by M.T. Whitney
(NewsTarget) To the surprise of scientists, while exposure to the sun's UV rays is the main cause of skin cancer, a recent study says some sunlight also can help prevent it.
The idea of sunlight helping prevent skin cancer may sound like a paradox, but the key is exposure in moderation, immunology scientists at Stanford University found.
Sunlight causes vitamin D to synthesize in the body, yielding some protection from the risk of skin cancer. The production of vitamin D is spurred on as an immunity response from the body receiving ultraviolet B (UVB) rays from sunlight.
Increased vitamin D has other health benefits to the body, but excessive UVB rays can damage the skin and raises the risk of skin cancer.
Most people can get the daily amount of vitamin D recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture by spending a half-hour to an hour outdoors, health experts told the web site HealthDay.com.
Spending some time in the sun is good for you, concurs consumer health advocate Mike Adams, author of the e-book "The Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D."
"The truth about sunlight is that sensible exposure actually prevents skin cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, depression and even osteoporosis," Adams said. "Sunlight is more powerful than any drug; it is safe, effective and available free of charge. If it could be patented, it would be hyped as the greatest medical breakthrough in history. It's that good."
The study, led by Stanford professor of pathology Eugene Butcher, correlates to another study by researchers at the University of New Mexico Cancer Research and Treatment Center from 2005 that suggested that people who get malignant melanoma but also have a high amount to daily sun exposure have a higher survival rate than people with less exposure.
Melanoma represents less than 5 percent of all skin cancers in the United States, but is responsible "for more than 75 percent of all skin cancer deaths," states the web site of the University of Maryland Medical Center
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by Ben Kage
(NewsTarget) Controversy about Human Papilloma Virus vaccines for young girls has exploded since Scottish health authorities announced in the summer that they were considering making them mandatory for 9-year-old girls, but while that plan was upended by parental concerns, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas recently mandated the shots for girls as young as 11 or 12.
By September of 2008, all girls in entering sixth grade in Texas will be required to be vaccinated with shots of Gardasil, the only HPV vaccine currently available, provided by drug-maker Merck. Merck itself has been lobbying to make the vaccines mandatory across the country after the government approved Gardasil in June of last year. A government advisory panel recommended that all girls aged 11 or 12 get the shot before they become sexually active, and 18 states are currently considering making the shots mandatory, but Texas is the first state to actually require the vaccines.
"This mandatory vaccination policy is a huge win for Merck, one of the wealthiest corporations in the world, but it's an enormous loss for the health of young girls and health freedom in general," explained Mike Adams, author of "Natural Health Solutions." "These pro-vaccine pushes are such obvious profiteering ploys by Big Pharma that I'm amazed anyone still buys into it."
Perry's stance on the vaccine is that it is the same as requiring polio vaccinations for children. Dr. Louis Cooper, a past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, backed up this assertion when he told the Los Angeles times that the vaccines for polio, measles, mumps and rubella that came out in the 1950s and '60s did not significantly affect disease statistics until the states made them mandatory for enrollment in schools.
Supporters of Perry's bill say Gardasil is a lifesaving drug, and point out that most insurance companies cover it. Another fact that has supporters backing the vaccine is that cervical cancer kills as many as 3,700 American women annually, and no serious side effects have yet been linked with the vaccine. There is an affidavit that Texas parents can fill out if they object on religious or philosophical grounds to their children having the shot, but many opponents say that this doesn't erase the mandate's obstruction of parental authority over medical decisions for children.
The virus known as HPV has more than 100 different strains, which are usually very treatable. Roughly 30 types of HPV are sexually transmitted and are the direct cause of as many as 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases, according to the American Society for Clinical Investigation. The fact that the virus is usually sexually transmitted is one reason why many people oppose making the vaccine mandatory. To be most effective, the vaccine has to be administered before a girl's first sexual experience, which has some conservative opponents claiming that administering the shots at such an early age is tantamount to giving permission for underage sex. Other opponents say the shots are a clear-cut case of patients' rights violation.
"It is an affront to the freedom of Americans and a form of medical enslavement by a system of government that is increasingly owned and operated by powerful corporations," Adams said. "Make no mistake, this isn't about public health, it's about exploiting the bodies of little girls to generate obscene corporate profits."
