A new research has suggested that the intake of coffee per day may reduce the risk of a sub-type of breast cancer, ER-negative breast cancer, by sixty percent.

Wonder Coffee

There are many talks and written records on how coffee came to be as what we see it now, but there is that strongest and most accepted legend about the discovery and drinking of coffee.

A goat shepherd named Kaldi noticed the strange behavior of his goats that were jumping and running around in excitement and full of energy after eating the fruits of an unknown bush. Kaldi soon found out that those fruits his goats tasted were cherry-like, and tasted the leaves for himself and soon enough, he became full of energy.

Kaldi took those bush’s fruit and branches to a monastery and the Abbot there decided to cook them. However, it turned bitter and the Abbot threw the entire pot into the fire. The cherries then started to burn, and the beans inside produced a pleasant aroma that made the abbot create a drink of the roasted beans. This is how then coffee came to be.

The black liquid in our morning cup is considered to be one of the most popular beverages after water. After petroleum, it is the most traded commodity in the world.

Before we know coffee as a drink, it first originated from coffee cherries which grow along the coffee tree’s branches. It takes a year for these cherries to mature. Inside the cherries are the coffee beans, and the coffee beans are then grinded on its way to become a beverage.

Scientifically, coffee contains a substance called caffeine. Caffeine is absorbed and distributed, particularly to the brain, quickly and is excreted through the urine many hours after consumption. It acts as a stimulant for the central nervous system ad diuretic. It also relieves fatigue and drowsiness for a short while and also treats migraine head aches. However, caffeine does not reduce he effects of alcohol, for many believe that it can “sober up” an intoxicated person. Excessive intake of caffeine can also result to nausea, vomiting, anxiety, depression, tremors, difficulty in sleeping and fast heart rate.

Taking coffee must be regulated, for research suggests coffee being addictive if taken in certain amounts during the day and can cause depression, chronic headaches, deprivation of sleep and increased blood pressure and sugar. However, proper coffee intake will give you as much benefits as you can get.

Coffee can help in prevention and risk reduction of certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and liver diseases. It also reduces the risk of diabetes and skin cancer. No one said that coffee can cure it, but knowing that that delicious drink every morning provides many health benefits gives reassurance. Coffee also contains antioxidants that fight the body’s free radicals. It also increases brain power every morning. It helps in mind concentration in the midst of work. Drinking coffee after a work out can also reduce muscle pains.

The Study

A new study suggests the reduction of risks of certain breast cancer types by 60 per cent through high consumption of coffee daily. Breast cancer can be divided into non-hormone responsive (estrogen receptor (ER) negative) and hormone-responsive (ER positive) subtypes.

Results of the study published at the Breast Cancer Research show that drinking five cups of coffee or more daily could help in reducing the risk of anti-oestrogen-resistant oestrogen-receptor (ER-negative) breast cancer, a breast cancer sub type.

Karolinska Institutet-based team of Swedish researchers found out that women coffee drinkers showed lower breast cancer incidence than those who rarely drank coffee by comparing the lifestyle factors of age-matched women with and without breast cancer.

According to Jingmei Li, the lead researcher, and other researchers, no evidence was found to prove that postmenopausal breast cancer overall risk is heightened by consuming coffee. However, ER-negative breast cancer decrease in postmenopausal women was found with high intake of coffee daily. Modest decrease in the overall risk of breast cancer through coffee consumption was also reported by the researchers.

Looking deeper into the study, Li and her co-workers separated the breast cancer sub types. They have found “heavy coffee drinkers”, who take 5 cups or more a day, to have a notable decrease in ER-negative breast cancer.

The Swedish researchers said that because of coffee’s complex chemical make-up, it becomes a light on the aetiology of breast cancer. Some experimental studies have also shown the potential of these chemicals to alter the risk of cancer through significant biological mechanisms. However, they also added that the stand of the scientific community is divided over that beverage’s toxicity.

In simpler words, Li and her co-workers have found out that the risk for ER-negative breast cancer was significantly decreased compared to ER-positive breast cancer with the help of high consumption of coffee. They also added that future studies should now be gradually performed as to verify the significant benefit of high coffee consumption to breast cancer sub types.

Coffee is a complex mixture of polyphenols and caffeine, and with this, previous experimental studies have suggested that it may play a role both as an agent for chemo-prevention and as a carcinogen.

Association between postmenopausal breast cancer risk and coffee were assessed by the researchers in a large population of 6,000 people.

