Nutritionists were also quick to point out that this study shouldn’t undermine the importance of calcium and vitamin D in bone health.
“It doesn’t replace calcium and vitamin D in the diet, however,” says Keith-Thomas Ayoob, a dietician and professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “But including all three, and regular exercise, are showing promise as the best way to ensure good bone health.
“I was brought up on a high-olive oil
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The link may be attributed to abnormal stress hormone regulation and inflammatory gene expression, researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reported in the Aug. 1 edition of PLoS ONE.
"Our findings, and those of others, suggest that mental health and social well-being can affect biological processes, which influence cancer-related outcomes," Lorenzo Cohen, a professor in the center's departments of general oncology and behavioral science, and director of the Integrative Medicine Program, said in a university news release.
The findings "also suggest that screening for mental health should be part of standard care because there are well-accepted ways of helping people manage distress, even in the face of a life-threatening illness," Cohen added.
In conducting the study, the researchers analyzed surveys completed over a five-year period by 217 patients newly diagnosed with kidney cancer that had spread. The participants answered questions about how religious and spiritual they were. They were also asked about their symptoms of depression, social support, quality of life and coping skills.
The patients also provided blood samples as well as five saliva samples daily for three days. The researchers used the saliva samples to track changes in the patients' levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that is usually high in the morning before dropping throughout the day.
At the time of the analysis, 64 percent of the patients had died. The average amount of time these patients survived after being diagnosed was 1.8 years.
Overall, the study revealed that 23 percent of patients were clinically depressed. Even after taking other disease-related risk factors into account, the investigators noted that depression was associated with shorter survival time. Moreover, the study showed that higher than usual cortisol levels throughout the day were also linked to shorter survival among the cancer patients.
Using tissue samples from 15 of the patients with the most significant symptoms of depression and 15 samples from the patients with the mildest forms of depression, the researchers then conducted whole-genome profiling to determine if the depression is linked to increased risk of death for cancer patients.
They found specific signaling pathways, which play a key role in regulating cell inflammation, were expressed at increased levels in patients with depression. The study authors concluded the link between patients' mental health and survival time is associated with inflammatory gene regulation.
"Our findings indicate that we're now able to understand some of the possible biological pathways that explain the association between depression and survival," Cohen noted.
The researchers noted that the study was limited by the fact that it's difficult to determine if patients' stress or symptoms of depression are influenced by other factors or were present before their cancer diagnosis. While the study uncovered an association between depression and cancer survival, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
More research is needed to investigate if the treatment of depression can improve survival time among cancer patients with mild, moderate or severe mood disorders, the authors added.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about cancer and depression.
The study is observational in nature and can only suggest an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship. The British researchers say, however, that if further research confirms a direct link, this type of diet could prevent 8 percent of pancreatic cancer cases.
One expert said there has been much research into the link between diet and cancer.
"Over the years there have been many attempts to find dietary causes for cancer," said Dr. Vincent Vinciguerra, chief of oncology and hematology at North Shore-LIJ's Monter Cancer Center in Lake Success, N.Y. "It is estimated that 35 percent of cancers are related to carcinogens in the diet. Antioxidants have been the subject of numerous trials because in theory they could be instrumental in the prevention of carcinogenesis."
In the new study, researchers led by Dr. Andrew Hart of the University of East Anglia tracked the long-term health of more than 23,500 people, aged 40 to 74, who entered the study between 1993 and 1997. Each participant kept a food diary that detailed the types, amount and method of preparation for every food they ate for seven days.
After 10 years, 49 participants (55 percent of whom were male) had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. By 2010, the number of participants diagnosed with pancreatic cancer increased to 86 (44 percent were men). On average, patients survived six months after diagnosis.
The researchers found that people with the highest dietary intake of selenium were half as likely to develop pancreatic cancer as those with the lowest intake. Those who consumed the highest dietary intake of three antioxidants -- selenium and vitamins C and E -- were 67 percent less likely to develop pancreatic cancer compared to those with the lowest intake.
The study was published online July 23 in the journal Gut.
Previous studies using antioxidant supplements have not produced such encouraging results, but this may be because antioxidants in food behave differently than those in supplements, Hart and colleagues said.
