Researchers at the University of California at Davis have found a link between diet and a shift in body metabolism in overweight young girls that can lead to early breast development which can impact the risk of breast cancer later in life.
“It’s long been assumed that circulating estrogens from the ovaries, which underlie normal female reproductive development, were crucial for the onset of breast growth and development,” said Russ Hovey, a UC Davis associate professor and senior author of the study.
“Our findings, however, suggest that diet and shifts in body metabolism that parallel changes seen during obesity and Type 2 diabetes can also stimulate breast growth entirely independent of estrogen’s effects,” he said.
The study was published prior to print on the website of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.