Britain’s third biggest cancer – New genetic link

Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK with 36,500 people being diagnosed each year. It is also the second greatest cause of cancer death, currently around 100 people each day.

Anything that can help identify and treat a disease which kills over 15,000 people a year is very welcome and now a joint study funded by Cancer Research UK has found a genetic variant which they believe can promote the development of bowel cancer.

The study involved scientists in the UK, Spain and The Netherlands and sheds new light on how this disease develops and could lead to new treatments being designed. Common genetic variants that give people a higher risk of bowel cancer have already been identified, but scientists didn’t know how they might be driving cancer development. This new study goes one step further by showing how a precise DNA sequence could cause the biological changes that ultimately lead to cancer.

They identified 10 different genetic variants that increasedbowel cancer risk, concluding that people who had all the variants were at six times higher risk of developing it. They honed in on the genetic variant that conferred the strongest risk of bowel cancer, hypothesising that it was therefore key to driving cancer development. Laboratory experiments supported the scientists’ theory, showing the key genetic variant stopped the nearby SMAD7 gene turning on properly, and that disrupting this gene promoted cancer development. The SMAD7 gene is normally involved in cell growth and death so, by reducing the gene’s effect, the variant allows cancerous cells to grow.

Although the extra risk from having this DNA is modest, it is still highly significant because a large proportion of the population have the variant as part of their genetic makeup. Understanding cancer development in such detail will help in the search for new drugs, as any steps identified in the cancer process are potential places to intervene with treatments and research is now reaching a point where cancer drugs will be able to be targeted at the individual’s own genes for maximum effectiveness.

More proof that attitude is all you need for healthy ageing

Those who have heard me speak about healthy living know I often quote the statistic that optimists live on average 7.5 years longer than pessimists – so it pays to be cheerful. Now some new research has shown that the children of parents who live to be 100 are on average more outgoing, agreeable, and less neurotic. As children usually inherit both longevity and personality traits from their parents it seems your attitude not only increase your own lifespan, but those of your offspring as well.

The research was done at New England Centenarian Study at Boston University Medical Center and their chief finding was that long life was linked to being more outgoing, sociable and friendly. With those attitudes people are able to manage stress better, and your ability to successfully do that definitely improves your health and your longevity. Less outgoing and more neurotic or nervous people in the study were found to be less able to handle stress than the more cheerful subjects. This unique study is the first to study the children of centenarians and from a questionnaire they measured qualities such as neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

Children is not quite accurate as the average age of the participants was 75, not unusual in parents around 100 years old. The women participants rated higher on the agreeableness scale, but on all other factors men and women scored equally. It has been observed in previous research that centenarians tend to have sunny dispositions, which is just as well as who wants to be miserable for 100 years?

In Okinawa, it is known that these particular Japanese people live longer than their countrymen and Nobuyoshi Hirose, an expert on ageing, put it down to the fact that they are all likeable, sociable people. Plus we know that eating less meat and having a strong sense of purpose in your life also increases your life expectancy – and the quality of it

Short of emigrating, just do what you can to keep cheerful and be as sociable as you can – and never mind if your children think it’s undignified!

Hypertension and kidney disease beaten by a pea?

If you have high blood pressure there are several ways to reduce it naturally through exercise and diet. Now it seems you can also help by adding garden peas to the menu as recently reported by the American Chemical Society.

Researchers in Canada found that proteins found in yellow garden peas show promise as a way of fighting high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease. Peas are an amazing source of protein, dietary fibre, and vitamins and have the bonus of being both free of cholesterol and low in fat. Yellow peas are best known perhaps for their use in dhal and soups so adding them to your weekly menus could help delay or prevent the onset of kidney damage and potentially stabilise high blood pressure.

How your body clock affects how you age

We all have an internal body clock, or circadian rhythm that dictates whether we are an owl or a lark and governs many of our normal functions such as body temperature, brain activity, hormone production and metabolism. These things are well known and we can study our own rhythms to help us balance our lives better so we don’t study at a time when our body is not at its mental best, or try to sleep when it is naturally ready to go out and party.

Now it also appears to affect how we age, at least according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who have discovered that our inner biological clock actually communicates directly with the processes that govern aging and metabolism.

