Nibbles: Diet aids survival with breast cancer, the right fat measurement and walking to stay slim as you age
Prudent diet may help women live longer
While eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains didn’t necessarily prevent women with early stage breast cancer from later dying of the disease, the so-called prudent diet did seem to make them less likely to die from other causes over the course of an eight-year study than women who had a traditional Western diet. Research from Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that women who ate more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products were half as likely to die of any cause than women who ate more meat and refined grains. But neither eating pattern seemed to change the risk of death specifically from breast cancer, researchers said.
Obesity ups risk of ovarian cancer
Among women who have never had hormone therapy related to menopause, being obese seems to increase the risk of developing ovarian cancer, according to a report from the National Cancer Institute. Researchers looked at health data from nearly 95,000 women, more than 300 of whom had ovarian cancer. Among those who hadn’t had hormone therapy, obesity was associated with an 80 percent higher risk of developing the cancer compared to those who weren’t obese. Women who had hormone therapy showed no link between weight and risk. Just 37 percent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer are alive five years later.
How fat measurements stack up
This time of year a lot of us are thinking more about our weight and whether those holiday gains are something we should be worried about. Health magazine took a look at various methods for measuring fat, from your basic scale to the body mass index, waist circumference and the accurate but super-expensive DEXA scan, which uses a full-body X-ray to compute body composition. All of the tests have upsides and downsides, but a combination of measures as well as a serious look at your risk factors should be able to tell you if really need to lose weight.
Drinking coffee could protect against oral cancers
The more researchers study coffee, the more good news there seems to be for regular drinkers. A Japanese study found that drinking one or more cups of coffee daily meant people had half the risk of developing cancers of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus. The reduction in risk included those people who had risk factors for such cancers, such as people who smoked or drank. Though cutting out smoking and drinking are generally thought of as the main ways to reduce risk, drinking coffee may be helpful for both those at high and low risk of such cancers.
Walking helps people maintain healthy weight as they age
Finally, if you’re already a pretty healthy weight but are worried about gaining weight as you age, one easy and effective thing you can do is walk as little as half an hour a day. A study from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill followed nearly 5,000 people ages 18 to 30 for 15 years and found that walking 30 minutes a day reduced weight gain by one pound a year among women who were the heaviest at the start of the study, compared to women who didn’t walk. And men and women of healthy weights were more likely to either maintain their weight or lose weight during the study period than people of the same age who didn’t keep walking through the years.
(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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February 2nd, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I have a long history of breast cancer that runs in my family. My mother has lost two sisters to the disease and has three others that were diagnosed with breast cancer in the last 2-3 years. So it is important to me to hear or read about any type of information on how to help prevent cancer from hurting my family once again.