Highlight HEALTH

With crude oil hitting a record high this week, gas prices here in the U.S. are soaring. According to CNN.com, the $100 fill-up has arrived in the United States.

Want to reduce your stress level, spend less money at the pump and do your part to help save the planet? Here’s one of the most simple yet effective tips that will accomplish all three: Slow Down.

Improve Your Financial Health: Use Less Gas

At highway speeds, wind resistance increases exponentially and fuel economy is reduced by approximately 4 miles per gallon for every 10 mile per hour increase [1]. Thus, the faster you drive, the more it will cost you. Consider this [1].

In a typical family sedan, every 10 miles per hour you drive over 60 is like the price of gasoline going up about 54 cents a gallon. That figure will be even higher for less fuel-efficient vehicles that go fewer miles on a gallon to start with.

That’s based on a $3.25 price per gallon, which is less than the current price of gas. So we’re talking more than 54 cents a gallon.

Additionally, if you do the math, speeding doesn’t save you anywhere near the time you might think it does. An average 30 mile commute traveling at 65 miles/hour takes 28 minutes, while that same trip at 80 miles/hour takes 23 minutes. You save a whole 5 minutes by driving 15 MPH faster.

How much money is that 5 minutes worth?

Reduce Stress and Stay Safe

Moderate levels of stress from a variety of sources, including other motorists, traffic congestion and roadway conditions, are common in everyday driving. However, driver stress has been shown to also be influenced by a combination of situational and personal factors, including factors external to the driving context [2].

Not surprisingly, studies have found that life stress is associated with higher rates of accidents and disease [3]. It’s been estimated that drivers who have experienced a recent stressful event are five times more likely to cause fatal accidents than unstressed drivers [4].

If you’re running late, remember that no matter how fast you drive, you’re still going to be late. If you’re under a great deal of personal stress, it’s probably best to avoid driving altogether.

Statistically, people who drive too fast cause or contribute to almost one-third of all fatal crashes. In 2006,13,543 lives were lost in speeding-related crashes [5]. Excessive speed does a number of things:

• it increases the distance a vehicle travels when a driver reacts to a dangerous situation
• it reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around objects in the road
• it extends the distance necessary to stop

Want to reduce your stress level, spend less money on gas and do your part to help save the planet?

      Just Slow Down!

David over at The Good Human has some additional tips on saving money, saving fuel and saving the environment.

References

1. Slow down a little, save a lot of gas. Issue #1: America’s Money. CNN Money. 2008 Mar 27.
2. Hennessy et al. The Influence of Traffic Congestion, Daily Hassles, and Trait Stress Susceptibility on State Driver Stress: An Interactive Perspective. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research 5(2);162–179
   doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9861.2000.tb00072.x
3. Stuart and Brown. The relationship of stress and coping ability to incidence of diseases and accidents. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 25(4), 255-260. 1981.
   View abstract
4. Brenner and Selzer. Risk of causing a fatal accident associated with alcoholism, psychopathology, and stress: further analysis of previous data. Behav Sci. 1969 Nov;14(6):490-5.
   View abstract
5. Traffic Safety Facts 2006 Data. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration National Center for Statistics and Analysis. 2006.

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Last Sunday, 60 Minutes profiled John Kanzius, an inventor who may have come up with one of the most promising breakthroughs in cancer research in years. It’s still in the experimental stage and much research needs to be done, but if future clinical trials are successful, the Kanzius Machine will destroy cancer cells throughout the body without need for drugs or surgery.

John Kanzius was diagnosed with terminal leukemia six years ago. Watching children endure difficult chemo treatments while he was undergoing his own chemotherapy motivated him to come up with an alternative. At the start of his interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, he said [1]:

I have no business being in the cancer business. It’s not something that a layman like me should in, it should be left to doctors and research people.
[Lesley Stahl: But sometimes it takes an outsider.]
Sometimes it just — maybe you get lucky.

And lucky he has been. Kanzius is a retired radio technician and station owner. As an alternative to chemotherapy, his idea was to build a radio-wave machine that focused radio waves to destroy cancer cells. Kanzius knew that strong radio waves could heat metal and wondered if metal injected in a tumor would heat up when placed in a radio-wave field, thereby killing the cells. Following initial experiments with a garage-built prototype, he spent about $200,000 to have an advanced version of his radio-wave machine built. Using hotdogs injected with copper sulfate (an aqueous metal solution), Kanzius found that he could heat up small regions injected with the metal by placing them in a radio-wave field, leaving surrounding areas unharmed.

