We are presenting some select, recent research information concerning women’s health issues, hoping that this information may assist women in preventing disease and in managing the many health issues confronted by women in this complex society we live in.  

Inflammation, Cancer, and Diet Women who avoid red meat are more likely to be at a healthier weight and have lower levels of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. Researchers analyzed lifestyle and dietary information in an ethnically diverse group of 275 healthy premenopausal women and collected biomarkers of inflammation linked to cancer incidence. Overweight and obese women had substantially higher levels of chronic inflammatory markers than normal weight women, including a  five-fold increase in biomarkers associated with cancer risk. Women who adhered the most to cancer prevention guidelines not only weighed less, but also consumed significantly more fiber, fruits and vegetables, and less red and processed meat, all of which may decrease inflammation and lower risk of certain cancers. 

REF: Morimoto Y, Beckford F, Cooney RV, Franke AA,  Maskarinec G. ‘Adherence to cancer prevention recommendations and antioxidant and inflammatory status in premenopausal women.’ Br J Nutr. Published online June 8, 2015. 

 

Overweight women were randomized into two groups, a weight-loss diet with about a cup of cooked white rice every day, or a cup of cooked brown for six weeks, and then the groups switched. The white rice group ate brown, and vice versa, and when they were eating brown rice, they got significantly more weight loss, particularly around the waist and hips, lower blood pressure, and less inflammation. Similar effects were found for pre-diabetics: substituting brown rice for white rice led to significantly more weight loss, more waist loss, and better blood pressures. And brown rice may not just help get rid of tummy fat, but also preserve our artery function. High blood sugars can stiffen our arteries, cutting in half their ability to relax within an hour, whether you’re diabetic, have prediabetes, or are nondiabetic—though for diabetics, their arteries go down and stay down. And we know that brown rice can have blood sugar-lowering effects, compared to white rice. 

REF: M Shimabukuro, et al.  ‘Effects of the brown rice diet on visceral obesity and endothelial function: the BRAVO study.’ Br J Nutr. Jan 2014  

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) 

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease affecting millions, characterized by persistent pain and stiffness, and progressive joint destruction—particularly in the hands and feet, leading to crippling deformities. What can we do to prevent it and treat it? Women seem to get RA three times more frequently than men. A shift from an omnivorous to a vegetarian diet has a profound influence on the composition of the urine, for example higher levels of lignans in the urine of those eating vegetarian. Up until now it was just thought that they protected people eating more plant-based from getting cancer, but now we know lignans can also have antimicrobial properties as well so may be helping to clear proteus, a bacteria that triggers an immune response, from the system. This suggests a new type of therapy for the management of rheumatoid arthritis. This new treatment includes anti-Proteus measures such as dietary manipulations in the form of vegetarian diet. 

REF: 1) A Ebringer, T Rashid. ‘Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by a Proteus urinary tract infection.’ APMIS. 2014 May. 2) R Peltonen, M Nenonen, T Helve, O Hänninen, P Toivanen, E Eerola. ‘Faecal microbial flora and disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis during a vegan diet’. Br J Rheumatol. 1997 Jan;36(1):64-8.  

 

A landmark study out this year (2016) found that women over 55 with blood concentrations of vitamin D higher than 40ng/ml, had a 67% lower risk of cancer compared women with levels lower than 20ng/ml. The study did not reveal whether supplementation or sun exposure was the best way to obtain vitamin D. However, the researchers concluded that vitamin D only starts protecting against cancer once you get you blood level up to 40 ng/ml. They noted that more health benefits were observed at even higher levels. Another study from 2015 showed a 55% lower risk of colorectal cancer in women with vitamin D concentrations of 30ng/ml or higher compared to those lower than 18ng/ml. A 2005 study found that women with blood concentrations higher than 60ng/ml had an 83% reduction in breast cancer compared with those lower than 20ng/ml. Many holistic doctors and experts recommend that cancer patients shoot for the 60-80 ng/ml range. So, be sure to check your vitamin D3 level.

REF: Garland, Cedric, ‘Vitamin D: The #1 Anti-Cancer Vitamin,’PLOS One, 2016. 

