The S&A Health Report: Health News You Can Use

Link found between X-rays and prostate cancer. Researchers have found your risk of contracting a rare form of prostate cancer doubles if you had hip and leg X-rays in the past 20 years. Your risk also increases if you had a barium enema. This rare form of prostate cancer hits younger men and is a bit more deadly. Bottom line is, X-rays and CT scans, even at low doses, are starting to show effects 15 and 20 years later.

Vitamin D deficiency in babies. An article in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found 78% of breast-fed babies were deficient in vitamin D. The message should be obvious to anyone: Make sure that mom and baby get sun frequently. Sure, you can try supplements, but I prefer the natural and real thing – the sun. Some doctors would have women and children avoid the sun, but that's utter nonsense. It leads to devastating diseases later in life, like osteoporosis. Read my vitamin D report for more information.

Regular exercise lowers cancer chemicals. Fat cells release chemicals that increase inflammation in the body. Some researchers think constant exposure to some of these, such as insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and cytokines, irritates cells until they eventually turn to cancer. Although the chemicals are important in normal healing and regeneration processes, chronic exposure may be harmful. And that's where exercise helps. Moderate and regular exercise blocks the release of these chemicals from fat cells, lowering the level of these molecules and reducing the risk of cancer. So even if you don't lose weight, exercise lowers your cancer risk. Keep on moving, people!

The quality of medical care will soon plummet. Congress and Obama's people are talking about dangerous changes to Medicare. Specifically, they plan to "bundle and blanket" payments to hospitals and doctors for services. What this means is hospitals and doctors will receive one set fee for whatever services they provide. So, for example, your hospital might be paid, say, a flat $10,000 to replace your hip. That's all. If things get complicated, the hospital must absorb any additional costs, which of course means your doctor will, too. Apparently, politicos don't like the idea of doctors getting paid for their work.

I warned you about this two years ago. Now, it's even closer to a reality. Can you imagine the corner cutting in the name of "cutting costs"? After all, anything doctors don't do for you while you're in the hospital would mean cash to the bottom line. How long do you think it will take before the nurse comes when you ring your button? And think of the future bailouts for hospitals that will start paying million-dollar bonuses to executives running these scams; executives who showed fancy PowerPoint presentations about health care savings to Congress. Now that I think about it, those real estate and car industry people need jobs.