I love this time of year

There is so much optimism in the health news this time of year (not so much the rest of the news especially with the ongoing European terrorism).  What I am referring to is the deluge of advice on flatten belly fat, eat healthier, and, my favorite,  how to really lose weight.

As with everything on the internet, we must take these with a grain of salt (and possibly a large margarita as well). Eating healthier does include eating more vegetables but I do that. I mean how many vegetables do I need in a day? And will it make all my ailments go away? They are what contribute to my unhealthy body. Because of my ailments, I spend too much time sitting on my butt and too little time hiking, skiing, snow shoeing, walking, etc.

I need real advice on how to be healthier and this is what I have come up with for me this January.

1. Attempt to go for a walk at least once a week. If I can do that, I can increase my weekly exercise quota. But its not really a reality. Some weeks I just cannot add in a walk because I feel crappy so much of the time.
2. Stop eating the crap at work. 

I work in a small office 15-18 hours/3 days a week. It is family run and wonderful. But I have never worked in an office with so much junk food, even when I worked for a candy company (Fanny Farmer Candy Shops) and was responsible for all the samples for photo shoots. Even the owners joke about the office 10 lb weight increase.

This week for example, the office manager had a sugar craving and went to the bakery next door and came back with an entire blueberry coffee cake (and a giant cookie for herself). Plus the (giant warehouse store containers of) brownies and cream puffs someone else brought in .

I think if I can attain those two goals, I will be a thinner happier person. I did breakdown yesterday and had a piece of coffee cake, left over Chex mix, and some goldfish. But in avoiding the crap for a couple weeks, the scale had started to move in the right direction.

So I am going to skip the healthy news this year, unless a cure for cancer, fibromyalgia, and rheumatoid arthritis are announced, and stop eating the junk food at work.

Cancer death rates down but...

Cancer death rates are down for the more 'popular' cancers in general in the last few decades. But then the old 80/20 rule kicks in and these cancers get most of the research and as a result the 'unpopular' cancer death rates aren't really going anywhere.

So here's an article on how colon cancer rates are down. It used to be the most common cancer killer in the US. Now it is dramatically down because of screening - those lovely colonoscopies that we all love so much.

However as this Australian article points out the cancers that are not as common, don't have ribbon decorated walks, runs, months, etc, often don't get as much funding and the death rates haven't budged. These cancers include:

Although these numbers refer to Australia and the video includes the comment that people leave the country for elsewhere for treatment for these under researched cancers, I think that the proportion is probably similar elsewhere. And the point is still valid - the cancers that do not receive the research dollars are the ones where the death rates have not declined.

Another area where research dollars are lacking is in metastatic cancer - cancer which has spread and cannot be cured. For example, a very small portion of breast cancer research dollars goes to metastatic breast cancer research. Yes metastatic breast cancer is incurable but if there was more research, patients might live longer and more comfortably.

It seems to me that cancer research gets to the point of here are clues on its origin but less information and research is done on how its spread. I know researchers are trying to find how to stop metastases and there is a long way to go.

So while the big picture may get a nice rosy hint in the news headlines, there are details behind it which aren't quite as bright.
 

Warning - Smart phones are dangerous

"People are risking their health by working on smartphones, tablets and laptops after they have left the office, according to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy."

No, they don't (think they) they cause brain tumors. Its much much worse! They hurt their..... [insert drum roll]... posture! I first read this article a couple of days ago and still find it intriguing in the sense of overhype of stupid bits of news.

"It says people have become "screen slaves" and are often working while commuting or after they get home.

The society said poor posture in these environments could lead to back and neck pain."

Here's the advice:

"Unions said people needed to learn to switch off their devices."

That's it. Use the off switch. Tell your boss to take a hike and stop bugging you after hours - unless you really have a critical profession and the world might come to an end if you didn't check your email or voice mail or catch the latest Kardashian gossip on Twitter.

The chairwoman of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Dr Helena Johnson, said the findings were of "huge concern".

She said: "While doing a bit of extra work at home may seem like a good short-term fix, if it becomes a regular part of your evening routine then it can lead to problems such as back and neck pain, as well as stress-related illness. 

"This is especially the case if you're using hand-held devices and not thinking about your posture. Talk to your employer if you are feeling under pressure."

The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Brendan Barber, said: "Excessive work levels are not good for anyone. Overworked employees are not only unlikely to be performing well at work, the stress an unmanageable workload causes is also likely to be making them ill.

"By the time someone is so overloaded they constantly feel the need to put in extra hours every night of the week at home, things have clearly got out of hand.

"Individuals who find themselves unable to leave their work in the office should talk to their managers and learn to switch off their smartphones."

This is a real article from BBC. I personally find the article a prime example of the decay of modern society (did I really use that phrase?) Well anyway, here's my thoughts on why this is so bad.

1. Overuse of hype. Good posture is a good thing and we all knew that. Our parents always said 'stand up straight'. But I think the problem is a bit overinflated here. Its not a medical disaster.

2. I don't call it a medical issue anyway. Its a management issue. Unless your job requires it and you knew it signing up, you should not be 'on call' in the evenings and on weekends. Its time management for you and management for your boss.

3. I question how newsworthy this is anyway. I mean there's a lot more going in the world - SJC ruling on healthcare, Syria and Turkey, research on the cure for cancer.

Posture is less of a concern to me than cancer. Sorry. Since my smart phone isn't going to kill me off anytime soon and my back already hurts, posture is low on my priority list.

I'm aggravated

Or maybe I am irritated. I'm not sure. It may be a case of reused 'not-so-new' news. Last night I was watching the evening news and there was a 'Medical Minute' on that said that there are issues with taking Aromatase Inhibitors after breast cancer. I didn't catch the whole thing and wanted to go see it again online and I CAN'T FIND IT!

The topic was something about the benefits vs. the toxicity of the AIs and their prevention of a recurrence vs. Tamoxifen. I am all confused. I am on an AI. If its toxic I want to know. If its not helping me I would like to know. I don't go back to my oncologist for a bit and would like to educate myself in the meantime to figure this one out.

The media has the habit of rehashing 'not-so-new' news when they need to so this may not even be something that hasn't been discussed 10,000 times before. But I would like a little confirmation here.

I will be either aggravated or irritated or both in the meantime.

Thank you Betty

Yesterday Betty Ford died. She was 93 which is a ripe old age if you ask me. In 1974 she talked about breast cancer, her diagnosis and mastectomy. That was 37 years ago if you do the math.

She was the first to bring breast cancer out in public. Before she did, no one talked about it. She deserves a lot of thanks for this. She let her story be told publicly in an article in Time. The results of her going public and tell her story became evident fairly quickly. Two weeks after she talked to Time magazine, Happy Rockefeller, wife of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, did a self examination and discovered lumps and was diagnosed with breast cancer herself. She credited Betty Ford with encouraging her to do a self examination.

She did not die from breast cancer even though she was diagnosed with it.

This is not news

Um, this is not news. This is old news so do we call it 'olds' instead of news? This is a report that early stage breast cancer patients don't need to have all the lymph nodes removed. And by the way, we are NOT victims - yes that word is used in this article!

I do not mean to focus on this article specifically (other than the use of the word 'victim') but I often wonder why news is rehashed and reaired and rerun. We all know some stories consider to evolve - for example this week Paris Hilton did admit the cocaine that she previously denied was hers is hers and Lindsay Lohan now has a warrant out for her arrest. (Maybe they can compare the issues of not having enough make up and hair care products in jail - a new reality series in the making???) But I digress.

Some stories are continually evolving - five months later BP has managed to cap that well - but others seem to be rehashed again and again. Did I read that yesterday? Probably... Its not your brain, its just the same story being reported again.

My favorite is they tell you at 5pm what they will have on the news at 11. Why don't they just tell you at 5 what they know instead of expecting you to wait six hours to find out. Most people will just opt to read it the next day online...

