NEW ORLEANS — Eating nuts has been linked to a number of health benefits, such as a reduced risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Now, new findings from South Korea suggest that a nut-rich diet may also reduce a person's risk of colon cancer. 
 
 The researchers found a reduction in this risk for both men and women, according to the findings, presented here today (April 18) at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting. 
 
 Eating a serving of nuts three or more times a week appeared to have a big effect on risk, said Dr. Aesun Shin, an associate professor of preventive medicine at Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea and an author of the study. 
 
 In the study, a serving of nuts was considered to be 15 grams (0.5 ounces), Shin told Live Science. That's a smaller amount than what's considered a serving in the United States, she added. (A serving in the U.S. is 28 g, or 1 oz.) 
 
 Although the researchers included many types of nuts in their analysis, peanuts were the most widely consumed nuts among people in the study. This may be due to the availability of peanuts in South Korea, the researchers said. [6 Foods That Are Good For Your Brain] 
 
 To examine the relationship between eating nuts and colon cancer risk, the researchers looked at 923 patients who had been diagnosed with colon cancer and compared their diets with those of 1,846 people who did not have colon cancer. 
 
 The researchers found that men who reported eating three or more servings of nuts a week had a 69 percent lower risk of colon cancer than those who reported eating no nuts. Women who ate three or more servings had an 81 percent lower risk than those who ate no nuts, according to the study. 
 
 In addition, the researchers looked at several different types of colon cancer, based on the location in the colon where the cancer is found. Nut consumption was associated with a reduced risk across all of the different locations that the researchers examined, Shin said. 
 
 The study does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between eating nuts and having a lower risk of colon cancer, the researchers said. However, the researchers hypothesized that some of the compounds, including fiber and antioxidants, found in nuts may help reduce a person's risk of colon cancer. [Top 10 Cancer-Fighting Foods] 
 
 Shin noted that a limitation of the study is that participants were asked to recall their own nut intake, and it's possible that they may have made mistakes. 
 
 The findings have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. 
 
 Follow Sara G. Miller on Twitter @SaraGMiller. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science. ||||| TUESDAY, April 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- A new, but small, study finds more evidence that a recently approved, stool-based colon cancer test may be effective for certain patients. 
 
 Still, experts who looked at the findings stressed that the test, called Cologuard, should never be used as a substitute for the "gold standard" colon cancer test, colonoscopy. 
 
 Cologuard is a noninvasive stool DNA test that detects red blood cells and certain DNA mutations that are associated with colon cancer. The test was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2014. 
 
 The new study included nearly 400 people at average risk for colon cancer, meaning they had no symptoms and no personal or family history of the disease or precancerous polyps. The patients had also not yet undergone more invasive screening procedures, such as colonoscopy. 
 
 At one year of follow-up, 51 of the patients (about 15 percent) had a positive result on the Cologuard test and were referred for colonoscopy, said a team led by Dr. Mark Prince of USMD Physician Services, a health system based in Dallas. 
 
 Of the 46 patients who received a follow-up colonoscopy, four were diagnosed with a colon cancer, 21 with advanced polyps (indicating a heightened risk for the cancer), and nine with non-advanced polyps. 
 
 The findings were to be presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Academy for Cancer Research (AACR), in New Orleans. Research presented at meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. 
 
 "Colon cancer screening saves lives," Prince said in an AACR news release. "Colonoscopy is the best form of colon cancer screening, but for patients who will not have a colonoscopy, a noninvasive screening test like Cologuard is needed." 
 
 However, "despite the availability of various colon cancer screening options, more than 40 percent of Americans are not getting screened," he added. "This study highlights the opportunity to expand the screening population by offering new, patient-friendly methods." 
 
 Prince is also a speaker for Exact Sciences Corp., the Wisconsin-based maker of Cologuard. ||||| NEW ORLEANS — Colorectal cancer has been linked to a number of risk factors, such as inactivity, smoking and eating a lot of red meat. Now, a new study suggests a slightly more surprising risk factor: long legs. 
 
 Compared with people who had shorter legs, those with longer legs had a 42 percent higher risk of developing colorectal cancer, according to the new study presented here today (April 19) at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting. 
 
 Evidence from previous studies has suggested that taller people in general are more likely to develop colorectal cancer, said Guillaume Onyeaghala, a graduate student in epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and the lead author of the study. 
 
 Researchers have two hypotheses that may explain the association between height and cancer risk, Onyeaghala told Live Science. [Top 10 Cancer-Fighting Foods] 
 
 One idea is that because taller people have longer colons (and therefore, more surface area within the organs where colon cancer could develop), they have more chances to develop the condition, Onyeaghala said. The other suggestion is that increased levels of growth hormones — which affect leg length in particular — are also the driving factor for colorectal cancer, he said. (The growth hormone "insulin-like growth factor 1" is elevated during puberty, and has been shown to be a risk factor for colorectal cancers at high levels, the study said.) 
 
 The researchers looked at data on participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, a long-running cohort of more than 14,500 men and women. Specifically, the new study examined three aspects of the participants' height: overall height, torso height and leg length. Researchers also looked at how many participants developed colorectal cancer over the nearly 20-year study period. 
 
 The only factor that was linked to people's colon cancer risk was their leg length; the researchers did not find a significant link between people's overall height or torso height and their cancer risk, Onyeaghala said. [10 Do's and Don'ts to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer] 
 
 Because sex is related to height, the researchers also looked at men and women separately. Results showed that in men, those with the longest legs (an average length of 35.4 inches, or 90 centimeters) had a 91 percent greater risk than those with the shortest legs (an average length of 31.1 inches, or 79 cm), Onyeaghala said. In women, there were no statistically significant differences in risk. 
 
 Because leg length was more strongly associated with colorectal cancer risk than were sitting height or overall height, these results support the hypothesis that the growth factors that drive bone growth in the legs are a risk factor for the disease, Onyeaghala said. (However, the idea that a longer colon is to blame cannot be ruled out based on these results.) 
 
 The findings have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. 
 
 Follow Sara G. Miller on Twitter @SaraGMiller. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.
– Higher cancer rates have been linked generally to taller people, but University of Minnesota researchers are reporting a startling find: Men with longer legs have a 42% higher risk of developing colorectal cancer than those with shorter legs, reports Live Science. More specifically, they found that the men with the longest legs (at an average length of 35.4 inches) had a 91% greater risk of colon cancer than men with the shortest legs (at an average length of 31.1 inches). But in women, any differences in risk between the tallest and shortest legs were so small as to be statistically insignificant. They also note that it is leg length in particular, not total body length, where the differences in men arise. The researchers offer up two theories as to why leg length matters. One is that taller people have longer colons and thus more real estate on which cancer can grow. The other, which these findings seem to support, is that the growth hormones that increase leg length may contribute to colon cancer risk. The research hasn't yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, notes Live Science, but it's not all grim news: Researchers in South Korea have observed that a diet rich in nuts appears to reduce colon cancer risks for both men and women, reports Live Science. And WebMD has a small but compelling study that a recently FDA-approved stool-based DNA test may help screen for colon cancer. (Now why are colon cancer rates are up among people younger than 50?)