Magnesium Intake Reduces Colorectal Cancer Risk

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--Swedish researchers examined the effects of dietary magnesium in the prevention of colorectal cancer in a female cohort. Magnesiums preventive effects have previously been established in animal studies, but no human clinicals have proved the mineral's efficacy.

The Swedish Mammography Cohort, the population-based prospective cohort used, consisted of 61,433 women aged 40 to 75 years without previous diagnosis of cancer at baseline from 1987 to 1990. During a mean follow up of 14.8 years, 805 incident colorectal cancer cases were diagnosed. After adjustment for potential confounders, an inverse association of magnesium intake was observed with the risk of colorectal cancer. The inverse association was observed for both colon and rectal cancers, with a higher rate found in those with colon cancer.

The studys results, published in the January issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (293:86-89, 2005) (http://jama.ama-assn.org), affirmed the scientists hypothesis that high dietary magnesium intake may reduce the occurrence of colorectal cancer in women.