Cancer is a word that can send anyone into a cold sweat. This disease seems to come at us from every direction. Some types of cancer have no clear cause. Others like lung cancer are closely tied to airborn irritants [think cigarettes and smog]. And there are some cancers that are just plain inevitable. Men will develop prostate cancer and women will develop breast cancer if they live long enough. That’s just the nature of the cells in those organs. Certainly as with any cancer, early detection gives you an edge. Outside of regular testing once we enter middle age, is there anything we can do about these common cancers?
Enter the lowly mushroom. A white button mushroom to be exact. Recently, in the medical journal Nutrition and Cancer, Shiuan Chen, PhD, Professor and Director of the Division of Tumor Cell Biology at the Beckman Research Institute has documented the cancer fighting properties of mushrooms. His earlier work found that the white button mushrooms suppressed the spread of breast cancer cells. Dr. Chen’s latest research studied the effects of this mushroom on prostate cancer. When mice with prostate cancer were given the mushroom extract, their tumors shrank 68 percent compared to the control mice.
Of course, eating white button mushrooms doesn’t take the place of regular checkups, but Dr. Chen’s results are encouraging. He concluded that adding white button mushrooms to the diet may help protect men from prostate cancer.
