In animal studies at the Beckman Research Institute, feeding blueberry powder to lab mice markedly reduced the growth and spread of very aggressive triple negative breast cancer cells.
This form of breast cancer applies to 10 – 15% of all breast cancer incidences. Normally, the best treatments for breast cancer target estrogen receptors, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and progesterone receptors. But, triple negative breast cancer doesn’t have these receptors and is thus very resistant to traditional chemo-therapy and is more likely to return.
In the first study, mice were fed either a control diet (no blueberries), a diet with 5% freeze-dried blueberry powder, or 10% blueberries. The 5% diet is approximately the same as a human eating 2 cups of fresh blueberries per day. The amount of blueberries in this study did not make much difference, but the size of breast tumors that developed were significantly (60%-75%) smaller in the blueberry groups than the control group.
The second study looked at metastasis, the spread of breast cancer. Mice who had a 5% blueberry diet had 70% fewer liver cancer tumors and 25% fewer lymph node tumors when compared to the mice who ate a regular diet.
Although these results can’t be directly applied to women, this may be one step nearer finding an effective and safe diet strategy to limit triple negative breast cancer.
Editor’s Note: Numerous peer review studies have been done showing the benefit of blueberry (wild bilberry) in helping preserve vision for a wide range of eye conditions including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts and glaucoma. Our Advanced Eye and Vision Support (whole food) Formula contains both European Bilberry and South American Non-hybrid Blueberry along with a wide range of essential antioxidants for overall eye health.