all Health Professionals Follow-Up Study stories

Postdiagnosis aspirin use reduces risk of dying from colorectal cancer

404132862 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:32:46 -0400

Regular use of aspirin after colorectal cancer diagnosis may reduce the risk of cancer death, report Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study’s authors also find that the aspirin-associated survival advantage was seen primarily in patients with tumors expressing the COX

Study says moderate drinking reduces men's heart attack risk

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:10:56 -0400

Even as studies have consistently found an association between moderate alcohol consumption and reduced heart attack risk in men, an important question has persisted: What if the men who drank in moderation were the same individuals who maintained good eating habits, didn't smoke, exercised and watched their weight?

How would you know that their reduced risk of myocardial infarction wasn't the result of one or more of these other healthy habits?

A new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) helps answer this question. Reported in the Oct. 23, 2006, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the findings show for the first time that among men with healthy lifestyles, those who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol - defined as between one-half and two drinks daily - had a 40 percent to 60 percent reduced risk of heart attack compared with healthy men who didn't drink at all.

"This latest research speaks to how robust the link is between moderate drinking and heart attack risk," explains lead author Kenneth Mukamal, MD, MPH, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The fact that we found the association [between alcohol consumption and heart attack] to be just as strong in this tightly controlled group of men as we've found it to be in more general studies suggests that physicians should not avoid alcohol consumption as a topic for discussion when talking with patients about ways to reduce their risk of myocardial infarction."

Fatty foods feed heart attacks, researchers say

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:26:30 -0400

Hold the french fries, doughnuts, and cookies, and save as many as 228,000 heart attacks and deaths from heart disease. That's the message from a team of researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

"Given the 1.2 million annual [heart attacks] and deaths from coronary heart disease in the United States, near-elimination of industrially produced trans fats might avert between 72,000 and 228,000 coronary heart events each year," the researchers report. Trans fats are also thought to play a role in unexplained sudden deaths and diabetes.

The major sources of trans fats include deep-fried fast foods, bakery products, packaged snack foods, margarines, and crackers. French fries, breaded fish burgers, breaded chicken nuggets, Danish pastries, pies, doughnuts, and cookies are the big offenders. Hamburgers, steaks, lamb chops, and dairy products contain only small amounts of natural trans fats so they don't make the list of "worsts." "The presence of beneficial factors in dairy and these meats may balance the effects of the smaller amount of trans fats they contain," according to Dariush Mozaffarian, lead author of the report that appears in the April 13, 2006, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Ten to 19 percent of the coronary heart disease in the United States (120,000 to 228,000 heart attacks) could be averted by reducing the intake of trans fats, says Walter Willett, head of the research and Fredrick Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

According to the evidence that Mozaffarian, Willett, and their colleagues gathered from studies in the United States and Europe, the "adverse health effects of trans-fatty acids are far stronger on average than those of food contaminants or pesticide residues, which have in some cases received considerable attention. Furthermore, trans fats have no intrinsic health value above their calories."

The research team suggests that trans fats be reduced or eliminated from foods sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines. Opposing arguments from food manufacturers and restaurants maintain that this would raise costs and lower taste. Recent experiences in Europe indicate that such concerns are overstated, say the researchers. They mention Denmark as a prime example. In that country, all oils and fats used in locally made or imported foods must contain less than 2 percent of industrially produced trans fats.

Study finds men who consume more dairy products have lower incidence of diabetes

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:18:16 -0400

A report from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) - the first large-scale, prospective examination of a relationship between dairy intake and diabetes risk - analyzes data from the HSPH-based Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

"Our study found that men consuming higher levels of dairy products, especially low-fat dairy foods, had a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes during a 12-year period," says Hyon Choi, director of Outcomes Research in the MGH Rheumatology Unit, the paper's lead author. "However, individuals should consider both the benefits and risks of dairy foods before considering changing their diets."

Lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise and weight are established risk factors for type 2 diabetes. Several recent studies have suggested that dairy consumption may help control weight and blood pressure and reduce the risks of health problems such as coronary artery disease and gout. Other research has implied that dairy foods could help prevent insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes. The researchers conducted the current study to directly examine the relationship between dairy consumption and diabetes.

Low-fat dairy foods may help reduce risk of type 2 diabetes

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:20:22 -0400

"Our study found that men consuming higher levels of dairy products, especially low-fat dairy foods, had a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes during a 12-year period," says Hyon Choi, M.D., Dr.PH, director of Outcomes Research in the MGH Rheumatology Unit and the paper's lead author.

