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What Holiday-Indulging and Junk-Eating Have in Common

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Holiday Meal-2_Oxford w-LinkHave you ever thought or said “I only eat this much around the holidays”?

Well, I confess it first.

Often many of us gave ourselves excuses for holiday indulging, especially when eating healthy all year long. Yes, it’s OK to indulge occasionally. Occasional indulging may not have a long-term impact on your health as long as you live a healthy lifestyle with well-balanced diet and regular exercise.

However, I’d also like to remind you that overeating does matter, particularly for those who adore heavy holiday eating or drinking, because delightful drinks, delicious foods have a dark side in hiding. There is no big gap between regular junk foods and loaded festive meals, in terms of harm to your health.

The damage could be different in a time-fashion, a diet with junk foods contributes to various chronic illness such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, whereas holiday heavy eating or drinking may trigger unforeseen heart attack or heart failure. So, do you see a grave consequence they share?

You can also examine what festive meals and junk foods have clearly in common. Both

  • contain food with high fats, high sugar and high salt, and sugary drinks as well.
  • mix up with alcohol over-consumption.
  • accompanied by stress-eating.
  • implicate extra calories intake resulting in weight gain. Then for some folks, those pounds are not easily shedded off.

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Time after time, holidays after holidays, a gradual weight gain becomes considerable weight gain, overweight or obesity. Obesity mostly comes in an accumulative way, but it is a major risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Now consider if you are having a health issue or an unhealthy eater, then imagine how unfortunate the cost would be to over-indulge during holidays.

Briefly, overindulging (alcohol, junk foods or festive meals) is never good. Overindulging, even overindulging chocolate – which contains some health values – is not worthy, either.

The bottom line is –

Holiday indulging is not trivial. To get more health benefits from food and family time, make it easier just by being mindful when you eat and joyful when you move.

Equally important as smart eating is – blissful when you gather, and peaceful when you rest. After all, it’s the most wonderful time of the year – as we sing the song.

 

Image credit: oxfordinternationalenglish.com

 

TARCO – A Tool for Your Lifestyle Transformation

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Tools for Health Management_CPDYou say you want to have a healthy lifestyle to prevent cancer and heart disease, but abandoning unhealthy habits can be hard?

I hear you. So I want to suggest a tool I believe can help you achieve that healthy lifestyle you want and need. I call it TARCO, which stands for Trigger, Auto-Responder, Choice, and Outcome.

Before I show you how TARCO can help you ditch an old habit and transform to a new, more healthful one, let’s take a moment to talk about the horrible realities that can result when bad behavior is in play.

A few examples:

Smoking is a bloody wound. That wound hurts because you are bleeding, painful and injured, and worse, because deep inside and invisible it may be causing smoke-brewed cancer and/or the clogging of your arteries that can lead to heart attack.

Eating junk food is an addiction to SAD (Standard American Diet). The “toxic craving” may satisfy your taste or convenience, but it is dangerous because the prescription of animal fats, sweetness, and salts promotes weight gain and the development of many chronic diseases.

Tanning is a fever caused by vanity—caring about one’s appearance so much you allow yourself to be baked with UV radiation. It is dangerous because a hidden scar or lesion is roasted by a known carcinogen, and skin cancer finally surfaces.

So, how do you stop bleeding, the SAD addiction, or the burning? Stop the source. Specifically, to embrace a lifestyle change, work on the trigger (or triggers) to the unhealthy habit, and eliminate it or at least avoid it.

Triggers are ubiquitous in life, and inevitable.

Triggers that are relevant to health may consist of physical, psychological, or emotional signals, or inducements from the social environment.

For example, stress is often a major trigger, leading you automatically to smoke more or drink more or eat more fats and sweets. Any of these risky behaviors can be viewed as an auto-responder or a default mode that results in negative health consequences. At the same time, the behaviors themselves tend to make the stress worse, further exacerbating the unhealthy behaviors and their consequences.
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Now let’s switch to choices.

If you desire better health and are resolved to achieve it, you have various choices in responding to stress. Instead of reaching for that cigarette you feel you need, you can take a walk, take some deep breaths, or take a bath to alleviate the stress. Instead of going for that extra piece of cake you are craving, you can choose to keep a healthy, fiber-rich energy bar handy to substitute for the more harmful alternative. Choices are always available.

If you reinforce new behaviors so they develop into new habits, you improve your wellness in a new direction and with rewarding results.

Not all triggers are easily identified.

To find an original trigger, sometimes you need to retrace the steps, recount the environment or emotions, in order to discover what established the trigger in the first place. Then break away from the old “auto-responder” behavior.

For example, returning to stress, ask yourself what triggers your stress? Maybe it is anger with a situation, frustration from a demanding boss, or anxiety over your finances. Finding that trigger(s) may take some clear-eyed digging! Honest, not selective.

And remember: triggers are unavoidable, but they weaken when you identify them and realize that your choices are within your control.

