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?

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