Bigger male breasts. Are more male breast cancers coming?

Most young men that I see for infection problems are obese. Because of higher estrogen levels they all have significant amount of breast tissue.

With increased obesity rates more males with breast tissue are among us.

Will we end up with an epidemic of male breast cancer 3 decades from now as these young men reach the age at which women get breast cancer?

Male breast cancer numbers presently are low. Am cancer society estimates that 1720 new cases of male breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2006 and 460 men will die from the disease. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_1X_What_are_the_key_statistics_for_male_breast_cancer_28.asp?sitearea=

Most obesity is related to sugar drinks.http://www.cspinet.org/liquidcandy/

One more reason to avoid all regular and diet pop. Glad Bismarck schools passed this excellent pop policy last year.
Dr Vinod

Train whistle noise - Effects on health, some ideas, solutions

Vinod Seth wrote on August 27, 2006 6:40 PM:"As a doctor I look for what is the major cause of an ailment and what if fixed would be of the most benefit to the patient. Careful thought is given to the final decision.

In the case of noise around Bismarck-Mandan, N Dakota I think train whistles by far and away fit those criteria best--because of both severity (loudness, 85dB) & frequency (>1000x/day.) Interstate highway noise would be a close second.

Both are fixable if we the people push for it - your city government controls train speeds through town and could hold that as leverage on BNSF or whatever railroad goes thru your towns. The city could require the railroad to give us safe, whistle free European type crossings to continue to go at 35 mph thru town, or cut speed to 15 mph 10pm to 7 am. It was probably 12 years ago that the our city Bismarck increased the speed of the trains from 30 to 35mph. That means we can cut it down too.

For highway I 94 speed its the state N Dakota DOT- we can cut speed thru town on the interstate to 40 mph from 10pm to 7 am and noise would be much more bearable. It was not too long ago that we raised it from 55 to 60mph. That may be a hard sell in the big cities considering how busy those highways are now. But the cities similar to Bismarck, metro population under 100,000 could still do that.

Bismarck Mandan and all of N Dakota, as well as the smaller cities have a precious resource - their quiet. Growth from those who choose to move here or return here from the noisy sprawling big metro areas of a million plus will depend on how well we preserve that resource.
Or we can be sure our cities will sprawl further out as people move out further and further from the city centers to escape noise (without even knowing that that is their motivation)

How do we convince our city, county and state leaders.

How do we compel them to think of our health and that of all the children.

Now, not 10 years from now."


HEALTH EFFECTS OF NOISE

Vinod Seth wrote on August 24, 2006 12:53 PM:" Health effects of noise- a study from Austria- where they studied children exposed to different levels of much less noise 50 db vs 60 dB. I quote "Children in the noisier areas had elevated resting systolic blood pressure and 8-h, overnight urinary cortisol. The children from noisier neighborhoods also evidenced elevated heart rate reactivity to a discrete stressor (reading test) in the laboratory and rated themselves higher in perceived stress symptoms on a standardized index." Cortisol levels in the urine are a marker of stress - the well known fight or flight response which is what saved us through our evolutionary development from sudden dangers. It is subconscious. Find the original article at - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America -- March 2001 -- Volume 109, Issue 3, pp. 1023-1027.

Also please read - The influence of subjective reactions to noise on health effects of the noise.Environment International, Volume 22, Number 1, 1996, pp. 93-104(12) - concerns in this article were for those exposed to high levels of night noise and included high blood pressure, immune dysfunction. Other researchers have noted anxiety and psychiatric disorders as well as overeating (is obesity connected? I will leave that to somebody else to comment.) .

Yes it is expensive to redo the railroad crossings so that they are safer and noise free but the health of the people, of our children is not for sale. There is no overarching right to profit and specially not at the cost of our health."

Regulations for large businesses only - small is beautiful

Pasteurization was introduced in the 20th century because of the risk of
Tuberculosis in cows infecting humans thru their milk.
That risk is miniscule now.

As has happened with other regulations the small producer(or in the case
of Medicare- the solo physician) is unable to keep up.
Benefits (profits) of scale lead to ever larger facilities and soon we
end up with regulation induced ( malignant) growth throughout all
enterprises food producing, food serving, food manufacture and even all
human services too.

The bottom line is all that matters.

In milk production cows are fed whatever is cheap, and antibiotics and
hormones are used as we all know.. What cows are fed in corporate milk
factories is nauseating. If only they could talk.