Breast Cancer Prevention

The way to live a healthy and productive life is to keep the body away from diseases and illnesses. Breast cancer, a type of cancer experienced by women, prevention starts with various factors that can be controlled.

• Controlling alcohol intake is important to prevent breast cancer. If wanting to drink alcohol including beer, wine or liquor, make sure to take no more than one drink per day.
• Breast feeding could also help. The longer time you breast feed, the greater the protection you get.
• Overweight people have higher risks of developing breast cancer, especially if obesity occurs later in life, particularly after menopausal.
• Exposure to environmental pollution could also contribute to breast cancer, though further studies are needed. A link between exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust and air pollution and breast cancer was found in some researches.
• Getting plenty of physical activity helps you prevent gaining of weight or reducing it, therefore preventing breast cancer development.
• If you are taking hormone therapy for menopausal symptom, its better to discontinue before you develop breast cancer.

No research has yet shown a direct link of diet to breast cancer prevention. Though there are some studies, only minimal effects are shown. Still, taking a healthy diet would help one reduce risk of other diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. In addition, taking a healthy diet helps one maintain healthy weight, a key factor in preventing breast cancer.

Sources
shaka.mistral.co.uk
amolife.com
mayoclinic.com
nutraingredients.com

Announcements at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research Event included the findings that there is a connection between vitamin supplementation and breast cancer rates.

If you have been taking vitamins and calcium supplements, there is good news concerning your risk of getting breast cancer!  New findings about breast cancer prevention were announced at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research 101^st Annual Meeting. The event took place April 17-21^st in Washington DC.  The meeting attracts over 15,000 attendees each year.

This year one of the presentations included conclusive information that vitamins and calcium supplements have been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of breast cancer.  This new research involved 457-control group and 268 women with breast cancer.  The study showed that vitamins reduced breast cancer risk by about 30%.  Calcium supplements, on the other hand, actually reduced the risk by 40%.

One of the people presenting this information was Jaime Matta PhD from the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico.  Matta stated, “This process involves at least five separate pathways and is critical for maintaining genomic stability.  When the DNA is not repaired, it leads to mutation that leads to cancer.”  Apparently, calcium supplements enhance DNA repair.  If this complex repair process is interrupted it can lead to cancer.

In addition to supplements reducing the risk of breast cancer, there are also different superfoods that are effective at fighting breast cancer as well. These superfoods include fatty fish, beans, berries and tomatoes.

Sources:
sciencedaily.com
women.webmd.com

Teenage girls that drink alcohol are about five times more likely to develop what's often a precursor to breast cancer.

When we go to get something checked and the results come back benign, that’s usually a positive prognosis.  But if you get a benign prognosis and you’re a teenaged girl that drinks alcohol, a “benign” prognosis may be a bad prognosis.

According to a recent study conducted by researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine, young women who drink an average of 6.5 alcoholic beverages a week are five and a half times more likely to develop a condition called benign breast disease.  Benign breast disease, or fibrocystic breast disease, is similar to breast cancer in that it’s characterized by breast pain, discomfort, nipple discharge and lump formation, but unlike breast cancer, the lumps that form are usually non-life threatening.

At least, until now.  Because according to the study’s lead researcher, Graham Colditz, benign breast disease is a warning sign for eventual breast cancer development.

Colditz and his colleagues discovered this after looking into the health surveys of over 9,000 “tweens” and teenagers between the ages of nine and 15 years old.  Parts of the survey asked how often the girls drank alcohol and whether or not they’d been diagnosed with benign breast disease.

Reporting in the May issue of the journal Pediatrics, the St. Louis-based researchers found a relationship between benign breast disease diagnosis and the amount the girls drank.  The more they drank, the more likely they were to be diagnosed with benign breast disease.

Besides alcohol, other risk factors for fibrocystic breast disease include a high fat diet, excessive consumption of caffeine and whether there’s a family history of the disease.

Now, before you cast off this study by saying, “I know my daughter and there’s no way she drinks alcohol,” permit me to tell you a short story that a friend of mine recently told me.  A true story.

A friend of mine lives in New Hampshire and works as a substitute teacher at a local junior high school.  As a substitute teacher, it comes as no surprise that the kids are pretty unruly when he’s leading the classroom, as the word “substitute” has long been loosely translated by students to meaning, “Hey, the regular teacher is gone, so I can get away with more!!”

