In the News

.....Scientists from the University of Hawaii compared meat and fat intake in 82,483 men who were followed for an eight-year period. They determined that the intake of different types of fat and meat had no impact on the risk of prostate cancer. However, Omega-3 Fatty Acids had a slight protective effect; International Journal of Cancer, 9.15.07.

.....Scientists from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine have found that decreasing the level of testosterone in mice for seven-months (years in a human life) caused a marked increase in the rate of prostate cancer development compared to mice with normal testosterone levels. The cancers were also much more aggressive. The study indicates that low levels of male hormone in men for a significant amount of time results in quicker growing, more aggressive tumors that are harder to treat; Cancer research, October 1st, 2007.

.....Both yo-yo dieting and obesity increase the risk of developing renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, in postmenopausal women. The study included over 140,000 women aged 50 to 79 followed for almost 8 years. Women with a BMI over 35 had a 60% increased risk of developing the disease with the odds getting worse with increasing weight. Moreover, women who underwent 10 or more weight-loss, weight gain cycles had double the risk of developing the cancer compared with women who maintained a stable weight over the period; American Journal of Epidemiology, October 20th, 2007.

.....Sterols added to low fat milk (1.6 g a day) decreased LDL-cholesterol by 8% on average in patients with moderately high cholesterol and the sterols greatly reduced the level of oxidized LDL; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, September 2007.

.....In a 1-year study conducted in 33 Boston area nursing homes, patients were supplemented with a low potency multiple supplying 50% of the RDA for essential vitamins and minerals that included Zinc by researchers from Tufts University and Boston University and this level provided adequate Zinc for some patients but not others. Some patients received inactive placebo. Those residents that achieved normal Zinc levels suffered with fewer cases of pneumonia and required almost 50% fewer new antibiotic prescriptions, had shorter bouts of pneumonia, and had fewer days with antibiotic use compared to those residents with still low Zinc concentrations. Those who achieved better levels of Zinc were less likely to die; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2007.

.....Australian researchers examined tea drinking in 1027 women between the ages of 70 to 85 over 5 years. It was found that tea drinkers had a 2.8% greater bone mineral density of the hip vs. nondrinkers. In a further analysis it was found that nondrinkers lost 4% of their bone mineral density of their hip over the period where tea drinkers only lost 1.6% of their hips bone mineral density.; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2007.