They have sounded warnings in the past about the use of tanning beds and booths, but they are still popular among many, particularly the younger adults and teens. The tanning done by this method allows strong ultraviolet rays to hit the skin and cause damage. This damage has a high chance of developing into skin cancer years down the road.

Researchers looked at 20 different studies and, using those study findings, concluded that the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75% when people start using tanning beds before they are 30 years old. The findings of this research were published in the most recent edition of the journal Lancet Oncology.

According to this U.S.A. Today article, Tanning beds now listed among top cancer risks, the sunbed industry disputes this, claiming that there’s never been a link between the two.

Ok, maybe the declaration that tanning beds are on par with mustard gas and arsenic may be pushing it, but it’s not hard to see why the doctors and researchers are concerned. As more young people use these tanning beds, more are being diagnosed years later with a deadly form of skin cancer called melanoma.

We know that too much sun causes skin cancer. We know that it’s the rays that cause it. Therefore, if the rays are used in tanning beds and booths, why do people expose themselves to it and take that risk?

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Photo: Newscom.com

Post from: Blisstree

Tanning Beds Deemed High Cancer Risk

According to an article that appeared in the New York Times yesterday, “The report, from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said the rules were still too heavily based on Reference Man,’ a standard created by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in 1975. That standard is a 5-foot-7, 154-pound man who is ‘Western European or North American in habitat and custom.””

The problem is, women and children aren’t generally 5 foot 7 inches nor weigh 154 pounds. Plus, their body make up is different when you look at fat and muscle distribution.

To read more about this issue, go to the NYT article, Report Faults U.S. Measure of Cancer Risk.

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Post from: Blisstree

Radiation risk must be recalculated for women & children

Though the link is still unclear, people with gum infections have increased amount of inflammatory markers in the blood — inflammation has previously been linked to cancer.

According to lead researcher Dominique Michaud, a cancer epidemiologist at Imperial College London (UK):

“Men with history of periodontal disease had a 14 percent higher risk of cancer than those who did not have periodontal disease, and the increase persisted among never smokers.

This new finding needs to be examined in other populations and among women, but it at least suggests that oral health may have some impact on cancer risk.

If other data can support this association, then it will have implications for prevention and may provide some new clues on the role of the immune function in cancer development.”

Such findings are reported and published in the June edition of the journal The Lancet Oncology.

Read more details from The Washington Post.

Post from: Blisstree

Gum Disease May Increase Cancer Risk

Now, as reported by European researchers, being obese or even overweight may increase a person’s risk of developing up to a dozen different types of cancer.

Doctors have long suspected a link between weight gain and certain cancers, including colon and breast cancers.

But the new study, published Friday in the journal Lancet, suggests it could also increase chances for cancer of the esophagus, thyroid, kidney, uterus and gall bladder, among others.

While the study suggests a link, there is no definitive proof that being fat in itself causes cancer.

Hmm. I got your attention right? Read on.

Post from: Blisstree

Obesity and Cancer

Dr Anna-Sofia Melin, a specialist doctor in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Karolinska University Hospital (Stockholm, Sweden) presented earlier in the week at the 23rd annual meeting of the European European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology:

“Several epidemiological studies have shown an increased cancer risk among women with endometriosis, especially ovarian cancer.

Infertility and never having given birth (nulliparity) are also known risk factors for different types of cancer, such as breast and endometrial cancer.

However, as far as we know, this is the first study to investigate cancer risk among women with endometriosis that also stratifies for parity.”

Of unknown cause, endometriosis is a condition wherein the tissue that should line the surface of the woman’s uterus grows somewhere else – like the ovaries, behind the uterus, the bladder – leading to pain, heavy periods and even infertility.

The researchers found that endometriosis increased the risk of developing ovarian cancer by more than a third (37%) above the risk for the normal population of women without endometriosis.

There were similar increases in risk for endocrine tumours (38%), kidney cancer (36%) and thyroid cancer (33%). Slightly lower increases were found for brain tumours (27%) and malignant melanoma (23%), and there was a small increased risk of breast cancer (8%).

Interestingly, women with endometriosis had a reduced risk of cervical cancer of just under a third (29%).

Find more details from the full report.

Post from: Blisstree

Endometriosis and Risk of Certain Cancers

Eric Jacobs, Ph.D., of the American Cancer Society, together with colleagues looked for associations between long-term daily aspirin use (at least 325mg/day) and cancer incidence in a group of nearly 70,000 men and 76,000 women and during the 12-year follow-up found the following:

• daily use of adult-strength aspirin for at least five years was associated with an approximately 15 percent relative reduction in overall cancer risk (the decrease was not statistically significant in women)
• aspirin use was associated with a 20 percent reduced risk of prostate cancer and a 30 percent reduced risk of colorectal cancer in men and women (compared to people who didn’t take aspirin)
• no effect on risk in other cancers examined–lung cancer, bladder cancer, melanoma, leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, pancreatic cancer, and kidney cancer
• aspirin use for less than five years was not associated with decreased cancer risk

According to the study’s authors:

“Our results do not have immediate clinical implications. Confirmation from randomized trials is necessary before a reduction in cancer risk could be considered a benefit of using adult-strength aspirin.

Our results indicate that a randomized trial examining the effect of aspirin on cancer incidence would need to be both large and long term, probably lasting a minimum of 10 years. More evidence is needed before any such trial can be justified.”

So there, hold your horses…and don’t go popping aspirin to lower your cancer risk, not just yet. Besides, things such as this should be discussed with your doctor first.

Findings have been reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Read the full report.

[article abstract]

Post from: Blisstree

Long Term Daily Dose of Adult-Strength Aspirin = Reduced Cancer Risk?