Blood Test May Help Define Breast Cancer Risk

The effort to develop a blood test to reveal a woman's risk for breast cancer may be one step closer to fruition, but is still far from becoming a reality, according to a new study.

 

The researchers found that blood hormone tests may predict the risk for developing postmenopausal breast cancer up to 20 years after a blood sample was taken.

But the study has limitations and needs to be replicated and expanded, said Dr. Xuehong Zhang, lead author and an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

 

If the research is confirmed by other studies, women could have their blood levels of so-called "sex hormones" such as estradiol, testosterone and the androgen DHEAS (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate) assessed every 10 to 20 years to get a biological assessment of their breast cancer risk, Zhang explained.

 

"We're thinking that the addition of hormone levels to our current risk prediction models might improve our ability to find high-risk women who would benefit from additional screening or prevention," he said.

 

The research was scheduled for presentation Thursday at the annual cancer prevention conference of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Anaheim, Calif.

Although it has been established that levels of estrogen and androgen in the blood can be associated with the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer, researchers haven't known how far into the future that risk prediction might go, Zhang said.

Working with participants in the Nurses' Health Study, a large and long-running effort to study women's health issues, blood samples were collected in 1989 to 1990, and then again in 2000 to 2002. Only postmenopausal women not taking hormones were eligible for this study. The researchers found 796 cases of diagnosed breast cancer through June 2010.

 

The study showed that women with hormone levels in the top quarter for estradiol, testosterone and DHEAS had a 50 percent to 107 percent greater chance of developing breast cancer as compared to women in the lowest quarter. Elevated hormone levels were also associated with recurrent or fatal breast cancer.

 

Those women in the highest quarter for sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) -- which has been understood to reduce the cancer-causing effects of some hormones -- had a 30 percent lower risk for breast cancer compared to those with SHBG levels in the lowest quarter.

 

The researchers also found that elevated levels of estrogen increased a woman's risk for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.

 

Tests for the levels of these hormones are available now, but the results are often uncertain because laboratories vary greatly in how they define and interpret the results, Zhang said.

 

A breast cancer expert urged caution in interpreting the study.

 

"I would ask, if you're postmenopausal and have elevated levels of these hormones, should you potentially turn off your body's hormones [to help prevent breast cancer]?" asked Dr. Julie Gralow, director of breast medical oncology at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

 

"If the hormones are good for your bones, your heart and maybe the brain, should you do anything to reduce them if you're perceived to be at some increased risk? It could affect your health negatively [to try to reduce those hormone levels]," Gralow said.

 

Should such a blood test become available, Gralow said she would want women to balance their potential risk of breast cancer against the danger of other diseases and conditions, including osteoporosis and fractures, heart disease and even dementia. "This is an interesting finding that needs to be put into the perspective of the total health of the postmenopausal woman," she said.

 

Risk factors for breast cancer currently include aging, genetics, race and ethnicity, family history and a personal history of breast cancer, among others, according to the American Cancer Association.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

Learn more about breast cancer risk factors from the American Cancer Society.

Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

Protect Your Kids From Pollen Allergies

Many children suffer allergies at this time of year as trees and other plants start releasing pollens into the air. So parents need to monitor their youngsters for symptoms, an expert says. 

"There are different types of allergies, but if you notice that your child has more symptoms and reactions during the spring it‘s a clue that they have a pollen allergy," Dr. Joyce Rabbat, a pediatric allergist at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, said in a Loyola news release.

 

Symptoms of pollen allergies -- which are most likely to be worse on dry, windy days -- include itchy eyes, sneezing, stuffy/runny nose, coughing and asthma.

 

"If your child‘s allergy symptoms are interfering with his or her daily life, there is no reason to let the child suffer. Allergy symptoms are very treatable. Some people think it‘s just something they need to ‘live with‘ but that‘s not the case," Rabbat said.

 

She said parents can take the following steps to help reduce children‘s allergy symptoms:

• Check pollen counts and limit children‘s time outside when the counts are high.
• Keep windows and doors closed, especially on high-count days. This will help limit the amount of pollen that lands on furniture and carpets. Turn on your air conditioner to filter pollen from the air within your house.
• Have children wash their face and hands when they come in from outdoors. A shower and change of clothes can take pollen off the body.

"If your child is active outdoors or in sports, make sure he or she takes allergy medication before heading outside," Rabbat said.

