Another benefit of Vitamin D

  • March 8, 2010 at 6:03 pm in

In addition to many other benefits to human health, Vitamin D has now been found to activate the immune system, according to the latest research published in Nature Immunology.  Specifically, the sunshine vitamin triggers and arms T cells, which seek out and destroy foreign bacteria and viruses. This latest research points to the vitamin being used potentially in the development of vaccines, to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

Most Vitamin D results from exposure of the skin to sunlight. One can also obtain this vitamin from food (for example, fish liver oil, eggs, fortified cereals, and fatty fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel) or in a dietary supplement. The best form of Vitamin D is D3, also called cholecalciferol, so look for this when buying supplements. While Vitamin D2 is synthesized by plants, Vitamin D3 is synthesized by humans in the skin when it is exposed to ultraviolet-B rays from sunlight.  For more information on Vitamin D, see: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-d/NS_patient-vitamind.

In addition to aiding calcium absorption, Vitamin D may provide protection from osteoporosis, cancer, hypertension and several autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.  It’s no surprise, then, that my primary care physician has urged me, a two-time cancer survivor, to take 1000 mg of Vitamin D3 daily.  Now I have another reason to take this fantastic vitamin.

To see the entire article on this new research, please visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7379094/Vitamin-D-triggers-and-arms-the-immune-system.html.

Happy March!

Jan

Could baby aspirin be a cure-all for breast cancer survivors?

  • February 22, 2010 at 9:01 pm in

You may have seen the latest results of a long-term Nurses’ Health Study showing that low doses of aspirin may prevent a breast cancer recurrence. Specifically, the study found that women who took aspirin two to five days a week had a 60 percent reduced risk of their cancer spreading and a 71 percent lower risk of breast cancer death. Taking aspirin less frequently than two days or more frequently than five days was not as beneficial in reducing risk of cancer spread or death.  Most of these women were taking low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks and stroke. While the dosage wasn’t tracked, most likely it was 81mg, the typical low maintenance dose for maintaining heart health, equal to one baby aspirin.

This is an exciting development worth exploring!

If you are a breast cancer survivor, you should consult your oncologist before beginning baby aspirin therapy. One commentator, PJ Hamel, suggests the following (http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/c/78/104011/recurrence?ic=6006):

•If you’re in active treatment (surgery, chemo, radiation), don’t self-medicate with aspirin; it can interfere with your other treatments.
•If you’re on long-term hormone therapy or past all cancer treatment, ask your doctor about the risks and benefits of aspirin in general.
•If your doctor feels you’re at minimal risk for adverse side effects from aspirin and you understand those risks yourself, and accept them – then you might consider a low dose.

I believe this is sound advice. At my primary doctor’s urging I have been taking baby aspirin seven days a week for the past two years to maintain a healthy heart. Perhaps I shall cut down to weekday doses, since the study suggests that 2-5 days of treatment is optimal. This reassuring news is timely to me, because I go off my aromatase inhibitor (Arimidex) in a week.

A report on this study can be found at:  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F56Q20100216.

Blessings to you all!

Jan

Hope for patients treated with radiation

  • February 15, 2010 at 8:59 pm in

This month the journal The Lancet Oncology published a study showing that fewer, larger doses of radiation were just as effective as standard radiation in treating women with breast cancer.  The shorter dosing regimen (over the course of three rather than five weeks) produced fewer skin changes in the patients.  As a recipient of radiotherapy I am happy to see this development. Getting radiation completed in three weeks with fewer side effects would be a clear advancement in treatment if adopted as standard practice.  I wonder if this protocol would reduce the risk of lymphedema in patients whose lymph nodes are radiated. Read all about it at:   http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jORRS6h_Enrx78h0gkS5U6qSAs4g.

Happy belated Valentine’s Day,

Jan

Approval by Health-on-the-Net Foundation

  • January 18, 2010 at 5:52 pm in

The mission of the Health On the Net Foundation is to improve the quality and reliability of the medical Internet by accrediting websites with its HONcode stamp of approval. In my book Mourning Has Broken: Reflections on Surviving Cancer, I recommend that people who seek medical advice online look for the HONcode logo on a website to assure reliability of its content. I wouldn’t want people to be mislead by quackery, that is, information with no proven medical basis. My website (www.janhasak.com) is now HONcode certified, and thus complies with all the principles of the Health On the Net Foundation.

