Smoking cessation plus exercise can improve the male sexual function and also improve the urinary health of both males and females.

In a recently concluded study presented in the annual conference of the American Urological Association, researchers pointed to a vital link between smoking, exercise and urinary health.

The study involved two thousand individuals (males and females). The respondents were interviewed about their smoking habits and were also given questions regarding their urinary health.  It was found that individuals who smoked were three times more likely to urinate frequently.

Also, these individuals are also 2.7 times more prone to experience sudden urges to go to the bathroom to urinate.

In a related study performed by US researchers from South Carolina, it was found that men who exercised more had experienced improved sexual function.  The two studies, if taken together, point to an age-old medical adage: folks have to stop the smoking habit and begin a healthier habit – exercise!

More reasons to love exercise

Here are even more reasons to love exercise:

1. Exercise reduces the risk of mortality from chornic, degenerative health conditions.

2. Exercise reduces the chance of developing of type 2 or insulin-dependent diabetes.

3. Exercise can help control the blood pressure, even the blood pressure of people already have cardiovascular problems.

4. Exercise can help reduce the probability of developing one of the top killers worldwide: colon cancer.

5. Exercise helps improve your mood and also helps people ease out of anxiety and depression.

6. Exercise improves balance, coordination and also strengthens the bones and muscles, therey reducing the risk of fractures from falls.

7. Exercise is also an excellent means of losing weight.

8. Exercise make the body and mind more fit. If you are physically and mentally fit, you would be able to perform better at work or in school.

9. Exercise reduces the risk of stroke.

Exercise may also reduce the risk of breast cancer and loss of bone mass (osteoporosis) – two common problems of women over the age of 45.

Sources:
aolhealth.com
nutristrategy.com
www2.gsu.edu
medicinenet.com

Researchers have discovered that increased omega-3 fatty acids can reduce the risk of colon cancer. This can come from food sources or fish oil supplementation.

Do you get tons of omega-3 fatty acids in your diet?  If so, new research indicates you will reduce your risk of colon cancer.  Taking fish oil supplements can also accomplish the same goal.

According to Dr. Sangmi Kim at the National Institute of Environmental Health Studies in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, not only can fish oil supplementation fight inflammation, it can also reduce the risk of cancer.

The study examined polyunsaturated fatty acid intake and bowel cancer risk in both whites and African Americans.  Approximately, half of the people in each group were colon cancer patients.  The other half served as the control group.

The researchers found that the people in the group of whites, who consumed the top forth amount of omega-3s, had half the risk of colon cancer.  They also found that fish oil had the same effect.  Although when the black participants were analyzed separately, they didn’t see cancer rates drop as omega 3 intake increased.  However, researchers stated, “Whether the possible benefit from this dietary modification varies by race warrants further evaluation.”

So where can you get the necessary omega-3 fatty acids? They are found in walnut oils, flaxseed oil, and leafy greets.  It is important to remember to eat more omega-3s than omega-6 fatty acids, as you want a healthy balance in your diet.  It can be unhealthy to have more omega-6 in your system. Omega-6 acids can be typically be found in oils like soybean oil and sunflower oil as well as meats.  While omega-3 oils reduce inflammation, omega-6 oils can cause inflammation.

Frequent readers of Natural Health on the Web know that I am a big advocate of the Mediterranean diet. This diet suggests eating foods high in omega-3 fatty acids like fruits, vegetables, olive oil and fish rather than omega-6 rich meats.

Sources:
sciencedaily.com
umm.edu

Italian researchers believe antioxidant supplementation can reduce the development of cancerous polyps.

The array of benefits antioxidants provide continue to grow, much to the chagrin of skeptical “scientists” who believe antioxidants are bunkum and don’t provide any material health benefit.  Well I wonder what they’ll think of the latest study that finds antioxidants improve colon health.

Not much, I’m sure.

Before I get into the study, colon health is a lot like the electricity when it goes out; we don’t appreciate it until we lose it or have a problem with it.  That’s certainly how people with ulcerative colitis feel.  Ulcerative colitis, a specific type of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), occurs when the lining of the colon becomes inflamed, leading to all sorts of excretory and digestive system problems like bloody diarrhea, painful gas and bloating.  Many medicinal treatments exist for ulcerative colitis, but they’re very expensive and often loaded with side-effects (e.g. common long-term side effects from ulcerative colitis medications include acne, insomnia, weight gain, and changes in mood).

And as much of a pain ulcerative colitis is to live with (literally and figuratively), at least it’s not a deadly condition, unlike colon cancer.  While colon cancer mortality rates have dropped, it still has a fairly high five-year mortality rate (about 40 percent).

But with the help of antioxidants, the colon cancer mortality rate can come down even further.

The researchers of the antioxidant study supplied approximately 400 participants with either a placebo or a super-duper antioxidant supplement.  It was “super-duper” because it contained a veritable treasure trove of antioxidants, including vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin C, and zinc.  All the participants had a history of cancerous polyp development (all of whom had them removed via surgery).

After supplementing with these antioxidants for a short time, the researchers found that it paid dividends almost immediately; the development of cancerous colon polyps reduced by 40 percent compared to the placebo group.  What’s more, this diminishment in polyp development continued for 13 years, the extent of time the researchers devoted to follow-up.

The study was conducted by researchers from Genoa, Italy’s National Institute for Cancer Research.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why the heck I brought up ulcerative colitis when the study’s findings found it to be effective in cancerous polyp development in the colon.  Well, besides the fact that ulcerative colitis is a condition that concerns the colon, it’s a condition that also increases the risk for colon cancer development.

