Acute effects of mustard, horseradish, black pepper and ginger on energy expenditure, appetite, ad libitum energy intake and energy balance in human subjects.
Chilli peppers have been shown to enhance diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) and reduce energy intake (EI) in some studies, but there are few data on other pungent spices. The primary aim of the present study was to test the acute effects of black pepper (pepper), ginger, horseradish and mustard in a meal on 4 h postprandial DIT. The secondary aim was to examine the effects on subjective appetite measures, ad libitum EI and energy balance. In a five-way placebo-controlled, single-blind, cross-over trial, twenty-two young (age 24·9 (SD 4·6) years), normal-weight (BMI 21·8 (SD 2·1) kg/m²) males were randomly assigned to receive a brunch meal with either pepper (1·3 g), ginger (20 g), horseradish (8·3 g), mustard (21 g) or no spices (placebo). The amounts of spices were chosen from pre-testing to make the meal spicy but palatable. No significant treatment effects were observed on DIT, but mustard produced DIT, which tended to be larger than that of placebo (14 %, 59 (SE 3) v. 52 (SE 2) kJ/h, respectively, P=0·08). No other spice induced thermogenic effects approaching statistical significance. Subjective measures of appetite (P>0·85), ad libitum EI (P=0·63) and energy balance (P=0·67) also did not differ between the treatments. Finally, horseradish decreased heart rate (P=0·048) and increased diastolic blood pressure (P= 0·049) compared with placebo. In conclusion, no reliable treatment effects on appetite, EI or energy balance were observed, although mustard tended to be thermogenic at this dose. Further studies should explore the possible strength and mechanisms of the potential thermogenic effect of mustard actives, and potential enhancement by, for example, combinations with other food components.
Added predictive ability of the CHA2DS2VASc risk score for stroke and death in patients with atrial fibrillation: the prospective Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health cohort study.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the added predictive ability of the CHA(2)DS(2)VASc prediction rule for stroke and death in a nonanticoagulated population of patients with atrial fibrillation.
We included 1603 nonanticoagulated patients with incident atrial fibrillation from a Danish prospective cohort study of 57 053 middle-aged men and women. The Net Reclassification Improvement was calculated as a measure to estimate any overall improvement in reclassification with the CHA(2)DS(2)VASc sore as an alternative to the CHADS(2) score. After 1-year follow-up, crude incidence rates were 3.4 per 100 person-years for stroke and 13.6 for death. After a mean follow-up of 5.4 years (± 3.7 years), the crude incidence rates for stroke and death were 1.9 and 5.6, respectively. During the entire observation period, the c-statistics and negative predictive values were similar for both risk scores. The Net Reclassification Improvement analysis showed that 1 of 10 reclassified atrial fibrillation patients would have been upgraded correctly using the CHA(2)DS(2)VASc score.
Both the CHADS(2) as well as the CHA(2)DS(2)VASc risk score can exclude a large proportion of patients from having high risk of stroke or death. However, using the CHA(2)DS(2)VASc risk score, fewer patients will fulfill the criterion for low risk (and are truly low risk for thromboembolism). For every 10 extra patients transferred to the treatment group at 5 years, using the CHA(2)DS(2)VASc risk score, 1 patient would have had a stroke that might have been avoided with effective treatment.
Pages 787-795 in N. Murphy and A. Parkinson, eds. Circumpolar Health 2012: Circumpolar Health Comes Full Circle. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress on Circumpolar Health, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, August 5-10, 2012. International Journal of Circumpolar Health 2013;72 (Suppl 1):787-795
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
Source
Pages 787-795 in N. Murphy and A. Parkinson, eds. Circumpolar Health 2012: Circumpolar Health Comes Full Circle. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress on Circumpolar Health, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, August 5-10, 2012. International Journal of Circumpolar Health 2013;72 (Suppl 1):787-795
A World War II defense site at Northway, Alaska, was remediated in the 1990s, leaving complex questions regarding historic exposures to toxic waste. This article describes the context, methods, limitations and findings of the Northway Wild Food and Health Project (NWFHP).
