Can Diet Affect the Survival Rate for Breast Cancer?
Post date: December 4th, 2006Scientists and doctors are already aware of the affect that diet has on your risk factor for cancer. Now they are looking into the effects that diet has after you have had treatment for breast cancer. Studies are being done to discover if changing your diet after you have been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer.
There have only been two studies that looked into the relationship to a person’s diet and their survival rate after breast cancer. The results of those two studies look promising, but more studies will need to be done to decide if there is a connection. One early study looked at the survival rate of women who enrolled in a special study involving diet had amazing results. Women who had breast cancer that had not spread or metastasized who ate large amounts of poultry, total protein, and omega-3 fatty acids had a much lower rate of death than those whose diet didn’t include those three foods. Those women who ate a diet high in fiber, fish and vegetables also had a significant drop in death rate.
Higher rates of calcium in the body, and who ate more protein had a lower death rate than those who consumed large quantities of hydrogenated oils. Those oils are found in processed and baked foods.
Another study of a smaller group of women showed that women who had breast cancer that had not metastasized had a lower death rate if they were postmenopausal, ate more vegetables, and got more vitamin C from their diet. It is important to remember that both of these studies were in women that cancer that was not metastasized. This is an important discovery in cancer research. More studies will need to be conducted before it can be said clearly that what you eat can reduce your risk of dying of breast cancer.
The studies suggest that those women who ate more poultry and fish and less hydrogenated oils had a higher survival rate than the other group. Poultry has been determined to be a healthier choice for protein than red meat. The studies may show that women who ate healthier usually had a more active lifestyle. Those who consumed more hydrogenated oil seemed less concerned about health issues. This difference in two lifestyles may have had an affect on the women involved in the studies.
Breast cancer survival rates also seemed affected by the fat consumed, especially about tumor cells found in lymph nodes. The results of the studies show that eating a healthier diet can reduce your chances of dying of breast cancer.
Eating healthy and having a healthier, more active lifestyle has shown that it does decrease your risk of getting breast cancer and increases your chances of surviving the disease.
These studies could be very important because your diet after your diagnosis and treatment is under your control. If you knew that changing your diet can increase your life span after diagnosis, would you be willing to change it?
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