Posted by admin on Aug 22, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments
Obesity tends to run in families, suggesting that it may have a genetic cause. However, family members share not only genes but also diet and lifestyle habits that may contribute to obesity. Separating these lifestyle factors from genetic ones is often difficult. Still, mounting evidence points to heredity as a strong determining factor for obesity.
Obesity rates have doubled in the last twenty years, and in children the rate has tripled, according to research conducted by the American Dietetic Association. Obesity is much more than simply a cosmetic problem. Being considerably overweight causes serious health problems, and when obesity starts in childhood, unfortunately it often sets the child up for a lifetime of poor health.
Research indicates that the rates of obesity have, at best, doubled with some sections of society. But among children, the rate of obesity has tripled. People who suffer from obesity cannot just slough it off as an appearance issue. They need to educate themselves about the possible health consequences of being overweight. This is even more important in children who become obese at an early age.
Childhood obesity is caused 77% by genetic makeup and only 23% by lifestyle and environmental factors. Newspapers love these Nature vs. Nurture arguments as they can fill their pages with endless pontificating and claim it’s based on fact.
The obesity is a world wide problem. It is increasing at an alarming rate among people of all ages, genders, races and countries. When the Body Mass Index (BMI) is greater than 30 kg/square meter in a person, that person is classified as obese. The officially accepted reasons of obesity are genetics, behaviour and endocrine. So far the infectious etiology has not been explored fully. The study of viral infection as a cause of obesity was done on animals and humans. The results were published in respected journals. It is quite clear that viruses can not be ruled out as a cause of fattening in humans.
Obesity may seem harmless enough, but when you investigate its health implications you realize just how bad it is. Try these examples for size:
1. Young people that have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 35 or more have double the risk of death compared with people the same age that have a normal BMI.
2. Obese people are much more likely than ‘normal’ weight people to suffer from high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, increasing the likelihood of dying prematurely due to Myocardial Infarction (heart attack) enormously – 1.5 times the normal risk for men and 3.2 times the normal risk for women.
3. Being obese has been shown to greatly increase the risk of contracting many forms of cancer, including cancer of the colon – 3.0 times the risk for men and 2.7 times the risk for women, compared with non-obese people.
4. Obesity greatly increases the risk of contracting Type 2 Diabetes – by 5.2 times for men and a massive 12.7 times for women.
You can blame your obesity on is genetics. Other members of your family may have or still do suffer form obesity. This is in no means an excuse to get big but rather it should be a good warning that you have to be extra careful in watching your weight
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Posted by admin on Aug 17, 2010 in Articles | 0 comments
Prostate cancer is still one of the leading cancers among men, and it is projected that roughly one in every six American men will be diagnosed with this type of cancer within their lifetime.
Add to that the fact that these statistics may not account for those that have not been diagnosed, and you have a full fledged “epidemic”, if you look at it from a percentage of population standpoint. In fact, many people reading this probably know someone that has been diagnosed with this cancer, or may have even had a brush with it themselves.
Aside from the fact that it is a leading cancer form in men, it also is considered in males to be a second leading cause of death. It’s no wonder that prostate cancer is at the forefront of men’s health and prevention in medical research when it comes to prevention, detection and treatment.
Researchers have been hard at work to come up with alternative testing to the still most popular form of testing, the PSA test. PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen, which is an enzyme that is released by this male-specific gland, which tends to be released in much higher amounts when the gland is inflamed or enlarged, or is fighting cancer.
It is a test combined with a digital rectal exam, that many men find uncomfortable for obvious reasons, and may want to naturally avoid after they reach the age of fifty years old. This is the age when doctors recommend their male patients start getting this test, since after fifty years old the risk of getting this cancer increases significantly.
The PSA test itself is actually a simple blood test, and has been criticized for sometimes being unreliable and creating false positives and false negatives, hence the search for better screening methods. The screening method that is being worked on currently is one that may be more spot-on than the current mode of detection via rectal exam combined with the PSA test.
It is the new buzzword in the scientific community for a variety of diseases and cancer in the world of detection : genetic testing. Genetic testing has proven to be a very promising method of finding cancer markers in individuals because it can be more detailed in it’s individual assessment, and finding genes responsible for cancers and other diseases is pretty much a fool proof method of detecting likelihood of cancer or actual cancer itself.
While genetic testing can definitely help either to rule out prostate cancer or to give the doctor and patient a pretty good idea if further prevention or treatment should take place, it cannot as of yet be used in and of itself as a test, but instead is a stepping stone to determining the validity of PSA screenings and digital rectal exams.
It’s basically giving a more complete answer as to whether tests that are done are actually an accurate predictor of whether a patient has it, and whether treatment should be commenced. Many doctors and patients feel that with a more complete and definitive answer in testing, they feel more comfortable with diagnosis and prevention testing, and more confident that they are getting the correct results. This renewed confidence could lead more men to take part in prevention and detection screening.
Currently the largest studies in genetic testing for prostate cancer are being carried out in Sweden, and are looking promising, but as of yet they are not conclusive and the method needs more defining and sharpening.
One thing is for sure, that genetic testing is proving to be an up and coming tool in the definitive and more accurate detection of many different kinds of cancers, including breast cancer in women. With continued research and refining, genetic testing may prove to be of great benefit for men in the prevention of prostate cancer advancement.
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