The NWFHP comprised 2 pilot studies: the Northway Wild Food Study (NWFS), which investigated contaminants in locally prioritized traditional foods over time, and the Northway Health Study (NHS), which investigated locally suspected links between resource uses and health problems.
This research employed mixed methods. The NWFS reviewed remedial documents and existing data. The NHS collected household information regarding resource uses and health conditions by questionnaire and interview. NHS data represent general (yes or no) personal knowledge that was often second hand. Retrospective cohort comparisons were made of the reported prevalence of 7 general health problems between groups based on their reported (yes or no) consumption of particular resources, for 3 data sets (existing, historic and combined) with a two-tailed Fisher's Exact Test in SAS (n = 325 individuals in 83 households, 24 of which no longer exist).
The NWFS identified historic pathways of exposure to petroleum, pesticides, herbicides, chlorinated byproducts of disinfection and lead from resources that were consumed more frequently decades ago and are not retrospectively quantifiable. The NHS found complex patterns of association between reported resource uses and cancer and thyroid-, reproductive-, metabolic- and cardiac problems.
Lack of detail regarding medical conditions, undocumented histories of exposure, time lapsed since the release of pollution and changes to health and health care over the same period make this exploratory research. Rather than demonstrate causation, these results document the legitimacy of local suspicions and warrant additional investigation. This article presents our findings, with discussion of limitations related to study design and limitations that are inherent to such research.
Notes
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Due to differences in food cultures, dietary quality measures, such as the Mediterranean Diet Score, may not be easily adopted by other countries. Recently, the Baltic Sea Diet Pyramid was developed to illustrate healthy choices for the diet consumed in the Nordic countries. We assessed whether the Baltic Sea Diet Score (BSDS) based on the Pyramid is associated with a decreased risk of obesity and abdominal obesity. The population-based cross-sectional study included 4720 Finns (25-74 years) from the National FINRISK 2007 study. Diet was assessed using a validated FFQ. The score included Nordic fruits and berries, vegetables, cereals, ratio of PUFA:SFA and trans-fatty acids, low-fat milk, fish, red and processed meat, total fat (percentage of energy), and alcohol. Height, weight and waist circumference (WC) were measured and BMI values were calculated. In a multivariable model, men in the highest v. lowest BSDS quintile were more likely to have normal WC (OR 0·48, 95 % CI 0·29, 0·80). In women, this association was similar but not significant (OR 0·65, 95 % CI 0·39, 1·09). The association appeared to be stronger in younger age groups (men: OR 0·23, 95 % CI 0·08, 0·62; women: OR 0·17, 95 % CI 0·05, 0·58) compared with older age groups. Nordic cereals and alcohol were found to be the most important BSDS components related to WC. No association was observed between the BSDS and BMI. The present study suggests that combination of Nordic foods, especially cereals and moderate alcohol consumption, is likely to be inversely associated with abdominal obesity.
Obesity has been increasing in adolescents in Fiji and obesogenic dietary patterns need to be assessed to inform health promotion. The objective of this study was to identify the dietary patterns of adolescents in peri-urban Fiji and determine their relationships with standardized body mass index (BMI-z).
This study analysed baseline measurements from the Pacific Obesity Prevention In Communities (OPIC) Project. The sample comprised 6,871 adolescents aged 13-18 years from 18 secondary schools on the main island of Viti Levu, Fiji. Adolescents completed a questionnaire that included diet-related variables; height and weight were measured. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between dietary patterns and BMI-z, while controlling for confounders and cluster effect by school.
