Low Carb Diet linked to non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma? I found an article almost ten years ago saying that a low carb diet might be linked to the rise of lymphoma. How can that be?
March 9, 2004 -- What's causing America's huge surge in blood cancer? It might be our diet. It's called non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It's a killer collection of
different white-blood-cell cancers. And it's a mystery why it's been
increasing so quickly in the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Now there's a clue. It comes from a study of 601 Connecticut women with
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Tongzhang Zheng, ScD, head of the division of
environmental health sciences at the Yale School of Public Health in New
Haven, Conn., collected detailed dietary information from these women
and from 717 similar women without cancer.
"What we found is if a person has a higher intake of animal protein,
they will have a higher risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma," Zheng tells
Web. "And people who have a higher intake of saturated fat have an
increased risk. On the other hand, if you have higher-than-average
intake of dietary fiber -- particularly if you frequently eat vegetables
and fruits with a high fiber content -- you have a reduced risk of
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma."
The findings appear in the March 1 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Earlier studies hinted at the same thing. Now, Zheng says, it seems
clear that a major factor in the mysterious rise of non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma is a diet high in meat, saturated fats, dairy products, and
eggs and low in fiber, fruits, and vegetables.
Unbalanced Diet, Unhealthy Body
In the U.S., three kinds of cancer have skyrocketed in recent decades.
One is lung cancer, mainly caused by smoking. Another is skin cancer,
caused by too much sun. The third is non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. But nobody
knows why it's on the rise, says Nancy Mueller [pronounced MULL-er],
ScD, associate director of population sciences at Harvard's Dana-Farber
Cancer Center.
"Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is a basket of related diseases," Mueller tells
WebMD. "It probably has a set of causal factors that may be related to
one another, but not in a simple way. We can't really explain it -- this
is a really hard nut to crack. But what is happening to the American is
associated with a number of malignancies such as breast, kidney, and
colon cancer. Higher body weight is a common theme."
http://forum.lowcarber.org/archive/index.php/t-171868.html
There are some hilarious rebuttals, including how the loss of the ozone layer is caused by low carb diets. Seems just as likely to the writer of the comment.
Interesting! I was curious enough to pursue this - especially because I happen to be in an ongoing dialogue with a friend now about the relative benefits of fats, proteins, carbs in the diet.
ReplyDeleteDr. Zheng has written a major 2012 review - with other scientists - of studies done on lifestyle and environmental risk factors for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL). I found it by searching Pubmed.
Here's the PDF:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3447374/pdf/JCE2012-978930.pdf
The article actually cites higher carb consumption as implicated in higher risk of NHL - not as protective against it!
In particular, higher consumption of desserts is implicated in a higher risk for the disease. Higher protein intake, itself, is not shown to be positively correlated with NHL (unless it's broiled). But a higher level of fat intake is a risk factor.
Higher fruit and vegetable intake - especially cruciferous veggies like broccoli - is protective against the disease. Red wine is protective.
Interestingly, hair dye is correlated with higher risk - and this is especially clear for people who began using it in the 1980s or earlier.
I didn't know that there is considered to be an epidemic now of NHL. Sad...
From the comments on that article I got the impression that it was pretty bogus. Thanks for the Pubmed citation!
ReplyDeleteWho are you, "Unknown"?
ReplyDeletesigned,
curious