Well it is almost October– a month in which we all will be hearing about breast cancer awareness. So now seems appropriate timing to tell you about how women with celiac disease may actually have less of a risk in developing breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers.
The news comes from research out of Sweden and was published in the August issue of the International Journal of Cancer. Foodconsumer.org reports, Swedish researchers “…found women with celiac disease were 15 percent, 40 percent and 11 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, endometrial and ovarian cancer, respectively, compared with those who did not have the health condition.”
Researchers believe this may be happening because women with celiac may be at “decreased levels of female hormones that otherwise promote female reproductive cancers,” says the Foodconsumer.org article.
We have all known for years that untreated celiac can cause gastrointestinal cancer. But it is nice to hear for a change that there is a chance that by having celiac we women may have a REDUCED risk of cancer– instead of an increased risk.
Tags: breast cancer, celiac, gluten-free, research
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