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August/September 2006 Issue

• Coping with a Cancer Diagnosis
• Safety and Cell Phones
• Research Briefs: Diabetes

Coping with a Cancer Diagnosis

By Pierpaolo Basso
SHPress Editor
August 15, 2006

Cancer.

While the diagnosis may no longer represent an automatic death sentence to patients, the word itself invariably produces a range of emotions, from fear to depression.

Recognizing this, many oncologist and specialist teams treating the disease now include a psychologist to help patients acknowledge and deal with the anxiety that can easily spill from the doctor's office into everyday life, says Debora Muresu, an Italian psychologist who is working as a post-doc at the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine in Philadelphia.

"Cancer patients are better informed than in the past, and they receive a massive amount of information from their oncologist as well as other specialists," she says. "Having a psychologist who helps them absorb everything can be invaluable, not only to their peace of mind, but to their eventual recovery."

Just as each patient's physical pathology is individuated, so are the psychological ways that each patient deals with the disease.

"Cancer involves the physical, psychological and relational aspects of each patient's life," notes Muresu. As patients go through the treatment process, continual monitoring of all these areas is fundamental. Psychological care and evaluation, however, involves more than making a patient 'feel' better, says Muresu. Depending on the type, seriousness and duration of the cancer involved, emotional states, such as depression, can actually reduce disease immunity and leave a cancer patient vulnerable to other medical difficulties.

"Cancer patients often live in a state of constant anxiety that they themselves might not even recognize," notes Muresu. "Psychologists try to help patients sort out what might be a 'normal reaction' to the disease from free-floating anxieties. Techniques also teach patients ways to reduce stress."

One approach involves taking a patient through a 'curative walk' by visualizing their state of mind during various stages of the disease. "Walking patients through the pre diagnostic, diagnostic, surgical and therapeutic stages of their cancer can allow both the patient and therapist to map the extent of psychological impact at each benchmark." says Muresu. "Armed with this knowledge, psychologists can select the best combination of techniques that will help patients to weather the experience ahead."

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August/September Issue

Safety and Cell Phones

By Pierpaolo Basso
SHPress Editor
August 15, 2006

First the good news: based on available medical research, cell phones have not yet been ruled hazardous to your health.

Yet for Pietro Pagliarulo, PhD, an engineer at PAEL-TS, an Italian manufacturer of electronic medical devices who focuses on the environmental impacts on health and the genesis of cancer, "The absence of definitive proof of harm is not the demonstration of the absence of harm."

Why the caution?

It's all about the frequency.

Radio frequencies, that is. Mobile phones work by first converting a speaker's voice into radio waves, then sending the waves through the antenna/transmitter of the phone to the local base station of a mobile phone provider. The base station beams the radio waves back to a receiver in the phone calling, which then converts it back to a person's voice.

What concerns Pagliarulo, as well as other investigators, are the high levels of radio frequencies required by this technology. Most cell phones employ frequencies from 800 to 2000 megahertz (MHz), very close to the 2450 MHz used by a microwave oven.

If that level of frequency can be made to boil water, what might this level of radio waves do to a user's ear, or, brain?

"At 2000 MHz, thermal effects have been shown to expose the nervous system to damage," says Dr. Pagliarulo.

Still, medical research remains inconclusive. A recent study by Swedish National Institute for Working Life, that compared data from 2,200 cancer patients and an equal number of healthy people, showed that heavy cell phone users (2,000 or more hours or about one hour per day for ten years) showed a 240 percent increased risk of a cancerous tumor on the side of the head where they used their phone.

But with mobile phones on the market for only about ten years many observers, including the Federal Drug Administration, remain uncertain about the Swedish study's conclusions. So far, the FDA has only announced that they will reopen investigations into the safety of mobile phones.

Without definitive evidence against the use of the phones, Dr. Pagliarulo suggests consumers take their own precautions. They include:

• Use cell phones only if necessary. Home phones or cordless phones emit much lower power than mobiles.

• Don't press your mouth or ear to the mobile phone.

• Use a hands free device to keep the antenna/ transmitter as far as possible from the brain.

• Use cellular phones only when there is a full field of reception, otherwise the mobile, through the electronic control system, will express maximum power.

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August/September 2006 Issue

Health Briefs: Diabetes

By Ilene Raymond
Editor-in-Chief
August 15, 2006

Coffee lowers diabetes risk

Coffee - particularly decaffeinated brews -- may reduce diabetes, according to a recent study from the University of Minnesota. Researchers who followed more than 28,000 post-menopausal women over 11 years found that those who drank six or more cups per day showed the most benefit. Minerals, phytochemicals, and antioxidants were seen as beneficial, while the role of caffeine remained unclear.

See: Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 166 No.12, June 26, 2006.

Dementia and diabetes

Type 2 diabetes patients with poorly controlled blood sugars and HbA1c numbers above 15 have a 78 percent greater chance of developing dementia, cognitive decline or Alzheimer's disease in the next decade, according to an investigation completed at Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland. Those with an HbA1c less than 10 were unlikely to have dementia.

The study examined 22,852 patients over 50 who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente of Northern California Diabetes Registry and had an HbA1c level recorded between the years 1994 and 1996. Analysis showed:

• Of 1,143 patients with HbA1c levels between 12 and 14.9, 25 percent were more likely to have dementia.

• Overall, a total of 3,316 patients who had levels above 10, 28 percent showed an increased dementia risk.

Exercise Effects

Accepted management of type 2 diabetes has generally involved exercise, dietary changes and medication. A new systemic review shows why exercise is in the mix: activity reduces blood glucose, but also increases the body's sensitivity to insulin, decreases blood lipids (fats) and burns body fat.

Researchers reviewed data from 14 randomized controlled trials involving 377 participants with type 2 diabetes. Age ranges were from 45 to 65 years. Participants in the studies were divided into two groups - one who did no exercise while the other exercised using mainly resistance training and aerobic workouts.

After 12 weeks, participants who exercised showed an overall decrease of .6 percent of A1C levels, that represents a a 30 percent improvement towards the goal of attaining an A1C of 7 percent and a 20 percent improvement towards a normal A1C of six percent.

See: Thomas DE, Elliott EJ, and Naughton GA. Exercise for type 2 diabetes mellitus (Review) The Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews 2006, Issue 3. www.cochrane.org.

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