Traditional Chinese Food Ingredients Prevent Breast Cancer

samson09

A recent study published in the International Journal Of Cancer has shown that eating fresh mushrooms and drinking green tea can reduce a womans chances of getting breast cancer by as much as 90%.Women who ate 10g or more of fresh mushrooms everyday had a 64% lower risk of developing breast cancer, while those who also drank green tea reduced their risk by 90%.

No wonder the rates of breast cancer in China are 4 to 5 times lower than in most western countries. :eek:

AbstractTo investigate effects of dietary mushrooms and joint effects of mushrooms and green tea on breast cancer, a case-control study was conducted in southeast China in 2004-2005. The incident cases were 1,009 female patients aged 20-87 years with histologically confirmed breast cancer. The 1,009 age-matched controls were healthy women randomly recruited from outpatient breast clinics. Information on frequency and quantity of dietary intake of mushrooms and tea consumption, usual diet, and lifestyle were collected by face-to-face interview using a validated and reliable questionnaire. Compared with nonconsumers, the Odds ratios (Ors) were 0.36 (95% CI = 0.25-0.51) and 0.53 (0.38-0.73) for daily intake of 10 g fresh mushrooms and 4 g dried mushrooms, based on multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusting for established and potential confounders. There were dose-response relationships with significant tests for trend (p < 0.001). The inverse association was found in both pre- and postmenopausal women. Compared with those who consumed neither mushrooms nor green tea, the ORs were 0.11 (0.06-0.20) and 0.18 (0.11-0.29) for daily high intake of fresh and dried mushrooms combined with consuming beverages made from 1.05 g dried green tea leaves per day. The corresponding linear trends were statistically significant for joint effect (p < 0.001). We conclude that higher dietary intake of mushrooms decreased breast cancer risk in pre- and postmenopausal Chinese women and an additional decreased risk of breast cancer from joint effect of mushrooms and green tea was observed. More research is warranted to examine the effects of dietary mushrooms and mechanism of joint effects of phytochemicals on breast cancer.

Source: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121428129/abstract

tallaght01

So, tell us a bit about the quality of the data.

samson09

Since I dont have access to the full paper, I was hoping that maybe somebody such as yourself would have a look at it on PubMed if its there. From reading the abstract, it seems that the data is of a high standard and reliable.

"The incident cases were 1,009 female patients aged 20-87 years with histologically confirmed breast cancer.The 1,009 age-matched controls were healthy women randomly recruited from outpatient breast clinics. Information on frequency and quantity of dietary intake of mushrooms and tea consumption, usual diet, and lifestyle were collected by fa ce-to-face interview using a validated and reliable questionnaire".


Personally, I see this as good news, especially for people with breast cancer in the family. Although they have yet to fully investigate the mechanisms involved, the study shows that by drinking green tea and eating mushrooms (probably reishi or one of the other medicinal mushrooms), the chances of you getting breast cancer will most likely decrease, and decrease significantly.

The Chinese are miles ahead in relation to medicine, its time we caught up.

beeno67

There have been many research articles over the last few years showing green tea has a protective effect on breast cancer. It may do but you have to be very careful about these kind of articles and how they relate to Ireland. For example they compare a chineese diet to a chinese diet high in Green tea. We however would have a very different diet in Ireland so the results are not necessarily transferable. So for example if your diet is already high in anti oxidants and fresh fruit & veg the extra benefits of green tea may be very small if they exist at all.

I should also add that obviously this research is on Chinese women so the effects on Irish women may be very different. Genetics plays a large role in breast cancer.

Another problem is that it is based on a questionaire which can be a very subjective thing.

