More vitamin regulation = more minority children with brain tumors

The largest study ever of vitamin consumption by pregnant women
and childhood brain tumors found: "pregnant women who took 
vitamin supplements- vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin E, and/or folate
- throughout pregnancy were half as likely to have a child who 
developed a brain tumor before age 5, compared to women who took 
no vitamins during pregnancy."  This was reported in the prestigious 
Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Oct. 15, 1997, pp. 1481-1482); 
(complete news item in the appendix).  

Lead researcher Dr. Susan Preston-Martin said, 
"The results suggest that something in the vitamin supplements is
working against the development of early brain tumors but we haven't
even begun to put our finger on what it could be."

What happens when government 'red tape' boosts vitamin prices?
"at risk of low micronutrient [ie. vitamins/minerals] intake and
poor pregnancy outcome ... black women, teenage girls, and smokers."
(American Journal of Epidemiology, 1997, pp. 134-141)  

When more regulation of vitamins escalates prices, will fewer 
teenagers and black women take them?  Is the arctic cold?  
Apparently, in pushing for more regulation of vitamins and herbs, 
the Canadian 'Health' Ministry wants more brain tumors for black 
children, children of teenagers and Canadian Indians.

              Very Preterm Births
A leading of cause of infant deaths is very preterm births.  How
can this problem be slashed?  "Thus, when supplements [multivitamin
and mineral] were used before pregnancy as well as during the first 
trimester, risk of very preterm delivery ... was reduced more than 
sevenfold 
(AOR=0.14, 95 percent CI 0.05-0.40)." (American Journal of Epidemiology, 
1997, pp. 134-141)  In this study only 27% of white and 18% of black 
women reported multivitamin use during the 3 months before their 
pregnancy was recognized.

Should the 'Health' Ministry persecute vitamins (and herbs) 
with 'red
tape'?
Does the 'Health' Ministry want more preterm baby deaths or fewer?
As previously published in this bulletin, vitamins and herbs are:
     1. 60,000 times safer than food
     2. more than 4.7 million times safer than pharmaceutical drugs

For healthier minority and teenage moms and their new borns, 
there must be a 'common sense revolution' in the 'Health' 
Ministry where vitamins and herbs are PROMOTED!!!
If you agree, please tell Hon. Allan Rock (Minister of 'Health'):
     email: rocka@parl.gc.ca


		Appendix
 Vitamins during Pregnancy linked to Lower Risk of Childhood Brain Tumors
      (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1997, 89:1482-1482)

Clinical research has made some headway in treating pediatric 
brain tumors in the last few decades, but effort to understand the
environmental risk factors involved, aside from radiation, have run 
mostly into blind alleys.  Now, the earliest results from a large 
case-control study suggest that researchers may have turned a promising 
corner.

     Susan Preston-Martin, Ph.D., of the University of Southern
California's Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, has
reported that pregnant women who took vitamin supplements-vitamin 
C, vitamin A, vitamin E, and/or folate- throughout pregnancy were 
half as likely to have a child who developed a brain tumor before 
age 5, compared to women who took no vitamins during pregnancy.  

Preston-Martin presented these findings last month at an Environmental 
Protection Agency conference on preventable causes of cancer in children.
The finding was based on data from 377 children with brain tumors
and 576 matched controls.  The data are the first to come from a large
collaborative study coordinated by the International Agency for Research
on Cancer in eight centers around the world.  

The study is looking at a wide range of factors that may affect the 
incidence of pediatric brain tumors in 3,000 children from infancy 
through age 19. These findings include "highly statistically significant" 
data showing that the longer that women took supplements, either 
prescribed or over-the-counter, the greater the protection appeared 
to be, Preston-Martin said. There was, moreover, increased protection 
with increasing dose.  The findings held true, at least in the U.S. cohort,
after accounting for dietary intake of fruits and vegetables, ethnicity,
and socioeconomic status.

The study is the largest to test the hypothesis that prenatal vitamin
supplements may play a role in the development of some brain tumors.  
In addition to diet, the researchers collected data on mothers' use of
drugs, smoking, occupational and household exposures to chemicals, as 
well as information on the child's delivery and early childhood.  

Paternal factors, such as smoking and occupational exposures, were also
addressed. Face-to-face interview with mothers in the study, averaging 
about an hour and a half in length, were the source of most of the data, 
and were supplemented by telephone interviews with fathers.  

      Study centers are in Europe, Israel, and North America.  

A ninth center in Australia did not collect data on maternal vitamin 
supplementation. A major focus of the investigation was on the role of 
N-nitroso compounds, such as those formed in the gut after eating 
precursors, such as sodium nitrite in cured meats.  These include the 
nitrosamides, specifically nitro-soureas, which has been linked to 
brain tumors in the offspring of pregnant animals.  

In rats, monkeys, and other species, these brain tumors are blocked 
when vitamins C and E are part of the pregnant animals' diet, 
Preston-Martin said.

So far the IARC study suggests that the same thing happens in
humans. Those U.S. women in the study whose diets were high in 
nitrites from cured meats and who did not take vitamin supplements 
had a 2.6-fold relative risk of having a child who developed a brain 
tumor.  By comparison, those whose diets were high in these nitrites 
and also took vitamin supplements had only a 1.8-fold risk.

                     Similar Effect
"The results suggest that something in the vitamin supplements is
working against the development of early brain tumors," Preston-Martin
said, "but we haven't even begun to put our finger on what it could be."

The four vitamins all appeared to have a similar effect. 
Preston-Martin speculated that the biological mechanisms involved
might include the anti-oxidant effect of vitamins C and E or the cell
differentiation effects of vitamins A or D. Another possibility, 
she said, is that one or more of the vitamins prevent the formation of
carcinogens in the body (such as vitamins C and E preventing the
endogenous formation of N-nitroso compounds).  Still another is there
are factors as yet unknown that are unique to the fetus.
     "I hope that what these data will do is stimulate further
investigation of mechanisms."  she said

---Caroline McNeil [JNCI News writer] -------------