A solution out of this regulation induced rampant growth would be good.

Small producers - and small can be whatever would provide a living wage
for each able bodied person in the family enterprise- should be exempt
from science driven well intentioned regulation. Thus milk producers,

meat, eggs and other small scale agricultural production could thrive
again and give much needed boost to non urban lifestyles. The buffalo
commons would fade away.

If you doubt, remember the largest milk induced food poisoning was the
infamous 200,000 patient outbreak of Salmonella gastroenteritis due to
transport of fully pasteurized, cold refigerated liquid Schwan ice cream
in a tanker that had carried liquid eggs on the prior trip. Small
production has inherent safeguards. We all remember the million pound
beef recalls when E Coli contaminantion of mega facilities with their
mega containers makes the news.
Smallness protects us.

Urban Assaults and increased railroad noise

SLEEPLESS (AND VIOLENT) IN BIS-MAN

A front page story in the Bismarck Tribune noted a dramatic increase (45-100%) in assaults in Bismarck and Mandan this summer compared to last year. That is of concern.

Why are more people settling disagreements in this way? Why is Bis-Man more violent this summer? Why are we less human, less civilized?

Some say our population is up, some blame alcohol. Some say the police force needs to be bigger.

Could increased noise be to blame?

Behavioral scientists have clearly proven that increased violence accompanies increased noise exposure in both humans and animals. Noise increases rage.

A major criterion that defines noise is that you have no control over it. It’s the lack of control that triggers a release of stress hormones. Thus I can blissfully mow my own lawn while my neighbor, trying to sleep, would find it intrusive and noisy. The Jet Ski is fine to the person riding it but not to the person quietly reading a book. Noise causes high blood pressure.

Our towns are noisier. Highway noise has increased. We drive more and bigger vehicles at higher speeds. Noise promotes urban sprawl that adds to the noise.

One man's noise however is another’s productivity. Who can be blamed for using the fastest tool to get the job done? Time is money. Quiet is expensive. The cost though does not fall on the one who makes the noise.

So what has increased this summer as dramatically as assaults?

It is the super long and loud railroad crossing whistles. This summer Bismarck-Mandan citizens have been treated to the new corporate sought rule that requires RAILROAD WHISTLES to be blown for 15 seconds MINIMUM at each crossing.

Many sleep with windows open. They suffer the most. We can close our eyes but not our ears. Brain wave electrical recordings have proven that we hear everything even in sleep. We may not know it, but sleep is disturbed by abnormal or loud sounds.

The whistles blow night and day.

Could increased noise and sleep deprivation make people violent? Yes!

Noise is cumulative. The louder, longer railroad whistles may be the straw that break's the camel's back. Urgent thought needs to be given to measures to control noise. Email BNSF at lynn.hartley@bnsf.com . I have.

There may be other causes. Maybe economic pressures have increased in our low wage state due to increased energy costs.

A citywide task force appointed by our Mayors and Police Chiefs to look into and control assaults is warranted before they become epidemic.

Our health and our quality of life depend on it.

Overweight moms=overweight babies

A Harvard study shows America's obesity extends to its infants too.All in the space of two decades. The last year studied was 2001 and from my experience in my medical office obesity has made tremendous inroads the last 5 years so things could be even worse by now. Vinod Seth
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115525548877732835.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Impact of adolescent overweight on adult mortality

Impact of adolescent overweight on adult mortality

Published: Sunday, 6-Aug-2006

BEING OVERWEIGHT AT 18 PREDICTS INCREASED MORTALITY AND HEALTH CARE COSTS TO COME!
ALL PAYORS OF HEALTH CARE, PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT NEED TO WAKE UP TO THE HUGE COSTS IN THE YEARS TO COME FROM WHAT USED TO BE A GENERALLY HEALTHY POPULATION IN THE PAST.
BABY BOOMERS AGING, THE YOUNG GETTING UNHEALTHIER DUE TO OBESITY FROM SUGAR LOADED DRINKS AND FAST/FRANCHISE TRANS FATS LADEN CHEAP FOOD AND ALWAYS-IN-THE-CAR-INACTIVITY --WE ARE IN FOR AN EXPLOSION IN COSTS FOR HEALTH CARE.VINOD SETH 8-7-06

Children and adolescents in the U.S. and around the world are becoming more overweight.

