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The latest studies on cancer, Ozempic, osteoarthritis, xylitol and more.
Is active surveillance safe for men with low-risk prostate cancer?
Type 2 diabetes can lead to kidney failure. Can semaglutide (Ozempic) help?
Can 3 minutes on the stairs improve your insulin sensitivity?
Can a daily aspirin keep breast cancer from recurring?
A daily aspirin failed to improve cancer-free survival in people with high-risk breast cancer but no metastases.
Scientists randomly assigned 3,004 women and 16 men aged 18 to 69 to take either a daily aspirin (300 milligrams) or a placebo.
Most had been diagnosed with breast cancer that had spread to their local lymph nodes, but no further. (People with larger hormone-negative tumors that hadn’t spread to lymph nodes were also included.)
The trial was stopped early—after roughly 3 years—when it became clear that the aspirin takers had no lower risk of breast cancer recurrence or survival. (The aspirin takers actually did worse, but the difference wasn’t quite statistically significant.)
What to do
Don’t expect a daily aspirin to lower your risk of breast cancer recurring or spreading.
Is active surveillance safe for men with low-risk prostate cancer?
Keeping tabs on low-risk prostate cancer can be a safe approach.
Researchers managed 2,155 men with very-low- or low-risk cancer (mostly grade group 1) with active surveillance (repeated biopsies and PSA tests).
Ten years after diagnosis, 40 percent had been treated (usually after later biopsies found higher-risk cancer), while 49 percent remained untreated. Only 1.4 percent developed metastases, and 0.1 percent died of the disease.
What to do
If your prostate cancer is grade group 1, consider active surveillance.
Type 2 diabetes can lead to kidney failure. Can semaglutide (Ozempic) help?
Researchers randomly assigned 3,533 people with type 2 diabetes and high-risk chronic kidney disease to take either 1 milligram of semaglutide or a placebo each week. (The study was funded by Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic.)
After roughly 3½ years, the semaglutide takers had a 24 percent lower risk of “major kidney disease events” (kidney failure, a 50 percent drop in kidney function, or death from kidney or cardiovascular causes). The trial was stopped early when the benefits became clear.
What to do
Talk to your doctor about semaglutide if you have type 2 diabetes and poor kidney function despite taking kidney medication.
Does krill oil curb osteoarthritis pain?
Krill are tiny crustaceans that serve as a major source of food for many fish, whales, seals, and penguins. Can krill oil curb knee pain due to osteoarthritis?
Researchers randomly assigned 262 people with knee pain and osteoarthritis to take krill oil (2 grams a day supplying 380 milligrams of EPA and 200 mg of DHA) or a placebo.
After 24 weeks, the krill oil takers had no less knee pain than the placebo takers. Nor did krill oil curb C-reactive protein (a measure of inflammation).
What to do
Don’t take krill oil to curb arthritis pain. Exercise, NSAID gels or creams, and corticosteroid injections may help.
Can 3 minutes on the stairs improve your insulin sensitivity?
Walking up and down stairs after eating may boost your insulin’s ability to move blood sugar into cells.
Scientists had 31 young adults walk up and down stairs at their own pace for 1, 3, or 10 minutes immediately after eating a meal.
Compared to staying seated, insulin sensitivity (over the next half hour) improved after 3 or 10 minutes—but not 1 minute—of stair walking.
What to do
Get moving. A single bout of exercise boosts insulin sensitivity. Stair climbing is a more intense activity than walking but may not feel like it.
Does fish oil ease the symptoms of dry eye?
In an industry-funded clinical trial, 115 people with dry eye who were randomly assigned to take fish oil (1,680 milligrams of EPA plus 560 mg of DHA) every day for 12 weeks had no fewer symptoms than those who took a placebo.
What to do
Don’t rely on fish oil to ease symptoms of dry eye. Fish oil also came up empty in a larger, longer trial on dry eye.
Do ultra-processed foods raise the risk of dying early?
Does ultra-processing make foods harmful? Or do people who consume the most ultra-processed foods eat an overall unhealthy diet?
Scientists tracked roughly 74,600 women and 39,500 men for some 30 years. Those who ate the most ultra-processed foods (typically 7 ½ servings a day) had a 4 percent higher risk of dying of any cause than those who ate the least (typically 3 servings a day). However, ultra-processed foods were not linked to a higher risk of dying of cancer or cardiovascular disease.
(When the researchers looked at categories of ultra-processed foods, sugary or diet drinks, breads and breakfast foods, dairy desserts, and ready-to-eat meats, poultry, or seafood were linked to modest—3 to 13 percent—higher risks of dying of any cause.)
What’s more, the 4 percent higher risk of dying disappeared once the researchers accounted for the healthfulness of the participants’ overall diets.
What to do
Cut back on unhealthy ultra-processed foods like processed meats and sugary drinks. This kind of study can’t prove cause and effect, but it suggests that it’s too early to know how much ultra-processing itself matters.
Is xylitol a safe low-calorie sweetener?
“Cleveland Clinic researchers found higher amounts of the sugar alcohol xylitol are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke,” said the clinic’s news release in June.
However, the study itself argues that the link was due to how much xylitol the participants’ bodies produced and excreted, not to how much they ate.
In test tubes, platelets in blood samples from 10 people who were given a high dose (30 grams) of xylitol were more likely to clump together when stimulated.
What to do
It’s not clear if what happens in test tubes also happens in people. (Ditto for erythritol.) But xylitol is mostly in sugar-free mints or gum, so unless you add it to food, you aren’t getting much.
