Full article abstract below PDF free http://iodine4health.com/research/ca...ast_cancer.pdf which includes this thought provoking statement
"In estradiol-treated rats, iodine deficiency has been shown to lead to pathological changes similar to those seen in benign breast disease ± cystic changes, periductal fibrosis and lobular hyperplasia [19, 20]. Conversely, dietary iodine reintroduction has been shown to reverse these pathological changes [20]. Thus, iodine deficiency appears to enhance mammary- tissue sensitivity to estrogen. In humans, several
studies have shown that iodine-containing desiccated thyroid [21] or thyroxine (T4) [22, 23] were e€effective in reducing mastalgia as well as other symptoms of benign breast disease [21, 22]. Iodine supplementation has also been examined in women with this disease.
One of the first studies, by Vishnyakova and Muravieva [24], reported a beneficial e€ffect in 71.7% of patients. More recently a large clinical trial was conducted which found that iodine supplementation significantly reduced the prevalence of breast cysts, fibrous tissue plaques and breast pain [25] ± thus demonstrating that this precursor disease may be treatable through dietary modifications. Further clinical studies are now being conducted to confirm these observations."
Seaweed Prevents Breast Cancer?
Hiroomi Funahashi1,*,
Tsuneo Imai1,
Takahiro Mase1,
Masanori Sekiya1,
Kazuki Yokoi1,
Hiromichi Hayashi1,
Arihiro Shibata1,
Takako Hayashi1,
Mikiko Nishikawa1,
Namiko Suda1,
Yatsuka Hibi1,
Yutaka Mizuno1,
Kyosuke Tsukamura1,
Akemi Hayakawa2,
Seiichi Tanuma3
Article first published online: 22 AUG 2005
DOI: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2001.tb01119.x
Keywords:
Breast cancer;
Chemoprevention;
Mekabu (seaweed);
Apoptosis
To investigate the chemopreventive effects of seaweed on breast cancer, we have been studying the relationship between iodine and breast cancer. We found earlier that the seaweed, wakame, showed a suppressive effect on the proliferation of DMBA (dimethylbenz(a)anthracene)-induced rat mammary tumors, possibly via apoptosis induction. In the present study, powdered mekabu was placed in distilled water, and left to stand for 24 h at 4°C. The filtered supernatant was used as mekabu solution. It showed an extremely strong suppressive effect on rat mammary carcinogenesis when used in daily drinking water, without toxicity. In vitro, mekabu solution strongly induced apoptosis in 3 kinds of human breast cancer cells. These effects were stronger than those of a chemothera-peutic agent widely used to treat human breast cancer. Furthermore, no apoptosis induction was observed in normal human mammary cells. In Japan, mekabu is widely consumed as a safe, inexpensive food. Our results suggest that mekabu has potential for chemoprevention of human breast