Dieta Hoodia

Posted on: Friday, 19 August 2005, 12:00 CDT

Losing weight can help young women with a high risk of developing breast cancer reduce their chances of getting the disease. New research today suggests that slimming could be a vital weapon against hereditary breast cancer. The findings come as it emerged that eating chips during childhood could be a risk factor in developing breast cancer later in life.

Janet Pardue-Wood, head of national development for Breast Cancer Care Cymru, said, 'This is interesting research and is great news for women who have a genetically increased risk of breast cancer - they now have a mechanism whereby they can try and reduce their risk.'

An international study of more than 2,000 women from five countries found that, for some, losing weight cut the chances of breast cancer before the age of 50 by 65%.

Those who benefited most from slimming all had a mutation in the gene BRCA 1 which greatly increases breast cancer risk. For these women, losing 10 pounds between the ages of 18 and 30 produced a 65% reduced risk of breast cancer.

Slimming also reduced the risk for women with another defective breast cancer gene, BRCA 2, but not to a significant degree.

In contrast, weight gain heightened the risk of breast cancer for BRCA 1 mutation carriers with at least two children. Their chances of being diagnosed before the age of 40 rose by 44% if they put on more than 10 pounds between the ages of 18 and 30.

The team of investigators, led by Dr Steven Narod, from the University of Toronto in Canada, wrote in the on-line journal Breast Cancer Research, 'The results from this study suggest that weight loss in early adult life protects against early-onset BRCA- associated breast cancers.

'Weight gain should also be avoided, particularly among BRCA 1 mutation carriers who elect to have at least two pregnancies.'

The researchers, from Canada, the USA and Poland, matched a group of 1,073 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer with another group of the same size who had not. The women were tested for BRCA 1 and 2 and questioned about their weight at ages 18, 30 and 40.

Women with BRCA 1 mutations who lost more than 10 pounds had an average weight at 18 of 142.5 pounds. They shed an average of 18.6 pounds, ranging from 10 to 86 pounds, by the age of 30. It is not clear why slimming has such a protective effect against breast cancer for these women but it is thought to be linked to known associations between body fat and hormones. Fat deposits around the centre of the body affect ovarian hormone and glucose metabolism, and promote insulin resistance. All of these effects are believed to increase breast cancer risk.

And it is further evidence of the links between lifestyle - including maintaining a healthy weight - and cancer. Cancer experts said that watching weight is one of the best ways everyone can lower their life-long risk of developing all forms of the disease.

Dr Kat Arney, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK, said, 'This study highlights the importance of maintaining a healthy bodyweight throughout adult life for women who have inherited an increased risk of breast cancer due to faults in their BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

'The results are interesting because previous studies have not found a link between pre-menopausal weight gain and increased cancer risk in the general population.': Eating chips is a risk?:Children who regularly eat chips may have a higher risk of breast cancer in later life. Diet has long been associated with the development of several types of cancer and people who are overweight or obese have been considered most at risk.

But an American study has claimed that the diet of pre-school children affects their chances of getting breast cancer much later in life.

And they believe that those who regularly eat fries have up to a 27% higher risk for every portion they ate as children.

They analysed data from 582 women with breast cancer and 1,569 women without the disease in 1993, who were part of the Nurses' Health Studies.

The researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, looked at the diets of the women when they were aged three to five, using information from their mothers who were asked how often their daughters ate or drank various products.

Researcher Dr Karin Michels and colleagues estimated that for each additional serving of chips per week that a woman ate as a pre- schooler, her risk of breast cancer in later life increased by 27%.

The study, published online in the International Journal of Cancer, also found that regular consumption of whole fat milk each day was linked to a small decrease in breast cancer risk.

Source: Western Mail

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