Vinciguerra agreed that the research so far on this issue has been "conflicting."
For example, he said, there was "a recent study
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Lack of iron can cause anemia in pregnant women, potentially increasing the risk of complications at delivery. It may also be harmful to their babies, through increased risk of low birth weight and even delayed growth and development later in life. anemia is diagnosed as a low level of hemoglobin in the blood. However, hemoglobin levels should be carefully controlled during pregnancy, as high concentrations have also been associated with an increased risk of babies being born early or with low birthweight. Traditionally, anemia during pregnancy is prevented by daily supplements containing iron and folic acid, started as early in the pregnancy as possible. However, some countries, such as the UK, do not recommend routine preventive iron supplementation to all women.
The researchers analysed data from 18 trials involving a total of 4,072 pregnant women who took iron supplements alone, with folic acid or with multi-vitamin and mineral supplements. According to the results, women who took iron supplements once, twice or three times a week on non-consecutive days were no more likely to suffer from anemia by the end of their pregnancies than those who took them daily, and their babies were no more likely to be born early or have a low birth weight. Furthermore, those taking the supplements intermittently rather than daily were less likely to experience side effects including nausea, constipation and high hemoglobin levels during pregnancy.
"Intermittent iron supplementation could be considered as a feasible alternative to daily supplementation for preventing anemia during pregnancy, particularly in developed countries where anemia in pregnancy is not a public health problem and there is good antenatal care for monitoring anemia status," said lead author Juan Pablo Peña-Rosas, Coordinator of Evidence and Programme Guidance of the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. "At the moment evidence is limited and the quality of the trials included in our review was generally low."
The review authors say further research is needed to clarify safe maternal iron doses and their effects on infants. "It is important to evaluate new regimens to be able to respond to the need of the different countries that face different challenges in anemia prevention during pregnancy. We would advise that trials make an effort to evaluate the health of newborns and infants from birth to six months of life or more," said Peña-Rosas.
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Previous research has indicated that long working hours may increase the risk of birth defects, premature birth, stillbirth and low birth-weight.
The researchers assessed the fetal growth rates of 4680 mums to be from early pregnancy onwards between 2002 and 2006.
Midway through their pregnancy, the women were quizzed about their work conditions and the physical demands of their jobs, including whether these included lifting, long periods of standing or walking, night shifts and long working hours.
Around four out of 10 (38.5%) of the women spent a long time on their feet and 45.5% had to walk for long periods. Heavy lifting was part of the job for just 6%, while around 4% worked night shifts.
The development of their babies was regularly measured throughout pregnancy, using ultrasound, and then again at birth.
The results showed that physically demanding work and long working hours were not consistently associated with restrictions on overall size or birth-weight, or with premature birth.
And working up to 34 or 36 weeks of pregnancy had no adverse impact on fetal development.
But women who spent long periods on their feet during their pregnancy, in jobs such as sales, childcare, and teaching, had babies whose heads were an average of 1 cm (3%) smaller than average at birth, implying a slower growth rate.
Around half the women (47.5%) worked between 25 and 39 hours a week, while around one in four (23%) worked more than 40 hours a week.
And those who worked more than 40 hours a week had smaller babies than those who worked under 25 hours a week.
Babies born to these women had a head circumference that was 1 cm smaller and a weight that was between 148 and 198 g smaller, on average, than babies born to women working under 25 hours a week. These differences were apparent from the third trimester (last three months of pregnancy) onwards.
The authors comment that generally women who are working outside the home have fewer pregnancy complications, birth defects, and stillbirths than women who are unemployed, but that certain aspects of work may not be without risk.
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"When gay couples become parents, they become very focused on the kids, they are tired, there is less time for communication and less desire for sex," Colleen Hoff, a professor of sexuality studies at San Francisco State University, said in a university news release. "They go through a lot of the same changes as heterosexual couples who have kids."
An estimated one in five gay male couples nationwide is raising children. For the new study, 48 gay male couples who are raising children together were interviewed and asked questions about their lives.
