Cancer remains leading cause of death among US Hispanics

Cancer remains the leading cause of death among Hispanics in the U.S., driven in large part by lung malignancies in men and breast tumors in women, a new report finds.

This year, Hispanics in the U.S. will experience 125,900 new cases of cancer and 37,800 deaths from cancer, the report predicts. Among men, lung tumors will account for one in six cancer deaths, while breast malignancies will account 16 percent of cancer fatalities among Hispanic women, the researchers estimate.

"Death rates are declining for both heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S. overall, and cancer, the second leading cause," said lead report author Rebecca Siegel, a researcher at the American Cancer Society. "Cancer has already surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in Hispanics because of their young age structure."

Approximately 55.4 million Hispanics live in the U.S., making up the country's largest racial and ethnic minority group and accounting for roughly 17 percent of the total population. Eighty-two percent of Hispanics in the U.S. are under age 50, compared with only 60 percent of white people.

Every three years, the American Cancer Society reports cancer statistics for Hispanics based on data from U.S. health agencies and national cancer registries.

For all cancers combined, Hispanics have 20 percent lower incidence rates and 30 percent lower death rates than white people in the U.S., Siegel and her colleagues report in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

This is primarily because Hispanics are less likely to be diagnosed with the four most common cancers in the U.S. - prostate, breast, lung and colon malignancies.

Hispanics are, however, more likely than whites to be diagnosed with tumors linked to infectious diseases, including cancers of the stomach, liver and cervix, the report notes.

Hispanic women will experience 67,000 new cancer cases this year, including 19,800 breast malignancies, 6,000 thyroid tumors and 5,300 colorectal tumors, the report estimates. About 17,900 Hispanic women will die of cancer, most often from breast, lung or colorectal tumors.

For Hispanic men, the report estimates 58,400 new cancer cases and 19,900 deaths this year. The most common new diagnosis will be prostate tumors, with 13,000 cases, followed by 6,400 colorectal and 5,000 lung malignancies.

One shortcoming of the report is that U.S. death certificates and data on patients in cancer registries may not accurately reflect the Hispanic population because some government forms only recently started tracking this population and some patients who are considered by researchers to be part of this group may not self-identify as Hispanic, the authors acknowledge.

Arthritis may increase risk of poverty, especially for women

An arthritis diagnosis increases the risk of falling into poverty, according to an Australian study.

Arthritis is a very debilitating disease and likely impacts labor force participation, either forcing people to retire early due to the pain or physical restriction of arthritis, reducing the hours they can work or changing to a lower-paid job, said lead author Emily Callander, a research fellow at the University of Sydney.

"For those who are already in retirement it may be that the costs of treatment or costs of accessing aids or career services have required them to draw down some of their assets, which would lower the income they derive from their assets," Callander told Reuters Health by email.

The researchers studied more than 4,000 Australian adults between 2007 and 2012.

At the start of the study, the participants were not in poverty and did not have arthritis. By 2009, 300 of the participants had developed arthritis, half of whom were men. Over the study, 18 percent of women and 16 percent of men fell into poverty based on income, and the proportion in poverty increased with age.

Women who developed arthritis were 51 percent more likely to fall into income poverty than nonarthritic women. For men, arthritis increased the risk by 22 percent.

Women were also more likely to fall into poverty by a definition encompassing income, health and education attainment, or "multidimensional poverty," according to the results in Arthritis and Rheumatology.

"It is known that people with lower incomes are more likely to develop arthritis, but this is the first study to show the inverse relationship - that arthritis could also lead to income poverty," Callander said.

Women are more likely than men to have severe arthritis, which may make it harder for them to work, but that dimension was not included in this study, she noted.

"In our analysis we did take into consideration other factors, such as age, being married or in a de facto relationship as opposed to being single, being a home owner as opposed to renting or having a mortgage, and whether the person lived in a major city, an inner regional area or a rural area," she said. "However, even after considering all these other factors, being diagnosed with arthritis still leads to an increased risk of poverty."

In men with breast cancer, double mastectomies are on the rise

More men with breast cancer are opting to get both breasts removed, even the healthy one, a new study finds.

Between 2004 and 2011, the rates of contralateral prophylactic mastectomies in men nearly doubled, with 5.6 percent of men with breast cancer undergoing the operation in 2011, compared with 3 percent in 2004, according to the study. A contralateral prophylactic mastectomy is an operation to remove a healthy, unaffected breast after a diagnosis of invasive cancer in the other breast.

However, this type of mastectomy isn't always necessary, the researchers cautioned in their study, published Sept. 2 in the journal JAMA Surgery.

