Mediterranean Diet Linked to Lower Risk of Bladder Cancer

New research suggests an inverse relationship exists between following the Mediterranean diet and the incidence of bladder cancer.

By Mary West
Apr. 8, 2019 09:55 UTC
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In a pooled analy­sis of 13 stud­ies, researchers exam­ined the rela­tion­ship between the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) and blad­der can­cer risk. They found high and medium adher­ence to the eat­ing plan appeared to have a pro­tec­tive effect.

Based on stud­ies that explore how food affects can­cer like­li­hood, health orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the American Cancer Society, advo­cate fol­low­ing a nutri­tious eat­ing plan. This involves cen­ter­ing the diet on fruits, veg­eta­bles and whole grains while lim­it­ing red meat and processed meat.

The MedDiet is rich in anti-inflam­ma­tory foods, par­tic­u­larly fish, olive oil, fruit and veg­eta­bles. Since can­cer growth is accel­er­ated in a pro-inflam­ma­tory state, an anti-inflam­ma­tory diet would help lower the risk.- Michelle Routhenstein, a pre­ven­tive car­di­ol­ogy dietit­ian

However, the spe­cific role of diet in blad­der can­cer has not been deter­mined, so sci­en­tists from var­i­ous coun­tries around the globe decided to exam­ine the MedDiet’s impact on the dis­ease.

Earlier research shows the diet low­ers the risk of heart dis­ease, Alzheimer’s dis­ease and can­cer in gen­eral, as well as reduces lev­els of LDL, or bad, cho­les­terol.

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The MedDiet is com­prised mainly of plant-based foods of fruits, veg­eta­bles, whole grains, legumes and nuts. Instead of salt, it relies more on spices and herbs for fla­vor­ing; and rather than but­ter, it involves using the healthy fat of olive oil. The eat­ing plan includes eat­ing fish and poul­try at least twice a week, and it lim­its red meat con­sump­tion to a few times per month.

Yet the MedDiet is more than a list of dietary inclu­sions and exclu­sions. According to the Mayo Clinic, it is actu­ally a lifestyle that embraces get­ting reg­u­lar exer­cise, enjoy­ing meals with fam­ily and friends, and drink­ing red wine in mod­er­a­tion.

In the pooled analy­sis called the Bladder Cancer Epidemiology and Nutritional Determinants (BLEND) study, researchers looked at dietary data from more than 600,000 par­tic­i­pants. Of these indi­vid­u­als, 2,425 received a blad­der can­cer diag­no­sis: 1,480 had the non-mus­cle-inva­sive type, and 945 had the mus­cle-inva­sive vari­ety.

The par­tic­i­pants were from Denmark, Australia, Spain, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Aside from dietary infor­ma­tion, the data included gen­der, age, eth­nic­ity, smok­ing sta­tus and blad­der can­cer pathol­ogy, which denoted whether the malig­nancy was mus­cle inva­sive or non-mus­cle inva­sive.

At present, the bet­ter-estab­lished risk fac­tors asso­ci­ated with devel­op­ing blad­der can­cer include smok­ing, age, male sex, occu­pa­tion and to a lesser extent obe­sity and phys­i­cal inac­tiv­ity,” the research team wrote. Since most of the metabo­lites of ingested food come into direct con­tact with the blad­der mucosa, diet might also play a role in the devel­op­ment of blad­der can­cer.”

After ana­lyz­ing food intake data, the sci­en­tists cat­e­go­rized par­tic­i­pants into three groups: low‑, medium- and high-adher­ence to the MedDiet.

They found men and for­mer smok­ers had a higher risk of blad­der can­cer. In addi­tion, they dis­cov­ered those who in the diet’s medium- and high-adher­ence groups had a lower inci­dence of the can­cer com­pared to those in the low-adher­ence group.

We could not iso­late any par­tic­u­lar sub­group of foods (i.e. fats, alco­hol) from the Mediterranean diet score that pro­vided a greater ben­e­fit over oth­ers,” the researchers wrote. This may be because it describes the over­all effect of the com­bined fac­tors of the dietary pat­tern to be most pro­tec­tive.”

The study was pub­lished in the European Journal of Nutrition.

Michelle Routhenstein, a pre­ven­tive car­di­ol­ogy dietit­ian and owner of Entirely Nourished, told Olive Oil Times how the MedDiet may play a role in can­cer pre­ven­tion.

The MedDiet is rich in anti-inflam­ma­tory foods, par­tic­u­larly fish, olive oil, fruit and veg­eta­bles,” she said. Since can­cer growth is accel­er­ated in a pro-inflam­ma­tory state, an anti-inflam­ma­tory diet would help lower the risk. Moreover, the diet is rich in antiox­i­dants, which quench free rad­i­cals that can turn into can­cer growth, thereby help­ing to pre­vent cell muta­tion and can­cer devel­op­ment.”





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