Whole (48 page)

If you are not yet sufficiently awed, then consider this: There are about three billion total bases—that’s billion, not million—strung along the length of a single molecule of DNA. If those bases were placed only one millimeter apart along this chain, its total length would stretch 1,824 miles—more than 6,600 times the height of the Empire State Building! Their order may look random, but it is not. Imagine just a few dozen of those three billion bases as pearls strung along a normal length of necklace. Now, imagine picking up the necklace and letting the pearls fall off the end of the strand into a pile, mixing them up, then trying to put them back exactly in the same order. If it seems impossible at a few dozen, imagine doing so for three billion.

5.
We cheated a bit, actually; 95 percent of our genetic material, which scientists don’t yet understand, has been labeled “junk DNA” and swept under the carpet. Only very recently have geneticists begun to take seriously the possibility that this junk DNA is actually important information that humans just haven’t been able to decode.

6.
U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, “Gene Therapy,” Human Genome Project Information, last modified August 24, 2011,
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/genetherapy.shtml
.

7.
Ibid.;
J. Lazarou, B. H. Pomeranz, and P. N. Corey, “Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients: A Meta-analysis of Prospective Studies,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
279, no. 15 (1998): 1200-5, cited on U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, “Pharmacogenomics,” Human Genome Project Information, last modified September 19, 2011,
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/pharma.shtml
.

8.
Lazarou, Pomeranz, and Corey, “Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions.”

9.
Ibid.

10.
Ibid.

11.
Ibid.;
U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, “Pharmacogenomics,” Human Genome Project Information, last modified September 19, 2011,
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/pharma.shtml
.

12.
Committee on Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer,
Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer
(Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1982).

13.
R. Doll and R. Peto, “The Causes of Cancer: Quantitative Estimates of Avoidable Risks of Cancer in the United States Today,”
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
66, no. 6 (1981): 1192-1265.

14.
Ibid.

1.
K. K. Carroll, L. M. Braden, J. A. Bell, and R. Kalamegham, “Fat and Cancer,” supplement,
Cancer
58, no. 8 (1986): 1818-25; B. S. Drasar and D. Irving, “Environmental Factors and Cancer of the Colon and Breast,”
British Journal of Cancer
27, no. 2 (1973): 167-72; J. Higginson, “Etiological Factors in Gastrointestinal Cancer in Man,”
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
37, no. 4 (October 1966): 527-45; J. Higginson, “Present Trends in Cancer Epidemiology,”
Canadian Cancer Conference
(Honey Harbour, Ontario: Proceedings of the Eighth Canadian Cancer Conference, 1969): 40-75; J. Higginson and C. S. Muir, “Epidemiology in Cancer,”
Cancer Medicine
, edited by J. F. Holland and E. Frei (Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger, 1973): 241-306; J. Higginson and C. S. Muir, “Environmental Carcinogenesis: Misconceptions and Limitations to Cancer Control,”
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
63, no. 6 (December 1979): 1291-98; E. L. Wynder and T. Shigematsu, “Environmental Factors of Cancer of the Colon and Rectum,”
Cancer
20, no. 9 (September 1967): 1520-61.

2.
Michael Tortorello, “Is It Safe to Play Yet?”
New York Times,
March 14, 2012,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/garden/going-to-extreme-lengths-to-purge-household-toxins.html
.

3.
C. Campbell and L. Friedman, “Chemical Assay and Isolation of Chick Edema Factor in Biological Materials,”
Journal of the American Association for Agricultural Chemistry
49 (1966): 824-28. My exposure occurred long before I adopted a WFPB diet in the 1980s.

4.
J. Huff, M. F. Jacobson, and D. L. Davis, “The Limits of Two-Year Bioassay Exposure Regimens for Identifying Chemical Carcinogens,”
Environmental Health Perspectives
116 (2008): 1439-1442.

5.
S. M. Cohen, “Risk Assessment in the Genomic Era,”
Toxicologic Pathology
32 (2004): 3-8.

1.
Y. Singh, M. Palombo, and P. J Sinko, “Recent Trends in Targeted Anticancer Prodrug and Conjugate Design,”
Current Medicinal Chemistry
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Mini Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry
11 (2011): 611-24; R. Munagala, F. Aqil, and R. C. Gupta, “Promising Molecular Targeted Therapies in Breast Cancer,”
Indian Journal of Pharmacology
43, no. 3 (2011): 236-45; H. Panitch and A. Applebee, “Treatment of Walking Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis: An Unmet Need for a Disease-Specific Disability,”
Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy
12, no. 10 (March 2011): 1511-21; J. Rautio, H. Kumpulainen, T. Heimbach, R. Oliyai, D. Oh, T. Järvinen, and J. Savolainen, “Prodrugs: Design and Clinical Applications,”
Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery
7, no. 3 (2008): 255-70; P. Ettmayer, G. L. Amidon, B. Clement, and B. Testa, “Lessons Learned from Marketed and Investigational Prodrugs,”
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
47 no. 10 (May 2004): 2393-2404.

