The study also shows that tobacco use is the cause of half of bladder cancer in women, whereas previous study showed only 20-30 percent of cases had the risk of such cancer owing to smoking. Neal Freedman, the study author of National Cancer Institute (NCI) told a reputed media outlet that the changes in smoking habits or cigarette composition over few years is the prominent reason behind the link between bladder cancer and smoking. The research clearly says, “the composition of cigarettes has changed during the past 50 years”. The study shows that these changes in cigarette composition or the smoking habit is the reason behind “reduction in tar and nicotine concentrations in cigarette smoke, but also to an apparent increase in the concentration of specific carcinogens, including beta-napthylamine, a known bladder carcinogen”. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) surveyed the smoking habits of the recent US population and came to a result that the number of female smokers equal men these days.

The research also shows that recently the risk of bladder cancer has increased three times than people who never smoked. The risk of bladder cancer in women has gone up to 52 percent, whereas it is still 50 percent for men. Neal Freedman said that bladder cancer rates in United States have been stable in past 30 years in spite of the fact that the smoking rates have decreased with time. The health officials of United States reported that 69,250 people are likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer in this year and 14,990 of them will die from the same.

The study also reveals that the women smokers are prone to lung cancer double the rate of the men. At the same time, owing to smoking habit women suffer from many aggressive diseases than men. The researchers urged the Government to take necessary action against cigarette promotion. The businessmen use many designers packaging and cigarettes and now a days these companies target women as well to attract them and generate revenue. At the same time, it has been found out that almost half of UK’s 10 million smokers are women and the decline of women smokers is less than men. The doctors found out a ratio of not smoking compared to smoking are 25 percent higher in case of a woman than a man. Moreover, the doctors said that the risk will increase two percent each year and it means that a woman who smokes for longer time has the greater risk of heart disease than a man who has smoked for the same time.

The doctors said that the main factor of such health risk in women is because of their smaller blood vessels and smaller body weight. In a joint statement, the doctors said, “For example, women might extract a greater quantity of carcinogens and other toxic agents from the same number of cigarettes than men… This occurrence could explain why women who smoke have double the risk of lung cancer compared with their male counterparts”. The two doctors, in their statement also added that they are worried more because these days the tobacco industry’s considers women as growth market and target them. The researchers said an estimated 15,600 women will die of lung cancer this year and the sole reason is adopting this lifestyle of smoking. Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), an anti-smoking group has echoed the same messages of British Heart Foundation. The research manager of ASH, Amanda Sandford told a reputed media outlet that it is already known that women have greater risk of lung cancer than men. However, she seemed concerned when she said that for the first time, even heart disease is likely to affect women smokers more than the men. Amanda Sandford also said that smoking has a majo5r implication on the health of the women and the government should take action against it. At the same time, she said, “The sale of designer “super slim” cigarettes is perpetuating myths such as smoking helps keep you slim and they have to go”.

The President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Dr Tony Falconer said that smoking leads to all the severe diseases in a woman’s body. He also added that smoking not only leads to lung cancer and heart disease in a woman but also it might result to premature birth, stillbirth and low-birth weight baby during her pregnancy. In the end, he said, “As doctors, we are especially concerned about the young, who are easily persuaded by advertising and peer pressure. We need to support and help women to lead healthier lives and this must include smoking cessation”.

David Challoner, the chairman of Institute of Medicine (an arm of National Academy Of Sciences) that wrote this report said that it is not yet clear if the process would serve the “needs of either industry or patients, and simply modifying it again will not help”. On the other hand, FDA has opposed to this recent study but asked for an analysis from the researchers. The members of National Academy of Sciences claimed if the medical devices fail to serve their purpose, they can generate serious health problems, which might even harm their lives. “What we are recommending is that the 510(k) is fatally flawed in terms of it not evaluating safety and effectiveness of a device”, David Challoner said in his statement. Last summer, more than 90,000 artificial hips were recalled from the market after it was found out that about 1 out of 8 users needed to replace them.

Institute of Medicine called this fast approval process as 510 (k). Regarding this study, the director of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren told that FDA completely understands and believes that this 510 (k) process should not be excluded. However, he also added that FDA is “open to additional proposals and approaches for continued improvement of our device review programs”.