 

Parents also need to watch for asthma symptoms because many children with allergies also have allergic asthma. Symptoms of allergic asthma include coughing, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, wheezing and a feeling of tightness in the chest.

 

"Often treating children‘s allergies helps to control their asthma as well. Kids may need to take an allergy medicine before going outside, or they may need daily allergy medication. It‘s also important to get ahead of your allergy symptoms. Once allergies are flaring, they become more difficult to treat. If you are on a good medication regimen before the pollens peak, it makes for a much more enjoyable season," Rabbat said.

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more about seasonal allergies in children.

Health News Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

 

 

Triathlon Training:

While training it is important to have a diet that is made up of a balance of foods. The nutritional breakdown should be: 55-65 percent carbohydrates, 10-20 percent protein and 20-30 percent fat. Prior to training you want to eat an easily digestible meal about 1 to 2 hours ahead of time. If you are working out for longer periods of time, over an hour, you might need an intermittent snack to keep you going. If so this should be no more than 15 grams of carbohydrate, such as a banana or a bar. After a workout you should have a balanced meal within 30 minutes for optimal recovery for the workout. A perfect recovery meal might be chocolate milk or peanut butter on whole grain braid. In terms of fluids you should take in 16 to 20 ounces of fluid two hours prior to exercising.  Fluid intake should be about 8 ounces for every 20 minutes throughout your work out.  After working out it is critical to replenish your fluid intake.  

Skillet Shrimp and Tomatoes with Feta

This one-skillet dish features bold flavors of shrimp, cherry tomatoes, feta, and a few other ingredients for simple elegance prepared in mere minutes. Serve with pasta. 

 

Makes about 4 (1-cup) servings

 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 teaspoon minced garlic

4 cups cherry tomatoes, halved if large

1 pound medium peeled shrimp

1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1/2 cup white wine or fat-free chicken broth

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons crumbled, reduced-fat, feta cheese

 

1.  In large nonstick skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray, heat oil and sauté onion 3 minutes.
2.  Stir in garlic and tomatoes, cook 3 minutes. Add shrimp and oregano, continue cooking and stirring 3 minutes longer.
3. Add wine, parsley, season to taste. Continue cooking until shrimp are done and sauce slightly thickens with tomatoes. Sprinkle with feta, serve. 

 

Nutritional information per serving:

Calories 196, Calories from fat (%) 25, Fat (g) 6, Saturated Fat (g) 1, Cholesterol (mg) 170, Sodium (mg) 279, Carbohydrate (g) 14, Dietary Fiber (g) 3, Sugars (g) 9, Protein (g) 21, Diabetic Exchanges: 3 vegetable, 3 lean meat

 

From Holly Clegg’s Gulf Coast Favorites:  30 minute recipes from my Louisiana Kitchen

Recipe from Holly Clegg’s Gulf Coast Favorites!
This and many other great recipes can be found on her website:
http://www.hollyclegg.com
 

Many Stroke Patients Don‘t Call 911

TUESDAY, April 30 (HealthDay News) -- More than one-third of people having a stroke don‘t call 911, even though that‘s the fastest route to potentially lifesaving treatment, a new study reports.

 

"Prompt diagnosis and early management is essential to decrease morbidity and mortality after stroke," said lead researcher Dr. James Ekundayo, an assistant professor of family and community medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. "If about one-third does not arrive by ambulance, the implication is that they will have delayed evaluation and treatment with lifesaving drugs," Ekundayo said.

 

For patients with ischemic stroke -- a blood clot blocking a blood vessel in the brain -- prior research has shown that administration of clot-busting drugs within two hours of symptom onset greatly reduces the odds of disability three months later. Ischemic stroke is more common than hemorrhagic stroke, which occurs when a blood vessel bleeds into the brain.

The study -- published April 29 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes -- looked at how more than 200,000 stroke patients arrived at hospital emergency rooms from 2003 to 2010. About 64 percent arrived by ambulance and the rest used other forms of transportation, the researchers found. Patients who used emergency medical services (EMS) had shorter pre-hospital and in-hospital delays, the study found.

 

"They arrived early, had prompter evaluation and received more rapid treatment," Ekundayo said. Time to treatment is faster partly because EMS notifies the receiving hospital about the patient, "and the emergency room staff is ready to act as soon as the patient arrives," Ekundayo added.

 

EMS teams also know which hospitals have advanced stroke care and can take patients directly there.