But what did come as a surprise was the recent arrest of an eighth grade girl due to underage drinking. Apparently, throughout the school year, she had been sneaking alcohol into the school by combining beer and soda pop, sipping her beverage throughout the day like it was nothing out of the ordinary.  The smell of beer on her breath finally did her in.

Moral of the story:  Don’t automatically assume your son or daughter isn’t drinking.  Because the father of this girl was stunned, even though 11 percent of underage drinkers take their first drink in the eighth grade.

For the sake of your kids’ short and long term health, remind them about the dangers of alcohol consumption—even if you’ve had the conversation dozens of times.  Remain ever vigilant of what they’re doing and with whom.

It’s a matter of life and death.

Sources:
sciencedaily.com
pubs.niaaa.nih.gov
health.google.com

For women that can't (or won't) stop smoking, beta carotene may reduce their risk for breast cancer.

There are so many reasons not to smoke.  From the yellowish-green hue it leaves on your teeth, the smell it leaves on your breath, the aging it does to your skin, the negative health effects are hardly hard to spot.

Yet as long as the list of negative physical effects are, it pales in comparison to the negative health effects of cancer.

Smoking increases your risk for cancer more than any other behavior.  Lung cancer, the most prevalent cancer of them all, is almost entirely attributable to smoking, whether that smoke is inhaled directly from a cigarette or second hand.  It’s the cause of 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in women.  And if you compare people’s risk for lung cancer based on whether or not they smoke, the smoker is 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer than the non-smoker.

Lung cancer isn’t the only cancer risk that increases with smoking.  A 2005 study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that cigarettes increased a woman’s risk for breast cancer by 40 percent (compared to those who never smoked).

Of course, the best way to avoid this risk is to stop smoking.  But for those who can’t—or won’t—stop smoking, there are some nutrients that may reduce their risk for breast cancer.

According to a new study published in the European Journal of Cancer, a woman that can’t—or won’t—quit smoking can decrease her risk for breast cancer by increasing her beta-carotene intake.

The study followed over 36,600 women for 10 years and they found that women that consumed the highest amount of beta-carotene were about 60 percent less likely to develop breast cancer among fellow female smokers that were comparatively low in beta-carotene.

Further study hopes to determine whether increasing beta-carotene among non-smoking women can similarly decrease breast cancer risk.  If so, then researchers can look into supplementation amounts, or how much beta-carotene is needed to decrease breast cancer risk among both non-smoking and smoking women.

In the meantime, there are lots of great supplements for beta-carotene.  You’ll typically find them paired with vitamin A, as beta-carotene is converted into vitamin A in the body.  Consumer Lab gives the green light to several beta-carotene supplements, including Nature’s Way Beta Carotene, Puritan’s Pride Beta-Carotene, and Vitamin Shoppe’s Beta-Carotene.  Each supplement contains 25,000 international units of beta-carotene per capsule.

You can also go to food sources for beta-carotene.  Deep-colored vegetables are the best sources.  By “deep-colored” I mean vegetables that are intensely one particular color, like spinach is green and carrots and sweet potatoes are orange.

Make sure that they’re fresh sources, too, as the bioavailability of beta-carotene is higher in fresh vegetables compared to canned or frozen (fresh carrots contain 100 percent all-trans beta-carotene, but in canned carrots, that amount goes down to 73 percent).

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
quitsmoking.about.com
foxnews.com
whfoods.com

Pomegranates prove to be beneficial in preventing breast cancer cells from metastasizing in laboratory study.

Have you been on Facebook lately (are you even on Facebook?  If not, get on there, and add me as a “friend”)?  If so, you’ve probably noticed a lot of people writing colors into their status updates.  “Red,” “white,” “blue.”

This isn’t your friends proclaiming their affinity for patriotic colors, but rather announcing to their fellow Facebookers what color of bra their wearing.

Really.

It’s done in an effort to spread the word about breast cancer awareness, which millions of people commemorate every October with walks, jogs and fundraisers.

But if your friends on Facebook were really “aware,” they’d be updating their status with the word “pomegranate.”  Because a new study published in Cancer Prevention Research says that pomegranate juice can stop the growth of breast cancer tumors dead in their tracks.

As with other fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants, pomegranates’ high antioxidant content is the curative quality for breast cancer prevention.  They discovered this after interacting 10 different types of compounds found in ellagitannins with cancer cells in laboratory tests.  All of the compounds contributed to the inhibition of the cancer cells’ growth, but one in particular—urolithin B—was especially effective.  Urolithin is a metabolite that derives from ellagitannins.