A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has found that there may be serious consequences to that trend. Researchers found that being overweight at age 18 is associated with an increased risk of premature death in younger and middle-aged women. The study appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Our findings add to studies on overweight in middle-aged and older populations by providing insight into the impact of adolescent overweight on adult mortality," said Rob van Dam, a research scientist in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH and lead author of the study.

Some previous studies had looked at the relationship between being overweight in childhood and adolescence and premature death in adulthood, but those studies tended to look at older cohorts (people born before 1945), in which few participants were overweight during their youth and the majority had smoked.

Van Dam and his colleagues examined data from 102,400 female nurses in the Nurses' Health Study II, a prospective study launched in 1989. At that time, study participants, all aged 24 to 44, reported their current height and weight and their weight at age 18. Researchers calculated body mass index (BMI)--weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters. Participants also answered questions in a number of other areas, including disease history, alcohol consumption, smoking and exercise. Follow-up questionnaires were sent to participants until July 1, 2001, or to the date of death, whichever came first.

The results showed that women with a higher BMI at 18 consumed more alcohol, smoked more and were less likely to engage in vigorous physical activity during adolescence.

During the 12-year follow-up period (1989-2001), in which 710 participants died, the HSPH researchers found that women with a higher BMI at age 18 had a higher risk of dying prematurely. That was true for even moderately overweight adolescents. Associations between overweight and premature mortality were similar for women who were younger and older than 40 during follow-up. Major causes of death included cancer (258 deaths) and cardiovascular disease (55 deaths); of the deaths due to external causes (144 deaths), suicide was the most common cause (61 deaths).

The researchers also found that women with a low BMI at age 18 did not have an increased risk of mortality. This finding contrasts with several recent studies, in which both a low and high BMI in middle-aged and older adults was associated with excess mortality. However, at older ages, a low BMI may reflect lifelong smoking habits or weight loss as a result of diseases, which may bias associations between BMI and mortality.

To adjust for smoking, van Dam and his colleagues looked at the results for women who never smoked. They found the same results--women with a higher BMI during adolescence who never smoked had a significantly increased risk of premature death than those with a low BMI. Another key finding was that BMI at age 18 was a strong predictor of BMI in 1989 when women were, on average, 34 years old. Still, BMI in 1989 only partly explained the association between BMI at age 18 and premature death. In other words, being overweight as an adult couldn't fully explain why women died prematurely. Health effects of overweight that are specific to younger ages, differences in location of fat deposition, or long-term exposure to metabolic effects of overweight may explain this finding.

Past studies have also shown that overweight children and adolescents have higher risks of cardiovascular problems and chronic diseases. The results of this study, which show a risk of premature death for younger and middle-aged women, are in line with these findings. "This paper underscores the importance of efforts to prevent excessive weight gain in children, not only to prevent obesity but also to prevent moderate overweight," said Frank Hu, associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at HSPH and a co-author of the study. "Given the prevalence of overweight, large-scale preventive strategies aimed at increasing physical activity and stimulating healthy eating habits in U.S. children and adolescents are warranted."

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu

Laws for the Common Good, Letter to Editor, Bismarck Tribune, July 27,06.

Laws for the common good
By VINOD SETH
Bismarck
The banner headline across the top of page 4A of our Bismarck Tribune on Tuesday declared, “Some Chicago laws starting to seem intrusive.”

The AP byline story noted the crackdown by the Chicago City Council on “things they deem unhealthy ...”

Apparently, the city council in the past year has passed laws banning “smoking in nearly all public places, use of cell phones while driving” and was now proposing to “restrict fast-food chains from cooking with artery clogging transfat oils.”

Now what’s so intrusive about that?

Even big business, tired of rapidly rising health costs from unhealthy food and sugary drinks, wants change.

Only the fast-food giants who use transfat oils would find such laws intrusive.


Not most people. It is why we elect our leaders, our government: to pass laws for the common good.

We know about secondhand smoke. Driving while talking on the cell phone is like driving drunk. And transfats clog arteries. That’s proved.

Maybe our city commission will go the Chicago City Council one better and ban transfat oils at all restaurants, at cafeterias in schools, colleges and workplaces and in food served to patients in nursing homes and hospitals.

Healthy kids, healthy moms, healthy dads, a healthy Bismarck.

What’s wrong with that?

(Seth is a local physician. — Editor.)