Peanuts are a favorite snack for many of us. They’re tasty, crunchy, and often mentioned as a good choice for healthy eating.
However, a recent study from the University of Liverpool has brought up something that peanut lovers, especially those dealing with cancer, might want to pay attention to.
The study focuses on a protein found in peanuts, known as Peanut agglutinin (PNA). This protein enters your bloodstream when you eat peanuts.
The researchers found that PNA can interfere with how your blood vessels work, leading to the production of certain chemicals in your body called cytokines. Two of these chemicals, IL-6 and MCP-1, could potentially help cancer spread throughout the body.
Here’s why: these chemicals make the inner lining of your blood vessels more welcoming to cancer cells. This means that cancer can move more easily from one part of the body to another, which is clearly not good for someone trying to fight off cancer.
In previous research, this team discovered that PNA acts somewhat like velcro for cancer cells. It attaches to specific sugar chains that are more commonly found on the surface of cancer and pre-cancer cells.
This attachment makes the cancer cells stickier and more likely to group together. These groups of cells can then survive more easily in the bloodstream, which is often how cancer spreads to new areas of the body.
Now, this doesn’t mean you need to throw out all the peanuts in your house. The researchers are not suggesting that peanuts are harmful to everyone.
In fact, for most people, eating peanuts is perfectly okay. But, for those who have cancer, eating peanuts regularly could, unfortunately, increase the risk of the cancer spreading.
If you or someone you care about is battling cancer, it might be wise to cut back on peanut consumption for the time being.
The research team, led by Lu-Gang Yu, acknowledges that there’s still a lot more to learn about the relationship between peanut consumption and cancer spread.
They’re calling for further studies to understand the risks better. So, while we don’t have all the answers yet, it’s an important issue for cancer patients who enjoy peanuts to consider.
Their findings have been published in a scientific journal named Carcinogenesis. But we’ve shared this information in straightforward terms because knowing more about your health allows you to make better decisions.
Keep an eye out for future updates, especially if you’re navigating cancer treatment and love peanuts. It’s always better to be informed so you can make choices that best support your health and well-being.
If you care about cancer, please see recent studies about new way to increase the longevity of cancer survivors, and results showing new way to supercharge cancer-fighting T cells.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing that vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
Copyright © 2024 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
