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Published in the June 25 issue of the International Journal of Cancer, received little attention. Danish researchers published a new study, showing many cases in which cancer patients, particularly those with lung cancer, discovered they had a tumor after being referred for psychiatric care. But it was actually an important finding because it gives us a new way to look at one of the hot issues in cancer treatment right now,  the problem of lung cancer going undiagnosed until it’s well advanced and nearly impossible to cure.

The study, which followed 4,320,623 people in Denmark for 10 years, showed that when people ages 50 to 64 were referred to a psychiatrist for the first time in their lives, the reason often turned out to be an undetected malignancy.

The overall cancer incidence was highest in those over 50 years of age admitted with a first-time mood disorder—one out of 54 patients turned out to have a malignant cancer diagnosed within the first year. Among those 50 to 64, the overall incidence of cancer was increased almost four fold, and the incidence of brain tumors was increased 37 times.

The most common kind is small celled and often isn’t diagnosed until it’s Stage 3 or 4. A common site for this type of lung cancer to metastasize, or spread, is to the brain.

What other early signs should you watch for to try to catch lung cancer as early as possible?

• Persistent cough or hoarseness
• Deep chest pain when you cough or laugh
• Shortness of breath or wheezing
• Reddened, rust-colored or bloody phlegm
• Getting recurrent infections, like pneumonia or bronchitis
• Thickened, painful fingertips (caused by abnormal bone growth)
• Weight loss or lack of appetite
• Abnormal breast growth in men
• Mood swings, depression or lethargy in someone who hasn’t been depressed before
• Sudden onset of irritability, aggression and temper; could be characterized as “everything gets to him.”

Many of these symptoms sound vague, or could indicate a number of other conditions or other cancers. But trust your gut; if you or someone you love is feeling or behaving in a way that’s out of character, see the doctor about it. In the case of lung cancer, this is particularly important for anyone with a history of smoking.

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Your Personality : Certain traits, like rigidity, reserve and obsessing may make you headache-prone. If that sounds like you, it could be time to sign up for relaxation training.

Your Weight : In a recent study, researchers found that women with mild obesity (a body mass index of 30) had a 35% greater risk of headaches than those with a lower BMI. Severe obesity (BMI of 40) upped the chances to 80%.

Dehydration : You don’t have to drink gallons of water to stay hydrated. Other sources come from fruit & vegetables.

Three Day Vacation : Weekend or “let-down” headaches can happen when you take a break from your routine Ease into the change by keeping your sleep time as normal as possible. You’ll end up feeling more rested than if you stay in bed until noon. 

Painting : It’s not just arguing over paint colors that can give you a headache; fumes from traditional paints can trigger pain. Many companies now make nearly odorless, low-VOC (volatile organic compound) formulas, like Benjamin Moore’s Natura line or Devoe’s Wonder Pure.

Skipping Meals : We know you’re busy, but hunger is a common headache trigger.

Inactivity : A recent Swedish study showed that those who were inactive were more likely to get headaches than those who worked out. Aim for 20 to 30 minutes of cardio a day, five days a week, to relieve stress, send blood to the brain, and get feel-good endorphins flowing. Exercise may be a trigger for some people, so consult your doc first.

Caffeine Overdose : A little can help headaches but too much can trigger them.  If caffeine is causing your pain, gradually cut back until you have caffeine no more than two days a week.

Sleep Deprived : One large study says those who slept an average of six hours a night tended to have significantly more severe and more frequent headaches than those who got more z’s.

Feeding Your Headache: Everyone reacts differently, but some foods are known to trigger headaches for many people—and others (especially those rich in magnesium) seem to help prevent them. Eat: Spinach, tofu, oat bran, barley, fish oil, olive oil, white beans, sunflower and pumpkin seeds
Avoid: Red wine, beer, MSG, chocolate, aged cheese, sauerkraut, processed meats like pepperoni, ham and salami

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We have a crisis on our hands in the United States: Since 1980, Obesity has more than tripled among adolescents and youth.  Kids that are overweight are more likely to have high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and asthma. Not to mention other negative effects, like developing a poor body image or low self-esteem & increasing chances of being teased or discriminated against.
Start by choosing better foods for your family. Foods that are low in fat, sugar and calories but high in vitamins are good choices, as well as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, low fat milk, lean meat, beans, eggs and nuts.
Foods that are high in fat, sugar, calories and low in vitamins and nutrients should be avoided, or eaten in moderation.

Pair that with increasing physical activity, by getting regular exercise to use up the calories taken in during the day, and your child will be on his or her way to better health.