Thank you for your continued support of my cause to advocate for cancer and lymphedema patients.

All the best,
Jan

Clarification to Study of Weightlifting for Lymphedema Patients

  • January 16, 2010 at 3:20 pm in

Here’s the latest from the National Lymphedema Network (NLN) regarding the PAL study by Dr. Kathryn Schmitz and colleagues, Weight Lifting in Women with Breast-Cancer-Related Lymphedema, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on August 13, 2009. When the article first appeared the media overreacted, making several inaccurate and misleading statements about the research. The NLN and many of its affiliated clinics received phone calls from patients and professsionals expressing frustrating about the inaccurate reporting and requesting clarification of the study results and what these mean for individuals living with or at risk for lymphedema.

The NLN Medical Advisory Committee contacted Dr. Schmitz, who agreed to clear up misconceptions about what the PAL trial did and did not show, and to emphasize the continued need to follow risk reduction guidelines. (See the NLN Position Papers on Risk Reduction and Exercise.)

We hope that Dr. Schmitz’s response (Weight Lifting and Lymphedema: Clearing Up Misconceptions) will help clarify the study results for lymphedema survivors and people at risk for lymphedema. The Executive Director of the NLN recommends that lymphedema therapists apply the protocols for the PAL intervention to their practices.

Jan

Pomegranate panacea?

  • January 10, 2010 at 9:42 pm in

An article appearing early in 2010 reports a study researching whether pomegranates or pomegranate juice may help to prevent and slow the growth of breast cancer.

Specifically, the scientists found that a group of phytochemicals called ellagitannins in pomegranates inhibited the growth of estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer cells in laboratory tests. Researchers say these phytochemicals work by inhibiting aromatase, a key enzyme used by the body to make estrogen. Clinical trials are needed to determine if these results at a cellular level will translate into efficacy in humans.

“More research on the individual components and the combination of chemicals is needed to understand the potential risks and benefits of using pomegranate juice or isolated compounds for a health benefit or for cancer prevention,” says Powel Brown, MD, PhD, chairman of the clinical cancer prevention department at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Until then, researchers advise that people consider eating more pomegranates to protect against breast cancer. Maybe I’ll begin partaking of this interesting fruit, if I can find out how to eat it without making a mess. Otherwise, I’ll stick to drinking the juice.

The article can be found at  http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20100105/pomegranates-may-stall-breast-cancer?ecd=wnl_brc_010510

Bon appetit,

Jan

Simple blood test to detect breast cancer?

  • December 31, 2009 at 4:50 pm in

What a fabulous early New Year’s gift!

Yesterday Scottish scientists reported their initial finding that a sugar change in blood may signal the presence of breast cancer.  This research could lead to a simple blood test to screen patients for the onset of breast cancer. Providing a blood sample would be much less intrusive and less costly than a biopsy.

A U.S. charity has supplied the scientists with funding to conduct additional research on this exciting preliminary discovery. The original article can be found at http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/editor-s-picks-ignore/blood-test-could-hold-key-to-breast-cancer-1.995228. Let’s pray that the initial results will be confirmed in 2010. I, for one, would opt for a simple blood test any day over a biopsy, even a fine-aspiration biopsy.

On that note of optimism, have a blessed, safe and healthful New Year!

Jan

Breast cancer recurrence from moderate alcohol intake

  • December 20, 2009 at 5:56 pm in

Red wine has an aspirin-like effect, reducing the blood’s ability to clot, and also contains antioxidants. It’s great for the heart, but what about breast cancer? Perhaps the jury is finally in on this issue.

The latest study of breast cancer survivors who consume alcohol was reported in San Antonio, TX this month (http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/SABCS/17444). Funded by the National Cancer Institute, the eight-year research project showed that early-stage breast cancer survivors who drank an average of at least three to four alcoholic beverages per week had a 34 percent higher risk of recurrence than those who drank less than one drink per week or no alcohol.  (One drink is defined as a 5-ounce glass of wine, a 12-ounce glass of beer, or a 1.5-ounce shot of liquor.)  This risk was even higher for those who were post-menopausal, overweight or obese.

