Twenty years ago the World Health Organization recommended that people should consume at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day in order to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases. The advice has become gospel pretty much ever since.

Unfortunately, a recent study by Paolo Boffetta and colleagues at Mount Sinai School of Medicine does not substantiate the claim.

The scientists analyzed 500,000 subjects from 10 countries who were enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. They concluded that consuming an extra 2 portions of fruits and veggies per day could prevent at most 2.6% of cancers in men and 2.3% of cases in women, after accounting for lifestyle factors like smoking and exercise.

Even these modest gains could have been due to the fact that people who consumed more fruit and vegetables lived healthier lives in other respects, with the latter behaviors actually accounting for the gains.

The scientists found that vegetables, which tend to have more nutrients, were more beneficial than fruits, and that heavy drinkers and smokers appeared to gain the most from increased consumption of fruits and vegetables.

In an accompanying editorial, Harvard University nutrition expert Walter Willet said the study confirmed previous findings. “Any association of intake and fruits and vegetables with risk of cancer is weak at best,” he told the BBC.

Although the link between diet and cancer seems less certain, it is becoming increasingly clear that obesity is a major risk factor for cancer. Thus to the extent that fruits and vegetables are substituted in the diet for higher calorie foods, they could still drop cancer risk via this mechanism. 

The write-up appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The Gräfenberg Spot, or G-Spot is, according to popular culture and a few questionable scientific studies, an elusive erogenous zone located in the anterior vagina. When stimulated, the G-spot can lead to intense sexual arousal and hellacious orgasms that rival or surpass those provoked by clitoral stimulation.

Alas, the latest study on the matter suggests it doesn’t exist.

To reach these conclusions, Tim Spector and colleagues at King’s College London asked 1,800 women whether they had a G-spot, and if so, where it was located. All the women were pairs of identical and non-identical twins.

If a G-spot did exist, both identical twins (who have the same genes) would be expected to report having one in the same place. In fact, the scientists found that identical twins were no more likely to share a G-spot than non-identical twins (who share half their genes).

“This is by far the biggest study ever carried out and shows fairly conclusively that the idea of a G-spot is subjective,” Spector told the BBC.

Colleague Andrea Burri voiced concern that women who couldn’t find a G-spot might feel inadequate. “It is rather irresponsible to claim the existence of an entity that has never been proven and pressurize women and men too,” she said.

Commenting on the study, Petra Boynton, a psychologist at University College London, said “it’s fine to go looking for the G-spot but do not worry if you don’t find it. It should not be the only focus. Everyone is different.”

Sexologist Beverley Whipple, who helped popularize the G-spot concept, argued the study was flawed because the scientists failed to account for the impact of different sexual partners and different love-making techniques.

The write-up is in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

People who look younger than their actual age have a longer life expectancy than those who look their age, according to Danish scientists.

To reach this conclusion, Kaare Christensen of the University of Southern Denmark and colleagues asked nurses, teachers-in-training and peers to guess the age of 1,826 pairs of twins from their photos.

The twins were at least 70 years old when they were photographed.
 
For all 3 assessor groups, perceived age of the twins was associated with their survival, even after adjustment for chronological age, gender, pre-existing medical conditions, cognitive abilities and socioeconomic status.

Furthermore, the bigger the difference in perceived age within the pair, the more likely it became that the older looking twin died first.

The authors even provided a possible physiological explanation for their finding: key pieces of cellular DNA known as telomeres, which predict the ability of cells to replicate, were also linked to perceived age, the group found.

Shorter telomeres are associated with more rapid ageing, and the scientists found that people who looked younger had longer telomeres.

Christensen suggested to the BBC that people who have had a tougher life are more likely to die early – and that their life is reflected in their face.

“It’s probably a combination of genes plus environment over a lifetime that are important,” said UK professor Tim Spector, who has been doing similar research on twins. “We are also finding this in our study.”

The write-up is in the British Medical Journal.

In the 15 years since communications expert John Gray penned the book, Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus, the concept that the 2 sexes are wired differently has become entrenched in popular culture.

And there’s plenty of evidence to support his observations.

Most recently, a team from Poland used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess gender differences in brain activity in response to images  designed to evoke various emotional reactions.

Lo and behold, they found plenty!

Andrzej Urbanik and colleagues from Jagiellonian University Hospital in Krakow demonstrated the differences in 40 volunteers, and presented their findings at the recently completed meetings of the Radiological Society of North America.

