Healthspanlife - the Official Life! Blog

Nutrition is becoming increasingly costly as world population mushrooms, and worse, as oil-burning industries immorally pay more  (and governments thus get more in taxes) for plant oil as fuel  than farmers can get for producing food. The hungry poor majority is irrelevant, despite the fact that there has been superabundance of natural  and environmetally friendly power available forever,  and harnessable  by relatively simple technology (which Industry and governments have criminally  suppressed) for decades.

Fish oil omega3 - eicosapentanoic acid EPA and docosahexanoic acid DHA - seems to be the most valuable single nutrition supplement we have, apparently almost halving all major diseases  (and mortality) from brain and immune dysfunction in infants and children to  all the major common degenerative diseases of aging, from vascular and arthritic to immune and mental.

Plant oils have indispensable benefits.  But as people have migrated away from the seaside and fishing, and fish has become scarce so that it is no longer a staple for the poor or as chickenfeed, it is reported that EPA/DHA intake has fallen below 100mg/week in USA. And the more omega6 we eat, and the longer we live, the less EPA+DHA  our metabolism  can apparently make.

So as diet has improved among the better-off on the Food-Pyramid-recommended higher cereal and nut intake, and livestock has been shifted from pasture-fed (at least some omega3) to grain-fed (high omega6), it is estimated that the historical 6:1 ratio of dietary omega6:omega3 in western diet has actually risen adversely to 20:1.

By contrast, historically those who lived as fisher people reputedly had/have the least chronic aging diseases, and the lowest diet omega6:omega3 ratio, reputedly 1:1.

Oils- including  GLA gamma-linoleic acid and ALA alphalinoleic and linolenic acid- are enormously beneficial in humans, especially for immune modulation to steer between hyper immunity - allergy and rheumatic disease- and hypo-immunity - infections and cancer.

But if one eats a prudent Mediterranean-type diet and ensures at least 3gm fish oil i.e. close to a gram of EPA+DHA a day, is it wise or unwise to again increase the already high omega6 excess by encouraging omega6 supplements as in patent products e.g. Effamol?

Most of us older generation were brought up on a spoon of cod liver oil - Scotts Emulsion a day. This custom seems to have fallen into abeyance.

Now it is hard to tell whether this fact - fish oil deficiency - or junk food, or global pollution, or hours of television a day, or the abolition of discipline and obligatory physical exercise at most schools, has contributed more to apparent fall in learning and behaviour achievements in children, and increase in depression, diabetes, overweight, osteoporosis, anxiety, vascular, malignant, inflammatory  and dementing diseases.

There is no evidence that patent mixed fish-plus-plant oils do better than fish oil alone in the indisputable improvement in ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity-disorder in children.

How to Survive a Heart Attack When Alone: coughing and deep breathing?
This email doing the rounds may be inappropriate advice that could cost people their lives. - see http://www.hoax-slayer.com/survive-heart-attack.html and http://www.viahealth.org/body_rochester.cfm?id=329

BUT an apparently reputable cardiologist (apparently ex Vietnam Medic) also recommends it: http://www.karinya.com/cpr.htm

BUT see the notes of caution at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cough_CPR.

In short, it may save those who have sudden arrhythmia- but it is less likely to save those who are having a huge heart attack.- for whom most interventions are too late. The compromise may be to switch on the vehicle’s emergency flicker, stop the car, start coughing while collapsing visible over the steering wheel with a hand on the hooter to attract attention..

Very very few people recover or survive well long term after spontaneous (ie non-violent, non-toxic) cardiac arrest outside hospital - the studies below from France, Germany , USA & UK indicate that successful survival without impairment is - in the best hands - below perhaps 5%. .

So only primary prevention pays. Fish oil halves sudden death; metformin halves the deathrate in type 2 diabetics - and halves new diabetes in the overweight; appropriate estrogen replacement lowers allcause premature mortality by a third; deficiency of testosterone, estradiol, minerals, vitamins, CoQ10 , arginine, carnitine and ribose play a crucial role in the development and reversibility of arrhythmia, cardio/vascular and all-cause degenerative disease; and testosterone is antiarrhythmic but estrogen arrhythmogenic.

By contrast, unlike the above proven life-extenders, no modern designer drugs for chronic use have been shown to significantly reduce all major chronic degenerative diseases and premature all-cause mortality.

