Foods to Fight Cancer: Six Superstar Veggies That Can Prevent Any Type of Cancer

To reduce your risk of cancer, look no further than your fridge. "All the studies on cancer and nutrition point to eating plant-based foods for their phytonutrients and other special compounds," says Richard Béliveau, PhD, chair in the prevention and treatment of cancer at the University of Québec at Montreal and author of Foods to Fight Cancer.

Aim for five to nine daily servings of all kinds of fruits and vegetables—especially these six superstars.

  Broccoli

All cruciferous veggies (think cauliflower, cabbage, kale) contain cancer-fighting properties, but broccoli is the only one with a sizable amount of sulforaphane, a particularly potent compound that boosts the body's protective enzymes and flushes out cancer-causing chemicals, says Jed Fahey, ScD. A recent University of Michigan study on mice found that sulforaphane also targets cancer stem cells—those that aid in tumor growth.

Helps fight: breast, liver, lung, prostate, skin, stomach, and bladder cancers

Your Rx: The more broccoli, the better, research suggests—so add it wherever you can, from salads to omelets to the top of your pizza.

Health.com: 13 easy pizza recipes

Berries

All berries are packed with cancer-fighting phytonutrients. But black raspberries, in particular, contain very high concentrations of phytochemicals called anthocyanins, which slow down the growth of premalignant cells and keep new blood vessels from forming (and potentially feeding a cancerous tumor), according to Gary D. Stoner, PhD, a professor of internal medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

Helps fight: colon, esophageal, oral, and skin cancers

Your Rx: Stoner uses a concentrated berry powder in his studies but says a half-cup serving of berries a day may help your health, too.

Health.com: Go wild for berries!

Tomatoes
This juicy fruit is the best dietary source of lycopene, a carotenoid that gives tomatoes their red hue, Béliveau says. And that's good news, because lycopene was found to stop endometrial cancer cell growth in a study in Nutrition and Cancer. Endometrial cancer causes nearly 8,000 deaths a year.

Helps fight: endometrial, lung, prostate, and stomach cancers

Your Rx: The biggest benefits come from cooked tomatoes (think pasta sauce!), since the heating process increases the amount of lycopene your body is able to absorb.

Health.com: 10 tasty tomato recipes

Walnuts
Their phytosterols (cholesterol-like molecules found in plants) have been shown to block estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells, possibly slowing the cells' growth, says Elaine Hardman, PhD, associate professor at Marshall University School of Medicine in Huntington, West Virginia.

Helps fight: breast and prostate cancers

Your Rx: Munching on an ounce of walnuts a day may yield the best benefits, Hardman's research found.

Health.com: 8 super nuts

Garlic
Phytochemicals in garlic have been found to halt the formation of nitrosamines, carcinogens formed in the stomach (and in the intestines, in certain conditions) when you consume nitrates, a common food preservative, Béliveau says. In fact, the Iowa Women's Health Study found that women with the highest amounts of garlic in their diets had a 50 percent lower risk of certain colon cancers than women who ate the least.

Helps fight: breast, colon, esophageal, and stomach cancers

Your Rx: Chop a clove of fresh, crushed garlic (crushing helps release beneficial enzymes), and sprinkle it into that lycopene-rich tomato sauce while it simmers.

Health.com: Surprising health benefits of garlic

Beans
A study out of Michigan State University found that black and navy beans significantly reduced colon cancer incidence in rats, in part because a diet rich in the legumes increased levels of the fatty acid butyrate, which in high concentrations has protective effects against cancer growth. Another study, in the journal Crop Science, found dried beans particularly effective in preventing breast cancer in rats.

Helps fight: breast and colon cancers

Your Rx: Add a serving—a half-cup—of legumes a few times a week (either from a can or dry beans that've been soaked and cooked) to your usual rotation of greens or other veggies. 

Source: Yahoo

Anti-Anxiety Pens: Built by a Student at The University of Technology Delft, the Netherlands - - Miguel Bruns Alonso's Prototype Pen Reduces Stress

If all gadgets be like this pen, the world would be less stressed (or not). Built by a student at the University of Technology Delft, the Netherlands, this pen makes writing more difficult if used aggressively. This supposedly makes the writer calmer. But only supposedly.

Miguel Bruns Alonso, his creator, devised the pen so that it detects motion rude and too fast, identified with the nervousness. So it puts up resistance to the use and movement, forcing the person who is writing to use quieter movements. Then, the pen also becomes easier to use.

That would reduce by 5% the rhythm of the heartbeat, according to their research. For him, this is one way to interpret the gadget as the user is feeling and help you relieve stress, tend to be followed in future.

Except that Alonso probably missed some details. Most people, when using a gadget that becomes more difficult to use, just when they are nervous, probably going to lose all patience. Just look at YouTube videos of people destroying computers when they give problems. And imagine if you were in that fateful moment to win a video game, and seeing your blood, control it more difficult to use?

As the pen is still a prototype and has to date hit the market, the inventor still has some time to think if his pen or stress will help even more people.

