Marion County Medical Center

Health Shorts

July 2006

Eating Fish May Protect Aging Brain
Older adults who ate fish at least once a week showed less cognitive decline than other subjects, according to data from the ongoing Chicago Health and Aging Study. Subjects who ate fish once a week had 10 percent slower decline and those who ate fish twice a week had 13 percent slower decline.

Other studies have linked omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish, with a lower risk of dementia and stroke–both major contributors of cognitive decline in older adults. In this study, however, the slower cognitive decline “was not accounted for by cardiovascular-related conditions,” the authors wrote.
[SOURCE: “Fish Consumption May Slow Cognitive Decline,” Clinician Reviews, November, 2005; Archives of Neurology, December, 2005]

Omega-3s Reduce Heart Disease Risk
Food surveys filled out for 16 years by about 85,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study revealed that those who ate fish once a week were 29 percent less likely to develop coronary heart disease than those who rarely ate fish. For death from heart attack or stroke, the reduction in risk for fish eaters was even greater.

A high intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (found mainly in cold water fish) provided similar benefits, according to the study.
[SOURCE: “Omega-3 Fats Prevent Death from CHD,” Contemporary OB/GYN, September, 2002]

Even Lean Fish Offer Health Benefits
One reason that fatty, cold water fish such as salmon lower the risk of heart attack is that they have omega-3 fatty acids that exert an anti-inflammatory effect in the cardiovascular system. A recent Greek study found that persons who ate 10.5 ounces a week of small, lean varieties of fish also benefitted, with inflammation levels 33 percent lower than those who rarely ate fish.

The researchers found that even persons eating small quantities of fish–a few ounces a week–showed significant reductions in markers of inflammation.
[SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, July 5, 2005; Diane Lofshult, “Fishing for Better Health,” IDEA Fitness Journal, October, 2005]

Eat Light Tuna for Less Mercury
To get high levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids without high levels of mercury, experts say that canned tuna may be better than tuna steaks because the canned product comes mainly from smaller types of tuna. Among canned products, light tuna usually has less mercury than the more expensive white albacore.

[SOURCE: “Not Just Fish Stories: Despite Concerns about Pollutants, the Health Benefits of Eating fish Far Outweigh the Potential Risks,” Men’s Health Advisor, March, 2006]

Overweight Teens at Highest Risk
A fat baby or toddler is not necessarily destined to become a fat adult, but an obese adolescent is 17.5 times more likely than his or her normal-weight peers to stay that way in adulthood. For a one- or two-year-old overweight child, the risk of adult obesity is only 1.3 times that of a normal-weight child.

[SOURCE: Pedro Velasquez-Mieyer, Sylvia Perez-Faustinelli and Patricia A. Cowan, “Identifying Children at Risk for Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease,” Diabetes Spectrum, Fall, 2005]

Decline in Physical Activity During Teen Years Leads To Weight Gain
Girls frequently have a steep decline in physical activity during adolescence that frequently leads to weight gain. A study of 1,152 black and 1,135 white females followed through adolescence found a direct relationship between lower physical activity and increased body mass index and skin fold measurements.

[SOURCE: “Lack of Activity Puts Adolescent Girls at Risk of Obesity,” Nursing Standard, October 19, 2005]

Plant-Based Diet Reduces Weight Gain
Whether vegetarian, vegan, lactovegetarian or semi-vegetarian, persons who followed a plant-based diet had significantly lower risks of overweight and obesity, according to data from the Swedish Mammography Cohort.

For omnivores, the prevalence of overweight or obesity was 40 percent compared to 29 percent for semi-vegetarians and vegans and 25 percent for lactovegetarians.

[SOURCE: P.K. Newby, Katherine L. Tucker and Alicja Wolk, “Risk of Overweight and Obesity among Semivegetarian, Lactovegetarian, and Vegan Women,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, June, 2005]

Waist-Hip Ratio May Be Best Measure
Waist-to-hip ratio is a better measure of obesity than body mass index (BMI), according to INTERHEART, a study involving multiple populations from 52 countries.

Abdominal obesity accounted for more than 90 percent of the heart attack risk worldwide, according to INTERHEART researchers, and waist-to-hip ratio was the obesity measure most strongly associated with the risk of suffering a heart attack.

