Strawberries Protect The Stomach From Alcohol

In an experiment on rats, European researchers have proved that eating strawberries reduces the harm that alcohol can cause to the stomach mucous membrane. Published in the open access journal Plos One, the study may contribute to improving the treatment of stomach ulcers.

A team of Italian, Serbian and Spanish researchers has confirmed the protecting effect that strawberries have in a mammal stomach that has been damaged by alcohol. Scientists gave ethanol (ethyl alcohol) to laboratory rats and, according to the study published in the journal Plos One, have thus proved that the stomach mucous membrane of those that had previously eaten strawberry extract suffered less damage.

Sara Tulipani, researcher at the University of Barcelona (UB) and co-author of the study explains that "the positive effects of strawberries are not only linked to their antioxidant capacity and high content of phenolic compounds (anthocyans) but also to the fact that they activate the antioxidant defences and enzymes of the body."

The conclusions of the study state that a diet rich in strawberries can have a beneficial effect when it comes to preventing gastric illnesses that are related to the generation of free radicals or other reactive oxygen species. This fruit could slow down the formation of stomach ulcers in humans.

Gastritis or inflammation of the stomach mucous membrane is related to alcohol consumption but can also be caused by viral infections or by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication (such as aspirin) or medication used to treat against the Helicobacter pylori bacteria.

Maurizio Battino, coordinator of the research group at the Marche Polytechnic University (UNIVPM, Italy) suggests that "in these cases, the consumption of strawberries during or after pathology could lessen stomach mucous membrane damage."

The team found less ulcerations in the stomachs of those rats which had eaten strawberry extract (40 milligrams/day per kilo of weight) for 10 days before being given alcohol.

Battino emphasises that "this study was not conceived as a way of mitigating the effects of getting drunk but rather as a way of discovering molecules in the stomach membrane that protect against the damaging effects of differing agents."

Treatments for ulcers and other gastric pathologies are currently in need of new protective medicines with antioxidant properties. The compounds found within strawberries could be the answer.

Furthermore, as well as scientists at the UNIVPM and the UB, others from the universities of Salamanca and Granada in Spain and of Belgrade in Serbia have participated in this research study. 

medicalnewstoday.com

Hospitalization For Heart Failure Among Medicare Patients Has Declined Substantially

Between 1998 and 2008, heart-failure related hospitalizations declined substantially among Medicare patients, but at a lower rate for black men, according to a study in the October 19 issue of JAMA. Also, 1-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remain high.

"Heart failure (HF) imposes one of the highest disease burdens of any medical condition in the United States with an estimated 5.8 million patients experiencing HF in 2006. The risk of developing HF increases with advancing age, and as a result, HF ranks as the most frequent cause of hospitalization and rehospitalization among older Americans. Heart failure is also one of the most resource-intensive conditions with direct and indirect costs in the United States estimated at $39.2 billion in 2010," according to background information in the article. "It is not known whether recent declines in ischemic heart disease and its risk factors have been accompanied by declines in HF hospitalization and mortality."

Jersey Chen, M.D., M.P.H., of the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn., and colleagues conducted a study that included data of 55,097,390 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized between 1998 and 2008 with a principal discharge diagnosis code for HF to identify trends in the HF hospitalization rate and 1-year mortality after HF hospitalization. The patients were from acute care hospitals in the United States and Puerto Rico. The average age of HF patients increased from 79.0 years to 79.9 years over the study period. There was a decrease in the proportion of female patients (58.9 percent to 55.7 percent) and increase in the proportion of black patients (11.3 percent to 11.7 percent).

An analysis of the data indicated that there was a relative decline of 29.5 percent of the overall risk-adjusted HF hospitalization rate from 1998 to 2008. Age-adjusted HF hospitalization rates declined over the study period for all race-sex categories, with black men having the lowest rate of decline.

Risk-standardized HF hospitalization rates in 1998 and 2008 varied significantly by state. The decline in this rate was significantly higher than the change in the national rate in 16 states and significantly lower in 3 states (Wyoming, Rhode Island, and Connecticut).

