Breastfeeding vs. Breast Cancer Risk?

Study: Breastfeeding for at Least 6 Months Is Linked to Lower Rates of Certain Breast Cancers



Certain types of breast cancer may be rarer among women who breastfeed their babies for at least six months.

That finding comes from a new study published in today's advance online edition of Cancer.

The researchers, who included Amanda Phipps, MPH, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, pooled data from two breast cancer studies that together included nearly 2,500 women aged 55-79 in Washington state. The group included 1,140 women who had had breast cancer.

All of the women completed questionnaires that included questions about their history of breastfeeding, age at first menstrual period, live births, and menopause.

Phipps and colleagues combed through the data looking for patterns that stood out among women with any of the following types of breast cancer:

• Estrogen-sensitive breast cancer (the majority of breast cancers)
• HER2-positive breast cancer (breast cancers with high levels of the HER2 protein)
• "Triple negative" breast cancer (breast cancers not sensitive to estrogen or progesterone and not HER2-positive)

Breastfeeding for at least six months appeared to be most protective for "triple negative" breast cancer. Triple-negative breast cancer was half as common among women who reported breastfeeding their babies for six or more months than among mothers who hadn't breastfed.

By the same comparison, estrogen-sensitive breast cancer was 20% less common among women who breastfed for at least six months than among mothers who didn't breastfeed.

The reason for those findings isn't clear. The study doesn't prove that breastfeeding prevented breast cancer or that not breastfeeding raises breast cancer risk; observational studies, such as this one, don't prove cause and effect. But other observational research has linked breastfeeding to lower rates of breast cancer, Phipps' team notes.

Besides breastfeeding, two other patterns emerged:

• Early menarche -- starting menstruation at or before age 13 -- was only linked to increased risk of HER2-positive breast cancer.
• Late menopause -- after age 55 -- and use of estrogen-plus-progesterone hormone therapy were only linked to risk of estrogen-sensitive breast cancer

Phipps and colleagues considered other factors, including the women's education level, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and immediate family history of breast cancer. Still, they caution that relatively few women in the studies had HER2-positive or triple-negative breast cancer, which may have made it harder to spot trends in those types of cancer. Phipps' team concludes that "certain reproductive factors may have a greater impact" than others on the risk of developing certain subtypes of breast cancer and that further research is needed.

source : www.webmd.com

New flu vaccine approach hopeful

A new type of bird flu vaccine that uses a mock version of the virus appears to protect people against infection and is safe enough to continue testing, Novavax Inc. said on Tuesday.

The Rockville, Maryland-based biotech company released the first results of human safety trials of its experimental vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza and said it appeared to work as well as other vaccines.

"These results are strong and very competitive and they compare well with any vaccine against pandemic flu, whether licensed or in development," Novavax President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Rahul Singhvi told investors in a conference call.

Most influenza vaccines use either a weakened but live flu virus or a killed virus to stimulate the immune system. They must be reformulated every year to match the constantly mutating flu strains and take months to make using specially grown live chicken eggs.

Novavax grows the vaccine in lab dishes of caterpillar cells in a process the company believes will be quicker than current technology and uses a decoy of the virus called a virus-like particle. "It looks like the virus in that it has the same size and shape as the virus," Singhvi said.

But it lacks the genes needed to replicate itself. "It is not a virus but the body views it as a virus," he said.

No one knows when the next influenza pandemic will strike but experts are now very worried about the H5N1 avian influenza virus sweeping through poultry in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It rarely infects humans now but has killed 243 out of 385 infected since 2003 and could mutate into a more infectious form.

Several companies and other groups are working to make a vaccine that would protect against H5N1.

Most licensed vaccines focus on hemagglutinin -- a protein that gives flu viruses the "H" in their names. The Novavax vaccine stresses three proteins found in flu viruses -- the H, the neuraminidase or "N" protein and the M1 protein, which scientists believe may change less from one flu strain to another.

