Source: Xinhua
02-25-2009 13:54
Special Report: Tech MaxBEIJING, Feb 28 (Xinhuanet)-- Food-based calcium may help protect against some cancers, says a study.
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| Food-based calcium may help protect against some cancers, says a study.(File photo) |
The research conducted on nearly half a million older men and women bolsters evidence that diets high in calcium have more benefits rather than calcium tablets.
The new research involved food questionnaires from participants and a follow-up check of records for cancer cases during the subsequent seven years. This research method is less rigorous than some previous but more powerful. The study-- with 492,810 people and more than 50,000 cancers-- favored the idea that calcium may somehow keep cells from becoming cancerous, said University of North Carolina nutrition expert John Anderson, who was not involved in the study.
The study was run jointly by the National Institutes of Health and AARP. National Cancer Institute researcher Yikyung Park, the study's lead author, called the results strong but said more studies are needed to confirm the findings.
Participants were AARP members aged 50 to 71 who began the study in the mid-1990s. A total of 36,965 men and 16,605 women were later diagnosed with cancer. There were more than 10 different kinds of cancer, the most common being prostate, breast, lung and colorectal.
Compared with people who got little calcium, those who consumed the most had the lowest chances of getting colon cancer. Those in that highest category got on average 1,530 milligrams a day among men and 1,881 milligrams daily among women. Men who got the most calcium from food were about 30 percent less likely to get cancer of the esophagus, about 20 percent less likely to get head and neck cancer and 16 percent less likely to get colon cancer, when compared to men who got low amounts of calcium.
Women who got the most calcium rich diet were 28 percent less likely to get colon cancer than low-calcium women.
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Editor:Yang Jie