The researchers also found that risk-adjusted 1-year mortality decreased from 31.7 percent to 29.6 percent between 1999 and 2008, a relative decline of 6.6 percent, with substantial variation by state. There were 4 states with a statistically significant decline in 1-year risk-standardized mortality between 1998 and 2008 and 5 states with a statistically significant increase.

The authors add that because of the substantial decline in HF hospitalizations, compared to the rate of 1998, there were an estimated 229,000 HF hospitalizations that did not occur in 2008. "With a mean HF hospitalization cost of $18,000 in 2008, this decline represents a savings of $4.1 billion in fee-for-service Medicare."

The authors conclude that the overall decline in HF hospitalization rate was principally due to fewer individual patients being hospitalized with HF rather than a reduction in the frequency of HF hospitalizations. Also, the substantial geographic variation in HF hospitalization and 1-year mortality rates represent marked differences in outcomes that are not explained by insurance status. 

medicalnewstoday.com

Immediate rewards of quitting

Kicking the tobacco habit offers some benefits that you'll notice right away and some that will develop over time. These rewards can improve most peoples' day-to-day lives a great deal:

• Breath smells better
• Stained teeth get whiter
• Bad smelling clothes and hair go away
• Yellow fingers and fingernails disappear
• Food tastes better
• Sense of smell returns to normal
• Everyday activities no longer leave them out of breath (such as climbing stairs or light housework)

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When smokers quit -- What are the benefits over time?

20 minutes after quitting
Your heart rate and blood pressure drop.

(Effect of smoking on arterial stiffness and pulse pressure amplification, Mahmud A, Feely J. 2003. Hypertension:41:183)

12 hours after quitting
The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

(US Surgeon General's Report, 1988, p. 202)

2 weeks to 3 months after quitting
Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.

(US Surgeon General's Report, 1990, pp.193, 194,196, 285, 323)

1 to 9 months after quitting
Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) start to regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.

(US Surgeon General's Report, 1990, pp. 285-287, 304)

1 year after quitting
The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a continuing smoker's.

(US Surgeon General's Report, 2010, p. 359)

5 years after quitting
Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder are cut in half. Cervical cancer risk falls to that of a non-smoker. Stroke risk can fall to that of a non-smoker after 2-5 years.

(A Report of the Surgeon General: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease - The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease Fact Sheet, 2010; Tobacco Control: Reversal of Risk After Quitting Smoking. IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention, Vol. 11. 2007, p 341)

10 years after quitting
The risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a person who is still smoking. The risk of cancer of the larynx and pancreas decreases.

(A Report of the Surgeon General: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease - The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease Fact Sheet, 2010; and US Surgeon General's Report, 1990, pp. vi, 155, 165)

15 years after quitting
The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a non-smoker's.

(Tobacco Control: Reversal of Risk After Quitting Smoking. IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention, Vol. 11. 2007. p 11)

These are just a few of the benefits of quitting smoking for good. Quitting smoking lowers the risk of diabetes, lets blood vessels work better, and helps the heart and lungs. Quitting while you are younger will reduce your health risks more, but quitting at any age can give back years of life that would be lost by continuing to smoke.

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What are the types of leukemia?

Types of Leukemia

The types of leukemia can be grouped based on how quickly the disease develops and gets worse. Leukemia is either chronic (which usually gets worse slowly) or acute (which usually gets worse quickly):

• Chronic leukemia: Early in the disease, the leukemia cells can still do some of the work of normal white blood cells. People may not have any symptoms at first. Doctors often find chronic leukemia during a routine checkup - before there are any symptoms. Slowly, chronic leukemia gets worse. As the number of leukemia cells in the blood increases, people get symptoms, such as swollen lymph nodes or infections. When symptoms do appear, they are usually mild at first and get worse gradually.
• Acute leukemia: The leukemia cells can't do any of the work of normal white blood cells. The number of leukemia cells increases rapidly. Acute leukemia usually worsens quickly.

