Reversing the process: different approaches for cancer prevention

New directions toward cancer prevention from science studies:

1. Cramping tumors: An old observation about cancer cells may lead to a new treatment
2. Breast cancer: reversing the process. “Although this research does not offer a cure for breast cancer, it does point to the possibility that the disease may be treated or perhaps even prevented through means other than conventional genetic therapy.”
3. Reversing Cancer Cells To Normal Cells. A Northwestern University scientist describes new research to provide unique insights into how scientists can change human metastatic melanoma cells back to normal-like skin cells
4. How vitamin C stops the big 'C'. A team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that in mice at least, vitamin C can indeed inhibit the growth of some tumors.
5. Substitute Protein in Energy Pathway Stalls Cancer Growth“We have yet to see the exception of a cancer cell that does not have the M2 version of pyruvate kinase. That’s telling—they all seem to have PKM2,”
6. Too Much Oxygen Not A Good Thing For Tumors.
7. Another Anti-cancer Effect Of The 'Longevity' Protein SIRT1 Identified. From this study,another anti-cancer effect of the "longevity" protein SIRT1 was identified.
8. Resveratrol inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis of human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells.
9. Omega-3 Fatty Acids Reduce Risk Of Advanced Prostate Cancer
10. Omega-3 Kills Cancer Cells.
11. Colon Cancer Shuts Down Receptor That Could Shut It Down

Natural way to prevent cancers

· Cancer cells hunger on glucose: Avoid food with sugar and starch to starve cancer cells; fasting, low calorie diet
· Cancer cells like acid environment: Eat alkaline and green food with calcium
· HIF depends on free radicals: Take antioxidants as supplements
· HIF supplement by oxygen: Improve circulation system by taking rich Omega III food and supplement
· Support normal cells: Multivatamins, Vb, Vc
· Support mitochondria function: Resveratrol
· Apoptosis: Resveratrol
· Detoxification

The cause of cancers: findings from scientific studies

1. DNA damage from micronutrient deficiencies is likely to be a major cause of cancer. This study reveals that the deficiency of any of the micronutrients, rather than macronutrients may be the main cause of cancers.

2. Fundamental Process Of Tumor Growth Explained. As reported in ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2008), two papers appearing in the March 13 issue of the journal Nature help explaine the observation by Otto Warburg nearly 80 years ago that cancer cells perform energy metabolism in a way different from normal adult cells. The metabolic process known as the Warburg effect is essential for tumors' rapid growth; and they identify the M2 form of pyruvate kinase (PKM2), an enzyme involved in sugar metabolism, as an important mechanism behind this process.

3.The M2 splice isoform of pyruvate kinase is important for cancer metabolism and tumour growth. This study shows that a single switch in a splice isoform of the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase is necessary for the shift in cellular metabolism to aerobic glycolysis and that this promotes tumorigenesis. Tumour cells have been shown to express exclusively the embryonic M2 isoform of pyruvate kinase.

4. The Prime Cause and Prevention of Disease. It is found that the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen ... in normal body cells by fermentation of sugar.

5. New Protein That Triggers Breast Cancer Identified. As reported by ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2009), Canadian researchers have identified a new protein in the progression of breast cancer. The protein ARF1 plays a critical role in cancer cell growth and the spread of tumours.

Other side of cancer treatments

Let’s see what scientific studies tell us:

1. Chemo has long-term impact on brain function
The researchers from the University of California found that chemotherapy caused changes in the brain's metabolism and blood flow that can last as long as 10 years.

2. Approach to treat bone loss might increase bone cancer risk. As reported by ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2009) , the approach developed to treat osteoporosis involves blocking the action of proteins that inhibit the Wnt signaling pathway, which is associated with several cancers.

3. Drug might be more harmful than the disease it is meant to treat.

4. Does chemo for breast cancer cause more harm than good? Currently, chemotherapy is recommended for women with breast cancer that has spread to lymph nodes. However, the chemo does not help most of the patients treated. and many women could actually safely skip chemo.

5. Numerous CT scans over lifetime may increase cancer risk (ScienceDaily,Apr. 1, 2009)

And more.......

If a treatment does not highly selectively target the cancer, side effects are inevitable. If side effects cause more known or unkown problems, we may not use the treatments because some side effects may speed up cancer cell proliferation.

