A study that involved 5929 Swedish women, found a 33 percent to 57 percent lower risk for ER-negative cancer (the most aggressive type of breast cancer) than did those who drank less than one cup a day.

“Now, we don’t have all the details,” he cautioned. “We don’t know, for example, what specific type of coffee we’re talking about here. But what we do know is that the protective effect is quite striking and remains even after adjusting for a lot of other factors that have the potential to play a protective role. And we know that we’re talking about what we could call a relatively normal amount of coffee drinking. Certainly we’re not talking about consuming gigantic amounts of coffee. So, this is a very intriguing finding.”

HealthDay

Now the challenge is finding what it is in coffee that produces this protective effect, and if it will work with other types of cancer.

Many people when shopping for a convenient ready to eat meat at the grocery store would choose rotisserie chicken over hot dogs or pepperoni, but as it turns out in a new study, they’d be wrong. Surprisingly, according to a new study, hot dogs and similar meats like pepperoni and deli meats are relatively free from carcinogenic compounds, and rotisserie chicken would be the riskier option.

The carcinogens in question are heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are compounds found in meat that has been fried, grilled or cooked at high temperatures. Diets high in HCAs from meat increase people’s risk of stomach, breast and colon cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Researchers from Kansas State University tested the HCA levels of eight popular ready-to-eat meat products: beef hot dogs, beef-pork-turkey hot dogs, deli roast beef, deli ham, deli turkey, fully cooked bacon, pepperoni and rotisserie chicken.

Pepperoni had the lowest levels of HCAs; hot dogs and deli meat came in second. Overall, these products were low in HCAs, researchers said, while cooked bacon and rotisserie chicken meat had the highest levels. However, rotisserie chicken skin had the highest levels of HCAs overall.

But, before you go purchase pepperoni, consider that its low HCA levels may have to do with processing, which is in itself a health hazard. According to a KSU statement.

Remember, You cannot judge the danger of a food by its HCA content alone, which is based on the manner in which its been cooked. You also have to evaluate all those added ingredients, such as preservatives, flavoring, and food colors. Hot dogs, deli meats and bacon are notorious for their nitrite content, so even though they might be low in HCA’s, they are far from healthful.

Researchers are always looking for the magic bullet to kill cancer, and now they may have found it in a surprising place, a glass of beer! (Who knew?) It turns out that hops, which is the flavor component of beer, contains a cancer-fighting compound called xanthohumol.

Xanthohumol turns out to be toxic to several kinds of human cancer, including prostate, ovarian, breast, and colon. Further, it inhibits enzymes that can activate the development of cancer, and also helps detoxify carcinogens. It even seems to slow down tumor growth in the early stages. Scientists are trying to produce hops that contain even more xanthohumol, and the Germans are racing to develop a “health” beer.

Beers that provide the most benefits contain the most hops, and include strong brews such as ale, stout, and porter. In general, the darker the beer, the better. For those who can’t stand beer, herbal supplements made from hops contain the highest concentrations of beneficial elements.

NewsMax.com Health Alerts

Scientists have theorized for decades that stress and cancer are directly linked. A new study suggests that the hormones we produce while under stress increase the growth rates of a few very lethal forms of cancer.

The study showed that an increase in norepinephrine, a stress hormone, can stimulate tumor cells to produce two compounds. These compounds can break down the tissue around the tumor cells and allow the cells to more easily move into the bloodstream. From there, they can travel to another location in the body to form additional tumors, a process called metastasis.

The research also suggests the same hormone can also stimulate the tumor cells to release another compound that can aid in the growth of new blood vessels that feed cancer cells, hastening the growth and spread of the disease. The work was reported in the latest issue of the journal Cancer Research.

“This opens up an entirely new way of looking at stress and cancer that’s different from current interpretations,” explained Ronald Glaser, a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, and director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University .

A very interesting read, this article in Science Daily, gets one to think about the benefits of reducing stress in ones life.

Vitamin D3, which is technically a prehormone, has a whole host of benefits. This invaluable substance has a role in preventing or treating the following:

Cancer: It is now accepted that Vitamin D3 reduces the risk of seventeen types of cancer.

Multiple Sclerosis: It has been well demonstrated that the risk of MS increases rapidly the further away people live from the equator. The American Academy of Neurology has identified a lack of vitamin D as a predictable indicator in incidence of the deadly disease.
Diabetes
Heart Disease
Hyperparathyroidism
Hypertension
Mental illness
Osteoarthritis
Osteopourosis
Muscle weakness
Periodontal disease
Ulcerative colitis
Inflammatory bowel disease

The study authors established a strong link between vitamin D3 levels and telomere (protects the ends of chromosomes) length. They found that after taking into account the age of the subjects, women with higher vitamin D3 levels were more likely to have longer telomeres.

This meant that the telomeres in the subjects with high vitamin D3 levels were five years younger than the telomeres in the subjects with low vitamin D3 levels.

The researchers believe that the results demonstrate for the first time that people who have higher levels of vitamin D3 may age more slowly than people with lower levels of vitamin D3. (Vitamin Research Breaking News Nov. 20, 2007)

As with most nutrients in our food supply vitamin D has also almost completely vanished due to over-processing and bad farming. Supplements are your best bet, but make sure you’re using D3 (cholecalciferol).