 

Calls to EMS were less frequent among minority groups and in rural areas, the researchers found. Dr. Ralph Sacco, past president of the American Heart Association, said this finding shows a need for "more focused education campaigns on the importance of calling 911 among these groups." Sacco, chairman of neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said this study "amplifies the need to call 911 if you think you are having a stroke."

 

Experts say "time is brain," meaning the faster a stroke patient gets to the hospital, the better the outcome. Among patients who arrived within two hours of symptoms starting, 79 percent had come by ambulance. About 61 percent who called 911 got to the hospital within three hours, as opposed to 40 percent who didn‘t call EMS, the study found.

 

About 55 percent of the ambulance callers had a brain scan within 25 minutes of arrival at the emergency room, compared with 36 percent who didn‘t use EMS. Those eligible for a clot-busting drug received it sooner if they used an ambulance: 67 percent using EMS got the drug within three hours of symptoms starting compared to 44 percent who didn‘t call EMS.

Those who didn‘t call 911 were likely to say they didn‘t want to be a bother, or they didn‘t recognize the severity of the symptoms, the study authors said. Each year in the United States nearly 800,000 people have a new or recurrent stroke. Recognizing stroke symptoms and calling EMS are the best way to improve the outcome, the experts said. Experts recommend using the acronym F.A.S.T. as a simple way to remember the symptoms of a stroke.        

Here are the signs: 

• Face drooping: Is one side of the face drooping, or is it numb? Ask the person to smile

• Arm weakness: Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift down?

• Speech difficulty: Is speech slurred, or is the person unable to speak or hard to understand? Can the person repeat a simple sentence, such as "The sky is blue"?

• Time to call 911: If any of these symptoms exist -- even if they go away -- call 911 and get the person to a hospital immediately.

 

More information For more information on stroke, visit the National Stroke Association. Health News Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Attn: Pregnant Women!

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 24 (HealthDay News) -- All pregnant women should be vaccinated against whooping cough, preferably in their last trimester, a panel of U.S. advisers recommended Wednesday.
 

Getting vaccinated during pregnancy means a mother can pass immunity to whooping cough to her baby, the U.S. government panel explained. Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious bacterial disease that attacks the respiratory system.

The recommendation comes at a time when the United States is on track to record the highest number of whooping cough cases since 1959, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, more than 32,000 cases have been reported and 16 people have died, most of them infants.

 

Of the infants who get pertussis, 30 percent to 40 percent get it from their mothers, and more than half need to be hospitalized. Of those hospitalized, one in five gets pneumonia and one in 100 dies, according to the CDC.

"This is a very good idea," said Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said of the recommendation. "This vaccine is safe during pregnancy," Siegel noted, with an annual flu shot being the only other vaccination approved for pregnant women.

 

The pertussis vaccine's protection only lasts 10 years, which may be one reason why there's an epidemic of this respiratory disease, Siegel said. Since infants can only start getting the pertussis vaccine at 2 months of age, they must rely on the immunity passed to them by their mothers, he said.

 

"The best way to protect the infant is to protect the mother," Siegel said. "If you give vaccine to a pregnant woman you are going to get some degree of protection [for the infant]."

 

Siegel said that immunity is also passed to the infant through breast milk, a process called passive immunity.

The expert panel, known as Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, specifically recommended that all pregnant women be given a so-called T-dap vaccination, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, for every pregnancy. The CDC typically follows the panel's recommendations.

 

If a woman wasn't vaccinated during pregnancy, she should get vaccinated immediately after giving birth, the panel added.
 

If the new recommendations were followed, there would be a 33 percent reduction in cases, a 38 percent reduction in hospitalizations and a 49 percent reduction in deaths, according to CDC spokeswoman Alison Patti.

 

In 2011, the panel recommended that only pregnant women who had not had a T-dap vaccination be vaccinated, but only 3 percent of pregnant women got the vaccination after that recommendation, Patti said.

 

Dr. Marcelo Laufer, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Miami Children's Hospital, added that "this is long overdue."
 

Usually, when a woman becomes pregnant, her immunity against pertussis has worn off since she was probably vaccinated as a teen, which is why it's important to be re-vaccinated, he said.

 

Laufer also believes that any adult likely to be in contact with a newborn should be vaccinated. This includes fathers, grandparents and other family members, he said.

 

Pertussis is known for uncontrollable, violent coughing that often makes it hard to breathe. After coughing fits, sufferers often need to take deep breaths, which results in a "whooping" sound. Pertussis most often affects infants and young children and can be fatal, especially in infants under the age of 1, according to the CDC.

