Tangerine, orange juice may inhibit cancer cell growth

The most active of the 22 flavonoids studied was tangeretin from tangerine juice, said Dr. Najla Guthrie, biochemist and president of KGK Synergize, Inc., a for-profit medical research and development firm in London, Ontario, Canada. Tangeretin showed activity against all cell lines, and was the single most effective substance against prostate, melanoma and colon cell proliferation.

Synthetic versions of flavonoids, while still showing activity, were less potent than the natural substances in these experiments, she said. One synthetic flavonoid, quercetrin tetramethyl ether, showed activity against colon cancer cells.

The cell line findings are a follow-up to Guthrie's work in a widely-accepted animal model of human breast cancer. In those studies, mice were injected with a human breast cancer cell line. The experimental animals received double-strength orange or tangerine juice instead of drinking water.

Through the mice studies, it was determined that individual flavonoids -- whether naturally occurring or synthetic analogs -- did not act as whole juices.

``The juices inhibited tumor incidence by more than 50%, but constituent flavonoids really had no effect'' in the animals, Guthrie said at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Taken together, these observations may suggest that flavonoids are most potent when acting in concert, or in the presence of vitamin C or other compounds, owing to some synergistic effect, Guthrie told Reuters Health. Alternatively, orange and tangerine juices may contain unknown substances with important protective properties.

The next step is to explore the mechanisms of the most active substances to discover how they inhibit cancer cell line growth, she added.

Walnuts may help lower harmful cholesterol

Walnuts, which are rich in polyunsaturated fats, have been shown to reduce levels of harmful LDL cholesterol, but previous research was conducted in healthy young men who did not have high cholesterol.

In the current study, Dr. Daniel Zambon, of the Hospital Clinic Provincial in Barcelona, compared the cholesterol-lowering effects of two diets, a normal Mediterranean diet and a modified version in which walnuts were partially substituted for olive oil and other fatty foods. The diet included eight to 11 walnuts a day, which composed about 18% of total calories and 35% of fat calories. Forty-nine men and women with high LDL cholesterol levels completed the study, sticking to each diet for six weeks.

Both diets helped lower LDL cholesterol, but the walnut diet was more effective than the traditional Mediterranean diet, according to the report in the April 4th issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Average LDL cholesterol declined by 11.2% during the walnut diet and 5.6% during the control diet. The researchers also report that the walnut diet helped reduce lipoprotein (a), another substance in the blood that has been linked to heart disease. Levels dropped by 9.1% during the walnut diet but only by 3.4% on the Mediterranean diet. This drop was statistically significant only in men, however.

``Our investigation adds further weight to the accumulating evidence that regular intake of nuts has a cholesterol-lowering effect,'' the authors write.

If substituting walnuts for some of the fats in the Mediterranean diet, which contains fewer saturated animal fats than the typical western diet, lowers LDL cholesterol levels, replacing some fats in the western diet with walnuts might provide even greater benefits, the researchers conclude.

Some of the study funding was provided by the California Walnut Commission.

SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine 2000;132:538-546.

Folic acid may cut miscarriage risk

Although no clinical trials have been conducted to support this idea, researchers in the Netherlands have found that women who have low levels of folate, the byproduct of folic acid that is found in the blood, are more likely to miscarry than those with higher levels.

In the new study, investigators compared 123 women who had had at least two miscarriages with 104 women who did not. None of the women took supplements of folic acid during pregnancy.

Those women who had suffered at least two early miscarriages showed lower levels of folate, compared with women who had never miscarried, Dr. Willianne Nelen and colleagues at the University Hospital Nijmegen St. Radboud, report in the April issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The research team also found that women who had had three or more pregnancy losses had lower folate concentrations than those who had had two miscarriages. In addition, miscarriage risk was also linked to higher blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid linked with heart disease and other health problems.

High levels of folate are known to reduce blood levels of homocysteine. These findings, Nelen and colleagues note, suggest that high folate concentrations may protect against recurrent miscarriages.

