Myths about Cancer

My Dear Sexy Reader,

Today, I've decided to be a bit lazy in the writing department. But it's only because in doing my research I came across this article on emedecinehealth.com that I thought was perfect.
The original article is actually part of a Cancer file where you can found amazing information on about anything you've always wondered about cancer. Here it is:

Cancer Myths and Reality 

Myth #1
Progress for people with advanced cancer has been so slow because there is a conspiracy between the American Medical Association and drug companies. Some people with cancer and their families think doctors are keeping the cure for cancer under wraps so that money can be made from cancer treatments.

Reality #1

Does any reasonable person think that a cure for cancer would remain secret for long? Obviously not.

• Now, let's think about this for a moment. Nurses get cancer. Pharmacists get cancer. Physicians get cancer, as do family members of these professionals. With the Internet and high-speed modems, it is inconceivable that some scientist laboring in isolation in a bunker someplace will have a cure for this problem.
• The World Wide Web can be your best source for sound information (but also at times a repository for some of the worst). A cure for cancer does not exist in cyberspace, or in a clinic in Mexico, or with a healer in the Philippines.

Myth #2

We can put a man on the moon. We can send a rocket around Jupiter. Why can't we cure cancer?

Reality #2 

This question underscores a common misbelief that cancer is one disease. In fact, cancer is a group of hundreds of diseases. Each disease has a unique biological record, and each of which may be caused by very different circumstances. One "magic bullet" will not eradicate all types of cancers.

• A major study from the University of Chicago stated that the survival from cancer is no different now compared with 30 years ago. This is an extreme view because, in fact, people with cancer are living longer and clearly have a better quality of life than they did a generation ago. Today, 2 of every 3 of those diagnosed with cancer are alive more than 5 years following their diagnosis. In 1970, this was only true for about 1 in 3.
• We know this because some cancers are indeed curable, even in the far advanced stages as with testicular cancer, Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkins lymphomas, acute leukemia in both children and adults, and in a few other types of cancer.

Myth #3

If we can only hold on for a few more months, a cure will be on the horizon and all will be well.

Reality #3 

Although there have been spectacular advances in the treatment of cancer and although people are living far longer today than in any time in history, it is not reasonable to expect that, within the next years, there will be a "heat-seeking missile" or some magical vaccine to annihilate cancer. Progress against this dreaded group of diseases has been agonizingly slow, but it is moving forward in the right direction.

• Clinical trials and conventional therapies hold promise, but cure is not possible for most people with advanced cancer.
• But what is possible is a better quality of life because we now have far better treatments for pain, nausea, and vomiting than we did just a few years ago.

Of course, there are many more myths surrounding the complexities of cancer. If you are interested, feel free to leave me a comment with the myth or the info you may have heard and are not sure if it's true.

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

This article originally appears here:

Cancer: What you need to know

What's a gluten-free diet?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

First of all, I would like to wish you a fantastic New Year!!!!

A lot of people may feel that January is a good month to work on their New Year resolutions.

One of these may be to go gluten-free to help their body cope with the excess food they have accumulated during the holiday season.

Many of you will hopefully detect that the above sentence contains 3 non evidence-based facts*, but as I typed it, I felt strangely liberated like I could do something that would cancel out my overindulgence and Christmas sins!

I'm a greater believer though in knowing the truth and understanding our body (HERE), how it works (HERE and HERE) and how things we ingest (HERE, HERE or HERE) or slather on it do to us (HERE and HERE).

So if you'd like to know the scientific truth about gluten and gluten-free diets that supermarkets, unscrupulous nutritionists and restaurant owners purposefully don't share with you, please keep on reading... (Well, yes of course it's a new and very lucrative business...)

What is COPD?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

Do you know what COPD stands for? I think it's one of those things, if you don't know anyone affected by it, it's highly unlikely you would know about it. However the disease is fairly common unfortunately (estimated 3 million of people in the UK!) and has been attributed its own World Awareness Day - 19th November 2014.
Worldwide, COPD affects 329 million people or nearly 5% of the population.
In 2012, it ranked as the third-leading cause of death, killing over 3 million people.

