Regular smear tests boost chances of cure from 66 percent to 92 percent

ΩWomen can boost their chances of surviving cervical cancer substantially through regular cervical screening, claims a research paper published today on bmj.com.The authors from the Centre for Research and Development in Gävle and the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, studied all 1230 women diagnosed with cervical cancer nationwide between 1999 and 2001.In the study, which is the first to estimate chances of surviving cervical cancer, both screen-detected cancers (those with an abnormal smear result one to six months before cancer diagnosis) and symptomatic cancers (all remaining cases) were tested. The objective of the paper was to see if the detection of cervical cancer by screening resulted in better prognosis or just resulted in earlier diagnosis, without postponing the time of...

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Diabetes risk from sitting around

ΩA new study has found that women who stay seated for long periods of time every day are more prone to developing type 2 diabetes, but that a similar link wasn't found in men.Researchers from the University of Leicester Departments of Health Sciences and Cardiovascular Sciences revealed that women who are sedentary for most of the day were at a greater risk from exhibiting the early metabolic defects that act as a precursor to developing type 2 diabetes than people who tend to sit less.The team assessed over 500 men and women of the age of 40 or more about the amount of time spent sitting over the course of a week, helped out by tests on the level of specific chemicals in their bloodstream that are linked to diabetes and metabolic dysfunction. It was found that the women who spent the longest...

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Heart Healthy Choices Early On Pay Off Later

ΩMaintaining a healthy lifestyle from young adulthood into your 40s is strongly associated with low cardiovascular disease risk in middle age, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.“The problem is few adults can maintain ideal cardiovascular health factors as they age,” said Kiang Liu, first author of the study. “Many middle-aged adults develop unhealthy diets, gain weight and aren’t as physically active. Such lifestyles, of course, lead to high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes and elevated cardiovascular risk.”Liu is a professor and the associate chair for research in the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.“In this study, even people with a family history of heart problems were able to have a low cardiovascular disease...

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Cocoa may enhance skeletal muscle function

ΩA small clinical trial led by researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine and VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) found that patients with advanced heart failure and type 2 diabetes showed improved mitochondrial structure after three months of treatment with epicatechin-enriched cocoa. Epicatechin is a flavonoid found in dark chocolate.The results of this initial study has led to the implementation of larger, placebo-controlled clinical trial at UC San Diego School of Medicine and VASDHS to assess if patients with heart failure and diabetes show improvement in their exercise capacity when treated with epicatechin-rich cocoa.The study published this week by the journal Clinical and Translational Science looked at five profoundly ill patients with major damage to skeletal muscle mitochondria....

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Are Selenium Supplements Good For You? Yes And No

ΩIf you lack selenium, supplements are good for you, if you have enough they could raise your risk of developing diabetes type 2, says a study published Online First in The Lancet. The authors explain that the number of people taking selenium supplements has grown considerably over the last few yearsStudy author, Margaret Rayman from the University of Surrey, Guilford, UK, said: "The intake of selenium varies hugely worldwide. Intakes are high in Venezuela, Canada, the USA, and Japan, but lower in Europe. Selenium-containing supplements add to these intakes, especially in the USA where 50% of the population takes dietary supplements." Selenium is a trace mineral that is essential to good health in small amounts. Higher selenium intake or status (levels in the blood) have been demonstrated...

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Aspirin may counteract potential trans fat-related stroke risk in older women

ΩOlder women whose diets include a substantial amount of trans fats are more likely than their counterparts to suffer an ischemic stroke, a new study shows.However, the risk of stroke associated with trans fat intake was lower among women taking aspirin, according to the findings from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers.The study, "Trans Fat Intake, Aspirin and Ischemic Stroke Among Postmenopausal Women," was published Thursday (March 1, 2012) online in the journal Annals of Neurology.The study of 87,025 generally healthy postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 found that those whose diets contained the largest amounts of trans fats were 39 percent more likely to have an ischemic stroke (clots in vessels supplying blood to the brain) than women who ate the least amount of trans...

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Nutrient found in dark meat of poultry, some seafood, may have cardiovascular benefits

ΩA nutrient found in the dark meat of poultry may provide protection against coronary heart disease (CHD) in women with high cholesterol, according to a study by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.The study, published online in the European Journal of Nutrition, evaluated the effects of taurine, a naturally-occurring nutrient found in the dark meat of turkey and chicken, as well as in some fish and shellfish, on CHD. It revealed that higher taurine intake was associated with significantly lower CHD risk among women with high total cholesterol levels. The same association was not seen in women with low cholesterol levels, however.There is very little information available about taurine, said principal investigator Yu Chen, PhD, MPH, associate professor of epidemiology at NYU School of...

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