Thus all should take natural supplements early and permanently - appropriate vigorous supplements of minerals, vitamins and biologicals (including fish oil, insulin sensitizers and sex hormone replacement), to minimize early vascular disease and arrhythmia potential.

ndb

Heart. 2007 ;93:601-5. Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome SADS : a national survey of sudden unexplained cardiac death.Behr ER, Casey A, Sheppard M, University of London, UK. The estimated mortality from SADS was 0.16/100 000 per annum (95% CI 0.12 to 0.21), compared with an official mortality of 0.10/100 000 per annum for International Classification of Diseases 798.1 (sudden death, cause unknown-instantaneous death) or 1.34/100 000 per annum for unascertained causes of death. CONCLUSIONS: Deaths from SADS occur predominantly in young males. When compared with official mortality, the incidence of SADS may be up to eight times higher than estimated: more than 500 potential SADS cases per annum in England. Families with SADS carry genetic cardiac disease, placing them at risk of further sudden deaths. SADS should therefore be a certifiable cause of death prompting specialised cardiological evaluation of families.

European Heart Journal 2006 27:406-412 Post-discharge survival following pre-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest due to cardiac aetiology: temporal trends and impact of changes in clinical management Jill P. Pell ea University of Glasgow,
The Heartstart Register was used to identify all 1659 patients discharged alive from Scottish hospitals during 1991–01 following pre-hospital arrest due to cardiac aetiology. Over the period studied, the proportion of people suffering pre-hospital arrest who survived to discharge from hospital changed from 11.6% (552/4766) in 1991–93, to 7.0% (558/8006) in 1997–01.

Resuscitation. 2005 65:49-55. Outcome after cardiac arrest: predictive values and limitations of the neuroproteins neuron-specific enolase and protein S-100 and the Glasgow Coma Scale. Pfeifer R, ea University of Jena, Germany.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest are at risk of subsequent death or poor neurological outcome up to a persistent vegetative state. We investigated the prognostic value of several epidemiological and clinical markers in 97 patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after non-traumatic cardiac arrest between 1998 and 2002. RESULTS: 72.% of the patients died or remained in a persistent vegetative state; and 28.8% survived with severe, moderate or without neurological disorders. .

N Engl J Med. 1999 341(8):569-75. A comparison of standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation and active compression-decompression resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. French Active Compression-Decompression Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Study Group.Plaisance P, ea .Lariboisière University Hospital, Paris, France. BACKGROUND: We previously observed that short-term survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest was greater with active compression-decompression cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) than with standard CPR. In the current study, we assessed the effects of the active compression-decompression method on one-year survival. METHODS: Patients who had cardiac arrest in France, more than 80 percent of whom had asystole, were assigned to receive either standard CPR (377 patients) or active compression-decompression CPR (373 patients) according to whether their arrest occurred on an even or odd day of the month, respectively. The primary end point was survival at one year. The rate of survival to hospital discharge without neurologic impairment and the neurologic outcome were secondary end points. RESULTS: Both the rate of hospital discharge without neurologic impairment (6 percent vs. 2 percent, P=0.01) and the one-year survival rate (5 percent vs. 2 percent, P=0.03) were significantly higher among patients who received active compression-decompression CPR than among those who received standard CPR.

Chest. 1994 ;106:872-9. Survival after in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest of noncritically ill patients. A prospective study. Berger R, Kelley M. Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Lexington, KY 40511.
BACKGROUND: The rising healthcare costs and the ethical and economic implications of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have generated interest in defining criteria to predict the appropriateness of CPR in specific patients. Age has been proposed as one such a criterion. METHODS: As part of a quality assurance program, all instances of CPR (code-500) at our VA Medical Center were prospectively studied over a period of 45 months. Only events in noncritical care hospital areas were included in this analysis. The CPR data were prospectively collected, and follow-up of initial survivors was continued until the end of the study period or until a patient died. RESULTS: Of a total of 422 code-500 events, 387 (92 percent) met our study definition of cardiorespiratory arrest, and 255 of these occurred in a noncritical care area and were included in the study. Our immediate survival was 52 percent (n = 132), survival after intensive care unit (ICU) stay was 22 percent (n = 55), survival to hospital discharge was 11 percent (n = 28), and 4 percent of the patients (n = 10) were alive at the end of follow-up (mean, 22 months). None of the patients discharged alive had a significant new neurologic deficit, and all but one returned to their preadmission environment. The post-CPR hospital charges for each of the surviving patients was estimated at $63,000. Whether in-hospital CPR in noncritical care areas is cost-effective is an issue that society at large must eventually decide.

Drugs Exp Clin Res. 1992;18:355-65. Controlled study on L-carnitine therapeutic efficacy in post-infarction. Davini P, ea Santa Chiara Hospital,Pisa, Italy. A controlled study was carried out on 160 patients of both sexes (age between 39 and 86 years) discharged from the Cardiology Department of the Santa Chiara Hospital, Pisa, with a diagnosis of recent myocardial infarction. L-carnitine was randomly administered to 81 patients at an oral dose of g 4/die for 12 months, in addition to the pharmacological treatment generally used. For the whole period of 12 months, these patients showed, in comparison with the controls, an improvement in heart rate (p < 0.005), systolic arterial pressure (p < 0.005) and diastolic arterial pressure (NS); a decrease of anginal attacks (p < 0.005), of rhythm disorders (NS) and of clinical signs of impaired myocardial contractility (NS), and a clear improvement in the lipid pattern (p < 0.005). The above changes were accompanied by 90% lower mortality in the treated group (1.2%, p < 0.005), - in the control group mortality was 12.5%. Furthermore, in the control group there was a definite prevalence of deaths caused by reinfarction and sudden death. On the basis of these results, it is concluded that L-carnitine represents an effective treatment in post-infarction ischaemic cardiopathy, since it can improve the clinical evolution of this pathological condition as well as the patient’s quality of life and life expectancy.

Mol Aspects Med. 1994;15 Suppl:s165-75.
Usefulness of coenzyme Q10 in clinical cardiology: a long-term study.Langsjoen H, University of Texas Galveston .
Over an eight year period (1985-1993), we treated 424 patients with various forms of cardiovascular disease by adding coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to their medical regimens. Doses of CoQ10 ranged from 75 to 600 mg/day by mouth (average 242 mg). Patients were followed for an average of 17.8 months, with a total accumulation of 632 patient years. Eleven patients were omitted from this study: 10 due to non-compliance and one who experienced nausea. Eighteen deaths occurred during the study period with 10 attributable to cardiac causes.. Of 424 patients, 58 per cent improved by one NYHA class, 28% by two classes and 1.2% by three classes. A statistically significant improvement in myocardial function was documented . Before treatment with CoQ10, most patients were taking from one to five cardiac medications. During this study, overall medication requirements dropped considerably: 43% stopped between one and three drugs. Only 6% of the patients required the addition of one drug. No apparent side effects from CoQ10 treatment were noted other than a single case of transient nausea. In conclusion, CoQ10 is a safe and effective adjunctive treatment for a broad range of cardiovascular diseases, producing gratifying clinical responses while easing the medical and financial burden of multidrug therapy.

Mol Aspects Med. 1994;15 Suppl:s143-7. Coenzyme Q10 and antioxidants in acute myocardial infarction.
Kuklinski B, ea Klinikum Südstadt, Rostock, Germany.
Sixty-one patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction, and a symptom’s duration of less than 6 hr were randomized into two groups. Immediately after hospitalisation, members of the verum group (n = 32) received 500 mcg of selenium (as sodium selenite). Thereafter they received a daily dosage of 100 mg coenzyme Q10 (Bio-Quinone) and 100 mcg selenium (seleno-methionine) for a period of one year. The control group (n = 29) were given matching placebo preparations.. Biochemical parameters showed a reduced concentration of CPK- and ASAT-level in the verum group during the acute phase (although not statistically significant). None of the patients in the verum group (i.e. on antioxidative treatment) showed prolongation of the frequency corrected QT-interval. In the control group, 40% revealed a prolongation of the QT-interval by more than 440 msec (p < 0.001). There were no significant differences, with respect to early complications. During the one-year follow-up period after myocardial infarction, six patients (20%) from the control group died from re-infarction whereas one patient from the verum group suffered a non-cardiac death.

