Breastfeeding during infancy and the risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood.

Background: Numerous studies have reported associations between the type of feeding during infancy and subsequent cardiovascular risk factors. Only 2 studies have evaluated the relation between having been breastfed and the risk of adult cardiovascular events.

Methods: We examined this association among 87,252 female participants of the longitudinal Nurses' Health Study.

The effect of correlated measurement error in multivariate models of diet.

Self-reported diet is prone to measurement error. Analytical models of diet may include several foods or nutrients to avoid confounding. Such multivariate models of diet may be affected by errors correlated among the dietary covariates, which may introduce bias of unpredictable direction and magnitude.

Hyperparathyroidism and subsequent incidence of breast cancer.

Preliminary data are available on the coexistence of primary hyperparathyroidism and breast carcinoma. To further understand the association between hyperparathyroidism and breast cancer, we conducted a record-linkage study in Sweden using the Swedish Cancer Registry from 1958-1997. A total of 9,835 women who underwent surgery for primary parathyroid adenoma were followed to evaluate the hypothesis that a history of primary hyperparathyroidism increases the risk of subsequent breast cancer.

Caloric restriction and incidence of breast cancer.

Context: Restricting caloric intake is one of the most effective ways to extend lifespan and to reduce spontaneous tumor occurrence in experimental animals, but whether similar associations hold in humans has not been appropriately studied.

Objective: To determine whether caloric restriction in early life reduces the risk of invasive breast cancer.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Retrospective cohort study using data from the Swedish Inpatient Registry, the Swedish Cancer Registry, the Swedish Death Registry, and the Swedish Fertility Registry.

Chromatin fluorescence characteristics and standard semen analysis parameters: correlations observed in andrology testing among 136 males referred for infertility evaluation.

This paper aims to describe the relation between standard semen analysis parameters (concentration, motility and morphology) and sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) results among patients referred for infertility evaluation. Healthy males (n=136) seeking infertility consultation were evaluated prospectively by semen analysis and sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA). Significant inverse correlations were observed between high sperm concentration and DNA fragmentation index (DFI) and high DNA stainability (HDS) (r=- 0.

Update on unethical use of placebos in randomised trials.

The most recent (Fifth) revision of the Declaration of Helsinki, adopted in October 2000 by the World Medical Association (WMA), reinforces the longstanding prohibition against offering placebo instead of effective therapy. The WMA left no doubt that if a beneficial treatment for a condition has already been recognised, it is unethical to offer placebo in place of such treatment to anyone in a study of the same condition. We have previously drawn attention to the discrepancy between the spirit of the Declaration and the common practice of using placebo controls in randomised trials even if effective treatment exists.

Type 2 diabetes and subsequent incidence of breast cancer in the Nurses' Health Study.

Objective: Hyperinsulinemia may promote mammary carcinogenesis. Insulin resistance has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer and is also characteristic of type 2 diabetes. We prospectively evaluated the association between type 2 diabetes and invasive breast cancer incidence in the Nurses' Health Study.

Early life predictors of chronic disease.

Many chronic diseases may have their seeds early in life. Observations from the Dutch famine have taught us that the intrauterine environment is an important determinant of adult health. Birth weight has been related to cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension, diabetes, and cancer.

A prospective study of variety of healthy foods and mortality in women.

Background: To assess the overall influence of diet on health and disease in epidemiological studies, the habitual diet of the study participants has to be captured as a pattern rather than individual foods or nutrients. The simplest way to describe dietary preferences is to separate foods considered beneficial to health from foods considered to promote disease, and separate individuals on the basis of their regular consumption of these foods.

Methods: We used data from 59 038 women participating in the prospective Mammography Screening Cohort in Sweden to investigate the influence of variety of healthy and less healthy foods on all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

The contribution of the environment (especially diet) to breast cancer risk.

Environmental factors play an important role in breast carcinogenesis. Opportunities for prevention are limited, however, because most of the known or suspected risk factors are not targets for modification. Dietary factors have generally not emerged as crucial contributors to mammary tumor causation.

Coffee, tea, and caffeine consumption and breast cancer incidence in a cohort of Swedish women.

Purpose: Coffee, caffeinated tea, and caffeine have been suggested to play a role in breast carcinogenesis or in the promotion or inhibition of tumor growth. Prior epidemiologic evidence has not supported an overall association between consumption of caffeinated beverages and risk of breast cancer, but consumption in some studies was low.

Methods: We studied this relation in the Swedish Mammography Screening Cohort, a large population-based prospective cohort study in Sweden comprising 59,036 women aged 40-76 years.