"We found that gay fathers have less time for sex and less emphasis on sexuality, which could mean they are at less risk for HIV," Hoff said. "Many fathers said they feel a sense of responsibility toward their children which motivates them to avoid risky sexual behavior."
Not many of the men were concerned about the changes in their sex lives, according to the report published in the June issue of the journal Couple and Family Psychology.
"From the fathers we studied, there was this pragmatic acceptance that this is what happens at this stage of life," Hoff pointed out.
Hoff and colleagues also found that the men tended to follow the same rules about sexual activity outside their partnership after becoming parents as they did before.
"There wasn't the shift that we thought we might find," Hoff said. "For the most part, those who were monogamous before becoming parents said they stayed with that arrangement. Those who had open relationships before having children reported that they kept to that agreement."
The findings suggest that gay male parents who are in open relationships might be less willing to talk to others, such as physicians, about the choices they've made.
"Some men felt that there is this assumption that if you are a gay parent you are monogamous," Hoff explained. "This kind of stigma around gay parents' sexuality could be a concern if gay fathers are reluctant to talk to their physician about their sexual agreement and get tested for HIV."
More information
For more about parenting, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Yves Sauvé, a researcher in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, and his team discovered that lab models fed DHA did not accumulate a toxic molecule at the back of the eyes. The toxin normally builds up in the retina with age and causes vision loss.
"This discovery could result in a very broad therapeutic use," says Sauvé, whose work was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.
"In normal aging, this toxin increases twofold as we age. But in lab tests, there was no increase in this toxin whatsoever. This has never been demonstrated before -- that supplementing the diet with DHA could make this kind of difference."
The team recently started another study, looking at people who have age-related macular degeneration, a condition that results in loss of central vision and is the main cause of blindness in people over the age of 50. The researchers will look for DNA markers in the blood of study participants. The team wants to determine whether participants with certain genetic markers will respond better to increasing amounts of DHA in their diet, and if so, why.
Sauvé is a researcher in the departments of ophthalmology and physiology at the U of A.
Various organizations funded the research; the primary funder was the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
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"This is one of the first studies to look at the association of vitamin D and the onset of new mobility limitations or disability in older adults," said lead author Denise Houston, Ph.D., R.D., a nutrition epidemiologist in the Wake Forest Baptist Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology. Houston researches vitamin D and its effects on physical function.
The study, published online this month in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, analyzed the association between vitamin D and onset of mobility limitation and disability over six years of follow-up using data from the National Institute on Aging's Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study. Mobility limitation and disability are defined as any difficulty or inability to walk several blocks or climb a flight of stairs, respectively.
Of the 3,075 community-dwelling black and white men and women aged 70-79 who were enrolled, data from 2,099 participants was used for this study. Eligible participants reported no difficulty walking one-fourth mile, climbing 10 steps, or performing basic, daily living activities, and were free of life-threatening illness. Vitamin D levels were measured in the blood at the beginning of the study. Occurrence of mobility limitation and disability during follow-up was assessed during annual clinic visits alternating with telephone interviews every six months over six years.
"We observed about a 30 percent increased risk of mobility limitations for those older adults who had low levels of vitamin D, and almost a two-fold higher risk of mobility disability," Houston said.
Houston said vitamin D plays an important role in muscle function, so it is plausible that low levels of the vitamin could result in the onset of decreased lower muscle strength and physical performance. Vitamin D may also indirectly affect physical function as low vitamin D levels have also been associated with diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and lung disease -- conditions that are frequent causes of decline in physical function. Houston said people get vitamin D when it is naturally produced in the skin by sun exposure, by eating foods with vitamin D, such as fortified milk, juice and cereals, and by taking vitamin D supplements.
"About one-third of older adults have low vitamin D levels," she said. "It's difficult to get enough vitamin D through diet alone and older adults, who may not spend much time outdoors, may need to take a vitamin D supplement."
Current recommendations call for people over age 70 to get 800 International Units of vitamin D daily in their diet or supplements. Houston pointed out that current dietary recommendations are based solely on vitamin D's effects on bone health.
"Higher amounts of vitamin D may be needed for the preservation of muscle strength and physical function as well as other health conditions," she said. "However, clinical trials are needed to determine whether increasing vitamin D levels through diet or supplements has an effect on physical function."