Finally, as a sum-up for TARCO

Take some time to reflect on your work and personal life, examine what triggers initiate your auto-responders, and ask what can you do differently. Choose new choices that are specific, realistic, and immediately actionable. By fortifying a healthy lifestyle to counter an unhealthy one, you are bound to receive beneficial outcomes for your precious health and quality of life.

Cheers for your effort and success!

 

Care about Childhood Cancers

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Think about Childhood CancerYour cute baby girl is your joy of life, yet she is suffering from leukemia. A neighbor’s little boy with a gorgeous smile just completed his cancer treatment. Sadly, many precious young lives have been taken away by childhood cancers…

If you’d like to learn ways to protect children from cancer, to help childhood cancer patients, and/or to improve the quality of life for pediatric cancer survivors, you came to the right place.

Let’s start with the challenges of childhood cancer patients and survivors.

Unique risk factors

Children are not “small adults”. In general, their care challenges are attributed to multiple factors, including their growth and development, psychological features, health condition, socioeconomic status, family and cultural dynamics, nurture at home and support outside of the home.

Childhood cancers are full of complexity and unknown. However, some known risk factors for childhood cancer have been established – mainly genetic and non-genetic ones.

Genetic or inherent risk factors include parental age, birth weight and congenital abnormalities. Some pediatric cancer incidences also vary by age, sex, and race or ethnicity.

Non-genetic factors are controllable and preventable, such as

  • High-dose radiation (The human fetus is very sensitive to radiation)
  • Prior chemotherapy
  • Exposure to environmental toxins or carcinogens, pesticides and air pollution
  • Exposure to infections – especially related to risk of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)
  • Pre- and perinatal lifestyle factors: parental diet, maternal smoking, alcohol or marijuana use, maternal medication, etc.

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Things we can help

Keeping these risk factors in mind, each of us can do our part at each stage of a child’s life. Here is a list of things:

  1. Take a good care during pre-conception and pregnancy period. Unhealthy diet, maternal tobacco or alcohol use, medications and radiation are among the casual link of environmental factors to childhood cancer risk. Particularly, maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with not only childhood cancer but also weight problems, other health and behavior issues. Avoid or minimize your exposure to second-hand and third-hand smoke too.
  2. Eliminate toxins and carcinogens from home and environment at large. Endless exposure to toxic chemicals through air, water, foods, and products results in a serious impact on public health. Then imagine the threat to pediatric cancer patients and survivors as well as all children, how harmful an early life exposure to toxic chemicals can affect their health decades later. It’s critical to underscore that only a small number of chemical exposures are known – leaving the unknowns are our exposure to many more chemicals in daily life and disease consequences. That’s why environmental protection is vitally important, and a green planet signifies healthful generations.
  3. Get genetic consultation if you question any genetic abnormality. Evaluate how parents’ occupational, environmental, medical or other exposures may contribute to a child’s cancer risk.
  4.  Prevent childhood obesity. This should start as early as possible. Maternal smoking during pregnancy has been linked to childhood obesity, and that may pose a risk to develop obesity in adult.
  5.  Monitor and control kids’ screen time. The radiation emitted from cell phone has been proposed as “a possible carcinogen for humans” by International Agency for Research on Cancer, though controversies still exist. Given the fact that it poses a cancer risk and cell phone exposure or use often begins from an earlier age, it’s wise to keep cell phone safety in mind.
  6.  Ensure overall health status, such as promoting healthy lifestyle, enough sleep and sun protection.
  7.  Foster individual hygiene and infection prevention.
  8.  Get vaccinated. Parents should encourage and educate their children/teens to have vaccinated against HPV and practice safe sex.
  9.  Team up care from society such as in the school setting and community setting. Family dynamic considerations, socioeconomic status or poverty, violence issues are various factors that contribute to pediatric health challenges.
  10.  Advocate healthcare models or payment changes to ease financial burdens of childhood cancer treatment, and to drive disease prevention.

Last but not the least, improve care and support for pediatric cancer patients and survivors, including all generations of these individuals (i.e. some of them are adults now). Consider what would their life after cancer look like – because of some painful and practical challenges they are facing in daily lives.

Let me elaborate a little more on this. Thanks to medical and technological breakthrough, 5-year survival rates for childhood cancer patients exceed 80%. However, the long-term effects of cancer and its treatment on the quality of life take a huge toll among these survivors.

Specifically, because their treatments take place when they are very young, especially during vulnerable periods of development, the complications from cancer treatment have significant, long-lasting health impacts on these children. The complications of cancer therapy range from impaired growth and development, neurocognitive and psychosocial deficits, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine organ dysfunctions, and gastrointestinal problems.

In addition, children who survive their initial cancers remain at risk for having a cancer recurrence or developing new cancers (secondary malignancies), yet a majority of cancer survivors do not receive risk-based care.

