July 18, 2007

12:10: The health roundup with Jay, Jamie and Jimmy.

12:20: Well, a week’’s vacation later and then some, how is Jamie’’s fitness routine coming along at the gym?
Guest: Ernie Schramyr, over at All Canadian Fitness.

12:35: Teenaged girls who bond over gripe sessions and sharing each other's problems may be doing more harm than good emotionally. This, according to a new study out of the University of Missouri Columbia.
Guest: Dr. Amanda Rose, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Missouri Columbia.

12:45: DayNight Pharmacy segment.
Guest: One half of the Dynamic Duo, Irene Hogan !

Irene talked about the new public study release from the multi-center Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Study, based at UC San Diego.
Public Release date, July 17th, 2007, Increasing vegetables and fruits beyond guidelines not necessary for breast cancer survivors.
Eating a diet very high in vegetables, fruit and fiber and low in fat did not reduce breast cancer recurrence or death in early stage breast cancer survivors. The study found that this intensive diet provided no additional benefit to following the generally recommended dietary guidelines. The Study is published in the July 18th issue of the Journal of American Medical Association. The WHEL Study provided strong evidence that the typical women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, that there was no additional health benefit over 7 years from dramatically increasing the diet's amount of nutrient-rich plant-based foods, compared to following the recommended healthy diet. The study followed 3,088 breast cancer survivors aged 18 to 70 for between 6 and 11 years. Participants were randomly assigned to one or two diets groups. The comparison group followed the guidelines promoted by the US Dept of Agriculture, and the intensive group was asked to follow a daily dietary pattern that included 5 vegetable servings, 16 ounces of vegetable juice, 3 fruit servings, 30 grams of fiber and 15% -20% from fat. After a median of 7 years of follow-up the study observed no difference in recurrence or survival between the two groups. About 17% of women in both groups developed a breast cancer recurrence or new breast cancer and 10% of women in both groups died.
These results do not mean that women should stop paying attention to what they eat. In addition to exercising regularly, eating a diet that has plenty of fruits and vegetables and is moderate in fat is still one of the best ways we know to maintain good health. Please keep in mind that this study relates only to breast cancer survivors, and recognize that several other very well-designed, controlled studies have shown clearly that eating more than 5 fruits and vegetables a day can make major differences in disease risk, such as in lowing blood pressure and reducing the risk of stroke and heart attack.