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| Drinking milk everyday can reduce the risk for breast cancer up to 42 percent, a recent study found./ gettyimagesbank |
Drinking milk everyday can reduce the risk for breast cancer by up to 42 percent, a recent study found.
According to the epidemiologic study done by the team of Seoul National University's School of Medicine researchers, women who drank milk every day ― 200 milliliters each time ― were found to have 42 percent less probability of getting the cancer compared to those who drank less than once a week or didn't drink at all.
The team of the preventive medicine department sampled a group of 93,306 Korean women between the ages of 40 and 69 in a cohort study, following them for a period of 10 years and analyzing the data. The study results were published in the journal Nutrients recently.
The results showed that the age the women were when they drank the milk matters ― the younger they started to drink it, the less vulnerable they were to the cancer. Those who drank milk consistently in their 40s had a 10 percent lower risk than those who started to drink milk in their 50s.
The team didn't find other dairy products like yogurt and cheese that could be consumed as a substitute for milk.
Prof. Kang Dae-hee, the preventive medicine doctor who led the research team said, "Calcium in milk is antiproliferative to breast cancer cells preventing the cancer from developing. Vitamin D also differentiates and destroys cancer cells. As far as breast cancer prevention is concerned, drinking a cup of milk every day from young age can be very helpful."
According to the National Cancer Center's latest statistics, breast cancer was one of the five most common cancers found among all Koreans and the most common cancer among female Koreans. In 2017, 217,203 people were diagnosed with breast cancer. The center said breast cancer patients have been on the rise since 1999.
Breast cancer is known to be caused by many factors ― gene mutations, lifestyle-related factors and hormones and has a much higher survival rate of 93.2 percent.
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