Landesque Capital Håkansson, N. Thomas; Widgren, Mats
2014, 20160616, 2016-06-16, Letnik:
5
eBook, Book
This book is the first comprehensive, global treatment of landesque capital, a widespread concept used to understand anthropogenic landscapes that serve important economic, social, and ritual ...purposes. Spanning the disciplines of anthropology, human ecology, geography, archaeology, and history, chapters combine theoretical rigor with in-depth empirical studies of major landscape modifications from ancient to contemporary times. They assess not only degradation but also the social, political, and economic institutions and contexts that make sustainability possible. Offering tightly edited, original contributions from leading scholars, this book will have a lasting influence on the study long-term human-environment relations in the human and natural sciences.
Background
The associations between an anti‐inflammatory diet and both all‐cause and cause‐specific mortality have been studied previously; however, the influence of an anti‐inflammatory diet on ...survival time has not been investigated. Moreover, the potential modification of these associations by smoking status remains unclear.
Objective
The aims of this study were to examine the associations between an anti‐inflammatory diet index (AIDI) and all‐cause and cause‐specific mortality, to determine the association between the AIDI and differences in survival time and to assess effect modification by smoking status.
Methods
The study population included 68 273 Swedish men and women (aged 45–83 years) at baseline. The anti‐inflammatory potential of the diet was estimated using the validated AIDI, which includes 11 potential anti‐inflammatory and five potential pro‐inflammatory foods. Cox proportional hazards and Laplace regression were used to estimate hazard ratios and differences in survival time.
Results
During 16 years of follow‐up (1 057 959 person‐years), 16 088 deaths 5980 due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 5252 due to cancer were recorded. Participants in the highest versus lowest quartile of the AIDI had lower risks of all‐cause (18% reduction, 95% CI: 14–22%), CVD (20%, 95% CI: 14–26%) and cancer (13%, 95% CI: 5–20%) mortality. The strongest inverse associations between the highest and lowest quartiles of AIDI and risk of mortality were observed in current smokers: 31%, 36% and 22% lower risks of all‐cause, CVD and cancer mortality, respectively. The difference in survival time between current smokers in the lowest AIDI quartile and never smokers in the highest quartile was 4.6 years.
Conclusion
Adherence to a diet with high anti‐inflammatory potential may reduce all‐cause, CVD and cancer mortality and prolong survival time especially amongst smokers.
Summary
Background
Antioxidant intake may reduce the risk of allergic disease by protecting against oxidative tissue damage. Major sources of antioxidants in the Western world are fruits, vegetables ...(vitamin C, β‐carotene, α‐tocopherol), meat and milk (selenium, magnesium, zinc). Children may exclude or eat less of some fruits and vegetables due to cross‐reactivity between pollen and these foods, complicating assessment of causal relationships.
Objective
To investigate the association between dietary antioxidant intake and allergic disease, taking potential reverse causation into account.
Methods
Data on 2442 8‐year‐old children from the Swedish birth cohort study BAMSE were analysed. Children with completed parental questionnaires on exposures and health, including a food‐frequency questionnaire and who provided a blood sample were included. Associations between antioxidant intake during the past year and current allergic disease were analysed using logistic regression.
Results
An inverse association was observed between intake of β‐carotene and rhinitis (ORadj, highest vs. lowest quartile, 0.67, 95% CI 0.49–0.93). Magnesium intake was inversely related to asthma (ORadj, 0.65, 95% CI 0.42–1.00) and atopic sensitisation (ORadj, 0.78, 95% CI 0.61–1.00). Following exclusion of children who avoided certain fruits, vegetables or milk due to allergic symptoms (n = 285), the inverse association remained between magnesium intake and asthma (ORadj, 0.58, 95% CI 0.35–0.98), whereas all other associations became non‐significant.
Conclusion and clinical relevance
Diet modifications due to allergy may affect the antioxidant intake and needs to be considered when investigating the relationship between diet and allergic disease. Magnesium intake seems to have a protective effect on childhood asthma.
To study quality of diet in relation to all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality.
