Medical knowledge | Studies, essays, thesises » Ariana Eunjung Cha - 7 Short Articles on Diabetes, Obesity, Chemicals, Cancer and other Diseases

Source: http://www.doksinet 1 [7 short articles -- on Diabetes, Obesity, Chemicals, Cancer and other Diseases-- count as 1 for RDPs and Rdg. notes] The war over soda: New study finds link between carbonated drinks, higher risk of heart attacks By Ariana Eunjung Cha https://www.washingtonpostcom/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/09/01/soda-linked-to-higher-risk-of-heart-attacks-study-finds/ September 14, 2015 Next time you are thirsty and pop into your local convenience store to buy a drink, choose carefully. Yet another study has found links between soda and negative effects on your health This one is large involving data from 800,000 people in Japan and looked at cardiac risk. Researchers found that the more money people spent on carbonated beverages, the more likely they were to suffer from heart attacks of cardiac origin outside of a hospital. The study, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, found that spending on other types of beverages including green tea,

black tea, coffee, cocoa, fruit or vegetable juice, fermented milk beverage, milk and mineral water didnt appear to lead to the same risk. Keijiro Saku, a study author and professor of cardiology at Fukuoka University, theorized that "the acid in carbonated beverages might play an important role in this association." The battle over sugary drinks has come to a head in recent months with dueling studies and public health messaging campaigns about what soda does to your body. In March, researchers quantified what diet soda does to your waistline, calculating that those who consumed daily and occasional diet soda were linked to nearly three times as much belly fat as those who didnt consume the drinks. In June, after a study in the journal Circulation by Tufts University researchers estimated that sugary beverages are responsible for 133,000 deaths from diabetes, 45,000 from cardiovascular disease and 6,450 from cancer, many doctors warned that people should cut down on those

drinks Source: http://www.doksinet 2 Coca-Cola has been fighting back through a nonprofit that funds medical research with the message that it is not diet but lack of exercise that is to blame for Americas obesity epidemic [Dunn cut rest for space reasons] Pre-diabetes, diabetes rates fuel national health crisis Laura Ungar, USA TODAY http://www.usatodaycom/story/news/nation/2014/09/14/prediabetes-rising-diabetes-threatening-usa/15134489/ September 15, 2014 Americans are getting fatter, and older. These converging trends are putting the USA on the path to an alarming health crisis: Nearly half of adults have either pre-diabetes or diabetes, raising their risk of heart attacks, blindness, amputations and cancer. Federal health statistics show that 12.3% of Americans 20 and older have diabetes, either diagnosed or undiagnosed. Another 37% have pre-diabetes, a condition marked by higher-thannormal blood sugar Thats up from 27% a decade ago An analysis of 16 studies involving almost

900,000 people worldwide, published in the current issue of the journal Diabetologia, shows pre-diabetes not only sets the stage for diabetes but also increases the risk of cancer by 15%. "Its bad everywhere," says Philip Kern, director of the Barnstable Brown Diabetes and Obesity Center at the University of Kentucky. "You almost have the perfect storm of an aging population and a population growing more obese, plus fewer reasons to move and be active, and fast food becoming more prevalent." Doctors and experts coined the name pre-diabetes in the late 1990s, replacing less worrisome terms such as "borderline diabetes" that didnt convey the seriousness of the condition. Without lifestyle changes, the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says up to 30% of people with prediabetes develop Type 2 diabetes within five years Pre-diabetes often has no symptoms; its found through blood tests. But most of the time it remains undiagnosed. The CDC says about

10% of the 86 million afflicted adults know they have it As pre-diabetes rises, experts are pushing for greater awareness and screening. Research shows programs promoting lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes by almost 60% – helping save lives and money. Diabetes cost the nation $245 billion in 2013, according to the Alexandria, Va.-based American Diabetes Association "Weve proven (pre-diabetes) is an intervention time," said Matthew Petersen, the associations managing director of medical information and professional engagement. "Its a call to action" Pre-diabetics can prevent or delay diabetes by losing 5%-7% of body weight; getting at least 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise such as brisk walking; and eating a moderate-calorie, healthy diet, experts say. "Its very clear that weight loss is far more powerful than any drug we can give," Kern says Source: http://www.doksinet 3 Doctors acknowledge others can take similar steps,

but worry many wont, since its so hard to change ingrained lifestyles. "What we are heading toward is much higher health care costs and much more disability," said Sathya Krishnasamy, an endocrinologist with University of Louisville Physicians. "We need to make major, drastic changes as a community and as a nation." Diabetes becoming alarmingly common worldwide, new study finds By David Brown Washington Post http://www.washingtonpostcom/national/health-science/diabetes-becoming-alarmingly-commonworldwide-new-study-finds/2011/06/24/AGMkaFlH storyhtm June 25, 2011 Nearly 10 percent of the world’s adults have diabetes, and the prevalence of the disease is rising rapidly. As in the United States and other wealthy nations, increased obesity and inactivity are the primary cause in such developing countries as India and in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East. That’s the sobering conclusion of a study published Saturday in the journal Lancet that traces