Another way to encourage activity is reduce the time your child spends on the computer or in front of the television. According to WeCan! Parents should set a good example as well as set rules to limit the time kids sit in front of a screen. A few tips to help reduce TV time include removing televisions from bedrooms, turning off the TV for meals, and setting time limits for TV and other screens.

An active kid is less likely to have weight issues. Help slow down the obesity crisis, starting with our kids.

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When praying or meditating in a mindful state, your brain produces alpha and theta waves consistent with serenity and happiness, allowing your harried thoughts to have a reprieve. Prayer and meditation can cause a generalized reduction in multiple physiological and biochemical markers resulting in decreased heart and respiration rate, decreased plasma cortisol (a major stress hormone), decreased pulse rate, and increased EEG (electroencephalogram). Ground breaking research is revealing that these disciplines can also literally reconfigure the brain biology, triggering biochemical and neurological changes that are therapeutic.  This reconfiguring can make a big difference in one’s health and well-being.  Just as scientists have found that positive beliefs can engender wellness  they also have found that negative beliefs and influences can induce illness .

Scans of the brain of meditators demonstrate that neural oscillations that create unitive thinking occur more frequently in them. What does this mean?  Unitive thinking allows us to do more creative, intuitive, and rule breaking thoughts. It unifies data across the brain that allows the area of reason to communicate with the area of emotion.

Andrew Newberg, the author of How God Changes Your Brain, is a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania and has done medical brain image scans on Franciscan nuns, Buddhists, Pentecostals, Sikhs, and Sufis as they pray or meditate. He believes that there’s not just one ‘God’ part of the brain and that when you fully engage the mind, which we typically see in spiritual practices, it activates various parts of the brain in a robust and fundamental way. When we think of spirit/the Creator/universal life force in a positive way, it turns on the part of the brain that makes us feel more compassionate, more loving, more forgiving of others and ourselves. Also, people with these positive feelings about our Creator have lower levels of depression and anxiety.

Newberg also discovered that many different meditative techniques have the same effect. And that it doesn’t take a lot of time to gain benefits. In Newberg’s study, they took people who had never done meditative practices, scanned  and then trained them in simple meditative techniques. The individuals meditated for 12 minutes a day. At eight weeks, Newberg evaluated them again and saw significant improvement in memory scores and emotional measures, including anxiety, anger, and tension. So, think of what the results are if we devote even more time each day in meditation? It appears that these results are cumulative and that the more you meditate the greater these positive results are.

Newberg discovered that one of the most important areas affected during meditation is the frontal lobe of the brain, which helps to focus attention. The frontal lobe is also involved in feelings of compassion and regulating emotions. The frontal lobe of meditators is more active than of non-meditators in these areas. Interestingly, this lobe stayed active even at rest, when individuals were not meditating. This means, that the effects become part of the individual’s entire life and not only something they do for a short time during the day. In contrast, individuals who have negative emotions, such as anger and resentment, actually cause their brains to work less efficiently. Ultimately faith and optimism, and a positive outlook on life create a healthy brain and body.

 Maharishi, famous as the teacher of TM to the Beatles, said that if 1% of people meditated there would be peace in our world. Maharishi is not alone in this observation and if we meditate for others and for the Earth this energy goes towards healing them. This works because thought is energy and where we direct our energy results in change.

Medical doctor, Larry Dossey has written extensively about research on the effects of prayer. Studies have been conducted where patients who had undergone heart surgeries had individuals, who did not know them, pray for them. The patients who were prayed for did significantly better than those that were not prayed for. They had fewer deaths and recovered faster. Furthermore, it made no difference if the prayers were by a Christian, Jew, Hindu, etcetera it was the positive effect of prayer that was important.

In our busy life it is too easy to fill our day with activity and to not take time out to meditate, pray, and contemplate the beauty of our world and the glorious life that we have. We might also feel guilty that we are not doing enough for the Earth or for others. Neither overwork or guilt benefit us or others. By meditating and praying for others, the Earth, and ourselves on a daily basis we make a positive difference our world as well as achieving greater peace.

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Be it a glass of red wine or a bottle of beer, the health benefits derived from alcohol may be the same no matter the source according to a new analysis that casts doubts on studies that have suggested wine is most beneficial.

The study suggests that wine was singled out in past studies because those who prefer it over other alcohol tend to be healthier.

