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Spice of Life: Turmeric Boosts Effects of Chemo in Fighting Tumors

Amanda Chan
myhealthnewsdaily.com
Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:05 UTC
Image
© Vishakha Shah | Dreamstime
The main component in the spice turmeric, known as curry powder, can add to the power of chemotherapy in suppressing head and neck tumors, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found the chemical compound called curcumin, the main ingredient in turmeric, enhances the effects of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, which is commonly used to treat head and neck cancers, in addition to radiation. Curcumin has been found to help curb the growth of breast, colon and pancreatic cancers.

But because cisplatin can have toxic side effects, researchers were "looking for an agent that would enhance the effect of cisplatin, allowing the use of lower, less-toxic doses," said study researcher Dr. Marilene Wang, a professor of head and neck surgery at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center.
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Arrow Down

Long Hours Put Surgeons, Patients at Risk, Study Suggests


Bloomberg.com
Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:58 UTC
Many surgeons working more than 80 hours a week burned out, depressed, making errors

Surgeons who work long hours can suffer burnout and depression, which can lead to patient safety issues and increased risk of personal problems such as addiction and suicide, a new study suggests.

Among surgeons who reported working more than 80 hours a week, 50 percent met the criteria for burnout and nearly 40 percent were depressed, according to Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinic researchers who analyzed 2008 survey data from 7,905 U.S. surgeons.

In addition, 11 percent admitted making a significant medical error in the previous three months, and 20 percent said they would not become a surgeon again if they had the choice today.
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Attention

Asthma Linked to Lung Cancer Risk in Study

Steven Reinberg
Bloomberg.com
Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:55 UTC
University of Missouri researchers believe they have found a correlation between asthma and lung cancer in a small study.

Previous research has shown a correlation between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer, but this is the first time such a link has been shown for asthma and lung cancer, the researchers said.

However, based on the available data, people with asthma should not worry that they are at an increased risk for developing lung cancer, said Dr. Marilyn Glassberg, an associate professor of clinical medicine, pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
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Attention

Study suggests peanut allergy starts in the womb

Sandra Parker
WVEC.com
Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:52 UTC
More than one million children nationwide have peanut allergies and that number continues to rise. That's why a study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology is getting so much attention.

It found that of the f500 children tested, the ones whose mothers ate peanuts during pregnancy had nearly a three times greater chance of developing a peanut allergy.
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Eye 1

Multifocal contact lenses may reduce vision for night driving


Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:48 UTC
A new study suggests that older adults who wear multifocal contact lenses to correct problems with near vision, a very common condition that increases with age, may have greater difficulty driving at night than their counterparts who wear glasses. Age-related problems with near vision, medically termed presbyopia, usually occurs after the age of 40 and results in the inability to focus on objects up close.

According to an article published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science ("The Effect of Presbyopic Vision Corrections on Nighttime Driving Performance"), wearing multifocal contact lenses resulted in significantly slower driving speeds at night than wearing progressive addition glasses. While slower driving would seem to reduce the likelihood of hitting nighttime road hazards, the authors reported a reduced ability to recognize road hazards among multifocal contact lens wearers.
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Family

How Your Toothpaste, Soap and Make-Up Can Harm Your Health


Alternet
Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:58 UTC
Triclosan and triclocarban are widely used in antibacterial soaps, body washes, deodorants, lip glosses, dog shampoos, shave gels and even toothpastes.

Over the past several months, your bathroom has become the site of a major controversy. In fact, the controversy has been heating up for a while (Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Safety Database dates back to 2004), but recently, stories of dangerous ingredients in common personal care products like soap, toothpaste and lipstick have become even more common in the media. They're even the subject of a bill in Congress, The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010. The inadequate regulation and dubious safety of cosmetics spurred Annie Leonard, famous for making The Story of Stuff, to come out with a new video last month, The Story of Cosmetics.
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Question

Whatever happened to the mysterious disease known as Morgellons?

