Drinking And Smoking Don't Boost HPV-related Cancer Risk

Heavy smoking and drinking are known to cause head and neck cancer. Infection with human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16), a common strain of the sexually-transmitted HPV virus, is another known risk factor for head and neck cancer, which affects about 500,000 people each year worldwide.

New Brown University research, however, shows that alcohol and tobacco use doesn't further increase the risk of contracting head and neck cancers for people infected with HPV16. This finding, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the strongest evidence to date that these major cancers have two distinct causes - and may represent two distinct classes of cancer - and would require different prevention and treatment strategies.

Karl Kelsey, M.D., a Brown professor of community health and pathology and laboratory medicine and the director of the Center for Environmental Health and Technology, said the research has public health policy implications.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that girls and young women receive the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer - HPV16 causes about half of all cervical cancer cases - boys and men cannot get the vaccine. An estimated 20 million Americans are currently infected with genital HPV and 50 to 75 percent of sexually active men and women are infected with HPV at some point in their lives, according to the National Institutes of Health.

"Our current HPV vaccine recommendations should change," Kelsey said. "Head and neck cancers, regardless of their cause, are predominantly male diseases. If boys and men received the HPV vaccine, a lot of these cancers could be prevented."

Kelsey and his team took on the research to test the concept of multiplicative risk. If HPV infection increases the risk of head and neck cancer, and alcohol and tobacco use also increases the risk, would a combination increase that risk exponentially"

To find out, the team studied 485 head and neck cancer patients who were diagnosed at nine Boston-area hospitals between December 1999 and December 2003. The team also studied 549 cancer-free comparison subjects who were closely matched with the study group based on age, sex and town of residence.

All the test subjects were asked about lifetime smoking and alcohol consumption and also gave a blood sample, which was screened for HPV16 antibodies, a sign that they were exposed to this strain of the virus. The team then conducted a statistical analysis to estimate the effects of the different risk factors.


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Ayurvedic Solution for Hair Loss

Hair is a complex and delicate part of your body. Keeping it healthy and beautiful is a challenge. Here's a guide that will help you do just that .

Hair is cylinder of dead tissue. Damaged hair can never be fully restored to its original condition. The main factor in growth of the hair is the kind of cells that exit in the hair follicles from which the hair grows in the individual person. Each individual hair is also different in one individual .Hair- care products are intended to promote certain favorable conditions of hair and to reduce of eliminate properties of hair, which are regarded as undesirable.

Causes and symptoms:

Reasons for Hair LossBoth men and women lose hair for similar reasons. Hair loss in men is often more dramatic, and follows a specific pattern of loss which has been termed "Male Pattern Baldness". This loss is caused by dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

Factors for male hair loss include: heredity, hormones, and aging. This may also apply to women but to a lesser degree. Women may experience loss of hair after menopause and 2-3 months after having a baby. Other contributing factors include: poor diet, poor circulation, acute illness, radiation, chemotherapy, high stress, thyroid imbalance, certain drugs, coming off the contraceptive pill, diabetes, high doses of vitamin A (more than 100,000 IU), sudden weight loss, high fever, iron deficiency, ringworm, some fungal infections, chemicals and hair dyes, vitamin deficiencies, and lack of proper nutrition.

Drastic or premature hair loss may be caused by:

1. Stress and bodily weakness from overwork.
2. Dietary imbalances or nutritional deficiency.
3. Using abrasive shampoos, hair lacquers, dyes and bleaching, etc.
4. Endocrine disorder.
5. Genetic factors.
6. Infectious diseases.
7. Hormonal metabolic changes in lactating women.
8. Nutrient and protein deficiencies in the hair cells.