Vitamin D May Promote Colon Cancer Survival

THURSDAY, June 19 (HealthDay News) — Colon cancer patients with high blood levels of vitamin D boost their survival odds by 48 percent, a new study suggests.

Previous studies have indicated that high levels of vitamin D may reduce the risk of getting colon cancer by 51 percent, although other studies dispute that claim. But until now, no studies have looked at whether vitamin D could improve survival among people who already had the disease.

“Vitamin D has been studied for many years, and there is a lot of data that it could be implicated in cancer pathogenesis,” explained lead researcher Dr. Kimmie Ng, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “Vitamin D is involved a lot of things that can go wrong in cancer,” she noted.

According to Ng, the vitamin may improve survival in colon cancer patients by slowing the growth of tumor cells. It may also be involved in killing cancer cells and inhibiting the growth of blood vessels in tumors.

The report is published in the June 20 edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

In the study, Ng’s team collected data on 304 patients diagnosed with colon cancer between 1991 and 2002. These patients participated in either the Nurses Health Study or the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

All those in the study had their vitamin D levels measured at least two years before being diagnosed with colon cancer.

The patients’ health was tracked until they died, or until 2005, whichever came first. During the follow-up period, 123 patients died, 96 of them from colon or rectal cancer, the researchers report.

The team found that patients with the highest levels of vitamin D were 48 percent less likely to die from colon cancer or any other cause, compared with those with the lowest levels.

For colon cancer alone, those with the highest vitamin D levels were 39 percent less likely to die, compared with those with the lowest levels of vitamin D, Ng’s group found.

Ng doesn’t yet advocate vitamin D supplements as a means of preventing or treating cancer, however. “Definitive evidence that our results are due to vitamin D would require a randomized clinical trial,” Ng said.

Clinical trials are planned to determine if adding vitamin D to chemotherapy after surgery improves colon cancer survival, the researcher said.

However, Ng believes that most people are probably not getting enough vitamin D anyway. “Patients should talk with their physician about whether vitamin D supplementation would be good for their health overall,” Ng said.

Despite these and other findings, experts continue to debate the role of vitamin D in cancer treatment and prevention.

Dr. Michael F. Holick, a professor in the department of medicine’s Endocrine Laboratory at Boston University, is convinced that high doses of vitamin D can reduce the risk of malignancy and aid in cancer treatment.

“This finding is outstanding,” Holick said. “It is consistent with dozens and dozens of observations that have been made in the past decade,” he said.

Holick believes that most people do not get enough vitamin D. “Vitamin D deficiency is the most common medical condition worldwide,” he said. “Everyone, children and adults, should be on at least 1,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D a day.”

That level is far above current recommendations, Holick said. “Everybody now agrees that those recommendations need to be markedly increased,” he said.

The recommended daily doses of vitamin D supplements range from 200 IU a day for those under 50 to 400 IU for those 50 to 70 and 600 IU for people over 70.

For clinical trials to really determine whether vitamin D is effective as a cancer preventative or treatment, the dose of vitamin D needs to be very high, Holick said.

Sunlight is a major source of vitamin D, since the skin naturally produces the nutrient after sun exposure. However, many people are now avoiding sun exposure (due to skin cancer risk), so their levels of vitamin D have dropped significantly. “It has placed the entire world population at risk for vitamin D deficiency,” Holick said.

“We really need more research on health behaviors of cancer survivors,” added Neli Ulrich, a molecular and nutritional epidemiology, folate, and pharmacogenetics researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and the author of an accompanying journal editorial.

Whether vitamin D actually prolongs patient survival isn’t clear, Ulrich said. “It’s an association at this point. We cannot tell for sure until it has been replicated and eventually a randomized trial has been done,” she said.

Ulrich noted that the while many cancer patients take vitamin supplements, whether they are of benefit or are harmful isn’t yet known. “We know that vitamin D has some toxicity,” she noted.

