Bucking the trend: Cody Kiser, bronc rider

Source: www.thecalifornian.com Author: Champ Robinson Cody Kiser always had a fascination with the rodeo. The 25-year-old out of Carson City, Nevada competed in the high school rodeo as a bull rider, but Kiser used that term loosely. “I was more of a bull getter-oner than a bull rider,” Kiser joked. “I had a bad tendency of holding onto the rope until the very last second.” This time, that bad habit would cause significant injuries during a high school rodeo competition when Kiser was 14. “I hit the ground and I don’t know if I was on my chest or my back, but one foot (of the bull) landed on my face and the other on my chest or back,” Kiser said. The impact of the bull crushed Kiser’s left side of his face that broke his hinge bone and jaw bone and shattered his cheek bone. Kiser had to undergo plastic surgery to fix the injuries which required two plates and eight screws to be inserted to do so. Kiser spent a year recovering from the accident before returning to riding – this time horses. “Riding bucking horses was something I always wanted to do,” Kiser said. “My dad (P.D. Kiser), that’s actually what he did. I thought I’d give that a go and turns out I was a little better at it and now I’m here today.” When Kiser returned to riding, the nerves were there, but in a good way. “I think I was more excited than anything,” [...]

A cancer on the rise, and the vaccine too late for Gen X

Source: www.cnn.comAuthor: Martha Shade  (CNN)The vaccine given to prevent cervical cancer in women could end up saving men's lives, too. Evidence is mounting that the HPV vaccine is also effective in preventing other HPV-related cancers, including those of the head and neck. Although most people who get HPV do not develop cancer, rates of HPV-related head and neck cancers are dramatically rising for men aged 40 to 50, according to Dr. Maura L. Gillison, the Jeg Coughlin Chair of Cancer Research at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. When Gillison recently gave a presentation showing the increasing rate of HPV-related head and neck cancer among men, her audience was shocked. "I've never shown a slide where the audience gasps," she said. Related: Yes, oral sex can lead to cancer "The risk of getting this cancer is strongly related to when you were born. If you are currently a 40- to 45-year-old man, your risk of getting this cancer is dramatically higher than a 40- to 45-year-old man three or four decades ago," Gillison said. Today's 40- to 50-year-old men have had more sexual partners and have engaged in more oral sex than previous generations, according to experts, significantly raising their risk of an HPV-related head and neck cancer. Actor Michael Douglas made headlines in 2013 when he announced he was battling an HPV-related cancer and that he got it from performing oral sex. Douglas was 68 when he was diagnosed, but many of the men being diagnosed with these [...]

2015-11-05T11:21:19-07:00November, 2015|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Patient Support in Oral Cancer: From Sydney to New York to London, survivors and patients interact through an important portal to get through difficult times

Source: www.prnewswire.comAuthor: Press Release NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 28, 2015 -- The word "cancer" will incite fear in anyone. When that word comes at the end of a sentence that began with your name, the impact can be life changing. "I had a great job, a beautiful house and a happy family life," recalls oral cancer survivor and Oral Cancer Foundation (OCF) Director of Patient Support Services, Christine Brader. "All that changed once I got sick." Those affected by oral cancer, like Christine, are saddled not only with the physical challenges of treating and surviving the disease, but they must also live with the emotional uncertainty and anxiety that accompanies a diagnosis. OCF's Patient Support Forum (oralcancersupport.org) was created specifically to provide patients with the information, guidance, and support they need to face a cancer diagnosis. Now in its 15th year, it has helped tens of thousands navigate a difficult path. It was nearly 16 years ago that oral cancer survivor and OCF founder Brian Hill began his search for answers. "When I was first diagnosed," Hill recalls, "I was scrambling for the right information. Once inside the treatment world I was faced with decisions about which treatment path was right for me, uncertainties of what would lay ahead, the arrival of complications unexpected, pain, and ultimately a sense of the loss of control and a resulting fear." While hospital support groups and some online chat rooms existed at the time, they fell short of providing the insights, guidance and accessibility necessary [...]

