Men With Curved Penis Face Risk of Cancer - Study

A new study recently released has said that men with a bent penis have a significantly increased risk of cancer. According to the study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, United States (US) on October 28, a gene that may trigger crooked penis could also be linked to the development of tumours.
The findings showed that a bent penis also known as Peyronie’s brought a higher risk of testicular cancer by 40 per cent, melanoma by 29 per cent and stomach cancer by 40 per cent. To this end, the researchers from Baylor College in Houston, Texas, said men with bent penis should be closely monitored for cancer in a bid to catch any development early.
The research emerged after a review of patient data of more than 1.5 million. Peyronie’s disease is the development of fibrous scar tissue inside the penis that causes curved, painful erections. Penis varies in shape and size; and having a curved erection isn’t necessarily a cause for concern.

But Peyronie’s disease causes a significant bend or pain in some men. It’s thought that Peyronie’s generally results from repeated injury to the penis, but researchers also think it may be genetic and had linked it to other illnesses. Peyronie’s disease was estimated to affect up to seven per cent of males. Dr. Alexander Pastuszak, who led the study, said: “While they’re significant in the sexual and reproductive lifecycles of these patients, linking them to other disorders suggest that these men should be monitored for development of these disorders disproportionately in contrast to the rest of the population. A ‘mailonline’ report quoted Pastuszak as saying; “Nobody has made these associations before.”
The researchers carried out further genetic analysis of a father and son both suffering from Peyronie’s. They discovered they shared a set of genes understood to predispose people to urological cancer. “We found mutations in this father and son couplet in these types of genes, specifically in melanoma, testis, and prostate cancer,” said Pastuszak. He said the condition shares some similarities with Dupuytren’s disease, a condition in which one or more fingers become permanently bent in a flexed position. They also found links with Ledderhose disease, a thickening of tissue on the feet.

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While Red Wine Boosts Fertility in Women

Women who drink one glass of red wine a week boast better fertility than those who don’t.
Scientists at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri in the United States (US) said this could be due to resveratrol, an antioxidant that is abundant in the wine.
Resveratrol molecule is a key component in red grapes, cocoa and blueberries and protects cells from biological stress, according to a report in The Times.
Infertility is defined as not being able to get pregnant (conceive) after one year (or longer) of unprotected sex.
Although, infertility is a global health problem, people in Nigeria like in other parts of the world similarly experience the infertility challenges.
The prevalence of infertility in Nigeria is put at between 20 and 25 percent among married couples, according to experts. However, 40 to 45 percent of all consultations in gynaecological clinics are infertility-related.
Abayomi Ajayi, a consultant obstetrics and gynaecologist, said that medical research have shown that exposure to pollutants in the environment, lifestyle problems such as excessive alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and drugs could affect the fertility of an individual.
However, the physicians involved in the study showing the positive impact of red wine on women’s fertility, surveyed 135 women between the ages of 18 and 44, each of whom kept an alcohol diary, noting how much they consumed every month.
During this period the scientists also conducted regular ultrasound scans on each of the women to calculate how many remaining viable eggs they had.
They found that those who regularly consumed red wine, regardless of other factors such as age and income, had a better ovarian reserve.
However, The Times reported that the study’s result does not mean that all hopeful babymakers should reach for red wine every evening.
“The research only showed benefits to fertility for women who drank moderate amounts of red wine i.e. five or more glasses each month.

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Beware: Egyptian Clinics Stealing KIdneys - FG Warns Nigerians

The federal government of Nigeria has warned its citizens who travel to Egypt for medical reasons to be very careful as some Egyptians clinics are presently stealing kidneys from patients who go on medical tourism to that country. Doctors and nurses suspected of belonging to a "large criminal network specialised in trading human organs" were among 12 people detained by Egyptian authorities, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

The network "agreed with Egyptians to transfer some of their organs to foreign patients in exchange for large sums of money, exploiting people's financial need," the interior ministry said, noting three doctors, four nurses, three hospital workers and two agents were detained.