Instant Cold Or Hot Rechargeable Compress - - To Ice Your Bruises or Heat Your Sore With One Touch Button

When you have a bruise that needs ice, or a sore requiring an heating pad, wouldn’t it be great if you had one gadget that could be either one? This Instant Cold Or Hot Rechargeable Compress is exactly that. With the press of a button the aluminum swiveling head can be heated to 110º F or cooled off to 40º F. That might not be quite as cold as a pack of ice, but it’s supposedly the optimum temperature for use, and it only takes about 45 seconds to reach either extreme.

Unfortunately, as cool as this gadget is, the $130 price is going to be the biggest deterrent. I mean, I can buy a nice heating pad and several ice packs for considerably less. Sure, I’ll be tethered to a cord, and need to switch out ice packs, but I’ll save a lot of money too. I’ll probably save a bundle on not providing the 4x AA batteries it needs to run, as well. 

Source: Hammacher

Sex Addicts Affraid of Relationships - - Important Study About Out-of-control Sexual Behaviours (UCSB)

Sex addicts feel endangered by relationship and are more apprehensive about romantic relationships than the rest of the population, a New Zealand study has found.

The survey of more than 600 people found those who indulged in compulsive sexual behaviour felt anxious and insecure about relationships and tried to avoid becoming too emotionally attached to others.

Massey University said the study, conducted by psychology honors student Karen Faislander under the supervision of a practicing clinical psychologist and an academic specialist, was the first of its type in New Zealand.

Faislander said sex addiction, which made headlines this year with revelations about Tiger Woods' love life, was a complex condition that had not been researched as thoroughly as areas such as substance abuse or depression.

She said the term "sex addict" first emerged in the early 1980s and there were 29 other terms in scientific literature that described the condition, including sexual compulsivity, excessive sexual desire disorder and hyper-sexuality.

The preferred contemporary term is out-of-control sexual behaviours (UCSB).

"It's widely misunderstood and stigmatized," Faislander told AFP.

"There's no known effective treatment. We don't know what causes it or how we treat it."

Because of the embarrassment people feel discussing the subject; Faislander's study used an anonymous online survey to quiz 621 people about their sex lives. 407 identified themselves as sex addicts while 214 were not.

The survey asked if they engaged in online sex, prostitution, sex in public or with multiple partners, as well as examining areas such as alcohol use and feelings of self worth.

"The UCSB group reported higher rates of insecure styles of attachment, characterized by a perspective of relationships as threatening, and feelings of either anxiety towards or avoidance of closeness or intimacy," the study found.

In contrast, non-sex addicts found intimacy desirable and rewarding, felt secure in relationships and regarded their partners as trustworthy.

Faislander said studies estimated 3-6% of the population had the condition in the US, where sex addiction clinics have sprung up in recent years treating stars such as Woods, actor David Duchovny and comedian Russell Brand.

She said no such treatment was available in New Zealand, where self-help groups including Sex and Love Addicts and Sexaholics Anonymous use 12-step programs based on those pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous.

While Faislander's study was not peer reviewed, she hopes to gain a doctorate in clinical psychology and conduct further research on treating out-of-control sexual behaviours (UCSB).

“Berlin patient”: Timothy Ray Brown - - A Ray of Hope For HIV/AIDS Patients

Doctors announce that one HIV patient is free from infection due to a complex treatment that included stem cell transplantation resistant to the virus.

The American Timothy Ray Brown, who lives in Germany, is being called the “Berlin patient” after spending three years free of the virus that causes AIDS in his body.

His case is the result of an unusual series of coincidences that led him to be subjected to various procedures. In 2007, Brown, who was HIV positive, was diagnosed with leukemia and received by the team of Dr Gero Hütter, Medical University of Berlin, a bone marrow transplant.

The donated material, however, had one peculiarity: it came from an individual who had a natural resistance to HIV. Genetically, the donor did not have in their cells a receptor called CCR5. It turns out that the most common strain of HIV uses CCR5 as just the “station” to turn on and attack the CD4 white blood cells, a type of cell in the immune system. Like all viruses, HIV cannot replicate itself: it uses the genetic material of an individual (in this case, white blood cell) to replicate. So people with this mutation are virtually safe from infection. Despite being the port of entry, CCR5 is not the only way: over time during infection, there are other viruses that can use other receptors such as CXCR4.

The Brown case was first presented in 2008 in Boston at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. In February 2009, the results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

There's No Way to Avoid Cold and Flu Virus Except Few Herbal Supplements

Cold and flu season is in full swing, leading many of us to try anything to avoid getting sick. But according to Dr. Allison McGeer, the head of infection control at Toronto's Mount Sinai hospital, there's only so much you can do.

"The best evidence is for a particular herbal supplement, which is called Cold FX," McGeer said. "But the truth of the matter is that taking Cold FX is not as effective as getting a flu shot and it's not as effective as washing your hands."

McGeer added that things like Echinacea, vitamin C and other supplements might help ease your symptoms or shorten the illness, but they won't keep you from getting sick. In fact, even if you do everything right in terms of eating properly, getting plenty of rest and exercise, and frequently washing your hands, viruses can still get to you.

