Hot MedFax

Even though you may not be an environmentalist, did you know that fracking has conclusively been proved to be harmful to our health? Newswise.com reports that many chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can disrupt not only the human body’s reproductive hormones but also the glucocorticoid and thyroid hormone receptors, which are necessary to maintain good health, a new study finds. The chemicals block hormone receptors.  Big deal, you say?  “The high levels of hormone disruption by endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that we measured, have been associated with many poor health outcomes, such as infertility, cancer and birth defects," the Web site quotes presenting author, Christopher Kassotis, a PhD student at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Hydraulic fracturing is the process of injecting numerous chemicals and millions of gallons of water deep underground under high pressure to fracture hard rock and release trapped natural gas and oil. K...

Hmm....Could men blame us for their obesity ? A new study has found that female hormones play a key role in the obesity epidemic, according to newswise.com. The Web site reports that new research from the University of Adelaide has found that an imbalance of female sex hormones among men in Western nations may be contributing to high levels of male obesity.  The research suggests that obesity among Western men "could be linked with exposure to substances containing the female sex hormone estrogen – substances that are more often found in affluent societies, such as soy products and plastics." Scientists compared obesity rates among men and women from around the world with measures such as Gross Domestic Product to determine the impact of affluence on obesity. They found found that, while it was normal for women in the developing world to have significantly greater levels of obesity than men, the developed world is a different oyster completely. "Hormon...

Here's another reason to watch your cholesterol, if you're a woman.  A new study has found that high cholestrol can fuel breast cancer. Acting almost like an estrogen, according to newswise.com, a byproduct of cholesterol can functions like that hormone and grow and spread the most common types of breast cancers, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute report. But statins do appear to reduce the threat. These days it's very confusing to know whether your cholesterol -- either "good" or "bad" -- is high enough for medication. I'm in this very boat myself.  My cholesterol level (which runs in my family) was very high, even after I lost weight and doubled my exercise.  So I'm on a low dose of a statin and it's helping keep my numbers where they should be.  I'd love to go off it, but when I tried it this summer, my levels shot back up. So looks like I'll be on it for life. Anyway, "The research for the first time explains ...

It shouldn't be a surprise but girls are entering puberty earlier and earlier these days, and experts put it down to the rising tide of obesity. According to Michelle Healy at USA Today, "The start of puberty (determined by a specific stage of breast development) was at a median age of 9.7 years old in white, non-Hispanic girls, 4 months earlier than in a landmark 1997 study that first documented early puberty in U.S. girls." Healy notes that the new study followed 1,200 girls (enrolled at ages 6 to 8) over seven years, finding that "blacks continue to develop earlier than whites, reaching puberty at a median age of 8.8, vs. 9.3 years for Hispanics and 9.7 for Asians."  "BMI supplants race as the No. 1 factor" in the new analysis, Healy quotes lead author Frank Biro, director of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Though some minorities are reaching puberty earlier, the number one salient fact in all races is that girls ar...

A friend just had a third daughter.  I asked how he's doing with all that estrogen in the house.  He rolled his eyes.  But scientists have recently learned that he's contributing, too. According to Gina Kolata, "Estrogen, the female sex hormone, turns out to play a much bigger role in men’s bodies than previously thought, and falling levels contribute to their expanding waistlines just as they do in women’s." Until recently, she notes, testosterone deficiency was considered "nearly the sole reason that men undergo the familiar physical complaints of midlife."       A recent study put the end to that way of thinking. “Some of the symptoms routinely attributed to testosterone deficiency are actually partially or almost exclusively caused by the decline in estrogens,” Kolata quotes Dr. Joel Finkelstein, an endocrinologist at Harvard Medical School and the study’s lead author, from a news release put out on Wednesday.       "While dwin...