Fwd: Life Long Vegetarian Diet Reduces The Risk Of Colorectal Cancer

[Guest guest]

" Prof. C. Devakumar " <cdevakumar

Wed, 23 May 2007 10:29:29 +0100 (BST)

[jainismforworld] Life Long Vegetarian Diet Reduces The Risk Of

Colorectal Cancer

 

Jai Jinendra

In my last one week stay at USA made me aware of the serious spread of cancer

in this country and I could immediately jump to this hypothesis that it is

largely due to their non-veg diet. In fact I thought I would gather some

scientific evidence to drive home my strong hypothesis. There seems to be no

need, I guess.

The following recent study says it all. Long live Jain way of life.

With regards

Dev

 

Life Long Vegetarian Diet Reduces The Risk Of Colorectal Cancer Science Daily

— According to new research presented at Digestive Disease Week® 2007 a

vegetarian diet may have a significant impact on the gastrointestinal (GI)

system, affecting the risk for certain diseases.

 

The average person's lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) is

about seven percent and the role of diet in preventing this type of cancer

remains under debate. Most of all, previous studies enrolled middle-aged

subjects, raising the possibility that CRC development may start before common

interventions. Researchers from Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Mumbai, India,

set out to determine whether a vegetarian diet is associated with reduced risk

of CRC if started very early in life.

 

In this study, researchers used a prospectively created database of 8,877

Indian patients managed in a clinical nutrition service from January 1, 2000

through December 31, 2005, to examine the association of life-long vegetarianism

with incidence of CRC. During the evaluation for nutrition support, a history of

life-long vegetarianism (due to religious reasons) was obtained from all

patients to plan an appropriate diet. Twenty-seven percent of subjects (2,092

patients) from the control cohort were life-long vegetarians and 22.4 percent

(178 patients) of subjects with colon cancer were vegetarians.

 

Patients with colorectal cancer (n=796) comprised the primary patient cohort

for this study. Three groups of controls were generated from the same database

for separate comparison with the CRC cohort. These included all patients with

non-CRC cancers (control group one: n=7,273), patients with non-CRC and

tobacco-related cancers (control group two: n=1,844), and patients with benign

disorders (control group three: n=74). Multivariate analysis of 7,641 patients

was performed by adjusting for age, gender, body mass index and economic status.

 

Vegetarianism was significantly associated with patients over 65 years, male

gender, body mass index (BMI) of less than 20 Kg/m2 and economic deprivation.

Colorectal cancer was positively associated with old age and male gender, and

inversely associated with vegetarian diet, low BMI and economic deprivation. The

inverse association of CRC and lifelong vegetarianism was observed with all the

three control groups.

 

" A well-planned vegetarian diet is a healthy way to meet your nutritional

needs, " said Yogesh M. Shastri, M.D., of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University

Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany and previously a co-author of this study at TMH,

Mumbai, India. " The exact mechanism by which life long vegetarianism may reduce

the risk of sporadic CRC needs further investigation. Prolonged vegetarianism

starting in early life may be a viable lifestyle option for those at risk of

developing the disease. "

 

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by American

Gastroenterological Association.

 

Dr.Sandeep K.Jain