The highest dose of the vaccine stimulated the development of a protective level of antibodies in 94 percent of those vaccinated, the company said.

"Two doses of this novel vaccine -- which is designed to prevent bird flu -- gave strong immune responses. The data are encouraging that this new vaccine approach can help prevent pandemic influenza," Dr. Robert Belshe of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri, who served on the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the study, said in a statement.

"We will proceed with clinical development when we have a partner," Novavax's chief medical officer Dr. Penny Heaton told the call. The company, which will start testing a seasonal flu vaccine later in the year, said it would submit its findings to the peer-review system of medical journals and meetings.

The GE Healthcare unit of General Electric Co collaborates with Novavax to supply plastic disposable bio-reactors for use in making the vaccine, an innovation the companies believe is more efficient than using steel tanks and filtration systems that must be clean

source : www.reuters.com

Arsenic in drinking water could raise diabetes risk

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health suggests that inorganic arsenic in drinking water may be a risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

The observational study showed that high levels of arsenic were more likely to be found in the urine of people with type 2 diabetes than those without.

The study titled "Arsenic Exposure and Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes in US Adults" was released in the August 20, 2008 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association.

"Our findings suggest that low levels of exposure to inorganic arsenic may play a role in diabetes," said Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Environmental Health Sciences.

"While prospective studies are needed to establish whether this association is causal, these findings add to the existing concerns about the long-term health consequences of low and moderate exposure to inorganic arsenic."

Inorganic arsenic is found commonly yet naturally in rocks and soils. Soil and irrigation water and drinking water can be contaminated with this toxic metal element.

Most exposure in the U.S. to inorganic arsenic comes from contaminated drinking water, according to a press release by the Johns Hopkins.

The maximal tolerance for arsenic in drinking water set by World Health Organization is the same as the one by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 10 parts per billion (PPB). The EPA standard not long ago was 50 ppb, which had drawn criticism.

An estimated 13 million people in the United States live in areas where the concentration of inorganic arsenic in the public water supply exceeds standards of the EPA, particularly in the West, Midwest and Northeast regions, according to the Johns Hopkins press release.

For the current study, the researchers tested for the level of arsenic randomly selected urine samples from 788 U.S. adults age 20 or older who participated in a 2003 to 2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. And then they associated arsenic levels with risk of type 2 diabetes.

After adjusting for diabetes risk factors such as body mass index and for organic arsenic compound found in seafood, the researchers found subjects in the top one-fifth of total urine arsenic levels (16.5 micrograms per liter) had 3.6 times the odds of having type 2 diabetes as those in the lowest one-fifth (3.0 micrograms per liter).

They also found subjects in the top one-fifth of dimethylarsinate levels (6.0 micrograms per liter) were 1.5 times as likely as those in the lowest one-fifth (2.0 micrograms per liter) to develop diabetes. Dimethylarsinate is a metabolite of inorganic arsenic before excretion.

The authors explained in their report that "The potential role of arsenic in diabetes development is supported by experimental and mechanistic evidence." Insulin-sensitive cells could be less efficient at metabolizing glucose after exposed to insulin and sodium arsenite compared to cells exposed only to insulin. Arsenic could also affect genetic factors to interfere with insulin sensitivity and other physiological processes.

In light of given widespread exposure to inorganic arsenic from drinking water worldwide, the finding of the association between exposure to inorganic arsenic and increased risk of type 2 diabetes may provide some suggestion as to what can be done to help prevent the health condition that affects nearly 20 million people in the U.S. alone.

Arsenic is best known for its carcinogenic effect. It is less known for its association with diabetes. In addition to drinking water, arsenic is also present in foods or products.

For instance, rice produced in California has high levels of arsenic. A study led by researchers at the University of Aberdeen and published in the August, 2005 issue of Environmental Science and Technology found 260 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic in US rice compared with 5 ppb in Indian basmati rice.