Ellagitannins are found in abundance in a number of fruits and vegetables like cranberries and strawberries.  They’re also found in the nut family—particularly walnuts and pecans.  But the best source for ellagitannins (which is the same thing as ellagic acid, or what ellagitannins are converted to in the body) is raspberries.  One cup of raspberries has about 40 milligrams of ellagitannins.

The study was conducted by researchers from the City of Hope Research Hospital in the facility’s Division of Tumor Cell Biology.

More studies on ellagitannins’ ability to stall or block the growth of breast cancer cells are in the offing.  Perhaps future studies will involve raspberries.  Considering they’re the richest source of ellagitannins, one would think they’d be just as—if not more—effective than pomegranates.

In the meantime, be very wary of ellagitannin supplements.  There are loads of them on the market, all of them trying to upstage their competitors.  I need to perform my own review on what elligitannins supplements (if any) are best.  So stay tuned for that.

Until then, stick with all-natural food sources for high quality ellagitannin content.

Sources:
ellagic.net
webmd.com
webmd.com
vitapurity.com

According to a recent report, breast cancer misdiagnosis affects one in three women.

In about three months, you’re going to hear a lot about breast cancer.  That’s because breast cancer awareness month is held every October, where women and men encourage their moms, sisters, and wives to get screened. 

While screenings have without question saved the lives of millions of women, these screenings haven’t been an entirely positive practice.  That’s because according to a recent report, almost one in three women that are diagnosed for breast cancer are actually misdiagnosed.  More specifically, they’re being treated when no treatment is necessary!

Naturally, this results in unnecessary health care costs on an already overwrought health care system, but more importantly, irreversible damage done to a woman’s physical health and emotional psyche.

The whole point of a breast cancer screening is for a mammogram to discover a polyp in a woman’s breast before it grows too large so that effective treatment can be employed and mortality rates from breast cancer can drop.   

But when researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Center in Denmark investigated this, they found that increases in screenings did nothing to drop the number of advanced breast cancer cases (again, the whole point behind increasing the number of screenings).  The only thing it identified was more breast cancer cases – thousands more – and that many of these cases were of women who had polyps so small and insignificant that they’d never advance to a point where they’d become cancerous.

Similar cases have been documented among men with prostate cancer, where men were treated with the whole nine yards that comes with conventional cancer treatment (radiation, chemotherapy, etc.).  In fact according to a Netherlands study that uncovered this, two out of every five men diagnosed with prostate cancer were treated unnecessarily.

The Denmark study was 14 years in length and analyzed breast cancer trends among several European nations.  It looked at women diagnosed with breast cancer between the ages of 50 and 69.  It’s published in the British Medical Journal. 

It’s sad to have to admit this, but this really doesn’t come as much of a surprise when you look at the breast cancer numbers over the years.  Think about it:  When there’s an increase in the number of breast cancer screenings, there ought to be a drop in the number of breast cancer deaths and advanced diagnoses. 

But breast cancer has remained on top of the heap in prevalence among women – second only to non-melanoma skin cancer – and is the leading cancer-related death among Hispanic women.  And since 2005 (the latest year with statistics like these available), it is the seventh leading cause of death among women, with just a few hundred more dying from unintentional injuries like traffic accidents (41,116).

My reporting this should not be construed as a call not to get screened.  Screening remains important and has certainly saved more lives than it’s harmed. 

Nevertheless, it is a call to be cautious when undergoing screening and be willing to get a second opinion if you are in fact diagnosed with breast cancer.  Going the conventional treatment route is extremely invasive and costly (which is why if at all possible you should pursue non-chemotherapy based treatments), and an extremely emotional one at that. 

Imagine the emotional turmoil of believing you may be dying, only to find out later – after all the side effects that come with chemotherapy – that you were treated unnecessarily.  Sadly, for 33 percent of those diagnosed with breast cancer, this experience is not uncommon. 

Sources:
msnbc.msn.com
cdc.gov

Researchers from the University of Granada, Spain, have conducted a study that shows how olive oil may be an active ingredient in fighting cancerous cells. In the research, two chemicals made by the olive plant, which is also present in olive oil, were identified to be blocking the protein involved in some breast cancers. The protein Her2 is found in around one fifth of breast cancer tumors, and has been linked to increased and faster-paced growth compared to other forms of cancer. Drugs such as Herceptin had been developed to work against these cancers, as well as attempt to prevent their reoccurrence.   