2.
This does give drug companies an interest in preserving tropical rain forests as a resource for potentially useful drug candidates, but this may be the only positive side effect.

3.
Singh et al., “Recent Trends.”

4.
Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health, “International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems,” Answers.com, accessed November 11, 2012,
http://www.answers.com/topic/icd
.

1.
C. Thurston, “Dietary Supplements: The Latest Trends & Issues,”
Nutraceuticals World,
April 1, 2008,
http://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/issues/2008-04/view_features/dietary-supplements-the-latest-trends-amp-issues/
.

2.
Ibid.

3.
“Apples, Raw, with Skin,”
Self
NutritionData, accessed November 11, 2012,
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1809/2
.

4.
M. V. Eberhardt, C. Y. Lee, and R. H. Liu, “Antioxidant Activity of Fresh Apples,”
Nature
405, no. 6789 (June 22, 2000): 903-4.

5.
J. Boyer and R. H. Liu, “Review: Apple Phytochemicals and Their Health Effects,”
Nutrition Journal
3, no. 5 (2004),
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/3/1/5
.

6.
Ibid.;
K. Wolfe, X. Z. Wu, and R. H. Liu, “Antioxidant Activity of Apple Peels,”
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
51, no. 3 (January 29, 2003): 609-14.

7.
C. D. Morris and S. Carson, “Routine Vitamin Supplementation to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease: A Summary of the Evidence for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
139, no. 1 (2003): 56-70.

8.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. “Routine Vitamin Supplementation to Prevent Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease: Recommendations and Rationale,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
139, no. 1 (2003): 51-55.

9.
Ibid.

10.
H. M. Evans and K. S. Bishop, “On the Existence of a Hitherto Unrecognized Dietary Factor Essential for Reproduction,”
Science
56, no. 1458 (1922): 650-51.

11.
D. Farbstein, A. Kozak-Blickstein, and A. P. Levy, “Antioxidant Vitamins and Their Use in Preventing Cardiovascular Disease,”
Molecules
15, no. 11 (2010): 8098-8110; B. B. Aggarwal, C. Sundarum, S. Prasad, and R. Kannappan, “Tocotrienols, the Vitamin E of the 21st Century: Its Potential against Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases,”
Biochemical Pharmacology
80, no. 11 (2010): 1613-31.

12.
C. H. Hennekens, J. M. Gaziano, J. E. Manson, and J. E. Buring, “Antioxidant Vitamin-Cardiovascular Disease Hypothesis Is Still Promising, But Still Unproven: The Need for Randomized Trials,”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
62 (1995): 1377S-1380S.

13.
B. C. Pearce, R. A. Parker, M. E. Deason, A. A. Qureshi, and J. J. Wright, “Hypocho-lesterolemic Activity of Synthetic and Natural Tocotrienols,”
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
35, no. 20 (1992): 3595-3606.

14.
Ibid.

15.
A. Augustyniak et al., “Natural and Synthetic Antioxidants: An Updated Overview,”
Free Radical Research
44, no. 10 (2010): 1216-62.

16.
E. B. Rimm, M. J. Stampfer, A. Ascherio, E. Giovannucci, G. A. Colditz, and W. C. Willett, “Vitamin E Consumption and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Men,”
New England Journal of Medicine
328, no. 20 (May 20, 1993): 1450-56; M. J. Stampfer, C.    H. Hennekens, J. E. Manson, G. A. Colditz, B. Rosner, and W. C. Willett, “Vitamin E Consumption and the Risk of Coronary Disease in Women,”
New England Journal of Medicine
328, no. 20 (May 20, 1993): 1444-49.