In the U.S., arsenic in organic form is commonly used to treat pressured wood, which is used to make wood stuff such as decks and wood fences to protect molds from "eating up" the wood. Children who touch those arsenic treated wood products can get quite some arsenic in hands, according to early studies.

Also in the U.S., arsenic is used in poultry to prevent parasites from growing, a way to promote growth of chicken. But research found the arsenic level in certain parts of chicken is two or three times higher than the level deemed to be safe.

Regardless, further studies are needed to prove or disprove that the association between arsenic and diabetes is a cause and effect relation. The study per se did not mean to say high exposure to arsenic causes diabetes.

source : foodconsumer.org

Vitamin B, Folate Supplements Won't Help Heart

A study to determine whether folic acid and vitamin B supplements help the heart has been cut short, because the pills weren't doing any good and might have even caused participants harm.

"This confirms what a lot of recent studies have found -- no benefit of taking vitamin B supplements to reduce the risk of heart disease, and it raises a few red flags," said Alice H. Lichtenstein, Gershoff professor of nutrition at Tufts University, Boston.

In the new study, reported in the Aug. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, physicians at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, enrolled almost 3,100 volunteers. Three-quarters of them took various doses of vitamin B and folic acid (which is chemically a B vitamin), while the others got a placebo, an inactive substance.

The study was ended early, after an average follow-up of 38 months, because "we could not detect any preventive effect of intervention with folic acid plus vitamin B12 or with vitamin B6 on mortality or major cardiovascular events," the researchers reported.

They did find a slight reduction of stroke, but also a slight increase of cancer in those taking folic acid, but neither of these results reached statistical significance. The study was ended, because another Norwegian study of folic acid and vitamin B supplementation has also hinted at an increased incidence of cancer among users.

But the real bottom line here, according to Lichtenstein, is that "there is no evidence that individuals should take B vitamins to decrease the risk of heart disease, and there may be some evidence that they shouldn't."

The trials were initiated, because observational studies did link high blood levels of a protein called homocysteine with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. In the new study, homocysteine levels did go down by 30 percent over the course of three years in people taking folic acid and vitamin B. However, there was no related effect on the risk of cardiovascular events.

So, "the observational data was great, but the interventional studies were negative," Lichtenstein said.

Food in the United States is routinely fortified with folic acid, because it reduces the incidence of a specific class of birth defects called neural tube defects. Folic acid is a synthetic form of folate, a B vitamin found in many fruits and vegetables.

"We have been optimistic about the role of antioxidants such as vitamin B in preventing heart disease, yet many of these large trials have shown that there is no benefit," said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

It's hard to say whether the reduction in cardiovascular disease seen in some observational trials was caused by vitamin supplementation or because "people taking the supplements have good lifestyles in general," Steinbaum said.

It is also possible that the benefits of vitamin supplements show up only after many years, Steinbaum said. She does recommend a daily multivitamin pill. "But at this point, it is certainly hard to recommend extra supplements when we don't have proof of benefit," Steinbaum said. "What we can recommend is a diet with fruits and vegetables that have antioxidant vitamins in them," she said.

source : http://health.usnews.com/

Stroke Risk in Women Smokers Goes Up by Each Cigarette

The risk of stroke for a young woman smoker is directly related to the number of cigarettes she smokes, a new study finds.

While smoking has been clearly established as increasing the risk of stroke, "there is not a lot of data out there on the actual dose response," said Dr. John Cole, the study's corresponding author and an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Cole and his colleagues interviewed 466 women who had had a stroke, and also 604 women who hadn't. All were between the ages of 15 and 49, and were either smokers, non-smokers or former smokers.

Any smoking at all doubles the risk of stroke, the study found. The risk was 2.2 times greater for women smoking one to 10 cigarettes a day, 4.3 times greater for those smoking 21 to 39 cigarettes a day, and 9.1 times greater for those smoking two packs a day or more, compared to nonsmokers.