More information

For more on vitamin D and cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

SOURCES: Kimmie Ng, M.D., M.P.H., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; Michael F. Holick, M.D., professor, department of medicine, Endocrine Laboratory, Boston University; Neli Ulrich, Ph.D., molecular and nutritional epidemiology, folate, pharmacogenetics research, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle; June 20, 2008, Journal of Clinical Oncology

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

Last Updated: June 19, 2008
Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Omega-3, Some Omega-6 Fatty Acids Boost Cardiovascular Health

MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) — High intake of the omega-3 fatty acids in oily fish and vegetable cooking oils appear to help prevent heart attacks, while the omega-6 fatty acids in vegetables and nuts help keep blood pressure low, two international research teams report.

A study in Costa Rica found that high intake of omega-3 fatty acids reduced the risk of heart attack by 59 percent, said a report published in the July 8 online issue of Circulation.

In the Costa Rican study, “we compared those subjects who had heart attacks with those who did not have heart attacks,” said study author Hannia Campos, a senior lecturer in nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. They had participants fill out food questionnaires and also analyzed body fat samples to determine levels of alpha-linolenic acid, a major omega-3 fatty acid.

A number of other studies have shown that high intake of omega-3 fatty acids is associated with lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease. This is the first study to look at its association with heart attack risk, Campos said.

“We found that the relationship is not completely linear,” she said. “It plateaued after a certain level of intake. After that, higher levels do not mean increased protection.”

The protective level turned out to be surprising low — the amount in two teaspoons of soybean oil or canola oil, half a teaspoon of flaxseed oil or six to 10 walnut halves.

That protective effect could be detected, because the people in the Costa Rican study have a low level of omega-3 fatty acids in their diet, Campos said. “Their overall intake of fish is very low, much lower than in the United States, and the fish they eat are tropical, which are not as fatty as cold-water species,” she said.

The high blood pressure study, reported in the July 8 online issue of Hypertension, looked at 4,680 men and women aged 40 to 59 from China, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom. It found a significant relationship between intake of linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid found in vegetables, and lower blood pressure.

The report is the latest in a series of studies designed to describe all the factors contributing to high blood pressure, said Dr. Jeremiah Stamler, a professor of preventive medicine emeritus at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine.

“For diet and serum cholesterol, most of the answers came in the 1960s,” Stamler said. “The data on diet and blood pressure have come much more slowly.”

Previous reports have shown that higher intake of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus are associated with lower blood pressure, Stamler said. Iron from vegetables—but not meat—also is associated with lower blood pressure, he said. “An array of macro- and micronutrients influence blood pressure in a variety of ways,” Stamler said.

The latest study indicates that raising linoleic acid intake by 9 grams a day reduces systolic blood pressure (the higher of the 120/80 reading) by about 1.4 points, and diastolic pressure by about 1 point. That small reduction can have a large effect in a big population, the researchers said, with a 2-point reduction reducing coronary heart disease by 4 percent.

“The message of this study is to eat more fruit and more vegetables, more beans, less red meat and less fats,” Stamler said. “Fats should be mainly selected to be unsaturated. Vegetable oils should be used but in moderation.”

More information

A guide to omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids is offered by the Vegan Society.

SOURCES: Hannia Campos, Ph.D., senior lecturer, nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston; Jeremiah Stamler, M.D., professor emeritus, preventive medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago; July 8, 2008, Circulation, online; July 8, 2008, Hypertension, online

By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter

Last Updated: July 07, 2008

Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Thinking Like a Trader Makes Money Loss More Bearable

By Amanda MacMillan

TUESDAY, March 17, 2009 (Health.com) — Concerned about your plummeting 401(k)? Sick to your stomach over a risky investment? The best thing for your nerves—and your financial future—may be to think like a Wall Street trader, suggests new research.

Yes, the financial industry’s seemingly cavalier attitude about other people’s money is probably one of the reasons you’re stressed in the first place. But researchers say those hurt by the current financial crisis may be able to improve their outlook by adopting a similar way of thinking.

In a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 59 participants were given a sum of money and asked to choose between taking a gamble where they could win or lose (for example, a 50/50 chance of getting or losing ) or breaking even on a sure thing. Most of the time, the volunteers chose the sure thing, says study co-author Elizabeth Phelps, PhD.

