That’s because not only is it challenging to treat, but also the fact that chemotherapy and targeted therapies can often only be used to control symptoms and slow the cancer progression, rather than cure it.

Unfortunately, rates of liver and bile duct cancer have skyrocketed in recent years, with one in 125 men and women expected to be diagnosed with hepatocellular cancer over the course of their lives.

Luckily, researchers at the University of Delaware may have just made a breakthrough in liver cancer care, using a molecule found in a tropical fruit that could provide a low-cost, powerful treatment.

Here are the details…

Pioneering new cancer treatment pathways

Guava may be tropical, but chances are you can find it in a local grocery store. It’s sweet or tangy, depending on ripeness, and even the seeds are edible.

But its real claim to fame is its anticancer potential…

In 2010 and 2013, studies found that guava extracts helped reduce tumor size in prostate cancer. In 2022, a study identified guava leaf extract as a potential candidate for liver cancer therapy.

But extracting enough of guava’s cancer-fighting molecules to mass-produce a treatment is no easy task.

“The majority of clinically approved medicines are either made from a natural product or are based on one,” explains associate professor William Chain, associate professor in the University of Delaware’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “But there aren’t enough natural resources to make enough treatments.”

So, he and his team found a workaround that opens the door to more effective — and cheaper — treatments for liver cancer.

Using a process called natural product total synthesis, they have developed a pathway that utilizes widely available chemicals to synthesize the cancer-fighting molecules found in guava.

“Now chemists will be able to take our manuscripts and basically follow our ‘recipe’ and they can make it themselves,” Chain said.

And now, not only can guava molecules be synthesized to improve liver cancer treatment, the team is also working with the National Cancer Institute to pit the molecule against other types of cancers.

Guava’s secret: Powerful nutrition

When a food comes to the forefront in the fight against cancer, you can delve into its nutritional content and uncover chemopreventive clues as to why…

The leaves of the guava fruit contain potent polyphenols that exhibit strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The seed, fruit and leaves are also rich in vitamins, folic acid, fiber, carotenoids and fatty acids.

Known cancer-fighting nutrients found in guava include:

• Vitamin C — a potent antioxidant that acts upon free radicals and helps in body detoxification.
• Apigenin — reported to inhibit the cell proliferation of various cancer lines.
• Lycopene — a free radical scavenger, it also acts as an anti-proliferative, anti-metastatic and apoptotic agent. Guava contains more lycopene than watermelon.
• And Kaempferol, which possesses potential anti-carcinogenic and anti-proliferative properties.

Guava has been used medicinally in countries such as India, Malaysia and China. In those countries, it’s not uncommon to boil the leaves to create a liquid extract, also called a decoction. However, it may cause stomach upset and temporary pain and shouldn’t be taken in large quantities.

Eating a guava a day, even a few slices in yogurt or a smoothie, may be more enjoyable.

Sources:

Guava’s secret molecule could fight liver cancer – ScienceDaily

Antitumor effect of guava leaves extract on Ehrlich Ascites carcinoma in mice in vitro and in vivo — Biochemistry Letters

Guava: A potent anticancer fruit—ADMAC Oncology

Liver Cancer – Cleveland Clinic

The post Guava’s secret liver cancer-fighting molecule appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Luckily, there are things men can do to help lower their odds of being one of them…

As is the case with most disease, diet is an essential component of any prostate cancer prevention plan. Specific foods have been the subject of research on the potential to protect against prostate cancer.

Among them, mushrooms stand out. A study that followed almost 36,500 men for an average of over 13 years revealed that mushrooms could be a game-changer in the fight against prostate cancer.

Now, further research has given us a more detailed glimpse into exactly how mushrooms might affect prostate cancer…

Mushrooms influence the immune system

Researchers at City of Hope sought to determine why taking a white button mushroom supplement shows promise in slowing or even preventing prostate cancer from worsening. Researchers there focused on data from laboratory preclinical studies and a Phase II clinical trial that studied food as medicine.

They found that taking white button mushroom supplements reduces a class of immune cells called myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). These MDSCs have been linked to cancer development and spread.

The researchers discovered that the administration of white button mushroom extract in mice significantly delayed the growth of tumors and extended survival of the mice. It also improved T cell immune response by reducing MDSC levels, meaning it improved the immune system’s ability to kill cancer cells.

The scientists then profiled blood draws from some of the men participating in the Phase II trial. The men were under active surveillance as they took white button mushroom supplements.

After three months of white button mushroom treatment, the researchers found there were fewer tumor-creating MDSCs and more antitumor T and natural killer cells. This suggests white button mushrooms shore up anticancer immune defense and slow cancer growth.

The bottom line: the medicinal use of white button mushrooms appears to reduce the type of cells that weaken the immune system and allow prostate cancer to spread.

Food as medicine: a burgeoning field of research

The researchers are now focusing on whether the reduction in MDSCs is linked with improved clinical outcomes in patients with prostate cancer.

Dr. Xiaoqiang Wang, a City of Hope staff scientist and first author of the study cautions against self-prescribing supplements without seeking professional guidance.

“Some people are buying mushroom products or extract online, but these are not FDA-approved,” Wang says. “That said, it couldn’t hurt if people wanted to add more fresh white button mushrooms to their everyday diet.”

White button mushrooms aren’t the only food City of Hope researchers are investigating for their potential anticancer properties. Others include grape seed extract, pomegranate, blueberries and ripe purple berries called Jamun.

It’s encouraging that a large cancer center such as City of Hope studies these foods for their medicinal properties. The researchers note that the field of integrative oncology is growing in popularity as people become more health-conscious and aware of the benefits of holistic cancer care.

“We’re finding that plant-derived substances may one day be used to support traditional cancer treatment and prevention practices,” says Dr. Shiuan Chen, a professor and chair of the Department of Cancer Biology and Molecular Medicine at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope and senior author of the mushroom study.

“This study suggests that ‘food as medicine’ treatments could eventually become normal, evidence-based cancer care that is recommended for everyone touched by cancer.”

If you decide to add mushrooms to your diet as a potential prostate cancer preventive, keep in mind that the way you cook them could affect their disease-fighting properties.

Research shows that grilling or microwaving your mushrooms are the best cooking methods for maintaining their health potency, mainly because they will give you more disease-fighting antioxidants.

Sources:

City of Hope researchers discover why taking a mushroom supplement slows or prevents prostate cancer from getting worse — EurekAlert!

Reduction of myeloid-derived suppressor cells in prostate cancer murine models and patients following white button mushroom treatment — Clinical and Translational Medicine

The post The supplement that kept prostate cancer from worsening appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

You can’t argue at this point in your life that you’re just “middle-aged” anymore…

You start getting mail offers from AARP to join up…

And your doctor starts bugging you about getting a colonoscopy.

Of course, the age of the dreaded procedure has dropped as the rates of colorectal cancer in younger people have started to climb. Now, experts advise that regular screening should begin at age 45.

But if your time has come, or maybe come and gone because you’ve put it off, you may be looking for some guidance before you jump up on that table and allow a camera on a flexible tube to pass up your rectum.

You’re not alone, especially after the controversial results of a significant study appear to indicate the screening procedure fails to lower colorectal cancer risks or prevent cancer deaths.

A worthless screening tool?

The results of the Northern-European Initiative on Colorectal Cancer trial (NordICC), an “intention-to-screen analysis,” were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study involved 84,585 healthy men and women (aged 55 to 64) drawn from population registries in Poland, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands between 2009 and 2014. The participants were randomly assigned in a 1:2 ratio to either receive an invitation to undergo a single screening colonoscopy (the invited group) or to receive no invitation or screening (the usual-care group). 

The participants were followed for 10 years while researchers measured two primary outcomes: the risks of colorectal cancer and related death, as well as death from any cause.

And the findings were not what they expected…

Offering the screening procedure did not significantly reduce cancer deaths over 10 years.

In fact, cancer cases were only reduced by 18% in the group invited to have a colonoscopy, compared to the group that wasn’t invited to get a screening.

According to Jason A. Dominitz, MD, of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, and Douglas J. Robertson, MD, of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the research, “The relatively small reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer and the nonsignificant reduction in the risk of death are both surprising and disappointing.”

Bear in mind that the American Cancer Society estimates the number of new colorectal cases for 2022 at 151,030.

Why the less-than-stellar results?

The colonoscopy procedure has remained largely unchanged since its creation and introduction in 1969, when it was hailed as a life-saving resource that could one day make colorectal cancer extinct.

So why the disappointing findings from the large NordICC trial?

A “screening can only be effective if it is performed,” the writers of the editorial point out.

See, in the group that was invited to undergo colonoscopy screenings, less than half of the participants (42%) actually went through with the procedure.

Per an adjusted analysis, the researchers found that if every participant had a colonoscopy, the incidence of colorectal cancer would have been reduced by 31% and the risk of related cancer death by 50%.

But even though a 31% reduction in the adjusted analysis was “a clinically relevant benefit,” it was still lower than what is anticipated in clinical guidelines based on observational and modeling studies.

Previous research has put reduced incidence and death from colon cancer as high as 70%.

What is the difference between those studies and the NordICC? It may be a “real-world” statement on how useful colonoscopy actually is.

However, with increased levels of participation in screening and with high-quality examinations, higher reductions in the incidence of colorectal cancer and related death would be expected — even if the percentages may not be as high in reality as previously thought. 

If you’d like to know more about colonoscopy and choices that are less invasive, download our free report — Before you say ‘yes’ to a colonoscopy!

Sources:

Effect of Colonoscopy Screening on Risks of Colorectal Cancer and Related Death — The New England Journal of Medicine

If You Invite 455 People to Colonoscopy, You’ll Stop One Case of Cancer — MedPage Today

Key statistics for colorectal cancer — American Cancer Society

The colonoscopy: A historical timeline — Gastroenterology Health Partners

The post Why colonoscopies may be less effective than we thought appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It’s also why improving specific lifestyle habits is so important. Smoking, drinking alcohol and too much sitting have all been associated with a higher risk of the disease.

In addition, studies have suggested that damaging or upsetting the balance of the gut microbiome can result in a higher risk of colorectal cancer.

Luckily, researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center have discovered that an inexpensive nutritional supplement could help maintain that balance in those who need it most…

Magnesium could help inhibit colorectal cancer

The Vanderbilt study involved 240 participants. They were also randomized by whether they had the TRPM7 genotype, which plays a critical role in regulating the uptake of magnesium and calcium.

Previous results from the same randomized trial demonstrated that magnesium enhances the synthesis of vitamin D and increases blood levels of the vitamin.

But the findings from the current study were especially fascinating…

According to Qi Dai, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine, “The current study reveals that magnesium supplementation also increases the gut microbes which have been shown to synthesize vitamin D in the gut without sunlight and locally inhibit colorectal cancer development.”

The participants were divided into two groups: one that received the magnesium supplement and another that received a placebo. Their gut microbiome was analyzed..

Among participants with adequate function of the TRPM7 gene, the magnesium supplement increased the levels of Carnobacterium maltaromaticum and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, which were previously found to work synergistically to increase vitamin D and decrease colorectal carcinogenesis.

Among those with inadequate TRPM7 function, the magnesium supplement reduced the abundance of F. prausnitzii in rectal mucosa.

Here’s why that’s significant…

Among 236 participants who all had a history of colorectal polyps, 124 underwent colonoscopies after completing the trial and a follow-up period of about 3.5 years. A higher abundance of F. prausnitzii in the rectal mucosa was associated with an almost threefold increase in developing additional polyps.

These findings suggest that magnesium supplementation treatment may decrease colorectal cancer risk in individuals with inadequate TRPM7 function.

One caveat: the effect was observed primarily in females. The researchers theorize that this could be due to the role that estrogen plays in facilitating the uptake of magnesium into cells.

The right magnesium

According to the researchers, the findings provide new insights into the interactions between nutrition and the gut microbiome contributing to the development of colorectal cancer — and establish the foundation for a precision-based strategy for prevention in high-risk populations.

Magnesium can be found in certain foods, including spinach, black beans, pumpkin seeds, chard, yogurt and kefir. However, modern farming and food processing have led to a decline of about 21 percent in the levels of magnesium in the American diet since 1940.