 

 

 

 

 

Financial Reality & Fitness

Any story or study that has the word “poverty” or related words glides onto my radar. As a financial consultant for 5 years at a major Wall Street firm, my Earth-Mother-in-a-Suit nickname was born as a result of focusing on socially responsible investing. In short, that meant finding companies for clients who wanted their investments to be mission consistent with their values. So if clients didn’t support alcohol, animal testing, firearms or tobacco, they didn’t want any part of their portfolio to be a company that did either.

 

In my working with corporations that were designated by Wall Street as suitable socially responsible investments, I found that some companies didn’t really care about being socially responsible until you could show them that having great employee benefits, or super recycling programs, for example could save the company money.

 

It was this education that inspired me to write my book. Harry Dent and other gurus have long been predicting a huge economic slow-down as the baby boomers retire. No matter how much you may hear on the news that the economy is improving, many polls show that most Americans believe we may have seen our prime. A growing number believe the studies that show the disparity between the income classes will keep growing; in short, the rich will get richer and poor, poorer.  My husband recently saw someone fill up a huge pleasure motorboat at the dock with 1000 gallons of diesel fuel at more than $4 a gallon!

 

Contrast that with this CBS News survey: one in two Americans are concerned that they will not be able to afford the holiday gifts they would like to buy.

 

The latest US census figures say that 1 in 6 Americans live below the poverty level of $22,000 for a family of 4. As any financial planner will tell you, 1/4^th of your income should go to food. Some stories that say Americans are spending up to half their income on food. Taking the 1/4^th percentage, this works out to $4 a day for food. So that means that 1/6^th of America is already living on a food budget of $4 a day.

 

I wrote my book after I saw many stories on the news showing obese women, some on food stamps, loading their grocery carts with Twinkies saying, “You can’t eat well on a budget.”

 

I spent the past 3 years on the floors of big-box stores tracking food prices. I believed that if you could show how cheaply people could eat, they almost wouldn’t care what it was that they were eating. Show them how much better they would feel, and as a result of feeling better, how much money they could save by avoiding disease, doctors and hospitals, they would flock to the vegan table. The price of dry beans is 1/6^th the cost of the cheapest (30% fat) hamburger meat. Add that up over a lifetime, and the savings are significant.

 

My own family history would appear to be a testimonial to the health of eating this way. I ran my first marathon in 2010 and continue to place in my age group at 5K races. I’ve helped coach our high school girls’ cross-country team.

 

I’ve only met 2 people who say they have my identical family history. My mom, aunt and both sisters had breast cancer. One of those sisters, both parents and all grandparents had diabetes and major heart disease. My mom, uncle and grandmother had Alzheimer’s. Most adults had osteoporosis, arthritis and varicose veins. I have none of it. I didn’t get all the good genes. Genes take a trigger. I keep asking to be studied. Either I am a genetic freak or I’m doing some things right. But since there’s no money in broccoli, I may be waiting awhile. You’d think doctors and researchers would be pounding a path to my door asking, “What has she been doing differently these past 32 years?” Alas…no money in broccoli, as I say in my talks all over the US and in my book. No broccoli board, association or lobby.

 

Changing your diet is so much easier than losing a limb to diabetes or having your chest cracked open for heart disease. The money it takes to maintain a healthy lifestyle is much less than the cost of living a debilitating life from diseases that can be easily prevented. Every time I buy running shoes, I think, “It’s cheaper than a co-pay. It’s cheaper than MRI.”

 

 

 

 

Ellen Jaffe Jones works online and in gyms as a certified personal trainer (AFAA), running coach (RRCA) and the author of the bestseller, “Eat Vegan on $4 a Day.” She can be reached at www.vegcoach.com

Couples Trying to Conceive

THURSDAY, Oct. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers who developed a mathematical model to help predict a couple's chances of becoming pregnant say the method may help determine how long couples should wait before seeking medical help to achieve pregnancy.

The method determines the probability of conception within the next month by using the number of menstrual cycles that have occurred during the time a couple has been trying to conceive. For example, the U.K. researchers found that a 35-year-old woman who has been trying for six months to get pregnant has only a 10 percent chance of conceiving within the next month.

In comparison, the number of months required to reach a conception chance below 10 percent is 10 months at age 30 and 13 months at age 25, according to the study appearing online Oct. 4 in the journal PLoS One.

