It's extremely rare for people to be diagnosed with salivary gland cancer. Most Americans who get it are older than 55. Adam Yauch, better known as "MCA" of the Beastie Boys, died Friday at age 47 after having cancer for nearly three years .  Yauch was one of the few younger patients diagnosed with the disease. Related: Beastie Boy rapper 'MCA' dies Two adults in 100,000 are diagnosed with salivary gland cancer per year, according to the American Cancer Society. "Parotid cancers are fairly unusual in general but it can appear in individuals of all ages," said Dr. Amy Chen, a head and neck cancer surgeon at Emory University in Atlanta. "It’s just in general, parotid cancer is very rare." Yauch said in July 2009 that he first noticed a lump in his throat “like you have swollen glands.” He announced he would have surgery within a week, followed by nearly two months of localized radiation treatment. He said the cancer was also in a lymph node. The survival rate depends on whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. If it hasn't, the five-year estimated rate of survival (Stage I) is 91%. If it has spread far from the glands (Stage IV), the rate is 39%. Watch video of Yauch talking about his diagnosis. "I always advise individuals that if you have a lump in your neck or a mass that is growing in size and it hasn’t gone away after two weeks, that you should seek medical attention for it," Chen said. "If the doctor prescribes antibiotics for it and it isn’t getting better, then you need to find another doctor." If surgeons can't completely remove the cancer from the gland it can spread to the lungs and other parts of the body, she said. Because the cancer is rare, it has been difficult for researchers to figure out what causes it. There are a few risk factors, the cancer society says, one of which is having radiation treatment to the head and neck for other medical reasons. Workplace exposure may also increase risk. "We don’t find any relation to smoking or alcohol use like some other head, neck, throat cancers," Chen said. "It’s really a little bit of an unknown to what the risk factors are for developing this disease." Most salivary gland cancers form in one of the parotid glands, as Yauch’s did, just in front of the ears. It is a difficult surgery to remove the cancerous cells, because the facial nerve goes through the parotid, according to the cancer society website. The site says both surgical methods and radiation treatments have improved in recent years.  Unfortunately, targeted drugs have not been very effective against salivary gland cancer. Filed under: Cancer , Celebrity Health Tagged: Steve Almasy — CNN

The Value of Colonoscopy: Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that screening colonoscopies to detect and remove growths in the gut can reduce the risk of death from colon cancer by 53%, the WSJ reports . The observational study covered 2,602 patients who had growths removed. Colonoscopy is one of the screening methods for colorectal cancer recommended by various public-health groups, but it wasn’t known whether it prevented deaths. Fending Off Whooping Cough: An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Americans aged 65 and up should be immunized against whooping cough using the so-called Tdap vaccine if they haven’t already done so as an adult, NPR’s Shots blog reports . Kids, teens and adults are already advised to get the vaccine. The CDC usually follows the recommendations of its advisory panels, Shots reports. What Lies Ahead for Incoming J&J CEO: Alex Gorsky, who will take over as CEO of Johnson & Johnson in late April, will have to deal with a consumer business still reeling from the effects of a host of product recalls , the WSJ reports . J&J’s reputation among consumers has declined, the paper says, and Gorsky will have to call on a different skill set than he gained in his previous jobs at the company in order to regain customer confidence. The Cost of Insurance in California: Big health insurers in California are raising average premiums for individual-policy holders by about 8% to 14%, the Los Angeles Times reports . That’s a much faster pace than the rate of inflation for medical goods and services, but insurers say their rate increases also hinge on “their claims experience” with customers and that costs are rising as healthier people have dropped coverage, the LAT says. Image: iStockphoto

Health care consumers have greater access to information about drug safety than ever before. A recent edition of the Wall Street Journal illustrated this reality in a piece entitled, “Searching for Side Effects”. A few highlights from the article reveal that medications used to treat diseases including arthritis, diabetes and osteoporosis are associated with hundreds Related posts: Be Side Dish Saavy Holistic Tweets Rheumatoid Arthritis Alternatives

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Fitness Magazine here on FitSugar! We’ve been thinking a lot about our backsides the past few months here at Fitness, as our team put together part one of our “Body Lab” to help you get a butt that defies gravity (see the February issue for more!). While we work hard in the gym to sculpt a better behind, we don’t complain when we get a little help from a particularly flattering pair of pants . The minute we slipped on the GapFit gFast Color Binding Leggings ($60, gap.com ), we fell in love with their comfy fit and cute colors. And after testing them out in a strength class at David Barton Gym to celebrate GapFit’s new line, we knew they would be mainstays in our workout wardrobes. The fabric is just thick enough for cool morning runs, but doesn’t feel too heavy for the gym. If you’re feeling a bit timid about rocking these leggings, add these three moves from David Barton Gym trainer Meka to your workout three times each week, and soon you’ll be loving your rear view! Get the details on these booty-toning exercises after the break.

