Study showed that modifications in diet may help reduce the risk of developing colorectal cancer

Polyps are growths that may develop into invasive cancer if they are not detected in time. Colorectal cancer develops in the inner lining of the bowel and is almost always preceded by polyps. Cancer of the gut may also be referred to as colon or rectal cancer, depending on the location of the cancer at the time of diagnosis. If skin cancers are excluded, colon cancer is the third most prevalent kind of cancer diagnosed in people in the United States.

There are three major indicators to watch out for when it comes to colorectal cancer: a persistent change in bowel habits; blood in the poop without other symptoms of piles; and stomach pain, discomfort, or bloating that is constantly brought on by eating. If a person has these symptoms for more than three weeks, experts recommend that they make an appointment with their doctor.

Despite being one of the three most prevalent kinds of cancer, experts claim that with some modifications to the lifestyle, the chances of developing colorectal cancer are significantly reduced. One of the modifications is changing your diet. A recent study showed that this might have a particular impact on men.

The study showed that eating a plant-based diet can help reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in men; the research found the diet was associated with a reduced risk of incidence.

Jihye Kim, who was involved in the study as a co-author, stated the following about colorectal cancer: “Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, and the risk of developing colorectal cancer over a lifetime is one in 23 for men and one in 25 for women. Although previous research has suggested that plant-based diets may play a role in preventing colorectal cancer, the impact of plant foods’ nutritional quality on this association has been unclear. Our findings suggest that eating a healthy plant-based diet is associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer.”

Professor Kim gave the following explanation as to why this was the case, “We speculate that the antioxidants found in foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains could contribute to lowering colorectal cancer risk by suppressing chronic inflammation, which can lead to cancer. As men tend to have a higher risk of colorectal cancer than women, we propose that this could help explain why eating greater amounts of healthy plant-based foods was associated with reduced colorectal cancer risk in men but not women.”

Still, there were notable disparities in prevalence across different groups of males based on their race and ethnicity, as the authors discovered. They discovered that Japanese American males who consumed a diet rich in plants had a lower risk of developing the disease by twenty percent compared to those who did not consume such a diet. In contrast, white American males who followed the diet had a 24 percent lower risk of developing colorectal cancer compared to the same men who did not follow the same diet.

Professor Kim continued by saying, “We suggest that the association between plant-based diets and colorectal cancer risk may have been strongest in Japanese American and white men due to differences in other colorectal cancer risk factors between racial and ethnic groups. However, further research is needed to confirm this.”