Your health: High-fiber diet may lower breast cancer risk

High-fiber diet may lower breast cancer risk

Teenage girls and young women who eat a lot of foods high in fiber, such as fruits and vegetables, may have a lower risk of breast cancer later in life, a new study suggests.

The researchers found that the women who consumed high amounts of fiber during early adulthood had a 12 to 19 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer over the 20-year study, compared with the women who consumed very little fiber in early adulthood, Live Science reports.

And the women who consumed high amounts of fiber during their teenage years had a 24 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer before menopause, compared with those who consumed little fiber as teens.

“This study reminds us the role of early-life diet on health in later life,” said lead study author Maryam Farvid, a scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Women are doing themselves a huge favor in terms of breast cancer prevention if they increase the amount of dietary fiber intake earlier in life rather than later.”

The results showed that “each additional 10 grams of fiber intake per day — for example, about one apple and two slices of whole wheat bread, or about half a cup of whole grain pasta with half a cup of cooked kidney beans — during adolescence reduces the risk of breast cancer by 14 percent,” Farvid said.

Costs of treatment can vary wildly

A recent study found that the cost of cancer treatment varies wildly, with no apparent rhyme or reason, NBC News reports.

Dr. Sharon Giordano and colleagues at the MD Anderson Cancer Center went through insurance claims filed by more than 14,000 breast cancer patients between 2008 and 2012 and found expenses across a single class of drugs varied by as much as $46,000.

And how much a patient ended up paying herself varied wildly depending on which insurance plan she had.

“I was somewhat surprised at the relatively high costs patients were bearing — around $3,000 out of pocket on average,” Giordano­ said.

“What I think was more concerning was that top quarter, top 10 percent of patients are getting really hefty bills costing them $10,000 or more.”