As we age, our circadian rhythm declines and the researchers believe that this could be a contributing factor to age-related disorders such as type 2 diabetes and is linked to a gene called SIRT1 which at the center of a network that regulates aging, coordinates metabolic reactions throughout the body and manages the body’s response to nutrition. This biochemical mechanism can directly drive the oscillation of the body’s daily clock and is potentially a way to correct metabolic disorders and improve health as people age.

Dangers in daytime snoozing

It’s been a busy week for the French, as they also reported recently on a collaborative study with colleagues in Belgium and Denmark on the dangers of dozing off during the day. Now I am a great fan of the siesta, but apparently as you get older you should monitor how sleepy you are feeling during the day as it could be linked to a significantly higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Significant like in a whopping 49 per cent greater risk than those who didn’t feel sleepy during the day. The Three City study is the first to study this phenomenon in Europe and was based on people living independently at home, not in nursing homes or hospitals.

It is early to say how valid the research is, but the advice is that is you are starting to feel more sleepy than usual during the day you report this to your doctor. I would also suggest investigating how to overcome it whether it is a physical issue of not enough exercise, or a mental issue of not enough stimulation to keep you awake. Good supports in this area would be to take up something like tai chi, walk more, find an interesting hobby that stretches you or learn some new skill just for the fun of it.

How running could help your eyesight

Yet another good reason to get out the old running shoes has come a study done at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that tracked approximately 41,000 runners for more than seven years. They found that vigorous exercise, particularly running, can help reduce the risk of both cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness and macular degeneration can cause irreversible vision in older people and so far there have been few suggestions as to how to avoid these conditions. Running, or any vigorous cardiovascular exercise, may be one excellent preventive measure and certainly worth investigating by anyone with a family history of eye disease.

The trial was conducted with both men and women runners they found that men who ran more than 5.7 miles per day had a 35 percent lower risk of developing cataracts than men who ran less than 1.4 miles per day. The study also analyzed men’s 10-kilometer race performances, which is a good indicator of overall fitness. The fittest men had half the risk of developing cataracts compared to the least-fit men.

In the case of macular degeneration the results were even more remarkable. Runners who averaged between 1.2 and 2.4 miles per day had a 19 percent lower risk for the disease, and people who ran more than 2.4 miles per day had an impressive 42 percent and 54 percent lower risk.

If you aren’t keen on running, then the scientists involved in the study believe that it is quite likely that the studies’ results might apply to a lesser extent to smaller doses of more moderate exercise such as walking.

Eat colourfully for bone health

You know you ought to eat 5 helpings of fruit and vegetables a day for optimum health, and now it seems that if you choose carefully both men and women could be improving bone strength and lessening the risk of osteoporosis. It’s the antioxidant pigments (carotenoids) from plants that may play a protective role in taking care of bones and protect against bone loss in older men and women.

Osteoporosis used to be thought of as exclusively applying only to women, and men were rarely diagnosed with it, but that is now changing. The lifetime risk for a woman to have a bone break through osteoporosis is 30-40 per cent and in men the risk is about 13 per cent. Researchers at Tufts and Boston Universities used data from the ongoing Framingham Osteoporosis Study and their findings have revealed that an increased intake of carotenoids, and particularly of lycopene, gave some protection against bone mineral loss. It was different for the men and women in the study; men gained bone mineral density at the hip but women gained it in the lumbar spine.

Another reason to have a colourful salad with red tomatoes, and eat watermelon and pink and red grapefruit to ensure a good source of lycopene in your daily diet.

An apple a day keeps old age at bay

I know the original saying is that it keeps the doctor away, but there is new evidence that the cognitive decline we associate with growing older can be delayed with the help of apple juice.

The Center for Cellular Neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts have been studying laboratory mice and found that using the standard maze trials the mice performed better than was normal after drinking apple juice. Our ability to carry out mental tasks like working out how to negotiate a maze does decline with age as our cognitive ability is lessened. The mice got the human equivalent of 2 glasses of apple juice a day for 1 month and it was found that they were producing less beta-amyloid. This is a small protein fragment that is responsible for forming the “senile plaques” that are commonly found in the brain of those suffering from degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The lead researcher suggested that if everyone was to drink two glasses of apple juice a day they would lessen their risk of cognitive decay and help keep their mind functioning at their best. For the most effective juice, buy organic or juice your own – the taste difference is really amazing.

Vitamin D and Alzheimer’s link confirmed

Cambridge University and the University of Michigan, have for the first time identified a relationship between Vitamin D and cognitive impairment in a large-scale study of older people. In northern climates there can be a lack of vitamin D, particularly in the winter months, when we suffer from grey skies and not enough sunshine.

