A recent study completed by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has concluded that men who eat a minimum of 2 servings of yogurt a week may lower their risk of developing colorectal cancer.
The researchers looked at data pertaining to 32,6060 male and 55,743 female health professionals who had carried out colonoscopies over a 16-year period. The study’s participants provided the researchers with detailed information concerning their lifestyle, health, eating, and exercising habits every four years. The participants developed 5,811 cases of colorectal adenomas in men and 8,116 adenomas in women. Adenomas is abnormal tissue that can become cancerous.
It turns out that eating yogurt played a significant role in reducing the development of conventional adenomas. People who ate a minimum of two servings were 19% less likely to develop polyps in the colon or rectum. Yogurt eaters were also 26% less likely to develop the worst type of adenomas with the highest potential to be transformed into cancer.
These findings are not claiming to have the cure to colon cancer. More research and testing need to be done before researchers can begin to use yogurt as an anti-colon cancer treatment. But for now, it is safe to say that there is definitely a correlation between yogurt consumption and a reduced risk of developing colon or rectal cancer.
The reason that yogurt is suspected to be so effective at reducing the development of colon cancer is that yogurt introduces healthy bacteria to the gut. The probiotics contained in yogurt may help to reduce inflammation, a major cancer risk. They also play a role in binding and neutralizing certain carcinogens located in the colon.
