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Links between alcohol and mouth cancer researched
Researchers claim to have gained a greater understanding of the links between alcohol and mouth cancer - a finding which may affect life insurance policies.
Around 4,600 people in the UK suffer from the disease, which has a five-year survival rate of around 50 per cent, each year.
Scientists at King's College London and the University of Tampere in Finland studied a group of alcohol misusers and found that a break down product of alcohol, called acetaldehyde, can be detected in oral mucosal cells, providing a marker for alcohol metabolism.
Acetaldehyde can be used to identify cells that are damaged by alcohol, and through the study of these cells it is possible to see how the damage may trigger diseases such as cancer in alcohol misusers, Dr Onni Niemela from the University of Tampere explained.
Saman Warnakulasuriya, who led the research, said: "We are very excited by this discovery. Alcohol is a major risk factor for oral cancer. We have so far not been able to explain exact mechanisms how alcohol causes cancer of the mouth."
According to Cancer Research UK, oral cancer causes more than 1,700 deaths in the UK each year.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online
Cancer figures reveal world trends
People spurred towards life insurance or critical illness cover as a result of cancer fears may be interested in the latest research from the American Cancer Society (ACS).
New statistics from the organisation have highlighted that over 20,000 people will have died from the disease every day in 2007.
Estimates in the ACS report also projected that cancer will have killed over 7.6 million people by the time the new year rings in.
Higher infection rates are attributed with the dominance of lung, stomach and liver cancers in men as well as persistent occurrences of breast, cervix uteri and stomach cancers in women in developing countries.
"The burden of cancer is increasing in developing countries as deaths from infectious diseases and childhood mortality decline and more people live to older ages when cancer most frequently occurs," confirmed Ahmedin Jemal of the ACS.
He continued: "This cancer burden is also increasing as people in the developing countries adopt western lifestyles such as cigarette smoking, higher consumption of saturated fat and calorie-dense foods, and reduced physical activity."
Obese individuals have previously been found to be six times more likely than people with a healthy weight to develop throat cancer.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online
Obesity 'worse than alcohol' for liver disease
Obese individuals hoping to find cheap life insurance or critical illness cover could face difficulties following the latest research.
Scientists based at London's King's College Hospital, one of the country's leading liver transplant centres, have concluded that obesity is now a bigger cause of liver disease than alcohol.
According to the experts, for some people the damage is so severe that they require a liver transplant.
Dr Varuna Aluvihare, a consultant hepatologist at King's, told the BBC that fat-induced liver disease has also overtaken viral infections as the most common cause of liver disease in Europe and the US.
"If we extrapolate from the US experience its quite likely, unless we change things soon, in the next 20 or 30 years obesity will be the commonest cause of cirrhosis - that's irreversible scarring, and may be the commonest cause of indication for transplantation," he warned.
Doctors have explained that as the liver is the body's largest internal organ, carrying out hundreds of functions, it is often unable to cope with large fat levels.
Overweight individuals are also at risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and arthritis.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, and critical illnesslife insurance policies online
Researchers claim to have gained a greater understanding of the links between alcohol and mouth cancer - a finding which may affect life insurance policies.
Around 4,600 people in the UK suffer from the disease, which has a five-year survival rate of around 50 per cent, each year.
Scientists at King's College London and the University of Tampere in Finland studied a group of alcohol misusers and found that a break down product of alcohol, called acetaldehyde, can be detected in oral mucosal cells, providing a marker for alcohol metabolism.
Acetaldehyde can be used to identify cells that are damaged by alcohol, and through the study of these cells it is possible to see how the damage may trigger diseases such as cancer in alcohol misusers, Dr Onni Niemela from the University of Tampere explained.
Saman Warnakulasuriya, who led the research, said: "We are very excited by this discovery. Alcohol is a major risk factor for oral cancer. We have so far not been able to explain exact mechanisms how alcohol causes cancer of the mouth."
According to Cancer Research UK, oral cancer causes more than 1,700 deaths in the UK each year.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online
People spurred towards life insurance or critical illness cover as a result of cancer fears may be interested in the latest research from the American Cancer Society (ACS).
New statistics from the organisation have highlighted that over 20,000 people will have died from the disease every day in 2007.
Estimates in the ACS report also projected that cancer will have killed over 7.6 million people by the time the new year rings in.
Higher infection rates are attributed with the dominance of lung, stomach and liver cancers in men as well as persistent occurrences of breast, cervix uteri and stomach cancers in women in developing countries.
"The burden of cancer is increasing in developing countries as deaths from infectious diseases and childhood mortality decline and more people live to older ages when cancer most frequently occurs," confirmed Ahmedin Jemal of the ACS.
He continued: "This cancer burden is also increasing as people in the developing countries adopt western lifestyles such as cigarette smoking, higher consumption of saturated fat and calorie-dense foods, and reduced physical activity."
Obese individuals have previously been found to be six times more likely than people with a healthy weight to develop throat cancer.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online
Obese individuals hoping to find cheap life insurance or critical illness cover could face difficulties following the latest research.
Scientists based at London's King's College Hospital, one of the country's leading liver transplant centres, have concluded that obesity is now a bigger cause of liver disease than alcohol.
According to the experts, for some people the damage is so severe that they require a liver transplant.
Dr Varuna Aluvihare, a consultant hepatologist at King's, told the BBC that fat-induced liver disease has also overtaken viral infections as the most common cause of liver disease in Europe and the US.
"If we extrapolate from the US experience its quite likely, unless we change things soon, in the next 20 or 30 years obesity will be the commonest cause of cirrhosis - that's irreversible scarring, and may be the commonest cause of indication for transplantation," he warned.
Doctors have explained that as the liver is the body's largest internal organ, carrying out hundreds of functions, it is often unable to cope with large fat levels.
Overweight individuals are also at risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and arthritis.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, and critical illnesslife insurance policies online