The study also demonstrated the benefit of quitting smoking. Stroke risk declined as early as 30 days after a woman gave up smoking and returned to normal in about two years.

"Stopping is the best thing to do, but cutting back will also reduce the risk," Cole said.

Smoking raises the risk not only of stroke but also of heart disease by damaging blood vessels and making blood clots more likely, Cole said.

The study findings are published in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Stroke.

"Cigarettes, among other tobacco products, are the only products that when used as directed are still guaranteed to do harm," said Dr. David A. Meyerson, director of cardiology consultative services at Johns Hopkins University Bayview Medical Center, and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.

"There are four major reasons why," Meyerson added. "Smoking disrupts the cells lining the blood vessels. It increases blood fibrogen levels, which makes blood more likely to clot. It increases the stickiness of platelets, the cells that form blood clots, and it also decreases the body's natural clot-dissolving mechanism."

And young women who might be unconcerned about smoking's link to stroke should also know that it causes premature aging, Meyerson said.

The new study is valuable "because of its size and its ethnic diversity," he said. "We see broadly how it applies to all young women."

About 20 percent of young American women are smokers, the report noted.

Cole said a similar study on young men is planned.

Another report in the same issue of the journal dealt with stroke and another subject of interest to young women -- and men as well: fat around the waist. A study of 1,137 German adults found that measures of "abdominal adiposity" were strongly associated with the risk of stroke and transient ischemic attacks, which are momentary stoppages of blood flow to the brain.

Waist fat was a better indicator of stroke risk than body mass index, a standard measure of obesity, said the report from neurologists at Saxon Hospital Arnsdorf. Better diet and more exercise were recommended as corrective measures.

Source : health.usnews.com

Want to live a long life? Run

People who want to live a long and healthy life might want to take up running.

A study published on Monday shows middle-aged members of a runner's club were half as likely to die over a 20-year period as people who did not run.

Running reduced the risk not only of heart disease, but of cancer and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, researchers at Stanford University in California found.

"At 19 years, 15 percent of runners had died compared with 34 percent of controls," Dr. Eliza Chakravarty and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Any type of vigorous exercise will likely do the trick, said Stanford's Dr. James Fries, who worked on the study.

"Both common sense and background science support the idea that there is nothing magical about running per se," Fries said in a telephone interview. "It is the regular physical vigorous activity that is important."

The team surveyed 284 members of a nationwide running club and 156 similar, healthy people as controls. They all came from the university's faculty and staff and had similar social and economic backgrounds, and all were 50 or older.

Starting in 1984, each volunteer filled out an annual survey on exercise frequency, weight and disability for eight activities -- rising, dressing and grooming, hygiene, eating, walking, reach, hand grip and routine physical activities.

Most of the volunteers did some exercise, but runners exercised as much as 200 minutes a week, compared to 20 minutes for the non-runners.

At the beginning, the runners were leaner and less likely to smoke compared with the controls. And they exercised more over the whole study period in general.

"Over time, all groups decreased running activity, but the runners groups continued to accumulate more minutes per week of vigorous activity of all kinds," the researchers wrote.

"Members of the running groups had significantly lower mean disability levels at all time points," they added.

The team also set out to answer whether taking up running late in life would benefit, and whether people who stopped exercising began to pay a price as they aged.

Most of the runners have stopped running as they reached their 70s, Fries said. But it was difficult to find people who totally stopped exercising. "Almost all of them did something else. They continued their vigorous exercise," he said.

People who took up exercise when they were older also improved their health, he said.

The study also showed that people cannot use the risk of injury as an excuse not to run -- the runners had fewer injuries of all kinds, including to their knees.

Source : www.reuters.com

Vitamin C Shows Promise as Cancer Treatment

New research with mice suggests that intravenous doses of vitamin C could one day reduce the size of cancerous tumors in people.

The findings are preliminary and still must be confirmed in humans. And even if the treatment works, it's not a cure but would likely be used in combination with other drugs, the researchers said.