Although largely preventable by lifestyle and diet, heart disease remains our country’s number one killer, and sadly younger people are falling victim to the deadliest form of heart attacks. Discouraging news was presented by Cleveland Clinic researchers at the April 2016 American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions. They analyzed records from thousands of patients who were treated at the Cleveland Clinic for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) between 1995 and 2014. This type of heart attack is especially dangerous, because it results from a complete (100 percent) blockage of a coronary artery (usually by a clot), cutting off all blood flow to a portion of the heart muscle. “ST-elevation” refers to the pattern observed on an electrocardiogram (ECG) that is characteristic of this type of heart attack. When a STEMI occurs, a section of heart muscle is deprived of oxygen and tissue damage begins to accumulate. Over minutes and hours, more of the damage to the heart muscle becomes permanent. 

Conventional medicine has made great strides in emergency treatment for heart attacks, but prevention is the best medicine. More information has become available about the contribution of diet and lifestyle behaviors to heart disease, and more people have access to this information. However heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the United States and there is a  shift to younger, sicker patients experiencing STEMI . It suggests that the information has not translated into healthier habits. 

Looking at women in the Nurses’ Health Study II, researchers identified  a combination of six healthy lifestyle factors (not smoking, normal BMI, regular exercise, less than 7 hours per week of television, healthful diet, low alcohol consumption) that were linked to a 92% reduction in coronary heart disease risk. 

 REF: 1)  Mozaffarian D, et al: ‘Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2016 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association.’ Circulation 2016. 2)  ‘Study: Heart Attack Patients Getting Younger, With Risky Health Habits.’  Cleveland Clinic healthessentials, 2016. 3) Fuhrman J, Singer M: ‘Improved Cardiovascular Parameters With a Nutrient-Dense, Plant-Rich Diet-Style: A Patient Survey With Illustrative Cases.’ Am J Lifestyle Med 2015. 

 

Fruits, Vegetables and Immunity 

What we eat, or don’t eat, can affect our immune system. A thousand women and their diets were followed before and during pregnancy, and women who consumed more fruits and vegetables had a moderate reduction in risk of upper respiratory tract infection during pregnancy, and this benefit appears to be derived from both fruits and vegetables instead of either alone. The common cold isn’t always innocuous. A common cold during the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with a number of birth defects, including one of the worst, anencephaly, a fatal malformation of the brain. More recent data suggest it’s the fever, as anti-fever drugs appear able to prevent the possible birth defects causing effect of the common cold, but it is even better, not to get sick in the first place. 

Whole fruits and vegetables provide a natural balance of all sorts of things that may improve our immune function in a complementary, combined, or synergistic manner that could account for the protective effect observed from high consumption of both fruits and vegetables. The women who appeared protected in this study were eating nearly nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day; this approaches the amounts we believe are optimal for disease prevention, protection against bacterial and viral infections and superior health in general. 

REF: Busbee PB et al. ‘Use of natural AhR ligands as potential therapeutic modalities against inflammatory disorders,’ Nutr Rev. 2013 Jun.

A half million Americans are expected to die this year from cancer, equal to 5 jumbo jets crashing… every day. The number of Americans who die from cancer each year is more than all those who have died in all US wars combined. And this happens every single year. 

After a cancer diagnosis people tend to clean up their diets. About a third to a half of breast cancer patients, for example, make healthy dietary changes following diagnosis, such as increasing in fruit and vegetable consumption and decreasing meat, fat and sugar intakes. Does it actually help that late in the game? Well, the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living Study was undertaken in few thousands breast cancer survivors to determine if a plant- based, low-fat, high-fiber diet could influence breast cancer recurrence rates and survival. Previously they reported that simple changes—5 or more servings fruits and veggies a day and walking 30 minutes a day 6 days a week was associated with a significant survival advantage, cutting risk nearly in half. Fruits and vegetables may be good, but cruciferous vegetables may be better. For women on tamoxifen, for example, if one of their 5 daily servings of fruits and veggies was broccoli or cauliflower/collards/cabbage or kale, the risk of cancer recurrence may be cut in half. And it worked just as well in women with estrogen receptor negative tumors, which normally have twice the mortality. 

REF: C. A. Thomson, et al. ‘ Vegetable intake is associated with reduced breast cancer recurrence in tamoxifen users: A secondary analysis from the Women's Healthy Eating and Living Study.’ Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 2011. 