[SOURCE: Charlotte Kragelund and Torbjorn Omland, “A Farewell to Body-Mass Index?” The Lancet, November 5, 2005]

Who’s Calling Whom Fat?
About 90 percent of Americans are aware of the obesity epidemic and agree that many of their friends are overweight or obese, according to a Pew Center telephone survey. As for themselves, only 39 percent confessed to being even a little overweight. Actually, studies show that nearly two thirds of Americans are carrying excess weight.

[SOURCE: “I’m OK, You’re Fat,” Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, June, 2006]

More Small Cancers Being Found
The incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States was 8.7 per 100,000 people in 2002–a 2.4 fold increase over the rate in 1973, but researchers attributed this increase to improved imaging and diagnostic techniques allowing detection of small papillary cancers.
Of the four types of thyroid cancer, papillary cancers have the highest survival rate. The incidence of rarer and more aggressive types of thyroid cancer remained stable over the 30-year period, as did the death rate.

More than 80 percent of papillary tumors now being reported measure two centimeters or less; about half are no bigger than one centimeter. Cancers smaller than one centimeter are usually considered harmless.

[SOURCE: L. Davies, JAMA, May 10, 2006; E. Mazzaferri, JAMA, May 10, 2006; Miranda Hitti, “Why Are Thyroid Cancer Diagnoses Up?” WebMD Medical News, May 9, 2006]

Survivors of Childhood Cancer at Risk
Survivors of childhood cancer who received radiation treatment to the head, neck or upper chest have an increased risk of developing thyroid cancer later in life. The risk is greatest for those diagnosed with the initial cancer before age 10.

The later life risk increased with higher doses of radiation received up to a certain point (30 Gy), then decreased, according to one study. Researchers attributed this drop off to the cell-killing effect of the larger doses.

[SOURCE: Alice J. Sigurdson, et al, “Primary Thyroid Cancer after a First Tumour in Childhood,” The lancet, June 11, 2005]

Lift Weights, Melt Belly Fat
Abdominal fat is not only unattractive; it’s the fat most strongly linked with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, gall stones and other illnesses. Situp exercises won’t melt belly fat (although they may tone stomach muscles), but strength training with weights will.

A study of 164 overweight and obese Minnesota women, aged 24 to 44, found that those who worked out with weights for an hour twice a week over a two-year period showed significant decreases in overall body fat and abdominal fat compared to a control group given advice about the benefits of regular exercise.

[SOURCE: “Lifing Weights Attacks Unhealthy Belly Fat in Women,” Tufts University Health & Nutrition letter, June, 2006]

Physical Activity Best for Back Pain
Mildly aerobic physical activity such as brisk walking or swimming for at least three hours a week was effective treatment for subjects with mild to moderate low back pain, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health [October, 2005]. By contrast, subjects performing specific back exercises–such as stretching, range-of-motion and strengthening workouts–were more likely to experience continuing pain and disability.

Most of the subjects experiencing pain relief engaged in walking. Those with short-term back pain (less than three weeks) and those with chronic problems (three months or longer) showed similar benefits from moderate physical activity.
[SOURCE: Lori Rochelle Roniger, “Physical Activity Trumps Back Exercise for Low Back Pain,” Biomechanics, November 1, 2005]

Childhood Abuse Pain Lingers
In a study involving university students with chronic pain disorders, 43.5 percent of females and 23.8 percent of males had a history of being
physically or sexually abused during childhood. Common symptoms included fibromyalgia (chronic muscle pain), tension headaches and chronic neck or back pain.

It’s believed that abuse or trauma during youth may alter brain development and chemistry in a way that affects pain thresholds and responses.
[SOURCE: “Psychosomatic Pain: New Insights and Management Strategies,” Southern Medical Journal, November, 2005]

Avoiding Post-Operative Pain
From 10 to 50 percent of patients undergoing common operations such as hernia repair and coronary artery bypass surgery experience both acute and chronic post-operative pain.

Studies show that nerve damage is a major component of post-operative pain. Doctors recommend the use of surgical techniques that avoid nerve damage as much as possible plus early therapy to prevent the development of pain syndromes.
[SOURCE: Henrik Kehlet, et al, “Persistent Postsurgical Pain: Risk factors and Prevention,” The Lancet, May 13, 2006]