Int J Tissue React. 1990;12(3):163-8. Pronounced increase of survival of patients with cardiomyopathy when treated with coenzyme Q10 and conventional therapy. Langsjoen PH, ea Scott and White Clinic, Temple, TX USA.
During 1982-86, 43/137 patients with cardiomyopathy, Classes II, III and IV, had ejection fractions (EF) below 40%, and a mean EF of 25.1 +/- 10.3%. During treatment of these 43 patients with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), EF increased to 41.6 +/- 14.3% (p less than 0.001) over a mean period of 3 months (range, 2-4 months). The mean CoQ10 control blood level was 0.85 +/- 0.26 micrograms/ml which increased on treatment to 1.7 to 2.3 micrograms/ml for five periods up to 36 months (each period, p less than 0.001). The survival rates for all 137 patients treated with CoQ10 and for the 43 patients with EF below 40% were both about 75%/46 months. These two survival rates were comparable between 24 and 46 months, which is of extraordinary significance and importance when compared to survival of about 25%/36 months for 182 patients with EF below 46% on conventional therapy without CoQ10. The improved cardiac function and trippled survival show that therapy with CoQ10 is remarkably beneficial due to correction of CoQ10 deficiency in mechanisms of bioenergetics

MENOPAUSE SYMPTOM CONTROL and the HRT Sex Hormone Replacement vs PLANT REMEDIES DEBATE:

see http://www.imsociety.org/.

We are constantly exhorted to use commercial plant menopause/ andropause antiaging hormone alternatives like soy and black cohosh. The fight for a share of this billion-dollar patent market continues around bewildered aging men, women, healthcare professionals, and purveyors of supplements.

But -owing to the increasing shortage of fish, the overabundance of corn and decreasing grazing space, and the profit imperative - our western diet is now so stuffed with inflammatory omega6 (eg GLA gammalinoleic acid) that the average western diet omega6:omega3 ratio has risen from 6:1 to 20:1 - chickens are no longer fed fish-meal nor livestock on grass as they were when we were children; they are now fed on maize. And fast foods for gullible humans are now loaded with cornstarch.
so we should discourage any omega6 supplements ie plant oils except as salad dressing; but we all need at least 2g if not 4g fishoil a day.

West of Aden, we are not marketing to, caring for, long-lived small slim fish-and brown-rice eating Asians who till the fields all day- quite the opposite. So it is very relevant.
One sees few small Asian women in practice at the southern tip of Africa or north and west, as opposed to East or the Pacific rim. .

Most oil-bearing plants contain some plant estrogens. a patient brought this to my attention angrily after discovering that even flaxseed oil has them, they apparently grew her fibroid. Flax seed is better- only 40% oil, and balanced by the huge benefit of the fibre, lignans.

Soy is most certainly a major source of non-marine omega: per 100g soy - Linoleic Acid (LA-omega6) 9%. Alpha-Linolenic Acid (ALA Omega3) 1.6% ALA is not the marine eicosapentanoic acid EPA+DHA docosahexanoic acid required by human brains and membranes- in infants and sick/ aging humans, our conversion of omega6 GLA - and even ALA - to EPA+DHA -ie marine oil- is far too little for our needs.
So soy provides the opposite of the needed fish oil omega3 (which is 30% in good fish oil).

There is no apparent problem about soya (or eg pueraria) as part of a balanced diet – especially in small women who are largely vegetarians, and especially Asians. And soy is not the ideal fibre source!!!

We surely do not need plant oil extracts as a supplementary panacea when fish oil alone does far better, almost halves all disease and deaths without any adverse effects, and when appropriate HRT, metformin/galega officinalis, and appropriate combined other micronutrients, each reduce all disease and deaths by about 1/3.

Our audience and target is largely postmenopausal Afro/White women in a hugely polluted and stressed ie estrogenic -high cortisol-fat environment.

The problem is vigorous POSTMENOPAUSAL soy/other plant oil supplements- which provide excess phytoestrogens AND omega6 in overweight “westerners”- afro/hispanic/white.

The evidence is worrying that environmental estrogenics (including soya) long term in the West increase the problems of cancer let alone fattening.

It’s the usual story- as with black cohosh, for any commendation of a product,
1. there must be both evidence of benefit (which there is for soy, but not BC),
2. and evidence of need ie there must not be far cheaper safer products that do the job better;
3. and no evidence of harm.