The types of leukemia also can be grouped based on the type of white blood cell that is affected. Leukemia can start in lymphoid cells or myeloid cells. See the picture of these cells. Leukemia that affects lymphoid cells is called lymphoid, lymphocytic, or lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia that affects myeloid cells is called myeloid, myelogenous, or myeloblastic leukemia.

There are four common types of leukemia:

• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL): CLL affects lymphoid cells and usually grows slowly. It accounts for more than 15,000 new cases of leukemia each year. Most often, people diagnosed with the disease are over age 55. It almost never affects children.

• Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML): CML affects myeloid cells and usually grows slowly at first. It accounts for nearly 5,000 new cases of leukemia each year. It mainly affects adults.

• Acute lymphocytic (lymphoblastic) leukemia (ALL): ALL affects lymphoid cells and grows quickly. It accounts for more than 5,000 new cases of leukemia each year. ALL is the most common type of leukemia in young children. It also affects adults.

• Acute myeloid leukemia (AML): AML affects myeloid cells and grows quickly. It accounts for more than 13,000 new cases of leukemia each year. It occurs in both adults and children.

Hairy cell leukemia is a rare type of chronic leukemia.

Hairy cell leukemia: A form of chronic leukemia in which malignant B-lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) are seen in the bone marrow, spleen, and peripheral blood and when viewed under the microscope, these cells appear to be covered with tiny hair-like projections. Hairy cell leukemia represents 2% of all leukemia.

The characteristic features of the disease include marked enlargement of the spleen (splenomegaly), low blood cell counts (pancytopenia), a relatively small number of circulating tumor cells with a hairy appearance, and infiltration of the spleen, liver, and bone marrow by the leukemic hairy cells.

Annexin A1 (ANXA1) is a gene that is unregulated in hairy cell leukemia. ANXA1 protein expression is specific to hairy cell leukemia. Detection of ANXA1 (by immunocytochemical means) provides a simple, highly sensitive and specific assay for the diagnosis of hairy cell leukemia.

Splenectomy (surgical removal of the spleen) provides palliation (some help but not a cure). Treatment is usually with drugs, principally interferon alfa and purine analogues such as cladribine and pentostatin. For resistant cases, a promising immunotoxin has been developed that targets CD22, a molecule expressed exclusively on the surface of B-cells, including virtually all hairy cells.

Hairy cell leukemia was first described in 1958 and was misleadingly called leukemic reticuloendotheliosis.

medicinenet.com

What is leukemia?

Leukemia is cancer that starts in the tissue that forms blood. To understand cancer, it helps to know how normal blood cells form.

Normal Blood Cells

Most blood cells develop from cells in the bone marrow called stem cells. Bone marrow is the soft material in the center of most bones.

Stem cells mature into different kinds of blood cells. Each kind has a special job:

White blood cells help fight infection. There are several types of white blood cells.

Red blood cells carry oxygen to tissues throughout the body.

Platelets help form blood clots that control bleeding.

White blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets are made from stem cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old or get damaged, they die, and new cells take their place.

The picture below shows how stem cells can mature into different types of white blood cells. First, a stem cell matures into either a myeloid stem cell or a lymphoid stem cell:

• A myeloid stem cell matures into a myeloid blast. The blast can form a red blood cell, platelets, or one of several types of white blood cells.
• A lymphoid stem cell matures into a lymphoid blast. The blast can form one of several types of white blood cells, such as B cells or T cells.

The white blood cells that form from myeloid blasts are different from the white blood cells that form from lymphoid blasts.

Leukemia Cells

In a person with leukemia, the bone marrow makes abnormal white blood cells. The abnormal cells are leukemia cells.

Unlike normal blood cells, leukemia cells don't die when they should. They may crowd out normal white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. This makes it hard for normal blood cells to do their work. 

medicinenet.com

Why should I quit?

