Link Between Alcohol and Cancer

by | Oct 24, 2024 | Health, Life, Science

Link Between Alcohol and Cancer

New studies were recently published which revealed a very strong link between alcohol consumption and several types of cancers. However, before I discuss those medical studies, allow me to relay several personal experiences and observations from my earlier years.

I vividly remember a Sunday morning when I was 12 years old, in the schoolyard playing basketball with the guys.  There was a 19-year-old guy named Jimmy, who always played with us. However, on this Sunday morning, Jimmy was sitting on the bench looking like a very depressed, sick young man. By the way, when you’re 12 years old, a 19-year-old guy seems so old.

I asked the guys why Jimmy wasn’t playing basketball with us and what was wrong with him. They told me he went out drinking Saturday night and he has a hangover. I asked, what is a hangover? They said you’re looking at it.

I then asked, if drinking leaves you with a nasty hangover, why do people go out drinking? There was no answer, but that brings me to another experience when I was around 18 or 19 years of age. This was during the Disco era and I started going to parties on weekends, where we would dance to disco music, LOL, and have tons of fun.

At almost every dance party, I would often see 2 or 3 guys who were drunk and slobbering all over themselves. I noticed the girls were doing everything they could to avoid those drunks. Once again, if that’s what happens when you drink, I repeatedly asked myself why they were doing that to themselves. I also realized, I was having so much fun on the dance floor, without touching a single glass of alcohol, obviously, I didn’t need it. Why would I ever be dumb enough to start drinking?

In our culture, alcohol is closely related to an array of different celebrations. When you watch TV shows, when a guy meets a woman, he almost always asks her if she wants to go out for a drink? Really? I’ve never done that because I never once tried any form of alcohol, and never missed it.

As we already know, DWI is one of the leading causes of death in America. We also know that drunkenness is often related to various types of violent incidents and/or crimes, especially violence by men towards women.

When I was younger, I read many research articles on health and fitness and several of them had very strong warnings about the negative effects of alcohol on your body and your brain. I realize I’m probably only one in a million who followed that advice, but I wish more people would put their health before drinking.

I want to point out, there was a famous French study which came out in the seventies.  That study came to the conclusion that a glass of wine, once a day was actually good for the health of your heart. Unfortunately, that became a golden rule for many people who thought one or two drinks of wine was actually good for you.

Guess what? Several years ago, scientists decided to revisit that famous study where they learned the study had a serious flaw which was overlooked 50 years ago. They no longer claim that one or two glasses of wine every evening is good for you.  Drinking certain types of alcohol is beneficial for your heart? The new scientific rule, that is a myth.

OK, we can finally discuss the recent medical studies on the relationship between alcohol and cancer.

NIH tells us that alcohol increases the risk for cancers, includi8ng:

  • Oral Cancer
  • Pharynx and Larynx Cancers
  • Colorectal Cancer
  • Liver Cancer
  • Breast Cancer
  • Esophageal Cancer
  • Stomach Cancer

Why does drinking alcohol increase your cancer risk?

There are many reasons why alcohol can increase your cancer risk. These include:

Acetaldehyde: Alcoholic beverages contain ethanol. When the body breaks down ethanol, it becomes acetaldehyde, which is a dangerous carcinogen. “This compound damages DNA and stops our cells from repairing the damage. This matters, because this process allows cancerous cells to grow.

Hormonal effects: Alcohol can affect the levels of hormones like estrogen. The hormones act as messengers that tell our cells to grow and divide. “The more cells divide, the more chances there are for something to go wrong and for cancer to develop.

Reduced nutrient absorption: Alcohol makes it harder for the body to absorb and use nutrients that protect it from cancer. These include vitamins A, B1, B6, C, D, E, K, and folate, iron and selenium. “These are just a few vitamins and minerals that are responsible for immunity, protecting cells from oxidative damage, reducing inflammation and aiding in DNA synthesis and repair.

Why would anyone want to ingest something into their body which damages their immune system?

Weight gain: Consuming more calories than your body burns leads to weight gain. Alcohol can contribute to weight gain from excess calorie intake. Excess weight is linked to over 12 types of cancers.

It increases the risk of tobacco-related cancers: If you drink and smoke, you are probably at an even higher risk for certain cancers including oral and throat cancer. Alcohol may make cells more sensitive to other substances that cause cancer. “The combination of drinking and smoking increases the risk of developing mouth or throat cancer far more than drinking or smoking alone.

