It is believed that one hour of daily vigorous exercise or two hours of less strenuous activity is now linked to a lower risk of colon cancer, according to the results of a recent study.

Cycling, Jogging, running, pumping iron, swimming, and even housecleaning can do the trick, as demonstrated by research conducted with 413,000 people in 10 European countries.

Of those studied, people with the highest level of exercise were 22 percent less likely to develop cancer and 35 percent less likely to develop tumors on the right side of the colon. Those of normal weight enjoyed a greater benefit, but exercise was also beneficial for the overweight and obese. Exercise did not have a protective effect against rectal cancer.

This research helping to support the fact that about 70 percent of colon cancer cases can be prevented by changes in diet and exercise is significant because of the large sample size and the different levels of activity observed across the borders.

Colon and rectal are among the most common cancers in developed countries. More than 940,000 cases are diagnosed each year. About 492,000 people die from the illness.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer said that Tanning beds have dramatically increased the risk of skin cancer in young users in their teens and 20s.

Its research also showed that tanning booths had no positive health effects.

“The data showed a prominent and consistent increase in risk for melanoma in people who first used sun beds in their 20s or teen years,” the Lyon, France-based organization said. “A 75 per cent increase in risk of melanoma was calculated for such users.”

It said tanning beds did not protect against vitamin D deficiency. The body makes vitamin D, the so-called “sunshine vitamin,” from sunlight.

The statement advocated restricting young people’s access to tanning salons.

“In view of the strength and seriousness of the findings, effective action to restrict access to artificial tanning facilities … to minors and young adults should be strongly considered,” the organization’s director, Dr Peter Boyle, said.

Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, of Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said in a news release “Vigorous exercise was helpful for men of any size, as long as they worked out nearly every day,” McTiernan’s team studied 102 men and 100 women aged 40-75 years (average age: mid-50s) who had had a colonoscopy within the past three years. When the study started, participants were healthy but sedentary. They took a treadmill test to gauge their maximum heart rate.

Then the researchers gave half the group heart rate monitors and an exercise prescription:

–Get an hour of aerobic exercise six days weekly for a year.

–Workouts should be moderate to vigorous, at 60 percent to 85 percent of maximum heart rate.

For comparison, the researchers didn’t assign the other participants to exercise. All participants were asked to not change their diets. After a year, participants got flexible sigmoidoscopy tests. In flexible sigmoidoscopy, doctors guide a thin, flexible tube with a tiny camera through the lower colon to check for abnormal growths, such as polyps, which might become cancerous. They found substantially less evidence of cell proliferation in those colon areas for men who had followed the researchers’ exercise prescription, compared with the study’s other men. Treadmill tests showed that the exercisers had improved their aerobic fitness. Men with the biggest gains in aerobic fitness had the least cell proliferation in the colon crypts.

Japanese scientists found the key were vitamin A compounds called carotenoids which give the fruit its orange color.

In the first study, scientists surveyed 1,073 people in the Japanese town, Mikkabi, in Shizuoka, who ate a high number of mandarin oranges. They found chemical markers in the population’s blood samples that were linked to a lower risk of liver disease, arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and insulin resistance (a condition associated with diabetes).

A second study found that drinking mandarin juice appeared to cut the chance of developing liver cancer in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.

After a year, no liver cancer was found in the group, compared to a rate of 8.9% among a group of 45 patients with the same condition who did not drink the juice. Meanwhile, scientists believe they have taken another step closer to preventing antibiotic-resistant infections from spreading.

The Japanese researchers admit more work is needed and plan to continue the study for five years. The findings could lead to new drugs to fight infections that commonly cause death in people with AIDS or cystic fibrosis, they said.

“One could try and find out what the difference in manufacturing techniques are between the brands, and if it’s decided these things are a hazard, one could change the manufacturing methods,” researcher Sidney Mirvish, a chemist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told LiveScience. Mirvish and his colleagues examined hot dogs because past research had linked them with colon cancer. Hot dogs are preserved with sodium nitrite, which can help form chemicals known as N-nitroso compounds, most of which cause cancer in lab animals. Extracts from hot dogs bought from the supermarket, when mixed with nitrites, resulted in what appeared to be these carcinogenic compounds. When added to Salmonella bacteria that were fed hot dog extracts treated with nitrites increased their DNA-mutation rates by 100 to 300 percent.

Triggering DNA mutations in the gut might boost the risk for colon cancer, the researchers explained. “I won’t say you shouldn’t eat hot dogs,” Mirvish said.

Future research will feed hot dog meat to lab mice to see if they develop colon cancer or precancerous conditions, he explained.

James Hodges, president of the American Meat Institute Foundation in Washington, noted this study is “a preliminary report that the author concedes requires further investigation. The carcinogenic risk to humans of the compounds studied has not been determined.”

The possible hazard presented here is not just limited to hot dogs.

Salted dried fish and seasonings such as soy sauce may contain similar levels of these chemicals, Mirvish said.

Mirvish and his colleagues reported their findings in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

UCLA researchers studied mice with hormone-sensitive prostate cancer that is closely related to the disease in humans. The researchers split the mice into two groups: The first received a diet with a healthy 1:1 ratio of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids, and the second received a diet with most of the fats coming from omega-6 sources.

By the end of the study, the rate of tumor cell growth in the first group had decreased by 22 percent, and PSA levels were 77 percent lower than in the second group. The researchers believe that the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA are converted into anti-inflammatory prostaglandins, which reduce tumor growth, whereas omega-6 fatty acids are converted into pro-inflammatory prostaglandins that promote tumor growth.

