Red, processed meat linked to colon cancer
ATLANTA, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- High consumption of red and processed meat over a long period of time is associated with an increased risk of a type of colon cancer, a U.S. study found.
Ann Chao, of the American Cancer Society, Atlanta, examined the relationship between recent and long-term meat consumption and the risk of colon and rectal cancer. The study included 148,610 adults aged 50 to 74 years, residing in 21 states, who provided information on meat consumption in 1982 and again in 1992/1993 when enrolled in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort.
People who consumed the most red meat in both 1982 and 1992/1993 had a 50 percent higher risk of distal colon cancer -- a section of the colon near the rectum.
Long-term consumption of poultry and fish was inversely associated with less colon cancer.
AstraZeneca reports rhabdomyolysis death
LONDON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- The British drug company AstraZeneca PLC said a physician claims the cholesterol medication Crestor may be linked to the death of a patient.
The company did not indicate where the death occurred or what dose of Crestor the person had taken, but AstraZeneca said it still believes Crestor is as safe as other cholesterol-lowering drugs and the doctor's claim could be proved wrong.
The patient's physician suspected Crestor may "possibly" be linked to a rare muscle-wasting disease, rhabdomyolysis, reported the Wall Street Journal Tuesday.
Crestor has been linked to a rhabdomyolysis death twice since the drug began use in 2003, however, the first two reports later proved to be unfounded after full autopsies, a company spokeswoman said.
AstraZeneca said reported fatalities are "well documented" with other statin cholesterol drugs, and Crestor's safety profile was "entirely consistent" with other statins.
The company reported the case to medical regulators worldwide. The Federal Drug Administration has not commented to the Journal.
Report: Children should limit cell phone use
LONDON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- A British scientist warns parents children should only use cell phones when necessary because of potential health risks.
William Stewart of the National Radiological Protection Board says there is no proof cell phones are unsafe, but precautionary steps should be taken and if cell phones are eventually found to damage health, then children would be at greatest risk, the BBC reported Tuesday.
In Britain, one in four 7- to 10-year-olds own a cell phone -- double the levels in 2001, according to latest figures.
"If there are risks -- and we think that maybe there are -- then the people who are going to be most affected are children, and the younger the children, the greater the danger," Williams told BBC Radio Four "Today" program. "Parents have a responsibility to their children not simply to throw a mobile (cell) phone to a young child, and say 'off you go.'"
Williams said it would be wrong to allow children under 8 years old to use cell phones regularly.
Study: Ancestral depression a risk factor
NEW YORK, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- New York researchers say nearly 60 percent of children whose parents and grandparents were depressed have a psychiatric disorder before their early teens.
A team from Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, in an article published in this month's issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, studied 47 first-generation family members in 1982.
Then they interviewed 86 of their children several times as they grew into adulthood. The team also has collected data from 161 members of the third generation, whose average age is 12.
Most of the prepubescent grandchildren with a two-generation history of depression developed anxiety disorders that developed into depression as they aged into adolescence.
This trend was also found when the researchers previously followed the children's parents through adolescence and adulthood.
