Secrets of Preventing Cancer and Building Your Bones

Does the title of this post lead you to think that there's one simple thing you can do to prevent cancer and keep your bones strong as you grow old?

Sorry about that. It's actually two different "secrets"--the reason they're crammed together in one post is that I was reading the New York Times health section, and these two articles about preventing cancer and building healthy bones both caught my attention.

Note: whenever I discuss health articles from the New York Times, sensitive readers should be warned--there will likely be cursing involved.

@#%$&!!

Because while the New York Times is a great source for news, I hate their health section. They're the ones, remember, who said exercise won't keep you healthy. And their writers seem to revel in casting doubt on my long-held beliefs about the rewards of proper nutrition and plenty of exercise.

If the New York Times were my only news source, I'd be on a cupcake, cheeseburger, and champagne diet by now, and the only exercise I'd get would be scratching my head over their crossword puzzles. Sometimes the studies they cite are convincing; other times they seem to ignore tons of contrary research in order to take a controversial stand and get people riled up. Either way, I find it annoying to have to rethink things all the time. I have a tiny brain and it gets tired easily.

So wanna know what surprises they had in store about preventing cancer and building bones?

Preventing Cancer: Forget Healthy Living

Yep--they say that eating less fat and lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grain fiber, losing weight, and getting lots of exercise won't really do much to prevent cancer. In terms of healthy living, the only lifestyle choice things they had good things to say about were quitting smoking and, if you're a woman, steering clear of estrogen after menopause. (Well, I imagine if you're a guy you should steer clear of it too).

The fruits and vegetable thing took me by surprise, and elicited the most cursing. I'm certain I've read a number of studies saying that whole grain fiber and fruits and vegetables help prevent cancer. The fiber clears out your digestive system, and the produce is full of all those nifty little antioxidants that will clean up evil free radicals that contribute to cancer. Right?

Well, turns out it's not just the New York Times--everyone seems to be backing down on the diet and cancer connection. As to the ability of antioxidants in fruit and vegetables to prevent cancer--the clinical results now look "inconclusive," according to The National Cancer Institute. Likewise, the Harvard School of Public Health says you should eat your fruits and veggies, but mainly because they're good for heart disease, blood pressure, vision, and gastrointestinal problems like constipation or irritable bowel. As to cancer, "data from cohort studies have not consistently shown that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables prevents cancer in general."

Well, phooey.

What can prevent certain kinds of cancer? Medicines!

According to the article, a generic drug, finasteride, costing about $2 a day, could prevent as many as 50,000 cases of prostate cancer a year. A related drug, dutasteride, (about $3.50 a day), has the same effect.

Likewise, according to the Times, studies have found that taking tamoxifen or raloxifene could cut breast cancer by 50% among high-risk women. Most side effects of the drugs, like hot flashes, were temporary. There was a very slightly increased risk of blood clots and uterine cancer with tamoxifen, but with raloxifene there was no excess uterine cancer, and the clotting risk was 30 percent less than tamoxifen.

Even better, women did not have to take the drug for a lifetime — just five years. And they said the cost for tamoxifen runs about 30 cents a day; raloxifene is $3.30 a day.

So why would doctors and high-risk patients not be jumping all over this to try to prevent cancer? Well, the Times interviewed Dr. Therese B. Bevers, a medical director at a Cancer Prevention Center. She believes that doctors don't want to take the first step — calculating a woman’s lifetime risk of getting breast cancer. Why not? Because that might lead to the next step: "spending an hour or so discussing cancer risk and drug risks and benefits."

An hour or so? Really? When was the last time your doctor spent an hour or so explaining anything? I can't believe doctors can't figure out how to give a brief overview of options in a much shorter time than that. And if it would prevent so many more cases of breast cancer, wouldn't the time be worth it?

Apparently the drugs are a good idea if your lifetime odds exceed 20 percent. (They use the example of a 55-year-old woman who began menstruating early had her first child late, and whose mother and sister got breast cancer. There's an assessment tool here, though they warn you it's designed for medical professionals.)

Equally puzzling, though, is the reaction of high risk patients when doctors do discuss the drug option. According to Bevers, about half the time they turn them down. “The Number one reason I hear is, ‘Oh, I just don’t like to take medications."

