Take Calcium to Lower Your Risk of Colon Cancer

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                If strong, healthy teeth and bones aren’t reason enough to be sure you get enough calcium in your diet, now there’s another one – it can lower your risk for colon cancer.

In a review of 10 studies that involved more than 500,000 people from five countries, Eunyoung Cho, ScD, and researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston recently found that higher milk consumption reduces the risk for colon cancer.

                Findings indicated a 12% drop in colon cancer risk for those people who drank at least two eight-ounce glasses of milk daily, which provided them with approximately 600 milligrams (mg) of calcium. Higher amounts of calcium (up to 1,000 mg a day) could lower risks even further. The research showed no significant decreases in risk at intake levels above 1,000 mg a day.

                Although milk consumption clearly had the highest association with a lowered risk, the study also focused on other dairy products as the calcium source. If you do not drink milk or eat dairy products, you can still get your calcium from other sources that will protect you from colon cancer.

NONDAIRY OPTIONS

                Happily, there are many nondairy calcium sources. Soy milk, almond milk and rice milk are all good substitutes for cow’s milk, says Dr. Cho, if they are calcium fortified. And calcium-fortified orange juice is another option.

                According to More Ultimate Healing contributing editor Andrew L. Rubman, ND, if you are not overly “dairy sensitive,” you can enjoy sheep’s or goat’s milk, yogurt and cheeses. Most people who have a problem with dairy react to the protein, not the lactose. Lactose intolerance is an uncommon problem, he says, yet dairy sensitivity exists in some form in about 75% of the human population.

EAT YOUR CALCIUM

                If you do not want to drink your calcium, other sources include tofu, legumes and dark green, leafy vegetables, such as broccoli, kale and collard greens. Be sure your tofu has been processed in calcium (check the label to see if it contains calcium sulfate).

                Taking daily calcium supplements in pill or powder form is, of course, another option. The best supplements include magnesium, which will help the calcium absorption. The supplement should have a two-to-one ratio of calcium to magnesium and should be taken in increments of 500mg or less several times per day rather than all at once.

                Milk drinker or not, it is easy to get the 1,000 to 1,300 mg of calcium you need a day to keep your bones-and your colon-healthy.

References:

Eunyoung Cho, ScD, assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and associate epidemiologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, both in Boston.

                Andrew L. Rubman, ND, associate professor of clinical medicine, I.W. Lane College of Integrative Medicine, Winter Park, Fl, and medical director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, CT.