The academic journal BioMed Central has also published an article that identifies chemicals called lignans and secoiridoids that work in a similar way to Herceptin. The findings show that the cancer gene Her2 is “drastically suppressed” by the complex phenols present in extra-virgin olive oil, explained researchers Javier Menéndez, from the Catalan Institute of Oncology and Antonio Segura-Carrertero from the University of Granada.

Extra-virgin oil differs from regular olive through the processes of the initial pressing. Extra-virgin olive oil is created without heating or chemical treatments, thus the phytochemicals are not destroyed in the refining process.

Menéndez and Segura-Carrertero’s research isolated the chemicals from extra-virgin olive oil, lignans and secoiridoids, and observed the reactions when placed with breast cancer cells in a lab environment.

The findings have provided new insight into the benefits of polyphenol-rich extra-virgin olive oil. The findings are in conjunction with the fact that humans “have safely been ingesting significant amounts of lignans and secoiridoids as long as they have been consuming olives and extra-virgin oil,” said Menéndez and Segura-Carrertero.

The findings are also supportive of previous research concerning a Mediterranean-style diet and anti-cancer methods, or reduction of risks of tumor regrowth. Dr Joanna Owens, Senior cancer Information Officer from Cancer Research UK, commented that this form of diet is especially effective as it includes “cutting down on saturated fats often found in chocolate, crisps and cakes” and instead favors “monounsaturated fats found in foods like olive oil.”

Although the research concerning olive oil was conducted in a lab environment and has not yet been linked with human diet evidence, Dr Owens is supportive of the idea of further research into olive oil and its benefits. “The potential of plant chemicals is an exciting area of research.”

The important point to note is that the chemicals found in the olive plant and thus in the oil are only retained as long as the oil has not yet been exposed to heat or other chemicals. Thus consumers must be aware to purchase extra-virgin olive oil, which has not been exposed to heat. This also means that extra-virgin olive oil is not suitable for high-heat cooking, either. So don’t throw a bag of chips into the fryer with extra-virgin olive thinking that it will provide you with any health benefits at all.

The oil itself is very tasty as it is, and often preferably used in salad dressings, or as a dip with bread, as that way it does not have to be exposed to high temperatures.

Health News Story By Nicole Chiu – Contributing Health Journalist ]]> http://naturalhealthontheweb.com/mangano-minute/blogs/?feed=rss2&p=228 0 http://naturalhealthontheweb.com/mangano-minute/blogs/?p=155 http://naturalhealthontheweb.com/mangano-minute/blogs/?p=155#comments Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:48:16 +0000 admin http://naturalhealthontheweb.com/mangano-minute/blogs/?p=155 Cause for Concern 

Tax season is now past, but this time of year always reminds me of one of Benjamin Franklin’s many popular proverbs, the guarantee that everyone in life would go through two things: death and taxes.

While death and taxes are undeniable, when it comes to our mortality, we can all make choices that put off the inevitable (not so with taxes, unfortunately). 

In 2000, 18 percent of the deaths in the United States were attributable to tobacco and 4 percent were attributable to alcohol.  The grim statistics are similar in the United Kingdom.  Smoking cigarettes is the leading cause of preventable death in the UK, and in 2006, 13.4 deaths out of 100,000 were alcohol related – a rate that nearly doubles the 1991 alcohol-related death rate.

If this weren’t enough, a new study presented at the European Cancer Conference in Barcelona, Spain indicates that consuming three or more alcoholic beverages a day can increase a woman’s chance of getting breast cancer as much as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day does.

The study involved approximately 70,000 women from various ethnic backgrounds, all living in the United States, tracing their medical history for 20+ years.  By 2004, more than 2,800 of the participating women were diagnosed with some form of breast cancer.  The revealing aspect of these diagnoses, though, was looking at their daily habits.  What the researchers found was that women who consumed three or more alcoholic drinks daily – whether those drinks were beer, wine or liquor – were 30 percent more likely to contract breast cancer than women who drank one or two.  Those women had a 10 percent higher risk.

The researchers don’t dispute the health benefits red wine has with regard to cardiovascular disease, but can understand how some might find the dichotomy of findings troublesome.  They speculate that the cardiovascular benefit of red wine has more to do with what characterizes the social drinker, i.e. those that consume alcohol sparingly or in moderate amounts.

