Surprising new evidence in favour of the benefits of nuts on prostate cancer has recently come to light. The news has come as a shock to those who previously claimed that prostate cancer was best aided by a low fat diet that totally excluded nuts. It now seems that walnuts have a demonstrable effect in reducing the risk of prostate cancer as well as slowing tumour growth.
A joint research team from UC Davis and the USDA Western Regional Research Center in Albany, California recently published the results of a study into the effect of walnuts on prostate cancer. The study used mice genetically engineered to develop prostate cancer, and sought to judge whether walnuts had any effect on tumour growth. The mice were fed the human equivalent of 3 ounces of walnuts a day, or put on an equal amount of soybean oil. Results showed that both diets caused the same amount of weight gain, while the mice fed on walnuts had a tumour growth rate of 28% less than the soybean oil group.
The reason behind this effect is still unknown, but wellness advocates will treat the news as a welcome addition to the already considerable benefits of walnuts. They offer a rich source of omega-3 polyunsaturated fats as well as antioxidants. Follow-up research will inquire further into the cause of walnuts’ cancer-fighting properties and seek to validate the findings before the move to use them on human subjects. The great hope for this project is that it might provide an alternative way to help men live with prostate cancer without the suffering caused by invasive surgery or radiation therapy.
Because prostate cancer usually occurs very late in life, and is rarely fatal by itself, the trauma of treatment can sometimes be an inferior option to leaving the tumour alone. The use of a dietary supplement like walnuts could mean a vast improvement in the wellbeing of such patients. When a patient is of an advanced age, surgical action should only be taken as a last resort; for example, when the prostate cancer appears to be spreading. This last-case scenario could be pushed back even further if a dietary therapy like walnuts proved successful, saving a great deal of suffering and millions of pounds.
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