"[The operation] is only recommended for a small proportion of men," and the rates observed in the new study are higher than this proportion, said Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, vice president of surveillance and health services research at the American Cancer Society and the lead researcher on the study.

Moreover, there's a lack of evidence to suggest that such mastectomies help patients live longer, Jemal told Live Science.

In the study, the researchers looked at data from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries on 6,332 men who had breast cancer in one breast. All of the men underwent surgery between 2004 and 2011.

The researchers found that, over the study period, 1,254 men underwent breast-conserving surgery, 4,800 men underwent a single-breast mastectomy and 278 men underwent contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. On average, the men who opted to remove both breasts were younger than those who didn't, and rates of these mastectomies decreased with the men's age, the researchers said.

The researchers were not surprised by the increase in rates, especially because the pattern has already been observed in women, Jamel said. The rates of such mastectomies in women drastically increased in the past two decades, rising from 2.8 percent of women with cancer in one breast in 1998 to 11 percent in 2011.

Heart rate in teen boys linked to violent crime in adulthood

Boys with a low resting heart rate during their teen years may be at increased risk for committing violent crimes as adults, a Swedish study suggests.

A low resting heart doesn't necessarily signal a problem. According to the American Heart Association, lower heart rates are common in people who are very athletic, because their heart muscle is in better condition and doesn't need to work as hard to maintain a steady beat.

But previous research has also linked a low resting heart rate to antisocial behavior in children and adolescents, the study authors note in JAMA Psychiatry. A slow heart rate may increase risk-taking, either because the teens seek stimulating experiences or fail to detect danger as much as their peers with normal heart rates, researchers say.

For the current study, a team led by Antti Latvala of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the University of Helsinki in Finland explored the link between young men's heart rates when they entered military service around age 18 and their odds of later being convicted of crimes as adults.

The study included 710,000 participants born between 1958 and 1991 who were followed for up to 36 years.

Compared with about 140,000 young men with the highest resting heart rates (above 83 beats per minute), those with the lowest heart rates (no more than 60 beats per minute) were 39 percent more likely to be convicted of a violent crime and had a 25 percent higher chance of getting convicted of nonviolent crimes.

"It is obvious that low resting heart rate by itself cannot be used to determine future violent or antisocial behavior," Latvala said by email. "However, it is intriguing that such a simple measure can be used as an indicator of individual differences in psychophysiological processes which make up one small but integral piece of the puzzle."

Study supports watch-and-wait approach for many prostate cancers

In a long-term study of older men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer and followed with so-called active surveillance, less than a third of cases eventually needed treatment, according to a new study.

About one half of one percent of the men died of their cancer during up to 18 years of follow-up.

Some prostate cancers do need to be treated on diagnosis, but older men with small, slow-growing cancers may die of other causes - often heart disease - before their prostate cancer shortens their lifespan, the authors note in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

"Our goal was to make absolutely sure we identified the people that we thought would be the absolute safest," said senior author Dr. H. Ballentine Carter of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

In the U.S., about 30 to 40 percent of men who would qualify for active surveillance for prostate cancer take that option. That proportion that has slowly increased over time but still lags behind other countries, Carter told Reuters Health.

The researchers followed 1,268 men, mostly in their 60s, diagnosed with low-risk or very low-risk prostate cancer in the 2000s.

As part of active surveillance, the men had twice-yearly rectal exams and blood tests for prostate specific antigen (PSA) to measure increases or decreases in the protein produced by the prostate gland. An increase in PSA can signal prostate cancer progression to higher-risk status. The men also had annual prostate biopsies.

Of the whole group, 650 were followed for at least five years and 184 were followed for at least 10 years.

How marijuana could affect your sperm

Smoking pot could damage your semen quality, or so suggests a new study out of Denmark. Some 1,215 Danish men ages 18 to 28 were asked about their drug use over the past three months and provided a semen sample.

The researchers found a correlation between men who smoked pot more than once weekly and "quite a lot" of a drop in sperm count: the count was an average 29% lower in these men than in those who reported lighter or no usage.

Those who reported additional drug use (anything from cocaine to ecstasy) saw an even more severe reduction, with average sperm count down 55%. "Our findings are of public interest as marijuana use is common"—indeed, 45% of participants had smoked in the last 3 months—"and may be contributing to recent reports of poor semen quality," the University of Copenhagen researchers write in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

There could be two things going on, they tell Live Science. It's possible the interaction between THC and receptors in the testes causes the drop.

Or it might not be the marijuana at all. "We cannot exclude the possibility that the men who used marijuana generally have an unhealthier lifestyle and health behavior, which may also affect their semen quality and hormone levels," say the researchers.

