Americans are willing to spend money on healthy products. That's the good news. The bad news is that they are less likely than other nationalities to make long lasting behavior changes, according to a new report from respected analyst Business Insights.

Obesity is consistently pinpointed as the number one health concern in the United States. No doubt, as it should be. However, attitudes towards obestity continue to treat the problem as superficial. This is a significant problem since the disease consequences both short and longer term are very serious indeed. Actually, it appears that Americans' attitudes reflect a disordered and superficial cultural values system since the survey found that looking and feeling good drives consumers more than the actual fear of disease where obesity is concerned.

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Americans are willing to spend money on healthy products. That's the good news. The bad news is that they are less likely than other nationalities to make long lasting behavior changes, according to a new report from respected analyst Business Insights.

Obesity is consistently pinpointed as the number one health concern in the United States. No doubt, as it should be. However, attitudes towards obestity continue to treat the problem as superficial. This is a significant problem since the disease consequences both short and longer term are very serious indeed. Actually, it appears that Americans' attitudes reflect a disordered and superficial cultural values system since the survey found that looking and feeling good drives consumers more than the actual fear of disease where obesity is concerned.

Can diseased gums increase the risk of pancreatic cancer? Epidemiologists at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston think it could, at least according to the findings of a study analyzing 16 years of health data on more than 52,000 men.

Dominique Michaud, Sc.D., assistant professor of epidemiology in the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of Puerto Rico wanted to know if inflammation, and specifically, systemic inflammation from periodontal disease, might be related to pancreatic cancer.

According to Michaud, several studies have linked inflammation and cancer, and researchers have found a high risk of developing pancreatic cancer among individuals with pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas. But the ties between periodontal disease and cancer have been more tenuous.

read more

Can diseased gums increase the risk of pancreatic cancer? Epidemiologists at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston think it could, at least according to the findings of a study analyzing 16 years of health data on more than 52,000 men.

Dominique Michaud, Sc.D., assistant professor of epidemiology in the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of Puerto Rico wanted to know if inflammation, and specifically, systemic inflammation from periodontal disease, might be related to pancreatic cancer.

According to Michaud, several studies have linked inflammation and cancer, and researchers have found a high risk of developing pancreatic cancer among individuals with pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas. But the ties between periodontal disease and cancer have been more tenuous.

The immune system can seem fickle and is easily influenced by more than just viruses and bacteria. It can be swayed by what we eat and affected by surprising sources including psychosocial factors. At the American Association for Cancer Research's Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting, scientists are taking a closer look at the link between increasingly common lifestyle factors, the immune system and cancer, with the ultimate goals of preventing and better understanding cancer development.

In one presentation to the meeting it was reported that obese mice experience a far lower immune response than do normal weight mice to a vaccine typically given to cancer patients, as found in studies by National Cancer Institute immunologists.