Hot MedFax

Did you know obesity can lead to cancer?  We've known that for a long time now but recent studies have found obesity "strongly linked with cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, pancreatic cancer and post-menopausal breast cancer," according to Fox News. One study estimates that if current trends continue, obesity will lead to approximately 500,000 additional cases of cancer by 2030. Here's the deal.  One NYU Steinhardt researcher may have put her finger on an underlying biological mechanism responsible for the obesity-cancer link, Fox News reports. "In a large population-based study, nutritional epidemiologist Niyati Parekh found that disturbances in body insulin and glucose levels were associated with obesity-related cancers." But there is some good news.  It's a finding that could lead to better treatments and management of cancer and heart disease and other diseases connected to obesity. “I knew there were a lot of underlying nutritional fa...

If you're like me, you use about 10 artificial sweeteners a day.  I drink lots of iced tea, even in the winter, and I couldn't live without my Splenda. But now a new study has found that this fake sugar does more than just make drinks palatable.  It modifies how the body uses sugar.  And it can be harmful. I'm not talking about the cancer scare with saccharine back in the '70s, but i n a small study, according to a press release from Washington University in Saint Louis, researchers analyzed Splenda® in 17 severely obese people who do not have diabetes and don’t use artificial sweeteners regularly, and found that " this artificial sweetener is not inert — it does have an effect,” first author M. Yanina Pepino, PhD, research assistant professor of medicine, said in the release. “And we need to do more studies to determine whether this observation means long-term use could be harmful.” Now, losing weight is hard enough but to take away the one thing th...