2015-09-29T10:04:16-07:00September, 2015|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Rodeo Competitor Speaks to Youth to Spread Anti-Tobacco Message

  Source: www.prnewswire.comAuthor: Oral Cancer Foundation  Cody Kiser prepares for competition while sporting the Oral Cancer Foundation's message - Be Smart. Don't Start.   NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Aug. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The traditional image of the American cowboy is one of strength, rugged determination and courage. In the world of professional rodeo competition, that image is no different. Cowboys—and increasingly so cowgirls—are held in esteem and looked at as heroes by young and old alike. The power of the cowboy as a compelling figure has not gone unnoticed by the tobacco industry, whose marketing campaigns have sought to tie the ideals of the cowboy with the use of their products. The western/rodeo environment in the US has had a long-term relationship with tobacco, and until 2009 The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and the rodeos that they sanctioned had a lengthy history of tobacco money funding the sport. While that has ended at PRCA events, tobacco use and smokeless/spit tobaccos are still popular within the sport. The Oral Cancer Foundation (OCF) believes that in order to solve problems you must engage the problem at the source. As a small and growing non-profit, OCF is not afforded the luxury of relying on conventional methods of outreach utilized by larger, more established charities. To enact meaningful change and bring awareness to the public, OCF must employ ingenuity and creativity to address the problems at hand. Within the world of professional rodeo, that problem remains to be the glorification and pervasive use [...]

2015-08-14T10:51:59-07:00August, 2015|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Professional Rodeo Competitors Join Fight Against Oral Cancer

Source: www.upr.orgAuthor: Melissa Allison  The number of oral cancer deaths related to tobacco use is on the rise nationwide according to the Oral Cancer Foundation. Brian Hill is the founder of the OCF and a survivor of the disease. Cody Kiser encourages the youth to not start using tobacco to help secure good health. Oral Cancer Foundation   “Up until about (the year) 2000 this was primarily a disease of older men who had smoked a lot or chewed tobacco during their lifetime,” Hill said. “About that point in time we started to see a shift in the cause of the disease.” Hill said tobacco is still a primary cause of oral cancers and adds that the oral human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) is new etiology that has forced the number of cases to accelerate. According to an October 2014 study by Johns Hopkins researchers the HPV16 causes cancers of the mouth and throat and that any form of tobacco use increases the risk of the virus. The research suggests as few as three cigarettes a day can increase the risk of infection by almost one-third. Hill created the foundation in 1999 to promote change by educating the public about risk factors that contribute to the disease. Among those risks is the use of spit tobacco. “The world of rodeo has been the realm of sponsorship by the tobacco industry for decades,” Hill said. “With the nicotine content in a can of dip equaling approximately that of 80 cigarettes, this addiction [...]

Cowboy becomes advocate for Oral Cancer Foundation

Source: Idaho Press-Tribune/www.idahopress.comAuthor: Kelcie Moseley Brian Hill was a self-professed health freak. He was an outdoorsman who had never used tobacco. He was a fit 230 pounds with 8 percent body fat. But a lump in the side of his neck changed his life in 1997. Hill is the founder and president of the Oral Cancer Foundation, a small national nonprofit organization based in Newport Beach, California. He is an oral cancer survivor who contracted the disease through human papillomavirus, or HPV, which happens more often than people think, Hill said. He is now a fierce advocate for more awareness of the disease, which is also often caused by smoking or chewing tobacco — and those two forms of tobacco are about as common with the rodeo crowd as Coors and Budweiser. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 14 percent of boys ages 12 to 17 use smokeless tobacco nationwide, and the rates are higher in rural states. The newest effort to achieve more awareness and early detection of oral cancer starts with Cody Kiser, the new rodeo representative for the foundation. Kiser, 23, is a bareback bronco rider who competed in the Snake River Stampede this week on his rodeo circuit. He graduated in May with a civil engineering degree from the University of Nevada-Reno, not far from his hometown of Carson City. “We’ve wanted to (have a rodeo representative) for about five years, we just never found the right person who was the right voice [...]

2014-07-21T14:28:55-07:00July, 2014|OCF In The News|

The New Face of Oral Cancer

Source: nursing.advanceweb.comBy Jonathan BassettPosted on: April 22, 2013   For decades tobacco was the primary cause of oral cancer but a more insidious culprit has emerged.  Jerry Wilck had no reason to suspect anything. Why would he? He only smoked for a couple of years and gave it up more than 40 years ago. He didn't drink excessively, didn't have a family history of cancer, and took good care of himself. In fact, maybe the only reason the 59-year-old consulted an oral surgeon about the small sore on his tongue - the result of a habit of running this particular spot along his teeth - was that there happened to be such a specialist right there in his office. Wilck was a general practice dentist in Langhorne, Pa., and particularly attuned to anomalies of the soft tissues of the mouth. His oral surgeon took no chances and ordered a biopsy. Wilck was "floored" the night in March 2005 when the lab report arrived by fax from the oral pathology department at Temple University in Philadelphia - squamous cell carcinoma. Wilck immediately consulted with John Ridge, MD, PhD, FACS, chief of head and neck surgery at Temple's Fox Chase Cancer Center. After surgical removal of part of his tongue and lymph nodes from his neck, along with a round of physical and speech therapy, Wilck is now cancer free and has full use of his jaw, throat and voice. "I was lucky," confessed Wilck, who retired from practice in 2009 and now spends a [...]