Ever clam up at a meeting even though you knew a lot and wanted to contribute? Have you tripped over yourself as you tried to explain a complex subject? Have you felt tongue-tied when the spotlight turns to you at a party? You’re not alone. WSJ’s Bonds columnist Elizabeth Bernstein writes this week about research which shows that some people become, in effect, less intelligent when in professional or social gatherings . Elizabeth will take reader questions in a live chat on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 12 p.m. ET. The chat will be moderated by Personal Journal news editor Laura Bird. Ask your questions now.

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Florida Senator Marco Rubio has never backed down from a challenge, but his latest target is the President of the United States over an issue that could thrust Rubio further into the Republican spotlight. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama’s administration issued new rules for insurance providers that mandated birth control coverage without co-pays. The administration issued some exceptions for the mandate including churches. However, church-run schools and universities, hospitals, and charities were not exempted from the new rule. This has led to conservatives railing against the rule and saying President Obama’s administration is in a “war against religion.” Senator Rubio jumped into the fight last week when he filed a bill that would repeal this part of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. “I don’t think the government should be forcing any institution to pay for something that institution finds to violate their conscience,” Senator Rubio told CBS4′s Tiffani Helberg. “This is unprecedented because never before in the history of our country has the government tried to insinuate itself in the domain of one’s personal conscience,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski. The bill, which may not have much of a chance of passing in the Democratically controlled Senate, pits Rubio against Obama as election season heats up. “Ultimately, the constitutional right of a religious organization not to be forced to violate their religious principals is of paramount importance in our country,” Rubio said. “It’s one of the founding principals of our nation.” The White House said it gave religious institutions an extra year to comply with the rule and said individual churches that only serve a narrow population with similar beliefs can also seek exemptions, according to CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald. “We are concerned that much of what is advertised as contraception is really chemical abortion,” Archbishop Wenski said. The White House also said 28 states already required insurers to cover the cost of contraceptives. For Rubio, it’s a tough political issue that could endear him even more to the most socially conservative wings of the Republican Party. His office is portraying the fight as one over freedom of religion rather than over women’s health. The White House and Democrats are taking the exact opposite approach saying that there shouldn’t be discrimination between insurance companies that choose to cover drugs like Viagra with little to no co-pay, but then refuse to cover birth control. Women CBS4 spoke to Monday seemed to side with President Obama in the very public fight. “I think they should provide it and I mean, I’m Catholic myself, but I think that’s something wrong; it should be allowed by the Catholic Church,” said Lourdes Botioll. “I think everybody has the right to make their own decision on what they want to do with their body and their reproductive organs,” said Daniela Montoya. Gaby Moreno took it a step further. “I think that it should be provided because men, for example, don’t have to deal with any of that and they don’t know what it’s like,” Moreno said. “It’s not fair that we have to pay all these things and always deal with these constant worries like birth control. We’re the ones that get pregnant and that’s kind of like a lot of men, unfortunately, are like, ‘Oh, it’s your issue.’” It sets up an election year fight with Rubio possibly riding a wave of publicity and popularity to the presidential ticket as a vice-presidential candidate. Rubio initially said he wasn’t interested but may be softening his stance, recently saying he wants to do whatever he can to help the ticket.

