Cancer

Goodbye, dark, drab Winter, and hello, beautiful, bright, vibrant Spring! Seeing the lush colors of the season beginning to burst is sure to uplift your spirit. Eating brilliantly colored fresh fruits and veggies can have the same effect: not only will they add pizzazz to your plate, but those lively colors can also actually improve your life.

Source: Flickr user AmazingAlmonds

Colorful foods contain flavonoids and carotenoids — powerful compounds with antioxidant properties that can repair cellular damage, boost the immune system, and reduce inflammation. This in turn can help prevent a whole slew of health issues including cardiovascular disease, age-related degenerative diseases like dementia, and cancers.

Most fruits and veggies contain these compounds, but brightly colored berries, bananas, oranges, carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, kale, bell peppers, and tomatoes are especially excellent sources. Noshing on these foods on their own or in fresh salads (try these recipes) or drinking them in smoothies is a great way to get your fill, but check out the recipes below for new and exciting ways to enjoy these superhealthy foods.

• Try some filling sweet potato recipes, such as these for sweet potato hash or sweet potato-pecan casserole.
• Whip up some healthy blueberry recipes, such as these for strawberry-blueberry poppers or an irresistible blueberry tart.
• Try these unique banana recipes, including these for strawberry-banana creams or frozen nutty banana nibblers.
• Go crazy for kale with these savory recipes for kale dip, baked kale chips, simple raw kale edamame salad, or a kale, quinoa, blueberry superfood salad.

Photo: Leta Shy

• Snack on these delectable tomato recipes, like these for bruschetta and vegan stuffed tomatoes.
• Blend some luscious smoothies such as carrot-ginger-orange or this flat-belly smoothie made with blueberries and kale.
• Enjoy spinach by baking these banana spinach smoothie muffins or whipping up a side of spinach pesto.

Sheryl Crow has a benign brain tumor, she announced in a recent interview. Sheryl told the Las Vegas Review Journal, "I haven't really talked about it. In November, I found out I have a brain tumor. But it's benign, so I don't have to worry about it." After worrying about memory loss — during a recent Florida performance, she forgot some of the lyrics to "Soak Up the Sun" — an MRI revealed the news.

Even if benign, it can still be terrifying news to take in, especially knowing that this isn't her first brush with cancer. The upside is that this type of tumor typically doesn't require surgery. Sheryl assured fans on her Facebook page:

"Hey everyone — please don't worry about my "brain tumor," it's a non-cancerous growth. I know some folks can have problems with this kind of thing, but I want to assure everyone I'm OK. I'm feeling very healthy and happy, and having a great time on the road playing with my new band. I'm busy working on my next record too, which 'm very excited about . . . and I'll be on The Tony Awards this Sunday. Really appreciate everyone's love and concern, I feel so blessed to have the support of all my fans, but I'm good — really! Love, Sheryl

This is a good reminder to listen to our bodies and to not ignore little health issues or symptoms we're noticing. Whether you have a nagging pain in your belly, unusual bouts of dizziness, or you've discovered a tiny bump on your skin — whatever it is that has you worrying so much that you're losing sleep — take Sheryl's experience as a gentle push to take a break from your busy life and make an appointment with your doc to ease your anxiety.

In people with risk factors for developing heart disease, taking an aspirin a day can prevent heart attacks. Now three new studies have found that a daily dose of aspirin can also decrease your risk of getting cancer.

All studies were published in The Lancet, a leading peer-reviewed medical journal. The first found that patients had a 25 percent lower risk of developing cancer if they took daily aspirin for three years, and a 37 percent lower risk if they took aspirin for five years. The other studies found that daily aspirin helped prevent the growth and spread of cancers, and that taking aspirin regularly reduces your risk of dying from solid cancers like lung, colon, and prostate (vs blood cancers like leukemia) by 35 percent. Researchers think that the same reason aspirin helps your heart — by thinning your blood so that it doesn't clot at already clogged arteries — also helps prevent platelets from spreading cancerous cells throughout your body.

