Fish oil reduces risk of breast cancer by a third

(NaturalNews) When you look at statistics about breast cancer, it’s no wonder that the very mention of the disease causes dread in many women. After all, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) says about 210,000 Americans, almost all females, will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and about 40,000 will die from the disease. However, although it’s rarely reported in depth by the mainstream media, there’s actually a lot of good news accumulating about specific ways to stop breast cancer from ever developing in the first place. For example, a mounting of body of data shows cruciferous vegetables like broccoli fight breast cancer (http://www.naturalnews.com/028822_broccoli_brst_cancer.html) and six studies have shown eating an apple a day can reduce the risk of breast cancer, too (http://www.naturalnews.com/025685_cancer_brst_apples.html). Now comes word of yet another natural substance that helps keep breast tumors away — scientists have discovered that fish oil can slash the chance a woman will get breast cancer by approximately a third. How fish oil works to prevent breast cancer The new study, just published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention , a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, was conducted by a research team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. They investigated 35,016 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 76 with no history of breast cancer who were participating in the Vitamins and Lifestyle cohort study (dubbed VITAL, short). The woman was asked to complete a 24 page questionnaire about their use of supplements other than vitamins and/or minerals. After six years of follow-up, 880 of these women had been diagnosed with breast cancer. However, those women who reported regularly taking fish oil supplements, which contain high levels of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, were found to have a 32 percent reduced risk of invasive ductal breast cancer — the most common type of breast cancer. The use of other specialty supplements, such as the herbs black cohosh and dong quai which are often taken by women to relieve symptoms of menopause, was not associated with raising or lowering breast cancer risk. As NaturalNews has previously reported, fish oil has been found to have a host of remarkable health protective properties. For example, a study published in the European Heart Journal concluded that consuming fatty fish and the marine omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil protects men from heart failure. And fish oil has been shown to be helpful in preventing mental illness, too (http://www.naturalnews.com/026130_heart_failure_fatty_fish_health.html). For more information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20615886

Baby making industry creating children with malformations, parents not told of risks

(NaturalNews) If you get your information about assisted reproduction technologies (ART) such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) from the mainstream media, you may think these are simply wonderful ways to help infertile couples have healthy babies. In fact, women like Nadya “Octomom” Suleman and Kate Gosselin of reality TV fame have become stars of sort after producing broods of kids using ART. What is rarely reported is the dark side of ART — high tech baby making procedures result in a significantly increased risk of congenital malformations as well a greater chance for several diseases down the road. Dr. Geraldine Viot, a clinical geneticist at the Maternity Port Royal hospital in Paris, France, recently addressed the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics to discuss some of these risks. She also pointed out that, at least in France, most doctors working in ART clinics only tell couples about such risks if they are asked specific questions. The multi-billion dollar medical reproductive technology industry has resulted in the births of millions of kids around the world being conceived through non-natural procedures. In the largest study of its kind so far, Dr. Viot and her colleagues conducted a survey of all ART births — 15,162 in all — from 33 clinics in France to document the prevalence of malformations. 500% increased risk of tumors “We found a major congenital malformation in 4.24 percent of the children compared with the 2 to 3 percent that we had expected from previous published studies. This higher rate was due in part to an excess of heart diseases and malformations of the uro-genital system. This was much more common in boys,” Dr. Viot said in a press statement. “Among the minor malformations, we found a five times higher rate of angioma, benign tumors made up of small blood vessels on or near the surface of the skin.” Moreover, Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome — which is marked by a larger-than-normal baby, abnormally large tongue, hypoglycemia, increased risk for cancer and other problems — was six times higher among youngsters conceived with ART. And retinoblastoma, cancer of the eye, was 4.5 higher for ART children when compared to youngsters conceived the natural way. Dr. Viot added that the malformations don’t appear to have anything to do with the age of the parents. Instead, the causes of the abnormalities are probably multiple and related specifically to the assisted reproductive technologies. She is calling for researchers to investigate how embryo culture media, timing of embryo transfer, the effects of ovarian stimulation, the use of ICSI and the freezing of gametes and embryos could be causing these disorders. “We estimate that in France some 200,000 children have been born after ART and therefore a malformation rate of this magnitude is a public health issue. It is important that all doctors and also politicians are informed about this,” Dr. Viot emphasized. “At a time when infertility is increasing and more and more couples need to use ART to conceive, it is vitally important that we find out as much as we can about what is causing malformations in these children, not only so that we can try to counteract the problem but also in order for health services to be able to plan for their future needs.” As NaturalNews has previously reported, other researchers have found that children conceived with artificial baby-making techniques have an increased incidence of metabolic problems, such as high blood pressure, abnormally elevated fasting glucose levels and excess body fat (http://www.naturalnews.com/026863_IVF_sperm_glucose.html). In addition, a study recently published in the journal Human Reproduction concluded that women who became pregnant with a single fetus after treatment with IVF or ICSI had a four-fold increased risk of their babies being born dead when compared to women who conceived naturally (http://www.naturalnews.com/028448_infertiliy_stillbirths.html). For more information: https://www.eshg.org/13.0.html