Personally, if my risk of breast cancer were calculated to be significantly higher than nomal? I think I'd give the medication a shot.

But no matter what the New York Times says, I'm not entirely giving up on the idea that my bok choy and blueberries and cardio are gonna help me out too.

How to Prevent Bone Loss? Jump!

So the article on exercise and bone loss starts with a disconcerting statistic: a year after fracturing a hip, about one in five people over age 65 will die.

Yikes! I guess I'd really rather not fracture my hip when I'm older.

There is more depressing news, too: a lot of the exercise people used to think would help isn't doing much to build bone density. You need “large forces released in a relatively big burst.” Apparently weight lifting isn’t explosive enough for most people, nor is swimming or cycling. Running can be, although it doesn't work for everyone. Brisk walking helped bone density in older women, but "it must be truly brisk."

What works, they suggest, is jumping--if your bones are strong enough to begin with. “You probably don’t need to do a lot either.” But this recommendation came from... you guessed it. A study of mice.

Photo:armadillo444

Oh wait, not that kind of mice...

It seems that in a Japanese study, mice jumped 40 times a week for 24 weeks and built up bone density, and maintained it by jumping 20 or 30 times a week. (I did not allow myself to discover how they got the mice to jump...I hate animal research and think we should do a lot less of it.)

Anyway, six jumps a day, then down to three or four. Sure, I could add that to my exercise to-do list. And maybe I will someday, if I became convinced that I'm one of those people for whom running doesn't work, and I decide I really need to start jumping too to build my bones.

But just because it worked for mice? At this point, I'm not exactly jumping to any conclusions about humans.

So would you take prescription drugs to prevent breast or prostate cancer if you were high risk? Would you jump up and down like a Japanese mouse to build your bone density?

Exercise or Sleep? Which is more important?

You know how sometimes while you're sleeping you'll dream about food? I always assumed that meant I was hungry and my body was trying to point this out to my dreaming mind. Fair enough, but this morning I dreamt that I was sleeping. (I mean, I had a dream where in the middle of the day I took a pillow and blanket and sacked out in the printer room, since I was very, very sleepy.) How on earth can I be dreaming about sleeping while I'm sleeping?

Exercise or Sleep? Which is more important?

Everybody knows that you really need both exercise and sleep. In an ideal world there would always be time for both. But frequently you have to choose. If it's the end of a long day, you're dead tired and you haven't had your daily exercise yet, what do you do?

A study that came out recently suggests which one you should choose: exercise or sleep.

Or not.
You never know with scientific studies.
Nevertheless, this one warrants a glance.

A study by the National Cancer Institute found that exercising can reduce a woman's risk of cancer by as much as 20 percent. Researchers did not find the exact link between cancer risk and physical activity, but believe it might lie in the fact that exercise affects hormone levels, immune function and body weight.

****
However, researchers found that exercise can't help
if a woman does not get a good night's sleep.
****

Their conclusions:

Exercise and more than 7 hours of sleep
Exercise and 7+ hours of sleep = the lowest risk of getting cancer
Exercise and less than 7 hours of sleep
Exercise + 7 or less hours of sleep = much greater risk
Neither exercise nor 7+ hours of sleep
Neither exercise nor 7+ hours of sleep = look, the answer will just depress you and besides you can already figure it out. Go smoke a cigarette, 'k?

All right, all right, I know, I'm being mean/bitchy. If I keep this up, Crabby'll change my name to UnMerry, the Queen of Mean. I cranky because I'm so tired. I figure that if you have to choose between exercise and sleep, choose sleep. If you go to bed and find that you can't get to sleep, tired as you are, then get up and try something. Maybe kickboxing, if you're tired and cranky.

All I know is, tonight I'm going to sleep. Or else.


Photo credit: Mayr

Breast Self-Exam Slackers: Good news?

[By Crabby]

(Photo credit: emilygoodstein)

There may be some of you out there who've managed to actively embrace the whole monthly breast-self exam process.

Do you dim the lights, turn on soft music, and perhaps chant some uplifting affirmations as you create your own empowering, nurturing self-care ritual?

