Woman diagnosed with breast cancer at 25 urges others to get checked

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  Liz Cooper was just 25 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. (GoFundMe.)

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When Liz Cooper was 25, she felt a lump in her right breast, but didn’t think much of it. She was young, had just lost 70 pounds and was being counseled by a nutritionist and trainer. Breast cancer also didn’t run rampant in her family -- her grandmother had been diagnosed with it, but not until well into her 80s.
“There were no real symptoms, there was just the lump under my armpit in the breast area,” Cooper, now 26, told FoxNews.com.
Cooper works in the billing department at Stamford Hospital near her home in Connecticut, and told a nurse about the lump.
“She asked if I was on my period because during menstruation it’s common to feel lumps or fluid in your breast,” she said. “Two weeks later it was still there, so I made an appointment with my doctor, got a prescription for an ultrasound, had it done and they knew right away at the ultrasound,” she said. A subsequent biopsy confirmed the lump was cancerous.
Cooper was diagnosed with stage 1B invasive micropapillary breast carcinoma and micrometastasis in the lymph nodes. She tested positive for a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes the growth of cancer cells; HER2-positive breast cancers tend to be more aggressive than others. Because her cancer tested positive for estrogen and progesterone, Cooper had her lymph nodes removed to avoid further spread.
“I can’t take birth control because it’ll feed it,” she said.
Cooper’s diagnosis shocked her doctors, and she underwent genetic testing to see if she might be susceptible to any other mutations. She tested negative for mutations to the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, and aside from her grandmother does not have a family history of the cancer.
Ultimately, she decided to undergo a bilateral mastectomy— removing both the breast with cancer and the healthy breast — despite results testing negative for the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 mutation. Had she chosen a lumpectomy, she would have had to endure biopsies and imaging every six months to monitor any development in her affected breast. In addition to the stress of the surgeries, Cooper also had to decide whether to freeze her eggs before beginning chemotherapy.
“I went through two cycles of egg freezing – oocyte cryopreservation— and my insurance only covered $5,000 of it,” Cooper said. “I also had to get over the fear of giving myself shots for it.”
During this time, Cooper had five surgical drains attached to body and was unable to drive while she recovered from the double mastectomy. Her parents, boyfriend and best friend managed her medications around the clock and drove her to and from appointments. When all was said and done, she was ready to start chemotherapy in August 2015.
“I was terrified of being sick and losing my hair,” she said. “When you don’t have hair, [people] know that you’re sick.”
Cooper decided to donate 14 inches of her hair to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths partnership with the American Cancer Society before she lost it to chemotherapy. Her treatment required a cocktail of four different drugs and six cycles of chemotherapy every 21 days. Once she completed it, Cooper began a targeted therapy that will last through August. At that time, she’ll be placed on a hormone blocker for five years, and continue to go for follow-up scans for the rest of her life.
“The feelings from chemotherapy were like having the flu, pneumonia and severe exhaustion all together,” she said. “It feels like you drink carbonated metallic gasoline – it does not make you feel very well.” 
The drugs also affected her memory, and Cooper said she sometimes feels like she’s in a constant fog. She doesn’t have much time or energy to socialize, as she is in physical therapy three to four times per week to treat painful lymphedema, which is a result of the surgery to remove her lymph nodes.
“I feel like I live at the doctor’s office so my schedule is very hectic with appointments, and it’s just not your average 25-year-old’s schedule,” she said, adding that it's difficult to know she could be attending graduate school or traveling at this time.
“Instead I had to be careful going out in public because if my white blood count was low I could risk getting an infection,” she said. “I couldn’t relate to people’s conversations anymore – I had totally different problems and issues and nobody truly understands how many treatments are involved with having cancer.”
To stay inspired on her darkest days, Cooper turned to the wisdom of two co-workers who are breast cancer survivors, as well as her friends and family urging her to be strong. Her friends started a GoFundMe for her medical care, with the response helping to boost her morale even more. In addition, she found an online support group exclusively accessible to breast cancer patients. On April 2, her alma mater, Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, is holding a lacrosse game benefitting breast cancer research in her honor.

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The experience has taught he the importance of paying attention to your health, even when you’re young.
“It’s really important to go to your yearly gynecological visits and physicals with your primary care physician,” Cooper said. “If you’re ever worried or concerned about something that you think is unusual with your body – always go get it checked out just to be sure.”

