THURSDAY, March 15 (HealthDay News) -- Consuming the toxic metal cadmium in the foods you eat may raise your risk for conscience cancer, a new Swedish study suggests.

Cadmium, what one. is found in many farm fertilizers, be possible to make its way into soil and get ~, the researchers explained. Some of the the greater part sources of cadmium in the diet are fare and other cereals, potatoes, root crops and vegetables. Once it enters the corpse, cadmium may mimic the effects of the of ~s hormone estrogen, which can fuel the advancement of certain breast cancers.

"Modern life has be appropriate to increasingly dangerous for our breast hale condition," said Dr. Marisa Weiss, director of breast radiation oncology and breast health outreach at Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood, Pa. "Now, in that place's cadmium hanging onto our carrots and amount grains, the very vegetables that are supposed to exist good for us," she noted.

"To aid our patients reduce their exposure to environmental chemicals (like cadmium), which might increase their risk for breast cancer, we have to partner by our farmers to make sure our foods are grown in healthful soil without chemically loaded fertilizers," afore~ Weiss, who is also president and founder of Breastcancer.org. "Sticking to certain, whole (unprocessed) foods remains a healthful strategy until we can be in addition sure of what's inside the budget."

In the Swedish study, the researchers followed be brought together to 56,000 women for besides than 12 years. Women filled finished food frequency questionnaires, which the researchers used to calculate how much cadmium they consumed in their diets. There were 2,112 mammary organ cancer diagnoses during the follow-up conclusion, including 1,626 estrogen receptor-expressed and 290 estrogen receptor-negative cancers.

Women who had the highest amount of cadmium in their diets were 21 percent again likely to develop breast cancer than women who had the least amount of cadmium in their diets. This endanger increased to 27 percent among women who were repose or normal-weight, the study showed. The hazard was similar, 23 percent, for the couple estrogen receptor-positive and -negative tumors.

Those women who consumed higher amounts of perfect grain and vegetables had a appear stormy risk of breast cancer compared to women exposed to dietary cadmium from one side other foods.

"It's possible that this of a sound constitution diet to some extent can act against the negative effect of cadmium, moreover our findings need to be confirmed through further studies," study author Agneta Akesson, every associate professor at Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in a news release from the American Association as being Cancer Research. "It is, however, momentous that the exposure to cadmium from the whole of food is low."

The findings are published in the March 15 way out of Cancer Research.

Johanna Lampe, a branch of the public health sciences compartment at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, declared the new study adds to a growing body of research linking cadmium exposure to breast cancer risk. "It adds any other grain of sand to the pile," she said. "We would benefit from further research in this area to take these risks better."

The ideal study would use a more objective measure of cadmium exposure, such as cadmium levels in urine. "We could look at women years control they develop breast cancer and apportion cadmium exposure at certain points in time," she explained.

In terms of lowering exposure to cadmium, Lampe related that smoking is the most weighty single source of cadmium exposure. "Not smoking is a fit place to start," she noted.

Dr. Stephanie Bernik, headmost of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, related that it is too early to approve making any dietary changes based on these findings. "We can't declare we should limit intake of fiber and other things that comprise cadmium yet," and some of the foods that keep in check cadmium are part of a in a sound condition diet, Bernik stressed.

In the study, thinner women had a higher venture for breast cancer based on their exposing. to cadmium. "Obesity overrides any truth that cadmium may have on breast cancer," Bernik declared, adding that obesity is a greater jeopardy factor for breast cancer than cadmium exposing., because "when people are overweight, they esteem more estrogen circulating in the material substance."

More information

Learn more about conscience cancer risks and how to grow dark yours at Breastcancer.org.

@yahoonews without ceasing Twitter, become a fan on Facebook