Weight loss and Weight Chat Blog

July 7, 2009

Caffeine Cures Alzheimer’s! And Other Misleading Headlines.

Not really, but I’d imagine that headline caught your eye and grabbed your attention, which is what it was supposed to do. The study on which that claim is based was widely and often quite misleadingly trumpeted across the Internet yesterday (July 6, 2009). Although some responsible sites included in the headline that the tests were done in mice, many concealed this important fact until you were well into the article and had already been exposed to whatever advertising was on the page. I’d already seen several misleading headlines before I realized the studies were in mice and I’m sure that many people didn’t ever get the full story.
The entire webisode was set in motion by the University of South Florida Health’s press release, a slick piece of PR entitled “Caffeine reverses memory impairment in Alzheimer’s mice,” based on research done at that institution. At least they got it right. […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

March 17, 2009

Preventing and detecting colon cancer

March is National Colon Cancer Awareness Month and as it’s such an important issue I’d like to bring it up today.  I’ve written on this topic several times before but according to the American Cancer Society it is the third most common cancer found in men and women, and the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States so I think it warrants attention.
If you are over the age of 50 (or over 40 with risk factors), you should be screened for colon cancer on a regular basis. The schedule for the various screening methods is shown here (discuss this with your physician and decide which one is best for you):
Tests that find pre-cancer and cancer:
• Colonoscopy every 10 years
• Flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years
• Virtual colonoscopy every 5 years
• Double-contrast barium enema every 5 years
Tests that mainly find cancer:
• Fecal occult blood test (FOBT) every year
• […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

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