Bondi Beach by Melanie Olson www.sxc.hu

Koalas, kangaroos and carcinoma

What comes to mind when you think about Australia? Unique fauna and flora? Sandy beaches? Sunshine?

Did you know that Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world. Fifty per cent of people who grow up in Australia get some form of skin cancer because Australia has so much sunshine and so many light-skinned people. In other countries with as much sun, the populations are mainly dark skinned, which gives better protection from ultraviolet radiation. The number of Australians treated for common skin cancers is up by more than 33 per cent since 1995 and has doubled in 20 years, according to Cancer Council figures. This information is drawn from the New South Wales Government Department of Health, North Coast Area Health Service website.

So there’s the context and readers will appreciate that Australia is a very appropriate place to conduct studies into skin cancer, the impact of ultraviolet radiation on the skin and related matters. Indeed, readers will not be surprised to learn that there is a Queensland Institute of Medical Research which is home to a Cancer and Population Studies Group. A report from that group, entitled, “Serum Antioxidants and Skin Cancer Risk: An 8-Year Community-Based Follow-up Study”, was published last year in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, Inc.

The study in question ran over eight years and involved some 485 people who were divided into three groups according to their serum concentration levels of selenium, alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) and carotenoids. The participants were monitored for the incidence of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the two most common forms of skin cancer.

The study found no correlation between carotenoids or α-tocopherol concentrations and the frequency of BCC or SCC. However, people with the highest levels of of selenium exhibited a 60 per cent lower occurrence of BCC and SCC.

What is selenium?

Selenium is a trace mineral, essential to health but required only in small amounts. It is incorporated into proteins to form antioxidant enzymes, selenoproteins, which combat cellular damage from free radicals.

Where can you get it?

The major dietary source of selenium in most countries is in plants. It also occurs in some meat and seafood. The amount of selenium in food depends on the level in the soil where plants are grown or animals grazed. You should be able to find dietary supplement tablets containing about 150 micrograms of selenium at your pharmacy, drug store or health food shop. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences has set an upper intake level for selenium at 400 micrograms per day for adults. Given the small amounts involved, you would want to be sure you were deficient in selenium before paying for something you are probably getting in your food anyway.

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Mediterranean Vegetables and infused Olive Oil

Readers with newly diagnosed Type II diabetes, pre-diabetes or insulin resistance syndrome, may find interesting reading in the Annals of Internal Medicine, September 2009 151:306-314.

The relevant article is entitled, “Effects of a Mediterranean -style diet on the need for antihyperglycemic drug therapy in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: a randomized trial” and discusses the results of a 4 year study conducted by Katherine Esposito, MD, PhD and colleagues at the Second University of Naples, Italy.

The study suggests that following a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean diet rather than a low-fat diet, may postpone the need for drugs to control this disease in newly diagnosed patients.

The 215 participants in the study were first advised about the importance of diet and exercise and how to prepare appropriate meals at home, before being randomly assigned to one of two diets for four years. One group followed a Mediterranean diet based on vegetables and whole grains, less red meat and more poultry and fish, where less than half the calories were from complex carbohydrates and more than a third of calories were from fat, mainly olive oil. The other group followed a low-fat diet where less than a third of calories were from fat.

Lifestyle

After four years, the authors concluded that compared with a low-fat diet, a Mediterranean-style diet led to more favorable changes in glycemic control and coronary risk factors and delayed the need for antihyperglycemic drug therapy in overweight patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. The report’s authors observed that their ” … findings reinforce the message that benefits of lifestyle interventions should not be overlooked … “, even though the medical literature propounds a ” … drug-intensive style of medicine … “.

Sell up and move to Naples?

Relocation may be the stuff of dreams but is unnecessary as a Mediterranean-style diet is not hard to follow anywhere in the western world. Find a good local baker. Visit the fishmonger and poulterer more than the butcher, use good olive oil, eat plenty of green and red and orange and yellow vegetables. How hard is that, especially if you can defer the day when you have to start on the metformin and sulfonylureas?

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Image: Ben Earwicker http://www.garrisonphoto.org