This is why it’s a good idea to consider adding a magnesium supplement to your daily regimen. However, be aware that there are several different types of magnesium supplements available, so it’s essential to choose the right one.

The magnesium used by the participants in the Vanderbilt study was magnesium glycinate, which binds magnesium to the amino acid glycine. In addition to the impact on the gut microbiome observed in the study, magnesium glycinate has a calming, relaxing effect on the central nervous system, which can help with stress, anxiety and sleep problems.

Sources:

Study shows magnesium inhibits colorectal cancer carcinogenesis by increasing vitamin D-synthesizing bacteria — VUMC News

Magnesium treatment increases gut microbiome synthesizing vitamin D and inhibiting colorectal cancer: results from a double-blind precision-based randomized placebo-controlled trial — The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Colorectal Cancer Rates Are Skyrocketing in Young Adults—Is Your Lifestyle Putting You at Risk? — Cancer Research Institute

The post Magnesium: An inexpensive defense against colorectal cancer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But there’s another significant reason to manage it, better yet, help it go into remission…

And that’s cancer.

Men with diabetes are 19 percent more likely to develop cancer. For women, the risk is 27 percent. If that weren’t bad enough, research has shown a link between diabetes and metastatic cancer. High concentrations of sugar in the blood encourages cancer cells to spread.

Researchers looking into the diabetes-cancer connection know how you can take both of these dangerous conditions down…

Can losing weight control diabetes AND cancer?

The Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT), a structured weight management program for people with diabetes, produced some amazing results…

Under the supervision of a dietitian, participants replaced their habitual diets with a prescribed diet. Foods not on the prescribed diet were slowly reintroduced.

After two years of this trial, 68 men and 53 women saw their type 2 diabetes go into remission, compared with only six men and five women in the control group.

When Emma Hazelwood of Bristol Medical School in England read these results, a bell went off…

She knew that people with type 2 diabetes also had an increased risk of developing certain cancers — including pancreatic cancer.

Had the trial participants who successfully lost weight and controlled their diabetes also reduced their cancer risk?

Nine cancer-related proteins reduced with weight loss

Previous studies have found that having increased body weight changed the level of certain proteins with a known link to cancer.

So, along with a team of researchers from Bristol Medical School, Hazelwood used data from 261 people with diabetes who were enrolled in the DiRECT trial.

The team analyzed blood samples from before and after weight loss and found that nine cancer-related proteins were reduced, compared with none in the control group, who had received standard diabetes care but not the prescribed diet.

“Results from this study help us gain insight into potential mechanisms linking type 2 diabetes and body fatness with cancer development.

“These findings offer encouraging evidence that the increased cancer risk seen in people with diabetes might be reduced with weight loss interventions. This has important implications for both diabetes treatment and cancer prevention.”

Do-it-yourself weight loss and disease prevention

Of course, not all of us can enroll in a trial that supervises our weight loss.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t proven ways to do it yourself.

The Mediterranean diet is favored among people who are trying to lose weight and eat more healthfully. In fact, one study showed that people lost more weight and stuck to this diet more easily than either the Paleo or intermittent fasting diets.

Then there’s something known as mindful eating. It may sound like a New-age fad, but on the contrary, eating mindfully is a powerful way to control blood sugar.

But if you need a little guidance on your weight loss journey, consider Weight Watchers. The organization has been a leader in the weight loss industry for more than 50 years — and recognizing that weight loss is key for preventing type 2 diabetes, they’ve become a pioneer in helping people stop the disease progression in its tracks.

They’ve also got a reputation for helping people keep the weight off.

Sources:

Weight loss intervention in people with type 2 diabetes influences cancer-associated proteins — Eureka Alert

Impact of weight loss on cancer-related proteins in serum: results from a cluster randomised controlled trial of individuals with type 2 diabetes — eBioMedicine

Direct Clinical Outcomes at 24 Months — Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial

The post The diabetes-cancer connection and how to take both down appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But the truth is that a healthy immune system is a key component of total body health.

That’s because your immune system isn’t only your body’s first-line defense against this season’s germs. It is also vital for launching assaults on serious conditions, like cancer.

However, according to research from NYU Langone Health, there is something that can destroy that cancer-fighting ability.

And it all has to do with how well your blood is flowing…

Double the rate of tumor growth

Peripheral ischemia includes reduced blood flow to the lungs and legs. It typically follows peripheral artery disease and is a manifestation of worsening symptoms that impact blood flow. But that’s not all it does…

The scientists at NYU were able to prove that peripheral ischemia dramatically fueled cancer growth.

In fact, tumors in mice with restricted blood flow grew at double the rate seen in mice with normal flow.

Why? They found that restricted blood flow prematurely ages the bone marrow, where our immune cell warriors are produced.  

In other words, the researchers demonstrated that the immune system is the missing link between poor blood flow and the proliferation of cancer cells.

Increasing cancer-tolerance and decreasing tumor defense

According to scientists, when there is a threat to the body, such as cancer, the immune system typically ramps up inflammation to eliminate the danger and then eases back on the throttle to avoid damaging healthy tissue (think autoimmune issues).

However, when you suffer from circulation problems, the aging of your bone marrow reprograms stem cells to favor the production of “myeloid” immune cells (monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils) that dampen immune responses.

At the same time, these stem cells begin to decrease their production of lymphocyte-like T cells, which help mount strong antitumor responses.

Altogether, this shifts immune cells into a more cancer-tolerant state, weakening the immune system’s ability to fight cancer.

“Our results reveal a direct mechanism by which ischemia drives cancer growth, reprogramming stem cells in ways that resemble aging and promote immune tolerance,” says first author Alexandra Newman, PhD.

“These findings open the door to new strategies in cancer prevention and treatment, like earlier cancer screening for patients with peripheral artery disease and using inflammation-modulating therapies, to counter these effects.”

Increase blood flow to lower cancer risks

All of this means that if you want to cancer-proof your body, you have to start with supporting your blood vessels. Easy ways to do this include:

• Taking omega-3s – People with peripheral artery disease (PAD) have been shown to have lower levels of healthy omega-3s in their bodies, so taking a fish – or preferably krill oil – supplement could help. Omega-3s not only support better blood flow but also have potent anti-inflammatory effects.
• Getting help stretching – Passive stretching, with the help of a partner, can improve blood flow, blood vessel dilation and reduce stiffness.
• Eating beets – Beets are packed with heart-healthy nitrates, which boost the production of nitric oxide (NO) in the lining of your blood vessels, allowing them to dilate or widen. When this happens, your blood can flow more freely.

Additionally, because the scientists believe that inflammation-modulating therapies could be a key approach, be sure to take steps to reduce your overall body inflammation.

My favorite way to do this is by eating an anti-inflammatory diet that would include these foods:

• Tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Green leafy vegetables, like spinach, kale, and collard greens
• Nuts such as almonds and walnuts
• Fatty fish, which includes salmon, mackerel, tuna and sardines
• Fruits such like oranges, strawberries, blueberries and cherries

Skip or strictly limit foods that increase inflammation in your body, such as processed meats, refined carbs, sodas, and packaged snacks.

Staying active is also a good idea, as exercise not only improves blood flow but also has anti-inflammatory effects on your white blood cells.

Sources:

Restricted Blood Flow Speeds Tumor Growth by Aging the Immune System – NYU Langone Health

Foods that fight inflammation – Harvard Health Publishing

An action plan to fight unhealthy inflammation – Harvard Health Publishing

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It’s one of the only carotenoids that accumulates in the retina. When taken with the other (lutein), it works to protect your eyes from the harmful free radicals behind macular degeneration.

But there may be a lot more to zeaxanthin than that. In fact, research indicates this plant-derived compound could help protect against one of our most dreaded diseases…

Could zeaxanthin help against cancer?

Building on years of work by the lab of Dr. Jing Chen of the University of Chicago, researchers led by Chen sought to better understand how nutrients influence the immune system.

Zeaxanthin has already demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects. When screening an extensive blood nutrient library, the team identified zeaxanthin as a compound that directly enhances the activity of a certain type of immune cell (CD8+ T cells) that kills tumor cells. CD8+ T cells rely on a structure known as the T cell receptor (TCR) to recognize and destroy abnormal cells.

Upon interacting with cancer cells, the researchers discovered zeaxanthin stabilizes and strengthens the formation of the TCR complex on CD8+ T cells. This, in turn, triggers more robust intracellular signaling that boosts T cell activation, cytokine production and, importantly, tumor-killing ability.

Then, the researchers tested zeaxanthin in mouse models of cancer. Dietary supplementation with zeaxanthin in these mouse models slowed tumor growth. Plus, when combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors — a type of immunotherapy that has transformed cancer treatment in recent years — zeaxanthin significantly enhanced anti-tumor effects compared to immunotherapy alone.

The researchers extended the findings by testing human T cells engineered to recognize specific tumor antigens. They found that treatment with zeaxanthin improved the ability of these cells to kill melanoma, multiple myeloma, and glioblastoma cells in laboratory experiments.

“Our data show that zeaxanthin improves both natural and engineered T-cell responses, which suggests high translational potential for patients undergoing immunotherapies,” Chen says.

To sum up, the researchers discovered in laboratory and mouse studies that zeaxanthin may strengthen the cancer-fighting activity of immune cells as well as boost the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy.

Chen says the researchers “were surprised” to uncover zeaxanthin’s new function as an immune booster. “Our study shows that a simple dietary nutrient could complement and strengthen advanced cancer treatments like immunotherapy,” he says.

Zeaxanthin’s many benefits and more to come

Clearly, these results are promising. However, the researchers stress that the work is still at an early stage, with most of the findings coming from laboratory and animal studies.

“Our findings open a new field of nutritional immunology that looks at how specific dietary components interact with the immune system at the molecular level,” Chen says. “With more research, we may discover natural compounds that make today’s cancer therapies more effective and accessible.”

Zeaxanthin is naturally found in vegetables like orange peppers, sweet potatoes, spinach and kale. It’s also available in over-the-counter supplements for eye health, with benefits that go far beyond.

It’s inexpensive, widely available and well-tolerated. It also has a known safety profile, which means it can be safely tested as an adjunct (or addition) to cancer therapies.

Although this research is in its early stages, there really are no downsides to adding zeaxanthin-rich foods or a supplement containing zeaxanthin to your diet today. You’ll be protecting your eye health — and potentially giving yourself a boost against cancer as well.

Sources:

Plant-based nutrient can boost immune cells’ ability to fight cancer — Medical Xpress

Zeaxanthin augments CD8⁺ effector T cell function and immunotherapy efficacy — Cell Reports Medicine

The post The eye vitamin joining the fight against cancer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I’ve written about it often, including how to know if your immune system isn’t working properly, how to slow immune system aging and how inflammation can turn your immune system harmful.

And when it comes to the involvement of blood cells, I’m quite familiar with the immune system’s first line of defense: white blood cells that help fight infection and disease, including “killer T cells” that help fight cancer.

However, there are more kinds of white blood cells than I’d known about. And not all of them are “good guys.”

In fact, some of them support the growth of cancer — but you’re not helpless to take them down…

Just 30 minutes can destroy cancer-causing cells

Tiia Koivula is a doctoral researcher at the University of Turku in Finland. She is the lead author of a study that alerted me to the fact that, while some white blood cells support our immune system and fight disease, just as many are busy promoting disease.

Including cancer.

“The balance of different types of white blood cells determines whether the immune system works to destroy cancer or to support it. If there are more cancer-destroying cells than cancer-promoting cells in the tumor area, the body is more capable of fighting cancer.”

Her study looked at twenty newly diagnosed breast cancer patients who had not yet started treatments.

During the study, these patients pedaled a stationary bicycle for 30 minutes. Three different blood samples were taken: before they started pedaling, during the exercise, and after they’d finished the exercise.

The blood samples showed that cancer-killing cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells increased the most. On the other hand, the number of cancer-promoting regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells did not change.

The researchers also looked at the proportion of different types of white blood cells relative to the total white blood cell count. The proportion of natural killer cells increased significantly, while the proportion of myeloid-derived suppressor cells decreased.

But you might be wondering: do those new cancer-killing cells stick around?

“In this study, it was seen that the number of almost all white blood cell types decreased back to resting values one hour after the exercise,” says Koivula.

