This page is for updates of body signs not found in my book Your Body's Sign Language: Clues to Nutritional Well-Being.
Height and Cancer Risk
An extensive study of women concluded that cancer incidence increases with increasing adult height for most cancer sites. This association showed little variation across Europe, North America, Australasia, and Asia. Every 4-inch increase in height corresponded to a 16% hike in cancer risk. Researchers concluded that this correlation may provide a clue to basic common mechanisms for cancer. Similar results have been reported for men. The association was weaker for smoking related cancers. This is the first study to link height to multiple cancers rather than a single type of cancer.
Researchers suggested that a common mechanism, possibly acting in early life, could be involved in the increased cancer risk. The good news of the study was the suggestion that taller people have less risk of heart disease.
I can think of three or four factors which have been associated with increased height over my many years of studying nutrition:
Sugar consumption: Dr. John Yudkin argued that increased height and earlier maturity were characteristics associated with increasing consumption of sugar. Sugar has a powerful effect on hormone chemistry. This increased exposure to hormones or just the poor diet could contribute to increased risk of cancer. There is a known association between increased sugar consumption and increased risk of cancer.
Poor diet: Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. observed that while deficient diets tended to decrease the mineral content and diameter of bones, "their long bones tended to increase in length." General malnutrition would lend itself to increased risk of cancer, particularly if caloric restriction were not involved.
Increased exposure to light/ lack of sleep: The peptide ghrelin is increased significantly with sleep deprivation. This peptide is a stimulus to appetite and growth hormone secretion. Decreased sleep would also tend to decrease melatonin production. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant and is known to decrease risk of cancer. Researchers have shown that sleep curtailment increased daytime levels of ghrelin by almost 28%. Self-reported sleep duration in the United States has decreased by almost 2 hours over the past 40 years. The discovery of the electric light bulb brought an end to a sound night's sleep for a good part of the earth's population.
Dairy products: Milk consumption has been associated with increased stature. This could be due to improved nutrition, bovine growth hormone or other growth factors in the milk. A study by Rich-Edwards and associates concluded, "Milk drinking may cause increases in somatotropic hormone levels of prepubertal girls and boys. The finding that milk intake may raise GH (growth hormone) levels is novel, and suggests that nutrients or bioactive factors in milk may stimulate endogenous GH production." Swerdlow suggests that treatment of patients with growth hormone has been associated with "significantly raised risks of mortality from cancer overall."
References:
Green, Jane, Cairns, Benjamin, et al., Height and cancer incidence in the Million Women Study: prospective cohort, and meta-analysis of prospective studies of height and total cancer risk, The Lancet Oncology, Volume 12, Issue 8, 785-794.
Yudkin, John, Sweet and Dangerous, New York: Bantam, 1972, 146-156.
Pottenger, Francis M., Pottenger's Cats, La Mesa, CA: Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, 2005,31.
Wren, A.M., The novel hypothalmic peptide ghrelin stimulates food intake and growth hormone secretion, Endocrinology, 2000; 141(11):4325-4328.
Spiegel, Karine, et al., Brief communication: Sleep curtailment in healthy young men is associated with decreased leptin levels, elevated ghrelin levels, and increased hunger and appetite, Ann Intern Med. 2004;141:846-850.
Rich-Edwards, Janet W., Ganmaa, Davaasambuu, et al., Milk consumption and the prepubertal somatotropic axis, Nutrition Journal, September 2007, 6:28.
Swerdlow, A.J., Risk of cancer in patients treated with human pituitary growth hormone in the UK, 1959-85: a cohort study, Lancet 2002; 360:273-77.
Waist to Height Ratio
The waist should be no more than half the length of your height. This measurement was actually found to be more accurate than the body mass index (BMI) used by physicians. Researchers found that those whose waistlines measureed 80 percent of their height lived 16.7 years less than the average lifespan.
A six foot man should have a waistline smaller than 36 inches while a woman who is 5 foot 4 inches should have a waist size no larger than 32 inches for optimal lifespan.