They did, however take into account caffeine, alcohol, and cigarette consumption, and the tie still held. A 2014 study found that pot usage was strongly associated with "abnormal sperm morphology.

Does testosterone improve men's sex lives?

Testosterone may not rev up men's sex lives as much as they expect it to: Older men with slightly low testosterone levels did not experience improvement in their desire or intimacy after they took testosterone supplements, according to a new study.

In the study, about 150 men age 60 and older were given daily testosterone supplements, and another 150 took a placebo. The men's testosterone level at the study's start was a little over 300 nanograms per deciliter, on average, which is on the lower end of the normal range for men.

Three years later, there were no differences between the two groups in how the men rated their level of sexual desire, erectile function and partner intimacy.

Although men in the testosterone group did report a slight improvement in their satisfaction with intercourse, the effect was small and could have been due to chance, the researchers said.

The findings agree with previous research that found that men with testosterone levels at the lower end of the normal range don't see improvements in sexual function after taking testosterone supplements. [5 Myths About the Male Body]

Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a urology specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City who was not involved in the research, said that testosterone supplements may have a benefit for men whose testosterone level is lower than that of the men in the study — between 150 and 300 nanograms per deciliter. But "beyond that, it's not going to help," she said.

Although some men may have the perception that testosterone supplements will make them stronger or more virile, "giving a guy testosterone is not the fountain of youth," Kavaler told Live Science.

The men in the study did not necessarily have symptoms of low libido, so doctors would not expect the men's libidos to improve in these cases, Kavaler said.

It's important to note that sexual function was not the main focus of the study, which limits the scientific robustness of the findings.. Rather, the study was aimed at determining whether testosterone supplements affect the progression of atherosclerosis — the thickening and hardening of arterial walls.

Although there has been some concern among health professionals that testosterone therapy might increase men's risk of heart disease, the study found no difference between the groups in measures of atherosclerosis progression.

Number of men over 40 seeking cosmetic treatments on the rise, experts say

More men than ever before are booking spa appointments, buying skin care products and “manscaping.” Now, experts say there’s been a surge in the number of men between 40 and 70 years old who are making their way into the dermatologist’s office for cosmetic treatments, too.

In fact, men underwent more than one million non-surgical treatments such as Botox, photo rejuvenation and fat reduction in 2014, a report from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery found. Plus, the number of cosmetic treatments for men increased 273 percent since 1997.

According to Dr. Ellen Marmur, a board-certified dermatologist based in New York City, out of more than 17,000 of her patients, the top ten who spend the most are men who have regular cosmetics treatments.   

When undergoing cosmetic procedures, some women don’t want their husbands to know and some are worried about what others will think or about looking unnatural. For men, the worry seems to be more about side effects— and less about what their wives think.

“Their wives are psyched— half the time it’s their wives who sent them in,” Marmur, who is also an associate clinical professor in the department of dermatology and the department of genetics and genomic research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said.

A stronger jawline and job security

Just as many women search for the eternal fountain of youth, a large group of men who opt for cosmetic treatments are executives who see it as a necessity to keep their edge.

“Men do things to look better because they’re competing in a younger job market,” said Dr. Doris Day, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City and author of “Forget the Facelift: Turn Back the Clock with Dr. Day’s Revolutionary Four-Step Program for Ageless Skin.”

Fathers of the brides are another group interested in enhancing their looks, spurred on by their wives and the cost built into the wedding budget.

What’s more, because there are many new minimally or non-invasive treatments that don’t leave scars, it’s a more attractive option for men, Day said.  

2 in 5 military women endure sexual trauma during service

In the U.S. military, women may be nearly 10 times more likely than men to experience sexual assault or harassment, a study of recent veterans suggests.

Researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) surveyed more than 20,000 men and women who served during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 41 percent of women and 4 percent of men reported suffering some form of sexual harassment during their time in the military.

"Research among both civilians and those who have served in the military consistently find that rates of sexual assault and sexual harassment are higher among women than among men," lead study author Shannon Barth of the VA said by email.

"Despite the higher prevalence among women veterans, given the far greater number of men who have served in the military, there are significant numbers of both men and women who have experienced (sexual trauma)," Barth added.

One in five U.S. women and one in 71 men report being raped at some point in their lifetime, and among both genders, about one in 20 people experience other forms of sexual coercion and unwanted sexual advances, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Barth and colleagues assessed sexual trauma in the military as part of a health survey of recent veterans conducted between 2009 and 2011. Of 60,000 veterans invited to participate, 20,563 completed the questionnaire.

