Tag Archives: Cancer

Complementing Cancer Treatment with Exercise

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Exercising can be a great addition and complement to anyone’s life, especially to those individuals who are battling cancer. Whether you have just reached the point of putting your cancer into remission or you were just diagnosed with a cancer like mesothelioma, exercising more regularly can be a great thing for you and your overall health. You will find that working out has benefits that you may not have known and that can truly give you some support while you are undergoing routine cancer treatment. Exercise should not be thought of as a cure for cancer, but it can complement your treatment quite well.

One thing that exercise can do for you is to improve your overall physical state. Many people who workout find that they become stronger and have more strength throughout the day. Exercise also boosts the immune system, making it easy for you to ward off illnesses and diseases. This is an especially vital benefit to anyone who is going for cancer treatment and has a weakened immune system because of the medications and therapies that they are going for.

Working out more regularly also has a number of mental benefits for you as well. When you workout, your body is going to be releasing endorphins that make you feel good. You will find that these endorphins help to give you a mood boost that lasts the rest of the day. When you enjoy working out, you will also find that it gives you something to look forward to and to enjoy when you feel like your whole life revolves around going for treatment for your cancer. The key is to find a good workout that you actually like doing so that you do not feel either bored or overwhelmed while doing it.

You need to first speak with your doctor before you actually begin making major changes to your lifestyle. Only your healthcare professional knows what is right for you and will be able to make smart decisions concerning your overall health. The best thing for you to do is to discuss different exercises that you can do when you are undergoing cancer treatment so that you know what you should be doing to improve your health and wellbeing. From there, it is up to you to find a good exercise that provides all of these benefits and that you will enjoy doing every few days of the week.

Post contributed by Melanie Bowen
Awareness Advocate for Natural Health
http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/authors/melanie/bio.htm

Lab tests find carcinogen in Coke and Pepsi!!!

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New chemical analyses have found that Coca-​Cola, Pepsi-​Cola, Diet Coke, and Diet Pepsi contain high levels of 4-​methylimidazole (4-​MI), a known animal carcinogen.

The carcinogen forms when ammonia or ammonia and sulfites are used to manufacture the caramel colouring that gives those sodas their distinctive brown colours, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the nonprofit watchdog group that commissioned the tests.

CSPI first petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban ammonia-​sulfite caramel colouring in February 2011. CSPI has reiterated its call to the FDA to revoke its authorisation for caramel colourings that contain 4-​MI, and in the interim to change the name of the additive to ammonia-​sulfite process caramel colouring or chemically modified caramel colouring for labelling purposes.

CSPI executive director, Michael Jacobson, said: “Coke and Pepsi, with the acquiescence of the FDA, are needlessly exposing millions of Americans to a chemical that causes cancer. The colouring is completely cosmetic, adding nothing to the flavour of the product.

“If companies can make brown food colouring that is carcinogen-​free, the industry should use that. And industry seems to be moving in that direction. Otherwise, the FDA needs to protect consumers from this risk by banning the colouring.”

CSPI collected samples of Coca-​Cola, Pepsi-​Cola, Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Diet Dr Pepper, and Whole Foods 365 Cola from Washington (US) stores. Pepsi’s products had 145–153 micrograms (mcg) of 4-​MI in two 12oz cans. Regular Coca-​Cola had 142 mcg per 12oz in one sample and 146mcg in another. Diet Coke had 103mcg per 12oz in one sample and 113mcg in another.

To put those levels into context, the state of California has a 29mcg benchmark for 4-​MI. Levels above that in a serving of food or beverage may be required to bear a warning notice. Based on California’s risk model, CSPI estimates that the 4-​MI in the Coke and Pepsi products tested is causing about 15,000 cancers in the US population.

While federal law bans food additives that cause any number of cancers, the FDA has an exception for contaminants of food additives, for which it tolerates a lifetime risk of one cancer in one million people.

Three of four samples of Dr Pepper or Diet Dr Pepper that CSPI tested had low levels of 4-​MI, with about 10mcg per 12oz. But even those levels pose a cancer risk of seven in one million-​seven times greater than what FDA allows. The lower levels in those three samples indicate that it is possible to lower, if not eliminate, the amount of 4-​MI.

Pepsi told CSPI that it has switched to a colouring in California that contains much less 4-​MI and plans to do the same in the rest of the country.

“When most people see ‘caramel colouring’ on food labels, they likely interpret that quite literally and assume the ingredient is similar to what you might get by gently melting sugar in a saucepan,” Jacobson said.