This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging; National Institute on Aging contracts N01-AG-6-2101, N01-AG-6-2103, and No1-AG-6-2106; National Institute on Aging grants R01 AG028050, R01 AG029364 and K01 AG030506 (to DKH); National Institute of Nursing Research grant R01 NR012459; and the Wake Forest University Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (P30 AG021332).
Co-authors include: Janet A. Tooze, Ph.D., Gary G. Schwartz, Ph.D., Jeff D. Williamson, M.D., Stephen B Kritchevsky, Ph.D., Rebecca H. Neiberg, Ph.D. and M. Kyla Shea, Ph.D., all of Wake Forest Baptist; Dorothy B. Hausman, Ph.D., and Mary Ann Johnson, Ph.D., University of Georgia, Athens; Jane A. Cauley, Ph.D., University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Doug C. Bauer, M.D., University of California, San Francisco; and Tamara B. Harris, M.D., National Institute on Aging.
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Furthermore, boosting overall calcium intake from dietary sources confers no significant advantage in terms of staving off heart disease and stroke, the findings indicate.
Previous research has linked higher calcium intake with a lowered risk of high blood pressure, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, all of which are risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
And calcium supplements are commonly recommended to elderly people and women who have gone through the menopause to prevent bone thinning.
The authors base their findings on almost 24,000 participants of one of the German arms of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study in Heidelberg.
All the participants were aged between 35 and 64 when they joined the study in 1994-8.
Normal diet for the preceding 12 months was assessed using food frequency questionnaires and they were quizzed about whether they regularly took vitamin or mineral supplements.
Their health was tracked for an average of 11 years, during which time 354 heart attacks, 260 strokes, and 267 associated deaths occurred.
After taking account of factors likely to influence the results, those whose diets included a moderate amount (820 mg daily) of calcium from all sources, including supplements, had a 31% lower risk of having a heart attack than those in the bottom 25% of calcium intake.
But those with an intake of more than 1100 mg daily did not have a significantly lower risk. There was no evidence that any level of calcium intake either protected against or increased the risk of stroke, which backs up the findings of other research, say the authors.
But when the analysis looked at vitamin/mineral supplements, it found that those who took calcium supplements regularly were 86% more likely to have a heart attack than those who didn't use any supplements.
And this risk increased further among those who used only calcium supplements. They were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who didn't take any supplements.
The authors conclude: "This study suggests that increasing calcium intake from diet might not confer significant cardiovascular benefits, while calcium supplements, which might raise
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To get started, firstLogin with Facebook YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY prev next C-Section May Hike Risk for Toddlers' Obesity, Study SuggestsPiling on excess weight during pregnancy increases the risk of complications for pregnant women but doctors have been cautious in advising women on ways to manage weight for fear of any adverse effect on mother or baby.
However, the new study published in the BMJ shows that following a healthy diet, overseen by health professionals, stems excess weight gain in pregnancy and reduces the risk of pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia, diabetes, high blood pressure and early delivery.
Half the UK population are either overweight or obese and the rates are rising. Around a third of women gain more than the recommended amount during pregnancy.
Previous research has linked obesity during pregnancy with an increase in a variety of risks including high blood pressure, diabetes, miscarriage, birth defects, blood clots, pre-eclampsia, and even maternal and infant deaths.
The new research, which brings together the results of 44 separate studies, is the largest of its kind and includes data on more than 7,000 women. It was commissioned and funded by the NIHR's Health Technology Assessment programme.
The researchers investigated the effect of diet, exercise, or a combination of the two. They looked at how much weight women gained throughout pregnancy and whether mother or child suffered from any complications.
Although all three methods reduced the mother's weight gain, diet had the greatest effect with an average reduction of nearly four kilograms. Exercise only resulted in an average reduction in weight gain of just 0.7kg. A combination of diet and exercise only produced and average reduction of one kilogram.
Women who followed a calorie controlled diet were 33 per cent less likely to develop pre-eclampsia, one of the most dangerous pregnancy complications that presents with raised blood pressure and protein in the urine. Their risk of gestational diabetes was 60 per cent lower, their risk of gestational high blood pressure was 70 per cent lower and their risk of early delivery was 32 per cent lower. However, the researchers acknowledge that these findings need to be confirmed by further large studies.