Some were arrested "while they were carrying out an operation to remove the kidneys and part of the liver of a citizen in a private hospital" in the Giza province, part of Greater Cairo.

The man had sold the organs for $10,000 (8,500 euros). Those operating on him were planning to implant the organs in a patient, the ministry said.

It did not give further details on the man's condition or say when the arrests took place, but added that the hospital had been closed pending an investigation.

Hundreds of poor Egyptians sell their kidneys and livers each year to be able to buy food or pay off debts, according to the United Nations.

In January, two Saudi brothers were held in Egypt for nearly two months after being accused by authorities of involvement in the country's organ black market.

Abdul Ilah al-Shabrami, 37, said he was accompanying his brother Abdullah to have a kidney transplant in the Egyptian capital, the Saudi Gazette reported.

Al-Shabrami says he paid $75,000 for a kidney from a deceased donor in a deal that was approved by the Saudi embassy in Cairo.

Kidney purchases are illegal in Egypt, while paying for transplant procedures is not, thus allowing the country's illegal trade to thrive.

According to a report published by the British Journal of Criminology last year, a kidney on Egypt's black market can fetch up to $100,000.

These illegal organs are often obtained from migrants who are trafficked into the country and are desperate to pay their way onto their next destination.

In 2010, the World Health Organisation ranked Egypt among the top five countries in the world trading illegally in organs.

Egypt's parliament passed a law that year banning commercial trade in organs as well as transplants between Egyptians and foreigners, except between husbands and wives.

The law aimed to regulate organ transplants and curb illegal trafficking and medical tourism for such operations.

In 2012, then-United Nations refugee agency chief Antonio Guterres warned that migrants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula were being killed for their organs.

Authorities in December arrested 25 people, including doctors and university professors, suspected of being part of an organ trading network.

However, the Embassy of Egypt in Nigeria has denied alleged illegal harvest of the kidneys of Nigerians who travel to the North African country for medical attention.

In a statement issued by Ahmed Maher, who is the Head of the Press and Information Office in the Egyptian Embassy, the North African country, said its government had submitted a list of Egyptian certified medical centres and hospitals licensed to perform kidney transplant to relevant authorities in Nigeria.

It also explained that all the hospitals involved in organ trafficking in Egypt had been shut down and their medical personnel prosecuted.

The mission further clarified that no Nigerian was involved in the crime, adding that no complaint was filed against any Nigerian national over the incident.

The statement reads: “We have issued a list of the hospitals that were involved in the crime to the Nigerian government. All the people that were involved have been arrested and are being prosecuted.

“According to our sources, no Nigerian national was ever involved in those medical centres nor filed any complaint against any of them.

“In line with transparent, professional and constructive approach, the Egyptian side has maintained a list of the Egyptian certified medical centres and hospitals licensed to perform kidney transplant and this has been submitted to the relevant Nigerian authorities,” the mission stated.

The complicit hospitals are said to include Dar al-shefa in Helwan, Cairo; Al-Bashar Specialist Hospital in Faisal, Giza, Al-Amal Centre for General Surgery in Maurinteya, Giza; and Dar Ibn Al-Nafis Hospital, Giza.

The statement added that the Egyptian medical authorities and health care system adhered to the best international procedures and practices, a fact he said was well known by the Nigerian health officials.

The Egyptian Embassy noted that thousands of Nigerians and other Africans had placed their trust and confidence in the Egyptian health care system for many generations.

The Director of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Wapada Balami, had earlier alerted the Nigerian Medical Association about organ harvesting and trafficking in Egypt.

He asked the NMA to warn all doctors in relevant specialties to “be aware so that Nigerians will be cautious while embarking on medical tourism in other countries.”

