Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Cancer Survivors Who Stay Active Live Longer


Ben
Can going for a walk improve cancer survivors’ long-term prognosis? It may, according to new research showing that exercise can lower survivors’ risk of premature death, not only from cancer but from any cause. The findings are likely to resonate widely at a time when about 14 million Americans, and many more worldwide, have survived cancer.
In one report, a major new review published this month in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, scientists at the agency gathered available studies examining exercise and cancer survivorship, dating to 1950. Most had been published in the past five years.
“This is an area of growing scientific interest,” says Dr. Rachel Ballard-Barbash, the associate director for applied research at the National Cancer Institute and lead author of the study. “Exercise is an accessible, low-cost intervention. But before we can suggest that cancer survivors become physically active, we need to understand what effects exercise has” on the bodies and life spans of those who’ve been given a cancer diagnosis.
To date, messages about the effects of exercise on cancer patients have been mixed. Some physicians have worried that exercise might exacerbate the fatigue that is common after cancer treatment. Others have raised concerns that the physical stress of exercise could even create conditions within the body that might contribute to tumor recurrence.
A 2010 roundtable convened by the American College of Sports Medicine concluded that exercise appeared to be safe for most cancer survivors, but anyone whose treatment had involved drugs harmful to the heart muscle or bone density should be closely monitored. But those recommendations didn’t directly address the issue of whether or how exercise might affect tumor recurrence or to what degree exercise could affect a survivor’s overall life span.
So those became the concerns that Dr. Ballard-Barbash and her colleagues set out to examine in more detail.
In the end, they found 45 studies that looked at physical activity among people who’d received a diagnosis of cancer. The types of tumors studied included prostate, ovarian, brain and colorectal. But a majority of the studies, “as in most cancer research,” involved women who had survived breast cancer, Dr. Ballard-Barbash said. “There’s a lot of research money in that field,” so, in general, there is more available science.
Most of the studies also were observational, meaning that patients completed questionnaires about their activities, which can be unreliable since people may not accurately recall their true activity levels. Only a few were actual experiments, during which volunteers were assigned to exercise or to remain sedentary. And although none were designed expressly to determine what biochemical or genetic effects exercise might be having on cells within the body, several did look at various biomarkers that have been found to play a role in cancer recurrence and progression.
As it turned out, virtually all of the studies, whatever their methodology, showed that regular physical activity “decreased the risk of cancer-related mortality and of all-cause mortality,” Dr. Ballard-Barbash said.
Exercise, in other words, made it less likely that a survivor would subsequently die from a recurrence of his or her cancer. When Dr. Ballard-Barbash and her colleagues teased out specific information about biomarkers related to cancer recurrence, they found that exercise tended reliably to improve insulin levels, reduce inflammation and increase populations of the very immune system cells that are thought to attack tumors.
Exercise also lessened the chances that a survivor of cancer would later succumb prematurely to other common diseases like heart disease or diabetes. “We live in an era when cancer has moved away from being generally fatal to being itself a chronic disease,” Dr. Ballard-Barbash said. People can live many years after a cancer diagnosis. “If they are inactive,” she continued, “they risk developing other chronic diseases.”
Exercise made the cancer survivors in the studies she and her colleagues examined healthier and far more likely to enjoy a longer life span than if they were sedentary, although she cautioned that the patients who exercised may have been in better health or faced a less aggressive cancer to begin with.
Interestingly, exercise did not seem to increase fatigue among most survivors. More often, it lessened it.
Researchers found similar results in another new study published this month, this one involving colorectal cancer survivors in the Netherlands. Those who exercised reported much less exhaustion and, in general, greater health-related quality of life than those who did not. “Fatigue and the fear of tiredness may be a barrier to physical activity for some people” who’ve survived cancer, said Laurien M. Buffart, a professor at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, who led the study. “But more and more evidence suggests the reverse,” that exercise energizes people who are undergoing or have completed cancer treatment.
And the exercise does not need to be intimidating or vigorous. “In our review, the most common activity was walking,” Dr. Ballard-Barbash said, “which happens to be an activity that is within the scope of almost anyone.”
She added that many more experiments are needed to determine the ideal dose and type of exercise to improve long-term survival after cancer treatment. Survivors also should consult a physician, of course, about the effects of treatment on the heart or about their readiness, in general, to exercise. But if you get the go-ahead, she said, “it appears that any activity,” in any amount, “is beneficial for those who’ve had cancer.”