17.
H. D. Sesso, J. E. Buring, W. G. Christen, T. Kurth, C. Belanger, J. MacFadyen, V. Bubes, J. E. Manson, R. J. Glynn, and J. M. Gaziano, “Vitamins E and C in the prevention of cardiovascular disease in men,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
300, no. 18 (2008): 2123-2133; “Vitamins E and C”; I. M. Lee, N. R. Cook, J. M. Gaziano, D. Gordon, P. M. Ridker, J. E. Manson, C. H. Hennekens, and J. E. Buring, “Vitamin E in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer: The Women’s Health Study: A Randomized Controlled Trial,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
294, no. 1 (2005): 56-65; E. Lonn et al., “Effects of Long-Term Vitamin E Supplementation on Cardiovascular Events and Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
293, no. 11 (2005): 1338-47; D. P. Vivekananthan, M. S. Penn, S. K. Sapp, A. Hsu, and E. J. Topol, “Use of Antioxidant Vitamins for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: Meta-analysis of Randomised Trials,”
Lancet
361, no. 9374 (June 14, 2003): 2017-23.

18.
I. M. Lee et al., “Vitamin E in the Primary Prevention”; E. Lonn et al., “Effects of Long-Term Vitamin E”; V. A. Kirsh et al., “Supplemental and Dietary Vitamin E, Beta-Carotene, and Vitamin C Intakes and Prostate Cancer Risk,”
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
98, no. 4 (February 15, 2006): 245-54; S. M. Lippman et al., “Effect of Selenium and Vitamin E on Risk of Prostate Cancer and Other Cancers: The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT),”
Journal of the American Medical Association
301, no. 1 (January 7, 2009): 39-51.

19.
S. M. Lippman et al., “Effect of Selenium”; S. Liu, I. M. Lee, Y. Song, M. Van Denburgh, N. R. Cook, J. E. Manson, and J. E. Buring, “Vitamin E and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in the Women’s Health Study Randomized Controlled Trial,”
Diabetes
55, no. 10 (October 2006): 2856-62.

20.
W. G. Christen, R. J. Glynn, H. D. Sesso, T. Kurth, J. MacFayden, V. Bubes, J. E. Bur-ing, J. E. Manson, and J. M. Gaziano, “Age-Related Cataract in a Randomized Trial of Vitamins E and C in Men,”
Archives of Ophthalmology
128, no. 11 (November 2010): 1397-1405.

21.
I. G. Tsiligianni and T. van der Molen, “A Systematic Review of the Role of Vitamin Insufficiencies and Supplementation in COPD,”
Respiratory Research
11 (December 6, 2010): 171.

22.
G. Bjelakovic, D. Nikolova, L. L. Gluud, R. G. Simonetti, and C. Gluud, “Antioxidant Supplements for Prevention of Mortality in Healthy Participants and Patients with Various Diseases,”
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
3 (March 14, 2012): CD007176. DOI: 10.

23.
Y. Dotan, D. Lichtenberg, and I. Pinchuk, “No Evidence Supports Vitamin E Indiscriminate Supplementation,”
Biofactors
35, no. 6 (2009): 469-73; J. Blumberg and B. Frei, “Why Clinical Trials of Vitamin E and Cardiovascular Diseases May Be Fatally Flawed,”
Free Radical Biology & Medicine
43, no. 10 (2007): 1374-76.

24.
Aggarwal et al., “Tocotrienols.”

25.
Farbstein et al., “Antioxidant Vitamins.”

26.
Lonn et al., “Effects of Long-Term Vitamin E.”

27.
Goran Bjelakovic, Dimitrinka Nikolova, Lise Lotte Gluud, Rosa G. Simonetti, and Christian Gluud. “Mortality in Randomized Trials,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
297, no. 8 (2007): 842-857; E.R. Miller, R. Pastor-Barriuso, D. Dalal, R. A. Riemersma, L. J. Appel, and E. Guallar, “Meta-analysis: High-dose Vitamin E Supplementation May Increase All-cause Mortality,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
142 (2005):    37-46.

28.
S. O. Ebbesson et al., “Fatty Acid Consumption and Metabolic Syndrome Components: The GOCADAN Study,”
Journal of the Cardiometabolic Syndrome
2, no. 4 (2007): 244-49.

29.
E. Lopez-Garcia, M. B. Schulze, J. E. Manson, J. B. Meigs, C. M. Albert, N. Rifai, W. C. Willett, F. B. Hu, “Consumption of (n-3) Fatty Acids Is Related to Plasma Biomarkers of Inflammation and Endothelial Activation in Women,”
Journal of Nutrition
134, no. 7 (2004): 1806-11; R. J. Deckelbaum, T. S. Worgall, and T. Seo, “n-3 Fatty Acids and Gene Expression,” supplement,
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
83, no. 6 (2006):    1520S-25S.

30.
S. V. Kaushik, D. Mozaffarian, D. Spiegelman, J. E. Manson, and W. Willett, “Long-Chain Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Fish Intake, and the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus,”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
90, no. 3 (2009): 613-20.