Purpose: In 2010-11 I was the program manager and lead blogger and editor for the American Cancer Society’s Choose You blog, and each week I wrote and published multiple articles relating to key health messages related to the Choose You program

March 11th, 2011 by Julie Pippert 

Sleep is good, says the National Sleep Foundation and a recent cancer study.

Choose You is all about making good health choices for yourself, but there’s one crucial ingredient that it implies but doesn’t straight up ask you to commit to: sleep that healthy 7-9 hours per night. Getting that sleeps gets hard at times. Stress, working late, health disruptions, sleep disruptions, kids…a hundred things can prevent a good night’s sleep. But what are the potential ramifications beyond feeling woozy, dull and sleepy the next day?”

Potentially? Colon cancer.

I was skeptical when the bulletin crossed my desk this morning, but when I found out it was based on a study that was the cover article for Cancer, the American Cancer Society’s journal, I took notice.

The article, Short duration of sleep increases the risk of colorectal adenoma, states:

Short duration and poor quality of sleep have been associated with increased risks of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and total mortality. However, few studies have investigated their associations with risk of colorectal neoplasia.

Shorter duration of sleep significantly increases the risk of colorectal adenomas. The authors’ results suggest sleep duration as a novel risk factor for colorectal neoplasia.

What does this mean — what did they find? In short, study participants who averaged 6 or fewer hours of sleep per night increased their risk of getting colon cancer by 50%. In the study, low amounts of sleep were directly correlated to a higher risk of colorectal adenomas or polyps, which can become cancerous if left untreated. The study attributed this to poor sleep leading to melatonin imbalances, which could damage DNA.

Dr. Li Li, the chief study investigator, said that this means poor sleep is as high a risk factor as genetics and red meat for colon cancer.

This brings home a few crucial points:

• it really is that important to get a good night’s sleep, for so many reasons, even if you think you can do with less. Dr Li himself increased his average night’s sleep from 5 to 7 hours.

• it really is important to make those good health choices.

• it really is important to get those health checks. Finding polyps or adenomas before they develop into cancer is essential to improving odds for a good outcome.

Additional resources:

1. Jerry Siegel, Ph.D.: How Much Sleep Do We Actually Need?

2. Frequently Asked Questions About Colonoscopy and Sigmoidoscopy

3. Valerian and Melatonin

4. Sleep problems

By Julie Pippert

A local radio station in Houston was accepting calls from listeners, asking them to share their Affordable Care Act enrollment stories. An angry man phoned in, and the station put him on live to share his anger about his experience. He wasn’t angry that it hadn’t worked. In fact, the web site he used worked just fine. He was angry because there was no record of his transaction and he had no coverage. “I logged right in to Texas Obamacare, gave my social security number and credit card, and they let me down,” he said, furiously. 

The problem, of course, is that Texas doesn’t offer a state exchange, and even if it did it would not be called Obamacare. The man wasn’t let down by the federal exchange or the US; he was let down by scammers. Starting October 1, when the ACA went into effect, scam websites began popping up. Before the end of October, over 700 fake sites were detected and shut down. Very likely, that many or more have popped up again. Scam stories continue to pour in. 

The fake sites are setup to mimic the real site, but are used to steal money and identities.

How can Americans, especially as the December 23 deadline for January 1 enrollment comes quickly, ensure they are enrolling safely at the right site? 

Here are 5 red flags for fake sites:

1. There is only one official website portal for the Affordable Care Act enrollment: www.healthcare.gov

Whether or not your state offers a state exchange, this is still the best portal to use to access enrollment for the exchange. It’s very easy to go to healthcare.gov and click over to your state if it offers an exchange, or simply use the federal enrollment if it does not.

2. Nobody will call you to enroll you in the state or federal exchange.

If you receive a call offering to enroll you, no matter how legitimate it may sound, do not provide any information. You should only enroll via healthcare.gov or place a call to your exchange’s live operators yourself. If you are continuing your private insurance, only enroll as per usual with your trusted representative or agent…who you call. In fact, many Americans will not need to enroll in the ACA exchange. It’s not required, and many who are on Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, or military or veteran’s plans won’t need to change.

