24 June, 2013

Eating chicken may stave off colon cancer in teens

Teens who eat more chicken and fish may lower their risk of developing colon cancer, a new study has claimed.

In a study of nearly 20,000 women, those who ate more chicken during their teen years had lower risks of developing colorectal adenomas, which are benign tumours that may progress into colon cancer.

The researchers did not find a direct relationship between red meat intake and adenomas, but the results showed that replacing one serving per day of red meat with one serving of poultry or fish may reduce the risks of rectal and advanced adenomas by about 40 per cent, LiveScience reported.

"Among different cancers, colorectal cancer is the most influenced by diet. Compared to something like smoking, diet is not a large cancer risk factor, but it does have animpact," said study researcher Dr Katharina Nimptsch. Previous research has found that a diet high in red and processed meat may increase risks of colon cancer.

However, earlier studies have investigated diet during adulthood, rather than focusing on what people eat earlier in life, and their future cancer risk.

"Colorectal carcinogenesis is a long process that can take several decades, and the initial steps of carcinogenesis may occur at young ages," researchers wrote in the new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

In the study, women ages 34 to 51 answered questions about their diet during high school. Over the following 10 years, 1,494 of the women were diagnosed with colorectal adenomas. Of these adenomas, 305 were in an advanced stage.

"Our findings do not suggest an association between red meat intake during adolescence and colorectal adenomas later in life, but higher poultry intake during this time was associated with a lower risk of colorectal adenomas," researchers said.

Eating more poultry and fish in adulthood didn't seem to change the risk, according to the study.

"Before recommendations are made based on these findings, it is necessary that results are confirmed," Nimptsch said.

Source: www.indianexpress.com

24.06.2013

'Indians think blood donation could alter their personality'

Indian recipients prefer to get an organ transplant or blood transfusion from a donor whose personality or behaviour matches theirs, a new study has found.

Some people in India and the US, who undergo transplants, believe that their personality or behaviour may change to become more like that of the blood or organ donor, researchers from the University of Michigan, said.

They feel so "creeped out" that they would decline an organ or blood that came from a murderer or thief, the study conducted on participants from India and US found.

People think that behaviours and personalities are partly due to something hidden deep inside their blood or bodily organs, Meredith Meyer, the study's lead author, said.

Surprisingly, researchers found that results from blood transfusions were just as strong as from heart transplants.

"Since blood transfusions are so common and relatively straightforward, we had expected people might think that they have very little effect," Meyer said.

Participants viewed a list of possible human donors and judged whether they wanted someone who shared similar traits.

Possible donors also included two animals: a pig or a chimpanzee. For human donors described as having the same gender, the characteristics could be positive (eg high IQ, talented artist, kind person or philanthropist) or negative (eg low IQ, thief, gambler or murderer).

Respondents ranked how much they liked the idea of each being a donor, as well as assessed their beliefs that the transplant would cause the recipient's personality or behaviour to become similar to the donor's.

The findings indicate it was more important for people to have a donor similar to themselves than the positive or negative qualities that individual possesses.

Source: www.indianexpress.com

24.06.2013

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