Below are a number of articles about the dangers that can lead to cancer that have appeared in CANCERactives icon magazine. Just click on the title to read the piece.
icon contributor to advise Obama
US President Barack Obama has turned to regular icon contributor Eileen O’Connor to help the fight against cancer. (Jan 29 2009, Birmingham Mail)
Eileen O’Connor, as a founder member of the Radiation Research Trust, has led the battle against the relentless growth of mobile phone masts and the associated EMF technology for the past seven years. The Radiation Trust lobbies Governments and urges a precautionary principle, just as we do at CANCERactive.
And now the US President’s cancer panel, set up by Obama to research the possible links with both nuclear and electro-magnetic radiation, has asked Eileen for her views on the issue. The trust has supported widespread research into the possible dangers of mobile and wireless radiation and campaigns for the technology to be made safer.
Eileen said : Obama’s panel has launched an information gathering exercise and I was invited to provide evidence. While I am not building up my hopes, I am delighted the issue is being taken seriously by the President."
President Obama recently said science is about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient and I welcome this approach.
The evidence gathered by the panel will be considered in drawing up advice to the new President on measures needed to be taken to improve the health of Americans. Any steps taken are likely to be considered around the world.
Eileen first suspected a link between mobile phone masts and cancer when the arrival of a mast in her home village of Wishaw, near Sutton Coldfield coincided with a cluster of cancer cases, including her own.
The campaign hit the headlines in 2003 when the mast was pulled down in the middle of the night and residents blockaded the site to stop it being replaced. We covered her story in icon, and you can read it on our web site.
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Mouthwash cancer dangers especially for drinkers and smokers
In a major study conducted by researchers from the Australias University of Melbourne and University of Queensland School of Dentistry, the use of mouthwashes containing alcohol as an ingredient can significantly increase the risk of cancers of the mouth, head and neck.
"We see people with oral cancer who have no other risk factors than the use of (mouthwash containing alcohol), so what weve done is review all the evidence," said lead researcher Michael McCullough, chair of the Australian Dental Associations therapeutics committee. They followed mouthwash use amongst 3,210 people and compared it with rates of mouth, head and neck cancers.
The researchers found that those who used an alcohol-containing mouthwash at least once per day had a significantly increased risk of cancer, independent of other risk factors such as smoking or drinking alcoholic beverages.
However, where people also drank alcohol regularly, there was a 500 per cent increase over drinkers who did not use mouthwash. For smokers who used mouthwash there was a 900 per cent increase over smokers who didn’t use one of these mouthwashes.
"Since this article, further evidence has come out," McCullough added. "We believe there should be warnings. If it was a facial cream that had the effect of reducing acne but had a four to fivefold increased risk of skin cancer, no one would be recommending it."
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Statin drugs may damage brain function
We have expressed our concerns over statins before. There have been possible links to cancer, refuted and countered. Then there are issues like muscle wastage, the lowering of Coenzyme Q10 levels and so on. In Eurekalert (Jan 26th 2009) there is a study quoting over 900 research papers concluding they are dangerous! Also worrying was a report that statins stick around for up to 5 years after you have taken them.
There is also a flaw in the widespread medical view that we all seem to need them and that our cholesterol levels are too high. Statins reduce cholesterol. But some cholesterol is good for you (HDL) while other forms are bad (LDL). Next, there is little or no research about what levels are dangerous in the body. A year or so ago, levels of cholesterol deemed safe, were lowered, almost arbitrarily. So more people were prescribed statins.
But cholesterol is an important substance in the body. You make it, because it is important. It is a myth that if you eat lots of cholesterol you will have high blood cholesterol. Firstly, it is too large a molecule to pass across the gut wall. Secondly, it can be re-formed from a host of smaller molecules including those derived from sugars. This reformation may well have genetic influences, but clinical trials have shown it can be influenced by certain beneficial bacteria, which make short chain esters that block it. Then there is the role of fish oils, flaxseed and omega 3 in the reduction of levels. Garlic also has a positive effect, and so on.
You make cholesterol, even if you are thin and on a low fat diet. For example, under the skin it responds to sunlight to produce vitamin D, now being thought to be a great preventer of cancer. But your brain needs cholesterol too. And yet again your brain reassembles it from constituent ingredients.
Now in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Shin and colleagues from Iowa State University tested the activity of the neurotransmitter-release processes of brain cells without cholesterol present to see how well they functioned. Then cholesterol was placed in the system and the scientists measured the transmitter function again. Having cholesterol present saw a five fold increase in neurotransmitter function.
"Our study shows there is a direct link between cholesterol and the neurotransmitter release. We know exactly the molecular mechanics of what happens in the cells. Cholesterol changes the shape of the protein to stimulate thinking and memory," Dr. Shin said in the press statement. "If you try to lower the cholesterol by taking medicine that is attacking the machinery of cholesterol synthesis in the liver that medicine goes to the brain too. And then it reduces the synthesis of cholesterol which is necessary in the brain."
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HPV vaccine withdrawn in Spain
No one can have failed to notice the massive PR campaign in the Western World to get girls (and boys) vaccinated, ’against HPV and cervical cancer’.
Now Spanish Health Authorities have withdrawn a batch (NH52670) of almost 76,000 doses of the Merck brand Gardasil from the market after two girls who had just been vaccinated were hospitalised. (AFP, February 10). In the UK the vaccine used is from GSK.
To date, just in the USA, over 10,000 adverse reactions, including 29 deaths, have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) in relation to Gardasil.
Merck, which manufactures Gardasil, has said it expects sales this year to be lower than expected. However, now it has filed for FDA approval for use with adolescent males, even though no long-term research is available on its benefits or safety.
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