New research from South Dakota State University shows that Flaxseed may decrease the risk of colorectal cancers. Distinguished Professor C. Dwivedi, head of the University’s Pharmaceutical Sciences and associates conducted the study on a special strain of mouse that dependably develops colon cancer due to gene mutations.

Flavanols are the healthy nutrients plentiful in dark cocoa; new research shows they fight fatigue and hone mental sharpness, according to scientists at the Brain Performance and Nutrition Center at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK. The researchers gave 30 people a series of math tests before and after having either a Flavanol-loaded chocolate drink or a placebo beverage. On a test that required repeatedly subtracting numbers, volunteers who got the Flavanols-rich drink performed better than those drinking the dummy drink.

Long term supplementation with the amino acid L-Carnitine protected rats from cancer of the liver. For 8 weeks the researchers supplemented 20 rats with L-Carnitine, and 20 rats with synthetic D-Carnitine and the drug mildronate to cause a Carnitine deficiency. After two weeks of supplementation, ten rats in each group plus 10 non-supplemented rats received an injection of the dangerous cancer causing chemical diethylnitrosamine (DENA) followed two weeks later by a dose of toxic carbon tetrachloride.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill report that men and women with high serum levels of selenium and a greater intake of the B complex Vitamin Folic Acid have a significantly lower risk of developing colon cancer. The current study included 620 subjects with cancer and 1,007 individuals without the disease who participated in the North Carolina Colon Cancer Study, a case-control study of colon cancer in North Carolina between 1996 and 2000. Dietary questionnaire responses were analyzed for nutrient content, including Folic Acid, and stored serum samples were analyzed for selenium levels.

According to new research from the University of California San Francisco the Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oils (EPA and DHA) decrease the risk of developing advanced-dangerous prostate cancer and they may achieve this by modifying a specific variant of the COX-2 gene, a known inflammatory gene. The gene variant (known as rs4647310) is very dangerous and is linked to a five-fold increased risk of developing advanced prostate cancer, report the researchers, but high intakes of omega-3 may have a reduced risk, even if they carried the COX-2 variant. “Previous research has shown protection against prostate cancer, but this is one of the first studies to show protection against advanced prostate cancer and interaction with COX-2,” said lead researcher Professor John Witte.