Prevention Matters

A new study showing that eating a diet filled with fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods is associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while the recent Synar report revealing the national weighted average rate of tobacco sales to minors increased, from 9.9 percent in FFY 2008, to 10.9 percent in FFY 2009 was named the “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week."

BEST

Healthy Diet May Cut Colorectal Cancer Risk

Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy foods, and fish may reduce your risk of colorectal cancer, according to a new study. Although previous studies have produced conflicting findings about the effectiveness of such a diet, the new research found a benefit.


''We found that eating a largely plant-based diet with higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, and low-fat dairy in women and fish in men was associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer," says Paige Miller, PhD, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University.

Eating in this healthful way reduced the risk of colon cancer by 65% in women and by 62% in men, she says. ''Why fish was a part of the protective dietary pattern only in men and low-fat diary only in women is not known at this time," Miller tells WebMD.

WORST

Reverse in Trend – Tobacco Sales to Minors No Longer Declining


Although illegal sales of tobacco have decreased over the past 13 years, 2009 sees the first slight upward tick in sales to minors. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recently announced that all the states and the District of Columbia have continued to meet their goals of curtailing sales of tobacco to underage youth (those under 18). However, in federal fiscal year 2009, for the first time ever, the data show a slight increase in the average national rate of tobacco sales to underage youth of about one percent. States goals, set under the Synar Amendment program – a federal and state partnership, are aimed at ending illegal tobacco sales to minors. The increase in the rate may be due to States reducing the number of enforcement inspections they conduct in the face of State budget cuts.

The five minute flexi-scope colon cancer test that could reduce the number of deaths from the disease by about 40 percent was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while a report showing that six in 10 Americans live in areas with unclean air was named the “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week."

The “Best/Worst” awards are announced each week in “Prevention Matters,” the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Nominees are submitted by Partnership staff as well as the general public, and are voted on by the staff. Partnership for Prevention is a nonpartisan organization of business, nonprofit and government leaders who are working to make evidence-based disease prevention and health promotion a national priority. More information is available at http://www.prevent.org/.

BEST

Colon cancer test could save thousands in Britain

A five-minute colon cancer test could reduce the number of deaths from the disease by about 40 percent, a new study says. British researchers followed more than 170,000 people for about 11 years. Of those, more than 40,000 had a "flexi-scope" test, an exam that removes polyps, small growths that could become cancerous. Researchers compared those results to more than 113,000 people who were not screened. They found the flexi-scope test reduced peoples' chances of getting colon cancer by one third. It also cut their chances of dying by 43 percent. Researchers said the test needed to be done just once in a person's lifetime.

WORST

Report: Most Americans still live in unclean air


Six in 10 Americans - about 175 million people - are living in places where air pollution often reaches dangerous levels, despite progress in reducing particle pollution, the American Lung Association said in a report released last Wednesday. The Los Angeles area had the nation's worst ozone pollution.

The report examined fine particulate matter over 24-hour periods and as a year-round average. Bakersfield, Calif., had the worst short-term particle pollution, and the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area of Arizona had the worst year-round particle pollution.

The U.S. cities with the cleanest air were Fargo, N.D., Wahpeton, N.D., and Lincoln, Neb.