Researchers from the University of Connecticut (United States) have added a New benefit to nut consumptionalready known for their antioxidant properties or its contribution to cognitive capacityrevealing that these nuts improve systemic inflammation and reduce the risk of colon cancer.
The nuts contain Elegitanines, some polyphenolic compounds of vegeral origin that are metabolized exclusively by the intestinal microbiome in a range of molecules called urolitines, which have Very powerful anti -inflammatory properties and could even inhibit cancer, according to the study published in Cancer Prevention Research.
“Nut Elagitaninos provide important anti -inflammatory properties and anti -cancer that we are observing in patients in our clinical trials, in particular the intestinal conversion of the Elagititanins in a powerful anti -inflammatory agent, the urolitin A, “explained researcher Daniel W. Rosenberg, who has been working on the properties of this dry fruit for more than a decade.
Specifically, the high urolitin levels They are formed with nut consumption would help reduce inflammatory markers in blood samples, urine and feces, and can even positively affect immune cells within colon polyps.
This was the study
The researchers recruited 39 people between 40 and 65 who had a high risk of colon cancer. The participants were evaluated by the Clinical Research Team of the John Dempsey hospital in UCONN and were asked to complete a questionnaire about the frequency of consumption of certain foods.
For a week, the people studied had to avoid all the foods and drinks that contained Elagitaninos, in order to reduce their urolitin levels to zero or near zero. Then they introduced the nuts into their dietsthat experts monitored to finally submit participants to high definition colonoscopy.
The results
Among the findings, scientists found that high levels of urolitins A in the urine of patients correlated with the blood levels of the YY peptide, a Protein associated with colorectal cancer inhibition. They also observed Reduced levels of several inflammation markers present in the blood, especially in obese patients, who presented the greatest ability to form urolitins thanks to their intestinal microbioma.
In addition, through a high -dimension space image tool, they obtained a detailed view of the direct cell interactions present in the colon polyps removed during colonoscopy. With this, they discovered that The urolitin that was formed after the consumption of nuts kept a direct relationship with reduced levels of several proteins important that are usually present in polyps, which demonstrates for the first time how nut consumption can improve the health of the colon.
Another of the study’s revelations was related to a significant reduction in vimentin proteinoften associated with more advanced forms of colon cancer, in the polyps obtained from patients thanks to high levels of urolitin A.
Study based on previous work
The results of this research are based on a previous work by Dr. Masako Nakanishiattached professor at Rosenberg’s laboratory, who demonstrated in several publications that nuts had beneficial and anti -cancer effects on the colon of mice prone to cancer.
“Our study solidly justifies the inclusion of nuts in the diet for cancer prevention. (…) Eating nuts offers many potential benefits, with so few risks that simply taking a handful a day is really something that can be easily done to benefit long -term health,” Rosenberg concluded.
