ISLAMABAD - Health experts yesterday advised people to avoid the storage of meat after the Eid-ul-Azha as it can contain number of bacteria leading to diseases. The excessive use of meat during Eid-ul-Azha can increase the risk of developing cardiovascular, kidney, liver, diabetes and gastroenteritis diseases.

Talking to APP, Dr Arif Majeed said that eating excessive meat during Eid-ul-Azha could have negative impacts on individual health and especially for those who stored this meat for several months and use this frozen meat for meals would be very harmful which directly affects on kidneys and cardiac problems.

He said excessive use of meat is very harmful for people, especially who were already suffering from cardiovascular, liver and kidney diseases. He said it can also enhance uric acid and cholesterol level among people, which increases the risk of various diseases. He said eating excessive use of meat increases the risk of heart, blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and gastroenteritis diseases; therefore, women should prepare meat with vegetables and avoid spicy foods during Eid days in order to reduce the risk of contracting various severe diseases.

Negative aspects for not eating meat

Ditching meat may seem a good idea for you because of health concerns. But this is what actually happens when you stop eating meat, You lose weight.

A study showed that participants who cut meat out of their diets lost around 10 pounds on average without monitoring their calorie intake or increasing the amount they exercised. A recent World Health Organization (WHO) report classed processed meats as carcinogenic, and so products such as bacon and salami found themselves categorized alongside formaldehyde, gamma radiation and cigarettes. Red meat was also labelled as “probably” having cancer causing properties.

Eating just a 50g portion of processed meat – or two rashers of bacon a day – increases the risk of bowel cancer by 18 per cent, the experts concluded. However, others believe the risk is not as serious as that.

Scientists recently found that red meat is linked to heart disease. A study by Lerner Research Institute in the US showed that carnitine, a nutrient found in the meat, sets off gut microbe reactions that contribute to the development of heart disease.

“This adds to the growing body of data reinforcing a connection between red meat, carnitine ingestion and heart disease development,” said lead author Stanley Hazen, MD, PhD, Vice Chair of Translational Research for the Lerner Research Institute and Section Head of Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation, according to a report by the Cleveland Health Clinic.

Obesity may prolong survival for kidney cancer patients

Obesity has become a well-known risk factor for cancer, and with this in mind, the findings of a new study may come as a surprise; for patients with kidney cancer, being overweight or obese appeared to significantly increase their chances of survival.

Senior and corresponding author Dr Toni K Choueiri, director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, and colleagues reported their results.

Being overweight or obese following a cancer diagnosis has also been associated with poorer survival, though some previous studies have indicated that this may not be the case with RCC. Choueiri and colleagues decided to further investigate the link between weight and kidney cancer survival by analyzing data from four medical databases, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TGCA) project and the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC).

Compared with patients who had a low BMI, those with a high BMI - overweight or obese - lived much longer; patients with a low BMI lived an average of 17.1 months, compared with 25.6 months for those with a high BMI.

The team used this information to determine whether there were any molecular differences between kidney cancer patients with a high or low BMI that might explain why the latter has better survival.  While TGCA data did not provide any clues, the tissue sample database revealed some variations in gene expression; the researchers found that patients with a high BMI showed reduced expression of a gene called fatty acid synthase (FASN), compared with those with a normal BMI.

FASN is known to play an important role in cells’ production of fatty acids - a process known as lipogenesis; overexpression of this gene has been identified in various forms of cancer, and it has been linked to poor outcomes in cancer patients, including those with kidney cancer.  Based on their findings, the researchers speculate that reduced expression of FASN in kidney cancer patients may explain why those who are overweight or obese live longer than patients who are a normal weight or underweight.

What is more, they say the results suggest it may be possible to block FASN to improve outcomes for patients with kidney cancer; FASN inhibitors are already in development and have been hailed as a promising cancer treatment.

“We plan to test FASN inhibitors in an animal model as a possible therapy for kidney cancer,” says Choueiri.