"Probably the other thing that makes a big difference to colds and flu is if we all do our bit and stay home when we're sick and stay away from people if we get sick, because that way we don't pass them on," McGeer said.

Few Easy Meditation Steps Before Eating Meals Lead You to Loss of Excess Weight - - New Study at Carnegie Mellon University

A cutback in caloric intake is the primary requirement of weight loss, which is possible to be realized by merely practicing some meditation before eating meals, a new study suggests which was led by Dr. Carey Morewedge from Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University.

The study demonstrates people be inclined to eat less of a food if they imagined the eating process frequently before they actually ate the food. And the study found the more food a person "ate" in his imagination, the less food subsequently he would eat.

In the study, according to what Dr. Morewedge told NPR Science Friday radio program, study participants were told to imagine the process of eating M&M, including moving the candies into a bowl, and then asked to eat the real food. Those who imagined eating 30 M&M ate much less real M&M than those who imagined eating only 3 M&M.

Dr. Morewedge further added that simply imagining moving the food did not help.

He said you also need to imagine eating what you are going to eat to reduce the consumption of the food. The study showed when participants imagined they were eating M&M, and then when they were assigned to eat cheese cubes, no matter how many M&M they ate in their imagination, they ate the same amount of cheese.

What works behind this trick is a process called habituation, according to Dr. Morewedge. According to this theory, people are less responsive to what they got habituated to. In the study case, after the participants imagined they ate lots of cheese cubes, they felt less urged to eat the food and they ate less of the food as a result.

But Dr. Morewedge told NPR that this imagination method does not work for other habits like smoking, which involves a more complex mechanism and imagining smoking could actually boost a smoker's craving for smokes and the smoker could actually smoke more.

Dr. Morewedge used cheese and M&M for the study. It is unknown whether this method would help people cut their consumption of a real meal which consists of multiple foods. Should the diners, like people going to have some Chinese buffet, imagine all the foods they are going to eat to reduce the consumption of the variety of real foods? Or would this method work at all in this case?

The study was published in a recent issue of Science, a prestigious scientific journal.

In China, two idioms describe two pitiful situations in which people don't have water to drink to quench their thirst and don't have food to eat to satisfy their hunger. In these situation as the idioms suggest, people may "look at prune to quench your thirst" and "draw a cake to satisfy your hunger".

New Study Found That Low-Dose Aspirin Helps Prevent Many Types of Cancers

According to new research; low dose of aspirin on a regular basis could help to diminish the happening of numerous common cancers.

High doses of aspirin were already known to have a protective effect, but the latest article in the Lancet medical journal shows that even low doses can help to reduce the risk of dying from several forms of the disease.

The discovery could be important, as low doses of aspirin are less likely to cause side-effects, such as gastrointestinal bleeding.

Professor Tom Meade, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, commented: "These are very exciting and potentially important findings.

"They are likely to alter clinical and public health advice about low-dose aspirin, because the balance between benefit and bleeding has probably been altered towards using it."

The latest study looked at data contained in eight previous clinical trials, involving 25,570 patients.

It found that taking aspirin was associated with a 21 per cent lower risk of dying from cancer.

When the researchers analysed data collected for 20 years after the trials had ended, they found that patients who had previously taken aspirin had a 20 per cent lower risk of dying from solid cancers than those who had not.

They also had a 35 per cent lower risk of dying from gastrointestinal cancers.

Professor Peter Rothwell, from the John Radcliffe Hospital and the University of Oxford, said: "These results do not mean that all adults should immediately start taking aspirin, but they do demonstrate major new benefits that have not previously been factored into guideline recommendations."

5-Point Increase in BMI Lead You 31% Closer to Death - - Even a Bit Overweight is Riskier Revealed by New Study

Your risk of death rises steadily with every overweight pound you gain, a huge study funded by the National Institutes of Health confirms.

A recent study, funded by National Institutes of Health, confirms that every extra pound of weight, someone gains, is a step towards the risk of his/her death. 

Risk of death rises by threatening 31% with every 5-point increase in BMI, a measure of body mass based on weight and height. Most importantly this conclusion prevails even if one is not used to smoke an apparently enjoying good health.

Data is being presented here; shows clearly that how close an increase in BMI can take you to the death risk! The data below; compares the increase in BMI with the normal BMI i.e. 22.5 to 24.9.

* A BMI of 25.0 to 29.9 increased death risk by 13%

* A BMI of 30.0 to 34.9 increased death risk by 44%

* A BMI of 35.0 to 39.9 increased death risk by 88%

* A BMI of 40.0 to 49.9 increased death risk by 251%

The above-mentioned figures are for men and women who do not smoke and who have no underlying disease.

Being underweight may also increase death risk, but it's not clear whether underlying, undetected disease might account for this finding.

Amy Berrington de Gonzalez, DPhil, of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues stated:

"We conclude that for non-Hispanic whites, both overweight and obesity are associated with increased all-cause mortality," they conclude. "All-cause mortality is generally lowest within the BMI range of 20.0 to 24.9."