Incidence and Mortality of Breast Cancer in the United States | HealthGrove

Cooper will be back in surgery in two weeks to undergo another step in her breast reconstruction surgery, permanent implants. After the bilateral mastectomy, she had tissue expanders implanted behind the pectoral muscle. Over several procedures, her surgeon injected saline into the expanders to make room for permanent implants. The final step will be nipple reconstruction.  source:foxnews

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Doctors take note as NY demands paperless prescriptions

Dr. Michael T. Goldstein, New York County Medical Society President, use a standard prescription pad which is being made obsolete by a new electronic prescription law, Thursday, March 17, 2016, in New York. E-prescribing has surged nationwide in recent years. Every state now allows it, but only New York has a broad requirement that carries penalties. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

NEW YORK –  The scribbled, cryptic doctor's prescription is headed toward eradication in New York, where the nation's toughest paperless-prescribing requirement takes effect this month.
Instead of handing patients slips of paper, physicians soon must electronically send orders directly to pharmacies for everything from antibiotics to cholesterol pills to painkillers, with some exceptions. Otherwise, prescribers face the possibility of fines, license loss or even jail.
The requirement is meant to fight painkiller abuse, reduce errors and expand a practice that doctors and patients often find convenient. But physicians say digital scripts can present roadblocks for some patients and doctors shouldn't have to fear punishment over a prescription format.
"When it works, it's seamless," says New York County Medical Society President Dr. Michael T. Goldstein, an ophthalmologist who issues many prescriptions electronically himself. "But there are circumstances where it doesn't work, and patients suffer."
E-prescribing has surged nationwide in recent years amid a push to digitize medical records. About 60 percent of scripts are now sent electronically, said Paul Uhrig, chief administrative officer of Surescripts, the leading network for transmitting e-prescriptions.
Every state now allows e-prescribing, but only New York has a broad requirement that carries penalties. Minnesota requires the use of electronic prescribing but doesn't specify how much or set penalties.
Digital prescribing thwarts prescription-slip forgery and theft and saves time for patients who otherwise have to drop off scripts. The secured systems also let doctors look up a patient's other medications and insurance particulars before ordering a drug.
The convenience appeals to patients like Christine Smith, a 44-year-old mother of two from Plainview, on New York's Long Island.
"I like them sending it, so I don't have to carry it. It's one less responsibility for me to worry about," she said.
Studies have found that electronic prescribing reduces medication errors, partly because pharmacists don't have to decipher prescribers' handwriting. Messy writing causes some of the medication errors that kill at least one person per day and injure 1.3 million nationwide each year, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"It is a good thing to make electronic prescribing ever more available," but not to require it all the time, says American Medical Association President Dr. Steven Stack.
Patients, for instance, could accidentally have prescriptions sent to the wrong pharmacy or to one that has closed or out of stock by the time they arrive. Instead of taking a piece of paper to another pharmacy, patients have to get the doctor to re-issue the prescription or the pharmacy to transfer it.
It's also harder for patients to shop around for medication deals when a script is in a pharmacy's system instead of in hand, says Dr. Joseph R. Maldonado, president of the Medical Society of the State of New York.
Carmel Danna is one of those shoppers, having found her out-of-pocket costs can vary widely between pharmacies.
Besides, "I prefer to have (a script) written because I can check it and make sure they did it right," says Danna, 85, a retired secretary from Plainview.
To be sure, despite e-prescribing's potential to improve accuracy, it's not foolproof.
Some studies have suggested digital prescribing carries risks of its own, such as mistyping or choosing the wrong item from a drop-down menu. Minnesota health professionals reviewing their state's e-prescribing progress noted some problems in changing and canceling prescriptions electronically, including a case in which a patient doubled up on cholesterol drugs and died of the complications, according to a presentation at the state's e-Health Summit last year.
Officials and vendors say that they continue working to improve the systems. Meanwhile, about 8 percent of New York's 124,000 doctors, dentists, nurse-practitioners and other prescribers have gotten extensions on the March 27 deadline.
Paper or phone prescriptions are allowed during emergencies, and health officials this week added new exceptions, such as nursing home staffers phoning in prescriptions after-hours. The state Senate passed a proposal to exempt doctors who write very few prescriptions.
While the technology may be new, some users say the way to resolve any uncertainties isn't.
"We do just what we normally would have done: You pick up the phone," said Maria Marzella Mantione, a community pharmacist who teaches at St. John's University and is on New York state's Board of Pharmacy. "And you do your best to help the patient."  source:foxnews

