Breastfeeding reduces threat of breast cancer

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Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Breast Cancer;  Cancer / Oncology;  Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 15 Aug 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Breastfeeding reduces threat of breast cancer

Women who breastfeed for over 6 months are less likely to develop early breast cancer than women who do not breastfeed - as long as they do not smoke - a nurse-led study suggests.

Emilio Gonzalez-Jimenez PhD, of the University of Granada in Spain, and his colleagues drew from the medical records of 504 women (between 19 and 91 years of age) who had been treated for breast cancer at one of the city's hospitals.

Women who had not breastfed their babies were, on average, found to get breast cancer 10 years earlier than breastfeeding mothers.

The university team included a number of factors in their analysis - age of breast cancer diagnosis, length of breastfeeding, family history of cancer, obesity, alcohol consumption and smoking habits.

"Regardless of the patients' family history of cancer," the researchers said, breastfeeding meant that mothers who were going to develop the disease were going to do so at a later age.

The nursing experts warn, however, that smoking countered the benefits of breastfeeding:

"In contrast, female smokers were diagnosed with breast cancer at a younger age and obtained no significant benefit from a longer period of breastfeeding."

In the authors' study paper background, they cite estimates of 720,000 cases of breast cancer a year worldwide - "20% of all cancers." They note that 17-36% of all breast cancers are in women under 40.

Dr. Emilio Gonzalez-Jimenez and his team explain that "there are various explanations why breastfeeding seems to prevent breast cancer and why it appears to significantly benefit female health."

Among the biological theories to explain breastfeeding benefit, the authors say:

"The most probable of these are the hormonal changes that take place during pregnancy and lactation."

The results of the study showed a gain in years lived for breast cancer patients who breastfed their babies "for periods of longer than 6 months," the authors conclude.

"In fact," they say, "our study showed an average gain of 10 years in the mean age at diagnosis."

The study ends with this conclusion:

"Breastfeeding for periods of over 6 months not only provides children with numerous health benefits, but also protects the mother from serious diseases such as breast cancer.

Breastfeeding is a potential ally in the fight against breast tumors."

The researchers call for continued analysis and study of the benefits of breastfeeding.

In other recent news, breastfeeding for longer has been linked to higher IQ in offspring.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has statistics showing that breastfeeding went up in the past decade. The proportion of babies being breastfed rose from 6% in the year 2000, to over two-thirds, or 71%, in 2010.

Written by Markus MacGill

Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today Visit our pregnancy / obstetrics section for the latest news on this subject. Breastfeeding and the prevention of breast cancer: a retrospective review of clinical histories Emilio Gonzalez-Jimenez, Pedro A. Garcia, Maria Jose Aguilar and others, Journal of Clinical Nursing, published online August 15, 2013. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

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15 Aug. 2013. APA

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'Breastfeeding reduces threat of breast cancer'

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Mediterranean diet 'reduces genetic stroke risk'

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Academic Journal
Main Category: Stroke
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet;  Diabetes
Article Date: 15 Aug 2013 - 8:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Mediterranean diet 'reduces genetic stroke risk'

Scientists say they have discovered that the Mediterranean diet may prevent a genetic risk of stroke since it appears to interact with a particular gene variant usually associated with type 2 diabetes.

Researchers from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University, and the CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutricion in Spain, conducted the study, which was published in the journal Diabetes Care.

The research team analyzed 7,018 men and women involved in the Prevencion con Dieta Mediterranea (PREDIMED) trial. The trial, carried out over a 5-year period, looked at whether a Mediterranean or a low-fat controlled diet had an effect on the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and heart attack, and whether genetics played a part in this.

Prior to the trial, participants were also required to complete food frequency questionnaires, in order to see how closely participants followed a Mediterranean diet.

The study focused on a particular variant found in the Transcription Factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene. The variant is commonly involved in glucose metabolism and can lead to the development of type 2 diabetes. The researchers say this gene variant's link to heart disease has previously been unclear.

Around 14% of the PREDIMED participants were found to be homozygous carriers, meaning they possessed two copies of this gene variant.

Of these homozygous participants who were also following the Mediterranean diet, results of the analysis revealed a reduced number of strokes. José Ordovás, director of the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory at the USDA HNRCA, explains:

"Being on the Mediterranean diet reduced the number of strokes in people with two copies of the variant.

The food they ate appeared to eliminate any increased stroke susceptibility, putting them on an even playing field with people with one or no copies of the variant."

However, Ordovás adds that homozygous carriers who were following the low-fat diet did not have the same results, with a three times increased risk of having a stroke compared with participants with only one or no copies of the gene variant.

Delores Corella, of the CIBER Fisiopatologia de la Obesidad y Nutrici?n, says, however, results showed that when adherence to the Mediterranean diet was high, having two copies of the gene variant bared no significance on fasting glucose levels.

She adds:

"The same was true for three common measures of cardiovascular disease risk: total blood cholesterol, low density lipoprotein and triglycerides."

"Conversely, these risk factors were considerably higher in homozygous carriers with low adherence to the diet."

Previous research has also revealed that following a Mediterranean diet can benefit health. A study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham suggested that following a Mediterranean diet may improve memory and thinking.

Researchers from Spain have suggested the diet may help protect the health of bones.

The Mayo Clinic offers a recommendation of key components that make up a healthy Mediterranean diet. These include:

Eating primarily plant-based foods, such as fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nutsReplacing butter with healthy fats, such as olive oilUsing herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foodsLimiting red meat to no more than a few times a monthDrinking red wine in moderation (optional).

The researchers in the current Spanish study would like to see more studies to determine how our genes and the Mediterranean diet work together.

Written by Honor Whiteman

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Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today Visit our stroke section for the latest news on this subject. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

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Lunch with company reduces cognitive control, may increase social harmony

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Also Included In: Public Health;  Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 31 Jul 2013 - 14:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Lunch with company reduces cognitive control, may increase social harmony

Lunch at a restaurant with friends reduces cognitive control more than lunch eaten alone at a desk does, according to research published July 31 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Werner Sommer from the Humboldt University at Berlin, Germany, and colleagues from other institutions.

Participants in the study either ate a solitary meal alone at their desk in a restricted amount of time, or took a short walk to a restaurant for an hour-long lunch with a friend. All meals were identical in the kind and amounts of food consumed. After the meal, people who had a restaurant lunch were calmer and less wakeful than those who ate at their desks. They also fared more poorly on performance tests of cognitive control, and neurophysiological measurements indicated decreased cognitive control of performance and error monitoring processes. Since the meals differed in many ways including the presence of a friend, environment and lack of time restrictions, the authors explain "It is impossible to specify at this point, which of the variables above are crucial for the effects observed in our study."

They add, "Reduced cognitive control is a disadvantage when close self-monitoring of performance and detailed attention to errors is required, such as in numerical processing. In other situations, an attenuation of cognitive control may be advantageous, such as when social harmony or creativity is desired."

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our psychology / psychiatry section for the latest news on this subject.

How about Lunch? Consequences of the Meal Context on Cognition and Emotion.. PLoS ONE 8(7): e70314. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070314

Authors: Sommer W, Stürmer B, Shmuilovich O, Martin-Loeches M, Schacht A

This research was supported by the Wolfgang-Köhler-Zentrum zur Erforschung von Konflikten in Intelligenten Systemen. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

PLOS ONE

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