Still, the research does show an unexpected use for vitamin C, which has previously been thought of as a nutrient, not a drug, said study co-author Dr. Mark Levine, chief of the U.S. National Institutes of Health's Molecular and Clinical Nutrition Section.

"There's potential promise that [vitamin C] is part of the armamentarium for treating some cancers," he said. "Which ones? We've got to do more and find out."

Vitamin C has long been one of the most respected of all vitamins, lauded for its supposed powers to treat many ills, from colds to heart disease. The late scientist Dr. Linus Pauling increased the vitamin's profile by touting it as a cancer treatment.

But getting heavy doses of vitamin C into the body is a challenge. Unlike some other vitamins, it's virtually impossible for people to overdose on vitamin C since the body only ingests a certain amount through the mouth and then stops allowing it to build up, Levine said. "The body wants to get to a certain place and no more," he said.

Researchers have found that they can disrupt the body's "tight control" over vitamin C levels by giving the nutrient intravenously and bypassing the digestive system, Levine said. The intravenous approach involves "short-circuiting the body's normal control mechanisms and finding there's an unexpected surprise that may be beneficial," he said.

In the new study, published in the Aug. 4-8 issue of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Levine and his colleagues found that intravenous vitamin C produced hydrogen peroxide, which proceeded to reduce cancerous tumors in the mice by 43 percent to 51 percent. The mice had ovarian, pancreatic and brain cancer.

It's not clear why some tumors are immune to the treatment and others are not, Levine said, although normal cells are unharmed by the therapy.

According to the researchers, it's possible to intravenously boost levels of vitamin C in humans to the levels used in the mice.

But Levine cautioned that the treatment isn't ready for prime time with humans. "Should patients with any kind of tumor go out and get IV ascorbate [vitamin C]? That's not the message here," he said.

Instead, he said, the study shows the need for more research.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said the research is interesting but not yet proven.

"Like so many things that are intriguing or appear to be promising, there appears to be a long way to go from the theory in the lab to the practical application in the clinic."

More information

To learn more about vitamin C, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

SOURCES: Mark Levine, M.D., chief, Molecular and Clinical Nutrition Section, and senior staff physician, U.S. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.; Len Lichtenfeld, M.D., deputy chief medical officer, American Cancer Society, Atlanta; Aug. 4-8, 2008,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

source : www.washingtonpost.com

Unhappy News on Happy Meal Nutrition

· Most kids' meals at top restaurant chains have way too many calories to be healthy, according to a report released yesterday.

Nearly every possible combination of the children's meals at KFC, Taco Bell, Sonic and Chick-fil-A are too fattening, the report on meals at 13 major restaurants found.

The average 8-year-old should eat about 1,200 to 1,300 calories a day, or about 430 calories a meal. But 93 percent of the meals at the chains had more calories than that. Instead of fried and fatty foods, restaurants should offer more choices that include fruits and whole grains, the report said.

Although some chains including McDonald's offer apple slices as a substitute for french fries, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said many restaurants make it hard for kids and their parents to make healthy choices. Subway fared best, with 12 of its 18 kids' meals having fewer than 430 calories, although that's in part because Subway meals don't include beverages.

Source : http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Move over Freud: Psychiatrists embrace pill power

CHICAGO, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Psychiatrists in the United States are trading in the analysis couch for a prescription pad, according to a study released on Monday that found fewer psychiatrists offer psychotherapy.

The shift to briefer visits for medication management, reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry, appears to be linked to better psychiatric drugs and pressure from managed care companies, which offer richer financial incentives for brief office visits.

"Psychiatrists get more for three, 15-minute medication management visits than for one 45 minute psychotherapy visit," said Dr. Ramin Mojtabai of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and formerly of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, where he did the research.

Various forms of psychotherapy, either alone or in combination with medications, are recommended to treat depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric illnesses.