Your health

Health concerns usually top the list of reasons people give for quitting smoking. This is a very real concern: smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Half of all smokers who keep smoking will end up dying from a smoking-related illness. In the United States alone, smoking is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths, and about 8.6 million people suffer from smoking-related lung and heart diseases.

Cancer

Nearly everyone knows that smoking can cause lung cancer, but few people realize it is also linked to higher risk for many other kinds of cancer too, including cancer of the mouth, nose, sinuses, voice box (larynx), throat (pharynx), esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, cervix, stomach, and acute myeloid leukemia.

Lung diseases

Smoking greatly increases your risk of getting long-term lung diseases like emphysema and chronic bronchitis. These diseases make it harder to breathe, and are grouped together under the name chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD causes chronic illness and disability, and gets worse over time -- sometimes becoming fatal. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis can be found in people as young as 40, but are usually found later in life, when the symptoms get much worse. Long-term smokers have the highest risk of developing severe COPD. Pneumonia is also included in the list of diseases known to be caused by smoking.

Heart attacks, strokes, and blood vessel diseases

Smokers are twice as likely to die from heart attacks as are non-smokers. Smoking is a major risk factor for peripheral vascular disease, a narrowing of the blood vessels that carry blood to the leg and arm muscles. Smoking also affects the walls of the vessels that carry blood to the brain (carotid arteries), which can cause strokes. Smoking can cause abdominal aortic aneurysm, in which the walls of the body's main artery weaken and separate, often causing sudden death. And men who smoke are more likely to develop erectile dysfunction (impotence) because of blood vessel disease.

Blindness and other problems

Smoking causes an increased risk of macular degeneration, one of the most common causes of blindness in older people. It promotes cataracts, which cloud the lens of the eye. It also causes premature wrinkling of the skin, bad breath, gum disease and tooth loss, bad-smelling clothes and hair, and yellow fingernails.

Special risks to women and babies

Women have some unique risks linked to smoking. Women over 35 who smoke and use birth control pills have a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and blood clots of the legs. Women who smoke are more likely to miscarry (lose the baby) or have a lower birth-weight baby. And low birth-weight babies are more likely to die, or have learning and physical problems.

Years of life lost due to smoking

Based on data collected in the late 1990s, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2 years of life and female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking. Each year, smoking causes early deaths for about 443,000 people in the United States. And given the diseases that smoking can cause, it can steal your quality of life long before you die. Smoking-related illness can limit your activities by making it harder to breathe, get around, work, or play.

Why quit now?

No matter how old you are or how long you've smoked, quitting can help you live longer and be healthier. People who stop smoking before age 50 cut their risk of dying in the next 15 years in half compared with those who keep smoking. Ex-smokers enjoy a higher quality of life. They have fewer illnesses like colds and the flu, lower rates of bronchitis and pneumonia, and feel more healthy than people who still smoke.
For decades the Surgeon General has reported the health risks linked to smoking. In 1990, the Surgeon General concluded:

• Quitting smoking has major and immediate health benefits for men and women of all ages. These benefits apply to people who already have smoking-related disease and those who don't.
• Ex-smokers live longer than people who keep smoking.
• Quitting smoking lowers the risk of lung cancer, other cancers, heart attack, stroke, and chronic lung disease.
• Women who stop smoking before pregnancy or during the first 3 to 4 months of pregnancy reduce their risk of having a low birth-weight baby to that of women who never smoked.
• The health benefits of quitting smoking are far greater than any risks from the small weight gain (usually less than 10 pounds) or any emotional or psychological problems that may follow quitting.

cancer.org

What do I need to know about quitting?

The US Surgeon General has said, "Smoking cessation (stopping smoking) represents the single most important step that smokers can take to enhance the length and quality of their lives."

Quitting smoking is not easy, but you can do it. To have the best chance of quitting and staying quit, you need to know what you’re up against, what your options are, and where to go for help. You'll find this information here.

Why is it so hard to quit smoking?

