Aspirin beneficial to help prevent Heart Disease, Asthma, Parkinson's and now: Cancer?

According to studies published in March of 2012 in The Lancet, taking a daily dose of aspirin can reduce the risk of cancer.

The new studies, led by Peter Rothwell of Britain's Oxford University, found that low-dose aspirin has a short-term benefit in preventing cancer and can reduce the risk of some cancers by as much as 50 percent.

 Dr. Howard Kaufman, director of the Rush University Cancer Center at Rush University Medical Center was recently interviewed by the Chicago Tribune for clarafication on how this is possible. His primary research interest is melanoma and tumor immunotherapy, and he has more than 120 articles and other publications to his credit. Here's what he had to say about this cheap, over-the-counter pill that's in nearly everyone's medicine chest:

Q. What have we learned from these findings?

A. I think we've suspected aspirin had a beneficial role to play in preventing cancer, and these two long-term studies go a long way in supporting that notion. Some studies in the United States haven't found this, but these recent studies are very well-designed and very compelling. A lot of us in the field are excited about the findings.

Q. How will this change things?

A. The good news: We have something that could help prevent cancer. But like all medications, there are side effects, such as stomach bleeding, peptic ulcers and hemorrhagic stroke in the brain. So, we're not quite ready to prescribe this for everyone. We have to consider the cancer risk vs. the risk of stroke or a bleeding disorder.

Q. Did the studies find that an aspirin works on particular cancers?

A. The greatest effect was seen in colorectal cancer but some effect was seen in many other types of cancer. This included some of the most common and serious cancers, such as lung, breast and prostate cancers.

Q. So who should take aspirin?

A. I think we can consider individuals with a high risk for or strong family history of colon cancer, would be a good candidate. ... However, if a patient has a peptic ulcer or known bleeding problems then the risks aren't worth the potential benefits.

Q. Can you explain how aspirin works in preventing cancer?

A. Although we do not fully understand the mechanism yet, there's been interesting research suggesting that aspirin may help prevent cancer by blocking chronic inflammation. When you cut yourself, your body uses a process called acute inflammation to heal and repair itself. But with cancer, the type of inflammation is not completely "normal." We refer to this as chronic inflammation that continues without stopping. Aspirin may lower the rate of this chronic inflammation, and this may prevent the cancers from growing.

Q. In recent years aspirin has been credited with reducing heart disease, asthma and Parkinson's disease. How come people don't consider this a wonder drug?

A. It is remarkable. It has been difficult to fund research in cancer prevention -- and particularly with aspirin -- because prevention studies take a long time to complete, cost a lot of money to perform and aspirin is a relatively inexpensive and widely available drug. Thus, there's not a lot of financial incentive to pursue this line of research.

Q. I know what to do to cut my chances of having a cardiac episode -- keep weight, blood pressure and cholesterol under control, don't smoke, and exercise. What can we do to reduce the odds of a biopsy coming back positive?

A. First, you have to assess the risk, such as personal medical history, use of tobacco and alcohol and the presence of cancer in first-degree relatives. ... Then, a screening plan can be organized for an individual patient based on their risk. ... You should be having a conversation with your doctor, based on your health and family history.

http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=12609&Section=Disease

Real-life study: Classical Homeopathy successfully treats allergies with no side effects.

Gründling C, Schimetta W, Frass M., Vienna Weekly Clinical Newsletter, Dec 8, 2011

"The prevalence of allergic disorders in western industrialized countries has steadily increased during the last three decades. Public acceptance of complementary treatment methods is high. The aim of this study was to assess the real-life efficacy of classical homeopathic treatment and the potential to reduce conventional medication dosage."

An observational study was conducted by general practitioners specializing in homeopathy in nine Austrian test centers. Personal data and symptoms of allergic patients diagnosed with allergic conjunctivitis, allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma and neurodermatitis before and after homeopathic treatment were assessed by means of questionnaires. 

In the results 40 out of 44 patients originally recruited for the trial were found to meet the eligibility criteria. All clinical symptoms were shown to improve substantially, in most cases quite markedly (p < 0.001). 21 patients undergoing conventional medication therapy at baseline (62%) were able to discontinue at least one medication, while the remaining patients (38%) reported a dose reduction in at least one medication. No side effects were reported during treatment.

Research conclusion: The symptoms of patients undergoing homeopathic treatment were shown to improve substantially and conventional medication dosage could be substantially reduced. 