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Nut, seed and flower oils: Which cooking oil to use when

From deep-fried foods to healthy salads, cooking oils play a part in the flavor profile and healthiness of many meals. With such a huge range of nut, seed, and flower oils on the market to choose from, all boasting their own array of nutritional and superfood benefits, it can be hard to know where to start.
Consider the smoke point when selecting an oil to cook with. The temperature at which a type of oil begins to smoke and burn will play a huge factor in the dishes you should use it in. Will you be cooking your food hot and fast? If that’s the case you might want to avoid the delicious and flavorful extra virgin olive oil, which begins to smoke at 320 degrees F, and instead opt for an oil with a higher smoke point, like avocado oil, which smokes at a searing 520 degrees F.
Then there’s your waistline and general health to consider. It’s no secret all oils contain fats, but consulting our list will teach the levels of mono-saturated, mono-unsaturated, and poly-unsaturated fats in 15 popular nut, seed, and flower oils, allowing you to choose the oil that’s right for you.  source:foxnews

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Gene GT198 helpful in detecting breast cancer early

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Washington D.C: A new study has revealed that gene GT198 can cause breast cancer on mutation. This gene that is known for its ability to repair DNA has a strong potential and can diagnose breast cancer early.
The studies performed at Augusta University were done on an international sampling from 254 cases of breast cancer in pre- and postmenopausal women, said corresponding author Dr. Lan Ko.
Mutations of the gene are known to be present in both early onset breast and ovarian cancer. Now, scientists have shown that the stem, or progenitor cells, which should ultimately make healthy breast tissue, can also have GT198 mutations that prompt them to instead make a perfect bed for breast cancer.
Ko noted that this gene mutation can be in both the blood and the tumor tissue of patients, and in the tissue, it's in high percentages, adding "We believe that once this gene is mutated, it induces the tumor to grow."
GT198, which is also a coactivator of receptors for steroid hormones such as estrogen, is normally regulated by estrogen, Ko said. But once mutated, GT198 can enable tumor production without estrogen. "Regardless of how much hormone you have, it's out-of-control growth," Ko said of the resulting classic, rapid growth of cancer.
"It's a new target in cancer. It's very exciting," said co-author Dr. Nita Maihle, adding "This tells you that all the different types of stromal cells in breast tissue are affected by the GT198 mutation because they all come from a common progenitor cell."
The net effect is a tumorigenic environment filled with what Ko calls inappropriate offspring. "Here is a cause-consequence relationship," she said.  source:zeenews

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Biking or Walking to Work Helps Keep You Fit

 Walking, cycling or taking public transit to work helps middle-aged adults lose body fat and weight, new research suggests.
"Physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of ill health and premature mortality," said study author Ellen Flint. She's a lecturer in population health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in England.
"In England, two-thirds of adults do not meet recommended levels of physical activity. Encouraging public transport and active commuting, especially for those in mid-life when obesity becomes an increasing problem, could be an important part of the global policy response to population-level obesity prevention," Flint concluded.
The study, published March 16 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, included information from more than 150,000 people between the ages of 40 and 69 in the United Kingdom. Two-thirds of them drove to work each day, researchers said.
The study found that bicycle commuting offered the greatest benefits compared to using a car.
For example, a 53-year-old man who cycled to work weighed 11 pounds less, the study showed. Cycling to work also resulted in a 1.7 drop in body mass index (BMI -- an estimate of body fat based on weight and height) compared to someone who drove to work.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that a BMI score under 25 is considered normal weight. Twenty-five and above is overweight. Thirty and over is obese.
A 52-year-old woman who cycled to work weighed nearly 10 pounds less than a woman who drove to work. The woman cyclist would also have a 1.65 lower BMI score than a driver, the study showed.
Men and women who walked to work instead of driving dropped their BMI by as much as 0.98, the study found. The farther people cycled or walked to work, the greater their reductions in BMI, the study revealed.
Even taking public transportation made a difference, the study authors found. Men who used public transit had a 0.7 lower BMI than those who drove, as did those who combined public transit with walking or cycling to get to work (lower BMI of 1 for men and 0.7 lower BMI for women).
The connection between style of commuting and BMI was independent of other factors such as income, education, urban or rural home, drinking and smoking, and overall physical activity, health and disability.
"Many people live too far from their workplace for walking or cycling to be feasible, but even the incidental physical activity involved in public transport can have an important effect," Flint said in a journal news release.
Lars Bo Andersen, from Sogndal and Fjordane University College in Norway, wrote an editorial accompanying the study. In it, he said the findings are important, "because commuting to work is an everyday activity that lots of working people need to do.
"Many people are not attracted to recreational sports or other leisure-time physical activities, which are proven to benefit health, and active transport might therefore be an important and easy choice to increase physical activity and the proportion of people achieving recommended levels of physical activity," Andersen noted.
source: The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology

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Breakfast Cereal: The Marketing of Sugar

It’s not often you see an advertisement for Shredded Wheat, All Bran, or low-sugar organic cereals. What you do see, in a very repetitive and aggressive way, are ads for high-sugar, low-fiber content cereals. You know, Trix (Trix are for kids!), Lucky Charms (they’re magically delicious), Corn Pops, and Cap’n Crunch (one of my childhood favorites).
Those Saturday morning cartoons may entertain the kids and even delight a few adults but they also offer up unhealthy choices in the form of commercials. A new study, conducted by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, shows that cereals marketed to our children have 85 percent more sugar, 65 percent less fiber, and 60 percent more sodium, not to mention the additional unnecessary calories that they add to the breakfast bowl.
The study, released over the weekend, provided a wealth of information on both the content and marketing of cereals in this country. Using a nutrient profile system and reviewing marketing data for the popular cereal brands, researchers found that the average preschooler sees 642 cereal ads per year on television. Eleven of the thirteen cereals advertised most to children on television are also marketed heavily on the internet, with not one of them qualifying for inclusion in the USDA WIC Program.
The Top 10 advertised cereals to children with the poorest nutrition content were: Reese’s Puffs, Corn Pops, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cap’n Crunch, Trix, Froot Loops, Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, Cocoa Puffs, and Cookie Crisp.
Of course the food companies are fighting back. General Mills spokeswoman Heidi Geller says kids who eat cereal more frequently, including pre-sweetened cereals, "tend to weigh less than kids who eat cereal less frequently — and they are better nourished." Given that General Mills has the highest number of brands marketed directly to children (8) and the highest amount of money spent on marketing those cereals ($107 million per year), it’s not surprising that they are trying to spin this in a positive light.
Look for cereals that have 10 grams or less of sugar per serving and look at the serving size, which varies.  Cereal bowls, when filled, tend to be twice what the average serving size is (3/4 to 1 cup), meaning that your child is getting twice the amount of sugar than you intended. And many go back for seconds, compounding the issue.
GoodGuides http://www.goodguide.com/ provides the world's largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of the products in your home. It has a good cereal ranking system, and also allows you to filter by the following topics:
Environmentally Friendly

• Organic
• Low In Sugar
• Low In Sodium
• Low In Cholesterol
• Low In Saturated Fat

The Top 12 ranked cereals on GoodGuides are:

1. Nature's Path Puffed Millet, Organic
2. Barbara's Bakery, Cereal Shredded Wheat
3. Vita Spelt Flakes
4. Food For Life Ezekiel Cereal, Original, Organic
5. Arrowhead Mills Puffed Wheat
6. Grape-nuts, Flakes Cereal
7. Post Spoon Size Shredded Wheat Cereal
8. Honey Bunches Of Oats, Cinnamon Clusters Cereal
9. Cheerios, MultiGrain
10. Wheaties
11. Total
12. Chex Corn      source    health news

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Intricacies rule Virat Kohli's world of run-making

The 27-year-old's keen eye for finer details of batting showed how far he's come as a player and perhaps, a glimpse of how far more he's destined to go. © Getty