“The reality is quite different. Colourings made with the ammonia or ammonia-​sulfite process contain carcinogens and don’t belong in the food supply. In any event, they shouldn’t be obscured by such an innocuous-​sounding name as ‘caramel colouring.’”

As troubling as the new test results are, CSPI says soda drinkers should be much more concerned about the high-​fructose corn syrup or other sugars used in soft drinks. Soda drinkers are much more likely than non-​soda drinkers to develop weight gain, obesity, diabetes, and other health problems.

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A low carbohydrate, high protein diet slows tumor growth and prevents cancer initiation!

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Since cancer cells depend on glucose more than normal cells, we compared the effects of low carbohydrate (CHO) diets to a Western diet on the growth rate of tumors in mice. To avoid caloric restriction-induced effects, we designed the low CHO diets isocaloric with the Western diet by increasing protein rather than fat levels because of the reported tumor-promoting effects of high fat and the immune-stimulating effects of high protein. We found that both murine and human carcinomas grew slower in mice on diets containing low amylose CHO and high protein compared with a Western diet characterized by relatively high CHO and low protein. There was no weight difference between the tumor-bearing mice on the low CHO or Western diets. Additionally, the low CHO-fed mice exhibited lower blood glucose, insulin, and lactate levels. Additive antitumor effects with the low CHO diets were observed with the mTOR inhibitor CCI-779 and especially with the COX-2 inhibitor Celebrex, a potent anti-inflammatory drug. Strikingly, in a genetically engineered mouse model of HER-2/neu-induced mammary cancer, tumor penetrance in mice on a Western diet was nearly 50% by the age of 1 year whereas no tumors were detected in mice on the low CHO diet. This difference was associated with weight gains in mice on the Western diet not observed in mice on the low CHO diet. Moreover, whereas only 1 mouse on the Western diet achieved a normal life span, due to cancer-associated deaths, more than 50% of the mice on the low CHO diet reached or exceeded the normal life span. Taken together, our findings offer a compelling preclinical illustration of the ability of a low CHO diet in not only restricting weight gain but also cancer development and progression. Cancer Res; 71(13); 4484-93. ©2011 AACR.

To view the abstract:  Cancer Res. 2011 Jul 1;71(13):4484-93. Epub 2011 Jun 14.

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Broccoli Compound Selectively Targets Cancer Cells!

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Sulforaphane, a primary phytochemical found in broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables, is an inhibitor of histone deacetylase, or HDAC enzymes. HDAC inhibition is an emerging field of cancer treatment and represents a promising pharmaceutical and dietary approach. Emily Ho, from Oregon State Un (Oregon, USA), and colleagues have investigated the effects of sulforaphane in normal, benign hyperplasia, and cancerous prostate epithelial cells. The team observed that 15 micromoles of sulforaphane caused cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in benign hyperplasia and cancerous prostate epithelial cells; and did not affect normal cells whatsoever. Sulforaphane also selectively decreased HDAC enzyme activity. The researchers conclude that: “[Sulforaphane] exerts differential effects on cell proliferation, HDAC activity and downstream targets in normal and cancer cells.”

To read the full article:  The Linus Pauling Institute at OSU

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Protective Properties of Green Tea Uncovered!

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Regularly drinking green tea could protect the brain against developing Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, according to the latest research by scientists at Newcastle University, UK. The study, published in the academic journal Phytomedicine, also suggests this ancient Chinese remedy could play a vital role in protecting the body against cancer.

Led by Dr. Ed Okello, the Newcastle team wanted to know if the protective properties of green tea—which have previously been shown to be present in the undigested, freshly brewed form of the drink—were still active once the tea had been digested.

As part of the research, the Newcastle team worked in collaboration with Dr. Gordon McDougall of the Plant Products and Food Quality Group at the Scottish Crop Research Institute in Dundee, who developed technology that simulates the human digestive system. The team analyzed that two compounds are known to play a significant role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease—hydrogen peroxide and a protein known as beta-amyloid.

Previous studies have shown that compounds known as polyphenols, present in black and green tea, possess neuroprotective properties, binding with the toxic compounds and protecting the brain cells. When ingested, the polyphenols are broken down to produce a mix of compounds and it was these the Newcastle team tested in their latest research.

“There are certain chemicals we know to be beneficial and we can identify foods which are rich in them, but what happens during the digestion process is crucial to whether these foods are actually doing us any good,” explained Okello.