Summary 

Cancer impacts our children’s well-being and life. We all have the responsibility to take care of children, and to protect them from a variety of dangers, including interruptions during pregnancy, genetic anomalies, perinatal injuries, congenital defects, malnutrition, environmental hazards, infections, poverty, violence, and trauma. So, we can do a lot to help address their unique needs and find solutions when we open our hearts and minds.

Please share your thoughts and let us know how we can help pediatric cancer patients – via

Support@CancerPreventionDaily.com  OR http://www.cancerpreventiondaily.com/contact/

 

Image credit: https://www.pixelsquid.com; http://www.icpcn.org; CPD

 

Go Beyond Knowing Obesity Is Bad (Part 2)

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Warn-Danger Fats_FitWtCare & CPDWhat comes to your mind when you hear “Belly fat”?

Call it “Belly fat” as you like, but what I’m specifically talking about is visceral fat, the fat stored deeply inside your abdominal cavity and around your organs – unlike subcutaneous fat (under your skin) that’s visible and pinchable. (Image Credit: FitWeightCare)

Fat on Visceral Organs (i.e. intra-abdominal fat)

Everybody likely has visceral fat whether knowing it or not. but how much is too much?

Although visceral fat can only be measured by CT and MRI now, if you or your loved ones have an overhanging belly and large waist, that’s a warning sign of dangerous fat inside. That said, it doesn’t exclude relatively lean (with normal waistline) folks.

So, how dangerous is visceral fat exactly?

Visceral fat has deleterious effects on a variety of your organs and their functions. Clearly, it is attributed to increased inflammation by provoking inflammatory pathways and releasing pro-inflammatory chemicals. Also, extra visceral fat is strongly linked to insulin resistance and metabolic diseases, and to an elevated risk of death, even for people who have a normal body mass index (BMI).

Carrying around excess visceral fat increases a risk for a long list of chronic conditions or diseases including, but not limited to –

  • Coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke
  • Cancer
  • High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and high blood glucose
  • Obesity – making it hard to lose weight
  • Type 2 diabetes – due to insulin resistance
  • Dementia
  • Depression and mood problems
  • Sleep disorders (e.g. sleep apnea)
  • Endocrinal, sexual dysfunction
  • Arthritis

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Here, I want to lay emphasize on cancer, as cancer’s impact on public health is increasingly prevalent. Excess visceral fat is a risk factor for several cancers of the gastrointestinal system, particularly esophageal, stomach, small intestine, colorectal, pancreatic, liver and gallbladder cancers. This is because overloaded adiposity is associated with fat tissue-derived inflammation, alterations in insulin signaling and sexual hormones’ pathways, then turning normal cells into cancerous ones. Moreover, visceral obesity is greatly associated with breast cancer.

Fat’s Influence on Other Vital Organs (e.g. brain)

Just because visceral fat is wrapped around abdominal organs such as the pancreas, liver and kidneys, it doesn’t mean that its damaging effects are local. For instance, liver fat may have a direct association with brain aging or shrinking. What’s more, greater visceral fat is correlated with a smaller total brain volume, which has been linked to neurodegenerative processes, and used as one of predictors for dementia.   

Excessive visceral fat results from a combination of hormonal, dietary, lifestyle (i.e. sedentary), and genetic factors. Now you can see how any big belly and large waistline are unhealthy.

Obesity and Aging   

As we get older, we store more visceral fat, because changes in body composition occur and co-morbidities accumulate. However, hopefully by now, you’ve come to the realization – simply accepting a growing midsection as an unavoidable product of aging may ignore or tone down your health risks.

On issues of aging and obesity, it’s inevitable not to touch on the gut microbiome, the microbial communities inhabiting the human body and containing a diverse array of microbes (in trillions).

The gut microbiota has emerged as a crucial regulator between how our food interacts with our body. They modulate how we balance levels of blood sugar and how we store fat, as well as how we respond to hormones. They play a key role in obesity.

As we age, altered gut microbiota in their composition and metabolites (called Dysbiosis) occurs. Science reveals that our gut microbiota undergoes the most prominent changes during infancy and old age, and profoundly, our immune health is also in its weakest and most unstable state during these two critical stages of life, indicating that the gut microbiota and immune function develop hand-in-hand with age.

Sure enough, with aging, levels of inflammatory mediators in the blood rise, and hence age-associated inflammation becomes a strong risk factor for morbidity and mortality in elders. It turns out that the gut microbiota may act as invisible yet important players in chronic inflammation.

Aging-associated dysbiosis can promote intestinal barrier’s broken-down, systemic inflammation and immune dysfunction, which all contribute to the pathogenesis and progression of various diseases commonly seen in old people such as obesity-related disorders, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Age-related changes in the gut microbiota have also been associated with various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders due to disturbed gut-brain communication.

Clearly, the gut microbiota can have a potent impact on human health and diseases.  But to date, there is no knowledge on “Which” gut microbe is doing “What”, “Why” and “How”. Without doubt, we can anticipate to learn more soon as a remarkable pace of scientific research is going on.