When the scientists showed women a sequence of negative images, fMRI records showed widespread activity in the left thalamus, an area known to relay sensory information to other parts of the brain that process pain and pleasure.

When the same negative images were shown to men, the fMRI revealed that the left insula lit up like a pinball machine. This region helps control involuntary activities like breathing, heart rate and digestion, and is involved in the so-called “fight or flight response.”

As for the positive images, the fMRI results in women revealed strong activity in areas of the brain associated with memory, while in men strong activity was found in areas associated with visual processing.

In an interview with the BBC, Urbanik postulated that “when confronted with dangerous situations, men are more likely than women to take action.”

As for the differential responses to the positive images, Urbanik suggested the differences imply that women tend to analyze them in a broader social context and associate them with particular memories.

An image of a smiling toddler for example, seems more likely to evoke memories of one’s own child in Venusians than in Martians.

Autistic 2 year-olds respond differently to visual and auditory cues presented in cartoons, an observation that could help diagnose the condition earlier and perhaps encourage development of interventions that favorably alter the course of the disease.

To reach this conclusion, Ami Klin and colleagues at Yale showed specially prepared animations to 21 toddlers with autistic-spectrum disorders, 39 normally developing children and 16 that had developmental problems other than autism.

The cartoons were specially designed versions children’s games like ‘peek-a-boo’ and ‘pat-a-cake.’

In some versions, the images appeared upside-down. In others, they were not.

In addition, some versions featured audio cues like the sounds of clapping hands, while others were silent. 

The Yale scientists showed that normally developing toddlers and those with non-autism related developmental problems showed a clear preference for the upright animations whether or not audio cues were present.

Toddlers with ASD did not demonstrate this preference when shown silent versions of the cartoons, but when audio cues were added, they did prefer the upright versions over the upside-down versions 66% of the time.

Apparently, sound helped grab their attention.

The write-up appears in Nature.

“In autism, genetic predispositions are exacerbated by atypical experience from a very early age, altering brain development,” Klin told the BBC.

“Attention to biological motion is a fundamental mechanism of social engagement. We need to understand how this process is derailed in autism, starting in the first weeks and months of life,” he added.

“This line of research holds promise for development of new therapies based on redirecting visual attention in children with (autism),” said Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

A study from the National Cancer Institute has shown that excessive consumption of red meat, processed meat and pork increases all-cause mortality.

Rashmi Sinha and colleagues published the bad news in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The scientists reviewed data from 545,653 adult volunteers who participated in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Participants completed dietary questionnaires and were followed for 10 years.

After controlling for confounding variables, the scientists found that the most carnivorous women, who were good for a quarter-pound of red meat per day, were 36% percent more likely to die for any reason, 50% more likely to die of cardiac disease and 20% more likely to die of cancer.

It was about the same for men.

Heavy consumption of sausage, cold cuts and other processed meat resulted in the same fate, whereas big-time consumers of fish and white meat died off 8% less frequently than those who rarely ate them.

Previous studies had identified an association between red meat consumption and a higher risk of cardiac disease and colorectal cancer, but this one was the first to reveal a link to all cause mortality.

“The uniqueness of this study is its size and length of follow-up,” Barry Popkin told the Washington Post. The professor of nutrition at UNC added “if people want to be healthy and live longer, consume less red and processed meat.’”

The rap sheet on red meat is longer than Blagojevich’s. Cooking it generates carcinogens. It’s laced with saturated fat, which is linked to colorectal and breast cancer. It’s high in iron, another cancer promoter. It jacks up blood pressure and cholesterol, and so forth. 

For their part, processed meats contain carcinogenic nitrosamines, and pork bumps up cancer risk too, probably because it contains iron.

The American Meat Institute blew off the findings.

“Meat products are part of a healthy, balanced diet,” James Hodges, the group’s EVP told the Washington Post.

“Studies show they provide a sense of satisfaction and fullness that can help with weight control. Proper body weight contributes to good health overall.”

By all accounts, Cerrie Burnell has the skills and make-up to be terrific in her new role has co-host for Cbeebies, a BBC children’s show aimed at kids 6 years old and under.

It’s just that Burnell was born with one hand, and the plainly visible disability has roiled some British parents who worry what impact the gestalt might have on their children.

BBC Spokesperson Katya Mira said the network has received at least 25 “official” complaints since Burnell joined the show in January, and that’s not counting dozens more negative comments posted in chat rooms and blogs.

One father complained for example that the hostess forced him to discuss disabilities with his child before he would have preferred.