World Diabetes Day - 14th November

My Dear Sexy Readers,

Did you Know that the World Diabetes Day is observed on the 14th of November?
Now this month is rich of disease awareness campaigns, so why should you bother reading about Diabetes?
Well first of all, as I wrote previously, it's very important to understand what is diabetes and what is the difference between the different types of diabetes:

What is Stress?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

First of all, I would like to thank Mica from Science Koekje for her blog lovin' and mentioning Science So Sexy in her latest blog article. If you don't know her yet, she's a beauty blogger from Germany based in Belgium (and I shall add "for Love"). You, my Sexy readers, might be interested in her review on her first Belgian BirchBox.

What is Psoriasis?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

I don't know about you my Sexy guys but I feel like once Halloween is done and dusted we are overwhelmed with special events in November!

But for now, let's talk about this week's awareness campaign!

This week (1-8 November) is not about cancer, it's about raising awareness for a condition that affects millions of us around the world: PSORIASIS.

What is Osteoporosis?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

Today we are addressing a request from a fellow blogger who posted about her newly diagnosed osteoporosis. Coincidentally, I have been working on this at work so I have all the scientific literature at hand AND on the 20th October is WORLD OSTEOPOROSIS DAY

Osteoporosis, the basics:
Osteoporosis is a common, skeletal disorder characterized by a lower bone mass and a deterioration of bone tissue. As a consequence, you are more susceptible to have an increase in bone fragility and are more prone to fracture.
The diagnosis of the disease relies on assessing the bone density which is considered as a marker for bone strength and can be predictive of risk fracture.*

Fracture sites

Common sites for osteoporotic fracture are the spine, hip, distal forearm (wrist) and proximal humerus (shoulder). The likelihood of a fracture at any of these sites is 40% or more in Western Europe, which is close to the probability of coronary heart disease.
Fractures can also happen at many other sites of course such a the pelvis, ribs and distal femur and tibia.

Common fractures sites

Approximately 50% of fracture-related deaths in women were due to hip fractures, 28% to clinical vertebral and 22% to other fractures.

Who's at risk?

Apart from medical conditions, there are some risk factors we cannot do anything about such as getting old (!). Other factors include gender (after menopause, female hormone deficiency leads to a rapid reduction in bone density), family history, a previous fracture, ethnicity (European or Asian ancestry has strong predisposition).
However, there are things that we do to ourselves that can influence our risk of fracture. These include smoking, heavy drinking, Vitamin D deficiency, low calcium intake, poor nutrition and eating disorders, imbalance between Omega-3 and -6.

What to do to avoid a fracture?

Essentially, some risk factors are unchangeable but a healthy lifestyle could potentially help you reduce your risk of fracture, such as eating well, not drinking too much, keeping a healthy weight and BMI, doing some daily exercise, bending smart (bending at the knee and not the waist), taking supplements.

Interventions

The most commonly used agents in Europe are raloxifene; the bisphosphonates (alendronate, ibandronate, risedronate and zoledronic acid); agents derived from parathyroid hormone; denosumab; and strontium ranelate. They have all been shown to reduce the risk of vertebral fractures and in some cases, some of these agents have been shown to specifically decrease the risk of fracture at the hip.

Do you know someone who suffers from osteoporosis? What do you think of the fact that the healthy lifestyle is again given as advice to reduce risks?

Let me know, my Sexy Readers, in the comment box below. Soon, we'll have Seran's second post up, it will focus on baby's immunisation programme! A contentious topic, so don't forget to come back soon to check it out ;)

See you soon for more Sexy Science,

* It's very important not to fall for "low bone density=fracture".
To use an analogy we might be more familiar with:
Blood pressure - Hypertension - Stroke:
Although we cannot directly link high blood pressure to the inevitability of a stroke, we measure our blood pressure to diagnose a hypertension which put us at a higher risk of a stroke.
The same way here:
Bone density - bone strength - fracture
We measure the bone density to diagnose bone fragility which puts us at a higher risk of a fracture.

Further reading
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Osteoporosis/Pages/Prevention.aspx
http://www.iofbonehealth.org/world-osteoporosis-day

National Eczema week 13-21 September 2014

My Dear Sexy Readers,

If you suffer from eczema, you will know how frustrating it can be and how hard it is to avoid scratching!  But you are not alone - it is estimated that 5 million people in the UK suffer from some form of this inflammation of the skin.
While some may have a few patches of eczema around the body, there are many different kinds of this dermatitis, some of which can really affect your day to day living.

We already addressed this subject in an earlier post with the amazing participation of Sugarpuffish.