The Key Point Is –

If fats deposit where they should not be or more than they should be, then that will change a physiological condition to a pathological one through the effects of inflammatory chemicals. Excess body fat is like an inflammation-pumping machine.

For this reason, any extra fat – from both body and diet – any big belly or larger waistline poses a hidden risk. With obesity, people carry not only fat or weight but pain and health consequences.

Obesity is serious, regardless of the debate whether obesity is a disease or a condition. Obesity is just as significant as high blood pressure and high cholesterol – while none of them are actual diseases (but symptoms), all need to be medically treated lest they lead to termed “diseases”.

Indeed, causes of obesity are multifactorial and complex. However, for some, obesity is caused by genetic factor(s) and could be a life-long condition, which needs to be medically treated and individually managed. 

Doses of Wisdom for Prevention

Obesity, in most cases, is a modifiable and preventable. Lifestyle, diet and physical activity are key factors to prevent, ease or slow down obesity even with aging.

So, please don’t see obesity as a death sentence, because it’s not.

Nutritional and physical approaches, that are within your control, can prevent dangerous fat buildup, and thus lower a risk for obesity as well as chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Furthermore, getting a good night sleep and reducing stress are also beneficial for a healthy weight, because the stress cortisol can increase the amount of visceral fat your body stores.

Ultimately, consider to recruit your hidden microbial players, keeping them in harmony and happy, which could help your weight control. 

Bonus: Valuable Principle on Diet

An optimal diet to manage obesity should be individual-focused and ensure a long-term maintenance of weight loss, along with the diet that’s safe, efficient, nutritionally adequate, culturally acceptable and economically affordable.

Critically important and specifically effective are diet plans including low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-calorie but high-protein, high-fiber diet, and Mediterranean diet. Without fail, go for fiber-rich foods (e.g. fruits, vegetables and whole grains), because they are essential to boost growth and activity of beneficial gut microbiota.

Remember low-sugar diet too, as research findings indicate that a high-sugar diet increases visceral fat in humans and animals.

References (including Pt. 1 & Pt. 2) Click here

Image Credit: by FitWeightCare, CPD

 

Go Beyond Knowing Obesity Is Bad (Part 1)

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Stop Obesity by CPD_2018As you no doubt know, obesity is a condition of abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health. The condition results from genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors. Virtually everybody knows that obesity is bad for you; but in this post, I want to elaborate further. In particular, I’m going to emphasize FAT, the adipose tissue in our bodies.

Adipose tissue is not only an inert fat-storage tissue, but an active endocrine organ, being accountable for synthesizing and secreting several hormones and inflammatory substances – from angiotensin, leptin, TNF-alpha and IL-6 to adiponectin, just to name a few.

Let’s take one of them, angiotensin, as an example to explain the link between obesity and hypertension.

Fat tissue has a local renin-angiotensin system (RAS), which is well-known as an important regulator of blood pressure and a determinant of cardiovascular homeostasis. One of the components is angiotensin II (Ang II) generated from angiotensinogen (AGT). Ang II causes vasoconstriction, reducing the lumen of blood vessels, leading to elevated blood pressure.

Yiannikouris et al’s study (2012) provided compelling evidence that fat-derived AGT contributes to circulating AGT levels and blood pressure regulation.

Under normal condition, while most AGT in the blood comes from the liver, AGT produced by fat cells contributes significantly (~26%) to the circulating pool of AGT. Noticeably, in obese state, fat mass increases fat-derived AGT, which may become a major source of circulating AGT, leading to stimulated RAS, increased Ang II and elevated blood pressure. So, you can see how obesity is linked to hypertension through fat-derived AGT.

Now, what needs to be addressed is how fat mass is expanded. Well, increased caloric intake, a sedentary lifestyle, and/or various endocrine disorders can all promote the development of fat mass, leading to an increase in AGT gene expression and a high level of circulating AGT in obesity. Furthermore, with an increase in fat tissue and circulating AGT, increased Ang II initiates fat cell growth and thus enlarges fat mass. On the whole, RAS activation results in not only hypertension but also weight gain.

Next, let’s look at how the presence of fat on various tissues and organs impacts your health.

Fat on/around Blood Vessels

Under physiological condition, vascular endothelial cells, the inner lining of blood vessels, synthesize and release endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) and/or other relaxing factors that induce endothelium-dependent vasodilation, increase blood flow, and play a critical role in the regulating blood pressure. We now know that functional changes in endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells contribute to the initiation and progression of cardiovascular diseases like atherosclerosis.

There is also fat tissue that structurally and functionally surrounds blood vessels.
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How could fat be involved in pathological changes?

Fat tissue around blood vessels can produce inflammation-promoting chemicals, subsequently promoting vascular diseases. Under conditions of hypercholesterolemia, high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS, i.e. free radicals) can rapidly destroy NO and impair endothelium-dependent vasodilation; the abnormality is evident in various disorders such as diabetes, coronary artery disease and hypertension.