People with and without ulcerative colitis should be getting plenty of antioxidants through their diet, but there are other supplements you can take both to prevent and treat ulcerative colitis.  Vitamin K—one of two fat-soluble vitamins not supplied to the participants—has been shown to helps heal the lining of the colon.  You can dose with vitamin K directly or get it from rich vitamin K herbal sources like alfalfa.  Being deficient in vitamin K is a natural side-effect of ulcerative colitis.

Something else that’s deficient in people with ulcerative colitis is iron.  Iron is traditionally found in meat sources, but vegetables and legume sources like spinach and chickpeas are good ways to increase levels of iron in the blood.

Sources:
Balch, Phyllis A. “Prescription for Nutritional Healing.” 4th Ed. 2006. New York: Avery
nutraingredients.com
ezinearticles.com
ehealthmd.com
coloncancer

Consuming onions can reduce your risk of colon cancer in half, study confirms.

“Impossible.”

That’s what I said to myself the other day, shocked and chagrined that I’d never written about the onion.

How is this possible?  After all, the onion’s the third largest vegetable crop produced in the United States, not one, but two states call the onion their official state vegetable (Georgia and Texas), and the average American eats about 19 pounds of onions every year (that’s nothing compared to Libya, where the average Libyan eats 66 pounds of onions a year, according to the National Onion Association).

To rectify this oversight, this Mangano Minute will be a devotion to the onion, the vegetable that no salad, no stir fry, no salsa is complete without.

Whether it’s sweet like the Vidalia onion, hot like the Red, or mild like the White, there’s no escaping the onion’s curative qualities.  Packed with quercetin, chromium and vitamin C, this layered Libyan love is admired both for its unique taste and its nutritional know-how.

All of the nutritional benefits are too numerous to list for a Mangano Minute posting, so I’ll restrict my list to one particularly impressive benefit:  Onions can cut your risk of colon cancer in half!!

This is according to a new study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, where researchers from the University of Aberdeen in Ireland looked to see if flavonol consumption, like those found in onions, influenced the rate of colon cancer in a sample of approximately 700 people (264 volunteers were already diagnosed with colorectal cancer, the remaining were healthy and served as controls).

Initially, the researchers saw no correlation between flavonol consumption and the incidence rate of colorectal cancer.  But when they isolated what the participants consumed to food sources other than tea (tea is the main source of flavonol consumption in the United Kingdom), the correlation became clearer.

Writing in the British Journal of Nutrition, the researchers concluded that quercetin, the most abundant flavonol found in onions, “may be linked with reduced risk of developing colon cancer.”

Interestingly, the researchers found no link between reduced rectal cancer risk, only a link between quercetin and colon cancer.  And as mentioned, that risk may be reduced by as much as 50 percent with its increased consumption.

It may not do wonders for your breath, but onions perform wonders for your overall health and longevity.  The onion consumption rate in the U.S. has increased 50 percent over the last 20 years.  With studies like this, it won’t be long before Americans rival Libyans in their lovin’ for the onion!

Sources:
foodreference.com
whfoods.com
nutraingredients.com

Exercising

February is heart month in more ways than one.  We give our “hearts” to our sweethearts every 14th, sure, but perhaps more significantly, American Heart Month comes every February.   It’s a month where health-conscious Americans go door to door getting the word out on how to make our heart beats grow stronger through diet, exercise and how to implement those things to avoid the world’s number one killer:  heart disease.

February has been American Heart Month ever since Congress designated it as such in 1963.  While I know Congress has a lot on their plates these days, I suggest this month – March – be designated American Colon Month henceforth.  Why?  Because a new study released from Washington University School in Missouri and Harvard University in Massachusetts suggests that those who “march” to the beat of their own drummer through exercise cut their risk of colon cancer by nearly 25 percent!

All right, all right, I know, it’s a terrible pun, but why not designate one month to colon health?  After all, with colon cancer the third most common form of cancer, and with an average of 100,000 new American cases of it popping up every year, it ought to be given considerably more attention than it is, don’t you think?

Perhaps I’ll take it up with Congress at some point.  In the meantime, all I can do is focus on how to avoid it.  And exercise is one way. 

We already know several things about colon cancer, like how it tends to run in families and that it’s one of the leading cancer diagnoses in America (some estimates suggest it’s the second most common form of cancer, not the third).  We also know that certain foods, like olives, contain compounds that protect the colon from cancerous lesions.
We now have some very conclusive evidence that indicates any form of exercise – be it marching in a drum line or marching toward a marathon’s finish line (all right, all right, I’ll lay off the “March” puns) cuts colon cancer risk by up to a fourth!

The study’s researchers, who published their findings in the British Journal of Cancer, gathered dozens of studies done on the links between exercise and colon cancer going back to 1984.  Using this data that contained information on people’s activity levels and if they were ever diagnosed with colon cancer, they found that the people who exercised the most were about 25 percent less likely to have colon cancer than those who exercised the least.  An example of some of the more active people across the span of studies – about 52 in all – were those who walked for at least five to six hours a week; the least active were those who exercised 30 minutes a week or not at all.

With all we know about the benefits of exercise, it amazes me that so few get the adequate amount needed for optimum health.  The Depart of Health and Human Services advises people spend at least two and a half hours doing moderate amounts of exercise (heck, I know people who spend that amount of time exercising every day!).  Yet 65 percent of people are getting less than that, according to the CDC.

With the economy in rough shape, let’s not make matters worse by letting ourselves get out of shape.  I’m hoping this resonates with people who have a history of colon cancer in their families.  Because you can run (or bike, or swim, or jog) away from that risk through a renewed dedication to making exercise a part of your everyday life.

Sources:
  Science Daily
  American Heart Association
  Reuters