For years, doctors have warned men having trouble conceiving to stay away from hot baths and whirlpool tubs, saying there was reason to suspect that long exposure to hot water could worsen their problems. Much of that was based on speculation. But earlier this year, a team of urologists at the University of California, San Francisco, conducted a study to measure and document the extent, if any, of this effect. The researchers did confirm the link, and then they discovered something surprising. The study looked at a group of men who were regularly exposed to high water temperatures, meaning for about 30 minutes a week, through hot tubs or hot baths. All the men showed signs of infertility, with impaired sperm production and motility. What was unexpected was how quickly this infertility could be reversed. The researchers found that after the men stopped their exposure to wet heat, half had "a mean increase in total motile sperm counts of 491 per cent after three to six months.”Among the men who did not see such a reversal, the researchers speculated that tobacco use, a known "gonadotoxic”habit, was to blame. Most of those men were chronic smokers.Screening for family of heart patients a mustDoctors know that siblings and other close family members of people who have heart attacks are at increased risk for heart problems of their own. So when patients are brought to a hospital, why not identify them and suggest that they get a screening? Families of patients with premature coronary heart disease are an obvious but neglected target for primary prevention. That is the suggestion made in a report by researchers from the University of Glasgow in Scotland in the September issue of the British Medical Journal. The researchers pointed to a number of studies showing that first-degree relatives — siblings, children and parents — are much more likely to have heart problems. Among the studies was one done in Utah reporting that more than 70 per cent of heart attacks and other medical problems related to early heart disease involved just 14 percent of families in the state.Heavy drinking raises risk of endometrial cancerWomen who have more than two alcoholic drinks a day double their risk of endometrial cancer compared with those who drink less, a new study finds. Alcohol consumption and endometrial cancer risk: The multiethnic cohort (The International Journal of Cancer) Researchers examined a multiethnic group of 41,574 postmenopausal women, following them for an average of eight years and using questionnaires about diet and drinking habits. In that time, the team found 324 cases of endometrial cancer, the type that forms in the tissue that lines the uterus. After controlling for variables including body mass index, age, hormone therapy and whether they had been pregnant, the researchers found that women who had less than two drinks a day had no increased risk of endometrial cancer. But those who had more than two drinks a day had slightly more than twice the risk. It made no difference whether the women drank beer, wine or hard liquor. Alcohol raises estrogen levels, and it is well established that prolonged exposure to estrogen increases mutations and DNA replication errors, predecessors of cancerous growths. "Relatively few studies have examined the relationship between endometrial cancer and drinking,”said Veronica Wendy Setiawan, the lead researcher. "If this is a true association, that’s one more lifestyle change women can make.”