If we understand what cancer cells love and live on, can we try something to cut off the supply?

A check list for cancer / disease prevention

1. Modifiable ("lifestyle") risk factors:
   · Life habit: smoking, and heavy alcohol consumption
   · Environmental factors: Harmful radiation, Carcinogens (Asbestos, benzene, …)
   
2. Diet
   · Reduce intake of foods and drinks that promote weight gain, namely energy-dense foods and sugary drinks
   · Eat mostly foods of plant origin
   · Limit intake of red meat and avoiding processed meat
   · Limit consumption of alcoholic beverages, and
   · Reduce intake of salt and avoiding moldy cereals (grains) or pulses (legumes)
   · Restrictive calorie intake
   . Eat more alkaline food than acidic food because cancer cell love acidic environment ( Cancer cell pH: 4~6.5 VS normal blood serum pH = 7.4)
   · Take vitamins/Supplements to help maintain general health and thus prevent disease progression because vitamin A, B12, C, D have linked to reduced risk of various cancers
   
3. Chemoprevention
   · Daily use of tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), typically for 5 years, has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer in high-risk women by about 50%.
   · selective estrogen receptor modulator raloxifene has similar benefits to tamoxifen
   · Recently, Resevertrol is the focus of study
   
   
4. Genetic testing to provide personalized medicine based on Gene SNP
   
   
5. Vaccination
   Gardasil and Cervarix
   Hepatitis B vaccine, which prevents infection with the hepatitis B virus, an infectious agent that can cause liver cancer

Smoking: burn health, burn wealth

Nowadays smoking is no longer a fashion as used to be. Many people start smoking when they have pressure and stress, or feel sad and lonely. It is understandable for this; unfortunately, when it becomes a habit or addicted, it will become a problem.

First, a habit of smoking is to burn wealth. As estimated, the money people would have spent on cigarettes from age 40 to 65 may net $100,000, not counting what you save by avoiding disease.
Second, a habit of smoking is to burn health. Smoking is known to be an important risk factor for respiratory illnesses and can cause the lung cancer, coronary heart disease, mouth cancer and severe problems regarding throat, kidney, bladder and pancreas. Around 1000 Americans are dying each day because of smoking.

When the health is brunt, the wealth is meaningless and gradual shrinking because of the endless medical expenses. Therefore, burning health means burning wealth.

Therefore, for people who are non-smokers, never take a chance to start smoking. When tempted, try something else: talking, singing, dancing, hiking, even yelling or crying …. Thinking about drug!

For people who are smokers, think about quitting now although it is hard. There are always some excuses to give up. But health and wealth are two factors for not giving up. There are so many online resources, recommendations, and tips available for quit smoking. Among them, there is always ONE or more suitable and working for you. Here is one who got the effect accidently.

“I started with nutrition supplements. About 20 days later I realized the differences: I have much better complexion, more energetic, then my stomach pain was gone. About 2 months later, one day I realized that I was out of cigarette for at least 5-6 days, and I never had the desire to buy a pack (I was not a heavy smoker, about 5 or 6 a day, the heaviest day about half a pack), I was very excited and told my friend about it to share the great news”.

This experience can't guarantee it will work for everybody. But it tells us that it never hurts to have try and try something different. One thing is sure that nothing will change better if no action.

Eight treasure porridge

Eight treasure porridge is a traditional Chinese fluid food with eight or more than eight nutritious ingredients. It is considered in traditional Chinese medicine as a healthy food that is particularly good for the spleen, stomach and blood.


The ingredients I used: dried red beans, lotus seeds, red dates, black rice, peanuts, glutinous rice, rock sugar, etc.







Procedures:

• Wash all the ingredients
• Mix the hardy ingredients (red beans, peanut,black rice, lotus seeds etc) with water (liquid to solid ratio: 4: 1) and cook them in a a rice cooker (or slow cooker or regular cooker) till every ingredients become soft and ready to eat (~30-40 min via using a rice cooker)
• Add glutinous rice, red dates, rock sugar (depend on how sweet you want) with water and continue cook for about 20-30 minutes till getting thick.
• Cool down and ready to serve.

Note: The ingredients are not strictly limited to eight above mentioned and the procedures can be modified.


This is a healthy FAST fluid food that you can easily cook at home.