 

Calcium Supplements 

Calcium supplements have been widely embraced on the grounds that they are a natural and, therefore, safe way of preventing osteoporotic fractures. But, it is now becoming clear that taking calcium in one or two daily doses is not natural, in that it does not reproduce the same metabolic effects as calcium in food. And furthermore, the evidence is also becoming steadily stronger that calcium supplementation may not be safe. That’s why most organizations providing advice regarding bone health now recommend that individuals should obtain their calcium requirement from diet in preference to supplements.  

Calcium supplements increase heart attack risk, but not calcium you get in your diet? Perhaps because when you take calcium pills, you get a spike of calcium in your bloodstream that you don’t get just eating calcium rich foods. Within hours of taking supplemental calcium, the calcium levels in the blood shoot up and can stay up as long as eight hours. This evidently produces what’s called a hypercoagulable state, your blood clots more easily, which could increase the risk of clots in the heart or brain. And, indeed, higher calcium blood levels are tied to higher heart attack and stroke rates. So, the mechanism may be calcium supplements lead to unnaturally large, rapid, and sustained calcium levels in the blood, which can have a variety of potentially problematic effects. 

REF: 1)  I R Reid. ‘Should we prescribe calcium supplements for osteoporosis prevention?’ J Bone Metab. 2014 Feb. 2) I R Reid, S M Bristow, M J Bolland. ‘Cardiovascular complications of calcium supplements.’ J Cell Biochem. Apr 2015.  

 

Osteoporosis Ten million Americans have osteoporosis, and one in three older women will get it. We urgently need public health strategies to maintain bone health, and prevent osteoporosis. Might fruits and vegetables be the unexpected natural answer to the question of osteoporosis prevention? We now have research indications that plant foods, fruits and vegetables, may have an important role to play in this issue of osteoporosis prevention. Too many free radicals in our system may lead to excessive bone breakdown. Antioxidant defenses appear markedly decreased in osteoporotic women. Elderly osteoporotic women were found to have consistently lower levels of all natural antioxidants tested. Because excessive free radicals may contribute to bone loss, it’s important to elucidate the potential role antioxidant-rich fruits play in mitigating the bone loss that leads to the development of osteoporosis. The thought is that fruits upregulate the bone building cells, and downregulate the bone-eating cells, tipping the balance towards greater bone mass. Researchers put prunes to the test because they had one of the highest antioxidant ratings of fruits and vegetables; more than a decade ago researchers found that elderly women with osteoporosis who consumed prunes for three months had improvements in markers of bone formation. It could very well be that other plant foods are also helpful in preventing osteoporosis and in attenuating symptoms.

REF: S Hooshmand. J R Brisco, B H Arjmandi. ‘The effect of dried plum on serum levels of receptor activator of NFκB ligand, osteoprotegerin and sclerostin in osteopenic postmenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial.’ Br J Nutr. 2014 Jul

Pregnancy, DHA and Vegan Women 

Vegan women, those who do not consume animal-based foods, and who do not, therefore, consume fish, should be taking the  omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) when pregnant and breast-feeding. While low intake of DHA doesn’t necessarily equate with fetal DHA inadequacy, new research suggests that some infants may not be getting enough and could benefit from their mom’s supplementing. It is recommended that these women get about 200 mg of preformed DHA, assuring that it is from uncontaminated sources like laboratory harvested algae or algae oil and to avoid fish and fish oil because of toxic pollutants like dioxins, PCBs, and Mercury. 

DHA plays a key role in the development of eye and nerve tissues. DHA may also reduce the risk of heart and circulatory disease by decreasing the thickness of the blood and lowering blood levels of triglycerides. 

REF: 1) K A Mulder, D J King, S M Innis. ‘Omega-3 fatty acid deficiency in infants before birth identified using a randomized trial of maternal DHA supplementation in pregnancy.’ PLoS One. 2014 Jan. 2) J F Gould, M Makrides, J Colombo, L G Smithers. ‘Randomized controlled trial of maternal omega-3 longchain PUFA supplementation during pregnancy and early childhood development of attention, working memory, and inhibitory control.’  Am J Clin Nutr. 2014 Apr.