HEALTH TRENDS

Peanut butter cuts breast cancer risk?

Eating peanut butter regularly as a preteen and teen girl appears to decrease the risk of developing benign breast disease as an adult, new research has found.

Benign breast disease - noncancerous changes in the breast tissue - is a risk factor for breast cancer, experts agree.

The researchers followed more than 9,000 females, beginning when they were aged nine to 15 in 1996, until 2010, when they were young women. Eating peanut butter three days a week reduced the risk of developing benign breast disease by 39 per cent, said Dr Graham Colditz, senior study author.

"I think this gives us enormous hope there are strategies we could be following to help prevent breast cancer that we haven't capitalised on yet," said Colditz, the associate director for cancer prevention and control at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, in St Louis.

The study participants were part of a long-term, ongoing study on the health effects of diet and exercise in young people. They filled out questionnaires about their diet annually from 1996 until 2001, then four more times until 2010. They also reported if they had been diagnosed with benign breast disease. In all, 112 women said they had.

The researchers looked at foods with vegetable protein and vegetable fats, then focused on individual foods, including peanut butter, peanuts or other nuts, beans and corn. The researchers found a link between eating peanut butter and lower breast disease risk, not a cause-and-effect relationship, and Colditz said he can't explain yet why the peanut butter seems protective.

"It could well be the protein," he said.

The study, published online last month in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, was funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the US National Institutes of Health.

More doctors to join health sector this year

Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson said the ministry was moving to boost human capital within the health sector with the addition of a number of trained personnel this year.

"We are boosting the health workforce with 68 new Cuban trained doctors, who just returned to Jamaica. We also look with great anticipation for those young doctors, who will be graduating from the University of the West Indies (UWI). So, a combined force of those doctors returning from Cuba and those coming out of our local university will be of great help to us," he stated.

Ferguson, who was addressing a Paediatric Renal Conference and Workshop at the Couples Sans Souci Hotel in Ocho Rios last week, also informed that six Cuban-trained dental surgeons would be joining the health workforce.

He said that in addition to the returning Jamaicans, there were "persons coming in under the agreement with Cuba who are really to close the gap. We are bringing in some pathologists, because the turnaround time for specimens is much too long now."

He added that there was also a need to improve and modernise laboratory services "so that things can be done in a timely manner, even as there is a move to improve the human capital."

Ferguson said that the move to boost personnel fits in with the process to develop centres of excellence at the primary health care level. He said that work is ongoing on four facilities, which are intended to be model institutions across the regional health authorities.

The four centres of excellence will be located at the Issac Barrant Health Centre in St Thomas; Santa Cruz Health Centre, St Elizabeth; Claremont Health Centre, St Ann; and Darliston Heath Centre, Westmoreland.

FDA OKs drug to treat hot flashes in menopausal women

International drug company, Pfizer Inc, said it gained approval in the United States for a drug designed to treat menopause-related hot flashes and potentially prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women who have a uterus.

The US is the first country to approve the once-a-day tablet called Duavee (conjugated oestrogen/bazedoxifene), according to Pfizer. When prescribed just for the prevention of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, use of Duavee should only be considered for women at significant risk, and non-oestrogen medication should be considered first, the drug maker advised.

The US Food and Drug Administration's approval was based on phase three clinical trials that included generally healthy, postmenopausal women with a uterus.

Common side effects of Duavee include muscle spasms, nausea, diarrhoea, upset stomach, abdominal pain, throat pain, dizziness and neck pain, according to Pfizer.

Pfizer said that Duavee should not be used by women who: have or have had blood clots; are allergic to any of its ingredients; have unusual vaginal bleeding; have or have had certain cancers (e.g., uterine or breast), liver problems, or bleeding disorders; or are pregnant, may become pregnant or are breastfeeding.

Oestrogen and drugs like bazedoxifene can increase the risk of blood clots. Women should talk with their doctor about how long to stay on Duavee, Pfizer said.