At the beginning of Pink October, intended for the fight against breast cancer, American researchers are publishing a new study. A good diet, and in particular the Mediterranean diet, promotes the growth of anticancer bacteria in the breast.
Fruits and vegetables, fish and olive oil. Here is the main composition of the Mediterranean diet, already known for its benefits for the line, menopause, but also for osteoporosis. According to a new study, published in the journal Cell Reports, this food, traditional in the countries around the Mediterranean Sea, can be beneficial in case of breast cancer. Researchers from the Wake Forest School of Medicine (North Carolina, USA) have found, in primates, that the Mediterranean diet increases the level of good bacteria for health in the breast.
A lower level of lactobacilli in cancer
Recently, a human study found that lactobacilli (Lactobacillus) were less abundant in malignant breast tumor. Microbial imbalances could then contribute to cancer. But how to modulate this microbiome? To answer this question, the researchers in the present study were inspired by the gut microbiota, which is influenced by diet. The latter have imposed a Western or Mediterranean diet on 40 female monkeys for two and a half years (31 months). Result: the mammary tissues of macaques who had a Mediterranean diet had ten times more lactobacilli.
Hope for prevention and care
For the first time, this study therefore reveals the influence of diet on a microbiota, which is not that of the stomach. Other studies are now to be carried out. In particular, it should be analyzed how increasing lactobacilli levels can impact breast tissue and prevent the appearance of tumors. “The breast microbiome is now an intervention target to protect women from breast cancer,” says Carol Shively, one of the study’s authors. Next step in scientific research: to see if certain food supplements, like fish oil for example, can protect against disease.
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