From Dr N. Brudney, MRPharmS
SIR,—I am astonished to read in the summary of the study by Dr Claire
Boninthon-Koppe (PJ, October 21, p595)
that wheat bran fibre may not be effective for preventing colorectal adenoma
recurrence.
This conclusion is reached without the benefit of having studied the use of
wheat bran fibre at all. The only fibre used in the reported study was a 3.5g
dose of ispaghula husk.
It should by now be widely understood that there is an enormous difference between
the effects of soluble fibres (ispaghula, psyllium, oat bran) and mainly insoluble
fibres such as wheat bran, micro-cellulose etc.
Studying one type of dietary fibre supplement and then extending the study conclusions
to cover all types of dietary fibre is rather like studying aspirin and extending
your conclusions and recommendations to all known analgesics.
Norman Brudney
Poole
The authors of the study drew their conclusions from the results of their own and two other American trials, which looked at the effects of a low-fat, high-fibre diet (New England Journal of Medicine 2000:342:1149) and of wheat-bran supplementation (Ibid, p1156). We apologise for not making this clear — EDITOR.