After feeding mice with a high-fat diet for 2 weeks, researchers found a reduction in anti-inflammatory factors and an increase in pro-inflammatory chemicals in fat tissue around blood vessels (i.e. perivascular fat), but not fat surrounding abdominal organs (i.e. visceral fat) and under the skin (i.e. subcutaneous fat) in these animals. Consistent with functional studies, these data suggest that pro-inflammatory factors derived from perivascular fat play a key role in the development of vascular dysfunction, and vascular dysfunction is likely an early sign of cardiovascular diseases.

High fat mass can also raise your LDL (i.e. bad cholesterol) and blood pressure, and cause insulin resistance – a risk for type-2 diabetes. My research has demonstrated that bad cholesterol (especially its oxidized form) can cause endothelial dysfunction and reduced blood flow in small brain arteries. Other researchers have also found that fat diet, together with overexpression of oxidized LDL’s receptor, can cause vascular dysfunction in small mesenteric arteries.

It is worth mentioning that obesity reduces adiponectin, a substance that is secreted from fat tissue and protects blood vessels against endothelial dysfunction. Clinical data show that lower levels of blood adiponectin are correlated to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.

How about fat inside blood vessels?

You have probably heard about the “plaque”, a combination of cholesterol, fat, calcium and other substances. In atherosclerosis, plaque builds up inside your arteries, grows larger due to chronic inflammation, and can eventually rupture. When this takes place, blood clots clog up the lumen of arteries, blocking blood flow and depriving oxygen supply. Consequently, heart attack and stroke may occur, depending on a clot’s location in the coronary or brain arteries.

Overall, as fat expansion outside and inside blood vessels, increased oxidative stress and chronic inflammation promote cardiovascular aging and diseases.

Please stay tuned to learn hidden fat on intra-abdominal and vital organs (Part 2).

References (including Pt. 1 & Pt. 2) Click here  

Image by CPD

Why It Is Dangerous to Ignore Infections

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Pathogens_comboWith the arrival of warmer weather and summer, people get active, and so do lots of bacteria and pathogens. This is important to remember whenever you are on vacation or just enjoying the outdoors. And it is why I want to emphasize the danger of infections and the value of prevention.

Infections are everywhere and occur in many types, including flu, food poisoning, tick-borne Lyme disease, and any form of -itis (e.g., meningitis and hepatitis). The consequences of infections vary too, from a temporary harmful or sick condition to long-term diseases and disorders.

Evidence is mounting that infectious agents (e.g., bacteria and viruses) can lead to cancer. Here I’d like to highlight the role of infection in cancer and, to some extent, in chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Role of bacteria in cancer

There is a significant association between bacterial infection and cancer. For example, the following bacteria are responsible for an increased risk of certain cancers:

-          Helicobacter pylori is linked to stomach cancer

-          Chlamydia pneumonia, to lung cancer

-          Chlamydia infection, to ovarian cancer and cervical cancer

-          Neisseria Gonorrhoeae, to bladder, ovarian, and prostate cancer

Notably, some bacteria strains—specifically, Bacteroides fragilis and Escherichia coli—are involved in developing colon cancer, especially the hereditary type. This is because the two strains can bypass the gut barrier, which acts as an intestinal guardian, and reach the epithelial cells (cells that line the insides of organs, including the gastrointestinal tract), turning these cells cancerous.

Role of viruses in cancer

A growing body of knowledge indicates that viruses can cause cancer. Here are some well-documented examples:

-          Hepatitis B virus, can lead to liver cancer

-          Hepatitis C virus, to liver cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma

-          Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), to anal and cervical cancer, Kaposi sarcoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma

-          Human papillomavirus (HPV), to cancers of mouth, pharynx, anus, cervix, vulva, vagina, ovary, and penis, as well as lung cancer.

-          Human herpes virus type 8 (Kaposi sarcoma herpes virus), to Kaposi sarcoma

-          Epstein bar virus (EBV; Herpesviridae family), to lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, gastric cancer, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Cancers occur when the genetic material (DNA) within the cells develops mutations that lead to uncontrolled cell growth. The mutations may result from damage in DNA structure or errors in DNA replication. However, viruses can insert themselves into the cell’s DNA, causing the same mutation and consequence.

An estimated 12 to 20% of human cancers are caused by viruses. Because there is no vaccine available for some viruses, prevention is critical to protect you from cancer risks.

Role of pathogens in Alzheimer’s disease

It is intriguing that increased bacterial populations and different proportions of specific bacteria are found in Alzheimer’s, compared with healthy brains. These findings suggest that bacterial infection and neuro-inflammation in the brain may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

Lyme disease is caused by a bacterial infection and is a tick-borne disease. Ticks infected by spirochetes bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi) transmit Lyme disease through a bite on hosts such as humans, deer, mice, and pets.
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Interestingly, spirochetes bacteria that are linked to Alzheimer’s disease are the same type that causes Lyme disease. Coincidental or not, both diseases display brain inflammation and memory loss.

