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July 2004 Vol. 9 No. 7

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) 

 

 

 Table of Contents:

Essential fatty acids in health and chronic disease
Chemotherapy for Kids More Dangerous Than Thought
Vitamins Slow Advance of HIV
Skip the Fish; Make It Vegetarian
Vitamin-C-Rich Foods Reduce Arthritis Risk
Overweight and Obesity Rates Still at Alarming Levels
Florida Businessman Sues Atkins after Developing Heart Disease While on Diet
Movie Review: Super Size Me
Trim Down to Avoid Prostate Cancer

Essential fatty acids in health and chronic disease
Artemis P Simopoulos
From The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health, Washington, DC.  

Human beings evolved consuming a diet that contained about equal amounts of n-3 and n-6 essential fatty acids. Over the past 100-150 years there has been an enormous increase in the consumption of n-6 fatty acids due to the increased intake of vegetable oils from corn, sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, cottonseed, and soybeans. Today, in Western diets, the ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids ranges from 20-30:1 instead of the traditional range of 1-2:1. Studies indicate that a high intake of n-6 fatty acids shifts the physiologic state to one that is prothrombotic and proaggregatory, characterized by increases in blood viscosity, vasospasm, and vasoconstriction and decreases in bleeding time. n-3 Fatty acids, however, have antiinflammatory, antithrombotic, antiarrhythmic, hypolipidemic, and vasodilatory properties.

These beneficial effects of n-3 fatty acids have been shown in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and, in some patients with renal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Most of the studies were carried out with fish oils [eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)]. However, -linolenic acid , found in green leafy vegetables, flaxseed, rapeseed, and walnuts, desaturates and elongates in the human body to EPA and DHA and by itself may have beneficial effects in health and in the control of chronic diseases.

L. C Stene, G. Joner, and the Norwegian Childhood Diabetes Study Group

Use of cod liver oil during the first year of life is associated with lower risk of childhood-onset type 1 diabetes: a large, population-based, case-control study Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, December 1, 2003; 78(6): 1128 - 1134.

Chemotherapy for Kids More Dangerous Than Thought   

Children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) who suffer genetic damage caused by chemotherapy may face an increased risk of further cancers and other diseases later in life. The study found 45 children who received chemotherapy and survived their disease had a 200-fold increase in the frequency of somatic mutations in their DNA. These genetic changes remain embedded in the children’s DNA. As one researcher said, “Because they have larger numbers of replicating cell populations during their growth and development stages than adults have, they are more susceptible than adults to the effects of the chemotherapies’ genotoxicity.

Cancer Research July 1, 2004;64:4464-4471

Vitamins Slow Advance of HIV   

A simple multivitamin pill may slow the advance of HIV, say U.S. doctors. If so, patients in developing countries will be able to delay switching to more expensive drugs. In a study of pregnant Tanzanian women with HIV, those who swallowed a daily dose of vitamins B, C and E for up to five years were around 50 percent less likely to progress to full-blown AIDS than those in a comparison group. Doctors have suspected for some time that patients who are undernourished or lacking particular nutrients may fare worse when infected with HIV. Interestingly, the supplements in the study contained about six times the U.S. recommended daily allowance of the vitamins. Supplements are likely to have the biggest impact on HIV in the developing world, where poor nutrition is widespread. It is too early to say whether they will also benefit patients in the developed world, who are less likely to suffer from malnutrition. It seems, though, that if multivitamins are having this much of an effect, nutrients from whole foods would also be extremely worthwhile. If you’re interested in this topic, you should read my past blog entry about a man who defied AIDS with nutrition.
The New England Journal of Medicine July 1, 2004;351:23-32
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/1/23

Skip the Fish; Make It Vegetarian  

Farm-raised salmon, marketed as a healthy option, actually contains more cancer-causing pollutants than wild salmon, according to a study in the journal Science. A sampling of 700 salmon bought around the world found the most polluted fish in Northern Europe, followed by North America and Chile-the sources of most U.S. salmon. Farm-raised salmon had significantly higher concentrations of 13 out of 14 organochlorine pollutants tested, including PCBs, dioxins, toxaphene, and dieldrin.

Hites RA, Foran JA, Carpenter DO, Hamilton MC, Knuth BA, Schwager SJ. Global assessment of organic contaminants in farmed salmon. Science 2004;303:226-9.

Vitamin-C-Rich Foods Reduce Arthritis Risk   

Researchers have found eating foods high in vitamin C can protect people from polyarthritis, a form of rheumatoid arthritis that affects at least two joints. According to the study, people who ate small amounts of fruits, vegetables and vitamin C increased their risk of polyarthritis. Patients who ate the lowest amounts of vitamin C increased their chances of developing polyarthritis by three-fold over those who ate the highest number of healthy foods.

