Prolonged use of statins for more than 4 years was associated with a 23% increased risk of colorectal cancer according to a recent analysis of data from 574 UK general practices from 1998-2008.

Prolonged use of atorvastatin (Lipitor) for more than 4 years was associated with a 51% increased risk of colorectal cancer.

People given the statin, pravastatin (Pravachol), had 25% more cancer than those given a placebo in the PROSPER trial.

• 65% more breast cancer
• 46% more gastrointestinal cancer
• 12% more respiratory cancer
• 41% more other cancers
• and they did not including non-melanoma skin cancer.
  (Previous studies have found that statins increase the risk of non-melanoma skin cancers.)

High levels of leisure-time physical activity were associated with a lower risk of 13 types of cancer when compared to people with low levels of leisure-time physical activity according to a study done by researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

The 13 cancers associated with a lower risk were:

• 10% lower risk of breast cancer
• 13% lower risk of bladder cancer
• 13% lower risk of rectal cancer
• 15% lower risk of head and neck cancer
• 16% lower risk of colon cancer
• 17% lower risk of multiple myeloma
• 20% lower risk of myeloid leukemia
• 21% lower risk of endometrial cancer
• 22% lower risk of gastric cardia
• 23% lower risk of kidney cancer
• 26% lower risk of lung cancer
• 27% lower risk of liver cancer
• 42% lower risk of esophageal cancer

Among non-smokers, a 2 cup/day increase in coffee consumption was associated with a:

• 3% lower risk of dying from breast cancer
• 3% lower risk of dying from colorectal cancer
• 8% lower risk of dying from liver cancer

during a 30-year follow-up (1982-2012).

Among smokers and former-smokers, coffee consumption was associated with an increase in cancer deaths.

The study, done by the American Cancer Society, included 922,896 Cancer Prevention Study-II participants aged 28-94 years who completed a four-page questionnaire and were cancer free at baseline in 1982.

“These findings are consistent with many other studies that suggest coffee drinking is associated with a lower risk of colorectal, liver, female breast and head and neck cancer,” the authors of the study concluded.

Vegetarians had a 22% lower risk of colorectal cancer during a 7.3 year follow-up compared to non-vegetarians according to a study from researchers at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California, USA.

There was a 19% lower risk of colon cancer and a 29% lower risk of rectal cancer in vegetarians versus non-vegetarians.

“Vegetarian diets are associated with an overall lower incidence of colorectal cancers,” the authors of the study concluded.

Pescovegetarians, that is vegetarians who also eat seafood and fish, had a 43% lower risk of colorectal cancer during a 7.3 year follow-up compared to non-vegetarians according to a study from researchers at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California, USA.

“Pescovegetarians in particular have a much lower risk [of colorectal cancer] compared with non vegetarians,” the authors of the study noted.

“We recommend not using colonoscopy as a primary screening test for colorectal cancer,” according to the guideline recommendations on screening for colorectal cancer in primary care by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. Instead, they recommend testing for small amounts of blood in the stool (fecal occult blood testing).

They also recommend against screening people 75 and older for colorectal cancer because studies have found that such screening does not reduce mortality from colon cancer.

“There is only one cancer screening test that has definitively been proven to help people live longer: lung cancer screening in heavy smokers,” writes Prof. H. Gilbert Welch, MD in his most recent book Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care.

(It is from Chapter 3 / Assumption #3: Sooner Is Always Better: Disturbing truth: Early diagnosis can needlessly turn people into patients, under the section titled “Does Screening Save Lives?”)

“Why?

“Because heavy smokers face a twenty- to thirty-fold [20- to 30-fold] increased risk of lung cancer death.

“In other words, for heavy smokers, lung cancer is a big component of their overall death rate.”

