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November 2003 Vol. 8 No. 11

 If something comes to life in others because of you, then you have made an approach toward immortality.
Norman Cousins [Anatomy of An Illness 1979, The Healing Heart, 1984]

Faith is knowing there is an ocean because you have seen a brook.
William Arthur Ward

Table of Contents:AFPA offers new online On-Line Magazine.
How is Agribusiness Adding Inches to Your Waist and Taking Years From Your Life?
Pregnant Mom’s Diet Can Turn Genes on And Off
Childhood Fruit Intake Reduces Adult Cancers
FDA Orders Estrogen Cancer Warnings
Insulin Resistance Linked to Prostate Cancer
More Cancer-Fighting Substances in Organic Produce
More Evidence That Milk Does Not Prevent Osteoporosis
Germ Welfare
Diet and Parkinson’s disease
Outsmarting Alzheimer’s disease
Anti-biotics: We Are In Big Trouble!
Human-use antibiotics are used as growth promoters

AFPA offers new online On-Line Magazine. We’re sure you’ll enjoy this month’s issue. It’s packed with health and wellness information, advice and entertainment. Be sure to check out our EXERCISE ENCYCLOPEDIA. It is located under Tools in the section pages. Best of All You Can Read It Free Every Month Every month is a brand new issue, so join us next month for more!
How is Agribusiness Adding Inches to Your Waist and Taking Years From Your Life? 

Could the real cause of the obesity epidemic facing the nation be an overabundance of cheap food? According to this New York Times article by Michael Pollan, it could be–and it is.

The central premise is that large-scale farmers are producing too much food, for instance “cheap corn” is transformed into “cheap beef,” and while these products are inexpensive they are greatly lacking in worthwhile nutrients. The end result is an excess of cheap, poor-quality calories that consumers are driven to consume. New York Times October 12, 2003

Pregnant Mom’s Diet Can Turn Genes on And Off 

Researchers have discovered how a mother’s diet can alter her offspring’s gene functions without changing the DNA sequence. In the study, mice that were predisposed obesity, diabetes and cancer grew up healthy because their mothers were fed supplements that blocked the genetic trigger.

The study represents the work of an emerging field called epigenetics, which is the “study of how environmental factors like diet, stress and maternal nutrition can change gene function without altering the DNA sequence in any way.”

Until now scientists have not known why these factors play such a large role in an offspring’s susceptibility to disease like cancer, stroke, diabetes, schizophrenia and others. New York Times October 7, 2003

Childhood Fruit Intake Reduces Adult Cancers 

A 60-year study of 3,878 men and women living in rural and urban areas of England and Scotland found that participants who consumed more fruit as children had less cancer later in life. Initial food surveys were carried out in 1930s pre-war Britain and examined for vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene intake. Compared to those who ate the least fruit as children, those who ate the most were 38 percent less likely to develop cancer as adults.
Maynard M, Gunnell D, Emmett P, Frankel S, Smith GD. Fruit, vegetables, and antioxidants in childhood and risk of adult cancer: the Boyd Orr cohort. J Epidemiol Community Health 2003;57:218-25.

FDA Orders Estrogen Cancer Warnings 

After analyzing data from the Women’s Health Initiative study, the FDA has mandated a new boxed warning-the highest level of warning information in labeling-for estrogen and estrogen/progestin products such as Prempro, indicating an increased risk for heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, and breast cancer. It also emphasizes that the products are not approved for heart disease prevention. FDA News, January 8, 2003

Insulin Resistance Linked to Prostate Cancer 

As reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers measured fasting serum glucose and insulin levels in 128 cancer patients and 306 healthy individuals, finding that insulin resistance is associated with a higher risk of prostate cancer. Western diets, high in saturated fat, red meat, and refined sugar contribute to insulin resistance, a condition whereby tissues become unresponsive to the many actions of insulin. Such diets may also lead to obesity, which, in turn, aggravates insulin resistance. Hsing AW, Gao Y, Streamson C, Deng J, Stanczyk FZ. Insulin resistance and prostate cancer risk. J Natl Cancer Inst 2003; 95:67-71.

More Cancer-Fighting Substances in Organic Produce 

A University of California, Davis, study of organically grown corn, strawberries, and Marion berries found they contained higher levels of natural cancer-fighting compounds than conventionally grown samples. Pesticides and herbicides used for conventional produce appear to impede the production of phenolics, which defend plants from insects and people from disease. Levels of antioxidants in organically grow corn were 58.5 percent higher than conventionally grown corn; antioxidant levels in organic Marion berries and strawberries were 50 and 19 percent higher, respectively. Certified organic crops are not genetically engineered, irradiated, or fertilized with sewage sludge. The land must also be free of pesticides and herbicides for three years prior to farming.

Asami D, Hong Y, Barrett DM, Mitchell AE. Comparison of the total phenolic and ascorbic acid content of freeze-dried and air-dried marionberry, strawberry, and corn grown using conventional, organic, and sustainable agricultural practices. J Agric Food Chem 2003;51:1237-41.

More Evidence That Milk Does Not Prevent Osteoporosis 

A new report from the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study of 72,000 postmenopausal women showed that neither milk nor a high-calcium diet reduce fracture rates at all in 18 years of follow-up. Adequate intake of vitamin D, on the other hand, was associated with a lower risk of osteoporotic hip fractures. Women consuming 12.5 micrograms of vitamin D from foods plus supplements had a 37 percent lower risk of hip fracture. Skin exposure to sunlight can also serve as a major source of vitamin D.

Meanwhile, a report from the World Health Organization has called for a daily minimal intake of just 400 to 500 mg of calcium, and that only applies to older adults in countries with high fracture rates. The panel cited “the calcium paradox”-that hip fracture rates are high in developed countries where calcium intake is also high. The reason seems to be protein. The panel reported that “accumulated data indicate the possibility that the adverse effect of protein, in particular animal (but not vegetable) protein, might outweigh the positive effect of calcium intake in calcium balance.”
Feskanich D, Willett WC, Colditz GA. Calcium, vitamin D, milk consumption, and hip fractures: a prospective study among postmenopausal women. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;77:504-11.Summer 2003 Volume XII, Number 3

Germ Welfare 

Dangerous germs are thriving despite medicines x2019, arsenal of antibiotics, including Cipro, a brand of flouroquinolones widely used during the 2001 anthrax scare. As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that Cipro’s effectiveness rate dropped from 86 percent to 76 percent from 1994 to 2000. Antibiotic resistance is growing from overusing and misusing the drugs for viruses.

An experiment at the University of Nebraska found that antibiotics used in farmed chickens, pigs, and cows pass from feces into soil and remain there longer and reach deeper soil levels than previously thought, perpetuating the spread of antibiotic resistance. The finding raises concerns over the development of bacteria that cannot be treated with available medicines.
Neuhauser MM, Weinstein RA, Rydman R, Danziger LH, Karam G, Quinn JP. Antibiotic resistance among gram-negative bacilli in U.S. intensive care units. JAMA 2003;289:885-8.

Diet and Parkinson’s Disease 

The Harvard School of Public Health reports that Parkinson’s disease in men was linked to intake of certain dairy products. Men with the highest intakes of lactose, dairy calcium, dairy vitamin D, or dairy protein had a 50 to 80 percent increase in Parkinson’s disease risk, compared with men who consumed the least. Researchers hypothesize that possible contributors to the disease are tetrahydroisoquinolines, found in milk and cheese, or the pesticides and PCBs that commonly contaminate dairy products.

Chen H, Shumin ZM, Hernan MA, Willett W, Ascherio A. Diet and Parkinson’s disease: a potential role of dairy products in men. Ann Neurol 2003; 52:793-801.

Outsmarting Alzheimer’s disease 

Saturated and hydrogenated fats in the diet appear to increase the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging in Illinois studied 815 people over age 65, finding that fatty diets were a major predictor of who would develop dementia over the next four years. Those in the upper fifth of saturated fat intake had 2.2 times the risk of succumbing to the disease. Saturated fats are common in dairy products, meat, and tropical oils. In contrast, participants with higher intakes of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats had greater protection against Alzheimer’s disease. These healthy fats are found in flaxseeds, almonds, avocados, peanuts, olives, and oils such as canola, soybean, sunflower, and olive oil.

A second, four-year Archives of Neurology study of 980 elderly subjects looking at antioxidant vitamin intake found that neither dietary, supplemental, or total intake of carotenes and vitamins C and E offered any protection against Alzheimer’s. The journal also reported that estrogen hormones did not improve cognitive function in women with Alzheimer’s. One hundred and twenty women with Alzheimer’s were treated with Premarin for one year but had no improvements in general cognition, memory, attention, or other measurements.
Morris MC, Evans DA, Bienias JL, et al. Dietary fats and the risk of incident Alzheimer’s disease. Arch Neurol 2003; 60:194-200.
Luchsinger JA, Ming-Xin, T, Shea S, Mayeux R. Antioxidant vitamin intake and risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Arch Neurol 2003; 60:203-8.
Thal LJ, Thomas RG, Mulnard R, Sano M, Grundman M, Schneider L. Estrogen levels do not correlate with improvement in cognition. Arch Neurol 2003; 60:209-12.

Antibiotics: We Are In Big Trouble! 

In doctors’ offices and hospitals, antibiotics are often seen as a quick-fix solution for patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 to 50 percent of all outpatient antibiotic prescriptions and 25 to 45 percent of antibiotics prescriptions in hospitals are inappropriate.

While medical use of antibiotics is probably the major contributor to the emergence of antibiotic resistance, agricultural uses also pose a problem. Almost half of all antibiotics produced in the U.S. are used in livestock production.

Human-use antibiotics are used as growth promoters  

There is widespread use of human-use antibiotics in livestock production. Much of that use is the routine and prolonged “sub-therapeutic” dosing of animals with antibiotics (such as penicillin and tetracycline) to speed animal growth.  That use causes food-borne and other bacteria to become resistant to the same drugs used to treat bacterial infections in people. Antibiotics vital to treating infections in people also are permitted to treat flocks, herds, or individual sick animals.

Of course, veterinarians need antibiotics to treat infections when they arise. But the most important antibiotics for treating infections in people should not be allowed to be given to flocks of animals. Giving flocks antibiotics has led to increased rates of bacterial resistance among food-borne pathogens.  The FDA estimates that 5,000 people per year have had their illness prolonged due to the use of a certain antibiotic in flocks of poultry.

The US lags behind many other countries in protecting its citizens from antibiotic resistance due to the use of antibiotics in livestock.  In 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that the use of any antimicrobial agent for growth promotion in animals be terminated if it is (1) used in human therapies or (2) known to select for cross-resistance to antimicrobials used in human medicine.

In 1998, the European Union (EU) heeded that call and banned all growth promoting uses of antibiotics used in (or that select for cross-resistance to antibiotics used in) human medicine. Rather than take a preventive approach that would protect the public health, the United States government has not limited the use of human-use antibiotics for fattening cattle. In fact, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) criticized and challenged the European Union for taking action. http://www.cspinet.org