Not everyone should start a daily aspirin regimen, and there are certain risks associated with taking daily aspirin, so be sure to talk to your doctor. But it's good news that a simple step like a daily aspirin pill can help prevent diseases that affect us as we age.

More reasons to exercise for your health! A few recent studies have found just how much adopting a regular exercise routine can help prevent and treat certain diseases.

A new report has found that there's a definite link to inactivity and Type 2 diabetes, even if you're otherwise healthy. The study, from the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, looked at 50 healthy and moderately active adults and found that once they reduced their activity level by half (without any other changes to diet or lifestyle) they had increased levels of blood glucose after eating, which meant they could be at risk for developing diabetes and heart disease. "Even in the short term, reducing daily activity and ceasing regular exercise causes acute changes in the body associated with diabetes that can occur before weight gain and the development of obesity," the lead researcher said.

Read on for more about just how important staying active is.

DrSugar is in the house! This week she's debunking a couple of cancer myths centered in the kitchen.

Based on a few questions we have received, I will be discussing two popular myths about cancer risks in the kitchen, the first regarding cooking with nonstick pans and, the second, microwaving plastic containers. I must admit, doing the research for this week’s column was a real eye-opener for me and hopefully the findings will be informative for you! To learn more about these cancer "myths," keep reading!

As someone who is regularly glued to her cell phone, this isn't the greatest news of the day: the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) warns that cell phones may increase the risk of cancer. Panel chairman Jonathan Samet, MD, chair of preventive medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine says:

"After reviewing all the evidence available, the IARC working group classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans . . . We reached this conclusion based on a review of human evidence showing increased risk of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, in association with wireless phone use."

Scary stuff. The cell phone industry responded to these findings by saying that it "does not mean cell phones cause cancer." While this study doesn't prove that the radiation from cell phones cause cancer, it does show that there is certainly a correlation, but that more studies need to be conducted to further prove or disprove these conclusions. In the meantime, here are some ways to minimize exposure to cell phone radiation.

This question is from a Group Therapy post in our TrèsSugar Community. Add your advice in the comments!

Hi everyone,

I need some advice on how to best help him. We're both 24, so it's not really something expected. We've been together about two years, and are moving to another state in a few weeks for my boyfriend's job. Since he just found out about the diagnosis, we don't know how bad it is. If it hasn't spread, it will be a simple surgery and that's it, but if it's spread, that will obviously be a different matter.

Has anyone been through this? It's killing me to watch him, he's so worried and so down about it, and I don't know how to be there for him. The thing is, he told me he doesn't want to talk about it, but then he'll just say to me "I'm scared about my dad!" with these puppy dog eyes. I've just been telling him how sorry I am, to tell me if there's anything I can do to make this easier on him, and holding him. But frankly, it all just feels f*cking pathetic. He and his dad aren't very close, so I think he's going to experience some feelings of guilt at some point too, because he's expressed that to me once before. I should also mention that his parents are on the other side of the country from us, and the state we're moving to isn't going to be any closer.

Thanks in advance.

Have a dilemma of your own? Post it anonymously to Group Therapy for advice, and check out what else is happening in the TrèsSugar Community.

Strawberries aren't just delicious; they may also help fight certain kinds of cancer. A preliminary study suggests that strawberries could potentially prevent esophageal cancer.

Oncologists at Ohio State University showed that freeze-dried strawberries, when dissolved in a glass of water twice a day for six months, slowed the growth of precancerous lesions among subjects. Although the study employed the use of freeze-dried strawberries, researchers suggested people can still benefit from eating fresh strawberries on a daily basis.

These findings challenge a European study that shows higher fruit intake doesn't change cancer risk. Still, I'll take an excuse to eat more strawberries; they're delicious and in season. Would added health benefits inspire you to eat more fruit?