The Health News USA February 13 2018

• Comparative oncology, a new field that integrates cancers seen in veterinary patients into more general studies of cancer biology and therapy, studies the similarities between naturally occurring cancers in pets and cancers in people — in hopes that our genetic similarities can provide clues to treat cancer more effectively. Humans and dogs are 95% identical genetically — and the diseases that affect humans including breast cancer, prostate cancer, and melanoma are almost identical.
• According to a large-scale women’s health initiative study, 37% of tristate women are “highly stressed” about the health of their parents, compared to 23% about their children and just 15% about their spouses.  But aging parents put the most pressure on, according to a survey of 1,876 women in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, and another 1,100 women and men around the U.S.
• Legislation banning gay conversion therapy for minors has narrowly passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives a month after failing by a single vote. The New Hampshire House passed a bill 179-171 last Thursday prohibiting anyone from providing counseling services to children under eighteen “relative to conversion therapy seeking to change a person’s sexual orientation.”

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 13th of February 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/genetic-similarities-between-dogs-people-are-helping-cancer-research-n841556

Dogs are the oldest domesticated animal, working alongside humans for thousands of years — so it’s no surprise that man’s best friend and humans share so many unique qualities. But the more we learn about our pet companions, the more scientists realize that we are more like our dogs than we know.

Doctor Rodney Page, professor of medical oncology and director of the Flint Animal Cancer Center said: “The genetic difference between humans and dogs is quite small. Humans and dogs are ninety five percent identical genetically — and the diseases that affect humans including breast cancer, prostate cancer, and melanoma are almost identical.” In fact, cancer is so common in dogs that doctors are studying them as a model for treating the disease in humans.

Comparative oncology, a new field that integrates cancers seen in veterinary patients into more general studies of cancer biology and therapy, studies the similarities between naturally occurring cancers in pets and cancers in people — in hopes that our genetic similarities can provide clues to treat cancer more effectively. Doctors estimate that there are four hundred to five hundred diseases that are genetically identical between dogs and humans.

Colorado State University, which lead the research, is one of twenty major medical centers conducting clinical trials of drugs that could potentially cure cancer in dogs. CSU scientists are also studying three thousand golden retrievers, the breed with the highest rate of cancer. The dogs are being followed from birth to death.
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/women-stressed-study-article-1.3808498

According to a large-scale women’s health initiative study, thirty seven percent of tristate women are “highly stressed” about the health of their parents, compared to twenty three percent about their children and just fifteen percent about their spouses. Being pulled in various directions — by kids, parents, work and more — goes with being in the Sandwich Generation.

But aging parents put the most pressure on, according to a survey of one thousand eight hundred seventy six women in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, and another one thousand one hundred women and men around the U.S. “Taking care of children isn’t easy, but it is more defined and predictable,” said Doctor Stacey Ellyn Rosen, a cardiologist and vice president at Northwell Health, the New York State Health provider that released the study.

Related concerns range from health, medical and legal issues to home safety and beyond. “The responsibilities are less charted,” Rosen told the Daily News.

The survey — co-commissioned by Northwell Health and NRC Health, which works with health care organizations — had more to say about women are stressed by. It found that forty three percent of tristate women are stressed about achieving work-life balance, compared to thirty eight percent of women nationally.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/10/new-hampshire-advances-gay-conversion-therapy-ban/

Legislation banning gay conversion therapy for minors has narrowly passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives a month after failing by a single vote. The New Hampshire House passed a bill one hundred seventy nine to one hundred seventy one last Thursday prohibiting anyone from providing counseling services to children under eighteen “relative to conversion therapy seeking to change a person’s sexual orientation.”

The bill will next be voted on again in the state Senate, where its passage would add New Hampshire to the handful of states where legislation currently exists protecting minors from conversion therapy — an ineffective and dangerous practice, according to its opponents.
Democratic state Representative Ed Butler said in a statement after the House vote:
“Conversion therapy is a harmful and damaging practice which attempts to shame young people into changing their sexual orientation or identity,”

The bill risks an uphill battle, however, particularly after narrowly failing recently in both the state House and Senate, where votes on the bill last month resulted in ties subsequently broken by House Speaker Gene Chandler, a Republican, and leaving lawmakers to revisit the topic soon.

Nine states and D.C. currently have laws or regulations protecting youths from conversion therapy, according to a report released last month by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.