“With the current knowledge, we cannot say where the white blood cells go after the exercise, but in preclinical studies, cancer-destroying cells have been seen to migrate into the tumor area.”

The evidence for cancer-slaying exercise piles up

Exercise fighting cancer? It’s not nearly as farfetched as it seems…

Edith Cowan University showed that men with advanced prostate cancer could increase levels of proteins called myokines by engaging in six months of exercise training. Myokines suppress tumor growth and fight the growth of new cancer cells.

Even better, in a follow-up study of a similar group of men, those same anti-cancer molecules increased in a single bout of vigorous exercise.

But exercise shouldn’t be something we only turn to after a cancer diagnosis…

When researchers in Tel Aviv found high-intensity exercise starves cancer cells of glucose preventing spread or metastasis, they suggested regular exercise could provide permanent cancer protection because it changes the tissue of internal organs to become similar to muscle tissue.

That means exercise will make your organs burn glucose like muscles do leaving less fuel for glucose-loving cancer cells.

And it doesn’t end there…

A team of scientists from The MD Anderson Cancer Center pitted exercise against a genetic cancer predisposition known as Lynch Syndrome — and found it resulted in statistically significant changes in gene expression. That’s epigenetics at work!

So the Finnish study isn’t really that much of a leap.

It’s just the latest in a growing collection of data pointing to the importance of regular exercise to avoid or beat cancer.

Sources:

Already 30 minutes of exercise increases the proportion of tumor-killing white blood cells in blood — Eureka Alert

The effect of exercise and disease status on mobilization of anti-tumorigenic and pro-tumorigenic immune cells in women with breast cancer — Frontiers

The post Boost your cancer-killing white blood cells in 30 minutes appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trial concluded that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was dangerous for women. But the bad news was not as bad as presented, and the good news was glossed over. That didn’t matter: Physicians were — and continue to be — spooked.

To seal the deal, warnings around breast cancer, blood clot, and heart disease risk got printed all over inserts and boxes containing any and all hormone-containing compounds — even if they were not the same formulations as what was evaluated in the trial and even if they were presented in a different dose/format (like vaginal estrogen cream).

Overnight, prescribing HRT was relegated to “fringe” providers. And medical schools effectively stopped teaching doctors about treating menopause.

Today, we live with that legacy: less than 6% of OB/GYN and primary care providers get even one hour (!) of menopause education in their training. The end result? A dearth of physicians who are comfortable managing the symptoms of women suffering through “the change.”

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What New Research Reveals About HRT

Meanwhile, science has marched on. Not that most women — or their physicians — are even aware.

Since the WHI was published, additional studies have found that timing of HRT initiation matters. Women who commence HRT within 10 years of menopause actually experience fewer cardiovascular events compared to those who are not placed on hormones.

Those who commence HRT more than 10 years after menopause do see a small increase in cardiovascular events in the first year of therapy, but then see an overall decrease in the second year onward.

The Role of Formulation and Delivery Method

And in terms of blood clotting, hormone formulation is key. Unlike the pill form, estrogen creams and patches do not raise clot risk. Nor does micronized progesterone (the natural form of progesterone), whether delivered by pill or pessary.

Remember, the WHI used a combination of synthetic progesterone and estrogen and dispensed the hormones in tablet form. This is a wildly different approach compared to the formulations available today.

For women who still want to — or need to — avoid systemic hormone delivery, vaginal estrogen cream has been shown to effectively relieve vaginal dryness and reduce risk of urinary tract infections without increased risk of any negative health outcomes. Though inexplicably, the black box warnings claiming otherwise are still there.

And we haven’t even touched on the potential benefits of testosterone supplementation in women!

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My Personal Menopause Journey

My personal menopause experience was less about hot flashes and night sweats (which I had my share of). It was all about sleep. For the life of me, I could not get more than 4 to 5 hours per night. Sometimes, I hardly slept at all. I was constantly exhausted, my cognitive function was becoming affected, and I was struggling emotionally.

And nothing I tried — meditation, melatonin, magnesium, even CBD — made any difference. But having been in the room when those WHI results were first announced, I never even once considered HRT as an option.

It was only after listening to a random podcast about new HRT data and looking into more recent studies that I asked my GYN physician to place me on hormone therapy. The improvement in sleep that I have experienced since then has been nothing short of miraculous.

Looking back, I now realize I suffered needlessly for 5 years. And I probably missed out on most of the osteoporosis protection. But I just didn’t know any better, even as a physician.

What Women Need to Know

This was my experience and my journey. I’m not suggesting that everything gets better with HRT, or that every woman should even take it, or that everyone will respond the same way I did.

What I really want you to know is that you have options — certainly many options when it comes to the various delivery forms of HRT. And that risks of HRT are relatively low (though obviously influenced by individual health variables unique to each of us). Women have been brainwashed to believe that we have no options. That we just need to buck up and suffer in silence.

That’s simply not true.

Next up, how to help manage menopause and its symptoms without drugs.

The post Menopause and the big lie: The lasting impact appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Yet, what might be most impressive of all is the effect exercise has on cancer.

But if you have to choose between a long, brisk walk and a faster, more intense exercise session, which one delivers the best cancer defense?

Well, I’ll answer that question this way…

Got 30 minutes?

One bout of exercise slashes cancer

Research out of Edith Cowan University has revealed that even a single vigorous 30-minute workout could be the key to slashing cancer cell growth in breast cancer survivors.

To prove this, the scientists measured myokine levels before, immediately after, and 30 minutes following a single bout of either resistance or high-intensity interval training in breast cancer survivors.

But first: Why myokines — and why breast cancer survivors?

Myokines are proteins produced by muscles and have known anti-cancer properties.

But while myokines are significantly produced during exercise in healthy people, the researchers weren’t sure if the same would hold true for breast cancer survivors.

To their delight, the team found that both sets of exercise led to a potent increase in myokine levels for the breast cancer survivors, which could reduce cancer growth by 20 to 30%!

“The results from the study show that both types of exercise really work to produce these anti-cancer myokines in breast cancer survivors. The results from this study are excellent motivators to add exercise as standard care in the treatment of cancer,” says researcher Francesco Bettariga.

Body composition tames inflammation

The reason exercise proved so powerful against cancer in this study wasn’t limited to the significant myokine boost gained from a quick 30-minute workout.

The same researchers delved into how improving body composition through regular physical activity could reduce the inflammation that drives cancer, and plays a key role in breast cancer recurrence and mortality by promoting tumor growth.

The team demonstrated that reducing fat mass and increasing lean mass, through consistent and persistent exercise, significantly improved cancer survivors’ ability to reduce inflammation.

In fact, they found that using exercise to change body composition was the way to go compared to other fat loss strategies, pointing out that, “You never want to reduce your weight without exercising, because you need to build or preserve muscle mass and produce these chemicals that you can’t do through just diet alone.”

Building a cancer-fighting body

So if you want to grab all the cancer-reducing benefits that exercise has to offer, be sure to set up a regular, long-term exercise program that can improve your body composition and decrease inflammation over time.

If you’re recovering from cancer, talk to your doctor about getting started. You may need to start slowly before easing into the 30-minute sessions that were shown to be effective in the study.  

But previous research has shown exercise can even make cancer treatments, like chemotherapy, more bearable.

If you’re on medication, also check with them about taking a creatine supplement. It shouldn’t interfere with anything, but if you’re a cancer survivor, it’s always good to let your physician know these things.

Why creatine?

Dr. Richard Kreider, professor and director of the Exercise and Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M University, has spent over 30 years investigating the effects of creatine.

He says, “When the body is stressed, like in exercise or under metabolic conditions like some diseases, creatine phosphate is needed to maintain energy in the cell, and therefore has a lot of protective and health benefits, in addition to the exercise performance effects that have been seen.”

Creatine also protects against the loss of muscle mass, decreases markers of inflammation and possibly attenuates cancerous tumor growth progression.

Sources:

The 30-minute workout that could slash cancer cell growth by 30% — ScienceDaily

Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Catabolic Effects of Creatine Supplementation: A Brief Review — Journal Nutrients

The post How to slash cancer growth 30% in 30 minutes appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I remember watching the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) investigators present their data at a major cardiology conference. The room was packed. You could have heard a pin drop when the study’s findings were finally revealed.

I also remember all of us rushing back to our practices and immediately de-prescribing HRT. After all, the relative risk of heart attack was 32% higher in HRT users! Breast cancer up 26%! Blood clots up 200%!!  

In one fell swoop, HRT was pronounced dead. Not just estrogen plus progesterone. All of it. Period. And any physician prescribing it could be risking a malpractice claim — or even being reported to their medical board. 

Meanwhile, the media was having a field day. This was the most provocative medical news to come out in a very long time. The story was everywhere!

What the WHI Data Left Out

But here’s the thing: what we didn’t realize at the time — what the investigators chose to de-emphasize — were the many shortcomings of this data.

First, the vast majority of women were over 60 years of age at time of enrollment — many were in their 70s. Meaning, they started HRT 10 to 20 years after their last period.

Second, the type of hormone cocktail used for the trial was more like what’s in a birth control pill and VERY different from contemporary HRT formulations.

And third, large numbers of participants dropped out over the course of the trial. 

In other words, we studied the wrong women, had them on the wrong treatment, and ended up with only partial data on what happened! 

Understanding Relative Risk vs. Absolute Risk

Then there’s the matter of focusing on relative risk of negative health outcomes — which can be deceiving in terms of real impact. For example, if 10 out of 10,000 people develop a liver function abnormality while taking a placebo but 15 out of 10,000 develop it while taking a drug, the relative risk of liver problems is 50% higher in drug users (5 more compared to 10 baseline). Even though the absolute risk of developing a liver issue in drug users is only 0.05% (5 extra out of 10,000), translating to 1 extra abnormal lab test for every 2000 people treated, actually quite low.

Breast Cancer Risk in Context

In the WHI, the absolute increase in the chance of developing breast cancer was 0.1% in estrogen plus progesterone users, which is one extra breast cancer case for every 1,000 women on HRT. That’s not zero, but it’s also far from a guarantee that HRT users will develop breast cancer during their lifetimes.

The other piece of data that received little attention was that there was no difference in the chance of dying from breast cancer regardless of whether a woman took HRT. 

Subsequent data also revealed NO increased breast cancer risk in women who took estrogen alone (which is appropriate only for those who no longer have a uterus).

Revisiting Cardiovascular and Blood Clot Risks

The WHI investigators also did not clearly point out that once other confounding factors were considered, differences in cardiovascular event rates largely disappeared. So HRT is not dangerous for the heart.

And although the risk of developing a blood clot was higher when taking hormone therapy — no argument there — this finding is irrelevant today because contemporary HRT is not associated with increased clotting risk.

Overlooked Benefits of HRT

And this is probably the greatest disservice created by the WHI:  There was almost no emphasis placed on the positive health outcomes found among participants using any form of HRT. These included very significant reductions in osteoporosis-related bone fractures and significantly lower colon cancer risk. 

Ignoring Quality of Life Metrics

There was also no discussion about what withholding HRT meant for the women in the placebo group, even though there were clear signals of reduced quality of life: 11% of the placebo group started HRT during the course of the study, and 38% dropped out of the trial. 

The post Menopause and the big lie: The facts they left out appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Unfortunately, too many of us aren’t getting enough vitamin D. In the U.S. alone, about 35% of adults have a vitamin D deficiency. That can result in bone pain, muscle weakness, increased risk of osteoporosis and fractures — as well as raise the risk of certain types of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

While vitamin D deficiency is mainly the result of not getting enough vitamin D from sun and diet, in some cases, it can be traced to a gene mutation. And this mutation just revealed a shocking secret that may help in the fight against cancer…

The tumor-busting power of SDR42E1

Researchers were inspired by an earlier finding of a link between a specific mutation in the SDR42E1 gene on chromosome 16 and vitamin D deficiency. The mutation caused SDR42E1 to be cut short, which rendered it inactive.

Using a specific type of gene editing, the researchers transformed the active form of SDR42E1 in a line of cells called HCT116 into its inactive form. The HCT116 cells were from a patient with colorectal cancer. The expression of SDR42E1 is usually abundant in HCT116 cells, which suggests the protein is essential for their survival.