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Monkey Pox Spreads To More States

The federal government has disclosed that cases of monkey pox virus which broke out in Bayelsa State a fortnight ago has spread to more states in the country with 74 suspected cases being examined.

The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, who disclosed this to journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the State House, Abuja without stating in concrete terms what the government is doing to treat or tame the disease, said laboratory test conducted in Lagos showed that four cases tested negative.

He listed the 11 states ravaged by the disease as Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Lagos, Nasarawa and Rivers.

Adewale also said 12 of the suspected cases in Bayelsa State tested negative while three of them tested positive, adding that further tests are ongoing to identify the true nature of the disease.

“We received an update from the public health of the nation. We informed council about the latest development with respect to the monkey pox virus outbreak. So far, as of today, (yesterday), there are 74 suspected cases in 11 states of the country. We have confirmed three in Bayelsa State, and 12 of the Bayelsa suspected cases tested negative, four suspected cases from Lagos tested negative. We are still expecting the results of other ones,” he said.

Adewole also dispelled the insinuation making the rounds that the military was carrying out vaccination in some states of the federation and consequently spreading monkey pox in such areas.

According to him, the military is not involved in any vaccination exercise, explaining that the federal government cannot carry out any vaccination exercise without collaborating with state governments.

He said the federal government was only carrying out vaccination campaigns in Kwara and Kogi States on Yellow Fever and Cholera diseases in Borno State.

The minister also said the government was planning to conduct a vaccination exercise on measles.
“We are also doing advance test in Ede, the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics and Infectious Disease, to really understand the genomics of this virus. Even when they are negative, the laboratory attendance should be able to tell us what exactly they are. We will also be able to locate and identify the origin so that we can take adequate precaution.

“It is also important to use this opportunity to dispel the rumour circulating in the country that the military is vaccinating people and trying to spread monkey pox across the country. The military is not involved in any vaccination exercise and I must also really educate the Nigerian people about how vaccination campaigns are done. “Federal government will take the lead but we do not conduct campaign without working with states.

So, there is no way we will do campaign for states without working with the states and it is the states that will be in front and we will provide support. The rumour that federal government is doing vaccination campaign is not true. And as of today, we are only doing vaccination campaign in three states.

“We are doing vaccination campaign against yellow Fever in Kwara and Kogi States because of the outbreak in some parts of the country. We are also doing cholera vaccination in Borno State and so, anybody carrying the rumour, please help us educate Nigerians that it is not true.

“We are not vaccinating anybody. We plan to do measles campaign very soon and we will also do Yellow Fever campaign before the end of the year and we will let you know.

“You will never find federal staff conducting vaccination campaign without the support and active participation of the state Ministry of Health. This is just to correct the misconception,” he said.

The minister further warned Nigerians to be cautious about the ongoing illegal harvests of some organs of the body, notably the kidney by traffickers as he advised them to seek proper advice and patronise accredited institutions when necessary.

He emphasised that whereas the military is always involved in health campaigns as a number of soldiers are medical doctors, such campaigns do not include vaccination as erroneously conceived.

In his own briefing, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said FEC approved N280 million for the completion of an irrigation project started since 1997.

Meanwhile, palpable tension yesterday enveloped the ancient town of Omu-Aran in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State and Akwa Ibmo State as parents and guardians stormed schools in their hundreds to withdraw their wards over rumour of alleged killer vaccines in the area.

In Omu-Aran, parents had besieged both private and public schools in the area as early 9a.m. as the rummour of the presence of the said vaccine injection team allegedly accompanied by soldiers in the town spreads like wild fire.

Some of the parents, mostly traders, commercial motorcyclists had to abandon their businesses in a bid to withdraw their wards from schools to prevent them from being injected with the alleged vaccines.

But the state Ministry of Health in a statement clarified that the ongoing Reactive Vaccination in the local government area and other neighbouring communities, was to prevent the spread of yellow fever.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Suleiman Atolagbe Alege, explained that the vaccination exercise has no connection with the Nigerian Army and is not dangerous to children’s health as it has been rumoured by certain individuals.