Although two hallmarks, amyloid b plaques and neurofibrillary tangles with protein tau, are considered the major contributors to Alzheimer’s disease, the Amyloid b-Tau-Inflammation pathway might provide a closer fitting to pathogenesis of this neurodegenerative disease.

Role of Inflammation

Inflammation is a reaction to bacterial or viral infection. However, when chronic immune-stimulated inflammation persists, it becomes a toxic driver of chronic illnesses, causing cells in vital organs to dysfunction or degenerate.

Again, infection may be gone, but the inflammation may remain.

Consider that H. pylori—a bacteria causing gastritis, gastric ulcer, and cancer—infects the gastric ecosystem in 50% of all humans. Once H. pylori settles in the gastric environment, it stays for the lifetime of a host.

Another example: An association between the spirochetes bacteria (carried by ticks to cause Lyme disease) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma has been observed, though the findings are inconsistent. However, the point is – as seen in Lyme disease, chronic inflammatory response plays a part of cancer cell signaling in lymphoma.

Collectively, it’s evident that a variety of infectious agents are linked to numerous chronic diseases. Infection and subsequent chronic inflammation can increase the risk of cancer. Therefore, it is crucial to eliminate the cause of infection when it arises by getting timely treatment. The best measure you can take before infection occurs is to prevent infection in the first place.

Finally, some main preventive strategies and tips

1.      Be hygiene-conscious. Wash your hands—a very important health practice. Sounds simple, right? However, not everybody does it. Let me elaborate a bit more, because good hand-washing is very effective for blocking a contact-oral or fecal-oral route of infection.

First, wash frequently, especially after the bathroom, handling trash, or touching any dirty surfaces, and before eating food. Wash thoroughly, with soap over the entirety of the hands, not just a quick rinse of the palms.

I always recommend to wash hands after touching cash. The concern with cash is not how many people have touched it, but who, i.e. whether pathogen carriers have handled it—a huge unknown that makes cash potentially contagious.

Equally important is to teach kids to do so; it takes time to develop habits. Cultivating this heathy habit provides them considerable lifelong protection.

2.      Maintain food hygiene. One way germs enter a human body is by mouth. So carefully watch what you eat and drink. For example, wash fruits and vegetables before eating, and cook meats, fish, and seafood fully. It’s also better not to share utensils.

Intake of contaminated food or water can result in salmonella infection or becoming infected with other pathogens such as hepatitis virus (HAV). And it takes at least boiling, i.e. 100oC (212oF) to kill the hepatitis virus. That’s why chewing ice cubes is not always “cool” unless you know the exact water source that made the ice.

3.      Become vigilant on the hygiene of your surrounding area. This includes from keeping clean the kitchen area where foods are prepared, to preventing hospital-associated infections, etc. When traveling, be aware of germy surfaces such as door handles and keypads used for many cashless tasks or transactions.

4.      Practice sex hygiene. Sexually transmitted infections can lead to cancer and death, and not all of them can be cured. Get immunized, get to know your partner, and apply safe measures to reduce the risk of infections.

5.      Get vaccinated. Vaccination is important because it helps protect not only you, but also the people around you and communities.

6.      Support your immune function and minimize inflammation. Your immune system is the front line of your body’s defense against toxins and diseases, including cancer. See previously covered solutions and tips for effective immune-boosting at CancerPreventionDaily.

In brief, practicing good hygiene and developing habits that foster strong immunity are beneficial for your long-term health.

 

Image credit: mstechkmedlin.weebly.com; PetMD

 

Our Well-being and Earth Health –– Environmental linking from cancer to lung and autoimmune diseases

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Green Earth_1144864_Ten_aEarth day (April 22) is celebrated once a year around the world for raising awareness to appreciate our planet and protect the natural environment.

Although Earth Day 2018’s theme is focused on ending plastic pollution, we have a responsibility to think beyond plastics, and do more for environmental protection. Here is one of the reasons:

Pollution from macro- and micro-environment is tightly and significantly connected to public health. Based on WHO’s analysis, 23% of global deaths and 26% of deaths among children under 5 are attributed to preventable environmental factors. 

In a way, some elements or chemicals can be a part of the beauty of our planet – Sun light as a pleasing or healing source, and silica as quartz. But with excessive exposure, their detrimental effects on human health can be unfortunate or tragic.

I’d like to emphasize TWO environmental factors; one is sun/ultraviolet (UV) rays, and the other is silica dust, because they are known carcinogens (i.e. cancer-causing agents), classified by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Also, they have broader and more harmful effects on your body.

Take UV Radiation as an example first.

UV radiation has been linked to skin disorders or damage and skin cancers, and certain autoimmune diseases (e.g. systemic lupus erythematosus, myositis). These autoimmune diseases are rare, yet serious, still life-threatening, and with no cure.