FitSugar reader JessicaSmithTV wanted to know: are all those claims about creating longer and leaner muscles through exercise true? She asked an expert and posted the answer in our Fit Community . You’ve probably heard it numerous times before – a workout that promises to give you longer, leaner muscles (we’ve often heard this said about PIlates or ballet-based training methods) . . . so can this really be true? Can a muscle truly become longer and/or leaner? I asked ”The Exercise Doctor” Michele Olson  - PhD, creator of the Perfect Legs, Glutes, & Abs DVD, and professor at Auburn University Montgomery – to answer this for us. She has studied various forms of exercise extensively and published research on Pilates. “Muscles are already comprised of ‘fat-free’ (aka lean) tissue, so any amount of muscle is, by definition, lean. You can’t have ‘leaner’ muscles,” says Olson. “If you were to add more muscles from resistance training, you could increase the amount of lean muscle you have and, therefore, have more lean muscle.” But most of these methods (such as Pilates or ballet-/barre-style exercises) use relatively light to moderate resistance, which is not enough to create a significant increase in the amount of lean muscle mass you have. Read on to learn more about if you can make your muscles long and lean.

Men who are narcissistic are likely to have higher levels of a primary stress hormone called cortisol, a new study finds. However, the same trend was not as strong for women with narcissist traits, according to research published Monday in the journal Public Library of Science ONE. “The more narcissistic, the more cortisol that men have in mundane situations,” said author Sara Konrath, who is the director of the Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research at the University of Michigan. Narcissism is a trait that exhibits “grandiosity, an inflated sense of self-importance, and overestimations of uniqueness.”  If severe, it can also be a personality disorder recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders The trait has some positive qualities, such as abundance of self-esteem and positive sense of self.  Narcissistic people characteristically tend to overestimate their intellectual abilities, attractiveness and positive personality traits, wrote Konrath. But they don’t enjoy healthy relationships with others because they’re generally low on empathy and high in hostility – especially when their positive self-image is threatened. Since previous research confirmed that narcissism has a harmful effect on relationships, Konrath wanted to know more. “I wondered if there’s harm going on, but it’s a harm we can’t articulate or recognize,” she said. Narcissists aren’t likely to admit that they’re stressed or anxious.  So she needed an objective measure and decided to use cortisol levels to understand how narcissism could affect one’s health. In the study, 106 undergraduate students (79 females, 27 males, mean age 20.1 years) from one Midwestern and one Southwestern American university took two cortisol tests and answered several questions about themselves.  They were unknowingly taking the Narcissistic Personality Inventory , which is used to assess people’s narcissism. It gives statements like “I find it easy to manipulate people,” and “If I ruled the world it would be a better place," to which the respondent agrees or disagrees. Konrath observed that men with higher levels of narcissism had more cortisol.  It was minimal in women, but about 2.5 times stronger in men. Cortisol is a measurement of how prepared your body is ready to respond to a threat, said Konrath.  If the cortisol response is always high in the absence of a threat, it indicates an overactive response in the body.  This can have long-term health effects such as blood sugar imbalances, heart problems and weight gain. The study could not determine why men appeared to be much more affected than women. But Konrath suggested that there could be overlaps between narcissism and male gender roles. “We think what’s going on is, there’s some sort of especially toxic relationship between both being male and having a sense of masculinity or threat to a masculine identity.” There could be a special vigilance for any threats that challenge their sense of toughness and competence,  she said. Filed under: Men’s Health , Stress Tagged: Madison Park – CNNhealth.com Writer/Producer

If improving your sleeping habits made the list of your 2012 resolutions, then let’s get to it! There are simple things you should and shouldn’t be doing to get some quality shut-eye , but what about the person who sleeps to your right (or left)? Do you ever look at your partner as a roadblock to your sleeping success? If your significant other is interfering with your sleepy time, here are some helpful tips to get you back on track . . . no separate rooms required! Some like it hot, some like it cold: If your partner likes to keep the heat cranked throughout the night, while you prefer to keep it at a lower temperature, use scientific evidence to win this battle. Like it or not, room temperature has a significant impact on sleep. To get proper, quality sleep, the body needs to reach an internal temperature of 65 to 72 degrees F . If he (or she) is still set on sweating it out, load up the blankets on their side of the bed and have them wear socks and a sweatshirt to bed. Keep reading for more tips.

We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Self here on FitSugar! Feeling sluggish after the busy holiday season? You’re not alone. According to a recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine , the average American gains a pound between November and January. But rather than wallow in the aftermath of too many cocktails and Christmas cookies, we turned to fitness expert Angela Parker, who offered these easy tips to banish postholiday bloating fast: Sweat your ass off! Give yourself a daily 60-minute sweat session three days in a row. No walking – go running or spinning . If you want to shrink fast, stick to egg whites, fish, chicken, and veggies. Read on for more ways to banish postholiday bloating.