"Many couples are not aware that chance plays a big role in getting pregnant. People expect to get pregnant when they want to, so finding out that it isn't happening can be a shock. Approaching a doctor about such a personal matter is daunting, so knowing when is the right time to start investigations would be a useful step forward," study author Geraldine Hartshorne of Warwick Medical School, said in a University of Warwick news release.

"We can't work out exactly when, or if, a woman will become pregnant -- but this analysis can predict her chances, and give a percentage estimate of pregnancy in the next cycle," she added.

Common wisdom has been that couples who are trying to get pregnant should have regular sex for a year before seeking help, but this study shows that age also affects this decision.

"Comparatively few young couples have low fertility, and so for these couples, the most likely reason for failing to conceive in the first few cycles is simply bad luck. There is quite a good chance of conception if they keep trying," study author Peter Sozou, of the London School of Economics, said in the news release.

"But older couples are more likely to have low fertility, so it's more likely for them than for younger couples that failure to conceive after a few months is due to low fertility," he noted.

More information
The U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
has more about infertility/fertility.
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Acupuncture & Breast Cancer

FRIDAY, Nov. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Offering breast cancer patients a relatively short regimen of acupuncture alongside standard treatment can help alleviate some of the crippling fatigue that often accompanies the disease, according to a new study.
The magnitude of help that patients undergoing acupuncture experienced was deemed by the study team to be "both statistically and clinically important."
"I am quite excited with these results," said study lead author Alex Molassiotis, a professor of cancer and supportive care with the school of nursing, midwifery and social work at the University of Manchester, in England. "They provide some good evidence of an effect of acupuncture for the management of a very debilitating and burdensome symptom for patients."
"The addition of a new treatment approach gives patients and health professionals more options," Molassiotis added, noting that the range of options specifically designed to
address fatigue issues among cancer patients has been limited.
The study appeared online Oct. 29 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
More than 40 percent of breast cancer patients experience significant cancer-related fatigue, according to background information included in the study. For some patients the problem may persist at a moderate or even severe level for years following the cessation of treatment.

To explore the potential of acupuncture treatment, the authors focused on more than 300 women with breast cancer who were being cared for as outpatients at one of nine health care facilities across the United Kingdom.

At the time of the study, participants had been diagnosed with either stage 1, 2 or 3 breast cancer, and all had been experiencing at least moderate levels of fatigue for an average of 18 months. Most were white, and their average age was 53. For a six-week period, all patients continued to receive the same care they had been receiving before the study, and all were additionally given an information booklet that tackled the issue of fatigue management.

However, more than 200 of the patients also were randomly chosen to undergo weekly 20-minute acupuncture sessions that involved needle placement at three different entry points. By the end of the six-week period, those who had received acupuncture appeared to fare better on every measure of fatigue that the team assessed.

Specifically, those in the acupuncture group reported feeling notably better than the "usual-care" group in terms of overall fatigue, physical and mental fatigue, anxiety and depression levels, functional well-being, emotional well-being, social functioning, and overall quality of life.

"Acupuncture is a complementary therapy that not only can have direct effects on the symptom experience of patients, but also ... provide the opportunity [for] patients to be more involved with their symptom management and empower them more," Molassiotis said. "Patients also like 'natural' and 'traditional' approaches to health management."

"[However], we still do not understand how acupuncture may work to manage fatigue," he acknowledged. "Within the results may also be a so-called placebo effect, which is common in many complementary therapies. So in future work we need to look into objective and physiological outcome measures, too, although the patient-reported outcomes used in the current trial are equally very important."

Dr. Laura Kruper, director of the Cooper-Finkel Women's Health Center and chief of the breast surgery service at the City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., described the British effort as both "well done" and "strong."

"Acupuncture has been used in a variety of settings within medicine, such as to control chemotherapy-related nausea, post-operative nausea, migraines and chronic pain," she said. "It is still not exactly known how acupuncture works, but that does not mean it does not have therapeutic benefit."
But, while noting that "many patients turn to complementary therapies to bridge the gaps that Western medicine does not fill," Kruper stressed the need "to ensure that these therapies are safe, effective and reliable."

"In the world of medicine, we rely on investigational studies to guide our treatment decisions so that we provide evidence-based medicine," she said. "Complementary therapies need to undergo the same rigorous tests that Western medicine does. This study was exemplary in that it was conducted with adherence to the principles of scientific method, and hopefully a study like this will be the first of many."

Although the study found an association between acupuncture and reduced fatigue in breast cancer patients, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information
For more on acupuncture, visit the U.S.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.