News summary

Fruit and vegetables and men

New research in Canada suggests that a high consumption of fruit and vegetables may help prevent pancreatic cancer in men. Dr Parviz Ghadirian and colleagues at the University of Montreal found in an analysis of data from a large group of people diagnosed with cancer that higher intakes of fresh fruit and cruciferous vegetables, eg broccoli and cauliflower, are associated with a reduced risk. The relationship is confined to men, however, for reasons that are unclear. In a separate study of the same data, Dr Ghadirian and his colleagues also found that the lycopene in particular appears to have this effect, again, only in men.
Reuters Health Online

Benefits of zinc in adolescents

Researchers at the US Department of Agriculture have found that the addition of zinc to the diet young teenagers can produce improvements in their memory and attention span. Pupils aged 12 who were given 20 mg of zinc five days a week for 10 to 12 weeks performed better in memory and attention assessments than those who did not receive the supplements, says James Penland, a research psychologist at the department’s Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, in North Dakota. Zinc’s effect on motor function, thinking and social skills in very young children and in adults has been studied before, he says, but this is the first study to look at that relationship in adolescents.
HealthScout

Garlic “may offer lung protection”

Research in rats indicates that a compound in garlic prevents a potentially deadly type of high blood pressure affecting the lungs. Allicin seems to ward off pulmonary hypertension, says Dr David Ku, of the University of Alabama. However, he points out that humans would have to eat the equivalent of two cloves of garlic a day to reproduce the dose of allicin given to the animals in his study. In addition, Dr Ku says much more research is needed before garlic can be confidently recommended to people at risk of developing pulmonary hypertension.
Reuters Health Online

Mixed results with vitamin E in cancer patients

Research suggests that people with head and neck cancer may be at increased risk of additional cancers if they take vitamin E supplements. Scientists in Canada say however that when supplementation is discontinued, former vitamin E takers are at a lower risk of cancer than those who had been on a placebo. Dr Francois Meyer, of the Universite Laval in Quebec, says, “We were surprised by the findings. When we started the study, we had hoped that vitamin E supplementation would reduce or delay the risk of second primary cancer.” The findings are based on a study of 540 patients with head and neck cancer who were treated with radiation therapy and selected at random to receive vitamin E, beta-carotene, or placebo for three years. During a follow-up period of around 52 months, 113 subjects developed new cancers and 119 developed recurrences of their old cancer.
Reuters Health Online

Challenge to supplement restrictions supported

The EU directive that could lead to the banning thousands of popular vitamin and mineral supplements has been declared illegal. New rules governing vitamins and minerals are due to come into effect on 1 August. Only named ingredients with proven scientific benefits have been included on an EU “positive” list of substances that would be allowed in health supplements. The list omits more than 300 different vitamins and minerals , which means that 5,000 supplements could be banned, according to campaigners. After a legal case brought by the Alliance for Natural Health the advocate general at the European Court of Justice has given an advisory opinion that the directive, as it stands, infringes basic EU principles.
The Independent

Milk and the older man

Middle-aged men may increase their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by consuming too much milk. It is not clear what it is in milk that has this effect but the current findings suggest it is not calcium. The findings, by a team at the University of Virginia Health System, support those of an earlier report linking high consumption of dairy products with an elevated risk of Parkinson’s disease in men, but not women.
Reuters Health Online

Anorexia “may be caused biologically”

Anorexia nervosa may be caused by a brain dysfunction, rather than by social pressures, say scientists at St George’s Hospital in London. They have found that sufferers have an abnormality in the blood flow to an area of the brain which affects body image, which they say suggests a biological cause for the condition. Bryan Lask, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at St George’s led the research. He says, “The biological cause has been under-emphasised and the socio-cultural pressures have been over-emphasised. There has to be a biological contribution otherwise everyone would be anorexic, given the socio-cultural pressures in our society.”
The Independent