Milk, as a rich source of vitamin D and calcium, is an important food which can reduce the risk of colon cancer. Both these nutrients suppress cancer in a powerful way. According to Dr. Cedric Garland, director of the Cancer Centre at the University of California at San Diego, blood levels of vitamin D can predict the risk of colon cancer. He examined 25,620 blood samples collected in Maryland in 1974, for vitamin D content and then he compared colon cancer rates over the next eight years. His conclusion was that those with high blood levels of vitamin D were 70 per cent less likely to develop colon cancer than those with low levels.
According to several studies, it appears that calcium suppresses harmful physiological factors leading to colon cancer. Dr. Cedric Garland has noted that men who drank a couple of glasses of milk daily over a 20 year period were only one-third as prone to developing colon cancer as non-milk drinkers. Dr. Garland estimates that 1,200-1,400mg of calcium per day might prevent 65-75 per cent of colon cancers. One reason is that calcium can suppress the proliferation of surface cells on the inner lining of the colon, thereby preventing the rapid cell growth which is a sign of developing cancer.
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