This story was all over the news today:
“Ultra-processed foods may be linked to cancer, says study”
The Guardian, 15th Feb. 2018
The news comes from a French study that looked into whether cancer was associated with highly processed foods. As usual, the question is whether the actual results of the study warrant the hysteria currently playing out in the media? (Spoiler: the answer to that is almost always an emphatic NO!) Continue reading
Every once in a while I see a paper that makes me sit up and say “Wow”. They are rare, but when they happen they let us really see the progress that is being made. This week one of those papers was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Continue reading
This story was in the papers this week, linking a very commonly used medication with a doubling in stomach cancer risk. A doubling in the risk of anything sounds bad, but what does it mean in reality?
Over the last number of years, the vitamin and nutritional supplement market has grown phenomenally. It is estimated to be worth over $36 billion in the US, up from $17 billion in 2000. It is thought that nearly 70% of the US population take some kind of dietary supplement, and there is much said and written about their use. One thing that cannot be debated however, is the lack of evidence that they do any good. A prime example of this comes from a study published recently about vitamin B supplements. Continue reading
People have an undying love for coffee. Around the world, it’s estimated that 2 billion cups are drank every single day. Lots of people can’t start the morning without one, and there’s now a coffee shop on every corner in every city.
Last year Cancer Research UK launched the latest campaign aimed at reducing obesity related cancers. This is an important issue, with obesity now being recognised as the second biggest preventable cause of cancer, behind only smoking. The evidence for this is extremely solid, and it is expected to cause an additional 15,000 deaths in the UK from cancer this year alone. And the numbers are increasing steadily. In the 20 years from 1993 to 2013, the number of people classed as overweight or obese in the UK increased by 6 million.
As the population has been getting older, there has been increased attention paid to neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. These are diseases that cause a progressive loss of mental function (dementia), or problems with movement, such as tremors. The causes of these diseases are still relatively unknown, so there is a lot of public interest in studies that look at this. This week a paper was published that suggests there may be a link between high consumption of low fat dairy (particularly milk), and Parkinson’s. This was picked up by numerous media outlets, with predictable headlines. Continue reading
