A case-control study of more than 2300 Italians has found a significant association between high bread consumption and renal cell carcinoma. Eating a lot of pasta and rice may also raise the risk, while eating many vegetables may lower the risk. The study published online October 20, 2006 in the International Journal of Cancer, the official journal of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC).
A loving, supportive family can be enough to override a genetic vulnerability to depression, new research suggests. Studies have found that people who carry a “short” version of the serotonin transporter gene — known as 5-HTTLPR — tend to be more susceptible to depression than people without this gene variant. But the new findings, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, show that to be true only of gene carriers who grew up in a stressful home environment. In contrast, the investigators found that young adult gene carriers whose families were warm and supportive had a reduced risk of depression.
The results of a massive health simulation conducted this week will be studied to improve Australia’s response to any future disease outbreak, Health Minister Tony Abbott says. More than 1,000 state and federal government officials took part in the $4.1 million exercise to test how prepared Australia is for an outbreak of avian influenza, or bird flu.
U.K. fertility experts issued recommendations on Wednesday to reduce the rising number of twin births in cases of in-vitro fertilization, including the transfer of only one embryo into the womb. In a report presented to the nation’s fertility watchdog, the panel of experts said research has shown that limiting the number of embryos transferred can reduce the number of twins born through in-vitro fertilization without changing the overall success rate.
The presence of a type of bacteria called Helicobacter pylori in the stomach substantially increases the risk of cancer in the lower portion of the stomach, but may actually lower the risk of cancer in the upper stomach (gastric cardia), a study shows. “Helicobacter pylori… is known to cause gastric and duodenal ulcers and also cancers of the lower part of the stomach,” Dr. Farin Kamangar from the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, told.
The way women deal with the stress of infertility treatment may affect their chances of becoming pregnant, a new study suggests. In particular, researchers found, women who tended to focus on and share their feelings were less likely to become pregnant than women who found other ways to cope with their stress – such as finding ways to “distract” themselves from their emotions. The findings, published in the journal Fertility & Sterility, are based on pregnancy rates among 342 women who underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) at a single fertility clinic in Greece.
Listening to loud music with earphones on a digital music player for more than 90 minutes a day can damage your hearing, according to a new U.S. study. The study of 100 doctoral students concluded that people who listened to music at 80 percent of volume capacity, at which point the sound is considered loud, should stick to under 90 minutes a day.
Having a positive outlook makes life more enjoyable, and it may also lower blood pressure in older adults. Among more than 2,500 people aged 65 or older, the higher a person scored on a questionnaire measuring positive emotions, the lower was his or her blood pressure. “Our thoughts and emotions do affect our physical processes,” Dr. Glenn V. Ostir of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, the study’s lead author, told. “The nice thing is that we have some control over that.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Taxotere (docetaxel) Injection Concentrate for use in combination with cisplatin and fluorouracil prior to radiotherapy for the treatment of patients with inoperable, locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). This disease represents approximately 3 percent of all new cancer cases in the United States.
Surgery outperformed the use of stents in a French trial of patients who had warning symptoms of stroke because of blockage of the carotid arteries, the main blood vessels to the brain. Indeed, the trial was cut short “for reasons of both safety and futility,” said a report in the Oct. 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The incidence of stroke or death in the 30 days and six months after a procedure was about twice as high for patients given a stent, a tube-like device to keep an artery open, than for those who had the surgery called endarterectomy.