Woman to Woman: Constipation and Breast Cancer

18 Sep 2005

Constipation may increase a woman's risk of breast cancer, say Medical Researchers at San Francisco's University of California.

Breast Cancer strikes 1 in 9 Australian women and kills around 4,000 annually.

Drs. Nicholas Petrakis and Eileen King, who studied nearly 1,500 women aged between 20 and 70 found abnormal pre-cancerous cells in the breast fluid of 69 women with fewer than 3 bowel movements weekly.

But among the 158 with 1 or more bowel movement daily, only 5% had abnormal cells.

Petrakis and King say a diet low in fibre often leads to chronic constipation. Toxic chemicals in the unmoved bowel may then be carried by the blood to breast tissue where they transform normal cells into pre-cancerous ones.

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