What is the best thing to drink if I’m going to have alcohol?

When it comes to managing your cancer risk, there is no alcoholic drink which is better than the others. All of them, including beer, wine and whiskey contain ethanol, which, as described above, is linked to increased cancer risk. Therefore, do not believe the myth that drinking beer or wine is somehow safer than drinking more powerful forms of liquor.

Will it Help if I Stop Drinking?

Research has shown that when you stop drinking, the risk for alcohol-related cancers declines over time,

BLOOD PRESSURE TESTING

by | Oct 21, 2024 | Health, Science

BLOOD PRESSURE TESTING and YOUR HEART

After my annual physical last week, I was stunned to learn, for the first time in my life, my blood pressure scores were in the very high range. My doctor tested the BP three times, and each test revealed a score much higher than I normally have. Wow! This rocked my world and I still don’t know why the scores were so high.

Since my physical, I’ve done research on blood pressure testing, and among other important lessons, I learned what we knew all along, BP testing is extremely important. High blood pressure can promote stress on your arteries and eventually lead to heart failure. High BP can reduce the elasticity of your arteries, which results in less blood flow going to your heart.

It can also make your heart pump harder, which isn’t exactly a positive. When the heart is forced to pump harder, you will probably develop a thickened and enlarged left ventricle, which significantly increases the risk of a heart attack

Knowing your blood pressure score can help you make adjustments, if necessary, in your lifestyle. Those lifestyle changes can help lower a dangerously high score without taking drugs, I’m talking about exercise, eliminating smoking, and/or reducing alcohol consumption, changing your diet, reducing salt intake, and getting adequate sleep.

Before I tell you what I’ve learned about the BP testing procedure, let me start by explaining what I do every time I check my BP.

  • I sit down, immediately put on the cuff, and start my first test.
  • Starting just last week, the first test score is usually very high and scary, such as 149/88. Thankfully, at least my pulse is usually in the normal range, because I work out every day.
  • My second test score is usually also in the high range, but not as high as the first one. Is this the start of a downward trend?
  • By the time I get to my third and fourth BP test, my BP score drops down into the normal range for my age group.
  • Note: That would not be normal for a 25-year-old, but is considered normal for seniors.

BLOOD PRESSURE TESTING RESEARCH

I went to several medical sites and tried to gather information which all, or at least most of them, agree on. Each site has slightly different recommendations, but here are several guidelines that are very consistent.

  • Buy a BP test kit which has a cuff which goes around your upper arm. They are more accurate than the ones which go around your wrist.
  • The medical sites recommend the best time to check your BP and the times of day you should avoid testing. For example, if you just exercised, wait at least 30-40 minutes. BP is usually higher in the morning, so they recommend waiting until later in the day. Don‘t check your BP immediately after consuming caffeinated beverages or after smoking.
  • Unlike me, don’t sit down and immediately take your blood pressure. They all agree it’s important to relax, make yourself comfortable, sit up straight, and wait 4-5 minutes before taking the test. I realize I should follow that recommendation, but I have no patience, so I never conduct the tests following the recommended protocol.
  • Never rely on just one BP test. All of the sites generally recommend checking your blood pressure at least 3, or possibly 4 times.
  • Never rely on the score from your first test. That’s why you should take multiple tests. In general, they tell you to take the average score of 3 or 4 BP tests.
  • Unfortunately, in the past couple of weeks, my initial test score was usually very high, such as 149/88 or 144/87. That scared me big time! However, on the second test, my score usually drops somewhat. By the time I get to the third test, my score usually drops back into the normal range for my age group. Is this the start of a pattern?
  • That is one reason why I should wait several minutes before taking my first test. But I’ve always suffered from a complete lack of patience. Unfortunately, even though I should, I almost always fail to follow  the proper protocol. As a result, that winds up causing unnecessary stress in my life when I see those incredibly  high BP scores on my initial one or two tests.
  • Here’s the big lesson I’ve learned from the above. What I suspected about my BP scoring pattern is true. If you do in fact have high blood pressure, it will remain consistent. In other words, even on the secondi, third, and fourth test, your BP score will remain high. Thankfully, that isn’t the case for me.
  • Therefore, if  your first test score is very high, but subsequent test scores drop down into the normal range, they said you can ignore the first test score in your average. Wheeeewww ………. Learning about this important aspect of BP testing made me feel much better.

