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To Help Prevent Breast Cancer, Take Antioxidants

Want to dramatically improve your odds of not getting breast cancer? A new study shows that supplementing your diet with antioxidants can help.

Canadian researchers studied nearly 5,000 pre- and postmenopausal women, half of which had breast cancer, and half of which did not. They looked at many different risk factors for the disease, including intake of antioxidants from diet and supplements. The level of risk reduction associated with taking zinc or antioxidants for 10 years or longer was, well, astounding:

  • Zinc supplementation: 54% lower risk (premenopausal)
  • Beta-carotene: 42% lower risk (postmenopausal)
  • Vitamin E: 25% lower risk (postmenopausal)
  • Vitamin C: 21% lower risk (postmenopausal)
  • Multi-vitamin: 26% lower risk (postmenopausal)

Another benefit of a good multivitamin!

Reference

"Antioxidants and breast cancer risk — a population-based, case-control study in Canada." Pan SY, Zhou J, et al. BMC Cancer. 2011 Aug 24; 11(1): 372.

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Some information on this site is from the book From Fatigued to Fantastic! Third Edition by Jacob Teitelbaum MD, copyright 2007 by Jacob Teitelbaum MD. Used by permission of Avery Publishing, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.