A new study finds that the more “western” the diet -- marked by red meat, starches and sweets -- the greater the risk for breast cancer among postmenopausal Chinese women. According to researchers who conducted the analysis at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Harvard University, Shanghai Cancer Institute, and Vanderbilt University, the findings mark the first time a specific association between a western diet and breast cancer has been identified in Asian women.

The study is the latest set of findings derived from the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study, conducted in the 1990s by Wei Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H, and colleagues at Vanderbilt University.

Since being found in Florida just a little more than a year and a half ago, citrus greening disease, which originated in China a century ago, has spread from 8 to 23 counties. The disease, called Huanglongbing (yellow shoot) in Asia, is spread by the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) via insects. 

Once citrus trees are infected, the fruit yield, rate, and quality are greatly reduced. The trees also become susceptible to other diseases and health problems. In some areas of Brazil, citrus greening has affected as much as 70 percent of the fruit rate and yield. Since Florida has nearly $10 billion in citrus products, it is important to avoid spread. However, right now citrus greening disease can only be managed, not completely controlled.

An age old preference for eating uncooked fish dishes like “koi-pla” puts people in SE Asia at risk of ingesting trematodes that can cause a type of liver cancer called cholangiocarcinoma (cancer of the bile ducts), say researchers.

Banchob Sripa (Khon Kaen University) and colleagues discuss the mechanisms by which the food-borne trematode Opisthorchis viverrini (the SE Asian liver fluke) causes cholangiocarcinoma. The fluke is endemic to Thailand, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Vietnam, and Cambodia. In Thailand alone, 6 million people are thought to be infected with the fluke.

Embryonated eggs are discharged in the biliary ducts and in the stool (1).

A pooled analysis of data from previous studies suggests that cigarette smoking appears to be associated with a reduced risk for developing Parkinson’s disease, with long-term and current smokers at the lowest risk, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Neurology.

Several studies have suggested that patients with Parkinson’s disease are less likely to be smokers, according to background information in the article.

“Recent studies also suggested that Parkinson’s disease risk is particularly low in active smokers with a long history of intense smoking; some even suggested dose-related risk reductions with increasing pack-years of smoking,” the authors write.

Teenagers who forego a healthy and balanced diet may have a harder time catching their breath. A new study, published in the July issue of CHEST shows that a low dietary intake of certain nutrients increases the likelihood of respiratory symptoms such as asthma, especially in teens who smoke. Furthermore, a lack of these nutrients may also lead to lower lung function.

“Our study, as well as other research, suggests that higher intakes of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory micronutrients are associated with lower reports of cough, respiratory infections, and less severe asthma-related symptoms,” said lead study author Jane Burns, ScD, Harvard School of Public Health.

In Earth's long history, its climate has changed many times. This was because orbit parameters altered, continents and oceans shifted, large asteroids fell and volcanoes began to erupt.

In the last decade of the 20th century, the scientific community began to discuss one more possibility for climatic changes, which are long-term in terms of human history and quick in terms of geological time scale.