Some breast cancers just go away, researchers say

Mammograms' ability to detect breast tumors has made them both a routine screening tool and the source of considerable controversy. A new study suggests that controversy won't be fading anytime soon.

The breast X-rays often find lumps that ultimately prove not to be cancer, causing, at the very least, worry among patients but sometimes leading to invasive treatment as well. Most women and their doctors understandably do not want to take a wait-and-see approach.

But now researchers say that mammograms detect some cancers that would go away on their own.

In a report published Nov. 24 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health compared breast cancer rates among regularly screened women (three mammograms in six years) with rates among women who had only one screening at the end of six years.

The regularly screened group had higher rates of breast cancer during that time frame than did the control group. No surprise there. But you'd think that the total number of cancers would be about the same among both groups at the end of six years. Not so.

The regularly screened group had 22% more cancers overall than did the control group. The researchers' conclusion? Some breast cancers go away on their own.

The study states:

"It appears that some breast cancers detected by repeated mammographic screening would not persist to be detectable by a single mammogram at the end of 6 years. This raises the possibility that the natural course of some screen-detected invasive breast cancers is to spontaneously regress."

Here's the full study. And here's a fact sheet from the National Cancer Institute on screening mammograms.

And from The Times' Opinion pages earlier this month: The excessive focus on mammography. It sums up, quite nicely, the well-established pitfalls of mammograms. This new study is likely to further complicate the screening and treatment picture.

-- Tami Dennis

Rodent of the week: Finding the root cause of aging

Researchers believe they have identified a fundamental cause of aging, according to a study published this week in the journal Cell. The mechanism was previously found in fungus and has now been discovered in mice. It's likely that the same process applies to humans, said the authors of the research, from Harvard.

The study found that DNA damage, which accrues as we age, decreases a cell's ability to regulate which genes are turned on and off in particular settings. Though DNA damage speeds up aging, the actual cause is not the DNA damage but the lack of gene regulation. However, this lack of gene regulation, called epigenetics, may be reversible.

The study focused on a group of genes called sirtuins that are involved in the aging process. Sirtuins respond to DNA damage to repair it but appear to become overwhelmed as DNA damage accumulates during aging. When DNA damage accumulates, the sirtuins became too distracted to properly regulate gene activity. This was found in yeast about 10 years ago. The new study shows it also occurs in mice.

But when stimulated by either the chemical in red wine, resveratrol, or by caloric restriction, sirtuins appear to function better. In the study, researchers administered extra copies of the sirtuin gene, or fed resveratrol to mice that were genetically altered to develop lymphoma. That extended their lifespan by 24% to 46%.

"We see here, through a proof-of-principal demonstration, that elements of aging can be reversed," said one of the researchers, Philipp Oberdoerffer, in a news release.

-- Shari Roan

Photo credit: Advanced Cell Technology Inc.

What to do if you ate too much on Thanksgiving: relax

Perhaps you were prudent with the dressing and mashed potatoes. Maybe you ate only a sliver of pumpkin pie. And it's possible you passed on seconds. If that's so, congratulations! Now, move along, there's nothing for you here.

For everyone else, we offer (just for today) a helping of mental, if not physical, relief. There's only so much one body should be able to hold, after all.

From WebMD: Thanksgiving calories, without the guilt

"Physician John La Puma, MD, says even totally out-of-control days won't lead to significant weight gain if you only have a few of them a year. ... La Puma recommends choosing four days a year as 'feast days' when you can eat and drink anything you want in any quantity you want."

From the Huffington Post: It's not the Thanksgiving dinner, it's the leftovers

"Even if you overeat at Thanksgiving, what you do on that one day will not determine your weight a year from now. It is what you do on average, over time, that determines what you weigh."

And from The Times archives: In the mood for (over) eating

"Overeating for emotional reasons can derail a diet, the research shows -- while overloading at parties (or big turkey meals) may not. ... On average, people gain a little less than a pound between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, according to one study."

Less than a pound? Pfft. Well worth it, I say. And besides, that's what New Year's resolutions are for. Those always work.

-- Tami Dennis

Photo: Sure, pies are fine as they are. But as with many things, they're better with whipped cream. Go on, have some.

Credit: Eric Boyd / Los Angeles Times

More academic wisdom on the workplace

On Tuesday we wrote about a study that found that employees who worked for bad bosses were more likely to suffer from angina and heart attacks than those who worked for good bosses. Not good news!

Some other workplace psychology tidbits:

From the University of Alberta, as per a university news release: "Secret to workplace happiness? Remember what you love about the job." The study, published in the Journal of Gerontological Nursing, tested a "Spirit at Work" program aimed at fostering morale and sense of purpose in a healthcare setting. "Urging employees to simply rethink their jobs was enough to drop absenteeism by 60% and turnover by 75%," the news release states.