Let me make it very clear here. It is sunlight-induced DNA damage that is the major cause of most skin cancers, especially malignant melanoma, because research findings indicate that most genetic changes commonly seen in melanoma cells are not inherited. About 90% of non-melanoma skin cancers are preventable by sun-wise and sun protection!

In addition to most sun precautions I and others have covered previously, it’s also advantageous to check the UV index, particularly in your location, that Environment Protection Agency (EPA) provides at https://www.epa.gov/sunsafety/uv-index-1 for your sun safety.

Then let’s look at Silica / Silica Dust. (Only a brief outline, as it’s not the focus of this post)

Silica is naturally distributed in almost all rocks, sand, soil, and bricks or concrete products. Exposure to inhalable silica dust can occur from both occupational (e.g. construction, drilling, grinding, etc.) and non-occupational sources, i.e., workplace, communities, and your home.

Diseases from this outdoor and indoor air pollutant (or contaminant) include:

  • Silicosis, asthma, and Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • Cancers of lung and esophagus
  • Autoimmune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis, myositis, vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis)
  • Kidney diseases

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Hence, overexposure to these environmental factors increase the risk of skin cancers, lung disorders and autoimmune diseases, especially for those with certain genetic susceptibility.

Finally, the key take-home message:

Remember – Photoprotection and Pollution-protection

Furthermore, I’m encouraging you to explore the ways we can protect people and the environment around us in day-to-day life. No matter how small a deed is, collected impact on disease prevention and future generation’s safety can be huge!

Should we live everyday as Earth Day throughout the year? Yes! Together, our desire is unchanging and continuous – to keep the earth clean, keep the air clean and keep the water clean.

 

Image credit: by Ten_a

Color-Coded Foods Guide Your Immune System and Vitality

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Rainbow Color Foods_pixabay.comDoes the food color panel tell something about your diet and your body?

Are you fully aware how your daily diet contributes to chronic inflammation? — which has been proven to be a link to countless chronic diseases, especially heart disease and cancer.

Plant-based, colorful foods, i.e., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple vegetables and fruits, are filled with nutrients. The “food rainbow” contains not only vitamins and minerals, but most importantly, phytonutrients and antioxidants. Accumulated scientific evidence has shown their anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, anti-pollutant, and anti-cancer properties.
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Therefore, rethink your diet, think about colors and rainbow, and eat a plenty of them for your physical and psychological benefits.

 

Image credit: Pixabay

What Cancer Reminds Us of Today

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

The-Topic-of-Cancer_re-CPDCancer, the word and the disease, has no voice but says much. It has destroyed past lives and gravely impacted the lives of those living. It brings tons of emotions—sadness, fear, anxiety, anger, and stress. We all know this about cancer and many have experienced it. It is the story of the painful suffering cancer survivors go through.

But beyond distressing emotions, cancer also reminds us of several other things:

Reality

Cancer reminds us of a troubling reality that is partly captured by a snapshot of sober statistics. Despite cutting-edge cancer therapies and declining cancer mortality, an estimated 1,735,350 new cancer cases will be diagnosed and 609,640 cancer deaths will occur in the U.S. in 2018, based on an American Cancer Society report. It can hit anybody regardless of age, gender or genetic makeup.

Hope

The good news is that cancer is no longer a “death sentence,” because we see new promise and hope in the fight against this terrible disease. Cancer genomic profiling and precision medicine have made remarkable progress on on cancer risk stratification and targeted cancer treatments. There are also other breakthroughs in the field of immune-oncology. For example, CAR-T therapy can improve certain leukemia and lymphoma (such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia), with a survival rate of 80% or higher, by reengineering patients’ immune cells (T cells) in vitro to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and empower immune responses so that, when infused into the body, they effectively fight against cancer cells.

Challenges

We also should be reminded of remaining challenges: there are still severe side effects from promising therapies and drugs, effective early screening tests remain underdeveloped, and more research and clinical trials needed.

Financial Strain

Cancer reminds us of the financial strains it often causes. We all know that cancer treatments are costly. How to pay for treatment, especially for those without health insurance, is a big issue. CAR-T therapy mentioned above was acknowledged as a “miracle cure,” but the whole package (infusion, diagnosis, hospitalization, etc.) costs reportedly more than $500,000. Imagine how much this burden adds to a person and family already dealing with overwhelming stress and illness at hand.

Risks & Concerns

Cancer reminds us of other health concerns. Thirteen million people live with cancer. There are health problems and comorbidities that come with or after cancer treatments. Of significance are cardiovascular conditions, heart attack, and stroke. Proposed explanations for these adverse effects include side effects from anti-cancer drugs or therapies, a by-product of cancer itself, or other as-yet unclear causes. So, it is important to consider the overall health and quality of life of those living with cancer and find ways to make them better.