Brigid Schulte
The Washington Post
Wed, 03 Nov 2010 06:50 UTC
Sue Laws
© Sean McCormick
Sue Laws of Gaithersburg sits in her kitchen chair, where she has spent many sleepless nights agonizing over symptoms of a mysterious disease
In 2004, Sue Laws began to itch. She found tiny red fibers all over her back. Within weeks, her skin broke out in lesions. She felt bugs crawling under her skin, and one day, she said, she pulled a worm out of her eyeball and coughed up a springtail fly. "That's when I thought, 'I'm really going to kill myself,'" the Gaithersburg resident told The Washington Post Magazine in 2008 in a story about a strange medical condition she thought was Morgellons.

Laws's doctors thought she was delusional. But she found a host of other sufferers on the Internet and joined the Morgellons Research Foundation and the lobbying effort that prompted a number of lawmakers, including then-Sen. Barack Obama, to write the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demanding an investigation.

Now, nearly three years later, the CDC has completed its investigation of Morgellons, or what it calls unexplained dermopathy, evaluating patients in Northern California and sending tissue samples to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology for analysis. CDC experts are preparing the final draft of their report, which they hope to submit for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal sometime in early 2011.
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Magnify

Parkinson's tied to brain's energy crisis


CBC News
Tue, 02 Nov 2010 01:51 UTC
Parkinson's disease may stem from an energy crisis in the brain that occurs years before symptoms appear, recent study suggests.

If the research into this area pans out, it points to a possible new approach for Parkinson's: giving a boost to a key power switch inside brain cells in hopes of slowing the disease's inevitable march instead of just treating symptoms.

The research was done by Dr. Clemens Scherzer of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University and published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"This is an extremely important and interesting observation that opens up new therapeutic targets," says Dr. Flint Beal of New York's Weill Cornell Medical College, who wasn't involved with the new study.
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Alarm Clock

Shift work linked to higher risk of work injury: study


PhysOrg
Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:33 UTC
job time clock
© Unknown
Canadians who work night and rotating shifts are almost twice as likely to be injured on the job than those working regular day shifts, according to a study by researchers at the University of British Columbia.

The study, published in the current issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, examined data on more than 30,000 Canadians collected as part of Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics and compared results between workers involved in different types of shift work from 1996-2006. It shows that while the overall rate of work injuries in Canada decreased during this time, the rate of injuries did not decline for night shift workers.

The study also found that the risk of work injury associated with shift work was more pronounced for women, especially if they work rotating shifts.

"The disruption of normal sleep patterns due to shift work can cause drowsiness or fatigue, which can lead to workplace injuries," says Imelda Wong, a PhD Candidate at UBC's School of Environmental Health and the study's lead author. "Our research shows that people working rotating and night shifts are more likely to experience an injury than those who work regular day hours."
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Info

Aromatherapy in Your Kitchen: Cooking with Herbs & Spices

Pat Thomas
The Ecologist
Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:10 UTC
Image
© The Ecologist
How to make your food your medicine and medicine your food, starting with six common herbs you can use in your recipes and everyday cooking

The smell of our food is inexorably linked to our enjoyment of it. In fact, taste and smell are the two most directly linked of our senses. Aroma is the essence of food, but as well as making food taste good, it can also enhance our sense of well-being.

While the concept of aromatherapy has become something of a catch-all phrase for a wide range of healing techniques, such as massage and steam inhalation, which involve the use of highly concentrated oils derived from plants and flowers, rarely if ever do we think of our food as having aromatherapeutic properties.

The health benefits of flavorful food are well known in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. While it is unlikely that you will be eating herbs and spices in anything like medicinal quantities, many have been shown to be concentrated sources of antioxidants, and if taken regularly in great enough quantities, some can have medicinal effects. Cinnamon, for example, helps regulate blood sugar; in Germany, sage is licensed as a standard medicinal tea to treat gastrointestinal upsets and night sweats.
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