Iron deficiency anemia can be a problem for women of childbearing age and children. For women, blood losses that occur during menstruation can result in iron-deficiency anemia. Pregnancy and breast feeding can further deplete iron in women.

Children are at risk for anemia because many begin life with low iron as infants. Over time, many kids don't get enough iron in their diets to meet their needs either. Iron deficiency is the result

Not At Risk Means Iron Deficiency A Red Flag

For healthy men and post-menopausal women, the risk of iron deficiency anemia is very low. In fact, iron deficiency anemia is so uncommon in men and older women that when it does occur, it is a big red flag something may be wrong. And it's a red flag you shouldn't ignore.

Low Iron Can Point to Colorectal Cancer

A new study on iron deficiency anemia and colon cancer points to a problem during medical care and follow up. Researchers considered 628,882 patients, 40 years of age or older, who were screened for iron deficiency anemia as part of routine medical care. They found that 3.1%, or 19,349 patients, had iron deficiency anemia. Here's where things get interesting.

Three percent of the patients with iron deficiency anemia, or 578 people, were later found to have colon cancer. But how long it took to get to a diagnosis of colon cancer varied widely in the group.

In the patients later found to have colon cancer as a cause of iron deficiency anemia, the time to diagnosis ranged from 2.5 to 31.9 months! That means some people received a diagnosis of colon cancer within a couple of months of finding out they had anemia. For others, it took nearly three years to get a colon cancer diagnosis! The biggest determinant of how long it took to get a colon cancer diagnosis was the type of health care specialist a person saw for follow up.

Be Your Own Health Advocate

This study took place in Great Britain, which has a different system of health care than the United States. This means that if this study were conducted here the results may be somewhat different.

However, it is quite likely that there would be delays in colon cancer diagnosis stateside too. It's even possible that the diagnosis would take longer here, given how fractured our system of health care is and the confusion many people have over what their insurance will and won't cover in terms of medical tests.

All of this points to something important: We all need to be our own health advocates. If you receive any type of test for which the results aren't completely normal, you need to make sure you follow up with your health care provider. Don't take no for an answer.

Ask your doctor to help you carefully and systematically rule out all of the things that may be causing anemia, or any other condition or abnormal blood tests you receive.

Metabolic syndrome is defined by the presence of certain chronic disease risk factors. This includes:

• high blood pressure
• high triglycerides (fat in the blood)
• low HDL ("good") cholesterol
• insulin resistance or high blood sugar
• central obesity (carrying excess weight around the belly and upper body).

Up to one-quarter of adults in the US have metabolic syndrome, so this condition is quite common.

The connection between metabolic syndrome and risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke is well-know. New research now points to another potential pitfall of metabolic syndrome. It turns out metabolic syndrome also may increase the risk of certain types of cancer, including colon cancer.

More Metabolic Syndrome, More Colon Cancer Risk

For the study, researchers collected information on body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, blood sugar levels, cholesterol, and triglycerides from 578,700 men and women. The group was followed for an average of 12 years, and the study authors looked at the connection between metabolic syndrome and risk of developing colon cancer.

The worse a person's metabolic syndrome was, the more likely that person was to develop colon cancer during the 12 years of follow-up for the study. Men with the worst metabolic syndrome had 20% higher risk of colon cancer compared with men who did not have metabolic syndrome. For women, the increased colon cancer risk with metabolic syndrome was 14%.

In addition to the overall severity of metabolic syndrome, certain factors that define the condition also increased colon cancer risk. For men, high body mass index (BMI), high blood pressure, and high triglycerides each significantly increased colon cancer risk. For women, a high BMI was most strongly linked with a higher risk of colon cancer.

Address Metabolic Syndrome

There is some good news in all of this. Metabolic syndrome can be improved by moving toward a healthier lifestyle. One of the most important ways to lessen the impact of metabolic syndrome on health is to lose weight.

Simply losing 10% of your body weight, or about 20 pounds for a 200 pound person, will improve blood glucose levels, blood pressure, and blood lipids (fats in the blood, such as triglycerides). Even if you don't reach your so-called "ideal body weight," losing a little weight improves health.

What if I Can't Lose Weight?

