Protecting the Heart Health of Chemotherapy Patients

A long-standing presence in the Atlanta entrepreneurial community, Eugene E. Houchins III leads American Life Fund Corp, a company that provides financial lifelines to people facing serious illnesses. Passionate about health and wellness, Eugene E. Houchins III has a particular interest in the prevention and treatment of cancer.

Anthracycline doxorubicin, a common chemotherapy drug, has one major drawback - its association with heart failure. A recent study by Washington State University researchers found that the protein FOXO1 plays a major role in heart damage.

FOXO1 acts as a transcription factor - a protein capable of binding to DNA and various genes and turning them on or off. Earlier research had shown a significant effect on the mass of the hearts of patients who took doxorubicin, with their hearts becoming smaller and endangering health.

Employing a rodent model, researchers demonstrated that with the use of FOXO1 inhibitor drugs, the damage could be suppressed. This resulted in the maintenance of heart cells and overall heart size and the prevention of doxorubicin-induced heart failure.

Turning Breast Cancer Cells Into Fat Cells to Prevent Metastasis

Atlanta-based entrepreneur Eugene E. Houchins III serves as president and CEO of American Life Fund Corp, helping those with life insurance coverage to receive funds to help pay for the treatment costs and living expenses associated with fighting serious illnesses. In addition to his work with American Life Fund Corp, Eugene E. Houchins III supports philanthropic cancer organizations that are seeking funds for research.

Last year, cancer researchers discovered a new way of preventing the spread of cancer cells throughout the body: changing them to fat cells. The new research could help to stop the metastasis or spread of cancer from primary tumors to other areas of the body and potentially slow the spread of the disease.

Researchers at the University of Basel, located in Switzerland, were able to use this element of cancer cell plasticity to force breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells, preventing them from moving freely throughout the body. In combination with chemotherapy, this new treatment could help prevent the growth of primary tumors as well as preventing metastasis.

The next steps to this research will involve exploring how this new form of treatment will work when used with conventional chemotherapy methods. Hopefully soon, there will be a new form of treatment available for cancer patients.

The Cash Surrender Value of Life Insurance Policies

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Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Eugene E. Houchins III is an accomplished insurance expert with an engineering background. Eugene E. Houchins III is president of the American Life Fund Corporation, which focuses on life insurance liquidation. In this role, he helps life insurance policy holders who have serious illnesses to access finances for medical expenses.

When a policyholder liquidates a whole life insurance policy, they receive a cash surrender value--the funds that are paid out if a policy is terminated before its official maturity date. Cash surrender value is calculated based on the amount of savings that have been invested into a life insurance policy. The longer a policyholder has contributed to the policy, the higher cash surrender value. Additionally, the amount of dividends, interest, and capital gains that have been earned by the policy also determine its cash surrender value.

Loans and taxes can impact the cash surrender value of a whole life insurance policy: In some instances, policyholders can use the cash value of their policy as collateral for taking out loans. If loans remain unpaid when the policy is liquidated, the outstanding loan principal and interest are deducted from the policy’s cash surrender value. Tax issues can also arise, as any dividends paid into the policy are taxable when the policy is surrendered.

Three Factors That Influence the Value of Your Life Insurance Policy

Since 2013, Eugene E. Houchins III has served as the president and founder of American Life Fund Corp, based in Georgia. Through his business, Eugene Houchins helps clients who need to sell or take out a loan on their existing life insurance policies.

Knowing what your life insurance policy is worth is hugely beneficial. Not only does it help with estate planning, it also enables you to gift the policy to someone else, sell it to a third-party, or take out a loan against it. However, there are many factors affecting the value of your policy that determining this value is difficult. The following is a brief overview of some of these factors:

Premium cost

If you plan on selling your insurance policy, the investor or buyer will be responsible for paying the premiums on the policy until you pass away. For this reason, a great deal of value is placed on policies with smaller premiums. Since buyers have to pay less for the remainder of these policies, they can often enjoy a larger return on their investment.

Policy size

While a small policy can sometimes be sold, greater value is placed on larger policies. The death benefit of your policy goes to whomever owns the policy. Assuming you’ve sold the policy, the buyer is the one who receives the payout. In many cases, your policy isn’t even eligible for purchase unless it has a death benefit of at least $100,000.

Life expectancy

This factor may seem strange, but life insurance policies are deemed more valuable if you are older. The reason is that as a policyholder with a shorter life expectancy, you have already lived the majority of your life span and the policy to closer to paying a death benefit, thus benefiting investors more quickly. The typical minimum age to qualify for a life settlement for an average healthy senior is 65 to 70. This age qualification is lower, of course, if chronic or terminal conditions exist.