Weekly Health Quiz: Firefighters, Energy and Exercise

1 Which of the following has recently been found to play an important role in cancer treatment by influencing the patient's response to anticancer drugs?

• The patient's overall nutritional status
• The patient's intake of specific fats
• The patient's intake of specific antioxidants
• The makeup of the patient's gut microbiome

  Targeting the gut microbiome could be a real game-changer in the fight against cancer, as the presence of certain gut bacteria appears to boost the patient's response to anticancer drugs. Learn more.

2 Which of the following strategies is the LEAST likely to prevent cervical cancer caused by HPV infection?

• Getting vaccinated against HPV

  According to a 2012 systematic review of Gardasil pre- and post-licensure trials, there's no convincing evidence to suggest the HPV vaccines have prevented a single case of cervical cancer. Using condoms, getting regular PAP smears and promptly treating HPV infection can more effectively prevent cervical cancer. Learn more.

• Getting regular PAP smears
• Using condoms during sex
• Promptly treating HPV infection

3 Which of the following is believed to be the greatest occupational health risk firefighters face?

• Burn fatality
• Lung disease
• Stroke
• Cancer

  About half of U.S. firefighters believe cancer is the greatest occupational health risk they face; California female firefighters aged 40 to 50 are six times more likely to develop breast cancer than the national average. Learn more.

4 Which of the following requires the most energy out of all your internal organs, and is therefore more susceptible to age-related diseases?

• Heart
• Lungs
• Eyes
• Brain

  Your brain, which consumes up to 20 percent of the energy used by your entire body, is particularly susceptible to impaired energy production due to faulty mitochondria, and researchers now suggest this is what makes the human brain susceptible to age-related diseases in the first place. Learn more.

5 Exercise tools like foam rollers, massage sticks and resistance bands are useful for:

• Reducing blood flow to aching muscles
• Increasing tension in your fascia
• Improving your range of motion

  Among their many benefits, exercise tools such as foam rollers are useful for releasing tension points, improving range of motion and supporting muscle recovery. Learn more.

• Treating low-back pain

6 Having cornered 90 percent of the internet search market, Google has a clear monopoly. Which of the following web search engines is Google's closest competitor?

• Bing

  Google monopolizes several different markets, including search and advertising. Bing, its closest web search competitor, has just 2 percent of the market; Google has 90 percent. Learn more.

• Yahoo! Search
• Ask
• Dogpile

7 "Autophagy" refers to your body's natural process of:

• Digesting and cleaning out damaged cells

  Autophagy refers to a "self-eating" process in which your body digests damaged cells. It's a cleaning-out process that encourages the proliferation of new, healthy cells, and therefore plays an important role in health and longevity. Learn more.

• Programmed cell suicide
• Reduction in inflammation secondary to cytokine decrease
• Activation of mitochondria