I highly recommend you purchase a quality Blood Pressure test kit and regularly check/monitor your blood pressure.

EXPERIMENTAL ALZHEIMER’S TREATMENT

by | Aug 5, 2024 | Health

60 MINUTES REPORT on a NEW EXPERITMENTAL TREATMENT for ALZHEIMERRS

60 Minutes is the greatest television program ever. There are many good reasons why it’s been a Sunday evening standout for the past 56 years. Last night, I watched one of the most amazing reports ever. It was about an experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s and people who are seriously addicted to drugs.

The star of the report last night was a neurosurgeon, Dr. Ali Rezai, who came up with a new technique for treating Alzheimer’s. Anyone who knows somebody with this horrific disease, understands the devastation this can causes for the individual and his or her family members. It also eventually causes death.

Anyone who reads medical reports on a regular basis, knows scientists and drug companies spent huge amounts of time and money, the past 30 years or so, trying to find a cure for the disease. Obviously, that hasn’t happened, at least not until now.

The new technique designed by Dr. Ali Rezai, does not utilize devastating brain surgery, which requires months of rehab. It is a painless procedure which uses MRI and Ultrasound. Once the procedure is over, the patient literally walks out of the operating room and goes home.

This is a summary of how the procedure works, written by me, someone who has no medical knowledge or expertise. But I’m going to try and explain how this works in simple, basic terms.

The brains of people with Alzheimer’s are filled with Amyloid Plaques. When using an MRI, doctors can sit at a computer screen and actually see the  massive Amyloid Plaque Buildup in the brain.

During this procedure, a million-dollar electronic hat is placed on the patient’s head. A team of doctors, sitting outside the operating room, can then use Ultrasound to try and destroy the Amyloid Plaques in the brain. Apparently, this is much harder than it sounds, and they can only destroy plaques a little bit at a time. In other words, the patient must undergo repeated procedures, and they aren’t always successful.

Last night, they interviewed a couple where the husband was suffering badly from Alzheimer’s, which was destroying his life. The wife said he couldn’t even dress himself properly.

After several procedures, an interview with the husband revealed he isn’t completely normal again, but he’s vastly improved. As the husband said last night, he has his life back. His wife was of course thrilled by the results of the ultrasound procedures.

Dr. Ali Rezai pointed out this is not yet a permanent cure. He said the patient would have to come back for periodic treatments, and they’re still in the experimental stage. He also pointed out there are serious risks to this kind of treatment, but he believes the rewards are worth the risk. But please remember, they are still in the early stages of this experimental technique, so they have a lot to learn, and who knows what will happen over the next few years?

In addition to Alzheimer’s patients, Dr. Ali Rezai decided to try the procedure on long-term, seriously addicted drug addicts. Apparently, long-term addicts develop something in their brains which makes it impossible for them to resist drugs. Dr. Ali Rezai thought they could treat that drug related part of the brain with Ultrasound, just as they do with Alzheimer’s patients.

They interviewed a man who was seriously addicted to drugs all of his life. He said, if exposed to drugs, he had zero resistance. After multiple ultrasound treatments, he can finally resist the temptation and is now drug free for the first time in his life.

If I remember correctly. Dr. Ali Rezai said they used ultrasound on 16 seriously drug addicted patients, and it worked for 12 of them

Obviously, this is still an experimental technique, but I think it’s one all of us should know about and monitor the progress, or lack thereof. For the first time in our lives, it appears as if we might find a cure for the devastating disease called Alzheimer’s. It certainly appears as if this will turn to be, at the very least, a viable treatment for the disease. Obviously, this would be critical for anyone who has a loved one in their family who is a serious drug addict, or they’ve been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Can You Prevent Certain Types of Cancer?

by | Jul 13, 2024 | Health, Life

CAN YOU PREVENT CERTAIN TYPES of CANCER?

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America. There are many different kinds of cancer, so the first question we should ask ourselves, is there something we can do to prevent some, or possibly all cancers? Obviously, we cannot prevent all cancers, but a new clinical study teaches us, there are numerous things we can do to avoid many types of cancer.

