Author: END YOUR ILLNESS

I chose to immediately write on this topic. An old patient of mine walks in and complains of a back pain. he suffers from IBD (inflammatory bowel disease).

First IBD. in this condition, Diarrhea is a common presentation . Prolonged diarrhea without bleeding but with other features suggestive of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Two major forms of this disease are ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn disease (CD). Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory condition characterized by relapsing and remitting episodes of inflammation limited to the mucosal layer of the colon while Crohn disease is characterized by transmural inflammation and by skip lesions.

Some risk factors could be:

• Age and gender
• Racial and ethnicity
• Genetic susceptibility
• Smoking
• Diet
• Physical activity
• Obesity
• Infections

spondyloarthritis (SpA, formerly spondyloarthropathy) is often referred to a group of disorders that includes ankylosing ( Causing immobility to the joins) spondylitis  or called as (AS). The main forms could be undifferentiated spondyloarthritis (USpA), reactive arthritis (ReA), and the arthritis and spondylitis that may accompany psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).

How is IBD linked to AS.  Gastrointestinal (GI) tract, is There is a strong and well-established association of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 with ankylosing spondylitis (AS).

I can see of the Labstestsonline that, “With new genetic testing methods, it is now possible to separate HLA-B27 into subtypes. So far, more than 70 different subtypes have been identified, such as HLA B27*05 and HLA B27*02. How the presence of these specific subtypes affects the likelihood of developing an autoimmune disease is not yet known.”

Approximately 90 percent of the risk of developing AS is heritable. At least 30 gene loci have been discovered. The largest contribution is the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 molecule.

COPD is a common respiratory condition involving the airways and characterized by airflow limitation. Several features of COPD patients identify individuals with different prognoses and/or responses to treatment. Whether these features identify separate “phenotypes” of COPD or reflect disease severity remains unclear. However, evaluation of these features can help guide clinical management, and their use in classification of patients is now recommended

Who Should Be Screened for Lung Cancer?.

Study finds marked benefits for cancer prevention with a higher intake of fatty fish – Medical News Today.

While several other studies have recently challenged the long-held belief of the benefits of a diet high in omega-3fatty acids, this new study led by Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Scientist James J. DiNicolantonio, PharmD, cites compelling evidence that eating the right kinds of fatty fish, in the right quantity, and prepared the right way, can in fact help prevent the body’s development of adenocarcinomas, a common type of cancerous tumor. A high proportion of the cancers arising in the breast, prostate, pancreas, colon, and the rest of the gastrointestinal tracts are adenocarcinomas.

Read More “Study finds marked benefits for cancer prevention with a higher intake of fatty fish – Medical News Today”

Source : American Institute of Cancer Research

Link: http://www.aicr.org/research/research_science_expert_report.html

These ten recommendations for cancer prevention are drawn from the WCRF/AICR Second Expert Report. Each recommendation below links more details.

You can use these links to skip to individual recommendation pages, or you can start with the first and follow links from page to page through the entire list.

1. Be as lean as possible without becoming underweight.
2. Be physically active for at least 30 minutes every day.
3. Avoid sugary drinks. Limit consumption of energy-dense foods.
4. Eat more of a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes such as beans.
5. Limit consumption of red meats (such as beef, pork and lamb) and avoid processed meats.
6. If consumed at all, limit alcoholic drinks to 2 for men and 1 for women a day.
7. Limit consumption of salty foods and foods processed with salt (sodium).
8. Don’t use supplements to protect against cancer.
9. * It is best for mothers to breastfeed exclusively for up to 6 months and then add other liquids and foods.
10. * After treatment, cancer survivors should follow the recommendations for cancer prevention.

By Tammy Fansabedian, Registered Dietitian

Do any of these sound familiar? Making sense of all the information on nutrition and cancer that comes our way is difficult. We all have well-meaning friends and family who want to tell us about what their friend’s coworker did to cure “this”, and we are bombarded by the media about products that will cure “that”. These messages are often conflicting, confusing and, unfortunately, incorrect. This misinformation can lead patients and family members to make unnecessary and sometimes harmful decisions about their nutrition and health.