So if there is no evidence of benefit, why recommend :
black cohosh - like red clover, it has no proven medicinal menopause benefit, but it (like kava) can unpredictably albeit rarely kill- black box warnings have been issued by most first world authorities,
or
soy or any plantoil supplement when these may stimulate breast , endometrial and prostate cancer, and aggravate omega6- mediated inflammation, and there is far better specific therapy in appropriate balanced HRT and fish oil? (palm oil MCT and sunflower oil supplement maybe better than soy, if not as good as fish oil.);
or
aspartamate when there are natural plant-derived insulin-sensitizing intense sweeteners like stevia ,
and when aspartamate is a slowly accumulating neuro-excitotoxin, carcinogen and cardiotoxin?

Surprisingly, search under Randomized Controlled Trials RCTs on Medline finds only 3 references for “Menopause symptom relief “, and 1 on “menopause herbs”- these favour estradiol plus androgen or lowdose estradiol + progestin over estrogen or placebo alone; .and estrogen over herbs including black cohosh. Under search for RCTs of black cohosh for menopause symptoms, the great majority of patients show no benefit of BC over placebo at any BC dose . We are all well aware that only drug companies can afford to pay for major drug trials- but only modern designer drugs are patentable, and only blockbuster patents are profitable- so drug companies (and therefore researchers that do research - clinicians, universities etc)- cannot afford to fund independent trials of natural alternatives, and especially not allow comparison of modern synthetics against obviously beneficial but unpatentable natural supplements.

The European, Uk , Canadian, Australian, New Zealand , Japan and Singapore authorities and now the US Pharmacopoeia- have all issued warnings against black cohosh BC. RSA remains the only (?ex-) “1st world” country where “authorities ” - MCC, HPCSA and Health24 - still ignore the issue of potential fatality. The University of Cape Town Medicines Information Centre issued a solitary warning in September 2006. The Health Products Association of South Africa still (January 200 refuses to withdraw its Endorsement of black cohosh on it’s website, despite the evidence against it.

So why promote BC or soya concentrates for any menopause therapy? Since the greatest common voluntary killers- sugar, alcohol, tobacco, motorcars, weapons, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs- are freely available to adults, there is no reason to restrict sales of lesser potential hazards like xenohormones. But it is immoral to promote them (sugar, cigarettes, black cohosh, horse hormones, soya supplements), when there is no good evidence of need let alone benefit, and there is evidence of potential lethal harm in conventional usage.

The Wikipedia Menopause review puts it in perspective:
Treatment of symptoms (Appropriate conservative ) “hormone therapy provides the best relief.” While the prognosis from advanced memory or vascular deterioration or hip fracture is poor, appropriate physiological “hormone therapy from menopause is amongst the best prevention/ treatment for osteoporosis”; vascular disease; insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes; depression and memory loss.
“GABA” and 5HTP and their patent derivatives are ” second only to HRT in relief of menopause symptoms.”
“Complementary and alternative therapies Medical non-hormone treatments provide less than complete relief, and each has side effects. There are claims that soy isoflavones are beneficial concerning menopause. Other remedies that have proven no better than a placebo at treating hot flashes and other menopause symptoms include red clover isoflavone extracts and black cohosh. Black cohosh has potentially serious side-effects such as the stimulation of breast cancer, therefore prolonged administration is not recommended in any case.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean debunks many of the claimed benefits of soy supplements.

The 2007 Review of the world expert menopause body, the International Menopause Society, says it all on ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS: at http://www.imsociety.org/pdf_files/ims_recommendations/ims_updated_recommendations_on_postmenopausal_hormone_therapy_27_02_07.pdf
“The efficacy and safety of complementary alternative medicines have not been demonstrated and further studies are required.”
Bodies promoting alternative therapies are not qualified to judge, let alone endorse products for treatment of symptoms that affect most older women, when well-proven remedies without any significant risks are well established. “
“There are no medical or scientific reasons to recommend unregistered bio-identical hormones.” The only proven and approved safe long-term treatment post menopause is appropriate registered HRT; and as alternative, GABApentin for hot flash relief.
Intensive post-menopause experience with appropriate HRT (even horse hormone HT) for almost 60 yrs has shown only benefit - and trials for up to 10 years (WHI; Oulu) the same.