Crucially, babies' birth weights were not affected by dieting.
The research was led by Dr Shakila Thangaratinam, a Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Obstetrician at Barts and The London Medical School, part of Queen Mary, University of London with researchers in UK and Europe. She said: "We are seeing more and more women who gain excess weight when they are pregnant and we know these women and their babies are at increased risk of complications."
"Weight control is difficult but this study shows that by carefully advising women on weight management methods, especially diet, we can reduce weight gain during pregnancy. It also shows that following a controlled diet has the potential to reduce the risk of a number of pregnancy complications.
"Women may be concerned that dieting during pregnancy could have a negative impact on their babies. This research is reassuring because it showed that dieting is safe and that the baby's weight isn't affected."
Dietary advice was based on limiting overall calorie intake; balancing protein, carbohydrate and fat; and eating foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables and pulses.
Dr Thangaratinam added: "What we don't know is why diet should be so much better than exercise in controlling weight gain. It could be that it is simpler and easier for women to stick to. It may also be that eating a high-fibre diet has other positive health effects for a pregnant woman."
Combining data on the thousands of women who participated in these trials will also allow researchers to further examine the effects of diet and exercise across women of various ages, body mass index, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and medical conditions.
The Women's Health Research Unit at Queen Mary, University of London has recently established an international collaboration on Weight Management in Pregnancy (i-WIP) to answer these questions.
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Addressing diabetes is a major priority for health providers worldwide given the vast global prevalence (approx. six to seven per cent of the world's population; around 285 million people) and its severe complications including amputations and heart disease. Surgery for weight loss has an unexpectedly rapid and substantial therapeutic effect on diabetes rates. Understanding why weight loss has such a dramatic effect on diabetes is the focus of this study by Associate Professor Markku Peltonen from the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland and colleagues from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
The researchers enrolled the 2010 patients from the Swedish Obese Subjects study who had received bariatric surgery and 2037 obese controls receiving conventional (non-surgical) obesity treatment. They were assessed for BMI and diabetes at baseline (before surgery in the surgical group), and at two and 10 year follow-up.
Among patients with BMI<35, 35-40 and 40-45 who did not lose weight after two years, type 2 diabetes incidence rates were 6.5%, 7.7% and 9.3% respectively. Among those with initial BMI 35-40, 40-45 and ≥45 who lost at least five BMI units after two years, type 2 diabetes incidence rates were 2.4%, 2.0% and 3.4% respectively, clearly showing that lower rates of diabetes can be found among obese patients who have lost five BMI units through any means. Further analysis showed that the rate of patients cured of diabetes after losing five BMI units was independent of the starting BMI at all BMI levels measured. This trend was also observed after 10 years post surgery.
The findings suggest that losing five BMI units, the equivalent of approx. 16kg for a 180cm tall 35 year old man weighing 130kg (BMI 40), can make a real difference to your health by reducing your likelihood of having type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, it suggests that this is true for all patients, as even those who were severely obese showed dramatic improvements.
Associate Professor Markku Peltonen, Director of Department at the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland, said:
"Our findings show that, whatever your starting weight, losing five BMI units can dramatically reduce your risk of having type 2 diabetes after two and ten years.
"Dropping five BMI units is no mean feat, as the human body is not very good at losing weight. But patients of any weight should take encouragement that by doing so they can really improve their chances of a healthy future."
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That's some of the motivation for lifting the ban and publishing the study in the May 2 online issue of Nature, experts say.
The initial ban applied to two studies slated to be published in two medical journals, Nature and Science. In December, the U.S. government intervened, requesting that both journals censor some of the data for national security purposes. The concern was that terrorists might use the information to create a lethal biological weapon.
The ban was lifted in April, after the U.S. government conducted a risk assessment in March. Nature also commissioned an independent assessment. Both showed that publication would confer more public benefit than risk.
In the Nature study, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a professor of virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues tweaked the H5N1 virus using genetic material borrowed from H1N1 'swine' flu to see if it would transmit easily between ferrets -- an animal model thought to be closely related to humans.