Many people have tried, over and over, to lose weight only to gain it back or never lose much in the first place. There is no doubt that maintaining a healthy weight is extremely difficult. We live in a food culture that encourages mindless eating and over-consumption at every turn. So what if you try and just can't keep the pounds off?

You're better off settling at a reasonable weight you can maintain, than aiming to lose a lot of weight that you end up gaining back. Yo-yo dieting is hard on the health, and it's not a good idea. And there's one more thing you can do. Move more.

Even if you never lose a pound, exercise alone will improve metabolic syndrome. When we exercise, we prompt our bodies to use insulin more effectively, pump blood more efficiently, and metabolize food more healthfully. These changes in the body lead to lower blood sugar levels, lower blood pressure, and lower levels of fats in the blood.

For the Health of It

Make health, not looks, your priority. That way, you'll be more likely stick with your exercise plan. Even if a single pound isn't lost, your health will improve. That alone makes taking a brisk walk most days of the week - which is all it takes to improve health - worth your effort.

The relationship between calcium and colon cancer has been considered for years. The results of these numerous studies have not been entirely consistent.

Some studies show that taking calcium supplements can reduce colon cancer risk. Other studies don't show any protection from colon cancer with calcium.

Calcium A Boon for Those at Higher Risk

To try to resolve this question, researchers recently conducted a systematic review of all of randomized clinical trials on calcium and colon cancer risk. They identified six, well-conducted randomized studies on calcium and colon cancer.

Calcium supplements didn't seem to reduce colon cancer risk overall, but they did reduce risk in one group of people. For people with a history of adenomas, calcium supplements significantly reduced the likelihood of being diagnosed with more adenomas in the future.

Taking 1,200 to 2,000 mg of supplemental calcium per day reduced the risk of future adenomas by 20%.

This is important because adenomas are a type of colon polyp that can lead to colon cancer if left untreated. Anything that can reduce the growth of adenomas likely will reduce the risk of colon cancer as well.

Should You Supplement?

If you don't have a history of colon adenomas and you don't have any other reason to take calcium (such as preventing bone loss), you may not need a calcium supplement. If you have had adenomas in the past, you may be able to significantly reduce your risk of colon cancer by taking a calcium supplement.

Talk to your doctor about whether you should take calcium before you do so. Some studies have suggested that too much calcium can harm health. Don't load up on this nutrient unless you know you can benefit from it.

It sounds like science fiction: Doctors scan a blood sample and detect a single cancer cell among the billions of normal cells. Fortunately, this scenario may become reality in the very near future.

Johnson and Johnson recently partnered with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital to complete development of a blood test that looks for a single cancer cell in a blood sample. The test has already undergone preliminary testing and should become more widely available in the next few years.

A Boon For Cancer Patients

Once it becomes more widely available, the most likely use of the new test will be to assess the effectiveness of treatment in people who have cancer. The cancer blood test would be used instead of performing an invasive biopsy, or relying on less precise measures, such as a biomarker, to determine how well treatment is working.

The new test likely won't be used as a cancer screening tool at first. This is because health experts don't agree on what to do when an otherwise healthy person has a test that shows a single cancer cell is present.

Ethical Concerns Must Be Managed

Questions about the test remain. One of the most important questions yet to be answered is what the test may tell us in people who aren't already diagnosed with cancer. If a person is otherwise healthy and shows no signs of cancer with any other test, is finding a single cancer cell an indication that this person will go on to develop invasive cancer?

Many health experts speculate that cancer cells may develop, and be destroyed by the immune system, on a regular basis. Determining which cancer cells represent a true threat to health and which are something the immune system will take care of in due time is not easy. Nobody yet knows how to sort this out, which presents ethical challenges.

Unless we can give people a clear cut answer on what a single cancer cell in a blood sample means, it is ill-advised to use this test for cancer screening in the general population. Given this, it's likely that colon cancer detection in the foreseeable future will continue to rely on more tried and true methods, such as fecal occult blood test (FOBT) and colonoscopy.

Revolutionize Treatment Monitoring

But for people currently in colon cancer treatment, this test may revolutionize how treatments are chosen and monitored. With the test, doctors may be able to get quick, instant feedback on whether or not a person's colon cancer is responding to a particular treatment.

If the cancer is not responding as hoped, treatments can be adjusted and changed to make them more effective. If the treatment is going well, doctors will be able to reassure patients that they are on the right track with their current plan.