Risk For Rare Tumor May Be Reduced By Smoking, But Not Nicotine
New research confirms an association between smoking and a reduced risk for a rare benign tumor near the brain, but the addition of smokeless tobacco to the analysis suggests nicotine is not the protective substance. The study using Swedish data suggests that men who currently smoke are almost 60 percent less likely than people who have never smoked to develop this tumor, called an acoustic neuroma. But men in the study who used snuff, which produces roughly the same amount of nicotine in the blood as smoking, had no reduced risk of tumor development.
Protection Against Many Cancers Provided By Vitamin E In Diet But Not The Form Commonly Used In Supplements
Next time you need to choose between vegetable oil and margarine in that favorite recipe, think about your health and reach for the oil. While the question of whether vitamin E prevents or promotes cancer has been widely debated in scientific journals and in the news media, scientists at the Center for Cancer Prevention Research, at Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, believe that two forms of vitamin E - gamma and delta-tocopherols - found in soybean, canola and corn oils as well as nuts do prevent colon, lung, breast and prostate cancers.
The Mystery Of Kidney Stones Solved
Kidney stones strike an estimated 1 million Americans each year, and those who have experienced the excruciating pain say it is among the worst known to man (or woman). Now, new research by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis provides evidence to explain why some people are more prone to develop the condition than others. Their discovery opens the door to finding effective drug treatments and a test that could assess a person's risk of kidney stones. "Now, we finally have a more complete picture detailing why some people develop kidney stones and others do not, " says senior author Jianghui Hou, PhD, assistant professor of medicine.