Mushrooms help prevent breast cancer?

We hear much about the healthy properties of our humble mushroom - and we're always wary about broadcasting food advice based on its value to medical science - but now we hear that mushrooms are being promoted as one of eight ingredients that can help prevent breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, accounting for one in three of all women cancer cases diagnosed. While age (over 65) and family history are unchangeable factors associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, there are other factors that can be controlled.

One of the ingredients reputed to assist prevention is Vitamin D3. This vitamin helps control cellular growth and inhibit the growth of cancer cells. According to holistic healing and natural health author Donald R. Yance Jr., "Vitamin D3 may also inhibit the activity of hormones such as estrogen in breast cancer, thereby decreasing its spread."

A University of Birmingham study also found that vitamin D3 encourages healthy breast cell growth while making cells more resistant to toxins.

One way to get vitamin D3 is through sun exposure--one study found that safely exposing your skin to the sun reduced the risk of breast cancer by 30 to 40 percent. If that is not possible, you can get vitamin D3 in salmon, tuna, cod fish, cod liver oil, egg yolks, shrimp and some wild mushrooms.

Wild mushrooms fight prostate cancer

Israeli scientists claim that a wild mushroom, used in traditional Chinese medicine for a century, could treat prostate cancer.

Researchers at the university in northern Israel said they found molecules in the Ganoderma lucidum mushroom, commonly known as the reishi, which help supress some mechanisms involved in the progression of prostate cancer.

"We already knew the mushroom could impede the development of cancer by affecting the immune system. The in-vitro trials we have done show that it attacks the cancer cells directly," chief researcher Ben Zion Zaidman said."These results give rise to hope about developing medication to treat prostate cancer," he said of research carried out to date only in Petri dishes. The research still has to be tested on animals.

The reishi is found only in remote, wild areas, preferring a habitat of rotting plum tree trunks, sometimes oak trees, in heavily forested mountain areas.The Chinese have tried to grow reishi mushrooms for centuries, but it was only in the early 1970s that Japanese experts managed to cultivate them.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer among men, with more than 543,000 cases diagnosed worldwide each year.