Welcome to Weekly Health Update

“A critical weekly review of important new research findings for health-conscious readers”

METFORMIN, DIABETES AND DEATH

Metformin is a diabetes medication that is of great interest to me, and to other cancer specialists, because of intriguing research data suggesting that it may reduce the risk of cancer occurrence and cancer recurrence in people with diabetes.  (Diabetes is, itself, a risk factor for certain types of cancer, including one of the most lethal of all cancers, pancreatic cancer.)

Metformin has been shown to be particularly beneficial in reducing the risk of death due to the complications of diabetes in overweight and obese patients, who are especially prone to developing diabetes.  However, there has been some concern regarding the potential safety of metformin in patients with preexisting cardiovascular disease and kidney disease, and so this first-line diabetes medication has not been extensively prescribed to diabetic patients with these diseases.  (Somewhat ironically, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease are, themselves, known complications of diabetes.)  For this reason, the clinical research study that I will be discussing in today’s column is especially important to the estimated 24 million patients in the United States, alone, who have diabetes, and to the hundreds of thousands of diabetic patients who have already developed cardiovascular disease and kidney disease in the US. 

This newly published study, which appears in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, reports on the results of the massive Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) Study, which included 19,691 patients with documented diabetes.  (The researchers involved in the REACH Study have been following this huge number of patient volunteers since they enlisted in the study between December 2003 and December 2004.) 

The findings of this very large prospective public health study validate the findings of smaller prior clinical studies.  In this study, diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease were significantly less likely to die during the course of this study if they took metformin instead of other diabetes medications (or no diabetes medication at all).  The patients in this study who took metformin were 24 percent less likely to die when compared to the diabetic patients who did not take metformin.  Among patients with congestive heart failure, which has until recently has been considered a contraindication to taking metformin, the use of metformin was associated with a 31 percent reduction in death due to all causes.  Moreover, patients with other health conditions that have previously thought to preclude diabetes treatment with metformin also appeared to benefit from metformin in this study.  Diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease who were older than 65 years were 23 percent less likely to die if they took metformin, while patients with decreased kidney function (estimated creatinine clearance of 30 to 60 ml/minute) experienced a whopping 36 percent decrease in the risk of death if they took metformin. 

As this was an observational study (i.e., there were no randomized groups of patients, and there was no placebo-control group), it should be urgently followed with a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical research study to confirm these highly important clinical findings.  Taken together, however, the findings of this pivotal public health study are certain to eventually expand the number of patients with diabetes who will be considered eligible to receive metformin! 

For a complete discussion of metformin as a potential cancer prevention agent, as well as other important evidence-based approaches to cancer prevention, order your copy of my new book, A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race, now!  For the price of a cheeseburger, fries, and a shake, you can purchase this landmark new book, and begin living an evidence-based cancer prevention lifestyle today!

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GIVE  THE  GIFT  OF  HEALTH  THIS  HOLIDAY  SEASON!  For a groundbreaking overview of cancer risks, and evidence-based strategies to reduce your risk of developing cancer, order your copy of my new book, “A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race,” from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Vroman’s Bookstore, and other fine bookstores! 

On Thanksgiving Day, A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race was ranked #6 among all cancer-related books on the Amazon.com Top 100 Bestseller’s List for Kindle e-books!

Disclaimer: As always, my advice to readers is to seek the advice of your physician before making any significant changes in medications, diet, or level of physical activity

Dr. Wascher is an oncologic surgeon, a professor of surgery, a cancer researcher, an oncology consultant, and a widely published author

For a different perspective on Dr. Wascher, please click on the following YouTube link: 

Texas Blues Jam

I and the staff of Weekly Health Update would again like to take this opportunity to thank the more than 100,000 health-conscious people, from around the world, who visit this premier global health information website every month.  (As of 9/16/2010, more than 1,000,000 health-conscious people have logged onto Weekly Health Update so far this year!)  As always, I enjoy receiving your stimulating feedback and questions, and I will continue to try and personally answer as many of your inquiries as I possibly can.

Welcome to Weekly Health Update

“A critical weekly review of important new research findings for health-conscious readers”

OCTOBER IS NATIONAL BREAST CANCER

AWARENESS MONTH

GUM DISEASE (GINGIVITIS) AND BREAST CANCER RISK

Gum disease, also known as gingivitis, or periodontal disease, has been closely linked to an increased risk of heart disease.  Now, a newly published study from the renowned Karolinksa Institute in Sweden suggests that the risk of developing breast cancer may also be increased by chronic gum disease.  The results of this clinical research study appear in the current issue of Breast Cancer Research & Treatment.