The results of introducing the faulty, inactive copy of SDR42E1 to the HCT116 cells were astonishing: the viability of the cancer cells plummeted by 53%.

In addition, at least 4,663 “downstream” genes changed their expression levels, suggesting SDR42E1 is a crucial molecular “switch” in many reactions necessary for cellular health. Many of these genes are normally involved in cancer-related cell signaling and the metabolism of cholesterol-like molecules. This is consistent with the central role of SDR42E1 in calcitriol synthesis.

In short, the results suggest inhibiting SDR42E1 can selectively kill cancer cells by depriving them of vitamin D, while leaving neighboring cells unharmed.

“Our results open new potential avenues in precision oncology, though clinical translation still requires considerable validation and long-term development,” says first author Dr. Nagham Nafiz Hendi, a professor at Middle East University in Amman, Jordan.

Increasing vitamin D could also be possible

Starving selected cells of vitamin D isn’t the only possible application of this technology. The results also hint at a potential benefit to artificially increasing levels of SDR42E1 in local tissues through gene technology.

“Because SDR42E1 is involved in vitamin D metabolism, we could also target it in any of the many diseases where vitamin D plays a regulatory role,” says corresponding author Dr. Georges Nemer, a professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.

“For example, nutrition studies have indicated that the hormone can lower the risk of cancer, kidney disease and autoimmune and metabolic disorders.”

However, Hendi says, such broader applications should be approached with caution, since the long-term effects of SDR42E1 on vitamin D balance are still not fully understood.

It will be years before this research produces any therapeutic benefits. Until then, the best thing we can do for our health is to work hard to maintain healthy vitamin D levels.

It can be tough to get enough vitamin D-producing sun exposure — none of us wants to risk skin cancer. The good news is that it doesn’t take much, at least in spring and summer.

If you can expose 25 percent of your body (the hands, face, neck and arms) to the sun, it only takes about 8 to 10 minutes at noon to produce the recommended amount of vitamin D.

Unfortunately, it takes more time in the winter to synthesize vitamin D from sunlight: If just 10 percent of the body is exposed, it would take nearly 2 hours of sun exposure at noon to produce vitamin D. That’s a sunburn waiting to happen.

It’s important to note, though, that several factors can impact vitamin D and call into question whether it’s a one-size-fits-all vitamin.

For example, in a review of the VITAL study, people with what was considered “normal” body mass index could expect a much higher risk reduction for developing advanced cancer than people with a higher BMI.

A person’s age, sex and cholesterol levels can also impact their body’s ability to make and maintain vitamin D. If you supplement, be sure to use vitamin D3. It’s known to be more easily absorbed by the body.

Sources:

CRISPR uncovers gene that supercharges vitamin D—and stops tumors in their tracks — ScienceDaily

SDR42E1 modulates vitamin D absorption and cancer pathogenesis: insights from an in vitro model — Frontiers in Endocrinology

Vitamin D Deficiency — Cleveland Clinic

Vitamin D — You and your Hormones

Ask the Doctors – How much sunshine do I need for enough vitamin D? — UCLA Health

The post The link between the vitamin D gene and cancer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

If you said, “My skin,” good for you!

Most people don’t think of their skin as an “organ,” like their heart, liver or kidneys — but it absolutely is. What’s more, it’s the most vulnerable.

Think about it: your skin is like a shield between you and the pollutants, ultraviolet radiation, pathogens and toxins you encounter daily. But that’s not all…

When you sweat, that’s your skin regulating your body temperature and excreting waste products. Your skin also synthesizes vitamin D from exposure to sunlight — and that’s the only way to get this essential vitamin other than supplementing.

And what do you do for your skin in return? You might moisturize it during the winter and protect it from the sun during the summer — paying most of that attention to your face or exposed areas.

But if you had a serious skin problem, would you recognize it or know what to do? Here are seven unusual but significant skin symptoms that dermatologists say always warrant a visit to your doctor…

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7 skin changes that require attention

A pimple that bleeds and won’t go away

You’ve had a small bump on your face for several months. It looks like a pimple, only without a head, and it bleeds without being touched. Never let something like this linger for months. It should be biopsied to make sure it’s not skin cancer.

If it is cancerous, Mohs micrographic surgery only removes a layer at a time, so you don’t end up looking disfigured. Each section removed is examined under a special microscope. A dermatologist will stop removing skin when the last piece excised shows no sign of “roots.”

But be warned: if it is a skin cancer, the longer you wait, the deeper the “roots” can go. It’s crucial to remove every bit of it, and if it’s been allowed to grow unchecked, that could definitely leave a scar.

Veins you can see

Factors like hot weather, tight clothing and strenuous exercise can make your veins more noticeable. But if you previously couldn’t see your veins and now they’re prominently noticeable, have your doctor take a look. It could be a sign of deep vein thrombosis. Other key signs include pain, swelling and warmth in the affected body part.

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Strange marks on your nails

Believe it or not, your fingernails are often the best indicators that something is going wrong in your body. Here are three examples:

• Splinter hemorrhages. These crooked red lines resemble splinters under the nail bed and may indicate endocarditis (an often misdiagnosed heart infection that inflames the heart). Splinter hemorrhages occur when tiny blood clots associated with endocarditis damage the small blood vessels under the nail.
• Small red spots under the nail bed. These can be a sign of the autoimmune disease lupus.  
• Also, a dark line running from top to bottom of the nail could be a sign of melanoma of the nail. Check the thumb, index finger, or big toe for this, and get a biopsy if you see any changes.

Skin changes that feel like velvet

Dark, velvety patches of skin might be a condition called acanthosis nigricans, which is often caused by insulin resistance that can lead to type 2 diabetes if left unchanged.

It often shows up in skin creases and folds on the neck, in the armpits, inside the elbows, behind the knees, and on knuckles–and is evidence that elevated insulin levels are speeding up skin cell reproduction.

Skin that glows or shines

A sudden, unnatural sheen to the skin could indicate hormonal changes, skin infections, or even skin cancer. Basal cell carcinoma usually appears in areas exposed to sunlight. It appears as a tiny translucent bump with blood vessels on the surface that may bleed. Basal cell carcinoma is highly curable if detected early. An Australian study found that supplementing niacinamide reduced basal and squamous cell carcinoma risk.

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Itchy palms

If not due to dry winter skin, and if they flare up at night and are not accompanied by a rash, your itchy palms could signal gallbladder issues. To rule this out, it’s important to get blood work done to check your liver function and bile acids. Sometimes itchy palms may be a warning sign of pancreatic cancer.

Skin changes that feel like sandpaper

If your skin is so dry that it’s full of small, rough bumps like sandpaper, you could have a condition called keratosis pilaris, also called “chicken skin.”

The condition is not dangerous and can be treated with moisturizers and prescription creams. However, it could be an indication that you’re predisposed to atopic dermatitis, asthma, and seasonal allergies, so it’s good to identify it early.

Other conditions to watch out for include slow-healing wounds and new sensitivities to products that didn’t cause problems before.

When in doubt, always go to your doctor. “Better safe than sorry” is the rule of thumb here.

Sources: 

12 Weird Symptoms Dermatologists Say You Should Never Ignore — Time

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Fortunately, it was nothing serious. However, that experience taught me a valuable lesson: when it comes to my health, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

It’s possible to experience symptoms like headache, fatigue, and nausea and have nothing seriously wrong. Or, it’s possible that these could each be a symptom of one of the ten major health problems listed below.

What you learn here could save you a lot of pain and trouble. It could also quite possibly save your life.

Frequently misdiagnosed conditions and their symptoms

1. Cancer. Fatigue, weight loss and pain are symptoms that often go part and parcel with cancer. But they are also found in so many other conditions.

• Breast cancer is often written off as benign fibroids.
• Lung cancer can be mistaken for COPD, especially in smokers.
• Colorectal cancer has the same abdominal discomfort and bowel changes as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
• Prostate cancer can easily be mistaken for benign prostatic hyperplasia, a benign enlargement of the prostate.
• Bladder cancer shares symptoms with urinary tract infections, such as pain while urinating, frequent urination, and pelvic pain.

2. Heart attack. Age and gender play a huge role in the misdiagnosis of heart attacks. No one expects someone in their 30s or 40s to have a heart attack, and symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath and indigestion are often attributed to other conditions.

A woman having a heart attack may not present with chest pain or arm pain. She may simply be nauseous, fatigued, and/or have jaw or back pain. These atypical symptoms are prevalent in women and are often easily attributed to other causes.

3. Stroke. Again, it’s the less-than-classic symptoms of a stroke that cause it to be dismissed as something else.

Rather than classic symptoms such as sudden numbness in one side of the body, slurred speech, and confusion, some stroke victims (women in particular) may look like they’re experiencing migraine, vertigo or an anxiety attack. They’ll have atypical symptoms, including dizziness, nausea and headache.

4. Thyroid conditions. Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) can cause fatigue, weight gain and feelings of sadness or apathy, while hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) may cause anxiety, irritability, and insomnia. Clearly, these symptoms occur in other disorders.

5. Carpal tunnel syndrome involves compression of the median nerve running through the wrist. Misdiagnosis of CPT as tendinitis or arthritis can cause a patient to delay surgery until it’s too late, leading to permanent nerve damage and irreversible weakness and numbness of the hand that affects its use.

6. Appendicitis. The abdominal pain of appendicitis is not always severe and can be mistaken for gastrointestinal discomfort. Some people experience nausea, vomiting and a mild fever, while others do not. A delay in diagnosis can quickly become a medical emergency if the appendix bursts.

7. Celiac disease. Both celiac disease and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) cause abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea. But a person with celiac disease must eliminate all gluten from their lives or risk damage to the lining of the small intestine, which ultimately leads to malnutrition.

8. Lyme disease. The bite of the tick that causes Lyme often produces a “bullseye” rash. If the rash isn’t present, Lyme is usually misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome, whose symptoms are similar (fatigue, joint pain, headaches and neurological issues).

9. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is often misdiagnosed as other conditions, including fibromyalgia, ALS, migraines and Vitamin B deficiency. If you are experiencing a combination of muscle weakness, fatigue, vision problems, and balance issues, make sure to have your doctor evaluate you for MS.

10. Depression is challenging to diagnose, as it looks different for different people. Symptoms such as fatigue, irritability, changes in sleep patterns, and alterations in appetite can mimic other physical conditions, including hypothyroidism or vitamin deficiencies.

Becoming a self-advocate

I hope that the information I’ve presented here will turn you into a fierce self-advocate. Doctors aren’t infallible, and being informed helps when you talk to them.

Never leave your doctor’s office until you’re satisfied with the answer you receive. If you have an unusual symptom or if you’re not feeling comfortable with the explanation you get, don’t let a doctor dismiss it as “nothing serious.”

Source:

Top Ten Health Conditions That Are Easily Misdiagnosed osmosis.org

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But we’re seeing a parallel — younger people developing diseases that used to only strike older individuals.

As it turns out, the same thing that causes cardiometabolic disease earlier in life may also be setting us up for earlier and more aggressive colon tumors.

The Worrisome Trend

Colorectal cancer, also known as colon cancer, has long been seen as a disease that primarily affects older adults. But in the past two decades, something concerning has happened…

The rate of colon cancer in people under the age of 55 has more than doubled. And the sharpest rise is among those under 40. These aren’t isolated cases. It’s a growing trend that has doctors and researchers searching for answers.

So far, no single cause has been pinpointed. But new research is starting to reveal potential contributors, and one of them may be lurking in our gut.

A New Clue: Colibactin and Gut Bacteria

A recent study published in Nature has identified a strong link between early-onset colorectal cancer and a toxin called colibactin, produced by certain strains of gut bacteria like E. coli. Colibactin is a “genotoxin,” which is a compound capable of damaging DNA.

Researchers analyzed tissue samples from nearly 1,000 colorectal cancer patients across four continents and found that most had mutations in their tumors that matched a signature left by this bacterial toxin.

What’s especially noteworthy is that patients under the age of 40 were three to five times more likely to carry these mutations than older patients. Even more surprising? These mutations appear to originate in early childhood — possibly even before age 10.