I don't know what the incidence of breast cancer is in China, but if it is lower than in Ireland that may be due to a number of factors. Chief among them is that the older you get the greater the risk of breast cancer. 55% of breast cancer in Ireland occurs in women over 65 and 25% in women over 80. Despite what you may think chinese women have a much lower life expectancy than Irish women. Nearly 10 years earlier. (The chinese are miles behind us when it comes to medicine. It is time thay caught up).

samson09

beeno67 wrote: »

There have been many research articles over the last few years showing green tea has a protective effect on breast cancer. It may do but you have to be very careful about these kind of articles and how they relate to Ireland. For example they compare a chineese diet to a chinese diet high in Green tea. We however would have a very different diet in Ireland so the results are not necessarily transferable. So for example if your diet is already high in anti oxidants and fresh fruit & veg the extra benefits of green tea may be very small if they exist at all.

I should also add that obviously this research is on Chinese women so the effects on Irish women may be very different. Genetics plays a large role in breast cancer.

Another problem is that it is based on a questionaire which can be a very subjective thing.

I don't know what the incidence of breast cancer is in China, but if it is lower than in Ireland that may be due to a number of factors. Chief among them is that the older you get the greater the risk of breast cancer. 55% of breast cancer in Ireland occurs in women over 65 and 25% in women over 80. Despite what you may think chinese women have a much lower life expectancy than Irish women. Nearly 10 years earlier. (The chinese are miles behind us when it comes to medicine. It is time thay caught up).

Even if your diet is high in veg/fruit/anti-oxidants, it still wont contain the phytochemicals that are specifically found in green tea. These phenols will be of benefit regardless of race/genotype.

Questionnaires can be subjective, but the authors of the study indicate that the questionnaire used was both validated and reliable. Additionally, the nature of the questionnaire wouldnt leave that much room for error (how much tea do you drink, how many mushrooms do you eat), its not as if they were asking them "How do you feel after drinking the tea?", you get the idea.

There's about 5/6 years difference between the life expectancies of Irish/Chinese women (74.82 China, 80.7 Ireland). However, the incidence of breast cancer in Chinese women is 4-5 times lower. This cant all be due to age alone. Most of this difference is probably due to differences in diet. I'm sure that Irish women would see similiar benefits if they started drinking green tea more regularly. Maybe we'll see more research in this area in the future?!

nesf

samson09 wrote: »

There's about 5/6 years difference between the life expectancies of Irish/Chinese women (74.82 China, 80.7 Ireland). However, the incidence of breast cancer in Chinese women is 4-5 times lower. This cant all be due to age alone. Most of this difference is probably due to differences in diet. I'm sure that Irish women would see similiar benefits if they started drinking green tea more regularly. Maybe we'll see more research in this area in the future?!

You're omitting genetic differences in the populations there, which could potentially be a major factor. Also, life expectancy data from China, like most other data coming out of China, still needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. It's been improving but I wouldn't take any of it as the gospel truth there are just too many reasons for those controlling the country to want to increase life expectancy on paper. China has made excellent progress with regard to public health but the problem is China's dual nature, the divide between the rural poor and the urban working/middle class. I'm not sure if it's even a good idea to talk about a single life expectancy for China given the enormous differences between lives of the rural poor and the urban middle classes.

beeno67

samson09 wrote: »

Even if your diet is high in veg/fruit/anti-oxidants, it still wont contain the phytochemicals that are specifically found in green tea. These phenols will be of benefit regardless of race/genotype.

Aren't these phytochemicals also found in black tea just in different concentrations? I mean they are the same plant.

samson09 wrote: »

Questionnaires can be subjective, but the authors of the study indicate that the questionnaire used was both validated and reliable. Additionally, the nature of the questionnaire wouldnt leave that much room for error (how much tea do you drink, how many mushrooms do you eat), its not as if they were asking them "How do you feel after drinking the tea?", you get the idea.

