NEW YORK - An extract of green tea wards off colorectal cancer, animal experiments show.

According to research reported at the Sixth International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention, sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, a standardized green tea polyphenol preparation (Polyphenon E) limits the growth of colorectal tumors in rats treated with a substance that causes the cancer.

“Our findings show that rats fed a diet containing Polyphenon E are less than half as likely to develop colon cancer,” Dr. Hang Xiao, from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, noted in a statement.

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I have been paying a lot of attention to the benefits of herbal tea recently. I have started drinking bitter melon tea which is supposed to help in bringing down your blood cholesterol level. I've also started drinking cassia alata tea which is a natural diuretic, laxative and is also helpful in bringing down blood sugar.

This news about green tea and how effective it is about warding off colorectal cancer is simply great news. I know people who drink a few cups of green tea daily because they believe in the benefits of the tea. With this great news, I think I should start drinking green tea too!

I am quite the hypochondriac and last year when I started noticing how narrow the size of my stools was, I quickly made an appointment for colon screening. Boy, what an experience that was! Fortunately the results of the screening was all positive.

The only problem I have with tea is that I cannot drink it on an empty stomach. I have to drink tea or coffee for that matter, after a meal. That is not difficult to do. Tea, fortunately, is one of the free foods for those of us who are monitoring our blood sugar. That means I can drink as much tea as I want in a day and it is not going to affect my blood sugar much.

LONDON - Women taking the birth control pill have a slightly higher risk of cervical cancer, but that risk disappears a decade after they stop taking it, scientists say.

International researchers reported Friday in the British medical journal The Lancet that women who took the pill for at least five years had nearly double the cervical cancer risk of women who had never taken the pill.

But that risk is small and outweighed by the fact that the pill reduces the threat of other forms of cancer, The Lancet report said.

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This news story brings me back to the issue of giving out contraceptive pills to middle school girls as young as 11.

When you start taking the pill at 11, how long do you think they will be taking it for? As long as they are sexually actually active and that could be till they are in their 30s or even later.

Have there been studies conducted on the effects of taking the pill at such an early age?

Women who have had multiple sex partners are more at risk to cervical cancer than those who have had one or two. Imagine girls being sexually active since they were 11? How many sex partners do you think they will have had by age 30?

So now, not only do young sexually active girls have to worry about contracting cervical cancer due to their promiscuous lifestyle, the pill which is supposed to protect them from unwanted pregnancies, increases their risk of contracting cervical cancer too.

I may be old-fashioned but being old fashioned and abstaining from a promiscuous lifestyle is a lot safer than the alternative.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - One Saudi woman ignored the cancer growing in her breast because she didn't want to risk a referral to a male doctor. Another was divorced by her husband on the mere suspicion she had the disease, while a third was dragged away from a mammogram machine because the technicians were men.

Breast cancer is still considered a taboo in oil-rich Arab Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia even as the disease claims more and more victims, but some women are pushing for greater openness about the illness.

Their efforts received a boost this week: a visit from U.S. first lady Laura Bush to the region to raise awareness for breast cancer.

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This story really saddens me. About 70% of breast cancer cases go unreported in Saudi Arabia until they are in the late stage. 30% of the patients are under 40 years old compared to only 5% in the US.

The saddest thing about the whole thing is that everyone in Saudi Arabia has access to free health care and the country has the best medical equipment and doctors. It is hard to change the mindset of a deeply religious and conservative society.