Yet Mojtabai and colleagues, who analyzed data from national surveys of office-based psychiatrist visits from 1996 through 2005, found a significant drop in the number of office-based psychiatrists providing psychotherapy.

He said just 29 percent of office-based visits to psychiatrists involved psychotherapy in 2004-5, down from 44 percent in 1996-97.

One major impact is that patients who need to receive psychotherapy must get it from other professionals, if they get it at all, Mojtabai said in a telephone interview.

That can result in disjointed service, in which a patient sees a psychologist or social worker for therapy and a psychiatrist or a general physician for drugs.

"Whether it has any impact on the outcome of the disorder, we don't really know," Mojtabai said. "I don't think necessarily that it is harmful. It might not be as efficient."

BRAIN AGE

Dr. Eric Plakun, who leads an American Psychiatric Association committee on psychotherapy, said he noticed a shift away from psychotherapy beginning about 10 years ago, when more psychiatrists began to embrace "the age of the brain."

Plakun said medical schools began to focus more on the biology of mental illness than on traditional psychotherapy and that is now reflected in practices across the United States.

Plakun said in a telephone interview it is not clear if patients are getting therapy from other providers, or not at all.

"Either way, I'm worried about our patients," he said. "Patients need the best help we can give them."

For Plakun, that means offering a range of services, including psychotherapy, and not just medication. "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail," he said.

Mojtabai thinks patients are getting therapy from others, but said the focus is likely different from the analysis psychiatrists have traditionally offered.

"Psychologists and social workers are more likely to provide short-term cognitive behavioral therapy," which focuses on changing harmful behaviors, he said.

As for the type of analysis featured in movies, particularly in Woody Allen films, it is available -- to a very few.

"If you have some hard feelings about your childhood and you live in New York and have a lot of money, you can still find psychiatrists who provide long-term psychotherapy," Mojtabai said. (Editing by Maggie Fox and Doina Chiacu)

Source : http://www.reuters.com/

Your Dog Is Good For Your Health!

Have you thought of everything that your dog gives you? She gives you devotion, attention, a wet kiss, and unconditional love.

But did you know that she is also good for your health?

It has been proven that just by holding, petting and talking to your dog, your blood pressure lowers. It can also lower your cholesterol levels.

I think the number one reason for having pets in the workplace, is not only the above reasons, but they can also lower stress. And we all know how stressful the workplace can become. I would think that business owners would want these benefits because I am sure it would lower the need for doctor visits and lower health costs.

Most dog owners get more exercise because they are walking, running and playing with their dogs.

Your dog can keep you from being lonely, and becoming depressed. She is also a great social tool. All you have to do is visit a dog park with her and see what I mean. You will meet other dog lovers and enjoy sharing stories about your dogs. That can lead to new friendships.

All of these things contribute to better health for you.

That is a wonderful gift from your dog! And don't you want that to last a long time? The longer you have her, the longer she contributes to your health.

Well, turnaround is fair play. In order to have your dog with you for a long time, increase her lifespan, and add to the quality of her life, you need to learn about proper nutrition for her.

Just what can you feed her in order to have her with you for as long as possible?

The natural raw diet is the diet that nature intended for your dog. Raw meats, raw bones, raw vegetables and fruits is the perfect diet. If you are not currently feeding your dog the raw diet, there are ways that you can educate yourself about it. The raw ingredients need to be mixed in the correct percentages. It is not hard to do and there are some good books on the market to help you.

And that reminds me, I need to make veggies for my girls today. I will blend carrots, a sweet potato, yellow squash, collard greens, broccoli, and a banana. I'll package all that into packages that will be enough for a couple of days each, and then put them in the freezer until needed. I won't have to make veggies for another month.

Do yourself and your dog a favor and learn how to put the diet together.

Good health to you and your dog

Source : www.blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com

Do you suffer from vaginismus?

