Foundation Vice President of Scientific Affairs Randy Huffman

From HealthScout

Many older adults may mistakenly believe that becoming less active is just a normal part of aging, but a new pilot program suggests it’s easy to dispel such notions.

The program led to a 24 percent increase (about 2.5 miles more) in the amount of walking participants did each week, according to the leaders of a University of California, Los Angeles, study.

“We can teach older adults to get rid of those old beliefs that becoming sedentary is just a normal part of growing older. We can teach them that they can and should remain physically active at all ages,” lead author Dr. Catherine Sarkisian, an assistant professor of geriatrics at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.

The study included 46 sedentary adults, 65 and older, who attended four weekly, hour-long group sessions led by a health educator who used a technique called “attribution retraining” to teach the participants to reject the idea that getting older means becoming sedentary and to believe that they can continue being physically active well into old age.

Each attribution retraining session was followed by a one-hour exercise class that included strength, endurance and flexibility training.

During the study, the number of steps (as measured by electronic pedometers) taken by the participants per week increased from about 24,749 to 30,707 (a 24 percent increase) and their scores on an “age-expectation survey” rose by 30 percent. Their mental health-related quality of life improved, they reported fewer difficulties with daily activities, experienced less pain, had higher energy levels, and got improved sleep.

“The exciting part is that, to our knowledge, this attribution retraining component hasn’t been tested in a physical activity intervention,” Sarkisian said. “It’s been very successful in educational interventions.”