“This study strongly suggests that eating a healthier ratio of these two types of fatty acids may make a difference in reducing prostate cancer growth, but studies need to be conducted in humans before any clinical recommendations can be made,” says lead researcher Dr. William Aronson.

The typical Western diet generally consists of a 1:20 ratio of omega-3s omega-6 fatty acids, which are mostly derived from corn oil, safflower oil and red meat. In light of their study results, the researchers are conducting a clinical trial testing balanced dietary ratios of the two fatty acids on men undergoing prostate removal, which could lead to a larger clinical trial and possibly mainstream treatment in the future, Aronson says.

“Eat more chia seeds,” advises Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate and holistic nutritionist. “The evidence in support of health benefits derived from omega-3 fatty acids is absolutely astonishing. Both men and women would do well do eat more chia seeds, salmon, flax and fish oil supplements.”

Curcumin is the chemical found in turmeric and is the key agent in the pill that the patients were administered. The amount of quercetin was similar to what normal people might consume on a daily basis. The curcumin administered in the pill was many times more what a person might eat in their daily diet.

A disorder that runs in families called familial adenomatous polyposis can lead to hundreds of colorectal polyps that could eventually lead to colon cancer.

The study showed that the patients taking the pill had an average number of polyps drop by sixty percent and the average size dropped to a little over fifty percent.

The current nonsteroidal anti-inflammory drugs (NSAIDS) have been used to treat patients but can cause significant side effects where the pill in this study had minimal if no side effects at all.

The study — called the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) — is an enormous undertaking involving 521,483 individuals in 10 different European countries. EPIC is unique because the populations being tracked are so diverse in eating habits. But this is precisiely what gives the study the advantage it has in making comparisons and noting trends.

According to EPIC, a few of the emerging results found in the link between diet and cancer are:

• Consumption of meat sharply increased risk of stomach cancer and esophageal cancer. For every 100 grams of meat consumed by subjects, risk for stomach cancer more than tripled. The association between meat intake and stomach cancer was considerably stronger among subjects with populations of H. pylori bacteria in their stomachs.
• Two indicators of abdominal obesity, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio, were strongly associated with colon cancer risk in both sexes. Men with the largest waist circumference had 39 percent higher risk of colon cancer than men with the smallest, for example, while women in the study with the largest waist circumference has a 48 percent higher risk than women with the smallest waists.
• Blood samples of women with breast cancer were compared to blood samples of women without breast cancer. Women over 60 whose blood was given under non-fasting conditions, high levels of serum C-peptide, that could reflect insulin resistance – long suspected of contributing to cancer risk — was associated with a doubling of breast cancer risk.
• The risk for oral and pharyngeal cancers drop by 9 percent for every 80 grams of fruits and vegetables consumed per day.

Researchers are beginning to come to some conclusions involving the data they have to date that clearly shows that globally, diets that are high in fruits, vegetables, fiber and fish are associated with greater cancer prevention — with obesity and sedentary lifestyles much larger factors in increasing cancer risk.

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in leafy green vegetables, nuts, vegetable oils such as canola and soy, flaxseed, flaxseed oil, olive oil, cold-water fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines and fresh tuna. Omega-6 fatty acids are found in corn, safflower oils, food products made with corn oil (think processed foods and fast foods) and red meats.

According to UCLA researchers, when the fatty acids are not in the right ratio to each other, omega-6 creates an inflammatory response in the body that can promote the growth of tumors, while omega-3 has the opposite effect in acting as an anti-inflammatory.

“This is one of the first studies showing changes in diet can impact the inflammatory response that may play a role in prostate cancer tumor growth,” said principal investigator Dr. William Aronson. “We may be able to use EPA and DHA supplements while also reducing omega-6 fatty acids in the diet as a cancer prevention tool or possibly to reduce progression in men with prostate cancer.”

These studies were done on animal models, and not humans, but the researchers did use a special mouse model for hormone-sensitive prostate cancer that matched closely prostate cancer in men.

After reviewing all the data on black cohosh, used by women to relieve menopausal symptoms of hot flashes, insomnia, excessive sweating, palpitations, headaches, poor sleep, depression, and irritability, Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has decided to require black cohosh products come with a warning about the potential for liver damage.

While liver damage is rare, the agency wants women to be aware of the possibility and be mindful of the symptoms of liver damage. Symptoms of liver problems include pain on the right side of the stomach just below the ribs, unexplained nausea, flu-like symptoms, dark urine and yellowing of eyes or skin.

According to the news report, black cohosh has been used for many years in Europe and North America and gained popularity after a highly publicized study found HRT raised the risk of heart attack, stroke and breast cancer.

The Office of Dietary Supplements black cohosh fact sheet states that black cohosh is sold as a dietary supplement, and dietary supplements are regulated as foods — not drugs. Manufacturers do not have to provide the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with evidence that dietary supplements are effective or safe before marketing. They indicate there is one published case of a 47-year-old woman who used black cohosh for symptoms of menopause and required a liver transplant three weeks after she started taking the herb — and that liver damage has been reported in a few other cases, but add in the fact sheet that millions of women have taken the herb without apparent adverse health effects.

Because it does have an estrogen effect, women with breast cancer are advised to avoid the herb until more studies are done to determine the safety of black cohosh for women with breast cancer suffering symptoms of menopause.