Your healthcare team provides you with only information that has been researched and proven. This is often called “evidence-based”. Here are some common nutrition myths and the facts behind them.

Sugar and Cancer Growth

Lately, one of the most frequent questions I get asked by patients is about sugar and cancer “growth”. The myth is that sugar, a carbohydrate, will make the cancer grow faster than any other nutrient. The truth is that yes, cancer cells do use sugar for energy, but so do all of our healthy cells. Sugar doesn’t make cancer grow faster and depriving it of sugar doesn’t slow the growth.

Eating a lot of refined sugar is not good for our health in part because these foods may cause weight gain. But it’s also important to think about your health status. If you are in treatment and having trouble eating and maintaining your weight, you may not want to restrict your diet even more. It is OK to rely on oatmeal with brown sugar or liquid supplements (like Ensure®) if that’s all you can keep down. These foods are providing you with so many other nutrients like protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals that you need.

Are Organic Foods Better For You?

Organic foods are grown without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and are often more expensive than conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables. The cost of organic produce may cause us to buy, and therefore eat, less fruits and vegetables.

There is no research that shows that eating organic foods reduces the risk of cancer. Studies also show that there is no significant difference in the nutritional quality between conventionally grown and organic products. There are so many health and cancer-protecting benefits from the vitamins, minerals and fibre in any form of fruit and vegetable that it would be a shame to restrict intake for the sake of only being able to buy a small amount or selection of the organics. 
Ultimately, deciding to buy organic food is a choice. It may be based on personal beliefs including farming sustainability, but it shouldn’t be based on the basis of gaining more nutrients or reducing cancer risk. Whatever you choose, be sure to wash your fresh produce well!

Alkaline versus Acidic Foods

Some people believe that cancer cells cannot survive in an alkaline environment (the opposite of acidic), and therefore we should eat foods that are more alkaline and not acidic. Unfortunately, most of the “acidic” foods that would be cut out are foods that provide many of us with much-needed protein, like meats and dairy.

More importantly, there are a few key facts that are being overlooked by removing or reducing acidic foods from your diet. There is no evidence to support the fact that eating only alkaline foods will prevent cancer or any other diseases. Our bodies tightly regulate our levels of acidity and we are simply not able to change it by the foods that we eat – and that’s probably a good thing! Cancer cells may not be able to survive in an alkaline environment but neither can our healthy cells.

4 Warning Signs You Should Never Ignore | OPEN Forum.

Long-Term Cell Phone Use Linked to Brain Tumor Risk.

Long-term use of both mobile and cordless phones is associated with an increased risk for glioma, the most common type of brain tumor, the latest research on the subject concludes.

The new study shows that the risk for glioma was tripled among those using a wireless phone for more than 25 years and that the risk was also greater for those who had started using mobile or cordless phones before age 20 years.

“Doctors should be very concerned by this and discuss precautions with their patients,” study author Lennart Hardell, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Oncology, University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden, told Medscape Medical News.

Such precautions, he said, include using hands-free phones with the “loud speaker” feature and text messaging instead of phoning.

The study was published online October 28 in Pathophysiology.

Home-Based Therapy Helps Older Adults With Depression, MCI.

A home-delivered problem-solving intervention reduces depression and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in homebound older adults, who often have few treatment options.

In a randomized controlled trial, problem adaptation therapy (PATH) proved more efficacious than supportive therapy for the cognitively impaired (ST-CI) in reducing depression and disability.

“Problem adaptation therapy was more efficacious than ST-CI in reducing depression and disability. Problem adaptation therapy may provide relief to a large group of depressed and cognitively impaired older adults who have few treatment options,” the authors, led by Dimitris N. Kiosses, PhD, of the Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry in White Plains, New York, write.

The study was published online November 5 in JAMA Psychiatry.