In Akwa Ibom State, distressed calls by parents and students around schools across the state reportedly generated pandemonium which caused children to flee from school to their houses while some ran into the bush to hide in other to escape the alleged vaccination.

It was gathered that while police vehicles were seen visiting the schools, plain-cloth detectives were also seen going from school to school to interrogate the school-heads because of the development.

But the state Commissioner for Education, Mr. Paul Udofia, the police and army, all condemned the rumours saying they were calculated to cause confusion in the state.

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Bala Elkana and his colleague of the Nigerian Army, Headquarters 2 Brigade, Uyo , Major Umar Shuib, said the romour was misleading.

The PPRO said since the news got to them during the school period police patrol teams were dispatched to the schools to authenticate the truth and source of information.

He said: “It’s a mere rumour which unfortunately led to closure of some schools quite early today (Wednesday)

“Our officers have been on surveillance since morning, they have been going round schools but no one is really able to trace where the information originated from and which school was affected. The rumour came in from Anambra where such was reported to have occurred.”

The Nigerian Army, Headquarters 2 Brigade, Uyo in their reaction said “The attention of Headquarters 2 Brigade Nigerian Army has been drawn to some rumours making the rounds that some army personnel are going round schools in Akwa Ibom State dressed in military camouflage uniforms with the intention of forcefully vaccinating students with an unknown substance.

“The callous and unpatriotic rumours spread by these enemies of state are, to say the least, despicable, deplorable and highly condemnable as they are intended to cause pandemonium among the general public.

“The authorities of 2 Brigade Nigerian Army wishes to inform the public that the Brigade is currently involved in Operation Crocodile Smile II, which is yielding tremendous successes especially in curbing the excesses and activities of criminals, cultists and other miscreants in Akwa Ibom State.

“For emphasis therefore, the 2 Brigade Nigerian Army does not and will never carry out its medical outreaches or vaccination exercises for that matter in schools.

“We therefore wish to inform the public that the on-going rumours about army personnel in military camouflage going round schools in any part of Akwa Ibom State to forcefully immunise school children is false and should therefore be disregarded,” he posited

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Excess Sugar In The Body Can Lead To Cancer - New Study

Worried about the rising prevalence of cancer and deaths, Belgian scientists have reported a breakthrough in understanding how sugar drives cancer growth. These findings were reported in the journal ‘Nature Communications’.

Over the years, precisely how sugar makes tumours grow faster had been a mystery and the new understanding could help lead to new ways to combat cancer, through diet and other modifications of sugar intake. Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body.These contrast with benign tumours, which do not spread to other parts of the body.

Over 100 types of cancers affect humans. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that in 2015, about 90.5 million people had cancer globally, with about 14.1 million new cases occurring in one year. Similarly, worldwide, cancer caused about 8.8 million deaths, representing 15.7 per cent of human deaths.

Although, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) estimates that Nigeria records 102,000 new cancer cases yearly, 72,000 Nigerians die annually of cancer related diseases across the country.

“Data also shows that breast and cervical cancer are the two most common types of cancer responsible for approximately 50.3 per cent of all cancer cases in Nigeria.”

The research team – led by Johan Thevelein, Wim Versées and Veerle Janssens – have been studying sugar’s link to cancer for nearly a decade. They, and other scientists, have determined tumour cells grow by rapidly breaking down glucose (a form of sugar) – a phenomenon known as the ‘Warburg effect,’ the ‘newsmaxHealth’ reported.

The researchers found that yeast with high levels of glucose over-stimulate proteins often found mutated inside human tumours, making cells grow faster. Thevelein said that follow- up research is needed to prove that eating a low-sugar diet could help prevent or combat cancer.

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How Oil Spillage Is Killing Infants In Niger Delta

New research from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, has demonstrated for the first time how oil spills are increasing mortality rates among newborns in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria.

