Tips to Keeping the Barbecue Cancer-Free
Marinating, precooking can deny tumor-causing compounds a plate at the tableThe Memorial Day holiday is the traditional kick-off of the summer barbecue season in the United States, but research has shown that grilling can create cancer-causing compounds in meat, experts say.
Among the compounds are heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are created when heat acts on amino acids, and creatinine in animal muscle.
The longer the cooking time and the higher the heat, the more HCAs, say experts at the University of California, Davis, Cancer Center. That means that barbecuing produces the most HCAs, followed by pan-frying and broiling. Baking, poaching, stir-frying and stewing produce the least HCAs.
The UC Davis experts offer the following advice for limiting HCAs:
Before you barbecue meat, partially cook it in the microwave and then throw out the juices that collect in the cooking dish. Finish cooking the meat on the grill.Precooking a hamburger for a few minutes in the microwave reduces HCAs by up to 95 percent. Flip hamburgers often. Doing so every minute reduces HCAs by up to 100 percent. This is likely because constant flipping keeps internal meat temperatures lower.
Marinate meat before grilling. This can greatly reduce HCAs. For example, one study found that chicken marinated for 40 minutes in a mixture of brown sugar, olive oil, cider vinegar, garlic, mustard, lemon juice and salt cut HCAs by 92 percent to 99 percent.
Don’t cook meat to “well done.” Use a meat thermometer and cook poultry to an internal temperature of 165-180 degrees F, ground beef, pork and lamb to 160-170 degrees F, and beef steaks and roasts to 145-160 degrees F.
One or two days before you barbecue, eat cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts. These vegetables contain compounds that activate enzymes in the body that detoxify HCAs.
Hormone Therapy Safe for Most Women Under 60
Hormone therapy should still be offered and can benefit younger women going through menopause, members of the International Menopause Society (IMS) conclude in updated treatment recommendations.
“ The safety of hormone therapy largely depends on age,” Dr. Amos Pines of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel and colleagues from the IMS write in a consensus statement published in the journal Climacteric. “Women younger than 60 years old should not be concerned about the safety profile of hormone therapy.”
Nevertheless, they add, hormones should be given in the lowest possible dose and should only be given if needed to resolve symptoms. Women taking hormone therapy should also see their doctor at least once a year.The use of hormone therapy changed radically since 2002, after the results of the Women’s Health Initiative study were released. The study found that hormones didn’t protect against heart disease and that the risks outweighed their benefits, Pines and his team note.
However, the fact that the study included women who were 63 when the trial began “was not given enough importance at the time.” The risk-benefit ratio for younger women is different, they add.
Hormone therapy remains the best way to treat genital problems related to estrogen deficiency in menopausal women, the researchers note, and can also improve sleep and restore libido.
Hormone therapy is also effective for treating osteoporosis, especially in women younger than 60 and those with premature menopause, Pines and his colleagues add. Hormones are also likely to be beneficial for women under 60 who have recently undergone menopause and have no cardiovascular disease.
But the risks and benefits should be weighed when considering continued use of hormone therapy to protect the heart or guard against bone loss in women older than 60, the researchers add.
Risks of hormone therapy can include endometrial cancer if estrogen is not given with progesterone, as well as blood clots and cardiovascular events, especially after 60, they point out. Giving estrogen through the skin, via patches or similar approaches, may reduce the risk that comes with oral hormone therapy, the researchers suggest, and lower dosages of hormones may also be safer.
The IMS statement also emphasizes the importance of a healthy lifestyle in maintaining health after menopause.“ New data and re-analyses of older studies by women’s age show that, for most women, the potential benefits of hormone therapy given for a clear indication are many and the risks are few when initiated within a few years of menopause,” the IMS concludes.
SOURCE: Climacteric, May 2007.
Dear Dr. Mirkin: How can lack of vitamin D increase cancer risk?
Vitamin D does far more than help keep your bones strong. It is also a necessary component in your immune system’s ability to kill germs. Each day your body makes millions of cancer cells. Your immunity is supposed to search out and kill these cells. People with weak immunities cannot kill cancer cells as readily and therefore suffer from increased risk for certain cancers.
The Health Professionals Follow-up Study from Harvard Medical School found that African-American men were 1.3 times more likely to suffer from cancer than Caucasians and 1.89 times more likely to die from these cancers (Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, December 2006). Studies from McGill University in Montreal show that sunlight activates vitamin D, which causes the body to produce cathelicidin, a chemical that kills bacteria, viruses and fungi. Many previous studies show that lack of vitamin D impairs your immunity so that you are at increased risk for prostate cancer and many other cancers, and for various infections such as influenza. Since dark skin blocks ultraviolet sun rays that cause the skin to make vitamin D, this may explain why African Americans are at high risk for prostate cancer, while Africans living closer to the equator are not. Skin pigment blocking sunlight may be the answer.
This health info is provided with the permission of Dr. Gabe Mirkin, M.D. Dr. Mirkin has practiced medicine for more than 40 years and is board-certified in four specialties: Allergy and Immunology, Sports Medicine, Pediatrics and Pediatric Immunology. Visit www.drmirkin.com
“Cell Phone Headaches”
All in the MindExposure to the radio frequency fields generated by mobile phones does not cause head pain or increase blood pressure, according to a Norwegian study. Instead, people who experience such symptoms do so because they expect that they will occur, the findings suggest.
Dr. Gunnhild Oftedal and associates at the Norway University of Science and Technology in Trondheim recruited 17 subjects who “regularly experienced pain or discomfort in the head during or shortly after mobile phone calls lasting between 15 and 30 minutes.”
The participants were tested during mobile phone radio frequency exposure and sham exposure, without knowing which session was which. Each session lasted 30 minutes, and 65 pairs of trials were conducted.As reported in the medical journal Cephalalgia, the subjects said they felt an increase in pain or discomfort during 68 percent of all trials. The degree of symptoms was not associated with the order of trials.
The researchers observed no statistically significant correlations between actual exposures and the subjects’ reports of symptom severity, and no effects of exposure on changes in heart rate or blood pressure.
Oftedal’s team concludes that the most likely explanation for the headaches and discomfort reported by the subjects “is that the symptoms are due to negative expectations.”
SOURCE: Cephalalgia, May 2007.