Do you experience extreme discomfort during sex or find it impossible to have sexual intercourse through vaginal penetration? If the answer is yes, you could be suffering from vaginismus, also referred to as, blocked intercourse. Vaginismus is a sexual dysfunction which causes the vaginal muscles to go into involuntary spasms, causing the vagina to tighten when vaginal penetration is attempted.

According to Dr Keisha Buchanan at Gynae Associates, it is believed that this sexual dysfunction is attributed to psychological factors. Some of these factors could be due to trauma, social upbringing, as well as rape and other forms of sexual abuse. Dr Buchanan says this condition causes intense pain and discomfort upon penetration and, in severe cases, sexual intercourse can become impossible.

Two types

There are two types of vaginismus. First, there is primary vaginismus where a woman has never been able to have pain-free sexual intercourse. Primary vaginismus is mostly experienced when a woman attempts to have sex for the first time. At this time, the partner is unable to penetrate or finds it extremely difficult as the entry to the vagina is 'blocked'. Some women in this category could also experience problems in inserting and wearing a tampon.

The other type is called secondary vaginismus where, following years of pleasurable sex, the condition develops. The symptoms include burning sensations during penetration or the inability to penetrate. This is usually caused by medical and psychological or physical conditions.

Relationship problems

Vaginismus can lead to relationship problems, as well as depression and distress. However, the good news is that it can be treated. Dr Buchanan says there are a number of ways which can be used to treat the sexual dysfunction, one of which is psychotherapy.

The duration of treatment depends on the individual, how receptive she is and her psychological state. The gynaecologist says while she has no figures to support, vaginismus is not common and she has not come across any cases of it in recent times.

Vaginismus does not go away until it is properly addressed. The pain or discomfort that is associated with vaginismus usually continues until the woman learns how to control the pelvic floor muscle triggers that tighten the vaginal opening.

Seven signs that you may have vaginismus

1 You experience difficult or impossible penetration.

2 Burning or stinging andtightness during sex.

3 Ongoing sexual discomfort or pain following childbirth, yeast/urinary infections, sexually transmitted infections, rape, cancer or other problems.

4 Sexual pain of unknown origin or with no apparent cause.

5 Difficulty inserting tampons or undergoing a pelvic/gynaecological exam.

6 Spasms in other body muscle groups (legs, lower back, etc) or halted breathing during attempts at intercourse.

7 Avoidance of sex due to pain and/or failure.

Source: www.vaginismus.com

Lawsuit over potato chip ingredient settled

Frito-Lay and two other potato chip companies have agreed to reduce the levels of a cancer-causing chemical in their products in a settlement of a state lawsuit, Attorney General Jerry Brown said Friday.

The court-approved settlement comes three years after Brown's predecessor, Bill Lockyer, sued fast-food chains and potato chip companies, saying they had failed to warn California consumers about the dangers of acrylamide.

Besides Frito-Lay, which sells most of the potato chips in California, the other companies agreeing to reduce acrylamide levels are Kettle Foods, maker of Kettle Chips, and Lance Inc., maker of Cape Cod Chips, Brown's office said. In another settlement last week, Heinz agreed to cut in half the acrylamide levels in Ore-Ida frozen french fries and tater tots and pay $600,000 in penalties and costs, the state said.

Brown called the settlement "a victory for public health and safety in California" and called for similar actions by other makers of chips and french fries.

Procter & Gamble agreed in January to reduce acrylamide by 50 percent in Pringles potato chips. McDonald's, KFC, Wendy's and Burger King agreed last year to post warnings about acrylamide in chips and fries.

Acrylamide is produced when potatoes and other starchy foods are cooked at high temperatures. It is used industrially for treating sewage, and its presence in food was unknown in 1990 when California listed the chemical as a cancer-causing substance under Proposition 65. That initiative, passed in 1986, requires companies to post warnings of exposure to substances that cause cancer or birth defects.