While this doesn’t prove colibactin causes colon cancer, it’s a compelling clue. And it reinforces something we’re learning again and again: the health of our gut microbiome — the trillions of bacteria living in our digestive tract — can have long-term, far-reaching consequences.

We Still Don’t Know the Full Story

Colibactin isn’t the whole story. Not everyone with colon cancer has these mutations. And not everyone with colibactin-producing bacteria gets cancer. So what’s going on?

Researchers believe it’s likely a combination of factors. Our environment, diet, medications, level of physical activity and other lifestyle choices all shape our microbiome, starting even in childhood. Over time, these factors may work together to encourage harmful bacteria to flourish or behave in damaging ways.

For example, early antibiotic use has been linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer later in life, possibly because antibiotics can wipe out beneficial bacteria and allow harmful strains to take over. Other possible contributors include how we were born (vaginal delivery vs. C-section), whether we were breastfed, and whether our diets as children included ultra-processed foods.

The Fiber Connection

If there’s one thing nearly all Americans have in common, it’s this: we don’t eat enough fiber. In fact, approximately 95% of us fall short of the recommended daily intake.

That’s a big problem, especially for gut health. Fiber is essential fuel for our beneficial gut bacteria. When we eat a fiber-rich diet full of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts, we help the good bacteria thrive and crowd out the bad.

Fiber also reduces inflammation, improves digestion, regulates bowel movements, and may even bind to and help eliminate toxins in the colon.

Fiber also has wide-ranging effects on cardiometabolic health. It helps reduce cholesterol absorption, keeping LDL levels down, modulates glucose absorption for steadier/lower insulin release, and supports natural GLP-1 production. 

On the flipside, a low-fiber diet (especially one high in ultra-processed foods) can leave our gut microbiome undernourished, unbalanced, and more vulnerable to disruption. That low-fiber diet also leaves our cholesterol elevated, our blood sugars high and our appetites unsatisfied.

But here’s the important point — we can modify this! 

Animal studies have shown that changing fiber intake can impact tumor growth and the activity of toxins like colibactin. Meanwhile, adding 10 grams of fiber per day (the equivalent of what’s in 2 servings of Step One Foods) raises natural GLP-1 production by 56%! In a matter of days!

Colon Cancer Screening: When to Start

Because early-onset colon cancer is on the rise, guidelines have shifted. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommends that all adults at average risk start screening at age 45. This can be done through colonoscopy, at-home stool tests, or other approved methods. People with a family history of colon cancer or other risk factors may need to start even earlier.  

So, if you’re over 45 and haven’t yet had your colonoscopy, what are you waiting for? Get screened for this condition. Early detection saves lives. In fact, when colon cancer is found early, it’s one of the most treatable forms of cancer.

And if you’ve not been screened for high cholesterol, high blood pressure or high blood sugar, I’d ask the same thing! 80% of heart disease need not exist. But you can’t possibly know if you’re at risk if you have no data.

The post Young-onset colon cancer and heart disease: A concerning parallel appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Sadly, the incidence of the early-onset form of the disease, which occurs in people aged 50 and younger, is expected to rise by more than 140% by 2030.

The good news is that death rates in people diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer have fallen, as screening and treatment have improved. But survivors still have a shorter life expectancy than their peers in the general population.

However, researchers at the Colon and Rectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute believe they’ve identified a simple daily activity that not only helps survivors live longer, but potentially even longer than someone who has never had cancer.

Why just survive when you can live longer

Movement is life. Previous research indicated that exercise could increase the lifespans of survivors even in the advanced stages of cancer.

But the Dana-Farber researchers wanted to take it a step further to find out if regular exercise had the power to help colon cancer patients boost their survival rates beyond people who’d never had cancer.

To find out, they delved into the exercise habits — both before and after treatment — of nearly 3,000 colon cancer patients. And the results were clear…

To remain cancer-free, even three years out from treatment, exercise is key.

According to the researchers, the magic number for survival comes down to physical activity, equivalent to walking about an hour a day at a 2- to 3-mile-per-hour pace, at least 6 days a week.

“Those patients not only had a better overall survival if they were more physically active, they actually looked like they had a slightly better overall survival compared to the general population,” says senior researcher, Dr. Jeff Meyerhardt.

In fact, even patients who suffered a cancer recurrence increased their survival chances if they stayed physically active.

Making healthy changes to your cell soup

According to cancer researchers, multiple mechanisms make exercise one of the most potent tools for not only surviving colon cancer but also preventing it in the first place.

Dr. Kathryn Schmitz, an exercise oncology researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, likes to describe the mechanisms this way…

“What you might think of is that all of our cells are bathed in a soup of sorts, and the constituents of that soup change as a result of being more physically active,” she explains.

If you spend most of your time sitting, your immune system suffers, inflammation flares up and your cells can start to change and grow uncontrolled. However, when you get the regular activity your body needs, the fires of inflammation are quenched and your immune system kicks into high gear.

Then, as Dr. Schmitz explains, “The soup in which your cells are bathed is healthier in a way that will tamp down any cancer development or cancer progression.”

In a previous study that linked exercise to reducing the odds of 13 different cancer types, researchers at the National Cancer Institute identified three factors that could be responsible for the cancer-preventing properties of exercise: its ability to reduce hormones like estrogen, its ability to lower insulin levels and its ability to quell inflammation.

So, if you’ve survived colon cancer (or simply want to make sure you do everything possible to prevent it), exercise is a must.

Also, don’t be intimidated by this study’s findings that you need to walk an hour a day, six days a week. Other studies have found that short, high-intensity sessions can also reduce the growth of colon cancer.

Sources:

Survival Rates for Colorectal Cancer — American Cancer Society

How common is colon cancer? — Fight Colorectal Cancer

Key Statistics for Colorectal Cancer — American Cancer Society

Colon cancer survivors who exercise regularly live longer — NPR

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It’s a trend, they say, that cannot be explained by genetics alone.

So, what’s to blame?

Could it be due to higher rates of obesity? Maybe it’s lack of exercise?

Or is it something more sinister, such as the chemicals our government allows manufacturers to add to products that come into contact with the food we eat?

Recent research points to the latter…

Potential to cause breast cancer and beyond

As far back as 2007, an organization called Silent Spring published a list of 216 chemicals that can cause breast cancer in rodents.

Of course, if there’s anything the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t do when it comes to protecting the public, it’s to act quickly.

So, researchers, writing in the journal Frontiers in Toxicology, set out to compare the Silent Springs list with another database known as Food Contact Chemicals Monitored in Humans, or FCChumon, which is a list of food contact chemicals detected in human breast milk, blood, urine, and tissues.

They found that nearly 200 chemicals connected to breast cancer are used in the making of food packaging and plastic tableware, and dozens of those carcinogens can migrate into the human body.

Among them were 642 endocrine-disrupting chemicals that may stimulate estrogen or progesterone production, another known risk factor for breast cancer.

While the study focused on breast cancer-causing toxins, the team found the dangers of the products we use every day to store and eat our food span the cancer universe.

“There is strong evidence that 76 known or potential breast carcinogens from food contact materials recently purchased all over the world can be found in people,” said study coauthor Jane Muncke.

After analyzing different forms of food packaging and tableware, researchers discovered chemicals including:

• Benzene – A known carcinogen linked to breast cancer development
• 4,4’-Methylenebis-(2-Chloroaniline) – Classified as a probable carcinogen that may cause bladder cancer
• 2,4-Toluenediamine – A toxin known to cause breast and other types of cancers in animal studies
•  3,3′-Dimethylbenzidine and o-Toluidine – Dyes used to color plastic and paper, which, according to the EPA, have the potential to metabolize to carcinogenic amines both in and on the human body.
• Forever chemicals – Bisphenols, phthalates or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, are linked to high cholesterol, cancer and various chronic diseases.

And while researchers determined that most exposure to carcinogens comes from plastics used in food packaging, a whopping 89 suspected carcinogens were found in paper and cardboard containers.

“Paper has additives such as emulsifiers and adhesives, say if papers are glued together, or there’s a plastic layer glued to the paper,” Muncke points out.

Protect yourself from lurking carcinogens

All of those plastic storage bags, containers, and dinnerware, as well as paper plates, that we use because they are so convenient, present a real and present danger to our health.

So, what can you do to combat this danger?

First, banish the plastic from your kitchen. This includes discarding plastic containers and opting for glass containers to store your food.

Also, be sure always to use a glass dish when putting food in the microwave instead of plastic.

Next, replace any plastic water bottles with glass or stainless steel.

For added protection, toss your non-stick pans, which are coated in cancer-causing forever chemicals.

Most importantly, support your body’s natural detoxification processes, which involve your colon and liver.

The liver, of course, is the body’s primary detox organ. But considering this onslaught of toxins, it’s often overworked, especially if you are overweight. Read here about 8+ ways to relieve your liver’s detox load.

Next, check your transit time. That’s the amount of time your colon processes waste to leave the body. If it takes longer than 24 hours, you’re allowing chemicals to sit in your colon up against the intestinal endothelium, where they can leach into your bloodstream.

Sources:

Chemicals linked to breast cancer leach into our foods, study finds — CNN

Risk Management for Benzidine Dyes — EPA

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And time has proven them right. If your diet is lacking in vegetables, the dangers are real.

One class of vegetables, in particular, contains a potent ingredient known to prevent cancer.

And now, there’s yet another way that this natural compound could save your life…

The magic in broccoli

Of all the veggies in the Brassicaceae family, commonly called cruciferous vegetables, broccoli is probably the one you’re most familiar with.

But other veggies also belong to this family, including:

• kale
• Brussels sprouts
• cauliflower
• cabbage
• arugula
• watercress

All members of this family are rich in sulforaphane, a natural compound with amazing powers.

Sulforaphane is known to prevent or alleviate some pretty horrible conditions: breast cancer, fatty liver disease and liver cancer, breast and prostate cancer, and kidney damage due to diabetes.

Sulforaphane has even been shown to keep the COVID-19 virus from reproducing.

Now we can add blood clots and strokes to that list…

Sulforaphane modifies proteins to prevent clotting

Researchers led by a team from the University of Sydney in Australia conducted a series of lab tests on 23 compounds commonly found in plants.

The purpose: to see which, if any, might have a stronger tendency to bond with blood platelets and prevent them from sticking together to form deadly blood clots.

They discovered that sulforaphane modifies the activity of a protein called PDIA6. This slows platelet clumping, keeping clots from forming as easily.

“Not only is the broccoli compound effective in improving the performance of clot-busting medication after a stroke, it could be used as a preventative agent for patients who are at a high risk of stroke,” says biomedical scientist Xuyu Liu from the University of Sydney.

Don’t cook the sulforaphane out of your veggies

Raw broccoli will give you the most sulforaphane. But if you prefer your broccoli stir-fried, you can still get the benefits of sulforaphane… if you’re willing to put in a little time.

You see, plants like broccoli have evolved to contain the enzyme myrosinase to defend themselves against herbivores (plant-eating animals). When myrosinase goes into action, it transforms other compounds into, you guessed it, sulforaphane.

So, to release more of the sulforaphane in the broccoli we eat, we need to do physical damage to the broccoli, much like what would happen to it if an animal in the wild came along and started munching on it.

Researchers pulverized broccoli into 2-mm pieces, then divided the bits into three groups.

One was left raw, and one was stir-fried right after it was chopped.

The third was allowed to “rest” for 90 minutes before it was stir-fried.

The “rested” broccoli bits had three times more sulforaphane than either of the other two groups.

Another option for getting more sulforaphane is to eat young broccoli sprouts, known as broccolini — when you see it in the produce aisle, it resembles baby broccoli.

Broccolini has 20 to 50 times more sulforaphane than mature broccoli plants.

Take your pick. Just make sure you’re eating this powerful veggie regularly.

Sources:

Broccoli’s Anti-Cancer Compound Could Have a Whole Other Health Benefit — Science Alert

Integrating Phenotypic and Chemoproteomic Approaches to Identify Covalent Targets of Dietary Electrophiles in Platelets — ACS Central Science

Health Benefits of Cruciferous Vegetables — Web MD

The post The one food that fights both cancer and stroke appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

For example, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables are full of nutrients and help protect against cancer and heart disease.

But if consumed in excess, they can limit the body’s ability to absorb iodine, which can lead to hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid gland).