The research was conducted at Oxford Brookes University by Dr. Margaret Ashwell. Ashwell followed people for twenty years to see the effects of her measurements.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10054519/Waist-to-height-ratio-more-accurate-than-BMI.html
Height and Cancer Risk
An extensive study of women concluded that cancer incidence increases with increasing adult height for most cancer sites. This association showed little variation across Europe, North America, Australasia, and Asia. Every 4-inch increase in height corresponded to a 16% hike in cancer risk. Researchers concluded that this correlation may provide a clue to basic common mechanisms for cancer. Similar results have been reported for men. The association was weaker for smoking related cancers. This is the first study to link height to multiple cancers rather than a single type of cancer.
Researchers suggested that a common mechanism, possibly acting in early life, could be involved in the increased cancer risk. The good news of the study was the suggestion that taller people have less risk of heart disease.
I can think of three or four factors which have been associated with increased height over my many years of studying nutrition:
Sugar consumption: Dr. John Yudkin argued that increased height and earlier maturity were characteristics associated with increasing consumption of sugar. Sugar has a powerful effect on hormone chemistry. This increased exposure to hormones or just the poor diet could contribute to increased risk of cancer. There is a known association between increased sugar consumption and increased risk of cancer.
Poor diet: Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. observed that while deficient diets tended to decrease the mineral content and diameter of bones, "their long bones tended to increase in length." General malnutrition would lend itself to increased risk of cancer, particularly if caloric restriction were not involved.
Increased exposure to light/ lack of sleep: The peptide ghrelin is increased significantly with sleep deprivation. This peptide is a stimulus to appetite and growth hormone secretion. Decreased sleep would also tend to decrease melatonin production. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant and is known to decrease risk of cancer. Researchers have shown that sleep curtailment increased daytime levels of ghrelin by almost 28%. Self-reported sleep duration in the United States has decreased by almost 2 hours over the past 40 years. The discovery of the electric light bulb brought an end to a sound night's sleep for a good part of the earth's population.
Dairy products: Milk consumption has been associated with increased stature. This could be due to improved nutrition, bovine growth hormone or other growth factors in the milk. A study by Rich-Edwards and associates concluded, "Milk drinking may cause increases in somatotropic hormone levels of prepubertal girls and boys. The finding that milk intake may raise GH (growth hormone) levels is novel, and suggests that nutrients or bioactive factors in milk may stimulate endogenous GH production." Swerdlow suggests that treatment of patients with growth hormone has been associated with "significantly raised risks of mortality from cancer overall."
References:
Green, Jane, Cairns, Benjamin, et al., Height and cancer incidence in the Million Women Study: prospective cohort, and meta-analysis of prospective studies of height and total cancer risk, The Lancet Oncology, Volume 12, Issue 8, 785-794.
Yudkin, John, Sweet and Dangerous, New York: Bantam, 1972, 146-156.
Pottenger, Francis M., Pottenger's Cats, La Mesa, CA: Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, 2005,31.
Wren, A.M., The novel hypothalmic peptide ghrelin stimulates food intake and growth hormone secretion, Endocrinology, 2000; 141(11):4325-4328.
Spiegel, Karine, et al., Brief communication: Sleep curtailment in healthy young men is associated with decreased leptin levels, elevated ghrelin levels, and increased hunger and appetite, Ann Intern Med. 2004;141:846-850.
Rich-Edwards, Janet W., Ganmaa, Davaasambuu, et al., Milk consumption and the prepubertal somatotropic axis, Nutrition Journal, September 2007, 6:28.
Swerdlow, A.J., Risk of cancer in patients treated with human pituitary growth hormone in the UK, 1959-85: a cohort study, Lancet 2002; 360:273-77.
Waist to Height Ratio
The waist should be no more than half the length of your height. This measurement was actually found to be more accurate than the body mass index (BMI) used by physicians. Researchers found that those whose waistlines measureed 80 percent of their height lived 16.7 years less than the average lifespan.
A six foot man should have a waistline smaller than 36 inches while a woman who is 5 foot 4 inches should have a waist size no larger than 32 inches for optimal lifespan.
The research was conducted at Oxford Brookes University by Dr. Margaret Ashwell. Ashwell followed people for twenty years to see the effects of her measurements.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10054519/Waist-to-height-ratio-more-accurate-than-BMI.html
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