The study looked at 802 individuals ages 55 to 65 over the course of 20 years, 345 of whom were not drinkers, and the rest of whom comprised a mix of moderate drinkers broken down into high-wine and low-wine consumption. It found that the drinkers who had one to two drinks per day outlived the abstainers. When certain factors were controlled, the study showed negligible mortality differences between low-wine and high-wine drinkers.  Moderate drinking by older individuals, no matter the alcohol source, is beneficial.

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The shorter days of fall and winter sometimes make us feel less energetic and moody. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that happens at the same time each year. Symptoms such as losing interest in enjoyable activities, social withdrawal, oversleeping, difficulty concentrating and weight gain start in fall or early winter and subside when the sun is out more in the spring and summer.

What causes SAD? It’s not known what the specific cause is, however it’s believed the reduced level of sunlight disrupts your body’s internal clock, which tells your body when to sleep or be awake. Reduced levels of serotonin, a chemical in your brain that affects your mood, is also caused by lower exposure to sunlight. Women are diagnosed more often than men, but men’s symptoms can be worse.

According to www.mayoclinic.com, there are things that you can try at home that may help, such as brightening up your environment. Get rid of branches that block the sun from your windows, and sit closer to windows that let lots of light in. Get outside! Have lunch at a park, or go for a long walk. Exercise regularly to relieve stress and anxiety, which can make the symptoms of SAD worse.

Take care of yourself by getting enough sleep and making time to relax. Mind-body therapies such as yoga, meditation or massage therapy may help as well.

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Since the implimentation of U.S. health care reform 2.5 million young adults have obtained insurance coverage,  up from 1 million earlier this year. The Affordable Care Act that took effect last year and is deemed the biggest overhaul of the U.S. health care system in nearly 50 years.

The law aims broadly to eventually provide medical coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans, & already allows young adults to stay on their parents’ private insurance plans through age 26. This has helped the number of young adults ages 19 to 25 covered by a private health insurance plan has increased significantly. The rise to 2.5 million reported was due to graduation from high school and college in May and June of students who otherwise would have lost coverage.

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According to Dartmouth College, pregnant women who eat rice regularly may expose their fetuses to too much arsenic, possibly putting them at risk of premature births.

The study of 229 New Hampshire women was adjusted for the amount of arsenic in the water supply, testing found that pregnant women who ate rice in the two days before their urine was analyzed had a median level of the potentially toxic chemical 56% higher than those who didn’t.

Arsenic occurs naturally in the environment and is common in groundwater. While drinking water is tested and there are guidelines for safe levels of the element, 10 micrograms per liter, no such monitoring or regulation exists when it comes to rice and other foods.

Exposure to arsenic has been connected with the development of cardiovascular illness and cancer . Also, It may be related to premature births, low birth-weights and other adverse pregnancy outcomes.

A source of higher concentrations of arsenic is the water in private wells.

Researchers don’t recommend dropping rice from a pregnant woman’s diet. In general rice is more able than some other plants to extract arsenic from the environment.

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Changes in brain regions associated with cognitive function and emotional control in young adult men after one week of game play have been found by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis of long-term effects of violent video game play on the brain.

Years the controversy over whether or not violent video games are potentially harmful to players making it to the Supreme Court in 2010. There has been little scientific evidence demonstrating that the games have a prolonged negative neurological effect.

For the first time the study found that a group of randomly assigned young adults showed less activation in certain frontal brain regions following a week of playing violent video games at home.  These brain regions are important for controlling aggressive behavior and emotion.

22 healthy adult males, age 18 to 29, with low exposure to violent video games were randomly assigned to two groups of 11. Members of the first group were instructed to play a shooting video game for 10 hours at home for one week and refrain from playing the following week. The second group did not play a violent video game at all during the two-week period.  Each of the 22 men underwent fMRI at the beginning of the study, with follow-up exams at one and two weeks. During fMRI, the participants completed an emotional interference task, pressing buttons according to the color of visually presented words. Words indicating violent actions were interspersed among nonviolent action words. In addition, the participants completed a cognitive inhibition counting task. After one week of violent game play, The results showed  the video game group members showed less activation in the left inferior frontal lobe during the emotional task and less activation in the anterior cingulate cortex during the counting task, compared to their baseline results and the results of the control group. Without game play after the second week  the changes to the executive regions of the brain were diminished.

The findings of this study indicate that violent video game play has a long-term effect on brain functioning.

-Radiological Society of North America

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Did you know your weight affects your odds of developing Alzheimer’s?  Studies in the past show that people who are overweight in middle-age are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than people of normal weight. A new study found people had a lower mass body index (BMI) in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s.