The researchers aren’t calling for women to abandon alcohol altogether.  By and large, according to the statistics, women drink alcohol less frequently than men, and death as a result of alcohol is higher in men than it is in women.  Nevertheless, alcohol-related death rates among women has more than doubled since 1991 – going from 7.2 to 14.8 per 100,000 – in the 35 to 54 age bracket.  As such, these kinds of statistics, in combination with the researchers’ findings, ought to lend a renewed sense of importance to a phrase we all know but perhaps haven’t always lived by:  please drink responsibly.

Data on women who had participated in the Women’s Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences (CARE) Study – which had results published in 2003 – was analyzed by researchers to. The current study involved data for 995 women who previously had breast cancer and 1,498 of whom did not; all of which were over the age of 54. The women’s risk of acquiring breast cancer was compared with their history of breastfeeding and their age when they gave birth to the first child.

Each year, 200,000 new cases of breast cancer surface in the United States. It is the third most common cause of cancer-related death in the country. Two main types of breast tumors are associated with this form of cancer: those that contain hormone receptors, and those that don’t.

Previous research has found that a woman’s chance of acquiring hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer is increased by having a first child after the age of 25. Even lower risk of breast cancer risk is evident among women who have their first child before the age of 25.

According to researchers, the findings of the current study suggest that a woman’s risk for both receptor-positive and receptor-negative cancers was decreased by breastfeeding, regardless of the age at which she had her first child.

“As more women may choose to delay pregnancy until after 25, it is important to note that breastfeeding provides protection against both estrogen and progesterone receptor positive and negative tumors,” said Giske Ursin, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

“Breastfeeding may have a protective effect that negates the increased risk of breast cancer associated with late pregnancies,” he added.

Frank Mangano’s Commentary:

When it comes to breastfeeding, I’m all for it. First off, it’s the natural way a mother can feed her child in place of cow’s milk or formulas containing artificial ingredients. In fact, in my opinion, breastfeeding may represent the most natural act of all human kind.

Secondly, it can help a women shed any excess weight gained during pregnancy.

Third, infants who suffer from acid reflux (as a result of the sphincter not being fully developed) digest natural breast milk easier. It also prevents constipation, reduces the risk of food allergies and protects the baby from numerous infectious diseases.

And last but not least, as this study confirms, breastfeeding can even reduce risk of breast cancer. For some women however, breastfeeding is easier said than done. For the sake of you and your child, take whatever steps necessary to breastfeed.

“The benefits could include less pain and fatigue, and more vigor, relaxation, and acceptance,” said study leader Dr. James W. Carson of the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

The study involved 13 women with breast cancer that had spread to other parts of their bodies with the age average of participants being 59 years, and the average time of diagnosis being seven years previous to the study and tested the effects that a specifically tailored yoga program would have on these women

Over an eight week period, the women attended a yoga class which included breathing, mediation and gentle yoga postures, as prescribed by the “Yoga of Awareness” program, which is specifically designed to help with emotional distress once a week. According to the researchers, the yoga exercises demonstrated immediate benefits in “significantly boosting daily invigoration and a sense of acceptance”. Relaxation was improved and pain relief was evident as well.

“Greater practice on a given day was associated with improvements not only on the same day, but the next day as well,” the researchers wrote. The new study “provides some of the first, tentative evidence for yoga’s potential benefits in this vulnerable population of women with limited life expectancy,” they concluded.

In women across the world, breast cancer is the most common cancer, taking the most amounts of lives among them as well. In women who reach the age of 90, roughly 25% will suffer from this form of cancer at some point in their lives.

Aside from that, other parts of the body can be affected by breast cancer as it spreads through the lymph nodes under the arms or through blood vessels, most commonly to the bones. Once it spreads to the bones, the cancer is then considered incurable by conventional oncologists. Treatment however, may prolong the life of a patient for several years.

Frank Mangano’s Commentary:

While the best form of treatment is a preventative approach through getting sufficient exercise and eating the right foods, it’s nice to know that in cases where cancer is evident, there are more alternative treatments available now then ever as demonstrated in this study. Yoga has been a favorite from of exercise for me for some time.

There are many different forms of yoga to enjoy. Read the following article to learn more about specific types of yoga and the benefits associated with each form:

Yoga: Spiritual and Physical Exercises That Promote Health and Well-Being