On the other hand, sometimes a natural and healthy substance raises alarm bells within the scientific for reasons we don’t fully understand.

I’m here to help clarify one such alarm bell…

Unpacking the alarming headlines

Taurine is an amino acid found naturally in the bone marrow, brain, heart, and muscles. Foods such as meat, fish and eggs contain taurine.

So do energy drinks. Taurine is added to many energy drinks because it is known to support muscle function and endurance.

And this is where the alarm bells get tripped.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not encouraging you to start pounding down energy drinks. They’re far from the healthiest thing you could be drinking.

But you may have seen some alarming headlines recently, like “Common energy drink ingredient linked to increased cancer risk,” or even more alarmist, “Urgent warning issued about cancer-causing energy drinks.”

This is where it helps to be a discerning and careful reader…

Wilmot Cancer Institute investigators at the University of Rochester were researching new ways to target leukemia.

They found that taurine is produced by a subset of normal cells in the bone marrow microenvironment, the tissue inside bones where myeloid cancers begin and expand.

They also observed that since leukemia cells are unable to produce taurine themselves, they rely on a taurine transporter gene to grab taurine from the bone marrow and deliver it to the cancer cells.

As leukemia cells drink up taurine, it promotes glycolysis (the breakdown of glucose to produce energy) to feed cancer growth.

In their research, they were able to block the growth of leukemia in mouse models and in human leukemia cell samples by using genetic tools to prevent taurine from entering cancer cells.

The Wilmot researchers wrote in their paper, “Since taurine is a common ingredient in energy drinks and is often provided as a supplement to mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy, our work suggests that it may be of interest to carefully consider the benefits of supplemental taurine in leukemia patients.”

Beyond the headlines

Ultimately, the researchers hope the discovery will lead to new treatment strategies for leukemia and a better understanding of taurine within the leukemia environment.

“Metabolic reprogramming is a hallmark of cancer, and we are at the very beginning of understanding metabolic effects on leukemia cells,” said Jeevisha Bajaj, PhD, lead researcher.

“The prior focus has been on genetic changes, but the focus is expanding to understanding how leukemia cells are able to hijack various metabolic pathways for their own survival,” she adds.

But should you be concerned about taurine giving you cancer? Hopefully, the following will help you decide…

1. Understand the research. Dr. Bajaj states that her research was conducted on mice, not humans, and that — at least in mouse models — leukemia cells can use taurine to fuel their growth, making a “very aggressive cancer slightly more aggressive.”

2. Headlines can give a false impression. Many of the headlines on this research give the impression that the study found that taurine causes cancer. But the above statement is very different from saying that taurine causes cancer. “We have no evidence for that,” says Dr. Bajaj.

3. Use common sense. Taurine is found in healthy foods and is essential for regulating processes that decline with age, including the nervous and immune systems.

4. Should you avoid energy drinks? There are many reasons to avoid energy drinks.

And if you have been diagnosed with leukemia, or if leukemia runs in your family, you should use caution in taking taurine supplements and discuss that with your doctor. Eggs, dark meat poultry, shellfish, tuna and dairy products will provide what is necessary.

This research holds some promising takeaways.

Although more research is required, the study suggests that blocking cancer cells from using taurine for growth could be one way to treat leukemia, says Dr. Bajaj.

Sources:

A Downside of Taurine: It Drives Leukemia Growth — University of Rochester

Taurine from tumour niche drives glycolysis to promote leukaemogenesis — Nature

Can a Common Energy Drink Ingredient Really Raise Your Risk of Blood Cancer? — Nature

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Obesity is linked to an increased risk of more than a dozen types of cancer, and it’s also shown to worsen prognosis and survival rates. The metabolic changes and chronic inflammation associated with obesity help create a more cancer-friendly environment within the body, including one that allows cancer cells to win the battle for fuel against tumor-killing immune cells.

One study found that obesity increases the release of harmful molecules from fat tissue, which is a factor in increased breast cancer risk. Another showed that fat — particularly belly fat — releases a protein that can turn non-cancerous cells cancerous.

So, how can we lower this risk? The answer seems obvious: reverse the obesity. However, losing enough weight to no longer be considered obese can take months or even years. Isn’t there anything people with obesity can do in the meantime?

Yes, it turns out…

The anti-cancer diet that fights what fuels cancer

Researchers examined data from 450,111 participants in the 2017 European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, which enrolled participants ages 35 to 70 from across Europe. The average age of participants was 51 years, and 29% were men. They had an average body mass index (BMI) of 25.3 and a mean waist-to-hip ratio of 0.8.

The study measured everyone’s adherence to the Mediterranean diet on a nine-point scale. About one-quarter (26%) had high adherence of seven to nine points, 39% had medium adherence of four to six points, and 34% had low adherence of zero to three points.

On first glance, the results appeared relatively modest. Adjusted analyses showed that people with the highest adherence to the Mediterranean diet had a 6% lower risk for obesity-related cancers compared with those who had the lowest adherence.

However, when looking at site-specific obesity-related cancers such as colorectal, liver and kidney cancers, high adherence was linked with up to a whopping 48% lower risk.

Medium adherence to the Mediterranean diet was also associated with significantly lower risks for colorectal, kidney and liver cancers, along with a lower risk of esophageal cancer.

No associations were reported for hormone-related cancers in women, including postmenopausal breast cancer, endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer.

Those with the highest Mediterranean diet adherence tended to be younger. They also were more likely to have never smoked, were less physically active and had a higher energy (caloric) intake.

Interestingly, the reduction in risk of obesity-related cancer was greater in current and former smokers. Also, people who drank only a moderate amount of alcohol and had a lower meat intake tended to have a reduced risk of obesity-related cancer.

All the right foods to prevent disease

The researchers suggest that the cancer protection offered by the Mediterranean diet may be spurred by improvements in metabolic and inflammatory markers associated with the diet, such as fasting blood glucose and C-reactive protein. In addition, higher fiber intake may counteract carcinogenic compounds from processed meats and harmful foods.

“The potential benefits of the Mediterranean diet for cancer prevention may be from interactions and synergistic effects among its various components, collectively enhancing health benefits beyond those observed for individual foods alone,” the authors write in the study.

The fact that this is a large-scale study gives weight to the idea that adopting a Mediterranean diet may go a long way toward defending against obesity-related cancers, particularly those site-specific cancers mentioned in the study.

So, if you have obesity, where should you start? The Mediterranean diet emphasizes consumption of fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts and whole grains, as well as judicious intake of lean meats, low-fat dairy and olive oil. Survey your diet and see how closely it matches these parameters. If you’re using olive oil for cooking and consuming lots of fruits and vegetables, you’re already well on your way to a Mediterranean eating style.

If your diet trends more toward ultra-processed foods focus on changing one meal a day to something more in the Mediterranean realm. For instance, you could replace that lunchtime sandwich loaded with processed deli meat with an olive oil-dressed salad containing a healthy portion of tuna or salmon.

Sources:

Top Diet Linked to Lower Risk of Multiple Cancers — MedPage Today

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Obesity-Linked Cancer Risk in EPIC — JAMA Network Open

The post It’s time to rename it ‘the anti-cancer diet’ appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Their doctor has likely prescribed it to prevent a second heart attack or ischemic stroke. Both involve blood clots blocking major arteries, and aspirin interferes with the process of clot formation.

However, as often happens in research, scientists have accidentally discovered that the very mechanism that helps aspirin prevent blood from clotting can also stop cancer from spreading.

How aspirin allows T cells to kill cancer

A team of scientists at the University of Cambridge wanted to investigate the process by which cancer metastasizes or spreads.

Specifically, they aimed to gain a deeper understanding of how the immune system responds to metastasis.

While cancer cells in an original tumor often develop the ability to suppress the immune system, lone cancer cells that have spread to other parts of the body are more vulnerable to attacks by T cells, which can recognize and kill metastatic cancer cells.

Working with mice, the researchers discovered a gene that produces a protein called ARHGEF1. They also found that mice who lacked this gene had less metastasis of primary cancers to other parts of their bodies.

They soon discovered why: ARHGEF1 suppresses the T cells that would otherwise normally detect and kill metastasized cancer cells. That’s why mice that did not have the ARHGEF1-producing gene had less metastasis.

Of course, the scientists dug further for a target that could manipulate that action, hoping it would lead them to a potential therapy to reduce the risk of cancer metastasis — and they found it…

They saw that ARHGEF1 is switched on when T cells are exposed to a clotting factor called thromboxane A2 (TXA2). And guess what?

Aspirin reduces the production of TXA2, leading to anti-clotting effects, which is why aspirin is sometimes suggested for the prevention of heart attacks and strokes.

In other words, the research found that aspirin prevents cancers from spreading by decreasing TXA2 and releasing T cells from suppression, allowing them to seek and destroy cancer cells that attempt to spread.

Aspirin as cancer therapy: pros, cons

This discovery holds particular promise for people whose cancer has just begun to spread.

“Most immunotherapies are developed to treat patients with established metastatic cancer, but when cancer first spreads there’s a unique therapeutic window of opportunity when cancer cells are particularly vulnerable to immune attack,” says Professor Rahul Roychoudhuri, the study’s lead author.

“We hope that therapies that target this window of vulnerability will have tremendous scope in preventing recurrence in patients with early cancer at risk of recurrence.”

Previous research has shown that aspirin may also be beneficial for cancer prevention, potentially activating genes that protect against colorectal cancer.

However, it’s important to note that you should never “self-medicate” by taking a daily aspirin without first talking with your doctor.

If you are taking a blood thinner such as Warfarin or Heparin, your doctor will almost certainly advise against adding a daily aspirin to your regimen. That’s because it would increase the anti-coagulant effect on your body and could cause internal bleeding.

A few other things to consider:

• The most recent recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is for adults 60 years or older not to start daily low-dose aspirin use for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.
• People with pre-existing kidney disease should avoid aspirin, as it acts like a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Reduced blood flow to the kidneys can cause further damage.
• Aspirin can irritate the stomach lining and worsen existing stomach ulcers.
• Aspirin may significantly increase the risk of bleeding, including bleeding on the brain and gastrointestinal hemorrhages.

Be safe and talk to your doctor before starting a daily cancer regimen.

Sources:

Scientists discover how aspirin could prevent some cancers from spreading — Eureka Alert

Aspirin prevents metastasis by limiting platelet TXA2 suppression of T cell immunity — Nature

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But what if I told you that the prognosis for a person with COPD is a lot worse if they don’t brush their teeth regularly and well?

WHAT?! How are these two things possibly connected?

It may seem absurd at first glance. However, research has long shown that the health of the mouth is closely linked to the health of the body. One example is the connection between gum disease and heart disease.

Now, scientists have shown us that there’s a similarly strong connection between your gums and your lungs…

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The bacterial link between gum disease and COPD

Periodontitis, or gum disease, is a result of the buildup of plaque on the teeth over time.

Plaque is a sticky film made mostly of bacteria. Over time, if not treated, plaque can harden into tartar and cause inflammation of the gum tissue. This produces gaps between teeth and gums, the perfect place for more bacteria to flourish.

The result is periodontitis, or gum disease, which has already been found to be a risk factor for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease… and COPD.

A team of Chinese researchers has conducted several mouse studies that have identified the mechanism by which periodontal bacteria aggravate the progression of COPD.

First, they showed that mice with COPD and infected with periodontitis had worse progression of COPD than mice with COPD alone.

In a second experiment, they observed that when mice were orally infected with the bacterium P. gingivalis (a bacterium that causes gum disease), the bacteria migrated to and infected the lungs.

Finally, they showed that P. gingivalis could activate immune cells in the lungs, promoting their ability to produce cytokines (small proteins) associated with exacerbating COPD symptoms.

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Protect your mouth… and your lungs

“By enhancing periodontal therapy and targeting the inhibition of γδ T cells and M2 macrophages, we may be able to help control the progression of COPD,” said microbiologist Boyu Tang, Ph.D., who led the study with microbiologist Yan Li, Ph.D.So, if you want to protect your lungs, start by protecting your gums..

To prevent gingivitis, stick to a regular brushing and flossing routine. Skipping as little as 24 to 72 hours can cause changes in your oral microbiome — the population of good and bad bacteria in your mouth —that can trigger periodontitis.

