Mother’s milk lowers diabetes risk later in life

[Naveed Yaseen]

Infants who are on mom’s milk have a reduced chance of developing diabetes later in life, according to a recent study.

The new study found that breast-feeding for at least two months cut the risk of non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM) by more than 50%.

“Given the possible protective effect of breast-feeding on non-insulin dependent diabetes in the Pima Indian population, the disturbing worldwide trends toward less breast-feeding, and the increased rate of NIDDM — particularly in developing countries — further data about the risk of NIDDM and breast-feeding practices from other populations are clearly needed,” reported lead study author Dr. David J. Pettitt in the current issue of the journal The Lancet.

The research team from Phoenix, Arizona-based National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders looked at 720 Pima Indians for whom there was infant feeding information recorded in 1978. About 20% of those who were exclusively breast-fed in the first two months developed NIDDM between the ages of 30 to 39, compared with 30% who were bottle-fed.

However, more study is needed to determine if the relationship may be due to some other factor besides breast-feeding, and if the results are the same in other ethnic groups, according to Dr. David Simmons, of Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand.

“Although breast-feeding is now almost universally accepted as the ideal means of infant nutrition, one thing that has become clear is that those who choose to breast-feed are different from those choosing to bottle-feed,” he wrote in an editorial accompanying the study. Studies conducted in the U.S. show that women who breast-feed tend to be better educated and more likely to have other positive health habits, as well.

“In conclusion, mom’s milk remains best to ensure that a child takes a good start in life.

Vitamin E protects muscles during weight lifting: Vitamin E is known to be important in the formation of red blood cells and to protect the muscle cell membranes from damage during aerobic exercise such as running. Now, preliminary findings show that vitamin E supplements may also protect muscle cell membranes during resistance training such as weight lifting.

Dr. Bruce W. Craig from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, carried out a detailed research to study the phenomenon.

In the study, 11 untrained men with an average age of 25 underwent 3 weeks of weight training. Six of the men took a daily capsule of 1,200 International Units of vitamin E while the other five participants took a placebo (inactive) pill.

Craig and colleagues analyzed each man’s blood level of creatine kinase, an enzyme that is an indicator of muscle damage. The investigators measured the creatine kinase after ‘power tests’—three sets of upper and lower body weight lifting.

“Vitamin E supplements did protect the muscle membrane,” Craig revealed. Men taking vitamin E had an increase in creatine kinase levels 48 hours after the last power test. However, in men not taking vitamin E, that “muscle damage factor showed up sooner—at 6 hours and 24 hours after the last power test,” Craig said.

Vitamin E supplementation did not affect the men’s ability to produce force or power, he added.The researchers also found a difference in responsiveness to insulin—the hormone that regulates blood sugar—between the men taking vitamin E supplements and those taking placebo capsules. People who develop type 2, or adult-onset diabetes, often lose their sensitivity to the hormone. However, Craig said that further studies are needed to verify the results seen in the study.

Scans improve lung cancer treatment: When it comes to treating lung cancer, a certain type of scan can be a big help when it comes to determining the best treatment, researchers report.

The scan is positron emission tomography (PET) and in a new study, PET scans changed or influenced treatment for two-thirds of the patients with lung cancer, according to the study in the recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The study included 105 patients with non-small-cell lung carcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer, accounting for about 80% of the over 160,000 lung cancer cases diagnosed each year in the US.

In 27 patients, PET scans revealed that the cancer was more advanced than previously thought. Their treatment plan was therefore changed from an effort to cure the cancer to an effort to just control the pain and treat symptoms-sparing the patients futile treatments and painful side effects.

In addition, 10 of 16 patients with cancer thought to be too advanced to treat were found to have more treatable illness than previously thought. In 12 patients thought to have inoperable cancer, PET scans revealed that surgery was possible.

“Patients were frequently spared unnecessary treatment, and management was more appropriately targeted,” conclude Dr. Rodney Hicks and colleagues at Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

Typically, computed tomography (CT) and bone scans are used to diagnose lung cancer and to guide appropriate treatment. Although PET scans are relatively expensive, they should be performed in addition to such scans, according to the research team.

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