Health Highlights: April 14, 2008

Lack of iron is the most common of nutritional deficiencies and a leading cause of anemia,AFPreported.

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Exercise Boosted Prostate Tumor Growth in Mice

Exercise caused prostate tumors to grow more quickly in mice, but men shouldn't take that to mean they can protect themselves by not exercising, say Duke University Medical Center researchers.

They implanted prostate tumors into 50 mice and then put half the mice in cages with exercise wheels and half in cages with no wheels. The exercising mice ran an average of more than one-half mile a day. All the mice were fed the same diet,United Press Internationalreported.

"Our study showed that exercise led to significantly greater tumor growth than a more sedentary lifestyle did, in this mouse model," senior investigator Lee Jones of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a prepared statement.

The study was presented this weekend at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego.

The Duke team urged caution in interpreting the findings,UPIreported.

"These mice were not receiving (cancer) treatment and we were allowing aggressive tumors to grow unchecked for the sake of the experiment. Patients would not find themselves in the same situation," study investigator Stephen Freedland said in a prepared statement.