In a new study published in the Journal Pediatrics, researchers have announced that increasing dietary fiber in young women may help protect them against breast cancer. Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston analyzed data on more than 44,000 women who participated in a long-term study.

Those who ate the most fiber during early adulthood were found to be 16 to 20 percent less likely to develop breast cancer by the time they reached middle age. It was also estimated that the risk of breast cancer decreases by 13 percent for every 10 grams of fiber consumed daily during early adulthood.

While this line of reasoning is not new, this is the first time there has been follow-up of the theory over such a long period. “Most of the studies that evaluated association between dietary fiber intake in midlife or later, have not noted any significant association,” said lead author Maryam Favid. “Therefore, it seems high-fiber diet in early life would be important in terms of breast cancer prevention.”

In addition to high fiber, these foods contain many other nutrients which may play a role. However, even though the overall quality of women’s diets were taken into account the high-fiber connection remained.

Data from the Nurses’ Health Study II was used by the researchers. It included more than 90,000 premenopausal women who completed a questionnaire about their diets when they were between 27 and 44 years old, back in 1991. Eight years later, 44,263 of them completed an additional questionnaire about their diets while in high school.

By 2011, 1,118 cases of invasive breast cancer had been reported among the women for whom there was high school dietary data.

The women were divided into five groups by the study team, ranked from highest to lowest dietary fiber intake. Those consuming the least dietary fiber in early adulthood got an average of 12 grams per day, compared to 26 grams on the other end of the scale.

Beneficial dietary fiber consumed while young included both soluble fiber such as oat bran, that attracts water and slows digestion, and insoluble fiber such as wheat bran, that adds bulk and helps foods pass more quickly through the digestive process.

An accompanying article by Kimbelry Blackwell, MD and Kathleen Harnden, MD, stated that “soluble fibers are believed to decrease intestinal cholesterol absorption,” and that there is evidence that these byproducts may have estrogenic effects. “Dietary fibers may reduce circulating estrogen levels through changes in the gut microbiome and increased excretion of estrogens in the gastrointestinal tract,” they wrote.

Average Americans today eat 10 to 15 grams of fiber on a daily basis. According to the National Library of Medicine, most should be getting 20 to 35 grams daily.

A new study based on a sample from thousands of participants ranging from young adults into middle age has found that there is a correlation between long term marijuana use and poorer performance on verbal memory tests — though other areas of brain function appear to not be affected.

According to Reuters, researchers analyzed data from a 25-year U.S. study in order to examine the long-term use effects of the drug. Participants in the study were given standardized tests of verbal memory, processing speed and executive functions during the 25th year of the study.

Repeated exposure to marijuana over time was linked to poor performance on verbal memory tests. As marijuana use increased, the researchers noticed, verbal memory test scores deceased.

“We did not expect to find such a consistent association with verbal memory for chronic exposure to marijuana,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Reto Auer of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

For every five additional years of marijuana exposure, 50 percent of regular users would typically remember one word less from a list of 15 tested words.

“Recreational marijuana users use it to get high, to benefit from the transient change it produces,” said Auer in an interview with Reuters Health. “But this transient effect might have long term consequences on the way the brain processes information and could also have direct toxic effects on neurons.”

Long-term use of other factors was accounted for in the study as well: cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and other behavioral factors associated with marijuana use were accounted for. However, Auer acknowledges potential limitations to the test.

Only self-reported marijuana use was accounted for in the study. Brain imaging techniques, used to measure potential structural changes in a participants brain, were not used.

“It would not be feasible to perform a long term randomized controlled trial to verify causation,” said Auer.

Despite the vast number of cancer deaths occurring each day in China, and data citing stomach, liver and esophageal cancer representing 57 percent of all cancers in the country, scientist have uncovered some positive news.

Mortality rates have dropped significantly since 2006. According to medicaldaily.com, scientists have discovered male cancer deaths fell 21.4 percent per year, while female deaths attributed to cancer have decreased 21.4 percent per anum.

The Chinese population is exposed to many environmental carcinogens, according to authors of the research.  They also believe that life styles changes could prevent many of the cancer deaths, “if people would stop unhealthy habits and behaviors, such as smoking,” the authors said according to the report.

