Caloric Restriction Reduces Breast Cancer RiskOne of the biggest reasons people don't live into healthy old age is cancer, one of the biggest killers for people of all ages and both sexes. Breast cancer is a particularly common form of the disease, especially among women. One of the risk factors for breast cancer is excessive weight -- and this report shows that going to the other extreme, anorexia nevosa, while posing it's own health risks, actually reduces the risk for breast cancer dramatically. A Swedish study examined the medical histories of a large sample of women, and found that those who who had a history of anorexia nervosa had dramatically lower incidence of breast cancer: Women hospitalized for anorexia prior to age 40 had a 53% lower incidence of breast CA. (95% CI, 3%-81%). Nulliparous anorexic women had a 23% (95% CI, 79% higher to 75% lower) lower incidence compared with nulliparous nonanorexic women, and parous women with anorexia had a 76% (95% CI, 13%-97%) lower incidence. Of course nobody is recommending anorexia as a beneficial thing, but this study shows that at least some claims for the benefits of caloric restriction apply to humans. For obvious reasons, most caloric restriction studies have been done on lower animals, and short-lived ones at that (though studies of monkeys are on-going). All have shown reduced incidence of tumors. Caloric restriction is not the same as anorexia, in that a calorie restricted diet is balanced and includes all of the vitamins and nutriments neccesary for health, and the caloric intake is sufficient (though minimal). Anorexics do not get enough calories, vitamins or nutriments to maintain health. It is suprising then that they still receive the tumor risk-reduction benefit, at least so far as breast cancer is concerned, that caloric restricted diets get. |
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