That’s because most people aren’t crazy about taking risks with their money, says Phelps, a professor of psychology and director of the Phelps Lab at the New York University Center for Neuroscience. For many people, the fear of a potential loss outweighs the feel-good emotion of a potential gain. These types of people tend to have an emotional and physical reaction when they do lose money—making them less likely to take risks at all.

Traders, on the other hand, are generally less risk averse because they deal with losses every day; they work with large portfolios of stocks tend to look at the long-term, bigger picture, rather than focusing too much on individual, day-to-day ups and downs.

Think like a trader? No sweat.
Thinking Like a Trader Makes Money Loss More Bearable

In the new study, study participants were then asked to think about these bets in terms of a bigger picture—as if they were individual stocks in a larger portfolio. When they did so, their betting behavior became more aggressive.

What’s more, the losses seemed to bother them less; they didn’t sweat or have an increased heart rate when they lost some cash.

“By using a glass-half-full perspective rather than a glass-half-empty, these people became more willing to take chances,” says Phelps. “If they know they’re not going to be that upset when they lose, they’re less likely to avoid a situation where that might happen.”

Previous research has shown that this type of “cognitive reinterpretation” can blunt some of the fast-acting, automatic emotional responses to bad things that happen to us, says University of Oregon psychology professor Ulrich Mayr, PhD, who was not involved in the study.

“All in all, that can be a very healthy way of dealing with negative emotions,” he adds. “The study extends this to the way we deal with financial losses, and, maybe more importantly, shows that people who are good in this type of reinterpretation actually start behaving as if they cared less about losses in their investment choices.”

When people are faced with these types of decisions, says Phelps, it’s important to remember that emotion does seem to play a strong role.

“Changing your perspective might allow you to change your decision about something,” she explains. “If you’re considering of making an investment or taking a vacation but you’re a little nervous about it, thinking about the excitement versus the risk can help make up your mind.”

Thinking Like a Trader Makes Money Loss More Bearable

Of course, this won’t protect you from the possibility of losing money on an investment. And Mayr says it’s important that people not rely too much on wishful thinking: “If traders come to habitually ignore losses through cognitive reinterpretation, they may miss the signals that indicate trouble ahead as a bull market starts to shift to a bear market.”

Historically, however, people who are aggressive and take risks with their investments do tend to be more successful in the long run. At the very least, says Phelps, this strategy may help people debating a decision—financial or otherwise—get off the fence and take the plunge.

Steroid Concoction May Ease Sinusitis

MONDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) — A steroid nasal wash can help reduce symptoms of chronic sinusitis without affecting adrenal gland function, according to a small U.S. study.

Chronic sinusitis is a persistent inflammation of the nose and sinuses behind the nose that affects up to 14 percent of people in the United States, according to background information in the study.

The study included nine people who were told to use a nasal wash, composed of 0.25 milligrams of the corticosteroid budesonide and 5 milliliters of saline, in each nostril once a day for 30 days. The budesonide came in respules — small, plastic, liquid-containing devices.

The researchers, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said it was the first study to examine the safety of this type of nasal wash, noting that suppression of adrenal gland function is a known complication of budesonide.

All participants reported at least some improvement in their sinusitis symptoms, and their adrenal gland function was not affected, the study found. The results were published in the March issue of Otolaryngology —Head & Neck Surgery.

“The clinical significance of this study is that budesonide nasal respules appear safe for short-term use for the relief of symptoms associated with chronic sinusitis,” the researchers concluded. “Budesonide respules seem to provide an effective treatment option for the patient with chronic rhinosinusitis with minimal fear of systemic adverse effects.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved budesonide as a nasal wash, which means the nasal wash used in this study would be an off-label use of the drug. The researchers urged doctors to warn patients about the risks associated with long-term use of budesonide, including decreased bone mineral density.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about sinusitis.

— Robert Preidt

SOURCE: JAMA/Archives journals, news release, March 16, 2009

Last Updated: March 16, 2009

Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

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