Bad habits can age you by 12 years, study suggests

CHICAGO – Four common bad habits combined — smoking, drinking too much, inactivity and poor diet — can age you by 12 years, sobering new research suggests.

The findings are from a study that tracked nearly 5,000 British adults for 20 years, and they highlight yet another reason to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Overall, 314 people studied had all four unhealthy behaviors. Among them, 91 died during the study, or 29 percent. Among the 387 healthiest people with none of the four habits, only 32 died, or about 8 percent.

The risky behaviors were: smoking tobacco; downing more than three alcoholic drinks per day for men and more than two daily for women; getting less than two hours of physical activity per week; and eating fruits and vegetables fewer than three times daily.

These habits combined substantially increased the risk of death and made people who engaged in them seem 12 years older than people in the healthiest group, said lead researcher Elisabeth Kvaavik of the University of Oslo.

The study appears in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.

The healthiest group included never-smokers and those who had quit; teetotalers, women who had fewer than two drinks daily and men who had fewer than three; those who got at least two hours of physical activity weekly; and those who ate fruits and vegetables at least three times daily.

"You don't need to be extreme" to be in the healthy category, Kvaavik said. "These behaviors add up, so together it's quite good. It should be possible for most people to manage to do it."

For example, one carrot, one apple and a glass of orange juice would suffice for the fruit and vegetable cutoffs in the study, Kvaavik said, noting that the amounts are pretty modest and less strict than many guidelines.

The U.S. government generally recommends at least 4 cups of fruits or vegetables daily for adults, depending on age and activity level; and about 2 1/2 hours of exercise weekly.

Study participants were 4,886 British adults aged 18 and older, or 44 years old on average. They were randomly selected from participants in a separate nationwide British health survey. Study subjects were asked about various lifestyle habits only once, a potential limitation, but Kvaavik said those habits tend to be fairly stable in adulthood.

Death certificates were checked for the next 20 years. The most common causes of death included heart disease and cancer, both related to unhealthy lifestyles.

Kvaavik said her results are applicable to other westernized nations including the United States.

June Stevens, a University of North Carolina public health researcher, said the results are in line with previous studies that examined the combined effects of health-related habits on longevity.

The findings don't mean that everyone who maintains a healthy lifestyle will live longer than those who don't, but it will increase the odds, Stevens said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_med_bad_habits_survival

Blood Pressure Meds Might Reduce the Spread of Breast Cancer, Study Says

Women taking the widely-prescribed blood pressure medications known as beta-blockers when they are diagnosed with breast cancer appear to have a significantly reduced risk for the cancer spreading, or metastasizing. The new study also reported that these women were much less likely to die from breast cancer than women who did not take the medication.

The research team, based at Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, England, says that their study is the first ever to look at the relationship between beta-blockers and the spread of cancer. The study was presented last month at the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO)’s European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

The team found that the women who were taking beta-blockers had a 71% reduced risk of dying from breast cancer, and a 57% lower risk of developing a second type of cancer.

Des Powe and his colleagues followed 466 breast cancer patients, 92 of whom were on some sort of blood pressure medication. Of these, about half were taking beta-blockers when they were diagnosed with breast cancer. The team found that the women who were taking beta-blockers had a 71% reduced risk of dying from breast cancer, and a 57% lower risk of developing a second type of cancer. These numbers are in relation to women who were either taking a different kind of blood pressure medication or who weren’t taking any kind of blood pressure medication at all. This suggests that the differences seen were actually due to the action of the beta-blocker itself, rather than to the effect of lower blood pressure.

Powe explains that beta- blocker drugs compete with stress hormones and bind, at a cellular level, to the same target receptors as those hormones. But unlike stress hormones, beta-blocker drugs do not activate cancer cells. In other words, blocking the stress hormones may block the ability of the cancer to spread, because cancer cells depend on the presence of these hormones to do so.

Powe says that more research will be needed to assess proper dosing and potential side effects and whether beta-blockers should be given as a supplement to existing breast cancer treatment. Still, he and his colleagues are encouraged by these early results.

Source: http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/content/cancer/art2897.html