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Does vitamin D reduce the chances of having bowel cancer?

Medically known as colorectal cancer or colon cancer, is a type of cancer that affects the larger bowel and rectum. The growth of it is very slow. Its takes a period of 10 years to grow and then it starts to spread and affect the other parts of the body. This is the second most common cancer in Europe. Around 447,000 cases of bowel cancer were seen in the year 2012.

Recent study has shown that people who suffer from bowel cancer, if consume vitamin D, then they are more likely to survive the cancer. The study was confirmed after researching about 1600 patients who had a bowel cancer surgery. The study showed that the patients who had a good level of vitamin D have half the risk of dying of this diseases than those who just had a minimal amount of vitamin D. The study is the first to correlate the long-term survival prospects of bowel cancer patients after diagnosis with total blood levels of vitamin D. The research team tested the blood samples of the patients after surgery. They found out that patients who had a good amount of vitamin D, in stage two cancer, the tumor was not seeing much spread. And 2/3rd of the patients with low vitamin D did not survive beyond 5 years.

Vitamin D is also known as the sunshine vitamin. Vitamin D is made in the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Also consumption of certain food like fish liver oil, eggs and other fishes like salmon, herring and mackerel. Vitamin D is known to boost the activity of calcium in the body and therefore, forming the bone function.

Some studies have also stated that in case there is low of vitamin D in a person, it is likely that he maybe at a risk of having chronic diseases. So doctors advice patients with bowel cancer to have a good level of vitamin D.

The research team is now planning on trying out for a clinical trial to test whether taking vitamin D tablets in combination with chemotherapy can improve bowel cancer survival rates.

Does caffeine fight cancer?

Epidemiological studies have shown that caffeinated drinks may help prevent skin cancer by inhibiting a DNA repair pathway, thus killing potentially precancerous cells. In English, it means that drinking drinks containing caffeine will reduce one’s chances of developing some types of cancer, including UV-associated skin cancer. That just proves that caffeine fight cancer. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lend support to the idea that caffeine could be added to sunblock to increase its protective effects. At the cellular level, they’re showing that caffeine is working in this way of inducing an apoptotic mechanism. This statement was then made by cancer epidemiologist Joanne Kotsopoulos of the University of Toronto.

In the 2007, a study stated that woman who drank caffeinated coffee on a daily basis had a 10 percent lower risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer. Six or more cups of coffee a day translated to a 30 percent reduction in risk. Mouse studies have also confirmed the link, with both ingested and topically-applied caffeine lowering skin cancer rates in the animals. But exactly how the stimulant protected against cancer remained mysterious. One possibility is the drug’s inhibition of ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR), a large protein kinase that senses incomplete DNA replication often a result of DNA damage and signals the cell to not divide. By inhibiting ATR activity, caffeine could make cells more likely to die in response to UV damage, preventing damaged cells from ever becoming cancerous.

Studies have shown that the caffeine molecule acts as a sunscreen. It therefore blocks the penetration of UV rays. And that is why today we see many sunblocks with a good amount of caffeine in them.

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Can sugar consumption cause breast cancer?

A recent study stated that drinking three sugar sweetened drinks a week would increase the risk of having breast cancer. The study had 776 pre-menopausal women and 779 post-menopausal women. Each women’s breast density was assessed by examining their mammograms. The women were told to make a note of sweet they consumed such as chocolates, cakes, ice cream or any sweet drinks. Also they were asked to make a note of how much of spoonful of sugar they add to the drinks.

It was then found out that post-menopausal women who consumed more of sugar, an increase in the density of breast. While the pre-menopausal women observed an increase in breast density when they consumed sugar food. These women, in a week were just consuming three sugar sweetened drinks. The study then further stated that sugar tends to increase the migration of breast cells together. This explains the fact that the premenopausal women who consumed sugar-sweetened drinks were 3 percent more likely to have dense breasts than those who didn’t consume the drinks. And having dense breasts increases your risk of breast cancer by making it difficult to see tumors on mammograms.

However, there is more to be studied on this matter. But until then there is still a link between the sugar consumption and breast density. About 40% of women in the US have dense breast and they are totally unaware of it. Doctors say that women with a dense breast are five time more likely to have a breast cancer and 10 times more likely to miss the tumor in the mammogram test.

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