For original study results, link below to: 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22138796

Mom’s Yogurt Puts Baby at Risk for Asthma

New study links expectant mothers eating yogurt with Asthma in children. Mom’s Yogurt Puts Baby at Risk for Asthma
Pregnant women who eat yogurt may put their future children at risk for developing asthma, according to new research in Denmark. Consuming low-fat yogurt while pregnant is directly linked to the development of childhood asthma and hay fever, and full-fat yogurt is associated with adolescent hay fever. Consuming low-fat yogurt was associated with a 60 percent increase in asthma and an 80 percent increase in hay fever, compared with zero consumption of low-fat yogurt. The 61,912 women who completed the food questionnaire were part of the Danish National Birth Cohort.

Low-fat yogurt intake in pregnancy associated with increased child asthma and allergic rhinitis risk: a prospective cohort study. Poster presented as part of the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 25 September 2011.
For information about nutrition and health, please visit www.pcrm.org/.
Breaking Medical News is a service of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 5100 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Suite 400, Washington, DC 20016.

Could Microwave Ovens Be Linked to Miscarriage and Children's Asthma?

With recent concerns being brought up on high wave electromagnetic fields cell phones and wireless routers' effects on children's health and development, scientists are still coming to terms with the exact extent that low wave EMF has on the unborn child. Surprisingly, the expectant mothers that had their unborn children near EMF the most had a threefold likelyhood of the child being born with complications such as asthma.  

TIME MAGAZINE 

Exposure to electromagnetic fields has been linked to a number of health problems, including cancer and immune system and reproductive abnormalities, and now the latest research adds another concern to the list: childhood asthma. 

In the first study of its kind, scientists strapped magnetic field monitors on pregnant women to determine their level of exposure, and studied whether it was associated with the risk of asthma in their children. They found that children born to women with the highest levels of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) — including from microwaves, hair dryers and power lines — had a more than three-fold higher rate of asthma compared to those whose moms had the lowest exposure.

The monitors specifically measured low-frequency magnetic fields, which often co-exist with electromagnetic energy, says lead author Dr. De-Kun Li, a reproductive and prenatal epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

They study builds on previous work Li and his group have done looking at the effect of EMF exposure on miscarriage. In that investigation, Li found that women with high levels of exposure had double the risk of miscarrying than women with lower levels of EMF exposure.

Li's team then followed-up with the women who delivered and recorded the number of cases of asthma among their children 13 years later. The researchers focused on asthma because the recent, rapid increase in cases of the disorder suggests that an environmental trigger may be at play; there are genetic components to the immune system disorder as well, but genes simply don't change that fast in populations.

Li's team looked at the link between asthma and EMF levels because people are much more likely to be exposed to these fields now than ever before. “EMF is really increasing partially because electricity use is increasing, through electronic devices and wireless networks,” he says.

Li asked the women wearing the monitors to record where they spent their days. Their time could be divided into one of five place categories: home but not in bed, home and in bed, at work, traveling, or everywhere else. The women were not able to see their level of magnetic field exposure, so as not to bias their behavior.

Li found that exposure levels were about the same in all locations, but he attributes the most exposure to EMF to the use of common household appliances such as the microwave oven, vacuum cleaner and hair dryer. Pretty much anything that uses electricity, he says, including refrigerators, stoves, automobiles and power lines, generates low-frequency EMF.

What the devices were not designed to measure, however, was exposure to higher-frequency magnetic fields such as those emitted by cell phones and wireless networks, which are ubiquitous in homes and offices. These may be nearly impossible to avoid, but Li suggests that pregnant women can at least reduce some of their exposure to the low-frequency fields. Don't stand in front of the microwave when it's heating food, for example, and hold the hair dryer as far away from your belly as possible, or switch to a dryer that's battery operated.

“Pregnancy is the most sensitive time for the fetus,” Li says. “Animal studies show that EMF can impact the immune system, and the latest research suggests that cells use magnetic fields to communicate with each other. If an external EMF comes into interfere with that, cell communication needed for normal development can be disrupted.”

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/02/microwaves-and-asthma-exposure-to-magnetic-fields-during-pregnancy-ups-asthma-risk-among-newborns/print/#ixzz1V7IZpXn8

Risks: A Warning on Asthma and Acetaminophen

Young teenagers who use acetaminophen even once a month develop asthma symptoms more than twice as often as those who never take it, a large international study has found. And frequent users also had more eczema and eye and sinus irritation....

Other studies have linked acetaminophen (often sold as Tylenol and in other over-the-counter remedies for pain, colds, fever and allergies) with an increased risk of

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