3. You will not be charged an application fee.

If you visit any web site that charges you any kind of sign up or site use fee, it’s probably a scam. Close out and go to healthcare.gov. You will only need to pay your regular premium for your insurance. Anything else is not legitimate.

4. If you see mis-spellings and bad grammar — get out of there!

Some fake sites use awkward sentence construction or have typos and misspellings, as if created in a rush. The real site may have some random error, but in general, it’s been carefully proofed and should be very professional looking and sounding. Or, the scam site may look perfect. Regardless, if it is not healthcare.gov, it’s not the real ACA website portal.

5. The real sites offer real health insurance, not medical discount plans.

Some of the imitator sites are run by legitimate insurance companies. They are capitalizing on people needing coverage who are trying to enroll via the exchange. They may even offer a reasonable deal. However, consumers should know that these plans may not comply with the coverage standards required by the Affordable Care Act. They may also only be discount medical plans, versus actual health insurance. Most telling of all, the sites will not be able to use the legitimate web site portals for the state and federal exchanges. To be safe, again, only use healthcare.gov to access federal enrollment or click through to the state exchange.

What if I find a fake site?

If you run across a fake site, there are steps you can take beyond protecting yourself. You can protect others by reporting the site.

There are a few ways to do this:

• Contact your state attorney’s office and report it. Most states have a channel for receiving reports of suspected criminal activity.

• Call the HeathCare.gov hotline, 1-800-318-2596 (TTY users can call 1-855- 889-4325) to report scams related to Obamacare.

by Julie Pippert

Listening to On Point with Tom Ashbrook this morning, I heard a well-balanced, informative, and ethically (and more) challenging discussion about patents on human genes (audio available by 3 p.m. ET today). While this is, in fact, a broader discussion, Ashbrook and his guests eloquently debated specifically the court case revolving around BRCA1 and BRCA 2 -- the genes for ovarian and breast cancer, whose patents are held by a single company, Myriad.

First, a bit of background

-- patents historically are limited to things man invents, not things man discovers. For example, as per the show, one cannot patent gravity, E=MC2, coal, or plants.

-- however, farm corporations have been known to patent plant genes for food and other crops. The sidenote to this is that they actually hold the patent to genetically modified plant genes, not the natural one.

-- Myriad holds the patent to both BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 as they happen naturally, in the human body. They have not genetically altered this.

-- the ACLU and other plaintiffs are suing Myriad to release the patent. The court case has now been delayed until February 2, but the plaintiffs have already stated an intent to use this case as precedent to release other gene patents, some of which are held by corporations, others by individuals and even universities.

A few articles that might be of interest to you as you research to form an opinion (and please do use your Google PhD to research above and beyond this):

• Fact Sheet -- BRCA: Genes and Patents (note: published by ACLU, but very useful breakdown of the particulars)

• Insider article: Can ACLU Expect to Win Its BRCA Gene Patenting Case Before it Even Gets to Trial?

• Associated Content article: Myriad's Patent of BRCA Gene is Contested by the ACLU in Court

Argument A (presented by Hans Sauer, Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, known as BIO) is that discovering a gene, creating a screening test for it, and working within it has cost over $200 million dollars, and will cost over a billion across 10 years. The revenue made from the patent creates venture capital for additional research. Holding a patent is a motivation to discover and use.

Argument B (PDF here) (presented by Chris Hansen, Senior National Staff Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union) states that the patents stifles competition, creates a monopoly on price (held at high cost of $3000, usually not covered for women), prohibits improvement on the testing process, limits women on ability to get adequate information when facing a major medial and/or surgical decision (Myriad will not allow any lab other than their own to test, and therefore there is no second opinion, for example), and infringes on the legal allowance for patents.

In general, the argument sticks to two sides: patent or no patent. However, during discussion other experts offered up middle-ground solutions that involve patent pools and non-exclusivity agreements.

What do you think -- should gene patenting be allowed? And if so, with what protections for us, the humans who carry the genes?