Milk is good for you reduces bowel cancer risk significantly

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 07 Jul 2004 - 10:00 PDT


US researchers have found that if you drink two eight-ounce glasses (0.8 pint) of milk a day your chances of developing cancers of the distal colon and rectum are reduced by 12%. The study looked at ten studies, covering 500,000 people, 1% of whom had developed bowel cancer. The scientists were from Brigham and Women's Hospital, USA.

You can read about this study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Bowel cancer is the third most common form on cancer worldwide. Another name for bowel cancer is colorectal cancer.

In the UK the most common cancers are (in order) : Lung, breast, bowel (colorectal), prostate, skin, bladder, stomach, ovary, cervix.

Previous studies had indicated that varying levels of bowel cancer in different countries were due to eating habits. Scientists have, for a long time, suggested that calcium intake is linked to levels of bowel cancer risk.

In this new study, the scientists wanted to see where people were getting their calcium from (which dairy products). They found that milk was the only product that clearly showed a relationship between consumption and a drop in bowel cancer risk. If you drink two eight-ounce glasses of milk a day your risk goes down 12% (0.454 litres per day).

If a woman increases her consumption of calcium to 1,000 milligrams per day her risk of developing bowel cancer goes down 15% (men 10%).

Team leader Dr Eunyoung Cho, said that moderate milk and calcium intake reduces the risk of colorectal cancer.

The team said that their findings indicate that the consumption of cheese and yoghurt do NOT offer significant reduction of risk.

Experts have already responded to these findings with varying comments from 'interesting' to 'a healthy balanced diet is the best protection from all cancers'.

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