Some natural foods and supplements can support you in the battle against mouth bacteria that cause gum disease…

• Drink matcha tea (green tea). When used as a mouthwash, green tea killed all P. gingivalis bacteria within four hours!
• Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, and CoQ10 supplements all support healthy teeth and gums.
• Cut down on sugar intake. The bacteria that cause gum disease feed on sugar, so your goal is to starve them to death. Cut refined sugar and carbohydrates out of your diet and your mouth, and the rest of your body will be healthier.
• Drink plenty of water. It will keep you hydrated but also aid in removing bacteria and preventing gum inflammation.
• Consider a fish or krill oil supplement for healthy omega-3s. They are associated with lung health and fight the inflammation associated with gum disease.

Sources:

How gum disease aggravates chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — Science Daily

Periodontitis aggravates COPD through the activation of γδ T cell and M2 macrophage — American Society for Microbiology

New Study Shows 24-72 Hours of Poor Oral Hygiene Impacts Oral Health — Eureka Alert

The post The troubling effect gum disease has on COPD appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

The odds of breast cancer recurring can range between 3 and 25 percent, depending on what treatment is received and whether it has spread to the surrounding lymph nodes. These factors can also affect risk:

• Age. Women who develop breast cancer before the age of 35 are more likely to get it again.
• Cancer stage: Women with later stages of the cancer are more likely to develop recurrence than those with stage I or stage II breast cancer.
• Cancer type: Aggressive cancers like inflammatory and triple-negative breast cancer are harder to treat and more likely to recur.

Research shows specific treatments may reduce breast cancer recurrence risk, including chemotherapy and hormone therapies like tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors. However, these treatments don’t guarantee prevention of recurrence.

Some investigators are exploring alternative means of prevention. And one international team of researchers may have found a set of natural compounds that could help keep breast cancer at bay….

The power of soy isoflavones

The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center co-directed a review of  22 studies examining the impact of specific phytonutrients from plants on breast cancer recurrence and mortality, as well as death from all causes.

In one meta-analysis of six studies, they found soy isoflavones were linked with a 26 percent reduced risk of breast cancer recurrence. The results were most notable among post-menopausal survivors.

The most significant risk reduction was seen at 60 milligrams of soy per day. That equals two to three servings per day, where a serving is one cup of soy milk, three ounces of tofu, or a half cup of cooked soybeans.

The effect of soy consumption on death risk was only 12 percent and was most noticeable at 20 to 40 milligrams per day, or about one to two servings.

Another finding reported for the first time in a meta-analysis is related to enterolactone, a substance formed in the gut by the digestion of compounds known as lignans. Lignans are found in a wide variety of plants, with high levels in flaxseeds, cashews, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and in varying degrees in some berries.

The meta-analysis showed enterolactone reduced the risk of mortality specific to breast cancer by 28 percent and death from any cause by 31 percent. In post-menopausal women, enterolactone had a 35 percent reduced risk of death from any cause.

The researchers say it isn’t possible to calculate the effective dose of lignans in the diet from these findings because the gut microbiome, which plays a role in metabolizing lignans, varies among individuals.

Green tea and lignans

According to the researchers, the findings on lignans and soy were solid enough to recommend that breast cancer survivors include them in their dietary guidelines. Other findings didn’t have enough data behind them for such a recommendation, although the researchers say they were “suggestive.”

For instance, green tea consumption suggests an effect of reducing the risk of recurrence by 44 percent in women with stage I or II breast cancer. Two Japanese studies documented the greatest impact from consuming three to five cups of green tea per day.

Among those consuming lignans before breast cancer diagnosis, there was a 34 percent risk reduction in cancer-specific mortality and a 19 percent reduction in risk of all causes of death in post-menopausal women. However, consumption of lignans by premenopausal women suggests an increased risk of mortality. This indicates the effect of lignans could depend on the hormonal environment. The highest intake in the studies reviewed was nine or more servings per day.

“It is critically important to stress that these studies were conducted on women who received medical and/or surgical treatment for breast cancer, and that these foods and phytonutrients should not be considered as alternatives to treatment,” says senior study author Dr. Channing Paller, director of prostate cancer clinical research and an associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University.

Peller says the research highlights the need for more robust studies looking for the most effective dosages of these compounds, and whether starting to consume them after diagnosis has the same effect as a lifelong dietary habit before diagnosis.

When adding soy to your diet, make sure it’s the right kind. Avoid soy meat products, energy bars and other processed soy products, and stick to simple versions of soy like tofu, tempeh or edamame.

Fermented soy foods like tempeh, miso and natto are especially good for you because they contain beneficial bacteria and more easily absorbable nutrients. If you’re concerned about GMOs, you can find non-GMO versions of these products in health food stores.

Flaxseeds and their lignans have been proven in past studies to protect against breast cancer. I have some tips for adding them to your diet here.

Sources:

Natural Compounds Derived from Soy and Other Plants Reduce Breast Cancer Recurrence and Improve Survival, Research Shows — Johns Hopkins Medicine

Phytonutrients and outcomes following breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies — JNCI Cancer Spectrum

Breast Cancer Recurrence — Cleveland Clinic

The post The plant compounds that keep breast cancer from coming back appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

He was in his mid-40s, the same age as my husband and I, at the time.

Even though it came as a shock, it shouldn’t have. In my work, I see the data regularly and know that colon cancer has been on the rise among people under 40 for several years now.

As more and more research is being carried out to get to the root causes and slow the tide, a disturbing revelation may have just been found in a surprising place — the mouth.

Traveling from the mouth to the gut

We’re used to discussing the gut microbiome.

But your mouth has a microbiome as well — a community of millions upon millions of bacteria — some good, some bad and some outright dangerous.

And it’s one of the latter that scientists from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center say is responsible for fueling colon cancer growth to make it far more deadly.

The name of the bacteria is Fusobacterium nucleatum. And past research has shown it can infect tumors, like a virus infecting a healthy cell.

It has also been shown to cause chemoresistance (making chemotherapy less effective for those undergoing treatment).

Now, researchers have been able to prove that a subtype of the bacteria, the tumor-infiltrating Fna C2 type, is the one responsible.

Their work showed that this one subtype of the bacteria had acquired distinct genetic traits allowing it to travel from the mouth through the stomach, withstanding stomach acid, and landing in the lower gastrointestinal tract.

This makes it one of the biggest colon cancer risks around.

“We’ve consistently seen that patients with colorectal tumors containing Fusobacterium nucleatum have poor survival and poorer prognosis compared with patients without the microbe,” explained Susan Bullman, Ph.D., Fred Hutch cancer microbiome researcher and co-corresponding study author. “Now we’re finding that a specific subtype of this microbe is responsible for tumor growth.”

Specifically, their study showed that:

• The Fna C2 subtype is significantly enriched in colorectal tumor tissue
• The subtype causes abnormal cells in colorectal tissue to grow exponentially
• The Fna C2 lineage is found in approximately 50% of cases colorectal cancer cases.

“We have pinpointed the exact bacterial lineage that is associated with colorectal cancer, and that knowledge is critical for developing effective preventive and treatment methods,” said study co-author Christopher D. Johnston, PhD.

A healthier mouth for a healthier gut

Fusobacterium nucleatum is commonly found in dental plaque. So you know what that means…

Your first line of defense is practicing good oral hygiene and seeing a dentist regularly to have any plaque removed.

But there are some practices, a little off the beaten path, that could help as well…

• Use a red wine mouthwash –Spanish researchers have found that that two polyphenols found in red wine — caffeic acid and p-coumaric acid — help prevent harmful bacteria like Fusobacterium nucleatum from attaching to gum tissue where they can start their trip to the gut. This means that swishing out your mouth with a bit of red wine rather than traditional mouthwash could be the key to better colon health.
• Try DIM – Diindolylmethane (DIM) has been shown to reduce the biofilms that produce plaque and cavities by a whopping 90 percent. By disrupting the biofilms, bacteria are not given a chance to grow.
• Chew Greek gum – A gum made from mastic resin has been found to reduce the amount of cavity-causing bacteria in your mouth, lower plaque levels and reduce gum inflammation.
• Use probiotics – Finally, don’t forget to take probiotics, which boost the level of good bacteria in your body, daily. Probiotics are even available in a chewable form designed specifically for oral health. You can find them online or at your local supplement store.

Sources:

Bacteria subtype linked to growth in up to 50% of human colorectal cancers, Fred Hutch researchers report – EurekAlert!

The post Why the fight against colon cancer might start in your mouth appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Some cancers are especially cruel. They are hard to detect, yet they progress rapidly. Pancreatic cancer is one of these.

This difficulty in detection makes life expectancy for people with pancreatic cancer horribly short.

For the past two decades, one group of researchers has persevered in proving that there’s a simple, inexpensive treatment that can double that life expectancy while also improving the quality of life for people living with pancreatic cancer.

Why is pancreatic cancer so hard to detect?

First, let’s discuss why the pancreas, a large gland that controls the digestive and endocrine systems, is so important.  

As a digestive organ, it produces pancreatic juice, which neutralizes stomach acid, and digestive enzymes that break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins in the food we eat.

As an endocrine gland, the pancreas produces insulin and other hormones that regulate blood sugar.

The pancreas is tucked away in the abdominal cavity behind the stomach. That’s why pancreatic cancer may be difficult to detect and often isn’t diagnosed until the disease is in more advanced stages.

In the last few years, more modern detection methods, such as using artificial intelligence to read CT scans, have proven effective in detecting pancreatic cancer sooner.

But what about better treatment for those who end up with this fast-moving cancer?

There are exciting improvements in that area as well.

Intravenous vitamin C extends life

I’ve written previously about vitamin D’s cancer-fighting powers. But I have to say, I am equally impressed with vitamin C.

A team at the University of Iowa has been researching the benefits of high-dose intravenous vitamin C for cancer patients.

Early in 2024, they showed a significant increase in survival when cancer patients with glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer, had this treatment added to standard chemotherapy.

Dr. Joe Cullen, a University of Iowa professor of surgery, was part of this trial.

He’s also a senior author of a new study showing that adding high-dose I.V. vitamin C to chemotherapy doubles the average survival rate of patients with late-stage metastatic pancreatic cancer from eight months to sixteen months. 

Dr. Cullen notes that despite skepticism around vitamin C as a cancer therapy, the results his team has obtained are undeniable.

“Through every step of the process, it continued to improve. We did it in cells, it worked great. We did it in mice, it worked great. Then our phase one trials looked very promising. So, the progression has just been phenomenal, really.

“For example, in one of our phase 1 trials for pancreatic cancer, where we combine high-dose IV vitamin C with radiation, we still have three long-term survivors. They’re out nine years at this point, which is far beyond the typical survival range.” 

Risks and early warning signs

While this new development is extremely promising, there’s still a need to catch pancreatic cancer early and to avoid the risk factors that make it more likely.

Those risk factors include:

• Smoking
• Being overweight
• Diabetes
• Exposure to chemicals used in dry cleaning
• Chronic pancreatitis

The nine early warning signs of pancreatic cancer are:

• Jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes)
• Pain in the upper or middle abdomen and back
• Dark urine
• Itchy skin, especially palms or soles of the feet
• Abdominal pain
• Change in appearance or smell of stools
• Loss of appetite, especially if accompanied by a change in your taste for foods (you may suddenly feel ill at the thought of eating your favorite food)
• Unexplained weight loss
• Enlarged gallbladder or liver
• Blood clots, especially in a large vein, like in the leg
• New onset of diabetes
• Feeling tired

If you experience any of these, and especially if you’re experiencing more than two at a time, see your doctor right away. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Sources:

High dose IV vitamin C plus chemotherapy doubles survival in advanced pancreatic cancer — Eureka Alert

A randomized trial of pharmacological ascorbate,, gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel for metasatatic pancreaetic cancer — Redox Biology

Magnetic resonance imaging of iron metabolism with T2 mapping predicts an enhanced clinical response to pharmacologic ascorbate in patients with GBM — Clinical Cancer Research

The post What vitamin C can do for pancreatic cancer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

However, despite mounting evidence, many of us are still hooked on soda and other sugary drinks.

