Abdominal Obesity & the Risk of Death in Women
Folic Acid & Heart Attacks
Pancreatic Cancer Regression after Injections of Bacteria
"A critical weekly review of important new research findings for health-conscious readers..."
Last Updated: 3/30/2008
ABDOMINAL OBESITY & RISK
OF DEATH IN WOMEN
There
is increasing evidence that
“abdominal obesity” (also referred to as “central obesity” or “truncal
obesity”)
is a particularly dangerous form of obesity in terms of risk for
cardiovascular
disease and cancer. However,
the actual
impact of abdominal obesity on death rates has not been well studied
before. A new study
in the journal Circulation provides
some important
clues about the magnitude of risk associated with abdominal obesity.
The
data from this report was
culled from the huge Nurses’ Health Study, which prospectively enrolled
almost
45,000 nurses in the 1980s. During
an
average of 16 years of follow-up, 3,507 study participants died,
including
1,748 deaths due to cancer and 751 deaths due to cardiovascular disease. The authors of this study
evaluated the body
weight and waist circumferences of the women who died during the course
of this
study, and then statistically analyzed the results.
When
the women were divided into
four separate groups, according to their waist circumferences, the data
revealed the cost, in terms of risk of death, of increasing abdominal
obesity. Indeed,
increasing waist
circumference was significantly associated with an increasing risk of
death due
to both cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
Specifically, women with the greatest waist circumference
measurements
were, relative the women with the smallest waists, 79% more likely to
die,
overall. The
relative increase in the
risk of death due to cardiovascular diseases (principally heart attack
and
stroke) among women with the largest waists was 99% higher when
compared to the
women with the smallest waists.
Likewise, a 63% increase in the relative risk of death due
to cancer was
observed in the women with the largest waist circumferences.
Even
among women who were still
within recommended weight levels (adjusted for height), increased
deposits of
abdominal fat appeared to place them at a greater risk of premature
death. Despite
being of normal weight, women with
the greatest ratio of waist-to-hip circumference (> 0.88) were
at a whopping
three-and-a-half times greater relative risk of dying from
cardiovascular
diseases when compared to women of normal weight and
with normal waist-to-hip ratios.
This
large scale prospective study
of generally healthy American women is a real eye-opener, because it
not only
confirms previous (and smaller) studies suggesting that obesity
centered around
the abdomen is a particularly dangerous form of obesity, but it also
provides
strong evidence that an increased amount of abdominal fat, even in women who are within current
recommendations for normal body
weight, is a potent risk factor for premature death. Although men were not
included in this study,
the results of this study have important implications for men too, as
men tend
to deposit excess weight around the abdomen to a much greater extent
than
women.
FOLIC
ACID & HEART ATTACKS
When
coronary arteries become
severely narrowed by plaques and blood clots, the heart’s muscle
becomes
starved for oxygen. The
chest pain
(angina) experienced by many patients with severe narrowing of the
coronary
arteries is a sign that the heart muscle has become ischemic, or
deprived of
adequate oxygen-carrying blood flow.
When the coronary arteries become completely blocked,
vital heart muscle
may then begin to die, causing a heart attack, or myocardial infarction.
Folic
acid, one of the B
vitamins, plays many critical roles in cell metabolism, and is
especially
important in the function of the “power plants” of our cells, the
mitochondria. Folic
acid also appears to
have important antioxidant effects that decrease the production of
potentially
harmful metabolic byproducts known as free radicals.
A
new animal study, just reported
in the journal Circulation, looked
at
the effects of high-dose supplements of folic acid in rats that were
then
subjected to an experimental temporary blockage of one of their
coronary
arteries. Another
group of rats also
underwent the same ischemia-inducing surgery, but did not receive folic
acid
supplements before undergoing temporary coronary artery occlusion. When multiple measures of
ischemia-induced
heart dysfunction, extent of cardiac muscle death, and free radical
generation
were measured in the two groups of rats, the researchers found that the
rats
that had received 1 week of folic acid supplementation (prior to
coronary
artery occlusion) suffered less severe signs of ischemia-induced heart
dysfunction, less extensive heart muscle death, and had lower
concentrations of
potentially toxic free radicals in their blood when compared to the
rats that
did not receive folic acid supplements.
While
it is too soon, yet, to
recommend high-dose folic acid supplementation for humans with coronary
artery
disease, based upon this study alone, the results of this study are
nonetheless
very intriguing. Large
scale
prospective, randomized, double-blinded studies with human volunteers
will be
required to validate the encouraging findings of this animal study.
PANCREATIC
CANCER REGRESSION AFTER INJECTIONS OF
BACTERIA
Cancer
of the pancreas continues
to exact a terrible toll on patients, and is currently the 4th most
common cause of cancer death, even though pancreatic cancer is only the
7th
most common cancer. Despite
extensive
research, costing many millions of dollars, we still have not found an
effective treatment for this dreaded disease.
Only a minority of patients with pancreatic cancer will
even be
candidates for radical surgery, which offers the only known hope of
possible
cure. Even among
the fortunate few
patients who are even candidates for radical surgery, the majority will
still
succumb to this terrible disease.
A
new study, published in the
journal Gut, evaluates a truly
novel
treatment for pancreatic cancer, using mice implanted with human
pancreatic
cancer tumors. The
mice were divided
into 2 groups. In
the experimental
group, Streptococcus bacteria, similar to those that cause “strep
throat” in
humans, were injected directly into the implanted pancreatic cancer
tumors. In the
control group of mice,
the same fluid that was used to suspend the bacteria used in the
experimental
group was injected into the tumors, but without the Streptococcus
bacteria.
Disclaimer:
As always, my advice to readers is to seek the advice of your physician
before making any significant changes in
medications, diet, or level of physical activity.
Dr. Wascher is an oncologic surgeon, professor of surgery, a widely published author, and the Director of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center
http://www.sbhcs.com/hospitals/newark_beth_israel/mservices/oncology/surgical.html
Send your feedback to Dr. Wascher at
rwascher@doctorwascher.net
Links to Other Health & Wellness Sites
Copyright 2008. Robert A. Wascher, MD, FACS. All rights reserved.
Dr. Wascher's Archives:
3-16-2008: Benefits
of a Full Drug Coverage Plan for Medicare Patients?; Parent-Teen
Conversations about Sex; Soy (Genistein) & Prostate Cancer
2-23-2008: Universal
Healthcare Insurance Study; Glucosamine & Arthritis
2-3-2008: Vitamin D
& Cardiovascular Health; Vitamin D & Breast Cancer;
Green Tea & Colorectal Cancer
1-12-2008: Statins,
Diabetes & Stroke and Obesity; GERD & Esophageal Cancer
12-31-2007: Minority Women, Hormone Replacement Therapy
& Breast Cancer; Does Health Insurance Improve Health?