2013-06-10T12:26:21-07:00June, 2013|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Health Experts Praise Michael Douglas For His Oral Cancer Revelation

June 3rd, 2013 7:20pm EDTSource: starpulse.com    Health experts have commended Michael Douglas for speaking out about link between throat cancer and oral sex. The 68 year-old actor, who endured a six-month battle with the illness, hit headlines over the weekend when he voiced his belief that his cancer was caused by HPV, the human papillomavirus, which can be contracted through oral sex. The Behind The Candelabra star told Britain's The Guardian newspaper, "Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus... I mean, I did worry if the stress caused by my son's incarceration didn't help trigger it. But yeah, it's a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer. And if you have it, cunnilingus is also the best cure for it." Douglas' frank admission has now won him praise from Brian Hill, executive director of Oral Cancer Foundation, who tells the New York Post, "I'm really quite proud of Michael saying this. This (oral sex) is not an aberrant sexual behavior. But the willingness to talk about this openly can be difficult." The actor recorded a public service announcement for the Oral Cancer Foundation last year.   *This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.  

2013-06-10T11:43:06-07:00June, 2013|OCF In The News|

The Man’s Guide to HPV

Source: Men's HealthBy: Melaina Juntti   What men can do about HPV Michael Douglas caught major flak for saying oral sex gave him throat cancer. But if you're laughing, it's time to grow up. Oral cancers caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) have skyrocketed 225 percent in the past 15 years, with men accounting for 75 percent of all cases. The number-one culprit: HPV passed via oral sex. It used to be that cigarettes caused most of these cancers. But since smoking rates have plummeted over the past few decades, and we're having way more oral sex today than even our fathers' generation, HPV has become the most common STD in the U.S. – inevitably leading to more oral cancer cases. It only takes one time going down on someone to contract HPV, and experts estimate that 80 percent of us will be exposed to the virus at some point in our lives. This STD sometimes causes genital warts, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that's not very common. In most cases, HPV has no symptoms. And since no test exists to detect HPV in guys, you won't know you have the virus until years later – if it turns into cancer. "It's very hard to determine when you acquired HPV," says Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University. "It doesn't usually come from just one sexual episode. That said, every once in a while, cancer develops within [...]

2013-06-10T11:35:49-07:00June, 2013|OCF In The News|

Michael Douglas: Oral sex gave me cancer

By DAVID K. LISource: NewYork PostLast Updated: 11:31 AM, June 3, 2013Posted: 8:49 PM, June 2, 2013 Michael Douglas has made a jaw-dropping revelation about his throat cancer: He didn’t contract it from smoking or drinking — but from oral sex. The Oscar-winning Hollywood star set tongues wagging after he told The Guardian newspaper that he contracted HPV, or human papillomavirus, through a sex act and it developed into cancer. “Without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus,” he told the British newspaper in an interview published yesterday. After Douglas was diagnosed with the life-threatening illness in 2010, he said on “Late Show with David Letterman” that the kind of cancer he had was caused by smoking and drinking.  Ghetty Images   Actor Michael Douglas said a virus from oral sex, not booze and cigarettes, gave him throat cancer. In yesterday’s interview, the 68-year-old actor speculated that his son Cameron’s legal woes may have borne some responsibility, too. “I did worry if the stress caused by my son’s incarceration didn’t help trigger it,” the “Wall Street” actor said of Cameron Douglas, who is serving 10 years in a federal prison for heroin possession and distribution. “But, yeah, it’s a sexually transmitted disease that causes [the] cancer.” A cancer-awareness advocate hailed Douglas for his blunt talk. “I’m really quite proud of Michael saying this,” Brian Hill, executive director of the Oral Cancer Foundation, told The Post yesterday. “This [oral sex] is [...]

2013-06-03T09:50:47-07:00June, 2013|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|
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