One survey item related to sexual trauma asked whether service members received uninvited or unwanted sexual attention such as touching, cornering, and pressure for sexual favors or inappropriate verbal remarks. Another item asked if anyone ever used force or the threat of force to initiate unwanted sex.

For both men and women, sexual harassment was far more common than assault, the study found.

Roughly 41 percent of women and 4 percent of men experienced sexual harassment, while about 9 percent of women and less than 1 percent of men said they were assaulted.

Women lag men in medical research funds and faculty posts

Even though women now make up half of all U.S. medical school graduates, they remain much less likely than men to get research funding or become professors in medicine, two studies suggest.

Nationwide, men outnumbered women on U.S. medical school faculties by two to one last year, and men edged out women by almost five to one in achieving senior posts as full professors, according to one of the studies published in JAMA.

Women also appear to receive far less financial support for biomedical research early in their academic careers, a separate study of applications to one New England foundation suggests.

The studies serve as a reminder that the potential of women in medicine, like their peers in many other professions, has not been fully realized, Dr. Carrie Bylington of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City argues in an accompanying editorial. To represent the diverse communities they serve, academic medical centers should champion diversity among their students, faculty and staff, she writes.

"At least two major roadblocks lead to gender disparities in academic medicine," said Dr. Anupam Jena, a health policy researcher at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

"First, institutional resources, mentorship and biases generally favor men over women, hence making it harder for women in academic medicine to be as productive in research," Jena, lead author of the study of medical school faculties, said by email.

4 secrets your man might be keeping from you

He Wants More Sex

Most of us feel closer and more emotionally connected to our significant others through sex, so take note if the physical side of your relationship has hit the wayside. If you rarely initiate, are constantly tired or seem too busy to get busy, he might get moody or irritable, says Goldstein. “Whenever couples come into my office, one of the first things I ask them is, ‘How is your sex life?’” she says. “It’s a simple question, but it tells me a lot—especially the husband’s answer.”

According to Goldstein, a lot of men will express some discontent—and women will counter with total shock. Many women don’t even realize there’s been a drop-off in bedroom activities. If you can’t remember how long it’s been since you last had sex, there’s a good chance he’s taken note of the drought.

MORE: What’s Your Sex Number?

He's in Financial Trouble

If he just took a significant pay cut or he’s facing layoffs at work, he may withdraw, according to counselor and psychologist Karla Ivankovich, PhD, an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois, Springfield. “Men have been handed a gender role that assigns the task of providing,” she explains. “So in his mind, the difficulty with the finances may signal a failure on his part.”

Ivankovich says he’ll be singularly focused on fixing the problem at hand. He may nitpick purchases or appear distant and distracted until he finds a resolution—and even then, he may not willingly discuss the problem. “If it’s ‘fixed,’ he probably won’t see the need to belabor the point,” Ivankovich says. Some women may never know there was a worry.

MORE: The Genius Trick for Perfect Scrambled Eggs

 

He's Not Moving Up the Ladder at Work

Men attach a huge chunk of their value and self-worth to their jobs. So if your guy was passed over for a promotion, or didn’t get the recognition he thought he deserved on his last project, you might have a very moody man on your hands. “Men need to feel good about their professional status,” Goldstein says. “If he’s not excelling at the pace he’d like, he may be feeling less confident, less talkative and more depressed.”

Again, since you’re not involved in his day-to-day office life, Goldstein says that he may not see how it could help to get you involved. But if you think he could use a sounding board, try asking how things at work are going. (Ask it at night, after he’s had some time to decompress from the day.) Learn his cues and adjust: can you bond through distraction or does his mood improve with a little venting?    

MORE: 4 Things Men Hide From Their Wives

He Has a Health Concern

While women can be pretty good about identifying symptoms, getting checked by a doc and then worrying while she waits for a status report, a man may find a symptom, skip step two and just settle at worrying (or ignoring). “The longer you fail to address health concerns, the more concerns there will be with reversibility,” says Ivankovich.

And get this: when asked to pick one health issue that men fret about most, Ivankovich points to erectile dysfunction. “Rather than address that, many will start arguments to avoid sex,” she says. “They became anxious and depressed, which only exacerbates the inability to achieve or sustain an erection.”

In terms of getting him to ‘fess up to any of the above, Goldstein says it really depends on the guy. Only in a calm moment, try broaching the topic either generally (“Something seems off with you lately…”) or directly, if you have a hunch. But if his grumpy attitude seems indefinite or he starts taking out his frustration on you, then it’s time to see a counselor, says Goldstein.