The new study by Prof. Roland Hodler and Research Assistant, Anna Breuderle, from the School of Economics and Political Science at the University of St. Gallen, found that of the 16,000 infants killed within the first month of their life in 2012, 70 per cent – that is around 11,000 infants – would have survived their first year in the absence of oil spills.

The study titled “The Effect of Oil Spills on Infant Mortality: Evidence from Nigeria” was published September 14, 2017, in Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo) Working Paper Serie.

According to the study, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency recorded more than 6,600 oil spills from 2005 to 2015. Nearby oil spills increase neonatal mortality rate by 38 per cent per 1,000 live births.

Neonatal relates to the newborn and especially the human infant during the first month after birth. The researchers said shockingly, this corresponds to an increase by 100 per cent on the sample mean and these oil spills are the cause of an alarming human tragedy and the research calls for more attention to the issue from both the research community and the international public.

Earlier studies have associated oil spills in Nigeria to rise in cancer cases and low sperm count especially among local communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.

The researchers noted: “In a recent study, we provide first-time evidence on the effects of onshore oil spills on neonatal and infant mortality as well as child health. The study combines two geo-coded data sets: First, the Nigerian Oil Spill Monitor provides information on date and location of oil spills registered by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency. Second, the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2013 provides the complete birth histories and information on the survival of children for 23,364 Nigerian mothers, along with geo-codes of their place of residence. It also provides height and weight measurements for children under five years of age.

“Our study analyses mortality within different phases over the first year of life. We thereby focus on children born to mothers whose reported place of residence is within 10 km from an oil spill, which has occurred between 2005 and 2014. For identification of causal effects, the study compares siblings conceived before and after nearby oil spills.”

The study found that oil spills, which occurred within 10 km prior to a child’s conception, strongly increase the risk of mortality during the first month of life.

“Specifically, nearby oil spills increase the neonatal mortality rate by 38 deaths per 1,000 live births, which corresponds to an increase by 100 per cent on the sample mean. The effect of oil spills on infant mortality is also relatively large, but not statistically significant. The effect on neonatal mortality is higher for oil spills that occurred in closer proximity, and it is highly persistent over time: nearby oil spills which occurred up to five years in the past still affect the survival chances of children born today,” the researchers noted.

Also, they said that the effect of oil spills on neonatal mortality is independent of the family’s socio-economic status or the location.
The study also found some evidence that oil spills impair the health of surviving children.

“In particular, oil spills prior to conception increase the incidence of low weight-for-height, notably in the first year of life.”

The researchers concluded: “A calculation based on these findings suggests that oil spills, prior to conception, killed around 16,000 infants within the first month of their life in 2012. Of these, 70 per cent (around 11,000 infants) would have survived their first year in the absence of oil spills. While there are good reasons to believe that the exact figure may be different from this estimate (example, the true effect may have been underestimated due to the incomplete oil spill records), the findings point out that onshore oil spills in Nigeria are the cause of an alarming ongoing human tragedy. More attention to the problem by both the research community and the international public is warranted.”

Roland Hodler is a professor of economics at the School of Economics and Political Science, University of St. Gallen. Holder said: “The oil companies are one culprit. They are directly responsible for oil spills that result from the lack of maintenance of pipelines and other oil infrastructure. In addition, their indifference towards the local population is one reason for some acts of sabotage. The Nigerian government is another culprit. It fails to properly regulate and control the oil companies as well as to prevent oil theft and sabotage. The only way to stop this ongoing human tragedy is that both the oil companies and the Nigerian government start caring about the environment and the local population particular rather than just about profits and personal enrichment.”

Epidemiological and clinical studies suggest that exposure to hydrocarbons in the environment and to particulate matter in the air can have severe adverse effects on human health, whereby unborn and newborn children are particularly vulnerable.
Story By JOHNSON OKPUSA OBASI

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