Carrying out the experiments in the lab using a tumor cell model, they exposed the cells to varying concentrations of the different toxins and the digested green tea compounds.

Okello said, “The digested chemicals protected the cells, preventing the toxins from destroying the cells. We also saw them affecting the cancer cells, significantly slowing down their growth.”

The next step is to discover whether the beneficial compounds are produced during digestion after healthy human volunteers consume tea polyphenols. The team has already received funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to take this forward.

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The #1 Key To Anti-Aging and Living Longer Is…

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Healthy Eating!!!!!

Healthy eating is the cornerstone to living a longer healthier life!

In that the leading causes of death have shifted from infectious diseases to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, some science suggests a primary role for diet in disease.  Amy L. Anderson, from the University of Maryland (Maryland, USA), and colleagues studied the dietary patterns of 2,582 adults, ages 70 to 79 years. The team found that diets favoring certain foods were associated with reduced mortality. By determining the consumption frequency of 108 different food items, researchers were able to group the participants into six different clusters according to predominant food choices.  Those eating “healthy foods” — characterized by relatively higher intake of low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish, and vegetables, and lower consumption of meat, fried foods, sweets, high-calorie drinks, and added fat – were at 40% risk of mortality, as compared to those who ate a “high fat dairy products” diet – typically including  ice cream, cheese, and 2% and whole milk and yogurt, and lower intake of poultry, low-fat dairy products, rice, and pasta. As well, those in the “sweets and desserts” cluster had a 37% higher risk of death, as compared to those in the “healthy foods” group.  The researchers conclude that: “A dietary pattern consistent with current guidelines to consume relatively high amounts of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish, and low-fat dairy products may be associated with superior nutritional status, quality of life and survival in older adults.”

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Is Junk Food “Marketing” Making Kids Obese? New Government Guidelines Coming Soon!

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Governments must work with industry to restrict advertising of foods high in salt, sugar and dangerous fats targeted at children to tackle an epidemic of obesity and other diseases, health officials said on Friday.

The call is part of a focus on combating non-communicable diseases — cancer, diabetes, heart and lung disease — that are a growing cause of premature death in poor countries.

Non-communicable diseases will be the focus of global health policy this year, culminating in a debate of heads of state at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.

The World Health Organization’s executive board, meeting this week, has been discussing how to make use of the leaders’ attention, and a set of new recommendations tackling marketing of harmful food to children is part of that effort.

Dr. Timothy Armstrong, who heads the WHO’s efforts on promoting healthy diet and physical education, said non-communicable diseases now account for 90% of premature deaths in low- and middle-income countries, where obesity is a rising problem.

Of the 42 million children worldwide aged below 5 who are overweight or obese, 35 million are in poor countries, he told a news conference.

Recognition that advertising of junk foods and drink rich in salt, sugar and saturated and trans fats can encourage children to consume them, while advertising can also promote a healthy diet, led the WHO’s assembly last may to call on the U.N. health agency to draw up the recommendations.

The WHO’s 193 member states told it to work with the private sector as well as governments and civil society.

The recommendations aim to tackle both the frequency of advertising and its “power” — for instance, the use of cartoons that appeal to children.

LEADING COMPANIES

WHO officials consulted leading companies in the sector — Coca-Cola, Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft, McDonald’s, Mars, Nestle, Pepsico, Unilever and the World Federation of Advertisers.

The companies agreed to draw up a code of conduct and committed not to market unhealthy products to children under the age of 12, he said.

In some markets companies were living up to this pledge.

“There are other markets where perhaps companies are not adopting the same policies in terms of not advertising their products to children,” he said.

Armstrong declined to name the companies or markets concerned but said the WHO had a sense that companies were not fulfilling their commitment in poor countries in the way that they appeared to be in developed markets.

The different results underlined the importance of governments monitoring the implementation of any agreements reached with the industry.

“The concept is that governments must lead this process,” he said.

It was up to governments to choose the best approach. Some might prefer to legislate a ban on advertising; others could agree independently monitored self-regulation with industry. But the WHO was aware that legislation and enforcement was beyond the capacity of some small, poor states, he said.

Norway’s director-general of health, Dr. Bjorn-Inge Larsen, said much advertising reached children through international television channels, so domestic legislation could be ineffective.

Dr. Larsen said governments had a range of options and these recommendations were a first step. Pressure on the companies to curb advertising and ultimately production of the products would grow in the same way as efforts to limit the consumption of tobacco and alcohol had done, he said.

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Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to Obesity!!!

