Abstract A large evidence-based review on the effects of a moderate consumption of beer on human health has been conducted by an international panel of experts who reached a full consensus on the ...present document. Low-moderate (up to 1 drink per day in women, up to 2 in men), non-bingeing beer consumption, reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. This effect is similar to that of wine, at comparable alcohol amounts. Epidemiological studies suggest that moderate consumption of either beer or wine may confer greater cardiovascular protection than spirits. Although specific data on beer are not conclusive, observational studies seem to indicate that low-moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a reduced risk of developing neurodegenerative disease. There is no evidence that beer drinking is different from other types of alcoholic beverages in respect to risk for some cancers. Evidence consistently suggests a J-shaped relationship between alcohol consumption (including beer) and all-cause mortality, with lower risk for moderate alcohol consumers than for abstainers or heavy drinkers. Unless they are at high risk for alcohol-related cancers or alcohol dependency, there is no reason to discourage healthy adults who are already regular light-moderate beer consumers from continuing. Consumption of beer, at any dosage, is not recommended for children, adolescents, pregnant women, individuals at risk to develop alcoholism, those with cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrhythmias, depression, liver and pancreatic diseases, or anyone engaged in actions that require concentration, skill or coordination. In conclusion, although heavy and excessive beer consumption exerts deleterious effects on the human body, with increased disease risks on many organs and is associated to significant social problems such as addiction, accidents, violence and crime, data reported in this document show evidence for no harm of moderate beer consumption for major chronic conditions and some benefit against cardiovascular disease.
Obesity and associated metabolic disorders have been implicated in liver carcinogenesis; however, there are little data on the role of obesity‐related biomarkers on liver cancer risk. We studied ...prospectively the association of inflammatory and metabolic biomarkers with risks of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), intrahepatic bile duct (IBD), and gallbladder and biliary tract cancers outside of the liver (GBTC) in a nested case‐control study within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Over an average of 7.7 years, 296 participants developed HCC (n = 125), GBTC (n = 137), or IBD (n = 34). Using risk‐set sampling, controls were selected in a 2:1 ratio and matched for recruitment center, age, sex, fasting status, and time of blood collection. Baseline serum concentrations of C‐reactive protein (CRP), interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), C‐peptide, total high‐molecular‐weight (HMW) adiponectin, leptin, fetuin‐a, and glutamatdehydrogenase (GLDH) were measured, and incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using conditional logistic regression. After adjustment for lifestyle factors, diabetes, hepatitis infection, and adiposity measures, higher concentrations of CRP, IL‐6, C‐peptide, and non‐HMW adiponectin were associated with higher risk of HCC (IRR per doubling of concentrations = 1.22; 95% CI = 1.02‐1.46; P = 0.03; 1.90; 95% CI = 1.30‐2.77; P = 0.001; 2.25; 95% CI = 1.43‐3.54; P = 0.0005; and 2.09; 95% CI = 1.19‐3.67; P = 0.01, respectively). CRP was associated also with risk of GBTC (IRR = 1.22; 95% CI = 1.05‐1.42; P = 0.01). GLDH was associated with risks of HCC (IRR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.25‐2.11; P = 0.0003) and IBD (IRR = 10.5; 95% CI = 2.20‐50.90; P = 0.003). The continuous net reclassification index was 0.63 for CRP, IL‐6, C‐peptide, and non‐HMW adiponectin and 0.46 for GLDH, indicating good predictive ability of these biomarkers. Conclusion: Elevated levels of biomarkers of inflammation and hyperinsulinemia are associated with a higher risk of HCC, independent of obesity and established liver cancer risk factors. (Hepatology 2014;60:858–871)
Abstract Background and aims The increase in breast cancer incidence over recent decades has been accompanied by an increase in the frequency of metabolic syndrome. Several studies suggest that ...breast cancer risk is associated with the components of metabolic syndrome (high serum glucose and triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol, high blood pressure, and abdominal obesity), but no prospective study has investigated risk in relation to the presence of explicitly defined metabolic syndrome. We investigated associations between metabolic syndrome, its components, and breast cancer risk in a nested case–control study on postmenopausal women of the ORDET cohort. Methods and results After a median follow-up of 13.5 years, 163 women developed breast cancer; metabolic syndrome was present in 29.8%. Four matched controls per case were selected by incidence density sampling, and rate ratios were estimated by conditional logistic regression. Metabolic syndrome (i.e. presence of three or more metabolic syndrome components) was significantly associated with breast cancer risk (rate ratio 1.58 95% confidence interval 1.07–2.33), with a significant risk increase for increasing number of components ( P for trend 0.004). Among individual metabolic syndrome components, only low serum HDL-cholesterol and high triglycerides were significantly associated with increased risk. Conclusions This prospective study indicates that metabolic syndrome is an important risk factor for breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Although serum HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides had the strongest association with breast cancer, all components may contribute to increased risk by multiple interacting mechanisms. Prevention or reversal of metabolic syndrome by life-style changes may be effective in preventing breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
Factors linked to glucose metabolism are involved in the etiology of several cancers. High glycemic index (GI) or high glycemic load (GL) diets, which chronically raise postprandial blood glucose, ...may increase cancer risk by affecting insulin-like growth factor. We prospectively investigated cancer risk and dietary GI/GL in the EPIC-Italy cohort. After a median 14.9 years, 5112 incident cancers and 2460 deaths were identified among 45,148 recruited adults. High GI was associated with increased risk of colon and bladder cancer. High GL was associated with: increased risk of colon cancer; increased risk of diabetes-related cancers; and decreased risk of rectal cancer. High intake of carbohydrate from high GI foods was significantly associated with increased risk of colon and diabetes-related cancers, but decreased risk of stomach cancer; whereas high intake of carbohydrates from low GI foods was associated with reduced colon cancer risk. In a Mediterranean population with high and varied carbohydrate intake, carbohydrates that strongly raise postprandial blood glucose may increase colon and bladder cancer risk, while the quantity of carbohydrate consumed may be involved in diabetes-related cancers. Further studies are needed to confirm the opposing effects of high dietary GL on risks of colon and rectal cancers.
Abstract Background and aims Abdominal adiposity may influence the respiratory function, especially in women. The aim of this prospective study is to evaluate the predictive role of body mass index ...(BMI) and waist circumference (WC) on lung function in healthy women. Methods and results In 600 women randomly selected from the cohort of the “Progetto ATENA,” anthropometric measures such as BMI, WC, and weight gain were recorded at baseline, and the spirometric parameters were measured 10 years later. The percentage values of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1 %) and forced vital capacity (FVC%) and the ratio of FEV1 /FVC were compared with the anthropometric measures after adjustment for several variables measured at baseline such as age, height, socioeconomic status, smoking habits, and history of respiratory allergies grouped in a basal model. WC is significantly associated with a decreased FVC ( p = 0.008) and an increased ratio of FEV1 /FVC ( p = 0.031) after adjustment for the covariates of the basal model. The association between BMI and spirometric parameters reaches borderline significance only with the ratio of FEV1 /FVC (p = 0.052). Conclusions We suggest measuring both BMI and WC to assess the risk of future respiratory impairment.
This study examined the association of body-mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio with the risk of death among more than 350,000 European subjects who had no major chronic ...diseases. The data suggest that both general and abdominal adiposity are associated with the risk of death and support the use of waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio in addition to BMI for assessment of the risk of death, particularly among persons with a lower BMI.
This study suggests that both general and abdominal adiposity are associated with the risk of death and supports the use of waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio for assessment of the risk of death.
Abdominal obesity is more closely associated with the risk of several chronic diseases than is gluteofemoral obesity, and large studies have suggested that waist circumference or the waist-to-hip ratio, as indicators of abdominal obesity, may be better predictors of the risk of disease than the body-mass index (BMI, the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters), an indicator of general adiposity.
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Current guidelines with respect to obesity recommend the measurement of waist circumference in persons with a BMI between 25.0 and 34.9 and propose cutoff points for waist circumference of 102 cm in men . . .