Action & Prevention

Finally, cancer reminds us of positive critical actions that each individual can take to guard against this terrible disease.

  • Early detection is one action that is a key to successful treatment and saving lives.
  • Getting vaccinated is an action, because available immunizations offer protection from certain viral-infection-caused cancers.
  • Prevention is an action, because about 50% of cancers can be prevented by living a healthy, active lifestyle, quitting tobacco, limiting alcohol, and avoiding exposure to cancer-causing agents or toxins.

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These are actions that can be taken now and can make a real difference.

 

Image credit: https://pixabay.com – the-topic-of-cancer

Precision Medicine: From Buzzword to Promise or Reality (Part II)

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Target_Precision Prevention_CPDHappy New Year to All! This article is the continuation (Part Two) of Precision Medicine mini-series, with a focus on Precision Prevention intended to help foster and improve your health in the new year.

So, let’s dive right in.

From Precision Medicine to Precision Prevention

Prevention and medicine work side-by-side, as ancient wisdom signifies “Prevention is better than cure.”

Similarly, precision medicine and precision prevention play a joint role in cancer outcome. While precision medicine is targeting the genetic characteristics and genetic changes of each patient’s cancer, precision prevention is aimed at changing an individual’s behavior.

Precision prevention requires a better understanding of the molecular pathways of a particular disease at a level of each individual, which involves mapping out genomic profile, identifying individual’s risk, behavioral, social and environmental interactions. Then tailored interventions can be strategized to modify individual’s physical and biological characteristics.

Impact on Cancer Prevention

Precision medicine, together with precision prevention, has certainly facilitated/improved cancer prevention whether you realize it or not, particularly in early detection.

Colonoscopy screening is a good example. Let me highlight the steps:

First, there is a guideline to identify people at a risk for colon cancer and/or who need to be screened – e.g. starting 40 years old if having a family history, or 50 years old without a family history.

Second, this test can detect a growth in the entire colon through imaging.

Finally, doctors can implement treatments immediately to prevent or slow down cancer progression, e.g. to surgically remove a benign growth (polyp) or premalignant lesion during the screening, or to start an aggressive therapy for a cancerous tumor.

As a result of such a cancer prevention strategy, colon cancer is highly preventable if caught in a precancerous stage.

Meanwhile, additional findings should be taken into consideration. Recent clinical studies found that 80% of people with colorectal cancer have no known family history of this disease, which suggests that other risk factors (environmental, diet or lifestyle) play a role in colon cancer development, and that current colon cancer screening recommendation (mainly based on age and family history) could miss many individuals at risk.
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So, next prospective is how to improve precision prevention. Advances in precision risk stratification has done so. To identify who may benefit from preventive measures or early aggressive treatment or alternative therapies, precision risk stratification can separate individuals at a high risk from those at a low risk through innovative technologies, genetic profiling and multiple risk factors reporting. In colon cancer prevention, while those at higher risk benefit from colonoscopy, people at a lower risk can get screened through sigmoidoscopy, a non-colonoscopy screening with clinical value in detecting advanced growth. Subsequently, precision risk stratification-based screening for colorectal cancer will also reduce healthcare cost stemming from unnecessary colonoscopy screening.

Immunoprevention presents other successful examples. It can be demonstrated by hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination and human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination in preventing related cancers. Immunoprevention can also draw in patients carrying cancer predisposition genes.

In addition, precision prevention may imply identifying novel genomic biomarkers for cancer detection and prevention, applying predictive biomarkers, and analyzing gene-environmental interactions especially associated with modifiable risk factors to develop target preventive strategies.

Precision Prevention beyond Cancer 

Undoubtedly, precision medicine, along with precision prevention, is transforming cancer diagnostics and treatment to reduce cancer incidence, morbidity and mortality in the near future. And one day, the promise of precision prevention for Alzheimer’s disease, metabolic syndromes, or other chronic illnesses can lead us to a remarkable horizon.

Imagine – the beauty alongside benefit of precision nutrition blossoms in your plate of food. As the prevalence of obesity, prediabetes and diabetes increases, tailored nutritional approaches are needed to manage and prevent these conditions. Precision nutritional interventions can be achieved via analyzing and monitoring your dietary habits, food eating behaviors, physical activity, microbiota profile, along with deep phenotyping (i.e. precise and comprehensive analysis of abnormalities in physical and biochemical characteristics).

End Note with Key Numbers

Lifestyle factors (smoking, diet, sedentary, etc.) contribute to over 40% of cancers, and infections, to about 18% of cancers. Thus, many cancers are preventable by lifestyle modification, preventing infections, having balanced diet and regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight.

Remember: Prevention is not a sprint, nor a marathon; is a sustained life-long journey. Prevention is not done through virtual world, but achieved in a real world and requires actions. If precision prevention is aimed at changing individual behaviors, the power of control is within each of us.

Going into 2018, imagine a year with your best well-being!

 

Image credit: CanStockPhoto & CPD