High-sugar foods can lead to obesity, then cancer

Daily glass of fruit juice or diet soda can boost disease risk, new French study of 100,000 adults shows

Even one daily glass of juice or soda can increase your risk of cancer. 

That conclusion, according to a recent story by Najja Parker in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, stems from a new study of 100,000 French adults who were followed for nine years.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, says that consuming sugary drinks each day — in amounts as small as 100 ml of 100% fruit juice or one-third of a typical can of an artificially sweetened diet beverage — is now "associated with an overall increase in cancer risk of 18% and breast cancer risk by 22%."

Earlier this year, the AJC article continues, "researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found sugary drinks were linked to higher risk of early death, especially for women."

Dr. Mathilde Touvier

But lead researcher Dr. Mathilde Touvier told The Guardian that "it's probably safe to drink soda or fruit juice on occasion," according to a story by Stephen Johnson on the Big Think website. "The recommendation from several public health agencies," she's quoted as saying, "is to consume less than one drink per day. If you consume from time to time a sugary drink it won't be a problem, but if you drink at least one glass a day it can raise the risk of several diseases — here, maybe cancer, but also with a high level of evidence, cardiometabolic diseases."  

A handful of U.S. cities — including Albany, Berkeley and San Francisco in California; Boulder, Colorado; Philadelphia; and Seattle — have levied taxes on the soda industry. "Those levies seem to decrease soda consumption," Johnson's piece says.

The Big Think article also notes that "although consuming large amounts of sugar has been linked to some forms of cancer, like esophageal cancer, there's no strong evidence showing that it causes the disease, according to the American institute for Cancer Research. But there is an indirect link: Eating high-sugar foods often leads to obesity, which, in turn, raises the risk of developing cancer."

Information on other cancer-causing agents can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Disease may cause loss of control of limbs, eyes

Rare autoimmune disease that attacks brain can be triggered by testicular cancer, new study says

Scientists using a novel diagnostic tool have discovered that testicular cancer can trigger a rare autoimmune disease.

That process stems from antibodies fighting the cancer going on to attack the brain, according to a recent story by Lois Zoppi in News Medical Life Sciences online.

The severe neurodegenerative disease that results (it's called "testicular cancer-associated paraneoplastic encephalitis"), the article says, "is often mis- or undiagnosed" — which means that appropriate treatment to limit its effects "often comes too late." 

The encephalitis causes men to lose control of their limbs, eye movement and, sometimes, their speech.

"Until now," the story continues, "scientists have been unable to identify which specific antibody was causing a staining pattern only seen in patients with testicular cancer. But the new study…showed a unique biomarker responsible for the disease."

A research team based at Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, the Mayo Clinic and the University of California at San Francisco made the discovery via "a variation of 'programmable phage display' technology, which simultaneously screens over 700,000 autoantibody targets across every human protein," the piece continues.

Dr. Sean Pittock

"By working together, our organizations have the potential to make biomarker discoveries much more rapidly," the News Medical Life Sciences piece quotes Dr. Sean Pittock, study co-author from the Mayor Clinic, as saying.

The story also quotes Joe DeRisi, who worked on the study, to the effect that their joint research "is the tip of the iceberg. We know there are more paraneoplastic autoimmune diseases waiting to be discovered and more people to help."

The study was published in "The New England Journal of Medicine."

More information about other studies of disease can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a  VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.

Jurist raps Bayer company for being uncaring

Judge expected to trim $80 million jury verdict against Monsanto for its cancer-causing Roundup

The judge in the first federal court suit against Monsanto intends to reduce a jury's $80 million damage award.

Bob Egelko

According to a story by Bob Egelko this week on the San Francisco Chronicle's website, although Judge Vince Chhabria plans to reconsider the Roundup weed-killer verdict in favor of Edwin Hardeman, he's not expected to totally eliminate punitive damages "for what he called the company's 'reprehensible' conduct."

The judge has already rebuked the agribusiness for ignoring a 2015 World Health Organization agency ruling that glyphosate, an active ingredient in the weed-killer, is a probable carcinogen — and for "showing no interest in conducting new studies or reconsidering their public assurances to regulators or consumers."

In short, he charged during last week's hearing, evidence at the trial showed the Bayer AG company "not caring whether its products cause cancer."

Hardeman, 70, had sprayed Roundup on his Sonoma County property for more than 26 years. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2015. 

Jurors had awarded him $75 million in punitive damages as well as $3 million for past pain and suffering, another $2 million for emotional distress in the future, and $200,000 for economic losses. 

Monsanto had requested Chhabria overturn the verdict. The judge has showed no signs of doing that. 

He did, however, indicate he'd probably cut the punitive damages damages to comply with Supreme Court standards limiting awards, under normal circumstances, to nine times the amount of awarded compensation.

No date has been set for his latest decision.

More information on court verdicts regarding products that may cause disease can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers.