News

Omega fats may ward off cancer

A new study has found that higher levels of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are associated with a lower risk of developing several types of cancer.

Researchers from the University of Georgia analysed data from more than 250,000 people who were followed for more than a decade. Of those participants, almost 30,000 developed some form of cancer during the study period.

Participants with higher levels of omega-3s had lower rates of colon, stomach and lung cancer, in addition to lower rates of other digestive tract cancers. High omega-6 levels led to lower rates of 14 different cancers, including brain, malignant melanoma, bladder and more. The researchers noted a stronger beneficial effect of omega-6 in younger participants, particularly women. However, they also found that high omega-3 levels could be associated with a slightly higher risk of prostate cancer.

The findings were published in the International Journal of Cancer.

Time in nature benefits children with mental health difficulties

Canadian researchers have found that spending two hours a week of class time in a natural environment helped reduce emotional distress in children with significant mental health problems. Approximately 1,000 children aged between 10 and 12 took part in the study, which was conducted by researchers from McGill University and the University of Montreal.

Half of the children stayed in school, while the other half took part in a nature-based programme in a local park for two hours each week. During this time, the teachers held their regular classes in subjects such as maths, languages or science in addition to a short activity designed to promote mental health. This included things like drawing a tree or a mandala, writing haikus and mindful walking.

At the end of a three-month period, the teachers noted that the biggest changes in behaviour occurred in children with the most significant problems at the outset, including anxiety and depression, aggression and impulsivity, or social problems relating to interaction with their peers.

The study was published in in JAMA Network Open.

Sitting raises risk of heart disease, study shows

Ten or more hours of sedentary behaviour per day is associated with a heightened risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death, a new study has revealed.

The study explored how sedentary behaviour and physical activity together impact the chances of atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure (HF), myocardial infarction (MI) and cardiovascular (CV) mortality.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital analysed data from 89,530 participants who wore a device that captured their movements over seven days. The average sedentary time per day was 9.4 hours.

After an average follow-up of eight years, 3,638 individuals (4.9%) developed incident AF, 1,854 (2.1%) developed incident HF, 1,610 (1.84%) developed indecent MI and 846 (0.94%) died of CV causes. The effects of sedentary time varied by outcome. For AF and MI, the risk increased steadily over time without major shifts. For HF and CV mortality, the increase in risk was minimal until sedentary time exceeded 10.6 hours a day, at which point the risk rose significantly.

“Future guidelines and public health efforts should stress the importance of cutting down on sedentary time,” said Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH, co-senior author of the study. “Avoiding more than 10.6 hours per day may be a realistic minimal target for better heart health.”

The findings were published in JACC, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Vitamin D during pregnancy boosts children’s bone health

Children whose mothers took extra vitamin D during pregnancy continue to have stronger bones at age seven, a new study has shown.

Researchers from the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton (UHS) first launched the study in 2009. They recruited over 1,000 pregnant women who were randomly allocated to two groups. One group took an extra 1,000 International Units per day of vitamin D while the other took a placebo tablet each day. The pregnant women, and the doctors and midwives looking after them, did not know which group they were in.

Previous research assessed the children’s bone health at four years of age and the results showed that the child’s bone mass was greater in children born to mothers who had had vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy compared with those who had not.

In this latest study, the researchers investigated whether the effects on bone health continued into mid-childhood. The team followed up with 454 children aged six to seven.

The results confirmed that the beneficial effect on children’s bones was similar at ages four and six to seven. The researchers say the findings reinforce the importance of vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy as a public health strategy.

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.