Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
About one man in six will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, according to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. You’ll want to speak with your doctor about these specific nutrients if you are having prostate concerns.
Scientists have linked sugar with a wide range of health risks. Now, researchers are examining the link between sugary drinks and the risk of developing cancer.
According to researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU), consuming flavonoid-rich items, such as apples and tea, protects against cancer and heart disease, particularly for smokers and heavy drinkers.
Flavonoids are a diverse group of plant chemicals (phytonutrients) that are found in almost all fruits and vegetables. They are responsible for the vivid colors of fruits and vegetables and have been shown in numerous studies to be powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits. One of the most commonly known flavonoids is quercetin.
Flavonoids are beneficial, but not all are created equal! Read more by clicking here…
A few foods that are rich in flavonoids are onions, tea, strawberries, kale, grapes, brussels sprouts, parsley and many spices. It’s important to pay attention to the way you cook and prepare your food when it comes to flavonoids. Up to 80% of some flavonoids can be lost during the cooking process! A good way to tell if your food is losing or have lost its nutrients is by its color; if its normally vivid colors start to fade after cooking or boiling, your food is losing its phytonutrients! But flavonoids can also be obtained by supplementation, which may be a good option for those struggling to get sufficient fruits and vegetables in their diet.
The researchers from the ECU’s School of Medical and Health Sciences analyzed data from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort that assessed the diets of over 53,000 Danes over 23 years. Participants consuming about 500mg of total flavonoids each day had the lowest risk of cancer or heart disease-related death.
Lead researcher Dr. Nicola Bondonno said, while the study found a lower risk of death in those who ate flavonoid-rich foods, the protective effect appeared to be the strongest for those at high risk of chronic diseases due to cigarette smoking and those who drank more than two standard alcoholic drinks a day. She explained, “These findings are important as they highlight the potential to prevent cancer and heart disease by encouraging the consumption of flavonoid-rich foods, particularly in people at high risk of these chronic diseases. By far the best thing to do for your health is to quit smoking and cut down on alcohol.
Photo by Jennifer Burk on Unsplash Researchers from several worldwide institutions – including the Imperial College London in the UK and the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO) in France – have discovered that cancers related to metabolic diseases …
Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash The Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test is a blood test that measures levels of a protein the prostate gland produces. Though many men with prostate cancer usually have high levels of this protein, this does not always indicate cancer for …
Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic have uncovered differences in the bacterial composition of breast tissue of healthy women vs. women with breast cancer.
Bacteria that exists in your body is often thought of as unhealthy, but certain strains of bacteria are crucial to your overall health, specifically digestion and immunity. Inadequate amounts of healthy bacteria in the intestines often lead to issues throughout the body and have been linked to many diseases. It has been reported that researchers have long suspected that a “microbiome”, or bacteria, live within breast tissue and play a role in breast cancer and suggest that the microbes in the gut may regulate estrogen levels, leading to estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. This clinical study has taken the first step towards understanding the composition of the bacteria in breast cancer by uncovering distinct microbial differences in healthy and cancerous breast tissue.
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer starts when cells in the breast begin to grow out of control and usually form a tumor. If the tumor is malignant, the calls grow into and invade surrounding tissues or metastasize to distance areas of the body. Breast cancer commonly occurs in woman, but men can get breast cancer too.
There is no sure way to prevent breast cancer as there are many risk factors out of your control – family history and aging, for example. However, there are other risk factors that you have control over that may lower your risk, according to the American Cancer Society.
Co-senior author Charis Eng, M.D., Ph.D., chair of Cleveland Clinic’s Genomic Medicine Institute and director of the Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare reported, “To my knowledge, this is the first study to examine both breast tissue and distant sites of the body for bacterial differences in breast cancer. Our hope is to find a biomarker that would help us diagnose breast cancer quickly and easily. In our wildest dreams, we hope we can use microbiomics right before breast cancer forms and then prevent cancer with probiotics or antibiotics.”
Published online in the journal Oncotarget, this small study examined the tissues of 78 patients who underwent mastectomy for invasive carcinoma (elective cosmetic breast surgery). Oral rinse and urine was also examined to determine the bacterial composition of these distant sites in the body.
The research team discovered for the first time that healthy breast tissue contains more of the bacterial specific methylobacterium. The team also discovered that cancer patients’ urine samples had increased levels of gram-positive bacteria, including Staphylococcus and Actinomyces. Further studies are needed to determine the role these organisms may play in breast cancer.
Co-senior author Stephen Grobymer, M.D., states, “If we
can target specific pro-cancer bacteria, we may be able to make the environment less hospitable to cancer and enhance existing treatments. Larger studies are needed but this work is a solid first step in better understanding the significant role of bacterial imbalances in breast cancer.
According to Archana Gogna, MS, CNS, MBA, probiotics are friendly bacteria that make up the microbiome of the gut, are key to good health, and the gateway to good digestion and regularity. Healthy bacteria has been shown in rigorous human clinical trials to help with the following –