It did.
These genetic changes can make the virus easier to transmit, the study found. Knowing their footprints can help researchers know what to look out for and hopefully catch the virus early before it begins to spread.
"H5N1 viruses remain a significant threat for humans as a potential pandemic flu strain," Kawaoka said. "We have found that relatively few mutations enable this virus to transmit in mammals."
The information provided by this study is important as the virus could mutate on its own. Now "we can better prepare should a pandemic virus emerge in nature," Kawaoka said. Currently available vaccines and antivirals are effective treatments for this engineered virus.
"Stockpiling H5N1 vaccines and antivirals will be important for pandemic preparedness," he said, and flu trackers too can use this information when they develop vaccines in the future. "Just as for a seasonal flu vaccine, it will be important for an H5N1 vaccine to be made to a closely related virus, so knowing which mutations may confer transmissibility will help prioritize vaccine candidates," Kawaoka explained.
The new data also help advance science by increasing the understanding of the basic biology of flu transmission. "Sharing the data with other scientists will lead to important additional discoveries that may aid the development of improved vaccines and therapeutics," Kawaoka said.
There had been doubt that the bird flu could mutate and cause a pandemic, said microbiologist Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris, of the University of Hong Kong. He was a co-author of a journal editorial accompanying the new study. He said this research does suggest that bird flu can mutate. "It suggests that the H5N1 virus can potentially acquire transmissibility in humans. However, whether it will ever do so is another matter."
While there have been sporadic cases of bird flu in humans, these have been traced to people directly handling live birds, for instance while working in a poultry market.
Importantly, this research and its publication are not a threat to U.S. security, Peiris said. "This research only tells us that the mutated H5N1 transmits in ferrets. It also tells us that the mutated virus no longer kills ferrets," he said. "Why would anyone who wanted to 'create harm' put so much effort into generation of such a virus with so much uncertainty on how it would work in practice?"
But, Peiris noted, the study "is important for pandemic risk assessment because it gives indications of the mutations that we should be watching out for."
Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious diseases specialist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., agreed that publication is likely to do more good than harm. "We should be aware of the fact that this influenza can mutate," he said. "Publication makes us safer because we know what to look out for now. This can help facilitate preventive strategies and can eventually lead to more effective vaccine development and antiviral therapy."
He added, "We live in a much smaller world because of air travel and population density and certainly we are more vulnerable to viruses as a result."
This virus is not likely to be used by terrorists to cause a pandemic, Hirsch said. "It became less lethal in the animal model. I am reassured by the fact that the ability to make it a 'terror' virus has not really been demonstrated."
More information
Learn more about bird flu at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Statins include such bestselling drugs as Crestor, Lipitor, Pravachol and Zocor. Muscle ailments have long been cited as a rare but possible side effect of statin use, particularly at higher doses.
In the new study, University of Washington researchers evaluated the use of the diagnostic code for "statin-related rhabdomyolysis," a serious condition involving achy muscles that is sometimes accompanied by kidney problems. The code was introduced in 2006 as a way of tracking how many cases of the potentially serious condition -- which can be confirmed using a blood test -- were related to high-dose statin use.
But using coding data alone doesn't appear to accurately track how many people are stricken, according to the researchers.
"We did this study to see if we could identify cases of rhabdomyolysis using billing data. But the way things are billed doesn't tell you anything about a case," said study co-author Dr. James Floyd, a senior fellow in epidemiology and a general internist at the University of Washington, in Seattle.
Floyd, whose research was reported this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said he and his colleagues used computerized pharmacy data to review electronic medical record reports of statin users between 2006 and 2010.
Out of 292 statin users with an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code for rhabdomyolysis, 22 actual cases of the statin-related condition were picked up. Another seven cases were identified using other methods. Of these 29 validated cases, 26 were hospitalized, and no one died, the researchers reported.
Floyd said the results confirm an earlier U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning against the use of high-dose statins. But he said the best way to confirm true cases of rhabdomyolysis is to also use information from evaluating patient charts.
"The conclusion is that if you're going to do a study of an adverse drug reaction, it is difficult to do with billing data alone," Floyd said.
