Breast Cancer Awareness Month reminds us to tune in to what we can do to help prevent breast cancer. Whether you’re primarily thinking of some special person in your life such as your mom, sister, or friend or pondering how you can help yourself, these studies may give you the nutritional knowledge to come out healthier. If you learn nothing else, at least take away this foundational message: nutrients lower chances of breast cancer.

Calcium

Doctors reviewed 11 studies covering 26,606 women with breast cancer out of a total of 872,895 participants. Overall, those with the most calcium from diet and supplements were 8 percent less likely to develop breast cancer compared to women who got the least calcium from diet and supplements.

Premenopausal women saw the greatest benefit from good calcium levels: those with the most calcium were 25 percent less likely to develop breast cancer compared to women who got the least calcium. Postmenopausal women who got the most calcium also saw a benefit, with chances for developing breast cancer 6 percent lower compared to women who got the least calcium.

Reference: British Journal of Nutrition; 2016, Vol. 116, No. 1, 158-66

 

Omega-3s

Doctors in this study measured omega-3 and fish in the diets of 1,463 women within three months of a diagnosis of breast cancer and followed up for 14.7 years.

Compared to women who never consumed fish, women who got the most fish in the diet were 25 percent less likely to have died from any cause over the 14-year follow-up period. For omega-3s, compared to those who got the least EPA, women who got the most EPA in the diet were 25 percent less likely to have died over the 14-year follow-up period, and women who got the most DHA were 29 percent less likely.

Reference: Cancer; 2015, Vol. 121, No. 13, 2244-52