New finding on Resveratrol for cancer chemoprevention

It has been known that resveratrol prevented age-related and obesity-related cardiovascular functional decline. A new published study on "antioxidant-Based Lead Discovery for Cancer Chemoprevention: The Case of Resveratrol" provides an idea for designing antioxidant-based cancer chemoprevention agents.

Be aware of the alkalinity and acidity of our diets

The pH of our normal blood serum is near alkali and around 7.4, which is a right environment to keep our body healthy. Cancer cell love acidic environment and cancer cell pH in the range of 4.0-6.5.

Generally, alkaline food is better than acidic food. Here is a list of diets we may need to know:

Alkaline foods:

Vegetables
· Asparagus
· Artichokes
· Cabbage
· Lettuce
· Onion
· Cauliflower
· Radish
· Swede
· Lambs Lettuce
· Peas
· Courgette
· Red Cabbage
· Leeks
· Watercress
· Spanish
· Turnip
· Chives
· Carrot
· Green beans
· Beetroot
· Garlic
· Celery
· Grasses (wheat, straw, barley, dog, kamut)
· Cucumber
· Broccoli
· Kale
· Brussels

Fruits
· Lemon
· Lime
· Avocado
· Tomato
· Grapefruits
· Watermelon (neutral)

Fats & Oils
· Flax
· Hemp
· Avocado
· Olive
· Evening primrose
· Borage
· Coconut oil
· Oil Blends

Drinks
· “green drinks”
· Fresh vegetable juice
· Pure water (distilled or ionized)
· Lemon water
· Herbal tea
· Vegetable broth
· Non-sweetened soy milk
· Almond milk

Seeds, nuts & grains
· Almonds
· Pumpkin
· Sunflower
· Sesame
· Flax
· Buckwheat groats
· Spelt
· Lentils
· Cumin seeds
· Any sprouted seed

Others
· Sprouts (soy, alfalfa, mung been, wheat, little radish, chickpea, broccoli
· Bragg liquid aminos (soy sauce alternative)
· Hummus
· Tahini

Acid foods

Meats
· Pork
· Lamb
· Beef
· Chicken
· Turkey
· Crustaceans
· Other Seafood (apart from occasional oily such as salmon)

Dairy products
· Milk
· Eggs
· Cheese
· Cream
· Yogurt
· Ice cream

Conventional foods
· Sweets
· Chocolate
· Microwave meals
· Thinned foods
· Powdered soups
· Instant meals
· Fast food

Fruits
· All fruits aside from those listed in the alkaline column

Drinks
· Fizzy drinks
· Coffee
· Tea
· Beers
· Spirits
· Fruit juice
· Dairy smoothies
· Milk
· Traditional tea

Fats and oils
· Saturated fats
· Hydrogenated oils
· Margarine (worse than butter)
· Corn oil
· Vegetable oil
· Sunflower oil

Seeds & Nuts
· Peanuts
· Cashew nuts
· Pistachio nuts

The easy and affordable way to supplement antioxidants:eating red grapes and apples

Proanthocyanidin also known as procyanidin oligomeric proanthocyanidin (OPC), is a class of flavanols, which are natural polyphenols and antioxidants. OPCs can can be found in many plants, most notably apples, pine bark, cinnamon, grape seed, cocoa, grape skin, and red wines of Vitis vinifera (the common grape). Other plants such as bilberry, cranberry, black currant, green tea, and black tea also contain these flavonoids.

Antioxidants replace half of water with electronic rich aromatic rings, a good energy acceptor.

It has been found that grapes are particularly rich in bioactive flavonoids and the highest quantities are present in the seeds and skin; These flavonoids are predominantly OPCs, oligomers of catechin, epicatechin, and epicatechin-3-gallate, as well as the individual monomers; In the skin of red grapes, large amounts of anthocyanins and resveratrol are found.

So, please eat red grapes and apples if possible to intake more antioxidants!

Epidemiologic data showed an inverse correlation between wine consumption and cardiovascular disease (the “French Paradox”) and significant evidence has emerged on the health benefits of grape flavonoids such as reduced oxidative stress; decreased low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and platelet activation inhibition; lowered plasma tumor necrosis factor-a (J Med Food. 2003; 6:291-299. FASEB J. 2003; 17:1975-1985. Eur Heart J. 2007; 28:1683-1693. J Nutr. 2005; 135:1911-1917).