Gardasil is currently available at a cost of $360 per three-shot regimen, which means that the company would make billions of dollars if mandatory vaccines were implemented nationwide. Much of Merck's funds to this end are being focused through the women's advocacy group Women in Government, which is comprised of female state legislators from across the nation.
According to the Associated Press, Perry has connections to both Merck and Women in Government. His former Chief of Staff Mike Toomey is one of Merck's lobbyists in Texas; Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Texas, is a state director for Women in Government as well as the mother-in-law of Perry's current chief of staff, Dierdre Delisi; and Merck sent Perry $6,000 through its political action committee during his reelection campaign in 2005.
A similar proposal to Perry's mandate was brought before the government in Scotland, aimed at both girls and boys as young as 9, but was shot down by parents who complained that the vaccine was inappropriate for such young children. However, Scottish authorities are still considering the vaccine for girls aged 12 and older. Sen. Beverly Hammerstrom, R-Mich., also managed to push a mandatory HPV bill through the House and the Senate before a second vote by the House killed it.
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Thursday, February 08, 2007 by: David Gutierrez
Increasing vitamin D intake through sunlight, diet or supplements may decrease a person's risk of contracting breast cancer by 50 percent and of contracting colorectal cancer by more than 65 percent, according to two recent studies conducted at the University of San Diego.
The studies used meta-analysis to pool data from multiple previous studies, in order to increase precision and be able to draw conclusions that the original data did not allow. Researchers divided subjects into groups based on their blood levels of vitamin D, and compared the incidence of cancer between groups.
"The data were very clear, showing that individuals in the group with the lowest blood levels had the highest rates of breast cancer, and the breast cancer rates dropped as the blood levels ... increased," said Cedric Garland, co-author of one of the studies.
The blood level associated with a 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer could be reached by spending as little as 25 minutes in the sun for darker skinned people, or even 10 to 15 for lighter skinned individuals.
In the other study, researchers found that the same amount of sunlight corresponded with a two-thirds lower risk of contracting colorectal cancer.
"The evidence on the anti-cancer benefits of sunlight exposure and vitamin D are no longer deniable," said Mike Adams, author of "The Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D."
"The risk reduction of breast cancer is absolutely astounding, far out-performing even the most aggressively hyped cancer drugs such as Herceptin," Adams said. "Sunlight should be the number one prescribed medicine in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. It costs nothing, is extremely safe, and prevents numerous diseases including breast cancer, prostate cancer, depression, osteoporosis, diabetes and even heart disease."
The breast cancer study was published online in the most recent issue of the "Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology." The colorectal cancer study was published online in the February 6 issue of the "American Journal of Preventive Medicine."
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Friday, February 09, 2007 by: M.T.Whitney
NewsTarget) Cancer rates are still higher among black Americans compared to their white counterparts, according to recent statistics released by the American Cancer Society.
Rates among black men are higher by more than one-third over whites, and the rates for black women are higher by 18 percent. Blacks will represent almost 63,000 of the estimated 560,000 deaths of cancer in 2007, the ACS reports. They also will represent 153,000 of 1.7 million new cancer cases in 2007.
"African Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival rate of any other racial or ethnic group for most cancers," according to the ACS web site.
Mike Adams, a natural health advocate and published author, accused the medical profession of misinforming the black population about the benefits of sunlight, relating this to the higher prevalence of cancer among blacks.
"Blacks die from skin cancer at rates that far exceed whites because conventional medicine strives to keep black Americans in a state of ignorance concerning the need for sunlight and Vitamin D," Adams said. "Since dark skin pigmentation blocks Vitamin D synthesis in the skin, as many as 75 percent of blacks are chronically deficient in the anticancer vitamin. The way to save the lives of millions of black Americans over the next ten years is to tell the truth about sunlight and Vitamin D."
Most forms of cancer are more prevalent in blacks versus whites on an adjusted scale of rate per 100,000 people, however the few exceptions are cancers of the breast, skin, bladder and also leukemia, the report shows.
Overall, cancer rates among blacks have decreased overall for the past century. However, lung cancer rates have increased among black women and will be again the number one killer among the combined black population. The report states that this can be associated with the higher prevalence of smoking menthol cigarettes among the black population, which offer a less harsh feel of inhalation to the throat but are possibly more dangerous to the human body than a normal cigarette. In 2003, 27 percent of all cigarette sales were menthols, but around 70 percent of menthol cigarette sales go to blacks.
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