However, it is tougher to avoid the environmental dangers associated with outdoor air pollution which is “considered to be among the worst in the world and indoor air pollution through heating and cooking using coal and other biomass fuels.”

Although the efforts are being made to reduce this burden, “the effects of these endeavors will not be felt immediately, the rates of cancer deaths could be reduced by increasing the effectiveness of care and treatment, particularly among the disadvantaged and those living in rural areas.”

Meanwhile, China has an astounding rate of 7,500 cancer-attributed deaths per day or 2.8 million in 2015. This,  according to the researchers is “almost 22 percent of global new cancer cases and close to 27 percent of global cancer deaths occuring in China.”

By comparison, they said, of the four most common cancers, these cancers account for only 18 percent of total incidence in the United States.

The research team, lead by Dr. Wanqing Chen of the National Cancer Center in Beijing, was comprised of scientists from the American Cancer Society, University of Sydney, and National Cancer Center Beijing. They used mortality data compiled by 72 local cancer registries to estimate the numbers of cancer deaths in China in 2015.

The data they analyzed from 2009 to 2011 found “the burden of cancer,” represents 6.5 percent of the Chinese population.

An excited Oprah Winfrey revealed on Tuesday afternoon that she has lost 26 pounds on Weight Watchers, and is still eating bread every day. The 61-year-old star purchased a 10 percent stake in the company in October for $43.2 million, and agreed to become a spokesperson for the weight loss giant..

After sharing the clip shown below on Twitter, Weight Watchers stock soared by over 20 percent, closing at $13.29 per share. Thirty minutes before the Tweet came out the shares were trading at $11.35. That comes out to roughly $12.5 million per hour.

In the clip Oprah revealed that she is still burning calories, even while eating her beloved bread every day. One of the attractions of the weight loss program is that members can eat anything they want, using Smart Points to track consumption and touting making smart choices.

Weight Watchers members can choose to attend weekly meetings or do the plan on their own by using online tools. Mobile apps promise making tracking easy, particularly with large databases of foods and restaurant meals.

At the time Winfrey made the purchase of Weight Watchers shares she agreed to become a spokesperson for the company. In a statement she made at the time she said, “I believe in the program so much, I decided to invest in the company and partner in its evolution.

 

Contrary to widely held suspicions that caffeinated drinks cause irregular heart rhythms, heart failure, or a wide variety of other heart related ailments, a new study has found that the heart remains relatively unaffected under the influence of caffeine.

According to Today, a large portion of doctors are taught that caffeinated beverages such as tea, coffee, and chocolate cause heart disturbances. However, during the study it became apparent that there was no noticeable correlation between caffeine consumption and these heart disturbances.

“We may unnecessarily be discouraging consumption of items like chocolate, coffee and tea that might actually have cardiovascular benefits,” Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist at the University of California San Francisco, said in a statement.

The study involved examining the caffeine consumption habits of 1,388 people, with an average age of 72. Measuring instances of premature ventricular contractions and premature atrial contractions, researchers were attempting to find signs of heart disturbances in participants that never showed themselves – no matter how much coffee or tea or chocolate the participant had had.

Even more intriguing the lack of a correlation between caffeine consumption and heart disturbances is the study’s finding and listing the benefits of regular caffeine consumption.

“Regular coffee consumption has been associated with a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes mellitus and other cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity and depression,” Marcus and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Furthermore, large observational studies have found that habitual coffee drinkers have lower rates of coronary artery disease and of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.”

That being said, the study warns that coffee consumption exceeding five cups a day might be pushing it and that kids shouldn’t be having too much caffeine.

A new study out of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is linking frequent social media use with irregular and unhealthy sleep patterns.

According to NBC, researchers analyzed the social media habits of young adults and found that the more time a person spent on social media during the day, the more likely they were to report sleep disturbances. Social media in this context constitutes websites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, and more.

“This is one of the first pieces of evidence that social media use really can impact your sleep,” said lead author Jessica C. Levenson, a postdoctoral researcher in Pitt’s Department of Psychiatry, in a news release. “And it uniquely examines the association between social media use and sleep among young adults who are, arguably, the first generation to grow up with social media.”

