Tag: exercise

Women with PTSD more likely to develop ovarian cancer, suggests study

Women Cancer

Women who exhibit many classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be much more likely to develop ovarian cancer than their counterparts who don’t, a new study suggests.

For the study, researchers asked women to identify the most stressful event of their lives and report whether they experienced seven different symptoms of PTSD. Women who suffered from six or seven PTSD symptoms were more than twice as likely to develop ovarian cancer as women who didn’t report any of these symptoms, the study found.

“We hypothesise that stress hormones directly affect cancer cells that may be in the body, causing them to grow faster and become more invasive,” said Andrea Roberts, lead author of the study and a research scientist at the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

“It is also possible that chronic stress interferes with the body’s ability to kill cancer cells,” Roberts said by email. Read Complete Article

A dog owner more likely to smoke, yet have better heart health: Study

No one can say if it’s the walks or the unconditional love, but there’s something about owning a dog that goes hand in hand with better heart health, suggests a study in eastern Europe. Researchers examined more than 1,700 adults in the Czech Republic and found that dog owners tended to be younger, female and more likely to smoke than people with different pets or with no companion animals. Yet the dog owners were also more active, had better levels of blood fat and blood sugar, and were less likely to be obese, giving them an overall better cardiovascular health profile than the rest.

“If you’re thinking about getting a pet, getting a dog will likely help you with your cardiovascular health goals. This should be a point that will help you make that decision,” said Jose Medina-Inojosa of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the study’s senior author.

Dog owners are known to engage in more physical activity and are more likely to have regular exercise habits than those without dogs, the study authors note in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. These benefits were recognised in a 2013 statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) that linked owning a pet, especially a dog, with lower risk of heart disease. Read Complete Article