The population-based prospective Cohort of Swedish Men (COSM) included 40 837 men, ...45-79 years of age, who filled in a FFQ (96 food items) and were CVD- and cancer-free at baseline. Quality of diet was assessed by Recommended Food Score (RFS) based on 36 items and Non-Recommended Food Score (Non-RFS) based on 16 items. Cox's proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) of mortality and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Multivariate HRs for RFS and Non-RFS were adjusted for age, education, physical activity, martial status, self-perceived health status, smoking status, dietary supplements use, WHR, alcohol use, intake of energy and mutually adjusted.
Between 1998 and 2005, 4501 deaths from all-causes were registered. Between 1998 and 2003, there were 1394 CVD and 759 cancer deaths. High RFS (> or =28) compared with low (< or =20) was associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality (HR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.71-0.91; P-value for trend<0.0001) and CVD mortality (HR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.54-0.93; P-value for trend=0.003). In contrast, men with high Non-RFS (> or =5) had higher risk of all-cause (HR: 1.21; 95% CI: 1.09-1.34; P-value for trend=0.001) and CVD mortality (HR: 1.27; 95% CI: 1.05-1.54; P-value for trend=0.07) compared to those with low Non-RFS (< or =2 items). No significant associations with cancer mortality were observed.
Both measures of diet quality, RFS and Non-RFS, showed statistically significant associations with all-cause and CVD mortality (recommended foods inversely while nonrecommended foods positively), but not with cancer mortality.
Coffee contains many biologically active compounds with potential adverse or beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system. Whether coffee consumption is associated with the risk of aortic valve ...stenosis (AVS) is unknown. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the association between coffee consumption and AVS incidence.
This prospective study included 71 178 men and women who provided information on their coffee consumption through a questionnaire at baseline. Incident cases of AVS were identified through linkage with the Swedish National Patient and Cause of Death Registers. During a mean follow-up of 15.2 years, 1295 participants (777 men and 518 women) were diagnosed with AVS. Coffee consumption was positively associated with risk of AVS in a dose–response manner after adjustment for age, sex, smoking, and other risk factors (P-trend = 0.005). The multivariable hazard ratios were was 1.11 (95% confidence interval 1.04–1.19) per 2 cups/day increase of coffee consumption and 1.65 (95% confidence interval 1.10–2.48) when comparing the highest (≥6 cups/day) with the lowest (<0.5 cup/day) category of coffee consumption. The association was not modified by other risk factors.
This study provides novel evidence that high coffee consumption is associated with an increased risk of AVS.
•Coffee contains many biologically active compounds with potential effects on the cardiovascular system.•Available evidence indicates that atherosclerotic risk factors are associated with risk of aortic valve stenosis.•Coffee consumption was associated with increased risk of aortic valve stenosis in a prospective study of 71 178 adults.
Background and purpose
Caffeine is associated with a lower risk of some neurological diseases, but few prospective studies have investigated caffeine intake and risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ...(ALS) mortality. We therefore determined associations between coffee, tea and caffeine intake, and risk of ALS mortality.
Methods
We conducted pooled analyses of eight international, prospective cohort studies, including 351 565 individuals (120 688 men and 230 877 women). We assessed coffee, tea and caffeine intake using validated food‐frequency questionnaires administered at baseline. We used Cox regression to estimate study‐ and sex‐specific risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for ALS mortality, which were then pooled using a random‐effects model. We conducted analyses using cohort‐specific tertiles, absolute common cut‐points and continuous measures of all exposures.
Results
During follow‐up, 545 ALS deaths were documented. We did not observe statistically significant associations between coffee, tea or caffeine intake and risk of ALS mortality. The pooled multivariable risk ratio (MVRR) for ≥3 cups per day vs. >0 to <1 cup per day was 1.04 (95% CI, 0.74–1.47) for coffee and 1.17 (95% CI, 0.77–1.79) for tea. The pooled MVRR comparing the highest with the lowest tertile of caffeine intake (mg/day) was 0.99 (95% CI, 0.80–1.23). No statistically significant results were observed when exposures were modeled as tertiles or continuously.
