It is a known fact that high dietary calcium is linked to prostate cancer. However, the reason behind this association was not known until now. A new study, published in the online issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, has discovered that people of certain ethnicities, like African American men are genetically good absorbers of calcium. This makes them more prone to develop prostate cancer.
Dr. Gary Schwartz from Wake Forest Baptist, along with other epidemiologists from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) and the Cancer Prevention Institute of California selected 783 African-American men living in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas for their study. 533 of them were suffering from prostate cancer. The researchers analyzed the effects of genotype, calcium intake and diet-gene interactions among the participants. They found that localized and advanced prostate cancer was twice more commonly seen in men who reported the highest intake of calcium. Men who were genetically the best absorbers of calcium had 59 percent more chances of being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer as compared to men with a genotype associated with poor calcium absorption.
More than 240,000 men are diagnosed annually with prostate cancer in the U.S. and about 33,720 die from it. It has been found to be 36 percent more prevalent among African-Americans than in non-Hispanic whites. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, there is no proven method to prevent the development of the disease, although its progression may be altered by changes in diet and lifestyle of the patient
The one major drawback of the study is that it was limited to people of African Americans. According to Schwartz, there is a need to confirm this genetic result among men of other races to be sure that it is the allele that increases the risk of disease and not any other factor commonly seen in African American men. However, if the results of the study are confirmed, people who are good absorbers of calcium can prevent the development of prostate cancer by altering their diet.
References:
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