Eating Avocados Could Help Prevent Cancer, Studies Suggest

Avocados are a very resourceful ingredient, not only do they provide good fats to our diet, but just one serving provides 6 vitamins (E, A, C, D, K and B), magnesium, omega 3, folic acid, and potassium. But that’s not all this amazing fruit can add to our health, recent studies discovered a compound in avocados that could fight the reformation of cancerous tumors.

Professor Paul Spagnuolo, of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, discovered an element in avocados that could fight Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and destroy its stem cells. The compound in question is Avocatin B, which targets and destroys leukemia stem cells, which are responsible for tumors reappearing after they have already been treated.

"Not only does Avocatin B eliminate the source of AML, but its targeted, selective effects make it less toxic to the body too," explains Prof. Spagnuolo. Avocatin B falls into a category of compounds known as nutraceuticals, defined as food-derived products that have potential clinical benefits.

Spagnuolo also indicated that this is just a test to prove what the nutraceutical could do against cancer, however, he still has to keep doing research and test the compound on cancer patients. The good news is, that Spagnuolo and his team are already making arrangements for their next step in this discovery.

"It's an exciting time for our lab," says Prof. Spagnuolo."With the help of CCRM (Canada's Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine) we are now pursuing commercial partnership that would take avocatin B into clinical trials."

It is estimated that more than 20,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with AML this year, and more than 10,000 people will die from the cancer.