SHOTS HEALTH NEWS – Humans have been consuming yogurt for millennia. Ancient texts dating back to 6,000 B.C. reference its health-promoting properties.
Now, a new study finds one more benefit to a long-term yogurt habit: It may protect against certain types of aggressive colon cancer through changes in the gut microbiome.
In the study, researchers at Mass General Brigham looked at data from more than 150,000 people who were followed for at least three decades. They found that people who regularly ate two or more servings of yogurt a week had lower rates of certain types of colorectal cancer.
“Yogurt may be good for maintaining a good microbiome in our body,” says Dr. Tomotaka Ugai, a co-senior author of the study. He’s an investigator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a department associate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Specifically, the researchers found that the habitual yogurt eaters had lower rates of Bifidobacterium-positive proximal colon cancers.
Proximal colon cancer is a type of colon cancer that occurs on the right side of the colon and can have worse survival outcomes than cancers that occur in the distal colon, which is on the left side.
Ugai says the bacteria in yogurt appear to promote an overall healthy balance of bacteria in the gut. And that, in turn, promotes a strong and healthy gut barrier, which is important, because when the gut barrier becomes too permeable, it can lead to inflammation and increase the risk of colon cancer.
“My message is, if you like yogurt, go for it,” Ugai says.
The findings are in line with prior studies that have linked yogurt intake to a lower risk of colon cancer …