Per WEEK, not per day? So much for enjoying the entire Mediterranean diet guilt-free.

Precisely how alcohol consumption influences breast cancer risk is not fully understood, says the lead researcher on the study, Marilyn L. Kwan, Ph.D., a staff scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA.  But estrogen, which fuels the growth of most types of breast cancer, is likely a culprit. “It has been suggested that alcohol could increase the risk of breast cancer by increasing estrogen metabolism and circulating levels of estrogen, thus promoting growth of the tumor,” says Dr. Kwan. “A similar mechanism might be responsible for increasing the risk of breast cancer recurrence.”

As a lymphedema patient-advocate I know Dr. Kwan and have great respect for her work. I plan to take her research seriously.

During the seven years between my first diagnosis and my recurrence, I might have averaged at least three drinks of wine a week.  I’m post-menopausal, although not overweight. And I will be going off Arimidex (which reduces estrogen levels in the body) in early March. Therefore, I will call my oncologist to determine what these results mean for me. It appears from the study that two drinks a week did not increase the risk of recurrence, but is that okay for me personally?

Like Dr. Kwan, I encourage early-stage breast cancer survivors or their caregivers to consult their medical professionals to assess personal risk. Breast cancer is such a diverse disease, and red wine in small-to-moderate amounts might benefit those with a personal or family history of heart disease.

My poor oncologist. Is he prepared for my next question-of-the-week about lifestyle choices? But I am compelled to ask. A second recurrence is not one of my New Year’s resolutions! And non-alcoholic drinks can be pretty tasty. Just ask my non-imbibing Christian friends, who engage wine-drinking Christians in constant debates about the biblical propriety of consuming alcohol.

Here’s a Martinelli’s toast to your health for the New Year, and a very Merry Christmas.

Jan

Could Exercise be a Fountain of Youth?

  • December 9, 2009 at 3:20 pm in

A new study has revealed, at a molecular level, why those who regularly exercise are healthier as they age.  The active people had cells that, when viewed under a microscope, were younger than those of the inactive people who participated in the study. This finding may explain how exercise helps prevent degenerative diseases associated with aging, such as heart attacks, diabetes and cancer.

Even though I got cancer at 43 despite my regular running routine, I believe this study: exercise is vital to health and keeps people youthful. Perhaps I would not have endured my grueling treatments as well if I had not exercised regularly before cancer struck.

The article describing this research can be found at: http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20091201/molecular-proof-exercise-keeps-you-young?ecd=wnl_skin_120909

A blessed Thanksgiving

  • November 25, 2009 at 3:49 pm in

Thanksgiving is a time of year to reflect on our lives and count our blessings, one by one, as the hymn goes. I have just been advised to stop taking Arimidex, an anti-estrogen daily pill I have taken for over six years. My former oncologist counseled me to stay on this pill for life, but my new doctor believes there is no further benefit, and there are even risks, in taking it longer than needed. So I will be stopping it starting in the New Year.

Since I had a recurrence two years after I got off tamoxifen in 2001, I am a bit apprehensive about discontinuing my daily Arimidex. It’s like a security blanket, but with prickly side effects. My doctor said I could take Evista (raloxifene) for a further five years to ward off my anxiety. But the possibility of experiencing deep vein thrombosis, stroke or other nasties from this tamoxifen-like drug do not seem worth it. And like Arimidex, this drug has no generic equivalent. So it would further drain my bank account as well as my estrogen.

This Thanksgiving I’m resolved to throw my fears out the window, to be grateful to God that I no longer need any adjuvant drug. I believe I’ve done all I can do to reduce my risk of another recurrence by enduring a bilateral mastectomy, two aggressive courses of chemo and a year of Herceptin.

Perhaps being off Arimidex will be like pressing the “Pause” button on my post-menopausal symptoms. Maybe my hair will have a chance to thicken and my night sweats, hot flashes and joint pain will subside. Maybe I’ll even lose weight! What a wonderful blessing all that would be. But if I don’t recover any youthful traits, that’s okay, too. My heavenly Father knows best. And for that I am the most grateful as we wrap up 2009.

A joyous and blessed Thanksgiving to one and all!

Jan

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