I think we are at a point where the capacity to air news has exceeded our capacity to create news. Continual 24/7 coverage of the latest natural disaster doesn't mean the snow is any deeper, the hurricane has created even bigger surf, or the earthquake devastation was any different than it was ten minutes ago. It means they tell us over and over again in case we were idiots or were taking a little break a few minutes ago.

This over capacity has created the problem that the viewer learns to blank out the reiterations of the same stories. Then the newscasters figure out they are being ignored and try to blow it more out of proportion and we ignore it even more - a vicious cycle is born.

Do we need a limit for the number of times a story can be rehashed and rerun? Or do we just learn to block it out? I don't know. But I do know in the meantime, no one should ever use the word 'victim' when referring to someone with cancer or any kind of illness.

How am I supposed to keep up?

As a relatively average American (well maybe slightly different than average due to my medical crap), how I am supposed to keep up with all the latest medical news. This morning alone I found.

1. Glucosamine is no help for lower back pain.
2. Fish oil may help prevent breast cancer.
3. Diet cola drains calcium in women

I found these in just a couple of minutes. But this is representative of the amount of medical news found daily. Some of it is unfounded - for example the fish oil study is not yet proven and based on a single study and needs more research. We get bombarded by medical news and those of us to whom it might apply feel we have to read it and ask 'does it apply to me?'. The sheer amount news is difficult to keep up with. So we resort to the path of least resistance and start ignoring the news.

So is the sheer volume of news forcing the average American to rely on sound bites instead of reading in depth? Is the volume of news now available from so many sources causing its own demise? In this internet age, news is available all the time, from all over the world, from thousands of sources. What happened to reading the daily newspaper and watching the evening news for half and hour and being able to keep up? I have enough problems keeping up with my calendar much less all the news. I will ignore it for the rest of the day.

Today my back is protesting sleeping in air conditioned comfort. We have slept for the past two nights in the first floor room on the futon where the window AC unit is. At 430 this morning, I got up and moved up stairs to the comfortably cool bedroom with the comfy memory foam mattress topper but it is too late. This will be a bad back pain day. It will make working for 8 hours doubly enjoyable.

Breast cancer in the news

This morning's news has two articles on breast cancer.

1. There is an impending shortage of a necessary isotope which is used in 'procedures' to diagnose breast and other cancers. 2/3 of the world wide supply comes from one reactor which has been shut for repairs and will reopen in April. The balance comes from another reactor which is closing this month. There are talks to find another source in Poland but nothing is signed yet. A shortage means a return to older, less advanced tests. Clearly this demonstrates the need for market competition and multiple sources for specific items. Isotopes have half lives and decay which means they can't be stock piled in advance. Well, get those negotiations going with the third plant. We don't need a return to less advanced techniques.

2. Can taking aspirin reduce the chance of breast cancer recurrence? They say yes, well, maybe, well, we are not sure, possibly, but don't start taking aspirin daily yet unless you talk to your doctor. This is a classic case of 'we-don't-quite-know-what-we-are-talking-about-yet-but-it-sounds-good-and-we-think-it-eventually-will-lead-to-something-and-we-need-some-coverage-so-maybe-we-will-get-some-funding-for-research-and-eventually-have-a-concrete-answers'. Call me a cynic but I do feel we hear these stories about promising new research and then never seem to hear them put into standard treatment protocols. And what about me? I am on anti-inflammatories for my back and if this study is based on the anti-inflammatory properties of aspirin, am I getting a similar protection? Because of my anti-inflammatory, I can't take aspirin products currently.

Too much time in medical facilities causes cynicism and stress and scanxiety and surgical scarring and impatience and generally overall crabbiness.

But today is another day. We got another snow storm yesterday so I worked from home and went to the gym after going to my therapist. I also made a giant pot of soup - yum! This morning I get to go to the dentist and then to work. How fun. What a combination. No replies from my doctor yet on the ultrasound but its only Wednesday.