Cancer Prevention

Vinegar: (Almost) the Only Cleaner You'll Ever Need

Most cleaning products fall into one of two categories: toxic or expensive. While both types will clean almost anything (or at least, anything within their limited range of capabilities), there's a third option. It's inexpensive and not at all poisonous to humans. It's multi-purpose as well--one container will take care of laundry, kitchen cleaning, even bugs and weeds. This "miracle cleaner" is vinegar.

Breast Cancer Is Rare in Men, But They Fare Worse

Breast cancer can be deadly for men, new research says. The study found men's breast tumors were larger at diagnosis, more advanced and more likely to have spread to other parts of the body. Many men have no idea that they can get breast cancer, and some doctors are in the dark, too, dismissing symptoms that would be a red flag in women.

24 Ways to Clean with Baking Soda

If you are looking to change from cleaning chemicals to a safer, more eco-friendly alternative to clean your house, then you aren’t going to find another substance that is as effective as baking soda. The great thing is that it isn’t just the efficiency of baking soda that makes it so handy, it’s also the ability to use it on a huge variety of surfaces throughout your household.

The main advantages of baking soda for cleaning are:

Meet Perfluorooctanoic Acid

Aka “PFOA,” “The Magician”

Biography

How Chemicals Affect Us

Scientists are observing with increasing alarm that some very common hormone-mimicking chemicals can have grotesque effects.

A widely used herbicide acts as a female hormone and feminizes male animals in the wild. Thus male frogs can have female organs, and some male fish actually produce eggs. In a Florida lake contaminated by these chemicals, male alligators have tiny penises.

Skin Cancer Prevention & Protection

Millions of Americans may not be aware of the threat of skin cancer, including, for example, young women who frequently visit indoor tanning salons and older men who regularly hit the golf course without sunscreen or protective clothing. In fact, more than 3.5 million cases of skin cancer affecting more than two million people are diagnosed each year. The good news is that most types of this cancer are preventable and treatable when caught at an early stage.

Higher Risk Women Benefit from Earlier Breast Screening

Women with dense breasts or a first-degree relative with breast cancer are twice as likely as average-risk women to develop breast cancer in their 40s[1] and these women would benefit from beginning mammography screening at age 40[2], according to the results of two studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

More Than Skin Deep: Here Comes Summer

Staying sun-safe and watching your skin closely for any changes are important factors in maintaining healthy skin.

Limit Sun Exposure

Sun exposure contributes to both melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer, and sun protection over the course of a lifetime is the most important aspect of skin cancer prevention. Because much of our sun exposure occurs during childhood, it is important for parents and grandparents to help children develop good sun protection habits.

Simple precautions can help reduce the risk of melanoma

The specialist: Dr. Ellen Marmur on melanoma.

As the vice chairman of the department of skin cancer and cosmetic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Ellen Marmur is a dermatologist who performs about 1,500 skin cancer surgeries a year. As part of Skin Cancer Awareness Month, Monday has been declared Melanoma Monday.

Who’s at risk:

Of the three major types of skin cancer, melanoma is the deadliest and least common, accounting for less than 5% of the 3.5 million new skin cancers diagnosed annually.

In a lather over antibacterial soap

Should you be washing your hands or bathing your children with antibacterial soap?

The University of Texas student government and Canadian leaders say no. Many environmentalists and scientists agree.

The concern is triclosan, an antibacterial chemical used for more than 30 years in soaps, toothpastes, lotions and deodorant and marketed as a germ killer. But antibacterial soap does not work any better than regular soap, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other studies.

Pages