Funds Raised: over $120,000
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June 2008 Health Magazine Article
The Foundation was recognized nationally in June 2008 edition of Health Magazine.
http://www.atkinsdietalert.org/No published studies have addressed the long-term effects of low-carbohydrate diets. The longest studies have followed dieters for only 12 months, which is not sufficient to assess whether dieters are at risk for the problems seen in studies of general populations consuming large amounts of meat, fatty dairy products, and the cholesterol, saturated fat, and animal protein they contain. However, long-term studies of the general population following a variety of diets and short-term studies of individuals on low-carbohydrate diets raise important concerns, which are outlined below: 1. Colon cancer. Colon cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in North America and Europe and is among the leading causes of cancer-related mortality. Long-term daily intake of meat, particularly red meat, such as beef, pork, or lamb (as is common in Western countries), is associated with approximately a three-fold increased risk of colon cancer.14,15The 1997 report of the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, entitled Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer, concluded that, based on available evidence, diets high in red meat are probable contributors to colon cancer risk. Studies of large populations published in subsequent years arrived at similar conclusions.16
In addition, meat-heavy diets are often low in dietary fiber, which protects against cancer.17 Low-carbohydrate diets typically include red meats among their foods recommended for daily consumption, but no studies have yet been conducted to see whether low-carbohydrate dieters do indeed have the same increased long-term cancer risk seen with other populations eating meat-heavy diets.NEW STORYBOSTON - A widely used screening tool for colon cancer, sigmoidoscopy, misses
precancerous growths in almost two-thirds of women — a disturbing failure rate twice as high as the one seen in men, a government-backed study found. “All our data until now has been based on men. What this data shows is it’s a lot worse in women,” said Dr. Philip Schoenfeld of the University of Michigan and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The researchers said colonoscopy — a more reliable but more expensive test than sigmoidoscopy — should now be considered the preferred method for most women.
Even before the study, patients were increasingly choosing colonoscopies, in part because of serious questions about the reliability of sigmoidoscopies. The latest research is likely to accelerate the trend.
Both colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy involve the use of a long, flexible tube to inspect the twisting colon for precancerous growths, or polyps. But a colonoscope is longer and is used to examine the entire 6-foot length of the colon, while a sigmoidoscope inspects only the lower 2 feet or so.
The new study, led by Schoenfeld, involved 1,463 women, ages 50 to 79, at four military hospitals. It was published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine and funded by the National Cancer Institute.
The researchers first used colonoscopes to find all polyps. They then calculated how many worrisome ones would have been missed by sigmoidoscopy alone.
Sigmoidoscopes were already in question because they find precancerous tumors in only 66 percent of average-risk men who have them. In this new study, sigmoidoscopes did even worse in average-risk women, detecting precancerous tumors in just 35 percent of the patients who had them.
Medical guidelines recommend either regular sigmoidoscopies or colonoscopies after age 50. The number of colonoscopies has already been rising in recent years, especially among high-risk patients. A federal survey put the number of colonoscopies at 14 million in 2002, compared to 3 million sigmoidoscopies.
Sigmoidoscopies are still performed for several reasons. A sigmoidoscopy is quicker, it is more convenient because it does not require the use of a sedative, and it costs far less than of a colonoscopy — perhaps $150 instead of $400 or more.
Also, many doctors had believed that the failure rate for sigmoidoscopies would be similar for both sexes.
A recent study by the Veterans Affairs Department found that demand for colonoscopies already outstrips availability. The researchers estimated that more than 30,000 additional doctors would be needed to screen people once every 10 years.
About 56,000 Americans are expected to die of colorectal cancer this year.