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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Drinking milk not only makes your bones stronger, it may also protect you from cancer.
According to a new study, women who consume a lot of calcium have a lower risk of cancer overall and both men and women with high calcium intake have lower risks of colorectal cancer and other cancers of the digestive system.
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The Institute of Medicine recommends 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day for adults 50 and over, and current dietary guidelines suggest three cups per day of low-fat or fat-free dairy products.
For the study, nearly 294,000 men and 199,000 women took food frequency questionnaires, and their records were then linked with state cancer registries. After an average of seven years of follow-up, researchers discovered calcium intake was associated with total cancer in women but not in men. The risk decreased in women with intake of up to 1,300 milligrams a day, after which no further risk reduction was observed.
The one-fifth of men who consumed the most calcium through food and supplements had a 16 percent lower risk of digestive cancers than the one-fifth who consumed the least. For women, those in the top one-fifth of calcium consumption had a 23 percent lower risk than those in the bottom one-fifth. That decreased risk was particularly pronounced for colorectal cancer in both men and women, researchers said.
Researchers did not observe a protective benefit from calcium when it came to prostate or breast cancers or cancer in any other anatomical system.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009;169:391-401
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