Recent research has implied that dairy foods could help prevent insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes. The researchers conducted the current study to directly examine the relationship between dairy consumption and diabetes.

Initiated in 1986, the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study has gathered information regarding the relationship between dietary factors and several illnesses from more than 50,000 men employed as health professionals. Biennially, participants complete questionnaires regarding diseases and health-related topics such as smoking and exercise, and every four years the questionnaires also collect comprehensive dietary information.

The current study evaluated information from more than 41,000 participants who did not have diabetes when the study began. Those men who reported developing type 2 diabetes during the study period completed a supplementary survey, which confirmed the diagnosis in about 1,200 participants.

Results showed that those men consuming more dairy had significantly less risk of developing type 2 diabetes than did those consuming less, and further analysis showed the risk reduction was almost exclusively associated with low-fat or non-fat dairy foods.

Choi says that it is still to be determined whether these results apply to women and younger men, or whether dairy could be helpful to those already suffering from diabetes.

Weight gain and obesity linked to higher risk of kidney stones

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:19:47 -0400

"Our study demonstrated that multiple measures of larger body size, including larger waist circumference, higher weight, and higher body mass index, were related to an elevated risk of kidney stones," said Eric Taylor, M.D., a BWH researcher and nephrologist.

The data are based on a study of approximately 45,000 men and more than 200,000 women enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and the Nurses' Health Study who were followed for up to 20 years.

The researchers, who accounted for difference in diet, fluid intake, and medications in the study participants, report that women in the highest weight category had an 89-percent greater risk, and men a 44-percent greater risk, of kidney stones than those in the lowest weight category.

Coffee cuts diabetes risk

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:33:49 -0400

More than 125,000 study participants who were free of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease at the start of a study were selected from the on-going Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Brigham and Women's Hospital-based Nurses Health Study. Some 41,934 men were tracked from 1986 to 1998 and 84,276 women from1980 to 1998 via food frequency questionnaires every two to four years to assess their intake of both regular and decaffeinated coffee. During the span of the study, 1,333 new cases of type 2 diabetes were diagnosed in men and 4,085 among the women participants.

Low-carb more effective than low-fat

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:32:39 -0400

A study put three groups of dieters on different regimens. They included a low-fat group, a low-carbohydrate group that ate the same number of calories, and a third group on a similar low-carbohydrate plan that included 300 extra calories a day. The low-carbohydrate dieters lost more weight than low-fat dieters despite eating 25,000 extra calories over a 12-week study period. The findings generated national attention after Penelope Greene, a visiting scholar in the Harvard School of Public Health's Nutrition Department, presented her research Oct. 13, 2003, at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Greene conducted the study with Walter Willett, Nutrition Department chair and Fredrick Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition. Participants in all three groups lost weight, Greene said, with the low-fat group losing an average of 17 pounds and the low-carbohydrate group that ate the same number of calories losing 23 pounds. The biggest surprise, however, was that the low-carbohydrate dieters eating extra calories lost more than those on the low-fat diet. Participants in that low-carbohydrate group lost an average of 20 pounds.

Anti-inflammatory drugs may reduce Parkinson's disease risk

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:31:26 -0400

In the first study to investigate the potential benefit in humans of the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in reducing the risk of Parkinson's disease, Harvard School of Public Health researchers found that regular users of these drugs had a lower risk for Parkinson's disease than non-users. More than 44,000 men and nearly 99,000 women were followed for 14 years and 18 years, respectively. Use of aspirin and non-aspirin NSAIDs (such as Motrin, Advil, ibuprofen, Indocin, Naprosyn) was assessed via biennial questionnaires. A total of 236 men and 179 women developed Parkinson's disease during the course of the study. The risk of developing Parkinson's disease was 45 percent lower among men and women who regularly used non-aspirin NSAIDs than among non-users. Regular use of non-aspirin NSAIDs was reported by 6.1 percent of the men at the beginning of the study and 3.7 percent of the women. The findings appeared in the August 2003 issue of The Archives of Neurology.