So just how common might statin-linked rhabdomyolysis be? Cardiologist Dr. Carl Lavie said that while lesser muscle aches are common in statin-using patients, rhabdomyolysis is much rarer.
"We see a lot of patients with muscle aches, where all tests are okay except that they swear that the muscle aches are bad and sometimes unbearable, and an occasional patient with myopathy, but we hardly ever see a true rhabdomyolysis
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While the question of whether vitamin E prevents or promotes cancer has been widely debated in scientific journals and in the news media, scientists at the Center for Cancer Prevention Research, at Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, believe that two forms of vitamin E -- gamma and delta-tocopherols -- found in soybean, canola and corn oils as well as nuts do prevent colon, lung, breast and prostate cancers.
"There are studies suggesting that vitamin E actually increases the risk of cancer and decreases bone density," says Chung S. Yang, director of the center. "Our message is that the vitamin E form of gamma-tocopherols, the most abundant form of vitamin E in the American diet, and delta-tocopherols, also found in vegetable oils, are beneficial in preventing cancers while the form of vitamin E, alpha- tocopherol, the most commonly used in vitamin E supplements, has no such benefit."
Yang and colleagues, Nanjoo Suh and Ah-Ng Tony Kong, summarized their findings recently in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. In a Commentary, "Does Vitamin E Prevent or Promote Cancer?"
the Rutgers scientists discuss animal studies done at Rutgers as well as human epidemiological studies that have examined the connection between vitamin E and cancer.
Yang says Rutgers scientists conducting animal studies for colon, lung, breast and prostate cancer found that the forms of vitamin E in vegetable oils, gamma and delta-tocopherols, prevent cancer formation and growth in animal models.
"When animals are exposed to cancer-causing substances, the group that was fed these tocopherols in their diet had fewer and smaller tumors," Yang says. "When cancer cells were injected into mice these tocopherols also slowed down the development of tumors."
In researching colon cancer, Yang pointed to another recently published paper in Cancer Prevention Research indicating that the delta-tocopherol form of vitamin E was more effective than other forms of vitamin E in suppressing the development of colon cancer in rats.
This is good news for cancer research. Recently, in one of the largest prostate cancer clinical trials in the United States and Canada, scientists found that the most commonly used form of vitamin E supplements, alpha-tocopherol, not only did not prevent prostate cancer, but its use significantly increased the risk of this disease among healthy men.
This is why, Yang says, it is important to distinguish between the different forms of vitamin E and conduct more research on its cancer preventive and other biological effects.
"For people who think that they need to take vitamin E supplements," Yang says, "taking a mixture of vitamin E that resembles what is in our diet would be the most prudent supplement to take."
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Hong Chen, an assistant professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois, presented her team's findings on April 22, at the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, held in conjunction with the Experimental Biology 2012 meeting in San Diego.
"Almost a third of American adults have fatty liver disease, many of them without symptoms," Chen explained. "Obesity is a key risk factor for this condition, which can lead to liver failure."
Fat is metabolized in the liver, and in those who are obese the transport of fat to adipose tissue can slow down to the point at which the liver becomes a dumping ground for excess fat, she said.
"When fat accumulates in an organ that's not supposed to store fat -- like the liver, that organ's vital function can be dangerously compromised," she noted.
Eating soy protein, from such sources as tofu and yogurt, appears to alleviate some of the stress on fatty livers, Chen said. For her study, Chen compared fat accumulation in the livers of lean and obese rats, which were assigned to either a diet containing casein, a milk-based protein, or a diet containing soy protein, for 17 weeks after weaning.
While diet had no effect on the liver profiles of lean animals, the obese rats that were fed soy showed a 20 percent reduction in triglycerides and overall fat accumulation in the liver, leading Chen to believe that soy protein could be used to alleviate the symptoms of fatty liver disease.
Furthermore, the scientists discovered that soy protein isolate partially restored the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, a crucial player in fat metabolism. "In many obese persons, there's a sort of traffic problem, and when more fat can make its way out of the liver, there is less pressure on that organ," Chen said.