Oh Goody, It's That Time Again!

Oh wait, sorry, this is Cranky Fitness. If you are that sort of person, there's a good chance you're here by mistake. Darn that Google, huh? You perhaps meant to be here instead. Buh bye!

It's more likely that you do breast self-exams dutifully but grudgingly. It's a chore, right? And a slightly creepy, anxiety-provoking one at that. But the gynecologist told you to and it's dumb to disobey your gynecologist so you sigh and get it over with.

Breast cancer is not something to mess around with and you don't want to take your chances.

Of course there is yet another subgroup of women. These women nod obediently when their gynecologists tell them to do self-exams. But then they go home and they never, ever do them. Bad, bad breast-exam slackers!

[Photo: His Noodly Appendage. Seriously.]

I have to confess I'm one of these terrible slackers.

It's just that I find self-exams awkward and stressful. I never really got the hang of the whole thing. Plus (warning: TMI alert) I have the lumpy fibrocystic kind of tissue that always feels suspect. My gynecologist can do the exam without freaking out, but I can't. So when she asks if I've been doing them every month I usually just stammer some excuse and promise to be better about it in the future.

But I'm lying! I will never be better about doing them in the future. Ain't gonna happen.

(I am, however, incredibly conscientious about getting my annual office exams and mammograms).

So a few years ago I read a surprising study that seemed to suggest that doing regular breast self-exams didn't even help women survive breast cancer. That's right--women who didn't do self-exams still had the same breast cancer survival rates as those who did.

Huh?

While this information helped justify my self-exam avoidance, I didn't really believe it. I figured another study would come a long any minute and contradict it, because the result didn't seem to make any sense.

Now there's been a follow up breast self-exam study: and yet again, they found that women who did self exams had virtually no increase in cancer survival rates!

It still confounds me, because it really seems like catching cancer early is better. Certainly that should boost survival rates? But the study involved almost 400,000 women and followed them over 10 years. There were 292 breast cancer deaths in the self-exam group as opposed to 295 in the control group--the difference wasn't statistically significant. Plus, the regular breast self-exams doubled the risk of undergoing a biopsy.

So does this mean I can finally stop feeling guilty for not doing the damn things?

What do you folks think? Do you do them? Will you keep doing them?

Maggie Walks

This next guest post was written by Maggie, who hosts the blog Maggie Walks, where you can go for more breast cancer walk inspiration!


I have wanted to participate in the Breast Cancer 3-Day (benefitting Susan G. Komen for the Cure) ever since I first heard about it a few years ago. I don't know exactly why walking 60 miles in three days appeals to me... Actually, anything in the name of breast cancer awareness always catches my eye. Not only do I love that pink ribbon, my family has witnessed one of our own battling breast cancer.



Nancy is my mother's sister, and she's always made an effort to be close to my family despite the 3,000-mile distance between us. We're both the youngest of three siblings, so I felt I had more of a right to her than either of my sisters when we were growing up. Certain birthdays meant extra-special gifts for us: for example, a week's vacation visiting her when we each turned 13. She even spent a year learning how to bake and decorate cakes, so that she could make a beautiful one for my wedding.

The 3,000 miles separating us felt like about double that when she was being treated for breast cancer. We were extraordinarily lucky—not only is Nancy a proud survivor, she has been for almost six years! Health facts, like the benefits of antioxidants, come up in conversation more often than in years past but otherwise she's still who she's always been: family. Just with battle scars.

To be perfectly honest, it's a little scary having this disease as part of my family's medical history. I've really hit the genetic jackpot: heart disease, diabetes and now breast cancer. At age 27, I'm just starting to take an active interest in taking care of myself. My sisters have set the bar high—they have worked out regularly for years, eat organic food, and truly respect their bodies and their physical (as well as mental) health.

Well, I'm on my way. I've been a member of Curves for a year now, and am about to hit the 100-workout milestone! I've also logged 36.5 miles in pre-training to prepare myself for the rapidly approaching 24-week Training Program for the 3-Day—mostly on the treadmill, but also outside in Michigan's temperamental winter. I am eating more healthily now than I ever have in my adult life. I work on portion control, eating more of the right foods, and drinking lots of water. It's interesting how much I've learned about my body in the process. I'm much more aware of how food and exercise (or lack thereof!) affect how I feel throughout the day.