The SAMS Review of Menopause therapy notes: No therapy for menopausal symptoms should be initiated without proper clinical assessment including breast and pelvic examination http://www.samenopausesociety.co.za/asp/pdf/SAMS%20Statement2006.pdf.;
and condemns black cohosh: http://www.samenopausesociety.co.za/asp/content.asp?ContentID=27

Thus, given the risks in middle-aged women, it is quite clear that no-one except a registered appropriately trained health professional may recommend therapy for menopause symptoms - which affect the majority of women at the most critical time of their lives, when they should if anything be starting (after appropriate clinical examination ) on appropriate HRT (for which there are rarely absolute permanent contra-indications), and when any menopause therapy requires that they be assessed clinically before any such therapy, and then regularly on it. Hot flashes are not always due to hormone imbalance- which is why placebo has such strong effect, and Gabapentin/5HTP more so..

Insulin resistance, overweight and obesity have become the greatest midlife risks in the affluent. So it is worth noting that while appropriate HRT, fish oil and hundreds of other natural supplements lower insulin resistance, fish oil is apparently better than olive oil, which is in turn better than sunflower and soy oils as regards insulin sensitization.

Finally, Professor Fred Naftolin of the IMS comments January 31, 2008 as follows
” This is an immensely complex area and cannot be disposed of with a few platitudes.
All agents that interact with ERs estrogen receptors - like phytoestrogens - are SERMS. This means that in isolation they have a specific profile of agonistic action, but have an antagonistic profile in the presence of other SERMS. Further, this may both tissue and subject-specific.
In short, the patient is on her own when she begins to experiment with these agents. This is true when using pharmaceutical compounds, but at least they will have been more widely tested using standardized paradigms.”

(Professor Fred Naftolin retired a few years ago from Chairmanship of Obs & Gyne at Yale, was then Prof of Biology there for a few years then “retired” to his present research position at New York University with the Nachtigalls.
He is a chairman of the scientific committee of the International Menopause Society. He has 444 citations on Pubmed since 1966, 55 papers as first author, and 10 books to his name.. He is a very modest man, arguably one of the greatest living authorities on women’s health, reproduction and biology, a born teacher, and a supreme diplomat in the chair under fire - as when colleagues raged around him over the Women’s Health Initiative debacle at the Vienna workshop in December 2003. Thus, to paraphrase Kipling, he could keep his head when all around us, the self-styled Regulators of Europe, UK and USA were losing theirs and damning gold-standard appropriate HRT.)

READ THE LITERATURE:

This April 2008 fulltext report in the latest MJAustralia is the latest published case of specific-type fatal iiver failure attributable solely to BC:
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/188_07_070408/cho11166_fm.html

Black cohosh: a cause of abnormal postmenopausal liver function tests The health scares restricting the use of hormone replacement therapy have made women tend to opt for ‘natural’ remedies that are generally perceived as safe. Unfortunately, there is lack of definite opinion on the safety of herbal remedies. Black cohosh is commonly used for postmenopausal symptoms. We present two cases of liver toxicity related to this and recommend close monitoring of women on this herbal preparation. D. Joy ea, UK. Climacteric, 2008:11: 84 - 88

Can the combination of flaxseed and its lignans with soy and its isoflavones reduce the growth stimulatory effect of soy and its isoflavones on established breast cancer? Consumption of phytoestrogen (PE)-rich foods (i. e., soy and flaxseed (FS)) is increasing because of their suggested health benefits. However, recent studies raise concern over the safety of soy and its isoflavones, particularly genistein (GEN), for postmenopausal breast cancer (BC), due to their potential stimulatory effects on human breast tissue and on the growth of existing tumors in rodents.(Power KA, Thompson LU. University of Toronto, Canada.Mol Nutr Food Res. 2007 J51:845-56. )

Endometrial effects of long-term treatment with phytoestrogens: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Long-term treatment (up to 5 years) with soy phytoestrogens was associated with an increased occurrence of endometrial hyperplasia. These findings call into question the long-term safety of phytoestrogens with regard to the endometrium. Unfer V et al, Obstetrics and Gynecology Centre, Rome, Italy. Fertil Steril. 2004;82:145-8,

Clinical characteristics and pharmacokinetics of purified soy isoflavones: multiple-dose administration to men with prostate neoplasia..In men with prostate cancer, relatively minor side effects of chronic soy isoflavone treatment were observed including some estrogenic effects (breast changes, increased frequency of hot flashes). Serum dehydroepiandrosterone was decreased by 31.7%. (Fischer L et al University of North Carolina Nutr Cancer. 2004;48:160-70)

Exposure to soy-based formula in infancy and endocrinological and reproductive outcomes in young adulthood.
women fed soy formula as infants reported slightly longer duration of menstrual bleeding with no difference in severity of menstrual flow. They also reported greater discomfort with menstruation. Infant exposure to soy formula does not appear to lead to different general health or reproductive outcomes than exposure to cow milk formula. (Strom BL et al University of Pennsylvania, JAMA. 2001;286:807-14).

