Are You A Part of Generation ZERO?

Ever heard of Generation Zero?  Well, it is going to be the first generation of men free from prostate cancer.  With Zero prostate cancer deaths. Zero prostate cancer cases. Zero tolerance for prostate cancer.

September is National Prostate Awareness Month.  Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men.

ZERO — The Project to End Prostate Cancer, is committed to not only to reducing prostate cancer or alleviating the pain from the disease but to ending it.

So here’s the deal, every man has some level of risk for getting prostate cancer, yet many other factors make some men more susceptible to prostate cancer than others.

·      Age is the strongest risk factor for getting prostate cancer. But other risk factors include

·      Race

·      family history

·      diet and obesity

·      cholesterol

·      chemical exposure

·      genetics

·      exercise and

·      smoking. 

One in every six men gets prostate cancer at some point.  But the good news is that the survival rate is nearly 100 percent when prostate cancer is detected early.

So getting the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test  is key.

In general, men should begin testing for prostate cancer at age 45. If you have one ore more of the risk factors you should begin annual prostate cancer testing at age 40.

Prostate cancer doesn't show its face early on making it nearly impossible to detect in the early stages.

So men, before National Prostate Cancer Awareness month ends schedule your PSA test.  And women, encourage the men in your life to schedule their test.  

Visit www.zerocancer.org for more information.

Laugh Yourself Healthy

            

If you like to laugh as much as I do then you will be happy to know that new research has discovered that laughing with friends releases the feel-good brain chemicals and increases pain tolerance.

Laughter is regularly promoted as a source of health and well being, but it has been hard to pin down exactly why laughing until it hurts feels so good. Until now... Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at Oxford, found that it is not the intellectual pleasure of cerebral humor, but the physical act of laughing that makes us feel good.  The simple muscular exertions involved in producing the familiar "ha, ha, ha," he said, trigger an increase in endorphins, the brain chemicals known for their feel-good effect.

The findings fit well with a growing sense that laughter contributes to group bonding and may have been important in the evolution of highly social humans.

The results, when analyzed, showed that laughing increased pain resistance, whereas simple good feeling in a group setting did not. Pain resistance is used as an indicator of endorphin levels

            So make your weekend better by not taking things too seriously.  Laugh a little, no laugh a lot and be contagious…falling out laughing! Laughter is the best medicine!