Page 18 - What Doctors Don't Tell You - AU-NZ (February-March 2020)

Vitamin A helps

protect against

skin cancer

Eating a diet rich in vitamin A—or taking it in
supplements—protects you against skin cancer.
People who eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, or take
supplements, have a 17 percent reduced risk of developing
cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, the second most
common form of skin cancer.
Researchers from Brown University analyzed the
health and diets of around 123,000 people, nearly
4,000 of whom developed the skin cancer. Those
who had the highest levels of vitamin A were 17
percent less likely to develop the cancer than those
with the lowest levels of the vitamin.
The most effective source for getting vitamin A was fruits
and vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, carrots, leafy green
vegetables and fruits such as apricots and cantaloupe.
Animal sources of the vitamin include liver and some fish,
but the researchers warn that an over-reliance on eating organ
meat can increase the risk of liver toxicity, osteoporosis and
hip fracture.
JAMA Dermatol, 2019 Jul 31

Inflammation the common Is arthritis a bacterial

link between arthritis and infection from a

heart disease ‘bad gut’?

Osteoarthritis and heart disease have one common factor—inflammation. Is there a link between a ‘bad’ gut and arthritis? Researchers have
So it’s not surprising that people who have arthritis are also more likely to noticed that bacteria from the gut can infect an artificial knee and
develop cardiovascular disease and die from it. hip—but aren’t sure whether they also attack the actual joints to
The risk isn’t enormous; researchers estimate that people suffering cause the usual arthritic symptoms in the first place.
from arthritis of the knee, for example, for up to 11 years, are 16 Making sure someone’s gut microbiome—the
percent more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than environment of good and bad bacteria—is healthy
people who don’t have the joint condition. before surgery could reduce the risk of infection
In other words, for every 100,000 people who have of the artificial joints, say researchers from
had arthritis for that length of time, 40 more will die Cornell University.
from heart disease. Postoperative infection is rare and
Researchers from Lund University in Sweden affects only 1 percent of patients—but as
noticed the connection when they tracked one million Americans opt for knee or hip
469,000 people for 11 years. In that time, around replacement surgery every year, that still
16,000 developed arthritis, and when they died, means around 10,000 get infected by
the researchers looked at the cause of death. ‘bad’ bacteria.
Cardiovascular disease was cited more often in Preparing the patient with a course of
people who also had arthritis, although the effect probiotics before surgery could reduce the
wasn’t immediate. Heart disease was generally risk of infection, the researchers say.
diagnosed only between nine and 11 years after But they left unanswered the bigger
arthritis had started. question: do ‘bad’ gut bacteria infect the joints
Although inflammation was the common factor, and and cause all the disabilities of arthritis? If that’s
the most likely reason for the connection, the researchers say the case, instead of being a disease of wear and tear,
that arthritis makes people less able to be active, and this, too, could be as every sufferer is told, osteoarthritis and its many derivatives
contributing to the start of heart disease. could actually be caused by bacterial infections.
Osteoarthritis Cartilage, 2019; 27: 848–54 Clin Orthop Relat Res, 2019 Jun 17

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