A recent clinic study by Cesaronea et al (Angiology, Vol. 59, No. 4, 408-414 (2008)) about the Isotonic Bioflavonoid Formula OPC-3 demonstrated:

• 
  
  Plasma oxidative stress status was significantly lowered by 10.1% with OPC-3.


• 
  
  All major cardiovascular risk factors were improved with blood pressure, total cholesterol, and fasting blood glucose lowered.


• 
  
  OPC-3 significantly improved endothelial function as evaluated by increased vasorelaxation in reactive hyperemia and enhanced diastolic carotid artery flow.


• 
  
  Skin microcirculation was enhanced, and better tissue perfusion led to significantly increased transcutaneous oxygen partial pressure and decreased pCO2.


• 
  
  A dramatic and significant plasma C-reactive protein decrease by 52.1% occurred.
  

Something about Omega-3 fish oil on rheumatoid arthritis

There are many clinical studies to support that Omega-3 have significantly relieved the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Here is some information published:

• “Omega-3 fatty acids also are used to treat hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and rheumatoid arthritis. There are no significant drug interactions with omega-3 fatty acids.”…” Higher dosages of omega-3 fatty acids are required to reduce elevated triglyceride levels (2 to 4 g per day) and to reduce morning stiffness and the number of tender joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (at least 3 g per day).”---------- “Omega-3 fatty acids”, Covington MB. Am Fam Physician. 2004 Jul 1; 70(1):133-40.

• “In the last years a variety of epidemiological and clinical studies have demonstrated the efficacy of fish oil supplementation in the rheumatic diseases, in particular in rheumatoid arthritis.”------ “Fish oil supplementation in rheumatoid arthritis”, Sales C, Oliviero F, Spinella P. Reumatismo. 2008 Jul-Sep; 60(3):174-9.

• “A number of double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of gamma-linolenic acid and fish oil in rheumatoid arthritis have shown significant improvements in a variety of clinical outcomes. These fatty acids should be included as part of the normal therapeutic approach to rheumatoid arthritis.”----- "Polyunsaturated fatty acids and rheumatoid arthritis”, Calder PC, Zurier RB., Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2001 Mar; 4(2):115-21.

Note: This information is not intended to be used for the diagnosis or treatment of any specific medical condition.

Public health recommendations from the study of "Diet, Nutrition, and the prevention of cancer"

A paper titled "Diet, nutrition and the prevention of cancer"(Key TJ et al. Public Health Nutr. 2004 Feb; 7(1A):187-200) provides a good view of the current state of knowledge on diet and cancer. Here are the summarized analysis and recommendations from this study:

1. Try to maintain body mass index (BMI) in the range of 18.5–25.0 kg/m2, and avoid weight gain in adulthood, which can avoid the risk for cancers of the esophagus, colorectum, breast (postmenopausal), endometrium, and kidney due to the obesity.

2. It is necessary to engage in regular physical activity to reduce the risk for colorectal cancer and probably the risk for breast cancer.

3. Drinking of alcoholic beverages is not recommended: if consumed, do not exceed 2 units/d (1 unit is equivalent to approximately 10 g of alcohol and is provided by one glass of beer, wine or spirits). Alcohol causes cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, oesophagus and liver, and a small increase in the risk for breast cancer.

4. Aflatoxin in foods will cause liver cancer, to which the exposure should be minimized.

5. Chinese-style salted fish increases the risk for nasopharyngeal cancer and should only be eaten in moderation, especially during childhood. Overall consumption of salt-preserved foods and salted fish should be moderate.

6. It is necessary to have a diet which includes at least 400 g/d of total fruit and vegetables, which probably reduce the risk for cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, stomach and colorectum.

7. Those who are not vegetarian are advised to moderate consumption of preserved meat (e.g. sausages, salami, bacon, ham etc.) and red meat (e.g. beef, pork, lamb). Preserved meat and red meat probably increase the risk for colorectal cancer. Salt preserved foods and high salt intake probably increase the risk for stomach cancer. Poultry and fish (except Chinese-style salted fish, see 5. above) have been studied and found not to be associated with increased cancer risk.

8. Do not consume foods or drinks when they are at a very hot (scalding hot) temperature, which probably increase the risk for cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus.