Dr. Chet’s Health Memos
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B6, B12, and Lung Cancer
The overwhelming message from the study I’ve been reviewing this week: don’t smoke cigarettes. Period. That’s the true cause of most cases of lung cancer. There was no increase in lung cancer in subjects taking high doses of B6 or B12 who never smoked or in those who quit more than 10 years before the […]
Behind the Misleading B Vitamin Headlines
Headlines are designed to be provocative. With so many sources of news to choose from, something must get you to click on that link. The problem is when the articles and posts are misleading and, in some cases, just wrong. There were primarily two things wrong about the two online articles I cited in Tuesday’s […]
Do Vitamins B6 and B12 Cause Cancer in Men?
The headline in The Atlantic said: “Vitamin B6 and B12 Supplements Appear to Cause Cancer in Men.” The Huffington Post said: “Men: Taking Vitamins B6 and B12 Could Increase Your Risk of Lung Cancer.” There were few news sources that didn’t pick up this provocative headline. As you might expect, I started to get questions […]
How Does Alternative Medicine Affect Cancer?
The final study this week is an analysis of survival data on people who selected only alternative medicine as treatment after being diagnosed with a non-metastatic cancer. The subjects declined any conventional cancer treatment defined as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy. Let’s take a look at this observational study. Researchers used the National Cancer […]
A Cancer Blood Test Gets Closer to Reality
Noninvasive detection of early stage cancers has long been a goal for researchers because earlier detection means earlier treatment. For some cancers such as ovarian and lung cancer, that can increase the five-year survival rate, the benchmark used to determine whether someone is cancer free. Here’s what researchers did: they developed a blood test that […]
How Vitamin C Can Stop Leukemia
Three recent studies related to cancer diagnosis and treatment, including alternative treatments, contain solid, meaningful research. That’s this week’s focus. The first study was published in the journal Cell. The title is the best way to describe the paper: “Vitamin C May Encourage Blood Cancer Stem Cells to Die.” The biochemistry in this paper is […]
The Bottom Line on Loneliness
Loneliness is a terrible thing. My father-in-law missed my mother-in-law from the day she died until the day he did. He was never without people in the assisted-living residences where he lived; the staff was wonderful and we visited him often, but he was terribly lonely. He lived to 94 and it was a good […]
Loneliness Is Worse than Obesity
Let’s take a look at the second study on loneliness by the same research group and presented at the 2017 American Psychological Association Convention. In this study, researchers analyzed 70 studies in a meta-analysis; simply put, it’s a way of combining data from many studies to get a more robust statistical look at an issue. […]
The Link Between Loneliness and Mortality
Have you ever felt alone even though you were surrounded by dozens of people? That can happen to anyone at times but when it happens on a regular basis, can it impact your health? Could it even be worse than being obese? Recent research suggests that it just might be. Before we get to the […]
Essential Tests: Melanoma Screening
You may not want to show a lot of skin at the beach, but one place you should show skin is in the privacy of your doctor’s office. The first year results of a study on Full Body Skin Examination (FBSE) have just been published and based on the results, you should have this exam […]
