Thursday, April 23, 2015

Fwd: Food

'Being dangerously overweight is all down to bad diet rather than a lack of exercise, according to a trio of doctors who have reopened the debate about whether food, sedentary lifestyles or both are responsible for the obesity epidemic.

In an article for a leading health journal the authors – who include British cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, an outspoken critic of the food industry – accuse food and drink firms such as Coca-Cola of having wrongly emphasised how physical activity and sport can help prevent people becoming very overweight.

The truth, they say, is that while physical activity is useful in reducing the risk of developing heart disease, dementia and other conditions, it "does not promote weight loss".

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"In the past 30 years, as obesity has rocketed, there has been little change in physical activity levels in the western population. This places the blame for our expanding waistlines directly on the type and amount of calories consumed."

The authors add: "Members of the public are drowned by an unhelpful message about maintaining a 'healthy weight' through calorie counting, and many still wrongly believe that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise." '

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/22/obesity-owes-more-to-bad-diet-than-lack-of-exercise-say-doctors



 


Monday, April 20, 2015

Fwd: Liquid biopsy


'liquid biopsy and through recent and very expensive techniques the doctors might only need a blood sample in order to test for cancer DNA in the body. The test is able to find tiny traces of such DNA material in the patient's blood.

The thing with the blood draw is that it bears benefits for both the patient and the doctor; the patient goes to less trouble than undergoing a traditional biopsy or even a CT scan; and the oncologist can be sure about the efficiency of a treatment and it offers a more stable monitoring tool. If the treatment appears to be failing, oncologists will know to abandon it quicker, sparing the patient of unnecessary side effects and offering the possibility of trying out better alternatives...

The largest study so far used the test on 126 lymphoma patients – a study conducted by the National Cancer Institute. The results were published in The Lancet Oncology. Apparently, the test was so accurate that it could predict the reappearance of cancer with up to 3 months before CT scans could finally detect them.'

 

http://www.wallstreetotc.com/liquid-biopsies-offer-new-promises-in-cancer-detection-and-monitoring/217450/