Month: March 2015

A new study suggests that people with non-cancerous lumps on the thyroid may not need the close follow-up they get now. About half of people develop these lumps, called nodules, by age 60. Most are found when people get imaging tests for other reasons. More than 90% are found to be benign (not cancerous). But follow-up tests are recommended in case they do turn into cancer. The new study included nearly 1,000 people with thyroid nodules. Some had biopsies with a fine needle to make sure the nodules were not cancerous. Others skipped the biopsy because the nodules were less than 1 centimeter across and did not look like cancer. Everyone got an ultrasound scan each year for 5 years, as current guidelines recommend. In that time, most nodules didn’t change much. About 15% grew in size by at least half. About 19% of the nodules shrank.

Eating tree nuts, peanuts and peanut butter may help people live longer, a new study suggests. The study looked at diet and death rates for more than 200,000 people. They were part of 3 long-term studies in China and the southeastern United States. The 2 Chinese studies asked people about the amount of peanuts they ate. The U.S. study asked about all nuts, but half of the nuts people ate were peanuts or peanut butter. Overall, people who ate the most nuts consumed about 2 tablespoons a day. Researchers kept track of people for 5.4 to 12.2 years, depending on the study. During follow-up, people who ate the most nuts were 20% less likely to die than those who ate the least. These numbers were adjusted to account for other things that can affect death rates, such as diabetes and smoking. Researches also looked at specific causes of death.