"Employees will feel -- and act -- engaged when their employer creates conditions that permit them to do so," states another release, this one from the journal Industrial and Organizational Psychology. No kidding! It's a thumb-sucker enough of a subject to warrant, in addition to the paper, "a set of 13 commentaries taking differing positions on the issue."

One more workplace finding -- from the Psychology of Women Quarterly -- reports (again from a release) that "employees who are sexually harassed experience less job satisfaction and lower job performance." Who would have imagined that?

All of these items may have a -- may we say obvious? -- flavor to them -- until you stop to consider how many organizations appear to ignore the obvious. In any case, they're more thoughtful than that: The harassment paper quantifies the effect of harassment, for example -- that's what you have to do sometimes to get people to act -- and the "Spirit" one actually tests a program. (Just because something looks good on paper doesn't mean it will work.)

And the creating-engagement-at-work paper discusses the precise factors that contribute to a feeling of engagement. Engagement is not the same as satisfaction, the researchers note. Certainly that makes sense to me. There have been days when I would be quite satisfied to sit around making pigs out of pushpins and pink erasers and checking L.A. Observed every hour or so.

But -- uh -- they were rare, of course. Aberrations, really. And very long ago.

-- Rosie Mestel

Obama and obesity: Change you can believe in?

In addition to mortgage rescues, banking bailouts and healthcare reform, some people would like to know what President-elect Barack Obama intends to do about the nation's growing girth. Not to worry. A think tank called the Public Health Advocacy Institute, housed at Northeastern University's School of Law, sent a list of nearly 50 legal and policy recommendations designed to combat obesity to Obama's Health and Human Services transition team this week.

"Public health, unlike some other national assets, cannot be 'rescued' or 'bailed out,' " PHAI President Richard Daynard wrote in a cover letter attached to the document. "A sophisticated and aggressive federal approach to obesity is desperately needed."

Among the recommendations:

• Issue an executive order demanding that all executive branch agencies consider the impact of major federal legislation on the obesity epidemic, similar to the Environmental Justice Executive Order of 1994.
• Impose federal taxes, both sales and excise, on purchases of unhealthy foods and beverages and earmark the revenue for obesity programs.
• Prohibit and remove all commercial  promotion of food in schools and educational settings receiving federal funds.
• Provide funding through the 2009 reauthorization of the federal Child Nutrition Bill to establish a garden in every school.
• Establish strict federal regulations limiting food and beverage advertising to children, including the Internet.

To see a copy of the document, go to the PHAI website. PHAI is a nonprofit law and policy research organization.

-- Shari Roan

Photo credit: Steve Helber / AP

Happiness is just a letter of gratitude away

If you want to feel more happy — fast — grab a pen and paper.

The secret to happiness may be in expressive writing; specifically, writing letters to people showing gratitude. Steven Toepfer, an assistant professor of family and consumer studies at Kent State University, conducted a study to determine what would make people feel happier, especially in a consumer-oriented culture in which things are supposed to bring us joy.

He had students write one letter every two weeks for a six-week period to people who had had a positive influence on their lives. The letters had to be positive, include some insight and reflection, didn’t venture into trivial waters, and expressed great appreciation. After each letter was written, the students took a survey that gauged their mood, their satisfaction with life, and their feelings of gratitude and happiness.

According to Toepfer, the students’ levels of happiness increased after each letter, and 75% of them said they wanted to keep writing the letters, even when the study was finished.

"The most powerful thing in our lives is our social network," said Toepfer in a news release. "It doesn't have to be large, and you don't always need to be the life of the party, but just having one or two significant connections in your life has shown to have terrific psychological and physical benefits."

He added, "We are all walking around with an amazing resource: gratitude. It helps us express and enjoy, appreciate, be thankful and satisfied with a little effort. We all have it, and we need to use it to improve our quality of life."

But this isn’t the only way of staying on the sunny side of life. In a recent exploration into the science of being happy, The Times explained how to get — and stay — happy in these stories:

C'mon, get happy

Tips on switching to a happy outlook

A guide to enhancing happiness

One couple who found the way

Recent self-help books on happiness

Photo credit: Herb Nygren Jr. / Associated Press

Too busy to hold your baby during feeding? No problem!

Some products are too astonishing not to be shared with as many people as possible...

Perhaps you've noticed how that infant of yours needs to be fed just when you're getting into a housework groove? Or maybe she demands nourishment just as you're putting the finishing touches on that project evaluation for the office? The attention and holding that such feeding requires can take valuable minutes.

Not to worry -- help is at hand. For $11.95, time-pressed parents can purchase a Bottle Genie that lets infants feed themselves. (It was $19.95, but there's a sale.)

The website states:

"Mothers and Fathers love to feed their babies. In fact, most early bonding takes place during the feeding routine each day. What happens if you're on an outing, shopping, strolling in the park or even have multiples, and your little one needs a feeding? It's the perfect time for the Bottle Genie baby bottle holder."