But I thought I would draw your attention to it this week as this is National Eczema week, so maybe we can share some stories to raise awareness between us Sexy blog readers :)

I'll start.
When my son was born, I met a lot of new friends, I call them my Mummy besties. One of them, her son was badly affected by eczema. She tried everything, every cream. She was breastfeeding her child so she also took notice of what she was ingesting. Slowly, one scab at a time, his eczema cleared and at 2 years of age, he is the most beautiful little blondie blue-eyed boy you could meet. Now and again, his eczema flairs up like for example, when they went on holiday, he was constantly scratching the small of his back because of nappy heat rash. It is difficult to pin point the reason for his eczema and to know if it will flair up again later on in life, but help is out there, and awareness days or weeks like this one are important for everyone!


What about you, do you suffer from Eczema, or do you know anyone who is?

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

"I am not the Cancer" Art Installation

My Dear Sexy Readers,

I feel privileged to have been invited to the "I am not the Cancer" Art installation in Central London part of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign commissioned by Novartis.
I used to go to scientific conferences all over, sporting a badge with my name and my research lab on it. But this time, I was invited as a Science Writer! How exciting to be recognized for your work!

I was contacted through LinkedIn by a member of the Breast Cancer Care. This charity raises awareness and funds for the care of women affected by Breast Cancer whose disease has become metastatic.
Before being taken through to the art installation, we were welcomed in a reception area where we were presented with the results of the Here and Now campaign.

The Here and Now campaigns are surveys commissioned by Novartis Oncology. In the UK, with 60 respondents living with advanced breast cancer and distributed in April and May 2014, the objectives are to understand the challenges experienced by the patients at each stage of their journey and understand the barriers to improved patient outcomes.

Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, and accounts for a third of all new cancers diagnosed in women in UK!
A third of women with early breast cancer (EBC) go on to develop Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC).
ABC is uncurable and affects an estimated 30,000 women in the UK each year.
Average life expectancy after ABC diagnosis remains at 2 to 4 years, compared to 10 years for early breast cancer.

Here and Now Survey Results
The results of the HERE and Now UK survey were presented to us by Honey Langcaster-James, a lecturer in Psychology from the university of Hull. The results show that women with ABC often feel like many areas of their lives are negatively affected, such as their emotional health, the relationships with friends, family and partner.  Up to one in 3 women with ABC feel they do not receive enough support from their friends or parents.

Patients with ABC require a high degree of social and psychological support. 2 out of 3 women feel like no one understands what they are going through and that it's hard to find support groups for ABC. They feel isolated from other support groups that focus on Early Breast Cancer (EBC). With time, the support they received from friends and family when first diagnosed has faded.

Although, the majority of patients said they received enough support from nurses and their oncologists, they want more time to discuss their wider needs and get help to arrange for these such as emotional and financial support.

Regarding treatments, more work is needed to ensure greater access to new treatments for ABC patients. Almost half of the patients surveyed would like to know more about new treatments but are unsure of who to talk to, some of them don't even feel empowered to make their own decisions.

"These results call for Action... Health Care professionals (HCP) need to understand they can do more... Payers, regulators, commissioners need to work to improve the landscape... We need patient support groups... The Public needs to be aware." said Honey Langcaster-James

Leading UK experts
Gill Donovan, Breast Oncology Nurse specialist and Research Fellow at Cardiff University, also shared her experience with us. She explained that treatment options are not the same depending on your geographical location, the access to new treatments is limited because of costs. Although, she explained, nurses need to balance optimism and realities, one important role to play is the need to give hope, to concentrate on the living and not on the dying.

" We need a service to be redesigned on how to deal with the variety of tasks such as explain treatments, refer to appropriate services, talk to patients, manage their anxiety, manage emotional and physical effects" she says.

Diana Jupp, Director of Services at Breast Cancer Care, says the charity continues to campaign to improve the standards of care for people living with this complex disease. In the UK, we had 5 specialist nurses; this number increased to 32 recently. But it's 32 in the whole of UK! There's a lot of work to be done, collecting data in England, network with Wales and Scotland, sharing good practice, installing policies. A sentiment shared by Baroness Morgan of Drefelin who also came to talk to us about her continuous work to influence politics into opening up to ABC awareness.