Vital to red blood cell production, folate has also been found to help prevent birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, such as spina bifida. Because such defects occur in the first weeks of pregnancy, women are advised to take folic acid supplements throughout their childbearing years.

According to the March of Dimes, women should take 0.4 milligrams (400 micrograms) of folic acid daily, in addition to the amount they get in foods like orange juice, whole grains, beans, and leafy green vegetables. Folic acid needs increase during pregnancy.

In animal studies, Nelen's team notes, folic acid supplements have improved survival of fetuses past early gestation. Whether the vitamin can do the same in humans awaits evidence from controlled clinical trials.

SOURCE: Obstetrics and Gynecology 2000;95:519-524.

Vitamin C may help prevent nerve disorder

NEW YORK, Apr 04 (Reuters Health) -- It is not clear if vitamin C can combat the common cold, but new evidence suggests that it may stave off a form of nerve pain known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD).

RSD may develop following an injury, such as a fracture, and is characterized by pain, swelling and limited movement that is out of proportion to the injury and lingers long after the injury has healed.

People who took vitamin C after breaking a wrist were less likely to develop RSD than those who took an inactive placebo drug, according to a report in the March issue of The Journal of Family Practice.

In the study, conducted by Dr. P.E. Zollinger and colleagues, 115 wrist fracture patients aged 24 to 88 took either 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily for 50 days following the injury, or a placebo (inactive) drug.

One year later, RSD occurred in only 7% of patients in the vitamin C group, compared with 22% of those on placebo, reported Dr. Nancy Misicko of the Lawrenceville Family Health Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who reviewed the study that originally was published in 1999 in The Lancet.

The finding suggests that taking 500 milligrams of vitamin C per day for 50 days after a wrist fracture may help prevent RSD, Misicko concludes.

``Although this dose is 10-fold higher than the recommended daily allowance, it is still well below the overdose level,'' she writes. ``This inexpensive and relatively easy treatment seems especially prudent for older patients and those with early complaints while wearing the plaster cast.''

Vitamin C is an antioxidant and it may help prevent RSD by speeding up nerve repair, according to Dr. Robert Gordon of the Family and Sports Medical Center in Plymouth, Michigan.

Other vitamins and minerals, such as zinc and some of the B vitamins, are known to work in helping heal other nerve disorders, including carpal tunnel syndrome, he told Reuters Health.

Gordon said that he would recommend that patients take a multivitamin after a fracture to get the benefits of all the vitamins and minerals -- including vitamin C.

SOURCE: The Journal of Family Practice 2000;49:268-269.

Vitamin C may help women steer clear of gallstones

In men, however, there appears to be no link between vitamin C and risk of gallstones, which can develop when bile, cholesterol, calcium salts and other substances come together to form a mass in the gallbladder, the organ that stores bile. Gallstones often exist without causing symptoms, but surgery is sometimes necessary when the stones cause severe pain and inflammation.

Because vitamin C plays an important role in the body's breakdown of cholesterol, Dr. Joel A. Simon from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco, California, and associates wanted to see whether there was a link between vitamin C and gallbladder disease.

The investigators looked at more than 13,000 participants in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), according to a report in the April 10th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study subjects got their vitamin C from a number of sources, including vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables, as well as supplements.

Overall, 8% of women and 6% of men had gallstones detected by ultrasound even though they were not experiencing any symptoms. Another 11% of women and 4% of men had a history of gallstones, the researchers report.

Women with high blood levels of vitamin C were less likely to have gallstones than those with lower levels. Those women with the highest level of vitamin C were 39% less likely to have been diagnosed with gallstones and 33% less likely to have symptom-free gallstones than women with the lowest levels.

In contrast, there was no association of vitamin C levels with gallbladder disease in men, the investigators note.

Women who took vitamin C supplements had a lower risk of being diagnosed with symptom-causing gallbladder disease, but supplement use had no affect on the risk of symptom-free gallstones, the results indicate.

``Our study is the first to report an association between serum ascorbic acid (vitamin C) levels and asymptomatic gallstones,'' the authors conclude. More study is needed to determine if increasing intake of vitamin C-rich foods or supplements could help prevent gallbladder problems in women.

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