On a harrowing night for batsmen at the Eden Gardens, Virat Kohli finished as the difference between the two sides as India extended their dominance over Pakistan in World Cups. That he's an excellent chaser of targets is well-documented but behind his consistency, lies his knack for attention to finer details of his nuance of the game that makes him so dangerous.
Over the last few years, Kohli has turned into a true modern-day champion, with bucket-loads of runs to show for and an ability to realign his mindset midway through an innings in order to come up trumps against almost every bowler he's faced.
Rewind to a couple of weeks ago. India were tottering at eight for 3 in the third over, the top-order made to look abject by Mohammad Amir's pace and swing on a green-top wicket. The 22-year-old, whose stunning return to the international scheme of things felt like he was never away, turned the screws. By Kohli's own admission, the 49 he scored in this chase was one of his better knocks. It wasn't just Kohli's acumen to take on the challenge and pose a counter to it, but also to be able to think on his feet and blunt the threat posed by Amir.
The left-arm pacer coupled his express pace with his ability to swing the ball into the right-handers and caused all sorts of trouble for the Indian batsmen. Rohit Sharma lasted two deliveries, Ajinkya Rahane wasn't sure of whether to go forward or hold back and Suresh Raina, a left-hander, was comprehensively bamboozled. Kohli walked out, faced a couple of deliveries and quickly opened up his stance to be able to deal better with the ball that swung into him. Kohli's move forced Amir to alter his plans, and therein lay the Indian batsman's genius.
Amir's excellent flow meant he still posed problems but Kohli did enough, despite getting a couple of outside edges, to arrest India's slide. In the 16 balls he faced off Amir, Kohli scored just 10, but in the process, also saw off a little over half of the four-over spell of Pakistan's most impactful bowler of that night in a small chase.

On a viciously-turning track, Virat Kohli's batting proved to be the difference between the two teams © Getty

An innate quality in the best of batsmen is to acknowledge their fallibility and head back to the drawing board to iron them out before the next opportunity arises. The constant urge to erase what looks like a blemish on an otherwise spotless canvas eggs them on, as evidenced by Kohli's reactions.
On an equally potent spin-track in Nagpur, Kohli had perished while trying to drive Ish Sodhi, the New Zealand leg spinner, away from his body. On revisiting his dismissal and the forward stride, Kohli seemed to have figured that staying on and playing late against the threat of Shahid Afridi's leg spin on Saturday would benefit him.
What started as a keen contest was swiftly bossed over by Kohli and his batting re-adjustments allowed him to play a lot more on the back foot and take his time to keep the vastly-turning ball away. On a wicket such as this, batsmen would escape the wrath of a coach even if they fell trying to slog their way out of trouble, but Kohli, as Shoaib Malik reckoned in the post-match press conference, backed his skill even in such adverse conditions and anchored the chase to perfection.
"Even when I am defending the ball, I want to have a big stride forward and show the bowler, 'I've defended it because you bowled a good ball. But if you bowl a bad one, I am here to hit you for a boundary," he had said back in July 2014. A year-and-a-half later, Afridi learnt it the hard way that not much has changed in the way Kohli played his cricket.
That the Pakistan talisman had to work with a negligible margin of error on a favourable track added to Kohli's brilliance. Kohli also reaped the rewards of showing extreme patience and resolve against short of a length deliveries, forcing Afridi to try the fuller approach. Once the deliveries were full, Kohli was able to reach the pitch of the ball and even dish out a couple of picture-perfect cover drives to ease the pressure of the chase, and leave Afridi out of options.
Against Shoaib Malik, the right-arm off-spinner, Kohli chose to step out of his comfort zone and use the sweep shot to nullify the impact of the turn. The move, as risky as it was, yielded instant results as he managed to throw Malik off his rhythm.
"People who've seen me closely, know that I don't play the sweep unless it turns square. But when the need of the hour is to play a sweep, you've got to be good at this level to play it, and if you can't, then people are going to target you there and you keep going down as a batsman. If you need to be ahead of the bowlers, you've got to play every shot in the book," he said in a post-match chat on Star Sports, reflecting his sublime game-reading skills and his ever-improving flexibility.
As his essay progressed, there was a growing feeling of whether Kohli was indeed batting on a different track. His tally of 29 from 20 balls off the two spinners combined, highlighted the vast difference between the batting efforts of the two sides on a wicket that hardly changed through the day.
"You know that famous example of half glass of water, whether it's half full or half empty, how do you see it? I feel his biggest plus point is he takes everything as a challenge," Dhoni summed up Kohli's current frame of mind on a night when the 27-year-old showed how far he's come as a batsman and perhaps, a glimpse of how much further he's bound to go.  source   cricbuzz

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