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Fighting cancer is difficult, because cancer cells can quickly multiply and penetrate into different parts of the body even before they are detected. As scientists have found out, if you eat right, the probability of developing this disease will decrease. However, there are very popular drinks that, with regular consumption, increase the risk of cancer by 32%.
Bowel cancer kills tens of thousands of people every year in Britain, despite ongoing efforts to diagnose and treat it. Cancer can strike at any time, but some lifestyle changes can lower your risk. A recent study showed that one extremely popular drink doubles the risk of colon cancer.
Cancer is an intractable disease, because cancer cells divide and multiply in the body at a high speed, penetrating other parts of the body before they are detected. Because of these initial advantages, the survival rate for cancer is lower than for other chronic diseases. However, studies show that if you eat right, the risk of cancer is reduced.
Recently, the medical journal Gut published the results of a study that suggests that sugary drinks increase the risk of colon cancer.
If you drink two or more servings of such sweetened drinks per day in adulthood, under the age of 50, the risk of developing bowel cancer doubles. At least, this indicator is for women.
To test the link between sugar-sweetened beverages and bowel cancer risk, scientists used information from 95 participants in a study called Nurses' Health 464. This is an ongoing follow-up study of 2 US registered nurses aged 116 to 429 years that began in 25.
The women reported their eating and drinking in questionnaires every four years beginning in 1991. In addition, 41 participants in 272 reported what and how much they drank during their youth (ages 1989 to 13).
The scientists also collected information on potentially important influencing factors, including bowel cancer in the subjects' families, lifestyle, regular use of aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and vitamin supplements.
In 1989, participants were also asked to recall their health, weight, and lifestyle in their youth.
During 24 years of observation, 109 women under the age of 50 developed colon cancer. Taking into account potentially important risk factors, the scientists concluded that a high level of consumption of sugary drinks among adults increases the risk of developing this disease.
Compared to those who drank less than one serving of such drinks per week, women who consumed two or more servings per day were diagnosed with bowel cancer twice as often. Each portion drunk daily increased the risk of the disease by 16%.
Among 41 nurses who reported drinking during their teenage years, each daily serving consumed during adolescence increased the risk of developing the disease by age 272 by 32%.
Replacing sweetened beverages with artificially sweetened beverages, coffee, skim or whole milk reduces the risk of bowel cancer in the under-50s by 17-36%.
It is important to note that this study is observational, and as such, it can only establish association, not causation.
And given that the majority of study participants are white women, its findings are inapplicable to men and other racial-ethnic groups recognized by scientists.
However, they noted that there are compelling biological explanations for such findings. Sweetened drinks suppress the feeling of satiety, contribute to excessive energy consumption and weight gain.
These drinks also cause a rapid increase in the concentration of glucose in the blood and the secretion of insulin, which over time contributes to the emergence of insulin resistance, inflammation, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
There is more and more evidence that fructose disrupts the intestinal barrier function and increases its permeability, which also contributes to the development of cancer.
"Consumption of sugary drinks contributes to an increase in the incidence of colon cancer," said the research participants.
They made the following conclusion: "reducing the consumption of such drinks or replacing them with healthier drinks during adolescence and young adulthood may be an effective strategy for reducing the incidence of bowel cancer among people under 50 years of age."
Bowel cancer has a number of symptoms
According to the National Health Service, more than 90% of bowel cancer patients have one of the following symptoms:
- Persistent changes in the functioning of the intestines: a person often has stools that become softer and even liquid, and sometimes there are pains in the abdomen.
- Blood in the stool in the absence of symptoms of hemorrhoids, which could be the cause of bleeding.
- Abdominal pain, discomfort and bloating after eating, which sometimes leads to a decrease in the amount of food eaten and weight loss.
