Daily Archives: 20 September, 2012

Poor diet linked to Breast cancer

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Eating a poor diet early in life may increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, research suggests.

A US study of young mice showed that a diet linked to obesity and harmful metabolic changes stimulated early breast growth. It also led to abnormal tissues in the breast that may produce breast cancer.

Lead researcher Dr Russ Hovey, from the University of California at Davis, said: ‘The findings of this study are particularly important when we superimpose them on data showing that girls are experiencing breast development at earlier ages, coincident with a growing epidemic of childhood obesity.’

The scientists fed newly weaned mice a diet containing a fatty acid called 10,12 CLA which can trigger metabolic syndrome, a condition linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

The fatty acid is present in hydrogenated fats, widely used in the manufacture of biscuits, cakes and processed foods.

Giving female mice the 10,12 CLA stimulated growth of their mammary ducts. This was despite the young animals lacking the hormone oestrogen, believed to be vital to female reproductive development.

In some animals, the altered diet also resulted in the kind of abnormal cell growth that can lead to breast cancer.

Breast cancer

Breast cancer

The cancer link could be due to excess levels of insulin, the scientists believe.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they pointed out that postmenopausal women with raised insulin levels had an increased risk of breast cancer.

They concluded: ‘Our findings highlight a striking link between diet, metabolic dysregulation, and.., MG (mammary gland) growth that is independent of oestrogenic stimulation.


‘These results lend support to increasing evidence suggesting a relationship between breast cancer risk and early life events that clearly include dietary components and their effects on aspects of metabolic dysregulation.’

Breast cancer is currently one of the most prevelant forms of cancer in the UK, making up 16 per cent of all cancer cases, with 48,417 women and 371 men diagnosed in 2009.

Often an aggressive cancer, in 2010 there were 11,633 deaths from breast cancer in the UK.

However overall patient outlooks are improving due to increasingly early detection and advances in treatments. In 2005-2009, 85 per cent of women in England survived their breast cancer for five years or more.

It is important to respond to invitations from your doctor for screening and to have any lumps or changes in your breasts investigated as soon as possible.

BPA and childhood obesity

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A chemical found in baby bottles, food packaging and tooth fillings could be making children fat, claim scientists.

Research has shown that youngsters exposed to high levels of Bisphenol A are twice as likely to be obese.

The substance – known as BPA – is widely used in manufacturing and can be found in dozens of household items from sunglasses to food packaging to the ends of knives and forks.

But it is often referred to as the gender-bending chemical as it is a man-made version of the sex-hormone oestrogen.

Some scientists believe it interferes with the way the body processes hormones and it has also been linked to fertility problems, breast cancer and liver damage.

Now researchers from New York believe that BPA may be causing obesity by disrupting the body’s metabolism – how it breaks down food.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they looked at 2,800 children aged between 6 and 19 years old.

They measured the amount of BPA in their urine and also worked out their body mass index, which determines whether they are slim, normal weight or obese.

BPA

BPA

Children who were exposed to the highest levels of the chemical were more than twice as likely to be obese.

The scientists had divided them into four groups depending on their exposure levels.

Some 22 per cent of those in the highest BPA group were obese compared to 10 per cent in the lowest.

The researchers said the chemical is everywhere with nearly 93 per cent of the US population having detectable amounts in their urine – Britain is likely to be very similar.


Dr Leonardo Trasande, of the New York University school of medicine said: ‘In experimental studies, BPA exposure has been shown to disrupt multiple metabolic mechanisms, suggesting that it may increase body mass in environmentally relevant doses and therefore contribute to obesity in humans.’

‘To our knowledge, this is the first report of an association of an environmental chemical exposure with childhood obesity in a nationally representative sample.’

But British scientists pointed out that obese children were more likely to eat more food, so would be exposed to higher levels of chemicals from the packaging anyway.

Professor Richard Sharpe, from the Medical Research Council Centre for Reproductive Health at The University of Edinburgh, said: ‘Such an association could arise because children who are obese choose to eat more of foods, such as canned drink and foods, that contain more bisphenol A than do non-obese children.

‘Nevertheless, the possibility that bisphenol A exposure could causally contribute to obesity cannot be dismissed, even if it seems unlikely.’