Swedish scientists were the first to detect acrylamide in food in a 2002 study. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is studying the chemical but has not imposed nationwide restrictions. The FDA has advised consumers that they can reduce the levels of acrylamide in fried potatoes by not over-browning them while cooking.

The settlement requires the potato chip producers to reduce acrylamide to 275 parts per billion in three years, a low enough level to avoid a Prop. 65 warning label. That amounts to a 20 percent reduction for Frito-Lay and an 87 percent reduction for Kettle Chips, Brown's office said. Little or no reduction will be needed for most Cape Cod chips, but one product, Cape Cod Robust Russets, will require a warning label, the attorney general said.

The companies also agreed to pay nearly $2 million in penalties and costs.

Source : www.sfgate.com

Sleep Apnea Boosts Death Risk

But it's unclear whether treating the breathing disorder cuts the danger, one expert says

FRIDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- The interrupted nighttime breathing of sleep apnea appears to increase the risk of dying, Australian researchers report

Earlier studies have linked sleep apnea to increased risk for death. However, these studies were done in sleep centers rather than in the general community. This new study suggests that the risk is present among all people with obstructive sleep apnea.

"This is the first study to demonstrate an independent association betweenall-cause mortality and sleep apnea in a community-based study," researcherNathaniel Marshall, a postdoctoral fellow at the Woolcock Instituteof Medical Research in Sydney, said in an American Academy of Sleep Medicine news release.

"The size of the increased mortality risk was surprisingly large," Marshall said. "In our particular study, a sixfold increase means that having significant sleep apnea at age 40 gives you about the same mortality risk as somebody aged 57 who doesn't have sleep apnea," he said.

Sleep apnea is a common problem in which one has pauses in breathing or shallow breaths during sleep.

The report was published in the Aug. 1 edition of Sleep.

For the study, Marshall's team collected data on 380 men and women, 40 to 65 years old, who participated in the Busselton Health Study. That study is an ongoing survey of residents in the rural town of Busselton in the state of Western Australia.

Among these people, three had severe obstructive sleep apnea, 18 had moderate sleep apnea, and 77 had mild sleep apnea. The remaining 285 people did not suffer from the condition.

During 14 years of follow-up, about 33 percent of those with moderate to severe sleep apnea died, compared with 6.5 percent of those with mild sleep apnea and 7.7 percent of those without the condition, Marshall's group found.

For patients with mild sleep apnea, the risk of death was not significant and could not be directly tied to the condition, the researchers note.

"Our findings ... remove any reasonable doubt that sleep apnea is a fatal disease," Marshall said. "People who have, or suspect that they have, sleep apnea should consult their physicians about diagnosis and treatment options."

Dr. David M. Claman, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of California, San Francisco, believes this study strengthens the conclusion that severe obstructive sleep apnea does contribute to cardiovascular illness and death.

"This Australian data has additional strengths in that it is a population-based prospective sample with a long period of follow-up," Claman said.

However, the researchers could not assess whether there were any beneficial effects of a common apnea treatment called Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, Claman said. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) treatment blows air into a person's nose to keep the airway from collapsing.

"Further work is needed to see if mild obstructive sleep apnea is associated with adverse effects and if Continuous Positive Airway Pressure treatment reduces cardiovascular risk in larger populations," he said.

In another report in the same issue of the journal, researchers from the University of Wisconsin uncovered findings similar to those in Australia.

In the Wisconsin study, researchers found severe sleep apnea was associated with a threefold increased risk of dying. In addition, for those with moderate to mild sleep apnea, the risk of death was increased 50 percent compared with people without sleep apnea. However, this increased risk was not statistically significant, the researchers report.

"Our findings of significant mortality risk with untreated sleep disordered breathing, in conjunction with prior evidence that Continuous Positive Airway Pressure can effectively treat severe sleep disordered breathing, underscore the immediate need for heightened clinical recognition and treatment of sleep disordered breathing," the researchers concluded.

Source : www.health.usnews.com