healthbriefs
Supplementation Cuts Colon Cancer Risk A
diet enhanced with multivitamin and mineral supple- ments may dramatically lower the risk of developing precancerous colon can- cer lesions, according to research published in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology. Nearly 150,000 men and women in the United States are diagnosed with this second-most common form of cancer each year. In the study, rats were fed a high-fat (20 percent) diet for 32 weeks. Those fed
a high-fat, low-fiber diet and also exposed to a carcinogen, developed precancer- ous lesions of the colon. The animals that underwent a similar diet and treatment, but also received daily vitamin and mineral supplements, showed an 84 percent reduction in the formation of precancerous lesions and did not develop tumors.
FRYING PAN FAUX PAS F
ried foods may please the palate, but cooking them in the wrong medium, such as sunflower oil, can present a health risk. Researchers from the University of the Basque Country, in North Spain, have dis- covered that organic aldehyde compounds become toxic when heated. These chemicals, previously linked with some types of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, are generated by the degradation of fatty acids in sunflower and other oils high in polyunsatu- rated fats, and some remain in food after frying. Oils with higher concentrations of monounsaturated fats, such as olive, peanut or coconut, are less worrisome if frying is the only cooking option.
Flame Retardant May Pose Health Risks O
besity, anxiety and devel- opmental and reproductive
problems have all been linked to small quantities of a flame retar- dant frequently used in furniture and baby products, according to a recent, limited study on rats by re- searchers at Duke University. Baby rats with mothers that ingested small amounts of the chemical Firemaster 550 gained more weight than those that weren’t exposed, and exposed female offspring displayed more anxiety, reached puberty earlier and exhibited ab- normal reproductive cycles. Study co-author Heather
Stapleton, Ph.D., associate profes- sor of environmental chemistry at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, is a leading expert on flame retardants, particularly children’s exposure to the toxic chemicals they can release. She specifically notes that the new re- search assessed exposure to doses far lower than those of earlier studies. “This raises red flags about a widely used chemical that we know little about,” advises Staple- ton. “What we do know is that it’s common in house dust, and people, especially kids, are being exposed to it.” “Firemaster 550 was put on the market with almost no study,” says Linda Birnbaum, direc- tor of the National Institute of Envi- ronmental Health Sciences, which funded the new research. She says the preliminary findings strongly suggest the need for more stud- ies.
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