In this prospective clinical research study, 3,273 women between the ages of 30 and 40 years were evaluated between 1985 and 2001.  Young women in this study who had documented chronic gum disease, or who had lost one or more molars due to gum disease, were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer when compared to women without periodontal disease (even after adjusting for known breast cancer risk factors in these young, healthy women).

Previous research has linked periodontal gum disease with an increased risk of other cancers, including cancers of the uterus, colon, rectum, prostate and pancreas.  However, up until now, there has been hardly any available research data linking gingivitis, or tooth loss due to periodontal disease, to breast cancer.

The exact mechanism whereby chronic gum disease increases cancer risk is unknown at this time.  (Some experts have proposed that bacteria from chronically inflamed gums may enter into the bloodstream, and induce an inflammatory response that, in turn, causes cancer formation.)  Irrespective of the true mechanism, however, certain cancers appear to be more common in people with chronic gum disease, even after adjusting for other known cancer risk factors.

If you experience red, swollen, sore, or bleeding gums, or premature tooth loss (or if your gums are retracting away from your teeth), then you may have periodontal disease (gingivitis).  Based upon recent research findings, this condition may not only increase your risk of heart disease, peripheral artery disease, stroke, and diabetes, but also cancer as well.  (Recent research has also linked periodontal disease in pregnant women with an increased risk of premature birth of their babies.)   If you notice any of these signs of periodontal disease, then please make an appointment to see your dentist for a complete check-up.

For a deeper discussion of known cancer risks, and evidence-based strategies to reduce your risk of developing cancer, order your copy of my new book, “A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race,” from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Vroman’s Bookstore, and other fine bookstores! 

Disclaimer: As always, my advice to readers is to seek the advice of your physician before making any significant changes in medications, diet, or level of physical activity

Dr. Wascher is an oncologic surgeon, a professor of surgery, a cancer researcher, an oncology consultant, and a widely published author

For a different perspective on Dr. Wascher, please click on the following YouTube link: 

Texas Blues Jam

I and the staff of Weekly Health Update would again like to take this opportunity to thank the more than 100,000 health-conscious people, from around the world, who visit this premier global health information website every month.  (As of 9/16/2010, more than 1,000,000 health-conscious people have logged onto Weekly Health Update so far this year!)  As always, I enjoy receiving your stimulating feedback and questions, and I will continue to try and personally answer as many of your inquiries as I possibly can.

Welcome to Weekly Health Update

“A critical weekly review of important new research findings for health-conscious readers”

VITAMIN D, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, CANCER AND DEATH

Disclaimer: As always, my advice to readers is to seek the advice of your physician before making any significant changes in medications, diet, or level of physical activity

Dr. Wascher is an oncologic surgeon, a professor of surgery, a cancer researcher, an oncology consultant, and a widely published author

For a different perspective on Dr. Wascher, please click on the following YouTube link: 
Texas Blues Jam

I and the staff of Weekly Health Update would again like to take this opportunity to thank the more than 100,000 health-conscious people, from around the world, who visit this premier global health information website every month.  (As of 9/16/2010, more than 1,000,000 health-conscious people have logged onto Weekly Health Update so far this year!)  As always, I enjoy receiving your stimulating feedback and questions, and I will continue to try and personally answer as many of your inquiries as I possibly can.

Welcome to Weekly Health Update

“A critical weekly review of important new research findings for health-conscious readers”

LACTOFERRIN REDUCES ABDOMINAL (VISCERAL) OBESITY

Disturbingly, two-thirds of the American population already meets the criteria for being overweight or obese, one-third meets the criteria for obesity, and at least 2 percent of Americans are now considered to be morbidly obese.  The cost of this rising epidemic of obesity is enormous (no pun intended), both to obese patients themselves, and to a nation that is struggling to pay for the skyrocketing cost of providing healthcare to its citizens. 

Obesity has been unquestionably linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, liver disease, gallstones, gastroesophageal reflux, arthritis, cancer, and multiple other serious illnesses.  Despite these sobering realities, however, the incidence of obesity continues to rise in the United States, and increasingly, throughout the world.

In our high-calorie, low-effort modern world, it is very easy to pack on excess weight over the course of our lives.  People, being people, are always looking for quick, easy solutions to their problems, including excess weight.  Unfortunately, other than decreasing our intake of food and increasing the amount of exercise that we regularly perform, no other cures for obesity have yet been found.

