If you are diagnosed with breast cancer, the very first thing you may do to treat your disease is fast for as long as you can every day, a new study suggests.

Eating too much is known to promote the production of growth hormones among other things.  Growth hormones such as insulin-like growth hormone can promote the growth of cancer.  Studies have already revealed that reduced intake of calories and protein, particularly animal proteins, can reduce the production of those cancer-promoting hormones.

The study recently released in the medical journal JAMA Oncology suggests prolonged fasting during the sleep can not only cut the risk of breast cancer recurrence, but also risk of death from the disease and all causes.  Early rodent studies have also shown that prolonged fasting during the sleep renders a beneficial effect on carcinogenesis and metabolic processes that are linked to risk and prognosis of breast cancer.

In this study. researchers collected and analyzed data from 2,413 women with breast cancer who were aged 27 to 70 and free of diabetes mellitus at diagnosis.  Nightly fasting duration was estimated at baseline, first year and fourth year of diagnosis.

The average fasting duration was 12.5 hours per night.  The study shows patients who fasted for more than 13 hours per night were 36 % less likely to suffered breast cancer recurrence, and 21% less likely to die from breast cancer or from all causes while the latter was not statistically significant.

The study concludes that "Prolonging the length of the nightly fasting interval may be a simple, nonpharmacologic strategy for reducing the risk of breast cancer recurrence."  (David Liu)

Catherine R. Marinac, BA; Sandahl H. Nelson, MS; Caitlin I. Breen, BS, BA; Sheri J. Hartman, PhD; Loki Natarajan, PhD; John P. Pierce, PhD; Shirley W. Flatt, MS; Dorothy D. Sears, PhD; Ruth E. Patterson, PhD, Prolonged Nightly Fasting and Breast Cancer Prognosis ONLINE FIRST, JAMA Oncology. Published online March 31, 2016