Conclusions
Our results do not support associations between coffee, tea or total caffeine intake and risk of ALS mortality.
The looming alteration in climate has spurred a veritable industry over the past two decades of overly simplistic scenario modeling and theoretical predictions of future changes brought about by ...global warming, some based on research on human responses to fluctuations in rainfall and temperature in the past. Scholars who stress the complexity of climate and social processes have critiqued such crude models from two different approaches: resilience thinking and political ecology. In this article, I assess the resilience framework through an analysis of the effects of droughts over a long time perspective, between circa 1800 and 1950, in two East African communities: the Kamba of Kenya and the Gogo of Tanzania. My conclusion is that political ecology theory provides a better explanation than the resilience approach. In both cases, rather than primarily adapting to climate events, the ability of communities and households to cope with droughts varied depending on how they were integrated into regional economies and the world system when those droughts occurred. The effects of droughts and long‐term fluctuations in precipitation were mediated through exchange networks, the flow of currencies, and the processes of stratification in local resource control, which in turn affected land use and settlement patterns.
Background
Medication has been suggested as a potential risk factor for diverticular disease. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between the intake of corticosteroids, ...indometacin or aspirin and diverticular disease.
Method
This was a prospective population‐based cohort study of middle‐aged women in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. Use of corticosteroids (oral or inhaled), indometacin or aspirin in 1997 was determined from questionnaires. Cases of diverticular disease were identified from the Swedish national registers until the end of 2010. The relative risk (RR) of diverticular disease requiring hospital admission according to the use of medication was estimated using Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for age, body mass index, physical activity, fibre intake, diabetes, hypertension, alcohol, smoking and education.
Results
A total of 36 586 middle‐aged women in the Swedish Mammography Cohort were included, of whom 674 (1·8 per cent) were hospitalized with diverticular disease at least once. Some 7·2 per cent of women reported intake of oral corticosteroids and 8·5 per cent use of inhaled corticosteroids. In multivariable analysis, women who reported oral corticosteroid intake had a 37 per cent (RR 1·37, 95 per cent c.i. 1·06 to 1·78; P = 0·012) increased risk of diverticular disease compared with those who reported no intake at all. Use of inhaled corticosteroids was associated with an even more pronounced increase in risk of 71 per cent (RR 1·71, 1·36 to 2·14; P < 0·001). There was a significant dose–response relationship, with the risk increasing with longer duration of inhaled corticosteroids (P for trend < 0·001). Use of indometacin (2·5 per cent of women) or aspirin (44·2 per cent) did not influence the risk.
Conclusion
There was a significant relationship between corticosteroids (especially inhaled) and diverticular disease requiring hospital admission.
Risk highest with inhaled steroids
BACKGROUND: Dairy foods may play a role in the regulation of body weight. OBJECTIVE: We examined the association between changes in dairy product consumption and weight change over 9 y. DESIGN: The ...study was conducted in 19 352 Swedish women aged 40-55 y at baseline. Data on dietary intake, body weight, height, age, education, and parity were collected in 1987-1990 and 1997. The intake frequencies of whole milk and sour milk (3% fat), medium-fat milk (1.5% fat), low-fat milk and sour milk (=1 serving/d; 3) constant, >=1 serving/d; and 4) decreased from >=1 serving/d to <1 serving/d. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs for an average weight gain of >=1 kg/y were calculated by using multivariable logistic regression analyses, with group 1 as the reference. RESULTS: Mean (±SD) body mass index (in kg/m²) at baseline was 23.7 ± 3.5. The constant (>=1 serving/d) intakes of whole milk and sour milk and of cheese were inversely associated with weight gain; ORs for group 3 were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.73, 0.99) and 0.70 (95% CI: 0.59, 0.84) respectively. No significant associations were seen for the other 3 intake groups. When stratified by BMI, the findings remained significant for cheese and, for normal-weight women only, for whole milk and sour milk. CONCLUSION: The association between the intake of dairy products and weight change differed according to type of dairy product and body mass status. The mechanism behind these findings warrants further investigation.
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