Vitamin D is vital to our immune system and to keep our bones strong in the process of breaking down old bone and building up new bone. This process goes on throughout out lives, but it can slow down without the right levels of vitamin and mineral support. We obtain our supply from sunlight, foods fortified with vitamin D like cow’s milk, soya milk and cereals and oily fish. Unfortunately, as we get older we are less able to absorb vitamin D from sunlight so need to increase our intake from other sources or take supplements.

This new study is important because it reinforces the connection between vitamin D, cognitive function and dementia as in Alzheimer’s. The researchers assessed cognitive function in 2000 adults aged 65 and over in England, and what they found was that as levels of Vitamin D went down, their levels of cognitive impairment went up. In fact they had double the chance of being cognitively impaired than those in the study who had good levels of vitamin D.

As prevention is infinitely better than cure – which, sadly, in the case of Alzheimer’s is still being sought – it makes sense to do all you can to weigh the odds in your favour. Keep mentally alert with quizzes, crosswords or bridge. Take up a new hobby that stretches your brain (line or sequence dancing works well for this) and think about learning a new language or skill. Book a holiday in the sun in the winter and sensibly enjoy exposure to sunlight as often as you can. Supplements are easy to obtain, but there are cautions with them so don’t exceed the dose recommended by your doctor or a qualified nutritionist.

Anti ageing cell therapy

There are literally thousands of nutritional supplements and new ones appear every week. Some are interesting enough for me to try them and if, like me, you don’t like taking a handful of pills every day then this new product might be the answer. It is a complete mineral, oxygen and nutritional supplement that has been used by people with chronic illness to maximize the uptake of nutrients, particularly antioxidants, and it also helps improve cell health which is a key anti-ageing factor. Cell Therapy RejuvenateT with Fulvic Acid is a highly effective detoxifier and helps boost energy, reverse cell damage and rejuvenates the natural production of enzymes. As it contains 136 essential nutrients including: 74 electrically charged minerals, 16 trace minerals,28 metabolic enzymes, and 18 amino acids, its no surprise that it also supports the immune system through its role as both a powerful antioxidant and free-radical scavenger.

We all need at least 90 growth and maintenance nutrients throughout our lives to support our cells. If our bodies don’t get that support, then the cells break down, and that leads to degenerative diseases that are directly or indirectly related to mineral deficiencies such as arthritis, osteoporosis heart disease, cataracts and of course cancer. One cause of this deficiency has been the deterioration in soil quality and the fact that because of that plants are not producing the minerals they once did. The causes are well known; intensive farming, industrial fertilizers and pesticides and even the growth of the organic market doesn’t help the vast majority of people to get the nutrients they need from their everyday diet.

The key element Of all the factors that make a difference to the reversal and prevention of disease, as well as the maintenance of good health, is Fulvic which was abundantly present in plants but now has to be supplemented for maximum effect. Scientists have found that Fulvic is the element that makes minerals absorbable, and without maximum absorption you do not get the maximum effect from the food you eat. Fulvic is a supercharged electrolyte, and cellular electrical energy is the life force of the body. Cells disintegrate and die when electrical energy is reduced. It is believed that electrical and chemical balances within the cell can be created and controlled by electrolytes – the body’s mini battery chargers. Fulvic is one of the most powerful natural electrolytes known to man and the Fulvic molecule prepares nutrients to interact with each other and makes vitamins and elemental trace minerals more absorbable so that are easily transported into and through membranes and cell walls. It also increases the metabolism of proteins, which contributes to DNA/RNA synthesis, and chelates heavy metals and body toxins, removing them from the system.

Cell Therapy Rejuvenate’s utilizes this unique ability so that when it is mixed with water it immediately releases oxygen to the body releases its natural minerals, enzymes, electrolytes and amino acids to go to work on the deepest cellular level. It is very simple to take as you stir 8 drops into 250 ml (8 oz) of water, 3 times per day. It is best taken between meals (30 minutes before or 1 hour after) but personally I prefer to just put the drops straight into a water bottle and sip through the day for continuous benefit – and then I don’t have to remember to take it!

Because it contains organic enzymes it is not suitable for pregnant or nursing mothers and if you are under medical care, do talk to your doctor about it. A month’s supply cost £34.97 from Pro Active Healthcare, and if you want to know more then call them on 08707 650 304.

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