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New research adds to the evidence linking obesity with lower levels of vitamin D, and the finding could help explain why carrying extra pounds raises the risk for a wide range of diseases, researchers say.

The study suggests that people who are obese may be less able to convert vitamin D into its hormonally active form.

Researchers measured levels of vitamin D and its hormonally active form 1,25(OH)2D in almost 1,800 people being treated at a weight loss clinic in Norway.

Most of the people were overweight and 11% were considered morbidly obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher.

The more the study participants weighed, the lower their vitamin D levels tended to be, study researcher Zoya Lagunova, MD, of the Rikshospitalet-Radiumhospitalet Medical Center in Oslo, Norway, tells WebMD.

She says it makes sense that obesity is associated with lower vitamin D levels since vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin.

The study appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Nutrition.

“Much of the vitamin D produced in the skin or ingested is distributed in fat tissue,” she says. “So obese people may take in as much vitamin D from the sun, food, or supplements as people who are not obese, but their [blood] levels will tend to be lower.”

Vitamin D and Obesity

Along with calcium, vitamin D has long been recognized as important for bone health. But in recent years studies have suggested that the vitamin plays a part in a host of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers.

Perhaps not coincidentally, obesity is a known risk factor for many of these diseases, Lagunova says.

The researchers concluded that 1,25(OH)2D levels might be a better measure of vitamin D in obese people than circulating levels of the vitamin.

But Clifford J. Rosen, MD, of the Maine Medical Center Research Institute, is unconvinced.

Rosen tells WebMD that 1,25(OH)2D is more difficult and costly to measure and is not a very good indicator of vitamin D status.

He adds that while people who are obese do tend to have lower vitamin D levels, the clinical relevance of this is unclear.

Lagunova and colleagues conclude that people who are obese may need more vitamin D in their diets or greater exposure to the sun than thinner people.

“Obese people may need more vitamin D to end up with the same levels as a person whose weight is normal,” Lagunova says.

Vitamin D: Too Much of a Good Thing?

But it is far from clear if taking large doses of vitamin D in supplement form is beneficial or even safe, regardless of a person’s body weight, says Rosen.

An osteoporosis researcher, Rosen served on an expert panel that reviewed the vitamin D research and concluded that most people get enough of the vitamin without taking supplements.

The panel, convened by the independent health policy advisory group Institute of Medicine (IOM), published its findings late last month.

The IOM committee found the evidence suggesting a role for vitamin D supplementation in the prevention of non-bone related diseases to be inconclusive. It also warned that intake of vitamin D over 4,000 IU (international units) per day increases the risk for harm to the body.

Rosen says there was no suggestion that obese people needed extra vitamin D to maintain adequate levels.

Rutgers University professor of nutritional sciences Sue A. Shapses, PhD, also served on the IOM panel. She calls the research suggesting a protective role for vitamin D against non-bone-related disease “compelling” but far from conclusive.

“We know that vitamin D deficiency is not good, but most people are not deficient,” she says. “And there are just too many unanswered questions to recommend that people take high doses of vitamin D in supplement form.”

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Second-Hand Smoke Kills 600,000 a Year!!!

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Around one in a hundred deaths worldwide is due to passive smoking, which kills an estimated 600,000 people a year, World Health Organization (WHO) researchers said on Friday.

In the first study to assess the global impact of second-hand smoke, WHO experts found that children are more heavily exposed to second-hand smoke than any other age-group, and around 165,000 of them a year die because of it.

“Two-thirds of these deaths occur in Africa and south Asia,” the researchers, led by Annette Pruss-Ustun of the WHO in Geneva, reported in The Lancet.

Children’s exposure to second-hand smoke is most likely to happen at home, and the double blow of infectious diseases and tobacco “seems to be a deadly combination for children in these regions,” they said.

Commenting on the findings, Heather Wipfli and Jonathan Samet from the University of Southern California said policymakers try to motivate families to stop smoking in the home.

“In some countries, smoke-free homes are becoming the norm, but far from universally,” they wrote.

The WHO researchers looked at data from 192 countries for their study. To get comprehensive data from all 192, they had to go back to 2004. They used mathematical modeling to estimate deaths and the number of years lost of life in good health.

Worldwide, 40% of children, 33% of non-smoking men and 35% of non-smoking women were exposed to second-hand smoke in 2004, they found.

This exposure was estimated to have caused 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 from lower respiratory infections, 36,900 from asthma and 21,400 from lung cancer.

