Estimated US deaths due to preventable factors approach 2 million per year

An article published online on April 28, 2009 in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine ( PLoS Medicine) estimates 1,977,000 deaths each year in the United States are due to preventable risk factors. Smoking, hypertension and being overweight top the list, with 1,078,000 yearly deaths attributed to these preventable causes.

For their report, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, along with colleagues from the University of Toronto and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, utilized data from U.S. health surveys as well as mortality statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics. Deaths were categorized as preventable if the subjects would not have died at the time they did if they did not have a particular modifiable risk factor. In addition to smoking, high blood pressure and overweight/obesity, the team listed the following risk factors as among the top preventable causes of death: inadequate physical activity, elevated glucose, high low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, insufficient omega-3 fatty acid intake, high trans fatty acid intake, alcohol abuse, low vegetable and fruit intake, and low dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids. While alcohol use is protective against mortality from cardiovascular disease and diabetes, alcohol-related deaths from traffic and other accidents, violence, cancer and other diseases outweighed its benefits, leading to an estimated 64,000 yearly deaths.
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Higher vitamin E levels in smokers linked with reduced pancreatic cancer risk

The February, 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported the finding of researchers at the National Cancer Institute, the University of Michigan, and the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland, of an association between higher concentrations of alpha-tocopherol (the most biologically active and plentiful form of vitamin E in most human tissues) and a lower risk of pancreatic cancer in smokers. Smoking, diabetes and obesity are among the known risk factors for this deadly form of cancer.

Rachel Z. Stolzenberg-Solomon and colleagues evaluated data from 29,092 men who participated in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study, a double-blind placebo-controlled trial which sought to determine the effect of alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene supplementation on the prevention of cancers in smokers between 1985 and 1988. Over up to 19.4 years of follow-up, 318 cases of pancreatic cancer were diagnosed.

For participants whose serum alpha-tocopherol levels at the beginning of the study were among the top 20 percent of participants, the risk of developing pancreatic cancer was 48 percent lower than those whose levels were in the lowest fifth. Among the 27,111 subjects for whom dietary questionnaire responses were available, for those who had the highest polyunsaturated fat intake at over 9.9 grams per day there was an even greater reduction in pancreatic cancer risk observed in participants with the highest vitamin E levels, a finding that could be explained by vitamin E’s ability to counteract polyunsaturated fats’ pro-oxidant effect.

While no protective association was observed between dietary intake of vitamin E and pancreatic cancer risk in this study, the authors note that dietary intake as estimated by questionnaire responses is not precise, and that serum vitamin concentrates may be more biologically meaningful due to their reflection of the combined effects of intake, absorption and utilization as well as depletion caused by oxidative stress. “Our results support the hypothesis that higher concentrations of serum alpha-tocopherol may protect against pancreatic carcinogenesis in smokers,” they conclude. “Further research is needed to evaluate our findings in other populations, particularly relative to exposure factors that influence endogenous oxidative stress.”

More from the Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research conference

This issue of Life Extension Update reports yet another significant finding concerning the effect of nutrition on the risk of cancer presented at the Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research conference. The research concerns a protective effect for cruciferous vegetables that is specific to
smokers.

Cruciferous vegetables, which include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kale, have been shown to provide protection against several types of cancer, yet the current research is the first comprehensive study to demonstrate a protective effect for the vegetables against lung cancer for smokers and former smokers.

At the American Association for Cancer Research's Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held November 16-18, 2008 in National Harbor, Maryland, Roswell Park Cancer Institute post-doctoral fellow Li Tang, PhD reported the results of a hospital-based study, conducted by Dr Tang and colleagues, which compared lung cancer patients matched for smoking status with control subjects who did not have cancer.

Analysis of dietary intake found a strong association between a lower risk of lung cancer and greater consumption of fruit, total vegetables, and cruciferous vegetables. While the intake of fruit and total vegetables had a stronger protective effect among those who had never smoked, the benefit for cruciferous vegetables was found to exist only in smokers. Continue Reading

Drinking red wine associated with reduced lung cancer risk in male smokers

In the October, 2008 issue of the American Association for Cancer research journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention¸ California Kaiser Permanente researchers report yet another benefit associated with drinking red wine: a lower risk of lung cancer.

Chun Chao, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente’s Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena, California, and colleagues analyzed data from the California Men’s Health Study of 84,170 men aged 45 to 69. Surveys completed between 2000 and 2003 provided information concerning demographics and lifestyle characteristics, including type and frequency of alcoholic beverage consumption. Over the three year period, 210 cases of lung cancer were identified.

Among men who reported ever having smoked, drinking one or more glasses of red wine per day was associated with a 61 percent lower adjusted risk of lung cancer compared to the risk experienced by those who did not consume red wine. For each glass of red wine consumed per month, a 2 percent reduction in lung cancer risk was noted among those who had ever smoked, and for those who reported having been heavy smokers, a 4 percent reduction was observed.

No effect for beer, liquor, or white wine was observed. "An antioxidant component in red wine may be protective of lung cancer, particularly among smokers," Dr Chao stated. “Red wine is known to contain high levels of antioxidants. There is a compound called resveratrol that is very rich in red wine because it is derived from the grape skin. This compound has shown significant health benefits in preclinical studies." Continue Reading

Magnesium associated with protection from stroke in male smokers

The March 10, 2008 issue of the AMA journal Archives of Internal Medicine revealed the finding of researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, that men who smoke may acquire some protection against stroke by consuming greater amounts of the mineral magnesium.

The current study included 26,556 participants in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta- Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study, a randomized, double-blind trial that tested the preventive ability of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) or beta-carotene on lung cancer in older male Finnish smokers.

Dietary questionnaires administered at the beginning of the study were evaluated for calcium, magnesium and potassium intake levels. The men were followed for an average of 13.6 years, during which 2,702 cerebral infarctions, 383 intracerebral hemorrhages, 196 subarachnoid hemorrhages, and 84 unspecified types of stroke occurred. Continue Reading

High vitamin C levels associated with reduced risk of stroke

The January, 2008 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the finding of researchers at the University of Cambridge and the MRC Centre for Nutrition and Cancer in Cambridge, England of an association of high vitamin C levels and a lower risk of stroke over a decade of follow up.

The study involved 20,649 men and women between the ages of 40 and 79 who participated in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC) -Norfolk prospective study. The participants, who were free of stroke upon enrollment, received physical examinations during which blood samples were drawn and later analyzed for plasma vitamin C levels. Smoking status, medical history, and nutritional supplement use were ascertained via questionnaires completed by the subjects. Continue Reading