“Michael Crichton may puzzle or annoy in his occasional lapses in taste, but he cannot be dismissed. Serious questions and important issues often lurk beneath what can seem to be a slick commercial surface.”
-interview with Lorraine Hirsch, Christain Science Monitor, 1981
Michael Crichton was a master storyteller who managed to intergrate science, technology, medicine, and environmental issues into compelling, controversal,  and thought provoking stories. He wrote books (State of Fear) I couldn’t put down, movies (Jurassic Park) that scared me, and televisions series (ER) that captivated me.
One of his last books, Next, dealt with the issued of DNA, biotechnology and the …read more

Palm reading as a diagnostic tool for cancer?
Sounds a little far fetched but doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London recently diagnosed a case of ovarian cancer in a 74-year-old woman after she presented with thickened skin on her palms. According to the medical team, this thickening, known as palmar fascitis, could be linked to cancer and further tests revealed an ovarian mass that, happily, was successfully treated with chemotherapy.
Turns out the patient was suffering from a phenomenon called paraneoplastic syndrome. This is where the symptoms displayed, such as palmar fascitis, arthritis, or even nerve problems, seem unrelated to …read more

Are you watching the Stand Up 2 Cancer show tonight? It promises to be an amazing star-studded fundraiser and information session for cancer, and I’m proud to say that our very own Pink Ribbon Review will be blogging LIVE during the show. Awesome, hey?
Here’s the scoop:
At 8:00 EST, when the show begins, log into Pink Ribbon Review and have a real-time conversation with blogger Karen Lynch about the event — real time, live, as it happens. She’ll have live coverage and commentary about the event — and you can add your two cents, too!
Her “live” blog will be displayed …read more

Guys, this one’s for you (although I’d imagine the findings would hold true – or at least be similar – for womenfolk as well.)
Harvard scientists have found a cheap disease-fighter that you probably (hopefully) already do: Flossing your teeth!
In their research, they found that out of 50,000 guys, those with gum disease had a 30% to 50% greater risk of kidney, blood or pancreatic cancer. Why? Possibly because the inflammation caused by gum disease can egg on the growth of cancer cells.
The key, of course, is to floss daily. And brush, too. Ahem.
This has been your Healthbolt Easy Health Tip …read more

An email from Mike Street from RD.com (the Reader’s Digest site) led me to this comprehensive list of 31 Simple Ways to Prevent Cancer. Turns out that I already do a number of them – drinking green tea, taking a multivitamn, walking every day, and getting my 15 minutes of sunshine. But RD.com also listed a few that I would never had considered, such as…

Serve sauerkraut at your next picnic. A Finnish study found that the fermentation process involved in making sauerkraut produces several other cancer-fighting compounds, including ITCs, indoles, and sulforaphane. To reduce the sodium content, rinse canned or …read more

Relay for Life: We’ve all heard about it. Most of us have supported it in one way or another. And, most importantly, many, many of us know someone who is currently or has been affected by cancer. To say that nearly everyone has been touched by this disease in one way or another is a complete understatement.
So…with the Relay for Life walks on this summer’s schedule, are you going to participate? Have you formed a group with friends or coworkers to walk? If not, and you’d still like to get involved, head over to Second Life next weekend. There you …read more

Former Charlies Angel Farrah Fawcett has been fighting a rare form of cancer since 2006 when she was diagnosed with anal cancer.  According to the American Cancer Society, anal cancer is rare (an estimated 4,650 cases in 2006) but the number is rising, with those most affected being female and in their early 60’s.
Farrah’s spent the last couple of years fighting not only the cancer with chemotherapy and radiation treatments, but also the tabloids and paparazzi in an effort to protect her privacy. Having cancer is bad enough, but having to live it out in the eyes of the paparazzi and …read more

                            ‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner’
                                     (Dirty Dancing, 1987)
Well, from the looks of it, Patrick Swayze has taken those words to heart. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year, Patrick has no intention of hidding in the corner. He’s undergone radical chemotherapy treatment at the Standford University Cancer Center in Palo Alto and the word is that the tumor has shrunk but not as much as his doctors had envisioned.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer with the 5 year survival rate of around 5% of those in the advanced stages. …read more

A recent Scientific American article – Blogging — It’s Good for You – looks at a study published earlier this year in Onocologist that “…reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.” Truth is, this is not a new finding. Scientists have known for years about the therapeutic value people derive from writing about personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
But blogging is a new frontier and scientists are curious as to how engaging in this medium might help those suffering from live threatening disease …read more

We’ve been talking quite a bit about the intriguing topic of longevity lately. And if living to a ripe old age is on your “To Do” list, you may want to consider gaining a higher education.
So, does that mean those with a college degree will live longer than their less-educated counterparts? Perhaps.
Epidemiologists from the American Cancer Society and scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) teamed up to analyze the data and death certificate information of more than three and a half million deaths which occurred between 1993 and 2001. During …read more