Mira was quick to add that the BBC has “received 99 appreciations of (Burnell),” according to CNN.

Before joining Cbeebies, Burnell had worked as an actress for theater companies in Manchester, England and Brazil.

BBC’s January news release introducing Burnell did not mention her disability, although it was accompanied by a PR photo in which the right sleeve of her sweater was rolled up leaving the missing lower limb in plain sight.

Burnell has heard the criticism and remains unperturbed.

“It can only be a good thing that parents are using me as a chance to talk disability with their children. It just goes to show how important it is to have positive, disabled role models on CBeebies and television in general,” Burnell told CNN.

And BBC controller Michael Carrington voiced strong support for Burnell. “Cerrie is warm and natural and we think that, in time, all moms and dads and children will love her as much as we do,” he said.

A new survey by the UK-based Beat shows that only 15% of patients with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia felt their GP understood their condition or knew how to help them.

Some said they felt their primary care physician did not take their problems seriously. Others felt they lacked knowledge about treatment options.

In England, the number of girls and young women requiring hospitalization for anorexia has increased 80% in the last decade. More than 1.1 million people in the UK are believed to have an eating disorder.

“People affected by eating disorders still aren’t getting the treatment and support they need,” Beat chief executive Susan Ringwood concluded.

According to the BBC, one young person in the survey was told to “go home and eat a burger,” while another was reassured she was just going through “a phase.”

Recently British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the NHS needed to improve diagnostic and therapeutic performance on eating disorders. “Sometimes it is late and sometimes things have gone too far,” he said.

But Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs said physicians are for the most part doing an excellent job.

“It’s not very often that the patient comes to the GP and says ‘I’ve got an eating disorder’, but doctors do know what they are doing and the signs to look out for and patients should be reassured of this” he said.

Beat is the UK’s leading charity for people with eating disorders. It provides help lines, online support and self-help groups.

NICE guidelines on eating disorders state that recovery is possible provided GPs listen to their patients, act quickly and, in the case of young people, involve their families as much as possible.

The health-related Web search is so much a part of modern life, it’s become possible to identify flu outbreaks by observing zip-code specific search behavior on terms like muscle aches, fever and sore throat.

It’s all good so long as searchers know that the rank order of their results has no clinical meaning.

Which means it’s not all good because lots of folks believe the rank order reflects something about disease likelihood and incidence… as if the search engine were creating a differential diagnosis like Marcus Welby or something.

For example, a search on ‘causes of headache’ might generate a list topped by ‘brain tumor,’ but brain tumors are not a common cause of headache.

Caffeine withdrawal, too much alcohol, sinus conditions and the need for a good eye exam are way more common and less deadly, but for reasons from the commercial to the algorithmic, they don’t appear first.

Nevertheless, lots of people begin secondary searches on brain tumors which begets hours of tense preoccupation with scary irrelevancies and pretty soon they’re searching ways to get their affairs in order.

The word describing this phenomenon is ‘Cyberchondria,’ and Microsoft’s Eric Horvitz and Ryen White just released a study of the matter.

More than half the participants in their study said that search queries related to serious illnesses had interfered with their routine daily activities at least one time during the study, and search escalations regarding dire diagnoses sometimes continued for days, weeks or even months after the initial search.

You have been warned.

For 8 years, the Bush administration has systematically dismantled America’s reputation. People see us as arrogant and out of touch, as the country that brought you Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

Colin Powell had this in mind when he endorsed the Big O last week. An Obama election, he said, “will not only electrify our country…it’ll electrify the world.”

The global impact of next week’s election will be huge no matter who wins, because “cooperation is essential to address 21st-century challenges,” according to NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. “You can’t fire cruise missiles at the global financial crisis.”

Indeed. So what do people in other countries think about the two candidates running for president of the United States of America?

It could not be clearer. Respondents in all 22 countries polled by the BBC World Service indicated they prefer Obama. Among those who expressed a preference, the average margin was four to one: 49% want the Big O, 12% favor Top Gun. The rest are undecided.

The biggest Obama backers were Kenya (87%), Italy (76%), France (69%), Australia (67%), Canada (66%), and Germany (65%).

People in 17 of the 22 countries think Obama can improve America’s international relations, whereas those in 19 of 22 countries believe things will remain unchanged during a McCain administration.

With respect to Obama’s African-American heritage, a majority in 15 countries indicated that his ascent to the presidency would fundamentally change their perception of America. 

For lots of people, next Tuesday can’t come soon enough.