HOW TO PREVENT CANCERS

As someone who spent a lot of childhood summers on a dairy farm (my grandfather’s), I became accustomed to the (superior) taste of freshly picked fruit and vegetables and missed them when I made the move to the big city. I also believe in supporting family farms. When I was single,...

Walking has long been the preferred mode of exercise for a good many people, but the results of a new study may have bicycling give it some competition.  The large Harvard study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine (study) found that modest amounts of bicycling...

A detailed analysis of some 1397 children with cancer between ages 0 and 4 evaluated the exposure of mothers to cell phone towers based on residence at birth of the child (see study). These children with cancer were compared to 5588 children born on the same day who were free from cancer. This detailed study compared exposures for a range of childhood...

In honor of Father’s Day, the New York Times reports that fathers are now just as stressed out as their wives over balancing work and family. As we struggle to deliver 200% at work each day and come home and offer the same to our children and spouses, it can be easy to let the choices...

This week the New York Times (editorial) again points to the realization that after 10 years of extensive research that has advanced scientific understanding of human genetics we are still a long way off from quantifiable clinical benefits. Importantly, the value of a family history in clinical practice has received much attention from NIH consensus...

The US navy announced last week that smoking would no longer be allowed on submarines. As reported in the New York Times (link), the military has a long history with the tobacco industry and was responsible for starting a generation of smokers through the issuance of cigarettes to soldiers in their meals ready to eat (MRE) packets. The financial...

With the release this week of the ACS report on Diabetes and Cancer risk, we return to the growing cancer burden caused by obesity and excess weight gain during adult years. We might approach this problem from several angles. First, which cancers are caused by obesity and second, by focusing on diabetes, we might ask does this disease give added insights...

New data from long term follow-up of women participating in the STAR trial, a study comparing Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (known as SERMS) for prevention of breast cancer, show strong and persisting benefits of reduced breast cancer risk after stopping therapy (see abstract). This is an important addition to our understanding. Based on follow-up...