For the full impact of smoking, these deaths should be added to the estimated 5.1 million deaths a year attributable to active tobacco use, the researchers said.

While deaths due to passive smoking in children were skewed toward poor and middle-income countries, deaths in adults were spread across countries at all income levels.

In Europe’s high-income countries, only 71 child deaths occurred, while 35,388 deaths were in adults. Yet in the countries assessed in Africa, an estimated 43,375 deaths due to passive smoking were in children compared with 9,514 in adults.

Pruss-Ustun urged countries to enforce the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which includes higher tobacco taxes, plain packaging and advertising bans, among other steps.

“Policy-makers should bear in mind that enforcing complete smoke-free laws will probably substantially reduce the number of deaths attributable to exposure to second-hand smoke within the first year of its implementation, with accompanying reduction in costs of illness in social and health systems,” she wrote.

Only 7.4% of the world population currently lives in jurisdictions with comprehensive smoke-free laws, and those laws are not always robustly enforced.

In places where smoke-free rules are adhered to, research shows that exposure to second hand smoke in high-risk places like bars and restaurants can be cut by 90%, and in general by 60%, the researchers said.

Studies also show such laws help to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked by smokers and lead to higher success rates in those trying to quit.

Red Meat Linked to Esophageal, Stomach Cancer Risks!!!

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Red-meat lovers may have a greater likelihood of developing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and gastric cardia cancer than people who limit their intake, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among nearly 500,000 older U.S. adults followed for a decade, only a small number developed cancers of the esophagus or stomach. However, the risks were relatively greater among those who ate a lot of red meat, or certain compounds generated from cooking meat, such as DiMeIQx (2-amino-3,4,8-dimethylimidazo(4,5-f)quinoxaline).

Overall, study participants in the top 20% for red-meat intake were 79% more likely than those in the bottom 20% to develop esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Meanwhile, the risk of gastric cardia cancer was elevated among men and women with the highest estimated intake of heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which form when meat is cooked using high-temperature methods.

The findings, reported in the November issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology, add to what has been an uncertain body of evidence on the positive association between red meat and esophageal and stomach cancers.

A 2007 research review by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, both non-profit groups, concluded that red and processed meats were associated with a “limited suggestive increased risk” of esophageal cancer.

The report also said there was a similar level of evidence for a link between processed meats and stomach cancer, and insufficient data on whether red meat intake is connected to the cancer at all.

However, most of the studies considered in the report were case-control studies, not prospective trials, explained Dr. Amanda J. Cross, a researcher at the U.S. National Cancer Institute who led the new study.

In addition, earlier research didn’t really examine meat intake and different subtypes of esophageal and stomach cancers. That is important, Dr. Cross told Reuters Health, because the different subtypes seem to have different risk factors.

So for their study, Dr. Cross and her colleagues prospectively followed 494,979 U.S. adults ages 50 to 71 over roughly 10 years. At the outset, participants completed detailed questionnaires on their diets — including the methods they typically used for cooking meat, and the usual level of “doneness” they preferred — as well as other lifestyle factors.

Over the next decade, 215 study participants developed esophageal SCC; that included 28 cases among the bottom 20% for red-meat intake, and 69 cases in the top 20%.

Another 454 men and women were diagnosed with gastric cardia cancer. There were 57 cases among participants with the lowest red-meat intake, and 113 in the group with the highest intake.

When the researchers accounted for other factors — like age, weight, smoking and reported exercise habits — participants who ate the most red meat were 79% more likely than those with the lowest intake to develop SCC of the esophagus.

Red meat itself wasn’t associated with gastric cardia cancer. But for one type of HCA, known as DiMelQx, men and women in the top 20% for intake had a 44% higher risk of gastric cardia cancer than those in the bottom 20%.

Red meat wasn’t clearly linked to esophageal adenocarcinoma or to non-cardia stomach cancers.

The different findings for different cancer subtypes are “not hugely surprising,” Dr. Cross said, since they may differ in their underlying causes. She noted, for instance, that smoking and heavy drinking appear to be stronger risk factors for esophageal squamous cell cancer compared with adenocarcinoma, while obesity seems to be a greater factor in adenocarcinoma risk.

It’s somewhat surprising, Dr. Cross said, that none of the HCA compounds the researchers assessed was related to esophageal SCC, even though red-meat intake was. It is thought that, if red meat does contribute to the cancer, HCA exposure would be one reason why.

The bottom line, Dr. Cross said, is that further large, prospective studies are needed to see whether the relationship between red meat and the two cancers is real.