The scientists of Cancer Research in UK have revealed that obesity raises “sex hormones” in a female body. At the same time, women during their post-menopausal time are likely to get affected by breast cancer, as they have high level of testosterone and estrogen in their body. After much research, the scientists have come to the conclusion that menopause, oral contraceptive pills and even pregnancy changes breast cancer risk in a woman. The team of Oxford University (funded by Cancer Research in UK) performed the research by studying health records of 6,300 women (post-menopausal), to find out why some of the woman developed breast cancer, whereas others did not. This study revealed that women with their body mass index 25 or more had high level of progesterone and estrogen. The experts are of the opinion that women should become aware of these risk factors.

Dr Julie Sharp, an associate of Cancer Research UK told a reputed media outlet, “This is an important study as it helps to show how alcohol and weight can influence hormone levels. Understanding their role in breast cancer is vital and this analysis sheds light on how they could affect breast cancer risk”. She also said that women can avoid breast cancer, by reducing the level of alcohol consumption and “maintaining a healthy body weight”.

The researchers said that the experts created the text messages, with the help of the smokers to encourage people to quit smoking. One of the sample shows that the smokers were asked to quit smoking by throwing off their cigarettes. With every text, the smokers were given moral support and told that they can quit this habit if they want to. Some smokers, who were selected randomly, received five text messages a day for first five weeks. After that they received three messages per week for next six months. On the other hand, the control group received thank you texts, just for their participation in this program.

Later, the doctors performed saliva tests on the smokers to see if they have really quit smoking. The report later showed that 10.7% people of the group who received motivational texts could quit smoking compared to 4.9% of the control group. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine‘s Dr Caroline Free said that text messages can be used to as a ” very convenient way for smokers to receive support to quit. People described txt2stop as being like having a ‘friend’ encouraging them or an ‘angel on their shoulder” as it lessens the temptation to smoke.

Back in 2006, FDA approved silicone gels of two brands for women, who are above 22 year old. The names of the brands are MemoryGel and Allergan’s Natrelle. Both these brands are manufactured by Mentor division of Johnson and Johnson. Previously, in 1992, FDA removed silicone implants from the market on various safety issues like silicone leakage and implant rupture. However, FDA allowed implants, which are saline filled to be on the market though these were distributed to limited patients. These silicone implants were allowed to the mastectomy patients and in some cases of medical emergency.

On the other hand, the new report of FDA states that women, who go through breast augmentation, should remove the silicone within 10 years. Previously, it was believed that silicone implants might result in breast cancer. FDA officials announced that silicone implant has no connection with breast cancer, tissue disease or any other reproductive problems. However, they said that it might increase the risk of lymphoma. FDA cautioned women, by saying that they should not consider breast implants as life time devices. The report states, “The longer you have your implants, the more likely it will be for you to have them removed”. However, the survey of the agency showed that the women, who had breast implants, were satisfied with their “body image and the shape feel and size of their implants”.

Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Yale University School of Medicine’s researchers jointly experimented on mice and found out that some neurons are activated through nicotine and these neurons sends signals to the body of human and it can control obesity. At the same time, the researchers said that these neurons are not the same that triggers craving for nicotine in human. The experts also added that they performed pharmacological, molecular, genetic and behavioral experiments on mice and came to the conclusion that nicotine influences certain circuits of nervous system, which are known as hypothalamic melanocortin system. Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons are activated because of these receptors and as a result, effects the obesity of animals and humans. Yann Maneur, an associate researcher said, “We found that nicotine, when it enters the brain, activates specific nicotine receptors that are located on specific neurons known to decrease feeding and increase energy expenditure when activated”.

While speaking about this research, Marina Picciotto, the psychiatry professor of Yale University and senior researcher of this study said, “Imagine a nicotine-based medicine which could only target those cells which stop eating and not trigger the need for tobacco”. On the other hand, there are some side effects as well. Marina Picciotto said that when the smokers give up smoking, they might gain up to 2.5 kilos of weight. However, the Professor criticized people who smokes by saying that some group of people smokes to control their weight and it is really sad on their part.

The lead researcher of this study, Dr. David Conen of University Hospital Basel in Switzerland, in the press conference told that “cessation” of smoking reduces the risk of this disease. The researchers have found out that there was a gradual reduction of health risk with “an increased duration of smoking abstinence”. Dr. David Conen also added that whole research highlighted the importance of discontinuance of smoking. Moreover, it has been reported that the smokers have a risk of developing peripheral artery disease (PAD) three times more than the non-smokers. The researchers studied about 38,825 women and came to a conclusion that the women who smokes are more likely to develop this disease than the non-smokers. On the other hand, though cessation of smoking reduces the chances of health hazards yet the researchers found out that the women who had quit smoking 20 years ago has higher chances of developing this disease than the non-smokers.