Except the answers are not necessarily that simple. You are asking someone about their diet over previous 30 years. My diet has certainly changed hugely over that time. So someones tea drinking over previous 20 years may have undergone huge variation.
Also, say you are trying to control for smoking history (an accepted risk factor for breast cancer). Well a typical smoker may have started smoking 30 years previously, smoked 10 a day then gradually increased to 30 a day over a 15 year period. Then they try to stop so may go for a couple of periods of 0 cigs followed by periods of 20/day before finally stopping 5 years previously. It is very difficult to allow for this type of history (which is pretty typical of many smokers) with a questionaire. I am not criticising this research in particular. It is a problem with all research of this type.

samson09 wrote: »

I'm sure that Irish women would see similiar benefits if they started drinking green tea more regularly. Maybe we'll see more research in this area in the future?!

I am not saying green tea has no benefit, it just may not have the huge benefits suggested in your article.
If you look at this meta-analysis published last month
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19437116?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

While they accept green tea may have a positive role, they finish by saying. "The association between green tea consumption and breast cancer incidence remains unclear based on the current evidence."

beeno67

Came across this today.

"Breast cancer had been the most common tumor among women in Beijing. The number of breast cancer cases has now reached 515 out of every one million people, an increase of 107.9 percent over that in 1998, Deng Xiaohong, the bureau's spokeswoman."

This means that in Beijing at least (where you would assume figures are more accurate than rest of China) breast cancer is a little over half that of Irelands not 4-5 times less. Obviously the better the record keeping the higher the rate appears to be.

tallaght01

beeno67 wrote: »

Came across this today.

"Breast cancer had been the most common tumor among women in Beijing. The number of breast cancer cases has now reached 515 out of every one million people, an increase of 107.9 percent over that in 1998, Deng Xiaohong, the bureau's spokeswoman."

This means that in Beijing at least (where you would assume figures are more accurate than rest of China) breast cancer is a little over half that of Irelands not 4-5 times less. Obviously the better the record keeping the higher the rate appears to be.

Also...what else is a risk factor for breast cancer....being tall. Arguably more relevant than green tea in this case!

beeno67

tallaght01 wrote: »

Also...what else is a risk factor for breast cancer....being tall. Arguably more relevant than green tea in this case!

Not to mention that there is a much higher rate of breast feeding in China and that women tend to have their first pregnancy earlier than in Ireland. Both of which help protect against breast cancer.
At a guess I would say (although I don't know) that Chinese women also drink less alcohol, smoke less , are less likely to be overweight and use less HRTthan Irish women .

samson09

The study compared two groups of people and took into account differences in lifestyle, diet, age, etc. The bottom line here is that those who consumed more mushrooms/green tea had a significantly lower rate of breast cancer.

Does this mean that we would see the exact same results if Irish women were involved in a replica of the study?

No.

Is there a high probability that we would see at least a small decrease in breast cancer rates in Irish women.

Yes.

Aside: "Also...what else is a risk factor for breast cancer....being tall. Arguably more relevant than green tea in this case!"

I expected more from a professional tallaght01. Did you get around to see if the study is on PubMed yet?

Carsinian Thau

samson09 wrote: »

Did you get around to see if the study is on PubMed yet?

It is. I downloaded a copy. Haven't had a chance to go through it yet though.

beeno67

I didn't see full text but here is a review of the research which gives a lot of info and seems quite balanced.
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/03March/Pages/Cancerprotectionfrommushrooms.aspx

tallaght01

I don't get full institutional access at my home PC, so only have access to the abstract.

But, I think I would describe the study by saying, as 2scoops once said to me about another trial, "it is what it is". That is to say, it's a case-control study that tries to identify one factor in the development of breast cancer.

With the limited info available about the data in the abstract, my thoughts are:

It's a case-control study. The cases are all people who are proactive about their health, as they were taken from screening clinics. Do they have healthier lifestyles in general?

Questionaires were used. You can validate them all you like, but they're still questionaires. They cover a mundane detail of the respondent's daily lives (how much mushrooms they eat, and asking them to estimate weights of mushrooms many years ago), so there is a very real chance of recall bias.

Sample size is OK, I think, and the results as they were available were statistically significant.

Plus, chinese women are smaller than Irish women.