trends in diabetes and average blood sugar readings in about 200 countries and regions over the past three decades. The study’s findings predict a huge burden of medical costs and physical disability ahead in this century, as the disease increases a person’s risk of heart attack, kidney failure, blindness and some infections. “This study confirms the suspicion of many that diabetes has become a global epidemic,” said Frank Hu, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s School of Public Health who was not involved in the research. “It has the potential to overwhelm the health systems of many countries, especially developing countries.” Worldwide, the prevalence of diabetes in men older than 25 rose from 8.3 percent in 1980 to 98 percent in 2008. For women older than 25, it increased from 75 percent to 92 percent “This is likely to be one of the defining features of global health in the coming decades,” said Majid Ezzati, an epidemiologist and biostatistician at Imperial College

London, who headed the study. “There’s simply the magnitude of the problem. And then there’s the fact that unlike high blood pressure and high cholesterol, we don’t really have good treatments for diabetes.” There are two types of diabetes, a metabolic ailment in which the body is unable to rapidly or adequately move sugar out of the bloodstream and into tissues after a meal. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease that comes on in childhood and requires that a person take insulin shots to survive. Type 2 accounts for 90 percent of cases and generally comes on after age 25. It is controlled by insulin, pills and, in some cases, weight loss and exercise [Dunn cut rest for space reasons] Source: http://www.doksinet 4 Half of U.S adults will be obese by 2030, report says By Jennifer Huget, Washington Post http://www.washingtonpostcom/national/health-science/half-of-us-adults-will-be-obese-by-2030report-says/2011/08/25/gIQAYthweJ storyhtml?hpid=z12 August 25, 2011 Based on trends,

half of the adults in the United States will be obese by 2030 unless the government makes changing the food environment a policy priority, according to a report released Thursday on the international obesity crisis in the British medical journal the Lancet. Those changes include making healthful foods cheaper and less-healthful foods more expensive largely through tax strategies, the report said. Changes in the way foods are marketed would also be called for, among many other measures. A team of international public health experts argued that the global obesity crisis will continue to grow worse and add substantial burdens to health-care systems and economies unless governments, international agencies and other major institutions take action to monitor, prevent and control the problem. Changes over the past century in the way food is made and marketed have contributed to the creation of an “obesogenic” environment in which personal willpower and efforts to maintain a healthful

weight are largely impossible, the report noted [Dunn cut the rest some space reasons] Obesity/Diabetes Epidemic: Rise of the Obesogens by Brian Moench [Dr. Brian Moench is President of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.] Published on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 by CommonDreams.org The global obesity/diabetes epidemic is receiving wide spread attention like the June 26, article in the Washington Post by David Brown. One fourth of our national health care bill of $23 trillion is linked to the treatment of diabetes and its complications. Average American life expectancy is now dropping because of this disease complex. Even children are being recommended for gastric bypass Fingers everywhere are pointing at the usual suspects: too much junk food and lack of exercise. But there is much more to the story than a recent, contagious lack of discipline among the masses. Standing next to us in the room, some very large corporate elephants

are being ignored. A growing body of evidence in animals and humans suggests that many man-made chemicals contaminating our environment mimic some of the body’s own hormones like testosterone and estrogen. Researchers have called these chemicals endocrine disruptors because they wreak havoc with endocrine organs like the thyroid, pancreas, testes and ovaries that depend on hormones to develop and function properly. But a new, more relevant term for these chemicals has emerged They are now also called obesogens. Exposure to tiny amounts of obesogens during embryonic development has startling effects on animals, resulting in obesity, infertility, feminization of male species, ambiguous sexual characteristics and high death rates. Source: http://www.doksinet 5 In a remarkable study of 2,000 Americans those people with the highest blood levels of PCBs, dioxins and pesticides had a rate of diabetes 38 times higher than those with the lowest levels. Just as startling, in the group

with the lowest levels of chemical pollutants there was no correlation between diabetes and obesity. Recently the lead article in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrated increased rates of heart disease and diabetes in people with higher levels of the additive in plastic drinking bottles and food can lining, Bisphenol A (BPA). But these studies merely confirm hundreds of previous studies regarding the far-reaching health impacts of endocrine-disrupting/obesogen chemicals at blood levels most of us and our children live with right now. Many obesogens appear to increase levels of cholesterol and trigger cancer as well. For the first time in 200 years, children now have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, primarily due to obesity and diabetes. [Dunn Cut rest for space reasons] Common chemicals linked to breast cancer By Marla Cone Los Angles Times http://articles.latimescom/2007/may/14/nation/na-cancer14 May 14, 2007 More than 200 chemicals -- many found