I'm going to walk in the 3-Day because I want to contribute something—the money I raise will go to breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. But that's not the only reason I signed up. I'm walking for my Aunt Nancy, to honor her achievement of remaining cancer-free for almost six years. I'm walking for my mom, Linda, who has been participating in The Sister Study, a long-term national study to learn how environment and genes affect the chances of getting breast cancer. I'm walking for my sisters, Mollie and Annie, who also have to include breast cancer in their family medical history. I'm walking for me, so I can get in shape and take better care of myself. And I'm walking for you, because everyone deserves a lifetime.

Sixty miles over three days. Needless to say, I'm scared out of my mind.

Random Friday

[Posted by Crabby]

Image courtesy of nataliedee.com

So remember we were recently complaining about how conflicting health research was messing with our heads and making us confused about what the heck we were supposed to do? Well, here are some more studies to make you nuts.

Calcium and Older Women:
So yep, you guessed it, after years of research urging women, including older women, to take calcium supplements, guess what they're now discovering? That calcium supplements might increase heart attack and stroke risk in postmenopausal women. The researchers warned that the findings weren't conclusive and needed to be confirmed by other studies. But if true, they wrote, "this effect could outweigh any beneficial effects of calcium on bone."

Revenge of the Acrylamides:
It's as though the scientists have a dark sense of humor, because I had barely finished posting "whatever happened to acrylamide?" when I saw this news: "Acrylamide in Food May Increase Breast Cancer Risk."

(However, true to form, right next to that study was one from a few months ago saying "Acrylamide Not Linked to Breast Cancer." I like that one better.)

So what is acrylamide and how do you avoid it, if we're supposed to be avoiding it again? It sounds nasty, doesn't it, with that icky synthetic "acrylic" prefix?

Well, it's a carcinogenic chemical formed when carb-heavy food is cooked at high temperatures, and you find acrylamides in a lot of processed foods you should be going easy on anyway. French fries and potato chips are the usual example. However, they can also be found in innocent foods too, like toast (even healthy whole wheat toast), and (gulp)in coffee. (Here's a Big List of acrylamide-containing foods if you want to get really depressed.) Smoking will increase your levels a lot too.

Too Depressing to Publish?
Turns out there may be some selective publication of drug studies going on: according to the article, "nearly a third of antidepressant drug studies are never published in the medical literature, and nearly all happen to show that the drug being tested did not work." The result: the drugs look more effective than they actually are.

Now, On the Brighter Side...
If you're female and over 40, a recent Swedish study seemed to suggest that, oddly enough, daily consumption of high-fat dairy products might help with weight control. But don't break out the Ben & Jerry's just yet. Despite a more optimistic report about this in Health, looking at the actual study made the conclusion seem a bit tentative. This study also contradicts another recent study that looked at high fat diary consumption in American men. (And researchers noted that the effect observed in these women differed according to the type of dairy product and the subject's body weight--cheese was good. Ben & Jerry's, alas, was not specifically mentioned).

Confused About All This?
Here's one theory that may explain the conflicting data.

Can you tell we're getting to the silly stuff now?

The Perfect Social Networking Site for a Crab:
Cheerful folks, however, may not appreciate bugroff. (And I believe "bugroff" is properly pronounced with three syllables, not two.)

Advances in Feminine Protection!
Okay, so it may not be an actual product you can buy at Walgreens, but check out the tampon stun gun. I love the concept. Wielding the tampon alone will mostly likely scare off the attacker, and if not: ZZZZZap!

When You Can't Understand The Lyrics:
So do you ever download songs in a foreign language for your workouts, then find yourself hearing English lyrics in them that aren't really there? A mostly hilarious example of this phenomenon can be found here. (Sometimes they stretch a bit too hard looking for dirty interpretations, but often they're spot on. Made me giggle most of the way through).

Health and fitness? Oh well, um... there's dancing in the video too!

Have a great Friday everyone.