Findings from this meta-analysis indicate that consumption of red and/or processed meat increase risk of stroke, in particular, ischemic stroke.

Epidemiologic studies have suggested that magnesium intake may be associated with a decreased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), but the findings have been inconsistent. We aimed to assess this association by conducting a meta-analysis of prospective studies. We performed a literature search on PubMed database through July 2012 to identify prospective studies of magnesium intake in relation to CRC risk. Reference lists of the retrieved articles were also reviewed. A random-effects model was used to compute the summary risk estimates. Eight prospective studies containing 338 979 participants and 8000 CRC cases met the inclusion criteria. The summary relative risk (RR) for the highest vs lowest category of magnesium intake for CRC was 0.89 (95% CI, 0.79-1.00), with little evidence of heterogeneity. Restricting the analysis to six studies that have adjusted for calcium intake yielded a similar result. For colon and rectal cancer, the pooled RR was 0.81 (95% CI, 0.70-0.93) and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.72-1.24), respectively. In the doseresponse analyses, the summary RRs for an increment of magnesium intake of 50 mg/day for colorectal, colon and rectal cancer were, respectively, 0.95 (95% CI, 0.89-1.00), 0.93 (95% CI, 0.88-0.99) and 0.93 (95% CI, 0.83-1.04), and there was some evidence of heterogeneity; omitting one study that substantially contributed to the heterogeneity yielded generally similar results, but with low heterogeneity. We detected no indication of publication bias. On the basis of the findings of this meta-analysis, a higher magnesium intake seems to be associated with a modest reduction in the risk of CRC, in particular, colon cancer.

Findings of this meta-analysis indicate a significant inverse dose-response relationship between dietary fiber intake and risk of stroke.

At present, there is no study that simultaneously addresses the apparent differences between bacterial and host factors in patients with bleeding and nonbleeding Helicobacter pylori-related ulcer diseases. Therefore, we designed this prospective study to evaluate whether there are identifiable differences between the two groups of patients whose H. pylori-related peptic ulcer diseases present with bleeding or dyspepsia. From July 1996 to November 1996, consecutive patients presenting with upper gastrointestinal bleeding or dyspepsia were enrolled if H. pylori-related ulcer diseases were confirmed. Fifteen clinical, endoscopic, histologic, and serologic factors were tested for association with ulcer bleeding by a logistic regression analysis. In the study period, bleeding occurred in 39 out of 119 patients with H. pylori-related peptic ulcer diseases. Multivariate analysis showed that ingestion of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs; p = 0.0156; odds ratio = 5:4), ulcer size > or = 1 cm (p = 0.0033; odds ratio = 4:2), and low bacterial density (p = 0.0030; odds ratio = 4:1) were independent factors associated with the risk of bleeding. There were no associations between ulcer bleeding and age, sex, smoking, alcohol consumption, the histologic grade of gastritis, location and number of ulcers, and the cytotoxin-associated gene (CagA) status of H. pylori strain. Therefore, we concluded that H. pylori-related ulcer patients who use NSAIDs or have large ulcers are more likely to present with upper gastrointestinal bleeding; that the CagA-bearing strains are not associated with the development of bleeding complication in patients with peptic ulcer diseases; and that the exact reason concerning the association between low bacterial density and ulcer bleeding merits further investigation.