in urban air and everyday consumer products -- cause breast cancer in animal tests, according to a compilation of scientific reports published today. Writing in a publication of the American Cancer Society, researchers concluded that reducing exposure to the compounds could prevent many women from developing the disease. The research team from five institutions analyzed a growing body of evidence linking environmental contaminants to breast cancer, the leading killer of U.S women in their late 30s to early 50s Experts say that family history and genes are responsible for a small percentage of breast cancer cases but that environmental or lifestyle factors such as diet are probably involved in the vast majority. "Overall, exposure to mammary gland carcinogens is widespread," the researchers wrote in a special supplement to the journal Cancer. "These compounds are widely detected in human tissues and in environments, such as homes, where women spend time." The

scientists said data were too incomplete to estimate how many breast cancer cases might be linked to chemical exposures. But because the disease is so common and the chemicals so widespread, "the public health impacts of reducing exposures would be profound even if the true relative risks are modest," they wrote. "If even a small percentage is due to preventable environmental factors, modifying these factors would spare thousands of women." In response to the findings, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer prevention group that funded the work, pledged an additional $5 million for developing research tools to root out environmental causes. Source: http://www.doksinet 6 Reviewing hundreds of existing studies and databases, the team produced what it called "the most comprehensive compilation to date of chemicals identified as mammary carcinogens." No new chemical testing was conducted for the reports. The researchers named 216 chemicals that

induce breast tumors in animals. Of those, people are highly exposed to 97, including industrial solvents, pesticides, dyes, gasoline and diesel exhaust compounds, cosmetics ingredients, hormones, pharmaceuticals, radiation, and a chemical in chlorinated drinking water. For many of the compounds, the federal government has not used animal breast cancer data when conducting human risk assessments, which are the first step toward regulating chemicals or in setting occupational standards to protect workers. Companies are not required to screen women who work with the chemicals for breast cancer. "Regulators have not paid much attention to potential mammary carcinogens," the researchers wrote. Ana Soto, a Tufts University professor of cell biology who specializes in cellular origins of cancer and effects of hormone-disrupting contaminants, said there probably was a link between breast cancer and exposures to chemicals in the environment, particularly early in life. "I cannot

say Im convinced, but what I can say is that its a very likely, very plausible hypothesis," said Soto, who did not participate in the new research. "More and more, cancer looks like an environmental disease." There are probably many more than 216 [breast cancer causing chemicals], the research team said, because only about 1,000 of the 80,000 chemicals registered for use in the United States have been tested on animals to see whether they induce cancerous tumors or mutate DNA. Such tests cost $2 million each. Emerging evidence suggests that the roots of breast cancer are in infancy or the womb. More animal and human research should focus on such early exposure, said Patricia Hunt, a Washington State University School of Molecular Biosciences professor. The reports are at www.silentspringorg/sciencereview Common Plastics Chemical Linked to Human Diseases Sep 16, 2008 By Michael Kahn http://www.reuterscom/article/healthNews/idUSLF18683220080916 LONDON (Reuters) - A

study has for the first time linked a common chemical used in everyday products such as plastic drink containers and baby bottles to health problems, specifically heart disease and diabetes. Until now, environmental and consumer activists who have questioned the safety of bisphenol A, or BPA, have relied on studies showing harm from exposure in laboratory animals. Source: http://www.doksinet 7 But British researchers, who published their findings on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed urine and blood samples from 1,455 U.S adults aged 18 to 74 who were representative of the general population. Using government health data, they found that the 25 percent of people with the highest levels of bisphenol A in their bodies were more than twice as likely to have heart disease and, or diabetes compared to the 25 percent of with the lowest levels. "Most of these findings are in keeping with what has been found in animal models," Iain Lang, a

researcher at the University of Exeter in Britain who worked on the study, told a news conference. "This is the first ever study (of this kind) that has been in the general population," Lang said. Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry group, said the design of the study did not allow for anyone to conclude BPA causes heart disease and diabetes. "At least from this study, we cannot draw any conclusion that bisphenol A causes any health effect. As noted by the authors, further research will be needed to understand whether these statistical associations have any relevance at all for human health," Hentges said in a telephone interview. A U.S Food and Drug Administration panel of outside experts on Tuesday will hear testimony on health effects from BPA as it reviews a draft report it issued last month calling BPA safe. "The study, while preliminary with regard to these diseases in humans, should spur U.S regulatory agencies to follow

recent action taken by Canadian regulatory agencies, which have declared BPA a toxic chemical requiring aggressive action to limit human and environmental exposures," Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri and John Peterson Myers of the nonprofit U.S-based Environmental Health Sciences, wrote in a commentary accompanying the study. BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic, a clear shatter-resistant material in products ranging from baby and water bottles to plastic eating utensils to sports safety equipment and medical devices. It also is used to make durable epoxy resins used as the coating in most food and beverage cans and in dental fillings. "Bisphenol A is one of the worlds most widely produced and used chemicals, and one of the problems until now is we dont know what has been happening in the general population," said Tamara Galloway, a University of Exeter researcher who worked on the study. Canadas government in April decided BPA was harmful to infants

and toddlers and announced plans to ban some products. [Dunn cut paragraphs for space reasons]