Evaluation of soy phytoestrogens for the treatment of hot flashes in breast cancer survivors: A North Central Cancer Treatment. Group Trial. Although it has been shown that estrogen or progesterone replacement therapy can alleviate this problem, there are continued safety concerns regarding the use of hormonal therapies in these women. The soy product did not alleviate hot flashes in breast cancer survivors. Quella SK, et al: Mayo Clinic Rochester, USA. J Clin Oncol. 2000 ;18:1068-74.)

.Effect of the interaction between the fatty acid binding protein 2 gene Ala54Thr polymorphism and dietary fatty acids on peripheral insulin sensitivity: a cross-sectional study.Morcillo S, Rojo-Martínez G,ea, Hospital Universitario Carlos Haya , Málaga, Spain. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):1232-7 : Anthropometric measurements were obtained for 1226 persons aged 18-65 y selected randomly from the municipal census of Pizarra, Spain. An oral-glucose-tolerance test was given to 1020 of these persons. Samples of the cooking oil being used were taken from the kitchens of a random subset of 538 persons. RESULTS: Persons who consumed sunflower oil and who also had the Thr54 variant had higher insulin resistance than did those who consumed olive oil (P = 0.01).

Soybean oil treatment impairs glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and changes fatty acid composition of normal and diabetic islets.Nunes E, ea . Institute of Physiology, Coimbra, Portugal. Acta Diabetol. 2007 ;44:121-30. We observed that soybean-treated Wistar rats present insulin resistance and defective islet insulin secretion when compared with untreated Wistar rats. The decrease in insulin secretion occurred at all concentrations of glucose and arginine tested. Concerning diabetic animals, we observed that soybean-treated diabetic rats, when compared with untreated GK rats, present an increase in plasma non-fasting free fatty acids, an exacerbation of islet insulin secretion impairment in all conditions tested and a significant decrease in the monounsaturated palmitoleic acid. Altogether our results show that SO treatment results in a decrease of insulin secretion and alterations on fatty acid composition in normal and diabetic islets. Furthermore, the impairment of insulin secretion, islet erucic acid and fasting plasma insulin levels are similar in treated normal and untreated diabetic rats, suggesting that SO could have a deleterious effect on beta-cell function and insulin sensitivity.

Oleic acid from cooking oils is associated with lower insulin resistance in the general population (Pizarra study).
Soriguer F, ea Hospital Universitario Carlos Haya, Malaga, Spain.
Eur J Endocrinol. 2004;150:33-9.
AIM: To evaluate the relation between type of dietary fatty acid and degree of insulin resistance. Anthropometrical data were measured in 538 subjects, aged 18-65 Years, selected randomly from the municipal census of Pizarra (Spain). An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was given to all subjects and measurements were made of glycemia, insulinemia and the proportion of fatty acids in plasma phospholipids Samples of cooking oil being used were obtained from the kitchens. RESULTS: Insulin resistance was significantly less in people who used olive oil compared with those who used sunflower oil or a mixture. Statistical significance remained in the group of people with normal OGTT after adjusting for obesity. In the whole sample, IR correlated negatively with the concentration of oleic acid (r=-0.11; P=0.02) and positively with that of linoleic acid (r=0.10; P=0.02) from the cooking oil. In subjects with normal OGTT, IR correlated negatively with oleic acid from cooking oil (r=-0.17; P=0.004) and from plasma phospholipids (r=-0.11; P=0.01) and positively with the concentration of linoleic acid in cooking oil (r=0.18; P=0.004) and plasma phospholipids (r=0.12; P=0.005). The risk (OR) of having raised IR was significantly lower in people who consumed olive oil, either alone (OR=0.50) or mixed (OR=0.52) compared with those who consumed only sunflower oil.