Health Buzz: Colon Cancer Test Looks Like a 'Breakthrough'

April 28, 2010 RSS Feed Print

Colon Cancer Test May Be a "Breakthrough"

Sigmoidoscopy, a test that looks for and can remove polyps in the lower part of the colon, cuts cancer deaths nearly in half, according to a new study of 200,000 adults ages 55 to 64. Using the screening test, researchers found and removed polyps in 40,000 participants and saw colorectal cancers in that group drop by one third, BBC News reports. Death rates fell by 43 percent, they found after following the group for 11 years. Sigmoidoscopy may prevent one death per 400 screened, the researchers estimate. Harpal Kumar, head of Cancer Research UK, said of the results: "We don't often use the word breakthrough, but there is a tremendous opportunity to use this procedure to push bowel cancer back down the league table of cancer cases in the UK," BBC News reports. Results are published in The Lancet. [Read more: Bowel cancer test could save many lives, study suggests.]

Bad Health Habits Rob 12 Years From Life Span: 6 Ways to Boost Willpower

Don't smoke, don't drink (too much), eat right, exercise. We're all heard these credos and try our very best to follow them, but perhaps we now have a little more incentive: an extra 12 years of life. That's the finding of a new study published in yesterday's Archives of Internal Medicine, which found that the risk of dying increases significantly for those who smoke, exercise less than two hours a week, eat less than three daily servings of fruits and vegetables, and consume more than two drinks a day, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz reports.

Unfortunately, bad habits are really hard to break. That's why 90 percent of us fail to keep our New Year's resolutions. So what can we do to increase our willpower? Actually, quite a lot, say psychologists. It's all about learning to handle those urges that lead you to partake in unhealthful behaviors; handling them the right way actually spurs the development of certain brain regions making it easier to resist future cravings. [Read more: Bad Health Habits Rob 12 Years From Life Span: 6 Ways to Boost Willpower.]

Pediatricians Renew Push for Childhood Vaccines

Polio attacked Len Estin when he was 13 years old, at summer camp in the Poconos. The teenager had thought his sudden fever and muscle cramps were no big deal, and was terrified to find himself locked in a glass isolation cell in a New York City hospital, with his parents peering at him from the outside, U.S. News contributor Nancy Shute writes. There was no polio vaccine back then.

Estin's daughter, Alanna Levine, is now the mother of a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old, and she wants to make sure that their generation doesn't suffer from a resurgence of polio and other infectious diseases. Levine, a pediatrician who practices in Tappan, N.Y., is leading a new effort from the American Academy of Pediatrics to persuade parents that childhood vaccines are both safe and essential in protecting children from harm. She enlisted her dad to explain the realities of infectious disease to parents who have never seen a case of polio, measles, or mumps. "Our vaccination efforts have been so successful, these parents don't know what it looks like to have their children have these diseases," Levine says. "If we stop vaccinating, these diseases will return." [Read more: Pediatricians Renew Push for Childhood Vaccines.]

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