Health Tips

The American Cancer Society named colon cancer the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in the U.S. Over 145,000 Americans are diagnosed annually. Approximately 60,000 are over 50, and ½ of those could have avoided cancer with testing.

In the average adult, the colon is 27 feet long, 22 feet in the small intestine and 5 feet in the large. It digests food and absorbs nutrients. Colon cancer does not begin as cancer but as painless sores in the lining of the colon. The most common sores are polyps, or abnormal growths of tissue. Many are benign, but those over 2 cm have potential of becoming malignant.
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For those in the West, cancer is seen as a scourge but a few modifications is all it takes to start on the road to a cancer reduced, if not a cancer-free diet.

Western diets consist of large amounts of red or processed meat. Add to these white bread and pasta with French fries and desserts with lashings of sugar, and you are on the way to a recipe for colon cancer.

Yet dietary adjustment is easy and need not be dramatic. All you need is the help of fruit and vegetables to turn this regular diet into a super anti-cancer diet.
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Irritable bowel syndrome is known as IBS. While most cases of IBS are treated with medication and reducing stress levels in lifestyle, others are more serious. These are Chron’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

The average colon is 27 feet long. It helps absorb nutrients while removing waste from the system. Ulcerative colitis is more common than Chron’s. It is confined to the large bowel while Chron’s includes both large and small intestine.

It begins with sores, also called ulcers, that form in the wall of the bowel. As they become irritated due to stress, diet, heredity, or unknown factors, they will cause the bowel wall to become inflamed.
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Health and Fitness for men and women is SO IMPORTANT to each of us. Over the past several generations our physical activity is threatened, men and women have become more dependent on our cars. How many of you only have one car in a family? I bet very few. How many of you do regular exercises during the week? Maybe a few more. It is estimated that only 15 – 20% get regularly exercise.

Eighty percent (80%) of us are not getting a reasonable amount of regular exercise. Fitness is not a priority. We are paying for this with the obesity epidemic, now into our grade schools as well as a significant rise in diabetes.

Some of the benefits of regular exercise are lowering your blood pressure, lower the risk of colon cancer, increase bone strength to prevent osteoporosis among other benefits.
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The following is a synopsis of the North American Menopause Society’s (NAMS) October 3, 2002 report on two recent studies of estrogen-progestin therapy for postmenopausal women. Even though the studies evaluated only one hormone combination, NAMS concluded that they are the first well-controlled, adequately powered reports.

The Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS) was a 4-year randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled study of 2,763 postmenopausal women (average age 67) with documented coronary heart disease (CHD), while the Women’s Health Initiate (WHI), begun in 1993, looked at 16,608 healthy postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79.

The WHI study was divided into two sections, a continuous-combined estrogen-progestogen therapy (CCEPT) section for women with a uterus, and an estrogen-only therapy (ET) section for women who had undergone a hysterectomy. The CCEPT section of WHI was terminated in July 2002 after 5 years of follow-up, because the overall risks exceeded the benefits. The ET arm of WHI continues, as do ancillary WHI studies evaluating memory, dementia, low-fat diet, calcium, and vitamin D.
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