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With childhood obesity rising, the survey found most people agreed the chips, soda and candy bars students buy from vending machines or school stores in addition to breakfast and lunch are not nutritious, and they support a national standard for foods sold at schools.
The findings from the advocacy group Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods Project came as the federal government prepares to roll out a nationwide standard that may set up another battle among health experts, schools and the food industry.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to issue its guidelines by June, according to some experts. These could limit the amount of sugar, salt and fat foods sold at schools could contain.
Agriculture Department Under Secretary Kevin Concannon said an important step in addressing childhood obesity is to help make the "right choice an easy choice" while at school.
"We look forward to working with parents, teachers, school food service professionals and the food industry to craft workable guidelines so that healthier options are available for our students," he said.
Many states have already enacted their own laws mandating healthier non-cafeteria food options.
Jessica Donze Black, a dietician who leads the Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods Project, said the results show growing support for updating standards that surfaced in 1979.
"What has changed in the last 30 years is that the childhood obesity epidemic has more than tripled," she said. "The school environment has also changed. ... Today, there are a lot of other places throughout the day that compete with kids eating a healthy school meal."
SUPPORT FOR HIGHER STANDARDS
Eighty percent of the 1,010 adults polled said they would support nutritional standards limiting the calories, fat and sodium in such foods. Seventeen percent would oppose it.
Most also agreed there are now few healthy options. Just 5 percent of adults said vending machines offered totally or mostly healthy choices compared with 10 percent for school stores and 21 percent for a la carte lunch lines.
Changes to school foods may be controversial. New standards for more fruits, vegetables and whole grains in traditional school meals announced in January drew scrutiny when lawmakers blocked limits to french fries and counted pizza as a vegetable because it contains tomato sauce.
Efforts to give students more healthy options to help fight childhood obesity have historically faced pressure from food and beverage companies and even from schools themselves, who rely on such food sales for extra cash.
But health experts, pediatricians and other advocates say that is changing as more companies and school districts come on board at a time when more than one-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese.
"Most people accept that soda, candy bars and other unhealthy foods just don't deserve a place in school on a regular basis," said Margo Wootan, head of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
She said there are still concerns that members of Congress and industry lobbyists could water down the proposal.
The American Academy of Pediatrics' Laura Jana said new rules are imperative now that kids consume more than half of their daily calories in school. More students are getting most of their calories from snacks and drinks, not meals, she said.
"To me, it's a no-brainer. ... They can't make that healthy choice when we stick all those temptations under their noses," said Jana, a pediatrician based in Omaha, Nebraska and co-author of "Food Fights: Winning the Nutritional Challenges of Parenthood Armed with Insight, Humor and a Bottle of Ketchup."
JUICE, GRANOLA BARS
Food and beverage makers have expanded their portfolios to include juice, granola bars and other healthier products. Vending machine companies focused on nutritious offerings have also sprung up.
U.S. drink companies have already taken voluntary steps to keep sodas out of some schools and their trade group says this has cut calories consumed from beverages in schools by 88 percent.
Christopher Gindlesperger, spokesman for the American Beverage Association, said its voluntary guidelines are a good model for the government to follow.
"It's a standard that's already in place that is working. It strikes a balance," he said.
ABA's guidelines eliminate soda in elementary and middle schools but allow diet sodas and low-calorie sports drinks in high school.
Companies such as The Coca-Cola Co, PepsiCo Inc, and Nestle SA either had no immediate comment or referred questions to industry trade groups.
Mars Inc, maker of the iconic M&M's chocolate candies, said it has already agreed to withdraw branded vending machines from schools and does not offer traditional candy in those settings. Mars said it has instead developed other, lower-calorie products.
As for schools, most now realize vending machines can help teach students about healthy habits and boost learning even though money does loom large, said Whitney Meagher, project director for the National Association of State Boards of Education.
"If you have a choice between a cookie and an apple and the cookie is going to sell better, it's hard not to make that decision as a business decision," she said.
The Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods Project is a joint venture by the nonprofit policy group The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a private organization that aims to improve Americans' health.
Its poll surveyed 1,010 registered voters by telephone in mid-January and has a margin-of-error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points.
(Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Cynthia Osterman)
