Bowel Cancer & Poor Diet, Food Additives, MMR, Drugs Death, Homeopathy, Needle-Free Injections, Herbal Medicine Warning

BOWEL CANCER & POOR DIET

There have been a number of health scares about the food we eat recently, which were compounded this week by news from Cancer Research UK that the incidence of bowel cancer is rising. While this is a disease of adults and we are getting better at treating it, it is one of the cancers known to be linked to poor diet, and the eating habits you establish in your children could help to protect them from cancer in later life. The best diet to prevent bowel cancer contains, primarily, a lot of fibre, preferably from fresh fruit and vegetables. Eating a lot of red meat, particularly barbecued and slightly charred, seems to increase your risk of bowel cancer. Obesity also increases the risk of some cancers in later life.

FOOD ADDITIVES

On the subject of food there have been a number of reports questioning the quality of food in the UK – while all food additives are approved and monitored, interested parents might like to print out the list of E numbers at the end of this section and see what they consist of.

Many food colourings and additives are safe: entirely natural and harmless; natural food colourings include caramel, beet (beetroot) beta-carotene saffron, paprika, chlorella and chlorophyll (which make plants green), turmeric, carrot oil and cochineal. Unfortunately a lot of children’s food contains artificial colourings that, while tested and approved, most parents think are best avoided or minimised in children’s diets. Smarties for example contain six artificial food colourings, salmon grown in lakes are fed food containing axanthin to make it look pink like a wild salmon and egg yolks are made to look bright yellow by feeding the hens special feed. Fish fingers can have dyes added to the breadcrumbs to make them look orange.

If dyes are fed to animals while they are still alive then they do not need to be declared on the product list – this is also true of antibiotics given to farmed meat. It is a valuable exercise to look at the weekly shop and see what ingredients are in the foods you buy regularly – bear in mind that small amounts of most of these things do no harm at all but if you have a fussy eater who is addicted to one type of food you might consider the organic option to keep levels of chemicals down.

Waitrose supermarkets have recently introduced bags of small apples with cartoon stickers free in the pack and on the apples – the first time I’ve seen fruit or vegetables promoted in this way. The food industry usually only promotes high fat sugar and salt items like this, relying on pester power – look at the sugar content of cereals which correlates positively with the desirability of the child-attracting freebies in the box. Be careful about reading and interpreting food labels – ‘no added sugar’ on a drink label may mean that there is no added sucrose (white sugar) but it may still contain all sorts of other sugars and sweeteners such as dextrose, glucose syrup and artificial sweeteners – such as aspartame and saccharin.

If as parents we boycott food with empty calories, too much fat and too many artificial additives we can change the ways that supermarkets buy and maybe the way people farm in this country. Have you got any pet labelling hates? Have you seen useful healthy eating initiatives aimed at children? Please let us know – we’d love to hear your stories and suggestions.

Read E-Numbers with a quick description of the possible health problems associated with each one.

Also read this article from Scottishsalmon.co.uk and this interesting and balanced article from the Guardian newspaper, ‘How the king of fish is being farmed to death’.

Also see: Food Standards Agency and FDA and Colour Additives.

MMR - STILL IN THE NEWS

There have been more cases of measles so far this year than in the whole of last year but still the levels are not that high compared to some other recent years. Parents who want single vaccines are challenging the Government’s stance in the European Court of Human Rights. Read our article on MMR and on the separate vaccines.

DRUGS DEATH

Parents were confronted with the horrific pictures of the dead body of Rachel Whitear clutching the empty syringe of heroin that killed her. Her parents have bravely allowed her story to be publicised and made into a video to be shown to schoolchildren. Read ‘A daughter's descent into heroin hell’ from the Daily Telegraph.

The Daily Mail reviewed an article in the British Journal of Psychiatry that stated that children who use so-called ‘soft’ drugs like cannabis are five times more likely to drink underage and thirteen times more likely to smoke, increasing their risk of liver disease, heart disease and cancer in later life. They also found that children who smoked cannabis regularly were more depressed and 15% had contemplated suicide. Read the original article in BJP -- Abstracts.

There is no doubt that we need to know more about the long term health effects of newer recreational drugs such as ecstasy which killed Leah Betts. There have been some reports that ecstasy leads to panic attacks in later life – could this affect someone’s life and work or even predispose to alcoholism to mask the panic attacks? Read the ecstasy information from Drugscope and ‘Ecstasy use 'increases mental disorders’ from the Daily Telegraph – let us know what you think.

For further information on all illegal drugs see the Drugscope website.

HOMEOPATHY

Homeopathy has been assessed by the York-based NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination which concludes that ‘there is currently insufficient evidence of effectiveness to recommend homeopathy as a treatment for any condition’. (See the report.) Homeopathy is currently prescribed by many GPs who can also refer patients to homeopaths. A report in this week’s British Medical Journal looking at the treatment of asthma with homeopathy found it useless. Homeopaths argue that as each treatment is individually tailored to that person it is impossible to assess it in a scientific manner. John Diamond was very scathing about homeopath’s claims in his book ‘Snake Oil’ but 470,000 people in the UK use them every year. What do you think – harmless fun, potent healing remedies or a load of nonsense? Let us know on our message board.

Read Homeopathy and asthma from the BMJ.

NEEDLE-FREE INJECTIONS

The Daily Express reports on needle-free injections for needle phobics - they say that vaccines will soon be available via nose and mouth sprays and skin patches. The nasal ‘flu vaccine is due to be released here next year, and as we reported last week a ‘vaccine’ against tooth decay is being developed at Guy’s Hospital in the form of a mouthwash.

The Medical House, a company based in Sheffield is launching the Mhi-500 a pen-sized gadget that forces insulin under the skin of diabetics without the need for needles. As insulin-dependent diabetics need several injections a day this could really improve their quality of life. One diabetic who has tried it says that there is no pain when you use it. Read about it at Diabetes UK Home page and at Welcome to InsulinJet.com.

…And Other Vaccine News

The Express also reports that a vaccine against Respiratory Syncytial Virus, which causes the lung disease bronchiolitis in babies and preschool children, is being denied to premature babies because of its cost. Premature babies often have weak or scarred lungs and RSV infection can kill them. The DOH says there are no official guidelines on its availability but that it is up to each health authority to decide whether to fund it. I can’t believe that a vaccine costs more than weeks in hospital for a small fragile baby at the start of its life. Has your child had bronchiolitis? – let us know on our message boards.

HERBAL MEDICINE WARNING

With the news that St Johns Wort can interfere with a number of prescription drugs and that Kava may cause liver damage and death you should always check with your doctor if you are taking any herbal or alternative treatments in combination with conventional medicine.

Read this interesting article on Risk of drug and herb blend in the Times.