The Risk from Air Pollution Increases

Harvard School of Public Health researchers found that women who gave birth in areas where air pollution and smog were high are twice as likely to have autistic children. There are multiple risk factors and genetic factors that cause autism. Exposure to toxic chemicals through the mom’s placenta is one of these factors. Another study from Canada documented an increase in appendicitis in areas that are polluted. A third study found that there has been an increase in the long-lasting trails of smoke that jet engines leave behind them in the sky. International weather modification programs have been linked to this increase. The program can involve spraying with aluminum, barium, strontium and other toxic metals that slowly fall to the ground after being carried by wind from their targeted areas. See Andrea Roberts of the Harvard School of Public Health, Gilaad Kaplan at the University of Calgary, and Kimberly Foster of the THRIVE Movement for more information. Celebration of Health Association website

A Potentially Big Problem With Chemotherapy

A year ago, there was an important article published in Nature Medicine by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that showed a marked (30-fold) increase in a substance called WNT 16B in cancer patients treated with chemo. High levels of this substance decrease the resistance to cancer in previously unaffected cells. This might explain why chemo often helps initially, but if the cancer comes back it is more difficult to treat the second time. On the positive side, the spice turmeric in large doses was shown to decrease tumor size and activity in 82% of animals with breast cancer compared to 0% in patients treated with placebo. A more natural approach continues to show promise in the treatment of cancer. See Dr. Peter Nelson at www.fhcrc.org/en/news/center-news/2012/08/peter-nelson-lab-chemotherapy-resistance-mechanism.html (the article was quoted in JAMA) and Cancer Prev Research, October 1, 2008, p. 385-391. Celebration of Health Association website

Weight Lifting for Parkinson’s Disease

Conventional treatment for Parkinson’s is physical therapy to achieve strengthening, flexibility and balance. It shows initial improvement but a return to baseline over a 2 year program. However, progressive resistance and increasing speed with weight lifting maintained a significant improvement over the entire 2 years. This study should change the conventional treatment for a stubborn disease. See the New England Journal of Medicine 2012;366:511-9. Celebration of Health website

Overdiagnosis—Incidentalomas

This is a series of key points from the 2013 book, Overdiagnosis, Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health, by H. Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy. With the sophisticated CT scans, MRIs, Ultrasounds and other screening devices we are finding more and more incidental lesions that need follow-up testing and sometimes surgeries that are not only unnecessary but also might lead to considerable expense, anxiety, and even complications. Many cancers discovered before symptoms begin might have no impact on health or lifespan because they grow so slowly. They might not otherwise be discovered before you die of something else. PSA for prostate screening and CA-125 for ovarian cancer are markers that have been shown to have little or no benefit as far as extending life. There are a few screening tests that discover abnormalities that can be modified and thus make a difference. CardioRisk for carotid plaque, colonoscopy, and breast thermography are ones that I find very helpful, but the search for “incidentalomas” can do more harm than good. CardioRisk testing at Celebration of Health on September 30th Celebration of Health Association website