The art installation
Then, we were led to the art installation itself: It consisted of 6 TV screens showing face and back of the head of 3 silent patients suffering from advanced breast cancer. Opposite each TV screen was a comfortable armchair; and above each armchair was a speaker from which you could hear their devastating story. So to hear their story, you had no choice but to sit in this armchair and look in the eyes of this silent patient on the TV screen (not a comfortable thing to do). The point of this art installation was to make you realize that, however uncomfortable it is, that’s how we should support friends and family as opposed to using escapism as a coping method. This art installation was created to make you feel differently, to question yourself in order to make you behave differently.


Are you affected by advanced breast cancer? Through a friend, family member, yourself? Were you aware of the lack of support for these patients? As usual, let me know in the comments box,

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

Further reading
http://www.novartis.co.uk/news/featured-news/20140430-here-and-now.shtml

What is Sarcoma?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

I stumbled upon this while working on a writing test for a job application (! I know, totally random!): this week 23-29 June 2014 - yeahhhh I'm not too late - is Sarcoma Awareness week!! I'm glad I found this because, although I knew the name, I didn't really know much about Sarcomas. And you know me, I love learning about new things and sharing it all with you.
This year's campaign is about Getting People "On the ball" for sarcoma. What is it? It's simple, you just download a Poster from their web page and order your "On the Ball" pack to bring to your GP to make him/her more aware of symptoms, signs, etc... I couldn't find any # to go with the campaign but if you type Sarcoma on the ball on Twitter, you get some results!

You can download this poster yourself from HERE and bring to your GP, along with an info pack

Sarcoma Fact Sheet (borrowed from the Sarcoma website)
Sarcoma is a group of rare-ish cancers that develop in the muscle, bone, nerves, cartilage, tendons, blood vessels and the fatty and fibrous tissues.

There are around 100 different sub-types of sarcoma

There are around 3,800 new cases of sarcoma diagnosed each year in the UK

There are 13,000 people living with sarcoma in the UK

Sarcomas make up 15% of all childhood cancers (0-14 years) and 11% of all cancer diagnoses in teenagers and young people (15-24 years)

Sarcomas make up 1% of all cancer diagnoses in the UK

If you are interested or just want to know more about Sarcomas, check the charity's designated web page over HERE


Did you know about Sarcoma? Do you feel we should get more involved in the awareness campaign to get GPs to recognise signs and symptoms? Feel free to share your experience in the comments box, thank you for dropping and...

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

Further Reading
http://www.sarcoma.org.uk/

What is Diabetes?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

I've been working on the second installment of #MyBodyDoesWhat series which will be a new infographic on Pancreas (Previous ScienceSoSexy infographics)! Little did I know that beginning of June was Diabetes week. How timely am I? - Well, I'm 2 weeks too late, but it could be worse, right?! (If you don't know what Pancreas and Diabetes have in common, keep reading ;)

8th - 14th June was the week chosen to raise awareness to this common life-long health condition. This year, using the different social media platforms, the word was #ican! An initiative to show help and support to anyone with diabetes by gathering examples of things that this condition will never let you stop from doing. Check out their live story stream over HERE.

3.2 million people are diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and an estimated 630,000 people have the condition, but don’t know it. In the world, the diabetic population stands at 365 million people, representing around 8.5% of the global population.

Diabetes is when our body either doesn't make enough insulin (produced by our pancreas) or cannot use its own insulin properly to help get the sugar (coming from food or our liver) to move from our blood into the cells of our body, causing build up of that sugar in our bloodstream.

The Insulin binds to its Receptor and makes the Glucose transporter move to the cell surface where it can open up a passage to let the Glucose come inside the cell. If there's no insulin or the receptor doesn't recognize or respond to it, the Glucose is stuck in the blood and accumulates = Diabetes

There are 2 types of diabetes
Type 1 is when the body doesn't produce insulin. It requires insulin to treat, is typically developed as a child or young adult, and is a disease that destroys pancreatic cells meaning no insulin production is possible.

Type 2 is when the body doesn't produce enough insulin or the insulin produced is not working properly. It is considerably more common and typically affects people over the age of 45, who are also overweight.

If you have followed my first #MyBodyDoesWhat infographic, you know that I'm going to use this series to explore what our body does because seriously it is freakishly genius. I think I should know more about it so I thought I would share with my Sexy Readers whatever info I gather! My second installment on Pancreas is basically "in the making" stage.

In the meantime, if you would like to share your own experience with fellow readers, feel free to hit the comments box, so

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

Further reading
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/