Entries by Chet Zelasko

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 […]

Essential Tests: Blood Pressure

How many times have you had your blood pressure checked in the doctor’s office and it was higher than normal? That’s a common occurrence. It even has a name: White Coat Syndrome. But is your blood pressure really higher only at the doctor’s? Do you check it regularly? If you don’t, you really don’t know. […]

Essential Tests: Bones and Body Fat

After Saturday’s Memo, the logical question is: “How do I really know if I’m overfat?” This weeks Memos are going to be about tests. No, you don’t have to study for these tests. I’m talking about medical tests to talk about with your healthcare provider. At this point, the best way to test for body […]

Normal BMI but Still Too Fat

Last week the health headlines shouted “Study Shows Over 90% of All Americans Are Overfat!” The rate of overweight as assessed by Body Mass Index (BMI) is already 70%; now scientists want to say even more people are too fat? What’s going on? I’ll explain what overfat means first and then tell you about the […]