12 February, 2014

Fruit juice 'as bad' as sugary drinks, say researchers

Two medical researchers writing in one of The Lancetjournals argue that because of its high sugar content, fruit juice could be just as bad for us as sugar-sweetened beverages like carbonated drinks and sodas.

Naveed Sattar, professor of Metabolic Medicine, and Dr. Jason Gill, both of the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, call for the UK government to change the current "five a day" guideline to exclude a portion of fruit juice from the list of fruits and vegetable servings that count toward it.

In their paper, published in the The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, they propose that including fruit juice as one of the five a day is "probably counter-productive," because it leads people to consider fruit juice as a healthy food that does not need to be limited, as is the case with less healthy foods.

They also urge food companies to improve container labeling of fruit juices to inform consumers they should drink no more than 150 ml a day of the product.

Fruit juice has come under the spotlight since medical experts recently started looking more closely at the link between high sugar intake and the risk for heart disease.

In 2012, researchers at Harvard reported in the journal Circulation that daily consumption of sugary drinks raised heart disease risk in men. Two years earlier, researchers presenting at an American Heart Association conference said Americans' higher consumption of sugary drinks has led to more diabetes and heart disease over the past decade.

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com

12.02.2014

Daily aspirin use 'reduces ovarian cancer risk by 20%'

Previous research has suggested that aspirin may help to reduce the risk of breast cancer and melanoma. Now, new research from the National Institutes of Health suggests that women who take low-dose aspirin every day may reduce their risk of ovarian cancer by 20%.

The findings were recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The National Cancer Institute states that approximately 22,240 new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed in the US last year, and more than 14,000 women will die from the disease in 2014.

If ovarian cancer is diagnosed early, it can be successfully treated. However, detecting the condition in its early stages can be a problem.

Symptoms of the disease include pain in the lower abdomen and feeling bloated. But because these symptoms are similar to other conditions, such as bladder and digestive disorders, ovarian cancer can often be missed.

This means it is often not diagnosed until it has reached its advanced stages, meaning treatment can be less effective. The risk of cancer and other diseases can often be increased if a person suffers from chronic or persistentinflammation.

In previous studies, it has been suggested that the use of non-aspirin NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and aspirin - which have anti-inflammatory properties - may reduce overall cancer risk. But the investigators of this most recent study note that research looking at the link between anti-inflammatory drugs and the risk of ovarian cancer has been ambiguous.

In an attempt to reach a conclusion, the investigators analyzed data from 12 large studies that were a part of the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium. The data included 7,776 women who had ovarian cancer, alongside 11,843 women without the disease.

The researchers looked at the use of aspirin, non-aspirin NSAIDS or acetaminophen (a drug with no anti-inflammatory properties) among the women and whether usage was linked to a reduced risk of ovarian cancer. Of the participants, 18% used aspirin, 24% used non-aspirin NSAIDS and 16% used acetaminophen.

The investigators found that women who reported using low-dose aspirin (less than 100 mg) on a daily basis had a 20% reduced risk of ovarian cancer, compared with women who used aspirin less than once a week. Depending on the frequency and dose of aspirin use, the researchers say the drug could reduce ovarian cancer risk by up to 34%.

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com

12.02.2014

We must realize that fear is not real, it is a product of thoughts we create