THURSDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- Eating less polyunsaturated fat, the kind often found in baked and fried goods, helps prevent prostate cancer in mice, according to researchers.

The finding by University of California, Los Angeles, scientists is believed to be the first of its kind in a mouse model that closely mimics human cancer.

The fat used in the study, published in the April 15 issue of the Cancer Research, came mostly from corn oil, which is made up primarily of omega-6 fatty acids -- the polyunsaturated fat commonly found in Western diets.

Mice that ate a low-fat diet, in which just 12 percent of their calories come from fat, had a 27 percent reduced incidence of prostate cancer compared to mice who ate a more traditional Western-type diet, in which 40 percent of the calories came from fat.

Research also found that precancerous prostate cells, or those that would soon become cancer, grew much more slowly in the mice eating the low-fat diet.

"A low-fat, high-fiber diet combined with weight loss and exercise is well known to be healthy in terms of heart disease and is known to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, so that would be a healthy choice to make," study senior author William Aronson, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher, said in a prepared statement. "Whether or not it will prevent prostate cancer in humans remains to be seen."

Previous studies done in Aronson's lab showed that a low-fat diet slowed the growth of aggressive human prostate cancers in mice and helped them live longer.

Aronson found that mice on the low-fat diet had higher levels of a protein in their blood that binds to insulin during the time when the precancerous prostate lesions usually develop. Aronson believes the low-fat diet caused the increase in the binding protein, and the protein helped prevent prostate cancer from thriving.

A short-term study in men assigned either a diet high in polyunsaturated fat or a low-fat diet with fish oil supplements will now take place to further determine whether diets affect malignant and benign human prostate tissue, Aronson said.

"We're looking at specific markers and growth factors in human tissue known to be important for development and progression of prostate cancer," he said. "It's this work we hope will lead to longer term prevention strategies incorporating dietary changes."

More information

The National Cancer Institute has more about prostate cancer.

MONDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy often suffer from heart failure, but Viagra might prevent or delay the onset of this condition, a new Canadian study finds.

In experiments with mice, researchers showed that Viagra (sildenafil) improved heart performance by preventing the breakdown of a compound called cGMP, which relaxes smooth muscle.

"Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a crippling disease that affects both skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle," said lead researcher Christine Des Rosiers, a professor of cardiology in the department of nutrition at the University of Montreal. "Currently, there is a need for the development of more effective treatment strategies for patients affected with this disease."

In their experiments, the researchers used mice bred to mimic Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Then the scientists gave the rodents doses of Viagra comparable to those taken by men for erectile dysfunction.

The researchers found that Viagra improved heart function in the mice by preventing the breakdown of cGMP.

In a further experiment, the researchers inserted a gene into the hearts of the mice that increased the production of cGMP. The result: The mice were able to maintain normal heart function.

The findings are published in this weeks issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Our findings substantiate benefits for the dystrophic heart using a pharmacological approach, namely with sildenafil, which is safe, well-tolerated and currently available for clinical use," Des Rosiers said. "Hence, this could provide the basis for a new avenue for the treatment. Furthermore, the benefits of this therapeutic approach would be expected to extend beyond the heart to affected skeletal muscle and other tissues."

Dr. Valerie A. Cwik, medical director and vice president of research at the Muscular Dystrophy Association, said there's a need for new approaches to the treatment of heart failure in patients with Duchenne and other forms of muscular dystrophy.

"The findings presented by these authors are interesting and certainly have potential clinical implications for the various forms of dystrophinopathy [heart damage]," she said, adding that heart failure is a major cause of illness and death in late-stage Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

"At the present time, there is no consensus or standard of care for optimal management of the cardiac complications of dystrophinopathies, and further research in this area is clearly needed," Cwik said.

While Viagra hasn't been tested in humans to see if it benefits muscular dystrophy patients, it has been available for years and appears to be safe, Cwik noted.

More information

For more on muscular dystrophy, visit the Muscular Dystrophy Association  .

THURSDAY, April 3 (HealthDay News) -- Women who are victims of male partner violence suffer a wide range of physical and mental health problems, says a World Health Organization study that included 25,000 women in 11 countries.

The women, aged 15 to 49, came from Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, and the United Republic of Tanzania. The study found that having ever experienced physical or sexual partner violence was associated with poor health overall, and with specific health problems in the four weeks prior to being interviewed: pain, memory loss, dizziness, vaginal discharge and difficulty walking or doing daily activities.

In addition, women who'd experienced partner violence at least once in their lives had more emotional distress, or suicidal thoughts or attempts, than women who'd never suffered abuse by a male partner.

Differences in age, education or marital status did not seem to be factors in the association between partner violence and these physical and mental health problems in women.

The study findings, published in this week's issue of The Lancet, suggest that the effects of this kind of violence linger long after the actual violence has ended, the researchers said.

"In addition to being a breach of human rights, the high prevalence of partner violence and its associations with poor health -- including implied costs in terms of health expenditures and human suffering -- highlight the urgent need to address partner violence in national and global health-sector policies and programs," the study authors concluded.

In an accompanying commentary, Riyadh K. Lafta, of the Mustansiriya Medical School in Baghdad, Iraq, stated: "Accurate and comparable data on violence against women are needed to strengthen advocacy efforts, help policy makers understand the problem, and guide design of preventive interventions."

However, efforts to collect data are hampered by several factors including: the influence of social and cultural views in determining what constitutes violence; the settings of interviews, the type of target population, and the way questions are asked, Lafta noted.

More information

The American Bar Association offers a domestic violence safety plan  .