Month: October 2011

Cancer

Coffee Drinking Associated with Decreased Risk of Skin Cancer?

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Miley Cyrus out for some coffee

The answer is YES, according to a new study. And, the cancer is the slow growing Basal Cell Carcinoma.

Scientists reported Monday that drinking coffee was associated with decreased risk of a common and slow-growing form of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma. It appears that caffeine may play a role, they said.

The team, based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, presented their study at the American Assn. for Cancer Research International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.

Examining data from the Nurses’ Health Study, which followed 72,921 people between 1984 and 2008, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which followed 39,976 people between 1986 and 2008, they found 25,480 skin cancer cases. Basal cell carcinomas represented 22,786 of the cases, squamous cell carcinomas 1,953 and melanomas 741. 

Women who drank more than three cups of coffee had a 20% reduction in risk for basal cell carcinoma.  Men who drank that much coffee had a 9% reduction in risk of the slow-growing cancer.  People who drank the most coffee had the lowest risk.  The team did not identify reduced risk for squamous cell carcinoma.

Co-author Fengju Song, a postdoctoral fellow in dermatology, said that the discovery could help prevent cancers in the future.

“Daily dietary factors with even small protective effects may have great public health impact,” Song said in a statement. “Our study indicates that coffee consumption may be an important option to help prevent basal cell carcinoma.”

Great news since I love my coffee and had a squamous cell carcinoma surgically removed from behind my left ear a few years ago.

Now, if I can drink coffee and prevent cancer.

Really a WIN – WIN here.

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Dentistry

Bisphenol A (BPA) Exposure In Utero Linked to Behavior and Emotional Problems in Children?

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Yes, especially in female children, according to a new study.

Exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) during gestation appears to affect behavior and emotions measured at 3 years of age, especially among girls, according to a new report.

Joe M. Braun, MSPH, PhD, from the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health, Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues published their findings online October 24 in Pediatrics.

According to the researchers, BPA, which is predominantly obtained through the diet, is ubiquitous in industrialized nations and might disrupt the endocrine system. BPA is used in “a variety of consumer products, including dental sealants, food/beverage containers and linings, medical equipment, and thermal receipts.”

The researchers’ previous work indicated that hyperactivity and aggression scores were increased in 2-year-old girls with high levels of gestational BPA exposure in a prospective birth cohort.

The current study sought to “determine whether” previously observed associations remained at 3 years of age, whether executive functions were affected by BPA exposure, and whether gestational or childhood BPA exposures had greater effects on neurobehavior.”

The implications can be many since BPA is contained in many dental materials.

It is best to avoid BPA exposure by avoiding certain canned and packaged food and polycarbonate bottles with the recycling symbol 7.

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Diigo Links

Flap’s Dentistry and Health Links and Comments for October 23rd on 22:36

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These are my links for October 23rd from 22:36 to 22:47:

  • Dentists, patients feel economy’s bite in Sacramento area –

    Douglas Lott sees it in the faces of many young people sitting in his Sacramento dentist's chair.

    "I have more people unable to pay for treatment," Lott said. "The hardest hit are the younger kids, who … don't have a steady job, or insurance, or are in college. When you tell them they need a root canal or crown for $2,500, they have a look on their face like it's not real."

    But Sacramento's double-digit jobless rate and bleak economic conditions are all too real, and they're affecting dentists along with their patients. Like many small businesses, Sacramento area dental practices are getting drilled by the economy, state budget cuts and insurance plan changes.

    Dentists in the Sacramento region are reporting that business dropped by as much as 25 to 30 percent in the last three years, said Cathy Levering, executive director of Sacramento District Dental Society. That number is about even with the statewide figures for decreased dental business, she said.

    Dentists are also struggling with lost retirement funds in the stock market, which is delaying retirement and making it tough for younger dentists to move into practices. Meanwhile, cuts to Denti-Cal, the lack of free dental clinics and decreasing insurance coverage over the last decade are chipping away at dentists' profits.

    Because of state budget shortfalls, the state's Denti-Cal program eliminated adults from its program in 2009, making only children and pregnant women eligible for subsidized dental care and further reducing patient loads.

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  • Young vegetarians: Getting the nutrition they need –

    Niki Gianni was 11 or 12 when she found a video on YouTube called "Meet Your Meat." Saddened and disgusted by the footage from a slaughterhouse, the Chicago girl announced she was no longer going to eat meat. Her parents were less than thrilled.

    "When she first said she wanted to be a vegetarian, we were just looking at each other and we said, 'We can't be switching meals for you. You are not going to get your protein.' We were not educated in the health benefits," said Gianni's mother, Julie Gianni.