Mark Twain said, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times." Maybe you've tried to quit, too. Why is quitting and staying quit hard for so many people? The answer is nicotine. 

Nicotine

Nicotine is a drug found naturally in tobacco. It is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Over time, a person becomes physically dependent on and emotionally addicted to nicotine. The physical dependence causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when you try to quit. The emotional and mental dependence (addiction) make it hard to stay away from nicotine after you quit. Studies have shown that smokers must deal with both the physical and mental dependence to quit and stay quit.

How nicotine gets in, where it goes, and how long it stays

When you inhale smoke, nicotine is carried deep into your lungs. There it is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and carried throughout your body. Nicotine affects many parts of the body, including your heart and blood vessels, your hormones, the way your body uses food (your metabolism), and your brain. In fact, nicotine inhaled in cigarette smoke reaches the brain faster than drugs that enter the body through a vein (intravenously or IV). Nicotine can be found in breast milk and even in mucus from the cervix of a female smoker. During pregnancy, nicotine freely crosses the placenta and has been found in amniotic fluid and the umbilical cord blood of newborn infants.

Different factors affect how long it takes the body to remove nicotine and its by-products. In most cases, regular smokers will still have nicotine or its by-products, such as cotinine, in their bodies for about 3 to 4 days after stopping.

How nicotine hooks smokers

Nicotine causes pleasant feelings and distracts the smoker from unpleasant feelings. This makes the smoker want to smoke again. Nicotine also acts as a kind of depressant by interfering with the flow of information between nerve cells. Smokers tend to increase the number of cigarettes they smoke as the nervous system adapts to nicotine. This, in turn, increases the amount of nicotine in the smoker's blood.

After a while, the smoker develops a tolerance to the drug. Tolerance means that it takes more nicotine to get the same effect that the smoker used to get from smaller amounts. This leads to an increase in smoking over time. The smoker reaches a certain nicotine level and then keeps smoking to keep the level of nicotine within a comfortable range.

When a person finishes a cigarette, the nicotine level in the body starts to drop, going lower and lower. The pleasant feelings wear off, and the smoker notices wanting a smoke. If smoking is postponed, the smoker may start to feel irritated and edgy. Usually it doesn't reach the point of real withdrawal symptoms, but the smoker gets more uncomfortable over time. At some point, the person smokes a cigarette, the pleasant feelings return, and the cycle continues.

Nicotine withdrawal symptoms can lead quitters back to smoking

When smokers try to cut back or quit, the lack of nicotine leads to withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is both physical and mental. Physically, the body reacts to the absence of nicotine. Mentally, the smoker is faced with giving up a habit, which calls for a major change in behavior. Both the physical and mental factors must be addressed for the quitting process to work.

Those who have smoked regularly for a few weeks or longer, and suddenly stop using tobacco or greatly reduce the amount smoked, will have withdrawal symptoms. Symptoms usually start within a few hours of the last cigarette and peak about 2 to 3 days later when most of the nicotine and its by-products are out of the body. Withdrawal symptoms can last for a few days to up to several weeks. They will get better every day that you stay smoke-free.

Withdrawal symptoms can include any of the following:

• Dizziness (which may only last 1 to 2 days after quitting)
• Depression
• Feelings of frustration, impatience, and anger
• Anxiety
• Irritability
• Sleep disturbances, including having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, and having bad dreams or even nightmares
• Trouble concentrating
• Restlessness or boredom
• Headaches
• Tiredness
• Increased appetite
• Weight gain
• Constipation and gas
• Cough, dry mouth, sore throat, and nasal drip
• Chest tightness
• Slower heart rate

These symptoms can lead the smoker to start smoking cigarettes again to boost blood levels of nicotine back to a level where there are no symptoms. (For information on coping with withdrawal, see the section, "How to quit.")

Smoking also makes your body get rid of some drugs faster than usual. When you quit smoking, it may change the levels of these drugs, which can cause problems. Ask your doctor if any medicines you take need to be checked or changed after you quit.

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