Day 035 - 12 Oct 94 - Page 65
1 "Certain nutrition-mediated factors, notably body weight,
2 height" -----
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have already read that, the reference to
5 height.
6
7 MR. RAMPTON: It is fair to point out that though height may
8 be the best of these measures for predicting breast cancer
9 risk, "most studies show that the strongest association is
10 with body mass index."
11 A. Yes.
12
13 Q. In other words, being too fat, I suppose that means.
14 A. Both -----
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think the difficulty I have with height is
17 it is difficult to see how that could actually have any
18 causal relationship; it may mean that if you are tall
19 there is something else in your makeup which -- that is
20 really the only purpose of my query.
21
22 MR. RAMPTON: I agree. If height is an indicator it is likely
23 to be some other factor associated -----
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is an indicator of some other factor
26 which tends to go with it which may have a causal
27 relationship with cancer.
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: What that is, of course, one does not know, or,
30 at least, one has not yet been told.
31
32 THE WITNESS: I think your earlier comment about the role of
33 nutrition early in life affecting subsequent height is
34 certainly one that has gained a great deal of attention
35 from researchers.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That was Dr. Arnott's gloss on the height,
38 something to that effect.
39 A. In fact, in Japan it has been quite a common
40 observation that as their fat intake has doubled, their
41 calorie intake overall is going up, children do seem to be
42 taller and the breast cancer rate has doubled.
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: Indeed. So, they are now producing rugby players
45 of international size!
46 A. There is quite an interesting literature relating
47 height and breast cancer in other ways which I will not
48 worry you with.
49
50 Q. On the other hand, height may be, to a large extent, a
51 function of heredity, may it not?
52 A. Heredity is one component, but within a constant
53 genome one can alter its expression and hormones are the
54 way to go. We have talked about some, but there are
55 others in relation to height, yes.
56
57 Q. There is one other document which we have time to look at,
58 and we are still in 1989 -- tomorrow we will move to 1990
59 -- Dr. Barnard, have you by the way managed to rearrange
60 your travel arrangements?