Dr. Steven Curley and colleagues at the MD Anderson Cancer Center have begun testing Kanzius’ radio-wave technology on animals. Instead of copper sulfate, the researchers are using single-walled carbon nanotubes — molecular-scale tubes of graphitic carbon that, among other unique properties, are efficient conductors of heat. The nanoparticles are so small, thousands of them can fit inside a single cell. In a paper published in the December 2007 issue of the journal Cancer, the researchers demonstrated that, when exposed to a non-invasive radiofrequency (RF) field, an aqueous suspension of carbon nanotubes injected in malignant liver cancer tumors in rabbits produced lethal thermal injury to cancer cells [2]. The controls, tumors exposed only to the RF field or only to the nanotubes, were undamaged. However, some healthy liver tissue surrounding the cancerous tissue sustained heat damage due to nanotube leakage from the tumor.

Thus far, the technique has only been used on solid, localized tumors in animals by injection. The next step is to evaluate methods for targeting the nanotubes so they attach to and are taken up by cancer cells and not normal cells. According to Curley, the targeting of nanotubes to cancer cells and not to normal cells is a major challenge in advancing the therapy [3]. Researchers are looking to bind the nanotubes to antibodies, peptides or other agents that would target molecules expressed exclusively on cancer cells.

Gold nanoparticles have also been shown recently to enhance non-invasive RF thermal destruction of human gastrointestinal cancer cells in vitro [4].

Dr. Curley estimates that human clinical trials are at least three to four years away [3]. Using physics-based concepts, the Kanzius Machine is a potential new cancer treatment that may one day replace chemotherapy and surgery. That said, remember that many cancer therapies that have been promising in vitro and in animal models didn’t work in humans. There is zero evidence this will work in humans and targeting is a major issue that has to be overcome first.

References

1. The Kanzius Machine: A Cancer Cure? 60 Minutes. 2008 Apr 13.
2. Gannon et al. Carbon nanotube-enhanced thermal destruction of cancer cells in a noninvasive radiofrequency field. Cancer. 2007 Dec 15;110(12):2654-65.
   View abstract
3. Radio Waves Fire Up Nanotubes Embedded in Tumors, Destroying Liver Cancer. M.D. Anderson News Release. 2007 Nov 1.
4. Gannon et al. Intracellular gold nanoparticles enhance non-invasive radiofrequency thermal destruction of human gastrointestinal cancer cells. J Nanobiotechnology. 2008 Jan 30;6:2.
   View abstract

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Nightline aired The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life last night on ABC. For those who may have missed it, Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon Computer Science Professor, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006. Less than a year later, the cancer metastasized to his liver and spleen, and he was given six months to live. In September 2007, Pausch said goodbye to Carnegie Mellon and his students with a Journeys Lecture called “How to Live Your Childhood Dreams”. In it, he discussed his life’s journey and the lessons he has learned. Journeys are a Carnegie Mellon lecture series in which faculty members share their reflections on everyday actions, decisions, challenges and joys that make up their lives.

Pausch’s lecture has since made its way to the web and has been viewed by millions of people. Hyperion published a book this week, The Last Lecture, based on his talk.

Pausch writes frequently on his battle with pancreatic cancer. In an interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, Pausch said [1]:

I’ve never understood pity and self-pity as an emotion. We have a finite amount of time. Whether short or long, it doesn’t matter. Life is to be lived.
You know, life is a gift. Again, it sounds trite, but if you wait long enough, other people will show you their good side. If there’s anything I’ve [learned] that is absolutely true. Sometimes it takes a lot longer than you might like. But the onus is on you to keep the hope and keep waiting.

His talk is inspiring, heartbreaking and filled with the wisdom and clarity that perhaps only a dying man can share.

There is no method for early detection of pancreatic cancer. The disease is asymptomatic and only 7% of cases are diagnosed early [2]. Symptoms may include weight loss, abdominal discomfort, occasional glucose intolerance and, as in the case of Pausch, jaundice (caused by tumors that develop near the common bile duct and cause blockage). Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease, and the 1- and 5- year survival rates are quite low at 24% and 5%, respectively [2].

More information on “Pancreatic cancer” can be found at iMedix and Organized Wisdom. Additionally, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN), the first national patient advocacy organization for the pancreatic cancer community, provides public and professional education embracing the urgent need for more research, effective treatments, prevention programs and early detection methods. PanCAN also provides patient services and funds grants for pancreatic cancer research.

References

1. Dying Professor’s Lecture of a Lifetime. ABC News, Good Morning America. 2008 Mar 21.
2. Cancer Facts & Figures 2008. American Cancer Society. Atlanta, Ga. 2008.

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