Dr. Weiss has authored several fibroid-related publications including a chapter entitled "Uterine Leiomyomata in Women and Health," Second Edition. She is principal investigator of fibroid studies that use data from the Black Women's Health Study, on ongoing prospective cohort study of African-American women, initiated in 1995.
This is the same Dr. Wise cited in the curly nikki post on fibroids and relaxers.
The presentation was based on recent findings from the Black Women's Health Study.
The findings presented were on
- diet
- genetics
- psychosocial factors
Diet
An Italian study was conducted dealing with fibroids and meat: Chiaffarino et al. 1999
It is known that diet can affect endometrial cancers.
There is an inverse association with diary intake.
There was a 30% risk of fibroids for women who had 4 or more servings of milk.
There was no real soy connection; however, not many participants in her study ate soy.
Fruits and vegetables only presented a modest association with reducing risk.
Citrus fruits had an 8% decrease to the risk.
Citrus fruits had an 8% decrease to the risk.
There were other dietary variables that one might have thought would have affected fibroid risk, but they did not. I am not continuing on with this list because at a later point a woman from the general audience asked if the women in the study had fibroids. I believe Dr. Wise stated that none or most of the women in the study did not have fibroids. The same woman stated that she was able to control her fibroids / fibroid symptoms through her diet of eating fruits and veggies. [I wish I had gotten a chance to speak with her.]
It was stated that more black women should participate in health studies. Also, as with any study, there were a number of limitations to this one. It was noted that more research is needed.
Genetics
Basically, they looked at the percent of the European ancestry on the X chromosome and found that the higher the percent of European ancestry, the lower the incidence for fibroids.
Psychosocial
New data in research is suggesting that exposure to psychosocial stress influences fibroid risk.
- Severe stress in early life is associated with altered regulation of HPA axis. In some cases, stress can up-regulate ovarian steroids and various growth factors involved in fibroid growth.
- Cross-sectional study: major life events, "stress intensity" (Vines et al 2010)
- BWHS: perceived racial discrimination (Wise et al 2007)
- NHS II: early life abuse victimization (Boynton-Jarrett et al 2011)
NHS - Nurse's Health Study; BWHS - Black Women's Health Study
Identified factors that appeared to have a positive association with the risks of fibroids were
- Age
- African ancestry
- Early age at menarche
- Early age at first birth
- Early age at first oral contraceptive use*
- Being overweight
- Weight gain
- Hypertension*
- IUD use
- Alcohol*
- Stress (e.g. racism, child abuse)*
* more data needed
The results were mixed regarding - gynecologic infections and oral contraceptive use in general.
- Race/ethnicity presents a strong risk factor
- Compared with white women, black women have:
- 2- to 3-fold higher incidence
- Earlier age at diagnosis
- Larger and more numbers tumors at diagnosis
- Higher rates of hysterectomy due to fibroids
- [Unfortunately] The majority of studies involve white women.
Much More Research Involving African-American Women Is Needed.
As always contact your health care provider (whomever that may be) regarding your personal and unique health concerns.
Disclaimer: Howard University College of Medicine/Howard University Hospital, and their staffs, and the National Institutes of Health and staff and the doctor/presenter and the blogger for "Sorry But I Had To Scream" are not responsible for injury or illness resulting form the use of medications or modalities discussed during this educational activity.
Websites I found interesting at first glance:
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