The study was based on a survey of more than 23,000 men and women in the UK from 1993-97. During that four-year period, 73 people, ranging in age from 45 to 74, suffered from polyarthritis for at least a month. Then, the diets of each arthritis sufferer were compared with two people of the same gender who were not affected.  The findings also conflict with another report that showed high doses of vitamin C worsened disease in guinea pigs with osteoarthritis, the common kind of arthritis associated with aging.

The conflicting findings could be associated with the causes of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, researchers say. Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease in which the body attacks itself whereas osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition that gets worse as time passes.

Annals of Rheumatic Disease July 2004 63(7):843-7
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15194581

News-Medical Net June 10, 2004
http://www.news-medical.net/default.asp?id=2304

Overweight and Obesity Rates Still at Alarming Levels     

Despite the flood of warnings about the alarming rise of obesity in the United States, a pair of recent studies confirmed Americans have not gotten the message yet. In fact, the numbers show obesity rates have actually risen slightly.  In one government report of 4,000 adults and an equal number of children, the number of overweight adults for 2001-02 had risen to 65.7 percent versus 64.5 percent in a similar study of adults in 2000-01. The level of obesity in adults edged upward from 30.5 percent to 30.6 percent. The number of adults who were labelled extremely obese grew slightly from 4.7 percent to 5.1 percent.

The government study gathered childhood obesity data on participants from ages 6 to 19 based on their body mass index (BMI) readings alone. Almost 32 percent of the children surveyed were rated “at risk” for becoming overweight in the recent study, nearly a 2 percent increase since the 1999-2000 study. Children judged to be overweight rose to 16.5 percent in the recent study, a 1.5 percent increase from previous research.

In a related study of teens ages 13 to 17, fast food restaurant chains were again blamed as the prime culprits in the epidemic of obesity among children. During the first phase, in which teens were allowed to eat as many extra-large fast-food portions as they wanted, overweight teens tended to eat more than their slimmer peers.

The second study recorded the participant’s food intake on days they ate meals at any of five leading national fast-food chains. Researchers found leaner teens compensated for eating fast-food by consuming less during those days, but the overweight adolescents did not.  Researchers the studies support an argument for reducing fast-food marketing to children, eliminating the sale of such foods in schools and promoting the reduced intake of refined starches and extra sugars.

Journal of the American Medical Association June 16, 2004;291:2847-2850
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/291/23/2847

  

Florida Businessman Sues Atkins after Developing Heart Disease While on Diet;Cholesterol Sky-rocketed, Needed Angioplasty and Stent. Seeks Warning Labels on Atkins Products

WASHINGTON: A Florida businessman filed suit today against Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., and the Estate of Dr. Robert C. Atkins, claiming that the late diet author’s controversial high-fat, low-carbohydrate regimen caused severe heart disease, necessitating angioplasty and a stent. He is seeking a court injunction banning Atkins Nutritionals from marketing its products without a warning of potential health risks and asks for compensatory damages.

http://www.pcrm.org/news/health040527.html
http://www.atkinsdietalert.org

Movie Review: Super Size Me  

Super Size Me, the highly acclaimed new documentary about a filmmaker who eats nothing but McDonald’s meals for 30 days, is a must-see. The film, which features an interview with PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., about the addictive nature of many unhealthy foods, won filmmaker Morgan Spurlock a Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival this spring.

After one month on his meat-heavy, fast-food diet, Spurlock gains 25 pounds and becomes dangerously sick. For theater information, please visit www.SuperSizeMe.com

Trim Down to Avoid Prostate Cancer  

Obesity increases a man’s risk for aggressive prostate cancer and for recurrence after radical prostatectomy, according to research studies published in Cancer and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. One research team evaluated data from nine U.S. military medical centers on 3,162 radical prostatectomy patients, 600 of whom were obese. Obesity was associated with a higher-grade cancer and higher recurrence rates.

Another study, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, looked at 1,106 prostatectomy patients, also finding obesity associated with higher-grade tumors, invasion into neighboring tissues, and recurrence.

Freedland SJ, Aronson WJ, Terris MK, et al. The percentage of prostate needle biopsy cores with carcinoma from the more involved side of the biopsy as a predictor of prostate specific antigen recurrence after radical prostatectomy: results from the Shared Equal Access Regional Cancer Hospital (SEARCH) database. Cancer 2003;98:2344-50.

Freedland SJ, Aronson WJ, Kane CJ, et al. Impact of obesity on biochemical control after radical prostatectomy for clinically localized prostate cancer: a report by the shared equal access regional cancer hospital database study group. J Clin Oncol 2004;22:446-53.

Selected segments are reproduced from Dr. Mercola’s excellent website: http://www.mercola.com/index.htm