(Here's what the Mayo Clinic has to say about infant feeding. It would seem that at least a portion of that bonding comes from human touch, not just the quelling of appetite.)

The press release quotes the product's developer as saying: "As a mother, I knew there had to be a better way than just propping the baby's bottle up on a blanket or pillow, which are neither sturdy not dependable."

Most parents would probably agree.

-- Tami Dennis

People see personalities in cars

A prehistoric part of the human psyche may account for why people tend to assign personalities to cars, say researchers writing in the December issue of the journal Human Nature.

The study, co-authored by Florida State University associate professor Dennis Slice, used a complex statistical analysis to show that many people see human facial features in the front ends of cars and that those characteristics project a personality, such as aggressive, angry or lovable. The researchers asked 40 people to view high-resolution, 3-D computer reconstructions and printed images of 38 actual car models from 2004-06, representing manufacturers from Ford to Mercedes.

One-third of the study participants associated a human or animal face with at least 90% of the cars. Headlights were perceived as eyes, the nose tended to be a grille or emblem and the additional air intake slots, the mouth. People found elongated hoods, lower car bodies and more angular headlights were more powerful. Cars that had headlights with their upper edge relatively close to the midline and an upward shift of the car's lateral-most points were perceived as childlike or submissive.

"In our study, people generally agreed with their ratings," said Slice in a news release. "Thus, there must be some kind of consistent message that is being perceived in car fronts."

Slice, who performed the research while at the University of Vienna, theorizes that people see personalities in cars because, as a species, we evolved to be highly attuned to gathering information about a person just by glancing at their face. What remains to be studied, he says, is whether people adopt the personality of their car while driving.

-- Shari Roan

Photo: Doc Hudson and Lightening McQueen from the animated movie "Cars." Credit: Disney/Pixar

They may be big, but are football linemen healthy?

Football players have come under scrutiny for their large physiques. Some studies conclude that despite being big they’re healthy, while others determine their size and body composition may make them more susceptible to certain diseases.

A new study has found that some football linemen may be at risk for metabolic syndrome, a group of factors that can put people at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Some of those risk factors include having extra abdominal fat, high blood pressure, elevated levels of "bad" cholesterol and insulin resistance. The research, published in the December issue of the Journal of Athletic Training, tested 70 NCAA football lineman from Division I, II and III schools and found that 34 had metabolic syndrome.

Breaking that down, the athletes’ mean total cholesterol to high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio was 4.95, and 32 linemen had values higher than 5. This ratio is used to determine the risk for developing atherosclerosis, or arterial plaque build-up, and ratios of less than 4 are considered good. Fifteen athletes had high levels of C-reactive protein, another marker for determining heart disease risk.

"I was shocked that that high a percentage qualified for having metabolic syndrome," says Jackie Buell, director of sports nutrition in the department of human nutrition at Ohio State University and lead author of the study. "I think we assume that because an athlete is engaged in some aerobic activity that they’ll have the benefit of higher HDL (good) cholesterol — but they don’t, and that leaves them in a poor place."

Many athletes, Buell says, want to gain lean mass, but aren’t always sure of the best ways to go about it: "It’s hard to gain weight at a reasonable pace and gain it as lean mass." She adds that some linemen don’t like doing cardiovascular exercise, which could cut heart disease risk. They also may not be getting adequate nutritional counseling.

The message for athletic trainers, coaches and team physicians is to screen for metabolic syndrome early on. "I would like to see them take some of these easy-to-measure risk factors more seriously and do more investigation," she says. "Education needs to happen from there."

-- Jeannine Stein

Photo credit: Marvin Gentry / US Presswire

Major overhaul of health insurance unlikely

Americans have high hopes for changes to the nation's health insurance system in order to provide more people with coverage and lower costs. But the healthcare reform plan presented by President-elect Barack Obama during his campaign called for only modest changes, not a radical overhaul. That was a wise move, according to a paper published online in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

The study, by an international team of medical and political sociologists, explored the healthcare systems in 21 countries and concluded that it's difficult for any country to make big changes to its system because of history and long-standing traditions that created the system. The study found that many countries wish for change in their healthcare systems, but changes usually come about incrementally and are unique to the country and its people. For example, U.S. residents who were surveyed were less likely that people from other countries to agree that government should be responsible for healthcare (38% supported that idea compared with 80% or more of the people in Slovenia, Great Britain, Spain and other countries).

"One of the arguments you hear about healthcare reform tends to be, 'Why can't we be more like this or that country,' " said Indiana University sociologist Bernice Pescosolido, a co-author of the study, in a news release. "This study suggests there are real cultural limits to the kinds of policies that can be proposed, because people are attached to the history of their own system."

The changes suggested in Obama's plan, she said, were less radical than other presidential candidates. But, she said, "it showed an understanding of the tolerance for change."

-- Shari Roan

Photo: New Jersey Gov. John Corzine (D) and Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) testify about healthcare reform on Sept. 18, in Washington D.C. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images.