In a small trial of 12 healthy postmenopausal women, a supplement combining calcium and hesperidin improved bone calcium retention by 5.5%, Purdue's Connie Weaver and colleagues report in JCEM. Hesperidin alone did not prevent bone loss in the subjects.
Food Consumer
Politics
Corn, Corruption, and the Presidential Caucuses - newsletter 020416 from Organic Consumers Association
The newsletter highlights Richard Manning's Harper's article on Iowa, which ties the state's corn, GMO soy and hog and chicken factory farms to polluted water, food that makes people sick, and corporate monopolies over the food system.
Heart & Blood
Dietary fiber may lower cardiovascular disease risk
A Cochrane review of trials run before January 2015 found high dietary fiber intake associated with lower LDL and total cholesterol and lower diastolic blood pressure. The trials were small, lasted no more than 12 weeks and tracked no cardiovascular events or deaths, so the case is unsettled.
Supplements
B vitamins plus omega-3 fatty acids effective against cognitive decline
In a two-year trial of 266 people aged 70 and older with mild cognitive impairment, B vitamins improved global cognition, dementia rating and verbal recall only among those with high blood omega-3 levels. DHA drove the effect; omega-3s alone did not help.
Food
Eating fruit lowers erectile dysfunction risk
Among 25,096 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, 35.6% reported erectile dysfunction over four years, but higher intakes of flavones, flavanones and anthocyanins were tied to 9%, 11% and 9% lower risk, and higher total fruit intake to lower risk as well.
Drug
Breast cancer treatment ups death risk from cardiovascular disease
A study of 1,413 women with breast cancer and 1,411 matched controls found survivors nearly twice as likely to die over 14 years of follow-up, with the raised cardiovascular death risk showing up seven years after diagnosis. Chemotherapy was linked to that risk.
Disease
Zika virus: What you need to know? - updated
A Q&A describes Zika as spread by daytime Aedes mosquitoes, usually causing a mild week-long illness but posing danger in pregnancy. A February 2016 update adds that no evidence yet confirms the virus causes microcephaly, and that sexual transmission has been reported.
Food
Drinking coffee may prevent liver cirrhosis
A review of non-trial studies published before July 2015 links each additional two cups of coffee a day to a 44% lower risk of cirrhosis and a 50% lower risk of dying from it. The authors say trials are still needed to show coffee is the cause.
Food
Cruciferous vegetables prevent diabetes mellitus
A meta-analysis of seven prospective cohorts found higher cruciferous vegetable intake tracked with 16% less type 2 diabetes, independent of smoking, alcohol, body mass index and inactivity. Citrus fruit consumption showed no association.
Chemical
BPA free plastic may not be safer
A UCLA study in Endocrinology reports that bisphenol S, a common substitute for BPA, altered zebrafish embryo physiology within 25 hours at trace levels like those in polluted river water, speeding embryonic development and disrupting the reproductive system.
Cancer
Eating dietary fiber reduces breast cancer risk
Harvard researchers analyzing 90,534 women in the Nurses' Health Study II found those who ate the most fiber in early adulthood were up to 19 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, with each extra 10 grams a day tied to 13 percent lower risk.
Diet
Low carbohydrate diet linked to high diabetes mellitus risk
Among 4,502 women with a history of gestational diabetes in the Nurses' Health Study II, followed from 1991 to 2011, close adherence to a vegetable-heavy low-carbohydrate diet was tied to 19% higher risk of diabetes, and a version high in animal protein and fat to 40% higher risk.
Food
Does tea drinking cut breast cancer risk?
Among 756 breast cancer cases and 789 hospital controls, regular tea drinking showed no overall link to breast cancer, while green tea was tied to 20% higher risk. Tea tracked with 38% lower risk before menopause and 40% higher risk after it.
Drug
Harms from breast cancer screening - new review
A review in Annals of Internal Medicine finds false positives common, with some studies putting rates at 61% for annual screening versus 42% for biennial, and estimates that 2 to 10 of every 100,000 women screened by digital mammography die of radiation-induced cancer.
Chemical
Two Major Victories This Week - newsletter from fluoridealert.org
Fluoride Action Network reports two more communities have ended fluoridation: Parry Sound, Ontario, after more than six months of debate, and New Zealand's Whakatane District, covering 37,000 people. Councillors cited uncertainty about the health risks of the practice.
Chemical
Advocates Back NTP Fluoride Review, Citing Risk To Developing Brain
The Fluoride Action Network says it gave the National Toxicology Program material arguing that high-dose animal studies are relevant to neurotoxic risk in fluoridated communities, and that the epidemiological evidence tying fluoride to childhood osteosarcoma is stronger than currently recognized.
Politics
Vaccines, Lies and the CDC
An Organic Consumers Association roundup covers a US Right to Know review saying the Gates-funded Cornell Alliance for Science promotes GMOs with dishonest messaging, and a letter from Bernie Sanders and five other senators questioning the GMA's QR code labeling plan.
Biotech
Tips for Healthy Living, Brought to You by Monsanto
An Organic Consumers Association newsletter reprinting an Acres U.S.A. interview with Vandana Shiva on seed sovereignty and organic farming, and flagging Monsanto's sponsorship of WebMD, where the group says advertorials run alongside health research.
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