To say this another way…

• Breast cancer screening has not been shown to reduce the total risk of death over some number of years
• Prostate cancer screening has not been been shown to reduce the total risk of death over some number of years
• Colon cancer screening has not been been shown to reduce the total risk of death over some number of years
• Oral cancer screening has not been been shown to reduce the total risk of death over some number of years
• Screening for other cancers has not been been shown to reduce the total risk of death over some number of years

He started the chapter by saying, “THIS CHAPTER MAY CHALLENGE your assumptions about screening—specifically, cancer screening.”

Prof. H. Gilbert Welch, MD is also the author of the wonderful book Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick In Pursuit Of Health which is about the same topic as this book, the topic of over-diagnosis and over-treatment which does NOT help people live longer.

The reason that I feel passionately about this is because my mother suffered tragically from drug-induced side effects which her doctors were blind to.

It is along the same lines as Prof. Welch’s books which look at the effects of of over-diagnosis and over-treatment.

Screening for colon cancer (fecal occult-blood testing), either every year or every other year, did NOT reduce the total risk of death after a 30 year followup according to a recent analysis of the Minnesota Colon Cancer Control Study.

The percentage of people who had died from any cause after a 30-year follow-up was exactly the same in each group (71% of people had died in each group).

• 71% of people had died in those screened for colon cancer every year for 11 years
• 71% of people had died in those screened for colon cancer every other year, a total of 6 times
• 71% of people had died in those who were NOT screened for colon cancer

Prof. H. Gilbert Welch, MD writes about this in his most recent book Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care.

He is also the author of the wonderful book Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick In Pursuit Of Health which is about the same topic as this book, the topic of over-diagnosis and over-treatment which does NOT help people live longer.

The reason that I feel passionately about this is because my mother suffered tragically from drug-induced side effects which her doctors were blind to.

It is along the same lines as Prof. Welch’s books which look at the effects of of over-diagnosis and over-treatment.

Long-term statin use (more than 4 years) is associated with a 23% increased risk of colorectal cancer according to a recent review paper titled The Ugly Side of Statins.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: If you limit your sugar you decrease your chances of developing cancer?

Lewis Cantley, PhD: Absolutely.

Cantley, a Harvard professor and the head of the Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, says when we eat or drink sugar, it causes a sudden spike in the hormone insulin, which can serve as a catalyst to fuel certain types of cancers.

Lewis Cantley: What we're beginning to learn is that insulin can cause adverse effects in the various tissues. And of particular concern is cancer.

Why? Nearly a third of some common cancers -- including breast and colon cancers -- have something called insulin receptors on their surface. Insulin binds to these receptors and signals the tumor to start consuming glucose [which allows it to grow].

Lewis Cantley: Every cell in our body needs glucose to survive. But the trouble is, these cancer cells also use it to grow. So if you happen to have the tumor that has insulin receptors on it then it will get stimulated to take up the glucose that's in the bloodstream rather than go into fat or muscle, the glucose goes into the tumor. And the tumor uses it to grow.

Lewis Cantley's research team is working on developing drugs that will cut off the glucose supply to cancer cells and keep them from growing. But until there's a breakthrough, Cantley's advice? Don't eat sugar. And if you must, keep it to a minimum.

Cantley, a Harvard professor and the head of the Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, says when we eat or drink sugar, it causes a sudden spike in the hormone insulin, which can serve as a catalyst to fuel certain types of cancers.

Lewis Cantley: What we're beginning to learn is that insulin can cause adverse effects in the various tissues. And of particular concern is cancer.

Why? Nearly a third of some common cancers -- including breast and colon cancers -- have something called insulin receptors on their surface. Insulin binds to these receptors and signals the tumor to start consuming glucose [which allows it to grow].

Lewis Cantley: Every cell in our body needs glucose to survive. But the trouble is, these cancer cells also use it to grow. So if you happen to have the tumor that has insulin receptors on it then it will get stimulated to take up the glucose that's in the bloodstream rather than go into fat or muscle, the glucose goes into the tumor. And the tumor uses it to grow.