Health Article Round-up: June 2013

Lately I've been coming across many interesting articles about health and medicine. I've decided to share a few of them each month. Enjoy.

:: Deaths from diabetes have apparently doubled in New York over the last two decades. It is motivating me to eat better -- I don't usually think of eating too many desserts as a potential cause of death, just a cause of too tight jeans. It's a good reminder.

:: But good news -- Boston Children's Hospital has made some fantastic progress in determining the cause of type 1 diabetes.

:: 60-90% of women do not meet the minimum preventive recommendations of a healthy diet and activity level for preventing cancer. The American Cancer Society guidelines are summarized here.

:: This blogger believes that we should get rid of "kid food" (i.e. colored marshmallows, fruit roll-ups, and other "fake food") and teach kids to eat real food. I think I agree. He states that one of the leading causes of death in the United States is an inappropriate diet, and we should teach our kids to eat an appropriate one from an early age.

:: Molecular targeted therapies are replacing chemotherapy as the first drug of choice in treating cancer. Could chemo eventually be a thing of the past? That would be fabulous. My dad works for Seattle Genetics, a company that produces one of these molecular targeted therapies (brentuximab vedotin) for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Let's hope that things continue to get better for those who have cancer.