    While many parents worry whether their vegetarian or vegan children will receive adequate nutrition for their growing bodies, the American Dietetic Association says such diets, as long as they are well-planned, are appropriate for all phases of life, including childhood and adolescence. "Appropriately planned" vegetarian or vegan diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases, the dietetic association says.

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  • Healthy Halloween Advice for Children With Diabetes –

    While there are challenges, Halloween can still be fun for children with diabetes, an expert says.

    "They can enjoy Halloween and enjoy some of the sweets the holiday offers — within reason," Dr. Kenneth McCormick, a pediatric endocrinologist and senior scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Diabetes Center, said in a university news release.

    "We give parents and kids three options and let them decide how they want to handle Halloween and the sweets that come with it," he explained.

    The first option is to count carbohydrates. A child tracks how many carbohydrates he or she consumes and takes, for example, one unit of insulin for every 15 to 20 grams of carbs.

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Diigo Links

Flap’s Links and Comments for October 23rd

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These are my links for June 27th through October 23rd:

  • Oral Bacteria May Signal Pneumonia Risk-Oral bacteria may signal which patients are likely to develop healthcare-associated pneumonia, a researcher said here.

    In a small study, there was a sharp divergence between the composition of oral bacteria of ventilated intensive care patients who developed healthcare-associated pneumonia and those who did not, according to Samit Joshi, DO, of Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

    The shift occurred in the days before the patients developed the infection and was characterized by a decline in some forms of bacteria and increases in others, Joshi told reporters at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

    The finding has “implications for how we prevent pneumonia in the future,” Joshi said, and may also hold the seeds of new approaches to treatment if it turns out that bacterial changes actually cause the healthcare-associated pneumonia.

    But he cautioned that the genetic method used in the study — a technique called 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing — can’t currently be employed at the bedside, so that clinical applications of the findings will not be immediate.

    It had long been known that the bacteria of the mouth play a role in dental caries and other dental diseases, Joshi said, but recently there has been a suggestion that they may also play a role in healthcare-associated pneumonia.

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  • Botox, dermal fillers can enhance implant outcomes-When placing dental implants, practitioners should consider using Botox and dermal filler agents for patients who need facial volume restorations, according to a presentation at the American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID) annual meeting in Las Vegas, October 19-22.
    “Besides creating beautiful smiles, we like to create harmony between the dentofacial complex by addressing the deep lines and wrinkles in the face that can prevent our patients from looking their best,” said Pankaj Singh, DDS, in an AAID press release.
    For older dental implant patients with facial aging, the corners the mouth begin to turn down and wrinkles appear around the lips. Botox can relax affected muscles to raise mouth corners and smooth wrinkles to ensure successful and satisfying outcomes, according to Dr. Singh.
    In addition, dermal filler agents treat fat and collagen volume that causes static lines to develop. “As we age, our body’s production of hyaluronic acid, the body’s natural filler, decreases, which causes facial lines to appear,” Dr. Singh said.
    It takes about two weeks for dermal filler agents to show results, he added, and some patients experience side effects, such as localized pain, infection, bleeding, swelling, redness, bruising, and tenderness in and near the injection site. In addition, results are not permanent, and injections will need to be repeated periodically to maintain the cosmetic improvement.

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Cell Phones

Study: Cell Phones Don’t Increase Brain Cancer Risk

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Another study and another finding that there is little worry about your cell phone delivering up brain cancer.

The 5 billion people worldwide who chat away on cell phones shouldn’t worry about an increased risk of brain cancer, new Danish research contends.

One of the largest and longest studies on the subject finds no more brain tumors among people who had cell phones over 17 years than among people who had no cell phones.

Although no one study can rule out harm with absolute certainty, “the risk, if there is one, is extremely low,” said Dr. Ezriel E. Kornel, director of the Neuroscience Institute at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

Previous studies haven’t definitively answered the question of whether cell phone use is harmful: While several studies have found no cause for alarm, a handful did show an upped risk of malignant brain tumors.

Based on the totality of existing evidence, the World Health Organization in May classified cell phones as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” and placed them in the same category as the pesticide DDT and gasoline engine exhaust.

Experts have been concerned that radio frequency electromagnetic fields sent out by a cell phone held close to the ear could trigger a malignancy.

This new study, led by researchers from the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, was a follow-up to an earlier trial that also had found no increased risk in cell phone users. Their latest report is published in the Oct. 20 issue of BMJ.

There are limitations to the study and I am positive the issue will be studied again and again. Will this study satisfy everyone – probably not.

But, good enough for me….at least now.

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