There are both limited and conflicting data on the role of dietary fat and specific fatty acids in the development of pancreatic cancer. In this study, we investigated the association between plasma ...phospholipid fatty acids and pancreatic cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. The fatty acid composition was measured by gas chromatography in plasma samples collected at recruitment from375 incident pancreatic cancer cases and375 matched controls. Associations of specific fatty acids with pancreatic cancer risk were evaluated using multivariable conditional logistic regression models with adjustment for established pancreatic cancer risk factors. Statistically significant inverse associations were found between pancreatic cancer incidence and levels of heptadecanoic acid (ORT3‐T1odds ratio for highest versus lowest tertile =0.63; 95%CIconfidence interval = 0.41–0.98; ptrend = 0.036), n‐3 polyunsaturated α‐linolenic acid (ORT3‐T1 = 0.60; 95%CI = 0.39–0.92; ptrend = 0.02) and docosapentaenoic acid (ORT3‐T1 = 0.52; 95%CI = 0.32–0.85; ptrend = 0.008). Industrial trans‐fatty acids were positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk among men (ORT3‐T1 = 3.00; 95%CI = 1.13–7.99; ptrend = 0.029), while conjugated linoleic acids were inversely related to pancreatic cancer among women only (ORT3‐T1 = 0.37; 95%CI = 0.17–0.81; ptrend = 0.008). Among current smokers, the long‐chain n‐6/n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids ratio was positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk (ORT3‐T1 = 3.40; 95%CI = 1.39–8.34; ptrend = 0.007). Results were robust to a range of sensitivity analyses. Our findings suggest that higher circulating levels of saturated fatty acids with an odd number of carbon atoms and n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may be related to lower risk of pancreatic cancer. The influence of some fatty acids on the development of pancreatic cancer may be sex‐specific and modulated by smoking.
What's new?
This is the first study exploring the association between fatty acid biomarkers and pancreatic cancer (PC) risk in an epidemiological setting. The findings support previous evidence on the association between dairy products and seed and marine food and the risk of PC. Furthermore, industrial trans fatty acids were positively associated with PC risk among men, while conjugated linoleic acids conferred a significantly reduced risk among women. The long‐chain n‐6/n‐3 PUFA ratio conferred a higher risk of PC among smokers. Using circulating biomarkers may thus be important for identifying the potential fatty acid isomers and their biological effects leading to PC.
General obesity has been positively associated with risk of liver and probably with biliary tract cancer, but little is known about abdominal obesity or weight gain during adulthood. We used ...multivariable Cox proportional hazard models to investigate associations between weight, body mass index, waist and hip circumference, waist‐to‐hip and waist‐to‐height ratio (WHtR), weight change during adulthood and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), intrahepatic (IBDC) and extrahepatic bile duct system cancer EBDSC including gallbladder cancer (GBC) among 359,525 men and women in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study. Hepatitis B and C virus status was measured in a nested case–control subset. During a mean follow‐up of 8.6 years, 177 cases of HCC, 58 cases of IBDC and 210 cases of EBDSC, including 76 cases of GBC, occurred. All anthropometric measures were positively associated with risk of HCC and GBC. WHtR showed the strongest association with HCC relative risk (RR) comparing extreme tertiles 3.51, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 2.09–5.87; ptrend < 0.0001 and with GBC (RR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.12–2.16 for an increment of one unit in WHtR). Weight gain during adulthood was also positively associated with HCC when comparing extreme tertiles (RR: 2.48, 95% CI: 1.49–4.13; <0.001). No statistically significant association was observed between obesity and risk of IBDC and EBDSC. Our results provide evidence of an association between obesity, particularly abdominal obesity, and risk of HCC and GBC. Our findings support public health recommendations to reduce the prevalence of obesity and weight gain in adulthood for HCC and GBC prevention in Western populations.
Aims/hypothesis
Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has been shown, largely in American populations, to increase type 2 diabetes incidence. We aimed to evaluate the association of consumption of ...sweet beverages (juices and nectars, sugar-sweetened soft drinks and artificially sweetened soft drinks) with type 2 diabetes incidence in European adults.
Methods
We established a case–cohort study including 12,403 incident type 2 diabetes cases and a stratified subcohort of 16,154 participants selected from eight European cohorts participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. After exclusions, the final sample size included 11,684 incident cases and a subcohort of 15,374 participants. Cox proportional hazards regression models (modified for the case–cohort design) and random-effects meta-analyses were used to estimate the association between sweet beverage consumption (obtained from validated dietary questionnaires) and type 2 diabetes incidence.
Results
In adjusted models, one 336 g (12 oz) daily increment in sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drink consumption was associated with HRs for type 2 diabetes of 1.22 (95% CI 1.09, 1.38) and 1.52 (95% CI 1.26, 1.83), respectively. After further adjustment for energy intake and BMI, the association of sugar-sweetened soft drinks with type 2 diabetes persisted (HR 1.18, 95% CI 1.06, 1.32), but the association of artificially sweetened soft drinks became statistically not significant (HR 1.11, 95% CI 0.95, 1.31). Juice and nectar consumption was not associated with type 2 diabetes incidence.
Conclusions/interpretation
This study corroborates the association between increased incidence of type 2 diabetes and high consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks in European adults.
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