Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Whey Proteins Suppress Cancers




The lesson of course is that certain proteins in cow’s milk naturally inhibit cancer and breast cancer in particular.  Besides the benefit of having cow’s milk in your diet, the other lesson is that these are benefits associated with whey, which has steadily been converted into a usable food source these past decades.

In fact it is likely high time to draw the loose ends together on whey and see were we presently are at.

We are a long way from merely recognizing the importance of vitamins, and I am old enough to recall a little of the surprise that produced as it spread out and became accepted.  We are more and more appreciating the use of a range of complex proteins in our diets and whey happens to be an excellent source.

By News Editor

Posted: December 28, 2010


Scientists have found that lactoferrin, a whey protein found in milk, could be an anticancer agent for breast cancer. Lactoferrin is an iron-binding protein that has been reported to inhibit several other types of cancer.
According to a study that will be published in the January 2011 issue of the American Dairy Science Association’s Journal of Dairy Science, scientists in Portugal found that breast cancer cells treated with lactoferrin decreased the cancer cells’ viability by 47-54 percent and decreased the growth rates of the cancer cells by 40-64 percent.
“There is overwhelming evidence that biologically active food components are key environmental factors affecting the incidence of many chronic diseases,” says LĂ­gia Raquel Rodrigues, author of the study. “However, because the full extent of such components in our diet isn’t known, nor is the understanding of their mechanisms of action, we undertook this study for a closer look.”
While additional studies will be needed to establish a clear role for lactoferrin as a potential tool in fighting breast cancer, the results from this study suggest that lactoferrin interferes with some of the most important steps involved in cancer growth.

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