Oct 2007
Vitamin D (again) reduces cancer risk
Sunday, October 07, 2007 Filed in:
Medical
It's starting to get tedious. In
a recent article in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition,
Vitamin D (this time with calcium) reduces the risk of cancer (in a
group of >55 year old Nebraskans) over a 4 year period by 76%
(95% confidence interval 40-91%). At least they gave a useful
amount of vitamin D3 (1100iu/day). Interestingly, even calcium
(1500mg/day) alone showed a substantial lowering of risk, but it
wasn't significant.
Now, the important thing to appreciate is that this study was only 4 years and that your typical cancer will have been growing for several years before it is diagnosed. So, is this a reduction in the incidence of cancers (less cancers starting), slowing of growth (thus fewer showing up over the study), or stopping the cancers that had already begun? Frankly, with such a dramatic improvement, it could be all three.
Now, the important thing to appreciate is that this study was only 4 years and that your typical cancer will have been growing for several years before it is diagnosed. So, is this a reduction in the incidence of cancers (less cancers starting), slowing of growth (thus fewer showing up over the study), or stopping the cancers that had already begun? Frankly, with such a dramatic improvement, it could be all three.
Phthalates, testosterone, air freshener, and fish
Sunday, October 07, 2007 Filed in:
Medical
What do phthalates, testosterone, air
freshener, and fish have in common? They've all been topics in
recent articles coming from the NRDC's senior scientist Gina Soloman. Nice source of information.
The first three all come form the same article: Air Fresheners - How Safe Are They? NRDC tested 14 air fresheners and found 12 contained phthalates, which are endocrine disrupters and alter hormone levels - particularly the testosterone levels in babies. Walgreens, whose air fresheners had the most phthalates, impressively responded by pulling the stuff off the shelf and reformulating it. Here's a page that lists the symptoms many perfume ingredients can cause as well as other things you can use to clean, and this page summarizes the phthalates issue and also tells you what you can do about it.
The other article discusses the conflicting recommendations that just came out about fish intake particularly for pregnant women. She correctly points out that the recommendations to eat fish should include aiming for low-mercury fish. At the end of the article she has several great links about the issues at play.
The first three all come form the same article: Air Fresheners - How Safe Are They? NRDC tested 14 air fresheners and found 12 contained phthalates, which are endocrine disrupters and alter hormone levels - particularly the testosterone levels in babies. Walgreens, whose air fresheners had the most phthalates, impressively responded by pulling the stuff off the shelf and reformulating it. Here's a page that lists the symptoms many perfume ingredients can cause as well as other things you can use to clean, and this page summarizes the phthalates issue and also tells you what you can do about it.
The other article discusses the conflicting recommendations that just came out about fish intake particularly for pregnant women. She correctly points out that the recommendations to eat fish should include aiming for low-mercury fish. At the end of the article she has several great links about the issues at play.
