Pregnancy Nutrition and Breast Cancer Risk

Little research has been done to date that has looked at how a pregnant woman's health and wellbeing (particularly as these are influenced by what a mother-to-be eats) might affect her children’s chances of getting breast cancer when they grow up.

In August, however, two research studies investigating aspects of this question were presented during a Department of Defense Era of Hope Conference.

Altering the mother-to-be's diet

The first of these studies looked at whether altering the maternal diet during pregnancy--including increasing how much omega 3 fatty acids a mother-to-be consumes--can actually cause changes within a fetus’s mammary-gland gene that would reduce the baby’s breast-cancer risk later on, after the child grows into adulthood. (Such changes to the genetic material of a fetus are known as epigenetic changes in utero.) These cell changes may continue to happen while breast feeding.

Additional dietary supplements while pregnant

A second dietary study was presented that demonstrated another possible way to reduce the breast-cancer risk of one’s offspring. The researchers supplemented the mother-to-be’s diet with lipotropic nutrients (dietary substances like methionine, choline, folate, and vitamin B12), which are thought by researchers to encourage the mammary glands of a growing fetus to develop fully later in life, thus decreasing the risk of breast cancer.

This breaking news is especially wonderful to hear because it also applies to those women who carry a higher risk of getting breast cancer than the average woman does. If you (or a friend of yours) personally have a higher risk due to family history or some other factors, and you are planning to become pregnant in the future, share this information with your OB doctor!