The study involved a sample of 1,788 U.S. participants between the ages of 19 to 32. These participants were asked, via questionnaire, about their social media habits. On average, they reported an average of one hour of every day as being devoted to social media, with social media being viewed around 30 times in a week.

More than half of the study’s participants reported medium to high levels of sleep disturbance. The more frequently a participant reported checking their social media accounts, the more likely the participant was to report sleep disturbance.

The results of the study are intriguing, but Levenson isn’t ready to make any specific or conclusive claims based only on the current data.

“Future research should work to replicate our findings in other populations, as well as to understand better the reasons why social media use is related to disturbed sleep,” Levenson said in an interview with NBC.

On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) released some news which they deemed “alarming:” at least 41 million children under the age of five from around the world are obese or overweight, with numbers rising fastest in developing countries.

According to Reuters, in 1990 the number of obese or overweight children hovered somewhere around 31 million. However, that number has since increased. What’s more, WHO says that there are now more overweight and obese children in low- and middle- income countries than there are in high-income countries.

Since 1990, the number of overweight children in developing countries has more than doubles from 7.5 million to 15.5 million. This, according to a WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity (ECHO), is due to globalization and urbanization.

“Overweight and obesity impact on a child’s quality of life, as they face a wide range of barriers, including physical, psychological and health consequences,” said Sania Nishtar, ECHO co-chair, in a statement.

WHO presented another factor in this growing childhood obesity problem: the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks, particularly in the developing world.

“We know that obesity can impact on educational attainment too and this, combined with the likelihood that they will remain obese into adulthood, poses major health and economic consequences for them, their families, and society as a whole,” said Nishtar.

According to WHO, almost half of overweight and obese children live in Asia, with another 25 percent living in Africa. It was in Afirca, WHO point out, that the number of overweight children has also almost doubled since 1990, going from 5.4 million to 10.3 million in 2014.

“WHO needs to work with governments to implement a wide range of measures that address the environmental causes of obesity and overweight, and help give children the healthy start to life they deserve,” said Peter Gluckman, ECHO co-chair.

The American Hearth Association (AHA) has released a scientific statement announcing that the cardiac disease mortality rate has been greater for women than for men since 1984. In addition to being more deadly for women, heart attacks have different symptoms than in men, some of which can be vague. The AHA’s statement, its first on gender differences in heart attack patients, was published Jan. 26 in the journal Circulation.

Statement chair person Dr. Laxmi Mehta says that over the last 10 years they have learned that men’s and women’s heart attacks are different in “some significant ways.” Although that has helped reduce mortality, there is much more to learn. She says that, since most heart disease research is done on men, how it is categorized is based on men.

The differences in heart attack symptoms between men and women can lead to deadly mistakes. The AHA said in their statement that, although experts have known about differences for years, the message is not getting through to either women or health professionals.

Heart attacks in both men and women are typically caused by blocked arteries. The difference is in how they form. Women tend to have less severe blockages than men, but those blockages still damage the arteries that supply blood to the heart. When that blood flow is reduced a heart attack can happen.

53,000 women die from heart attacks every year. Twenty-six percent of women die within a year of their first heart attack, compared to 19 percent of men. Within 5 years of a first heart attack, 47 percent of women die or have a stroke or heart failure, compared to 36 percent of men.

Mehta says the reason heart attacks are more deadly for women is that doctors often do not correctly diagnose the underlying cause of a heart attack in a woman, so they do not prescribe the right treatment after the attack occurs. The difference in mortality between the sexes is also due to the woman not realizing her symptoms may be that of a heart attack, because women’s heart attack symptoms are different than men.

The most common symptoms in both men and women are chest pain or discomfort. However, women are more likely to have less typical symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, and jaw or back pain. Shoulder and arm pain, typically thought of as heart attack symptoms, are twice as predictive of a heart attack diagnosis in men as in women.

This means women might wait too long to seek help, not realizing they are in trouble. Men usually report to the emergency room within 15 hours of their symptoms starting, while women wait more than two days on average.

Mehta says it is important that women pay more attention to symptoms. She also stresses that more research is needed, since most heart attack information relates to men. “We don’t yet clearly understand why women have different causes and symptoms of heart attacks. Women are more complex, there are more biological variables such as hormonal fluctuations. That’s why more research is needed.”