However, a newly published study in the British Journal of Nutrition has identified an unlikely new dietary supplement that may be helpful in the battle of the bulge.  Lactoferrin, which is abundant in the colostrum and milk of most mammals (including humans), is thought to primarily function as an antibacterial and antifungal agent, and may help to protect breast-fed babies from infection (in some countries, lactoferrin is routinely added to infant formula for this purpose).  Recent research has also suggested that lactoferrin may have a beneficial effect on the metabolism of fat within the body, and in particular, the so-called “visceral fat” that accumulates within the abdominal area, and which has been specifically linked to an increased risk of generalized inflammation in the body, as well as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

In this small prospective, randomized, doubled-blinded study, 26 overweight men and women with abdominal obesity were randomized to receive either daily lactoferrin supplements (300 milligrams per day) or an identical placebo (sugar) pill (none of the participating patient volunteers knew which group they were in until the study was completed).  These patient volunteers were then followed for 8 weeks.  All of these research volunteers underwent CT scans to measure the extent of their total body fat, superficial (subcutaneous) fat, and visceral (abdominal) fat. 

At the end of this 8-week study, the group that had been randomized to receive daily oral lactoferrin supplements experienced very significant decreases in visceral fat content, as well as decreased body weight, decreased BMI (a standardized measure of obesity that considers both body weight and height), and hip circumference, when compared to the group of volunteers who were assigned to take the placebo pills.  Additionally, blood tests to evaluate the impact of daily lactoferrin supplements on metabolism did not reveal any apparent adverse side effects associated with lactoferrin supplementation.

While this is a very small study (only 26 patient volunteers were included), and the length of follow-up was very short (only 8 weeks), the prospective, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled design of this study, when combined with the rather striking results that were observed, are rather compelling.  Certainly, a larger study, with long-term follow-up, needs to be performed before daily lactoferrin supplements can be recommended as both a safe and effective aid to weight loss.  Moreover, such a study would need to show that the reduction in visceral fat that was observed in this small Japanese clinical study is not only reproducible over the long-term, but is also associated with a clinically significant improvement in the illnesses that have previously been linked to abdominal obesity.   Meanwhile, and until such a study is performed, I find the results from this small prospective clinical study to be very interesting, indeed.

For a detailed review of the impact of obesity, exercise, nutrition, and other important lifestyle factors on the risk of developing cancer, watch for the publication of my new landmark evidence-based book, “A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race,” in September of this year.

Disclaimer: As always, my advice to readers is to seek the advice of your physician before making any significant changes in medications, diet, or level of physical activity

Dr. Wascher is an oncologic surgeon, a professor of surgery, a cancer researcher, an oncology consultant, and a widely published author

For a different perspective on Dr. Wascher, please click on the following YouTube link: 

Texas Blues Jam

I and the staff of Weekly Health Update would again like to take this opportunity to thank the more than 100,000 health-conscious people, from around the world, who visit our premier global health information website every month.  As always, we enjoy receiving your stimulating feedback and questions, and I will continue to try and personally answer as many of your inquiries as I possibly can.

Welcome to Weekly Health Update

“A critical weekly review of important new research findings for health-conscious readers”

OBESITY AND CANCER RISK

We have become the heaviest people in the history of our species, with two-thirds of Americans officially classified as overweight, and one of every three of us tipping the scales into the “obese” range.  For too many of us, day after day, we load our bodies with more fat- and calorie-packed foods than our bodies can utilize.  Surrounded by effort-saving devices that have drastically reduced the amount of food-derived energy that our bodies can reasonably metabolize, a majority of Americans are becoming progressively heavier and heavier.  Moreover, obesity now affects a shocking percentage of children and adolescents in our society, and it is no longer uncommon to see children and teenagers with obesity-related diseases, previously seen only in adults, like diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, gallstones, and cardiovascular disease.

In addition to chronic illnesses that have long been associated with obesity, it has become increasingly clear that the risk of multiple different types of cancer is also increased by obesity.  Now, a newly published public health study, which appears in a forthcoming issue of The Lancet Oncology, underscores the disturbing extent to which excess weight increases our risks of several different common types of cancer.

In this huge public health study, more than 400,000 patient volunteers from Asia, Australia, and New Zealand were followed for an average of 4 years.  When obese study volunteers (BMI of 30 or higher) were compared with volunteers of normal weight (BMI less than 25), the obese volunteers were found to have a 21 percent higher risk of death due to cancer.  The risk of dying of certain specific types of cancer were even higher among the obese volunteers, including a 50 percent increased risk of death due to colon cancer, a 68 percent increased risk of death due to rectal cancer, a 63 percent increased risk of death due to breast cancer (in postmenopausal women), a 162 percent increase in the risk of dying of ovarian cancer, a 321 percent increase in the risk of death due to cancer of the cervix, a 45 percent increase in the risk of death due to prostate cancer, and a 66 percent increase in the risk of dying from leukemia.

