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Study: Beer nips
heart disease,
cataracts

Scientists also say soy may cut
breast cancer by 50 percent,
a finding being tested
in an isle study

Conference notes ocean's potential

---

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

Beer may reduce heart disease and cataracts by as much as 50 percent, according to new research from Canadian and American researchers.

They reported the benefits of beer, especially darker ales and stouts, yesterday at meetings being held here by the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies.

The newest findings in compounds and substances to treat medical and environmental problems are being presented by about 10,000 scientists worldwide.

Among other highlights:

New platinum-based drugs in trials are promising to treat ovarian, testicular and other forms of cancer.

Long-term consumption of soy appears to reduce the risk of breast cancer -- as much as 50 percent in some cases.

A chemical in sea urchins might be used to draw damaging starfish away from coral reefs, which house organisms with potential medical benefits.

John Trevithick and Maurice Hirst of the University of Western Ontario and Joe Vinson of the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, investigated the benefits of antioxidants in beer.

Trevithick's laboratory, working with rat lenses, found that antioxidants similar to those in beer protect special parts of cells in the eye, called mitochondria.

The damaged cells can lead to increased incidence of cataracts, and antioxidants protect them, he said.

"We think that may be one of the factors that's contributing to the lower risk of cataracts in people who have one drink a day."

Vinson found that giving hamsters two beers a day cut their atherosclerosis rate in half.

"There is a definite benefit from the antioxidants in the beer," he said.

Professor Nicholas Farrell of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., and Adrian Franke, professor at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, discussed the benefits of platinum-based drugs and soy at a news conference Friday.

Farrell, one of the inventors of the new platinum-based drug, said it's "the first genuinely new platinum agent to enter clinical trials in 30 years."

It's more potent than cisplatin, one of the major platinum drugs now used, so lower doses can be given.

In studies of 47 cancer patients in Europe last year, the new drugs appeared beneficial against pancreatic and lung cancer and melanoma, Farrell said.

Phase II trials, involving more than 200 patients, are under way in Europe and the United States.

One deals specifically with ovarian cancer, the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in U.S. women.

Farrell said the new class of drugs could be on the market by 2004 and may lead to other new classes to change ways of attacking DNA to stop the spread of cancer.

Franke described a study of 120 Asian women conducted by the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii and Vanderbilt University.

He and Wei Zheng, a Vanderbilt Medical Center professor, were lead researchers.

Levels of isoflavone -- water-soluble compounds abundant in soy -- were measured in the urine of women from Shanghai, China, to determine how much soy they consumed.

Those with the highest isoflavone levels had a 50 percent decrease in risk to develop breast cancer, Franke said.

No genetic factor is involved, he said

"It's the environment that changes, and one big factor in the environment is the diet."

He said Japanese living in Japan are at extremely low risk for developing breast cancer and their risk is still low if they move to the U.S.

But the second generation of the immigrants has an increased risk of developing breast cancer -- the same as Caucasian women.

And the third generation has a higher risk, compared to Caucasians.

Franke said the study has been extended to 600 women in China.

A Hawaii study also is under way, comparing one group of women consuming soy foods and another group with usual dietary habits.

Mammograms will be taken during a two-year period to determine changes in breast density, he said.

Also discussed at the meetings were medical benefits from sea organisms and destruction of coral reefs that house them by poisonous crown-of-thorns starfish.

Nagoya, Japan, researchers have discovered that sea urchins contain a chemical that appears to attract starfish.

Daisuke Uemura, research leader and chemistry professor at the Nagoya university, said that an initial trial of the chemical attracted only a small number of starfish, but that the results are promising.

"Although we can't save all of the coral reefs in the world from destruction, our research is useful for saving some of them," he said.