And if he’s keen to stay silent for a time, give him some space. “You can only push so much,” she says. “You have to stay respectful of his boundaries. Some men don’t like to talk it out, and that’s okay.” He’ll probably come back around just as soon as he sorts it out mentally—something often done solo. Just let him know that you’re always available as a safe, judgment-free person to vent to.

US Air Force vet’s photo of soldiers breast-feeding goes viral

When Tara Ruby was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force from 1997 to 2001, the military didn’t offer support for breast-feeding mothers. To show how far the military has come— the Fort Bliss Army Post has a new nursing room— she recently posted a photo on social media of 10 active duty soldiers breastfeeding their babies.

The photo, which has received over 11,400 likes on Ruby’s Facebook page and over 12,300 likes from Breast-feeding in Combat Boots’ Facebook page, shows the women wearing boots and camouflage as they feed their children.

Ruby, now a professional photographer in El Paso, Texas, sought active duty mothers using the Army Public Health Center’s Pregnancy and Postpartum Physical Training (P3T) Program, which aims to help soldiers maintain physical fitness levels during and after pregnancy. According to their website, P3T draws exercise recommendations from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.  She also worked with Breast-feeding in Combat Boots, a veteran-owned and operated support group.

"I thought it was be nice to offer some photographs as an additional show of support," Ruby told CNN. "Seeing a picture like that helps mothers understand they can be an active soldier and provide support to their children."

According to CNN, Fort Bliss Public Affairs and Garrison Command approved the shoot. A U.S. Army spokesman told CNN there is no policy that prevents women from breast-feeding in uniform as long as they “maintain professional standards.”

On Thursday, Ruby posted the photo on her Facebook page and it was removed, for reasons Ruby doesn’t know, by Friday morning. It was also removed from other pages that shared the image. Ruby reposted the photo on Friday morning, thanking supporters.

"Juggling the tasks and expectations of a soldier, plus providing for their own in the best way they possibly can, makes these ladies even stronger for it,” she wrote on her wall.

6 ways you’re making your menopause symptoms worse

Hate to break it to you, but there's someone screwing you over in the hot-flashes department. Yep, it's you. For starters, we're guessing you don't get your menopause info from an expert source. Your doctor means well, we promise, but chances are her specialty isn't the Big Change. Your best bet is finding a certified menopause practitioner near you at menopause.org. (Looking for ways to ease your menopause symptoms? Then check out The Natural Menopause Solutionfor simple, effective tips.)

In the meantime, you can set yourself up for success by avoiding the all-too-common pitfalls below. Here are some of the major menopause no-nos you might be guilty of:

1. You're not telling your doc about your supplements.

And who could blame you? In a recent North American Menopause Society study, some 53 percent of women said they've tried everything from vitamins and herbal supplements to acupuncture and massage to help with hot flashes, anxiety, pain, fatigue, and other disruptive menopause symptoms.

The issue is that it's tricky to know just what you're getting, since supplements aren't FDA regulated, said ob-gyn Dr. Kathryn Macaulay, director of the Menopause Health Program at the University of California–San Diego and a clinical professor of reproductive medicine at the UCSD Medical Center.

That doesn't mean they can't help; black cohosh, for example, has some pretty substantial research behind its ability to ward off hot flashes. But she recommends telling your doctor what you're trying, so at the very least she can direct you toward a reputable brand.

MORE: This Is What It's Really Like To Be In A Sexless Marriage

2. You're ignoring the basics.

How much sleep did you get last night? How much water have you been drinking? How off the wall is your stress right now? There's nothing groundbreaking about age-old health wisdom about eating your veggies, getting enough sleep, and taking time to chill, but sticking to the fundamentals can dramatically reduce the severity of your most exhausting menopause symptoms.

Macaulay suggested preparing ahead of time: Get close to your ideal body weight before you enter the menopause home stretch. Metabolism and hormonal changes make it that much harder to whittle your middle after menopause. (Take a look at this new, easy science-backed way to lose 10 pounds—no dieting or exercising required.)

3. You're banking on those hot flashes passing—and quickly.

"Sure, I'm drowning in my own sweat," you think, "but I can put up with a year of this, I'm tough!" Sorry to burst your perspiring bubble, but you're likely to be facing more than a yearlong sentence: Hot flashes actually seem to last more like seven years (seriously, sorry). We get that you want to look tough—it's just a little sweat right?!—but seven years is a long time to be carrying around that battery-operated fan you've got in your purse.

If hot flashes are causing big-time disruption—in sleep and in your day-to-day, once-sweat-free life—stop waiting it out and look into treatment options, says Macaulay.