Dr. Aruna D. Pradhan, Harvard Medical School’s assistant professor of medicine and study researcher said that the study shows that smoking is causes health risk and it is one of the prominent reasons of peripheral artery disease in women who smokes. However, the researchers said that this study did not include women, who might have suffered from peripheral artery disease but did not show any symptoms of this disease. Moreover, the participants in this research were mainly white women and hence it does not apply the whole population. The Annals of Internal Medicine states, “Although smoking cessation dramatically reduces the risk for PAD, an increased disease risk remains even after long-term smoking cessation, which demonstrates the importance of both prevention of smoking initiation and efforts to promote long-term abstinence.”

Feb 24, (PRINTWORDS NEWS) Cycling is often pitched as one of the best forms of exercise in case if you want to maintain good health. In countries such as China, riding a cycle is also considered to be the best possible way to glide through the colossal traffic that plagues almost every major city in the nation. However, the positive attributes of cycling could suffer a significant setback if findings of a recent study are taken into consideration. According to the research which was undertaken by the Belgium based Hasselt University, cycling amidst heavy traffic is one of the prime triggers of heart attack.

Factors such as exposure to traffic fumes as well as stress, contribute significantly in ensuring that spending more time in traffic increases the risk of a cardiac arrest for cyclists, drivers as well as commuters. However, among the three, cyclists are more prone to suffering a heart attack as they are increasingly exposed to pollution and at the same time, they subject themselves to another important contributing factor to heart attacks, which is exercising. Scientists feel that the results of the study are extremely pertinent as this is the very first time that the triggering factors of heart attack have been evaluated.

Following the study, it was concluded that the exposure to pollution during traffic resulted in 7.4 per cent of the heart attack cases while physical exertion amounted to 6.2 per cent of the cases of heart attack. Other factors such as consuming alcohol or coffee triggered 5 per cent of the total heart attack cases and air pollution caused 5 to 7 per cent of the cases.

Feb 22, (PRINTWORDS NEWS) All the red meat lovers in Britain are in for a dismal news this week with the government all set to issue a health warning asking Britons to reduce their consumption of red meat in a bid to improve their health. A Government-commissioned report that is scheduled to be released later this week is likely to warn the Britons to decrease red meat eating habits in order to reduce the risk of cancer.

The Department of Health had asked the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) to evaluate the dietary advice on the intake of red meat as a vital source of iron. Following the review, the committee highlighted that a reduced intake of red meat and processed products would lower the risk of developing colorectal cancer. “Although the evidence is not conclusive, as a precaution, it may be advisable for intakes of red and processed meat not to increase above the current average (70g/day) and for high consumers of red and processed meat (100g/day or more) to reduce their intakes,” the committee said in a statement that was released recently.

However, the recommendations of the panel is likely to leave the Britons in utter confusion about consumption of how much meat can be considered to be safe. The red meat lovers have been left all the more baffled in a wake of a recent research that says that nowadays most people consume healthy amounts of red meat which curtails the increased risk to the diseases. The study which was put forward by the British Nutrition Foundation further noted that a vegetarian consuming cheddar cheese would gain seven times more fats compared to a person who eats a limited amount of red meat, which is also an important source of iron. However, the World Cancer Research Fund has refuted the findings of the study and it advises people to limit the consumption of read meat to 500g a week. At the same time, the fund also warns people to stay away from processed meat which includes bacon, sausages, ham, among others.

Despite the findings of the new research, studies over the years have hinted that red meat accentuates the risk of developing bowel cancer, which affects as many as 36,000 people in Britain every year. Apart from being linked to other types of cancer such as lung, breast as well as prostrate, consumption of excessive amount of red meat has also been associated to cardiovascular ailments owing to its significantly high content of saturated fat. According to the present guidelines, British citizens should eat 90g of red meat every day and should consider controlling the total amount of meat consumption only if it goes beyond 140g per day. However, the committee experts have reiterated that the current guidelines are just too moderate due to which more number of Britons are exposing them to increased risk of different kinds of health ailments.