One of the leading causes of cancer deaths is colon cancer. Guess what? This is essentially almost 100% preventable, by having a colonoscopy at least once every 5-7 years.

Colon cancer starts with polyps in your colon. It takes approximately 8-10 years for a polyp to become cancerous. If you get regular colonoscopies, the doctor will remove those polyps before they become cancerous. Hence, you just virtually eliminated one of the biggest causes of death in America.

A new study by the American Cancer Society revealed that many types of cancers can be eliminated via lifestyle choices.

  • Smoking was the leading risk factor by far, the study found, contributing to nearly 1 in 5 cancer cases, and nearly a third of cancer deaths.
  • Other key risk factors included
    • excess body weight
    • alcohol consumption
    • physical inactivity
    • diet
    • infections such as HPV

Here’s something else this new study is trying to teach us. Cancer grows because of DNA damage or because it has a fuel source. Other factors, such as genetics and the environment, can also create these biological conditions. However, modifiable risks explain a significantly larger share of cancer cases and deaths than any other known factor. For example, exposure to sunlight can damage DNA and lead to skin cancer, while fat cells produce hormones that essentially feed certain cancers.

With cancer, people usually believe they have no control, but that isn’t true. One of the key findings of this new study is the following. People need to feel a sense of control over many types of cancer.  Modifiable risk factors contributed to more than half of new cases for 19 of the 30 types of cancer evaluated in the study.

There were 10 types of cancer where modifiable risk factors could be attributed to at least 80% of new cases, including more than 90% of melanoma cases linked to ultraviolet radiation and nearly all cases of cervical cancer linked to HPV infection, which can be prevented with a vaccine.

Lung cancer had the largest number of cases attributable to modifiable risk factors. There were more than 104,000 cases among men and 97,000 among women, and the vast majority were obviously linked to smoking.

After smoking, excess body weight was the second largest contributor to cancer cases, linked to about 5% of new cases in men and nearly 11% of cases in women. It was associated with more than a third of deaths from cancer of the endometrium, gallbladder, esophagus, liver and kidney, the new study found.

Another recent study revealed the risk for certain cancers was significantly reduced for people taking popular weight-loss and diabetes medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy.

New studies are teaching us that obesity is emerging, in several ways, as just as big a risk for people as smoking.

Here’s something else the scientists want you to know about cancer prevention. It’s never too late to make these changes. Turning unhealthy behavior around, even later in life, can make a profound difference. And making lifestyle changes to minimize exposure to certain factors can reduce cancer risk relatively quickly, experts say.

There is another aspect of your life which can help prevent cancer from spreading throughout your body, and that is STRESS. Studies found that two people facing almost identical medical issues had very different outcomes, based on the level of stress in their body. Someone under severe stress has a significantly reduced ability for their body to fight off inflammation, or other types of threats which can cause the spread of cancer. If you can find a way to eliminate, or reduce the level of stress in your body, that will definitely help prevent several forms of cancer from spreading.

Cancer is something your body fights every single day as your cells divide. It’s a risk that you face every day, and that also means that a reduction of the risks can benefit you big time.

Personal Story

This little story isn’t specifically about cancer, but it’s definitely related to the premise of this article. About 3 or 4 years ago, I read about a professional basketball player who was in a very serious motor vehicle accident. The doctor who treated him, said he would probably die within 60-90 days at most.

Six months later, the basketball player was almost fully recovered. Reporters asked the doctor why his prediction never happened. The physician said, I didn’t factor in the very high level of fitness the patient had. He was so physically fit, his body was able to fight off the inflammation and other negative impacts of the motor vehicle accident. 

This is a critical lesson about the importance of being on a regular exercise program and how it can help fight off negative elements in your body. The above reminded me of a study I read about many years ago.

Once of the conclusions of that study was the following. Two people can have the same physical assault on their immune system, and one can survive, while the other persons succumbs to the attack. Why did one survive? Because they were so physically fit, just like the professional basketball player, they could fight off the inflammation and attacks on their immune system.

Finally, I have one more similar story. In the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans were dying in huge numbers. 60 Minutes did a report on the people who were dying from Covid-19 by visiting hospitals treating victims of the pandemic. Those seriously ill covid patients were placed on ventilators, in an attempt to keep them alive. The 60 Minutes reporter asked the doctors and nurses if there was any one thing most of the patients on ventilators had in common. The answer was, YES, obesity.