The consumption of adequate
amounts of extra-virgin olive oil helps prevent bowel cancer,
new research has shown.
The study, conducted by researchers at Rome's Biomedical
University and the University of Teramo in conjunction with the
University of Camerino and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm
and published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, shows
how extra-virgin oilve oil increases the expression of the
tumor-suppressor gene CNR1.
This in turn expresses a receptor that regulates the
mechanisms underpinning the alteration of genes sensitive to
environmental factors such as diet.
The study "reinforces the fact that an appropriate diet can
help prevent cancer but also other common pathologies such as
neurological disorders, obesity and diabetes," said Mauro
Maccarrone, a lecturer in biochemistry at Rome's Biomedical
University.
The results also show that "changes (…) deriving from
environmental factors, and therefore from diet, are potentially
reversible" he added.
Bowel cancer is the second form of cancer after breast
cancer to affect women and the third form of cancer after lung
and prostate cancer to affect men.
In Italy around 40,000 women and 70,000 men are diagnosed
with bowel cancer every year.
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