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Interesting facts about honey and cinnamon

Cinnamon and Honey;
 
Honey is the only food on the planet that will not spoil or rot. What it will do is what some call 'turning to sugar.' In reality, honey is always honey. However, when left in a cool dark place for a long time it will "crystallize".  When this happens loosen the lid, boil some water and set the honey container in the hot water, but turn off the heat and let it liquefy naturally. It is then as good as it ever was. Never boil honey or put it in a microwave. This will kill the enzymes in the honey. 

Cinnamon and Honey
Bet the drug companies won't like this one getting around. Facts on Honey and Cinnamon:
It is found that a mixture of honey and Cinnamon cures most diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Scientists of today also accept honey as a 'Ram Ban' (very effective) medicine for all kinds of diseases. Honey can be used without side effects for any kind of diseases. 

Today's science says that even though honey is sweet, when it is taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm even diabetic patients. Weekly World News, a magazine in Canada, in its issue dated 17 January,1995 has given the following list of diseases that can be cured by honey and cinnamon, as researched by western scientists: 

HEART DISEASES:

Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply it on bread instead of jelly and jam and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack. Also, those who have already had an attack, when they do this process daily, they are kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heart beat. In America and Canada, various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that, as one ages, the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and the veins.

ARTHRITIS:  Arthritis patients may take daily (morning and night) one cup of hot water with two tablespoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. When taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week practically 73 patients out of the 200 people treated were totally relieved of pain -- and within a month, most all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis now started walking without pain. 

BLADDER INFECTIONS: 
Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.. 

CHOLESTEROL: 
Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water given to a cholesterol patient were found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours.  As mentioned for arthritic patients, when taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol is cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.

COLDS: 
Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and, clear the sinuses. 

UPSET STOMACH: 
Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also clears stomach ulcers from its root. 

GAS

According to the studies done in India and Japan, it is revealed that when Honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas. 

IMMUNE SYSTEM: 
Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacterial  and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles (where DNA is contained) to fight bacterial and viral diseases. 

INDIGESTION: 
Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food is eaten relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals. 

INFLUENZA

A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural 'Ingredient' which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu. 

LONGEVITY

Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Use four teaspoons of honey, one teaspoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of water and boil to make a tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans increase and even a 100 year old will start performing the chores of a 20-year-old..

RASPY OR SORE THROAT:
When throat has a tickle or is raspy, take one tablespoon of honey and sip until gone.  Repeat every three hours until throat is without symptoms.
    



 
PIMPLES
Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Apply this paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it off the next morning with warm water. When done daily for two weeks, it removes all pimples from the root. 

SKIN INFECTIONS:
 
Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin infections. 

WEIGHT LOSS:
 
Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast and on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. When taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet. 

CANCER: 
Recent research in Japan and Australia has revealed that advanced cancer of the stomach and bones have been cured successfully. Patients suffering from these kinds of cancer should daily take one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon powder three times a day for one month. 

FATIGUE

Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful rather than being detrimental to the strength of the body. Senior citizens who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts are more alert and flexible. Dr. Milton, who has done research, says that a half tablespoon of honey taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, even when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, when taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M., the vitality of the body increases within a week. 

BAD BREATH:
 
People of South America, gargle with one teaspoon of honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water first thing in the morning so their breath stays fresh throughout the day. 

HEARING LOSS: 
Daily morning and night honey and cinnamon powder, taken in equal parts restores hearing. Remember when we were kids? We had toast with real butter and cinnamon sprinkled on it!