Of the total sample, 24% of adolescents were overweight or obese, with a higher prevalence among Indigenous Fijians and females. Almost all adolescents reported frequent consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) (90%) and low intake of fruit and vegetables (74%). Over 25% of participants were frequent consumers of takeaways for dinner, and either high fat/salt snacks, or confectionery after school. Nearly one quarter reported irregular breakfast (24%) and lunch (24%) consumption on school days, while fewer adolescents (13%) ate fried foods after school. IndoFijians were more likely than Indigenous Fijians to regularly consume breakfast, but had a high unhealthy SSB and snack consumption.Regular breakfast (p
Notes
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Thyroid cancer is a relatively rare cancer (5 new cases/y/10(5) inhabitants). An excess of thyroid carcinoma has been found in some but not in all goiter endemic areas. Follicular and anaplastic carcinomas have been found particularly frequent in regions of goitre endemia. A significant increase of thyroid carcinoma has also been found in iodine sufficient areas (Norway, Iceland, Hawaii). In several surveys a positive correlation has been found between parity and incidence of differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Natural goitrogens and chemotherapeutic agents have been proved to induce hyperplasia but their role in carcinogenesis of exposed populations is not yet definitely ascertained. Exposure to external radiation is carcinogenic for the thyroid both in human and in experimental animals. Patients treated for hyperthyroidism or thyroid cancer or given diagnostic doses of 131-I (0.5 Gy/test) indicate that under these conditions 131-I is not carcinogenic. Findings on population exposed to radioactive fallout showed an increased incidence of thyroid carcinomas compared to unexposed populations. After the Chernobyl accident (1986) particular attention was given to calculate the risk of thyroid cancer caused by the fallout of 131-I. Up to now a considerable increase of thyroid carcinoma has been reported in children of a region near Chernobyl (Belarus).
There have been relatively few epidemiological studies to verify the information obtained from study participants on the use of menopausal hormone replacement therapy. We conducted this study as part of a case-control study of diet, hormone use, and endometrial cancer in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1994-1998. We compared records from 653 subjects, 30-79 years of age, with reports from their physicians on ever/never use of hormone replacement therapy and duration, type, and dose of hormone replacement therapy. A total of 88% of the interview records were in agreement with physician reports for ever/never use of hormone replacement therapy. The overall kappa value for ever/never use agreement was 0.76 (range = 0.71-0.81), and the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.64 (range = 0.57-0.70) for duration of hormone replacement therapy use, indicating good agreement; similar correlations were seen among cases and controls for overall use, as well as estrogen- or progestogen-alone use. Concordance for brand codes was observed for about 43% of the subjects. This study suggests that information obtained by interview in case-control studies provides a reasonable measure of ever use of hormone replacement therapy and duration of use. Interviews, however, do not represent a reliable source of information on brands and dosage of hormone replacement therapy preparations.
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, RPHB 230K, 1530 3rd Avenue S, Birmingham, AL 35294-0022, USA. elevitan@uab.edu
a-Linolenic acid (18 : 3n-3) intake and linoleic acid (18 : 2n-6) intake have been associated with lower rates of CHD, though results have not been consistent. The relationship of these fatty acids with incident heart failure (HF) is not well established. We examined the hypothesis that women with higher intakes of 18 : 3n-3 and 18 : 2n-6 would have lower rates of HF hospitalisation and mortality. We measured 18 : 3n-3 and 18 : 2n-6 intake in 36 234 Swedish Mammography Cohort participants aged 48-83 years using FFQ and followed participants through Swedish inpatient and cause-of-death registers from 1 January 1998 until 31 December 2006. Cox models were used to calculate incidence rate ratios (RR) and 95 % CI. Because of multicollinearity, 18 : 3n-3 and 18 : 2n-6 were examined separately. Over 9 years, 596 women were hospitalised and fifty-five died due to HF. In models accounting for age and other covariates, the RR for HF comparing the top quintile of 18 : 3n-3 (median 1·50 g/d) with the bottom quintile (median 0·88 g/d) was 0·91 (95 % CI 0·71, 1·17, P(trend) = 0·41). The RR comparing the top quintile of 18 : 2n-6 (median 7·8 g/d) with the bottom quintile (median 4·6 g/d) was 1·14 (95 % CI 0·88, 1·46, P(trend) = 0·36). We did not find evidence for the interaction of 18 : 3n-3 and 18 : 2n-6 with each other or with long-chain n-3 fatty acids. In conclusion, these data do not support our hypothesis that 18 : 3n-3 and 18 : 2n-6 are associated with HF. However, these results may not be generalisable to populations with higher intakes of 18 : 3n-3.