The findings of this enormous public health study are worrisome, to say the least, and reflect the very serious impact that obesity has on our risk of developing cancer, and the risk of dying from cancer.

Obesity is a growing public health problem in the United States and, increasingly, around the world; and the list of chronic, major illnesses associated with obesity continues to expand (along with our collective waistlines).  If you are overweight or obese, then please consult with your physician for advice on how best to lose your excess weight.  Meanwhile, sharply reduce your intake of high-calorie and high-fat foods, and begin a responsible and consistent exercise program, under your physician’s supervision. 

For a more detailed discussion of the scientific links between obesity and cancer, look for the publication of my new landmark book, “A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race,” in August of this year. 

Disclaimer: As always, my advice to readers is to seek the advice of your physician before making any significant changes in medications, diet, or level of physical activity

Dr. Wascher is an oncologic surgeon, a professor of surgery, a cancer researcher, an oncology consultant, and a widely published author

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Tdv7XW0qg

I and the staff of Weekly Health Update would like to take this opportunity to thank the more than 100,000 new and returning readers who visit our premier global health information website every month.  As always, we enjoy receiving your stimulating feedback and questions, and I will continue to try and personally answer as many of your inquiries as I possibly can.

Welcome to Weekly Health Update

VITAMIN D, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE & DEATH

There is mounting evidence that Vitamin D plays a much more complex role in maintaining health beyond its primary function in regulating calcium absorption.  Increasingly, research data suggests that this hormone-like vitamin may also play important roles in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer, as well.  (A comprehensive update on Vitamin D’s cancer prevention properties will appear in my forthcoming book, “A Cancer Prevention Guide for the Human Race.”)

The vast majority of published research studies in disease prevention have relied upon low-level research methods, including surveys of patient volunteers and retrospective medical chart reviews.  More recently, however, high-quality prospective, randomized cardiovascular disease prevention and cancer prevention clinical research trials have been performed.  These high-level studies have the potential to significantly improve lifestyle-based approaches to preventing the diseases that, together, cause the majority of all premature deaths.   

A newly published prospective clinical research study, from the Chianti region of Italy, enrolled more than 1,000 adults, aged 65 years and older.  All patient volunteers were tested for the level of Vitamin D in their blood when they joined this study, and all of these older adults were then carefully followed for an average of nearly 7 years.  During the course of this study, 228 study participants died.  The researchers then compared the levels of Vitamin D in the blood of the participants who died during the study with those of the volunteers who survived.  (This study is published in the current issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.)

The findings of this prospective clinical study were striking.  The patient volunteers with the lowest levels of Vitamin D in their blood were more than 2 times as likely to die, from any cause, when compared with the patients who had the highest levels of Vitamin D in their blood.  The patients with the lowest Vitamin D levels were also nearly 3 times as likely to die from heart attacks, and other complications related to cardiovascular disease, when compared to the patients with high levels of Vitamin D in their blood.  These dramatic findings held up even after the researchers made statistical adjustments for differences in the age, gender, education level, exercise habits, and other health-related factors among these two groups of study participants. 

As we age, our bodies become less efficient in converting sunlight into Vitamin D, and multiple research studies have shown that the majority of older adults are deficient in Vitamin D.  A growing number of high-level clinical research studies, such as this Italian study, continue to suggest that Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoporosis, bone fractures, and decreased muscle strength in older men and women.  Therefore, the importance of this vitamin-hormone in maintaining optimal health is becoming increasingly apparent.

For additional Weekly Health Update articles on Vitamin D, please click the following links:

http://doctorwascher.com/Archives/2-3-08

http://doctorwascher.com/Archives/10-11-09.htm

http://doctorwascher.com/Archives/11-8-09.html

http://doctorwascher.com/Archives/9-20-09.htm

http://doctorwascher.com/Archives/8-9-09.htm

http://doctorwascher.com/Archives/12-28-08.htm

http://doctorwascher.com/Archives/10-5-08.htm

http://doctorwascher.com/Archives/6-29-08.htm  

In view of the extreme devastation and human misery brought about in Haiti by the recent earthquake, Weekly Health Update asks our tens of thousands of caring readers to give generously to established charities that are currently working in that country to assist the injured, the ill, and the homeless there.  There are many such legitimate charities, including the following two:

http://www.redcross.org/

http://www.imcworldwide.org/haiti

For a somewhat lighter perspective on Dr. Wascher, please click on the following YouTube link: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Tdv7XW0qg

Welcome to Weekly Health Update

“A critical weekly review of important new research findings for health-conscious readers”

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM WEEKLY HEALTH UPDATE!