Generous portions of TV make women fat

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:29:10 -0400

The first study to compare the effects of inactivity on obesity and diabetes concludes that being a couch potato significantly raises the risk of both diseases. "Our data provide strong evidence that sedentary behaviors, especially prolonged TV watching, are directly related to the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes," reports Frank Hu, leader of a team from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Medical School that did the research. "In contrast, even light to moderate activity, such as walking and housework, substantially lowers the risk." Previous studies have shown that children who watch too much TV gain too much weight. A different Harvard investigation, called the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, found a positive link between heavy TV viewing and type 2 diabetes.

Study finds frequent consumption of alcohol linked to lower risk of heart attack in men

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:27:29 -0400

Men who drank moderate amounts of alcoholic beverages three or more times a week had a risk of myocardial infarction 30 to 35 percent lower than nondrinkers. The observational study, which tracked the drinking habits of nearly 40,000 men over a 12-year period, provides an important clue as to how alcohol helps guard against coronary heart disease, and for the first time, strongly suggests that routine consumption of alcoholic beverages is key. "Even relatively modest amounts of alcohol may be protective if consumed frequently,” said the study's first author, Kenneth Mukamal, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Division of General Medicine and Primary Care and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Our results document that a pattern of regular consumption at least three to four days per week is associated with the lowest risk of heart attacks.” The findings appeared in the Jan. 9, 2003, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. This research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Men can reduce stroke risk by eating fish

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:27:27 -0400

Researchers tracked the diet and health outcomes of more than 43,000 male participants for 12 years. Using detailed food frequency questionnaires, participants were asked how often they ate fish, ranging from never or less than once per month to six or more times per week. The men in the study were also asked about four different fish items: canned tuna fish, dark meat fish such as mackerel, salmon sardines, bluefish and swordfish; other fish and shrimp, lobster, or scallops served as a main dish. The researchers assessed the effect of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, a constituent of fish believed to have healthful effects, on the risk of ischemic stroke (blood flow to a certain area of the brain is interrupted). They found that men who ate even a small amount of fish, one to three times per month from any of the fish categories, reduced their risk of ischemic stroke by 40 percent. There was no evidence of further risk reduction of stroke by consuming fish more often. The findings appeared in the Dec. 25, 2002, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

New alternative to USDA dietary guidelines nearly twice as effective in reducing risk for major chronic disease

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:27:14 -0400

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health rigorously assessed the diets of more than 100,000 men and women and found that the reduction in risk was nearly twice as great for those whose diet met the new guidelines when compared to those whose eating patterns reflected the current USDA dietary guidelines. The findings appeared in the December 2002 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "The current federal guidelines as displayed in the government food guide pyramid emphasizes large amounts of carbohydrates, doesn't make a distinction between types of fat or protein and lumps red meat, chicken, nuts and legumes together," said researcher Walter Willett, chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "We developed a food guide pyramid based on the best available science and examined how people who followed it did over the next 10 to 15 years and we found that those who followed our guidelines had substantially reduced risks for major disease. These benefits, achieved by healthy dietary choices, are in addition to those from weight control and regular physical activity, which are also very important."

Specific types of exercise can significantly reduce risk of heart disease among men

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:24:12 -0400

A pool of 44,452 men from the Health Professionals' Follow-Up Study were monitored via questionnaire every two years from 1986 to 1998 to determine potential coronary heart disease risk factors and type and intensity of leisure time activity. While studies have been conducted on the beneficial relationship of exercise and risk of CHD, there is a scarcity of information on what role exercise type and intensity level play in reducing CHD risk. Researchers found that men who trained with weights for 30 minutes or more per week reduced their risk for CHD by 23 percent compared to those who didn't train with weights.

Eating fish may reduce risk of sudden death

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:20:40 -0400

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health have been following the health of more than 22,000 male doctors since 1982. They examined fatty acids from fish in the blood of 94 of these men who died suddenly and compared the results with 184 living men matched for age and how much they smoked. Those with the highest levels of fatty acids from fish in their blood had an 81 percent lower risk of sudden death than those with the lowest levels. "Overall, the higher the amounts of omega-3 fatty acids climbed in blood samples, the greater sudden-death-risk was reduced," said Christine Albert, leader of the study. The results were reported in the April 11, 2002, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Another study, conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health, followed 84,688 female nurses. "Our research suggests that women can reduce their risk of heart disease by more than 30 percent by eating fish two to four times a week," said Frank Hu, leader of the study and an associate professor of nutrition and cardiovascular disease. Hu's team reported their results in the April 2002 Journal of the American Medical Association.