Research has found clear links between sugar-added drinks and accelerated aging, liver cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

In addition, sugar and tooth decay go hand-in-hand… but bad teeth may be the least of your worries if you make a habit of consuming sugary drinks.

That’s because now research has linked them to a higher risk for oral cancer…

Higher risk than smoking and alcohol

Researchers at the University of Washington found that it doesn’t take much to tip the scales against you when it comes to sweet drinks and elevated risk of oral cancer.

They looked at records that covered the dietary habits of a group of women over a 30-year period. Of the 162,602 women,124 developed oral cancer during that time.

But here’s the kicker: women who drank one or more sugary drinks per month were nearly five times more likely to develop oral cancer than those who drank less than one per month.

Two sodas per month. It doesn’t seem like a lot, right? But it could be enough to multiply your risk of oral cancer by five.

And it gets even more serious…

You might be thinking, “Well, what’s one guilty pleasure when overall I follow most of the rules for living a healthy lifestyle?”

That may not be enough. Even among women who didn’t drink or smoke, the ones who drank two sugary drinks per day were at 5.46 times the risk of oral cancer than those who drank one or none per month.

Oral cancer is linked to papillomavirus (HPV) infection, but also to lifestyle habits, including smoking, chewing tobacco and heavy drinking. So, it’s really alarming that oral cancer is on the rise among people outside of those typical risk factors.

Reducing this latest risk for oral cancer

Oral cancer is a potent incentive to give up sugary drinks. But you might need to consider other dietary changes as well.

That’s because the researchers think an inflammatory diet may be part of the reason oral cancer is impacting people outside of those typical risk factors…

“A Western dietary pattern has increasingly been recognized as a risk factor for gastrointestinal tract cancers and is characterized by high consumption of saturated fats, processed foods and added sugars,” according to the researchers.

“Our hypothesis is that diets with higher added sugar may contribute to chronic inflammation, which may, in turn, contribute to the risk of OCC.”

If you make changes to reduce sugar, do it the right way. That means not reaching for artificial sweeteners. They don’t have the all-clear yet…

The researchers feel studies are needed to confirm whether soft drinks with artificial sweeteners would be just as harmful and could have the same cancer connection.

So, how can you kick the habit? Here are a few tips.

Drink water instead. Soda cravings are often really just thirst, and water is much better at quenching thirst. Keep a pitcher or bottle of water close at hand.

Keep soda at a distance. Don’t buy it or keep it in your home. But if you do and the craving hits, take a walk instead, putting actual physical distance between you and that drink.

Have a healthy sweet treat instead. Try fresh fruit. If you’re truly thirsty, try coconut water or fruit-flavored sparkling water.

If you drink a lot of soda, cut back gradually to avoid headaches, fatigue and irritability. If you feel like you miss the caffeine, try coffee. Coffee has many health benefits and is associated with a lower risk of head and neck cancers.

Be sure to stay hydrated with water throughout the day. You can do this!

Sources:

Oral Cancer Cases Are on The Rise, And Sugary Drinks Could Be to Blame — Science Alert

High Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake and Oral Cavity Cancer in Smoking and Nonsmoking Women — JAMA Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery

The post Sugary drinks linked to rising rates of oral cancer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

However, all might not be so rosy — at least when it comes to plant-based milks.

In fact, according to recent research, if you’ve switched from cow’s milk to almond, oat, soy or rice drinks, you might not only be losing valuable nutrients — you could also be pouring compounds linked to cancer into your body.

Here’s why…

Lack of protein and amino acids

A team of scientists at the University of Copenhagen set out to compare cow’s milk nutritional and safety profiles to plant-based milk.

Their concern?

While milk can basically be considered a finished product when it comes out of a cow, oats, rice, soy and almonds need extensive processing to convert them into drinkable beverages. Adding insult to injury, plant-based milks also have to undergo Ultra High Temperature (UHT) treatment, a process widely used for long-life milks across the globe.

And as it turns out, their worry was for good reason…

According to the scientists, UHT treatment triggers something they call a “Maillard reaction.” This is when high heat leads to a chemical reaction between protein and sugar, essentially destroying the nutritional quality of the proteins in the product.

In terms of plant-based milk, that process reduces protein in a product already lacking in that department.

“Most plant-based drinks already have significantly less protein than cow’s milk. And the protein, which is present in low content, is then additionally modified when heat-treated. This leads to the loss of some essential amino acids, which are incredibly important for us. While the nutritional contents of plant-based drinks vary greatly, most of them have relatively low nutritional quality,” explains Professor Marianne Nissen Lund, the study’s lead author.

The study showed that while cow’s milk contained 3.4 grams of protein per liter, plant-based milks rang in at just 0.4 to 1.1 grams.

Cancer dangers?

In addition to reducing protein levels, the researchers found that UHT treatment also results in the generation of new compounds in some plant-based milks.

“The chemical compounds that result from Maillard reactions are generally undesirable because they can increase inflammation in the body. Some of these compounds are also linked to a higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases,” says Lars Ove Dragsted of the Department of Nutrition, Execercise and Sports.

And they can even be linked to cancer…

In fact, the researchers found that almond and oat milk contained acrylamide, a carcinogen also found in bread, cookies, coffee beans and fried potatoes, including French fries.

They say that while the levels of the compound were low enough not to pose a danger from simply drinking the milk, you could be at risk when you add up possible consumption from all these other sources.

The researchers also discovered two additional cytotoxicity and cancer-promoting compounds in several plant-based drinks — α-dicarbonyl compounds and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF).

Considerations for choosing milk that’s right for you

So, while a plant-based diet can be a good choice, it seems that when it comes to milk, good old-fashioned whole cow’s milk offers better nutrition.

“We definitely need to consume more plant-based foods. But if you’re looking for proper nutrition and believe that plant-based drinks can replace cow’s milk, you’d be mistaken,” says Department of Food Science professor Marianne Nissen Lund, the study’s lead author.

But when it comes to cancer, diary may go either way…

According to MD Anderson Cancer Center, dairy affects cancer types differently.

Consuming dairy may increase prostate cancer risk because dairy increases circulating levels of IGF-1, a hormone known to promote prostate cancer growth.

Other research shows dairy may help prevent the development of breast and colorectal cancers.

So the decision whether to go dairy or plant-based may be a personal one.

In the US, most milk found in the refrigerated section undergoes a standard pasteurization process. That involves heating milk to at least 161°F (72°C) for at least 15 seconds, followed by rapid cooling. 

However, be aware that shelf-stable cow’s milk, which has a longer shelf life, undergoes the same UHT pasteurization as plant-based milk.

Sources:

How chemical reactions deplete nutrients in plant-based drinks — ScienceDaily

Sugars Replacement as a Strategy to Control the Formation of α-Dicarbonyl and Furanic Compounds during Cookie Processing — PMC

5 things to know about dairy and cancer risk — MD Anderson Cancer Center

The post Are plant-based milks all they’re cracked up to be? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

So, in addition to limiting my exposure and wearing lightweight clothing to keep my skin covered, I always carry an EWG-approved sunscreen in my purse and keep a hat in my car.   

I thought I was doing all the right things…

But imagine my dismay when I learned that certain medications could cancel out some of my sun-proofing efforts and leave me open to elevated skin cancer risk.

Here’s your heads up, too  — in case you’re taking a medication that increases your photosensitivity…

Photosensitivity, blisters and skin cancer

“Most people have no idea that their medication could be making them more sensitive to the sun,” Dr. Emily Alfonsi, medical director of Shade Skin in Australia, told The New York Post. “They might notice they’re burning faster or developing unusual rashes, but they don’t immediately connect it to their medication.”

Dr. Alfonsi said she has seen patients develop second-degree sunburns with blistering, unexplained rashes or dark patches of skin, even in indirect sunlight.

“For people on photosensitizing medications, a few minutes in the sun without protection can have serious consequences,” Alfonsi told The Post.

To avoid worst-case scenarios, it’s important to identify medications that make your skin especially sensitive to the sun’s effects…

Antibiotics

Tetracycline and fluoroquinolone antibiotics can cause severe sunburn even after brief exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. That’s because they cause photosensitivity.

In other words, they make the skin much more sensitive to UV light, which can cause exaggerated reactions such as rashes, blisters, swelling, peeling, burning, itching or sustained hyperpigmentation.

Both tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones are used for bacterial infections. Tetracyclines like doxycycline and minocycline are also commonly used to treat acne, so if you use them for that purpose, you’ll want to be extra careful about spending time in the sun.

Fluoroquinolones like ciprofloxacin used to be a first-line treatment for urinary tract infections (UTIs), but they’re no longer recommended for that use because of antibiotic resistance.

Diuretics

Also known as “water pills,” diuretics help the body eliminate excess salt and water and treat high blood pressure and fluid retention.

Some studies have linked diuretics like hydrochlorothiazide with an increased risk of squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common skin cancer in the U.S. Their use also has been connected with a higher risk of malignant melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer.

Immunosuppressants

Azathioprine is an immunosuppressant commonly used in transplant patients to prevent organ rejection as well as to reduce symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and irritable bowel disease. This drug also causes photosensitivity and can weaken the skin’s natural defenses against UV damage.

Other rheumatoid arthritis drugs in this class that cause photosensitivity include methotrexate, leflunomide and hydroxychloroquine.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)

Nonprescription NSAIDs such as ibuprofen and naproxen reduce pain, inflammation and fever. They’re often used chronically for pain, particularly arthritis-related pain. Unfortunately, long-term use can cause photosensitivity.

Other drugs that can cause photosensitivity include:

• Antiarrhythmics (amiodarone, quinidine)
• Certain antifungals (griseofulvin)
• Antihistamines (cetirizine, diphenhydramine, loratadine, promethazine and cyproheptadine)
• Cholesterol-lowering medicines (atorvastatin, simvastatin, lovastatin and pravastatin)
• Oral contraceptives and estrogens
• Phenothiazines (tranquilizers and anti-emetics like chlorpromazine, fluphenazine and promethazine)
• Psoralens (methoxsalen and trioxsalen)
• Retinoids (acitretin and isotretinoin)
• Sulfonamides (“sulfa” drugs like acetazolamide, sulfadiazine, sulfamethizole and sulfamethoxazole)
• Sulfonylureas for type 2 diabetes (glipizide and glyburide)
• Alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) in cosmetics

How to protect yourself

As scary as this is, don’t stop taking any prescribed medications without consulting your doctor. Instead, as Dr. Alfonsi noted, the key to protecting against photosensitivity is to prevent the reaction from occurring in the first place…

“A few extra precautions can significantly reduce your risk of long-term skin damage and skin cancer,” she told The Post.

Here are some protective actions you can take:

• Wear sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher every day — even in winter (although Alfonsi cautioned that this isn’t “a free pass to stay in the sun all day”).
• Wear UV-blocking sunglasses, wide-brimmed hats and other protective clothing (make sure your clothing has an ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of at least 30).
• Avoid peak sun hours (anywhere from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., depending on the time of year).
• Visit your dermatologist annually and monitor your skin for unusual changes.

You can also help fight photosensitivity with foods that have photo-protective properties.

Sources:

Most people ‘have no idea’ that these 4 common medications can increase their risk of skin cancer — New York Post

Tetracycline (class) (oral route, parenteral route) — Mayo Clinic

Avoid using a fluoroquinolone antibiotic for the first-line treatment of uncomplicated UTIs in women. — American Family Physician

Fluoroquinolone-Induced Photosensitivity: A Chemical Fragment-Based Approach by a Case/Non-case Study in VigiBase — Drug safety

Use of Thiazide Diuretics and Risk of All Types of Skin Cancers: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis — Cancers (Basel)

Azathioprine and Photosensitivity — Crohn’s UK

Arthritis Medications and Sun Sensitivity — Arthritis Foundation

Azathioprine and Risk of Skin Cancer in Organ Transplant Recipients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis — American Journal of Transplantation

Photosensitivity Report Medications — Skin Cancer Foundation

The Sun and Your Medicine — U.S. Food and Drug Administration

The post Medications that can increase your skin cancer risk appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Many people with conditions like coronary artery disease take daily aspirin to ward off heart attack and stroke. It’s also been suggested for reduction of the brain plaques that cause Alzheimer’s disease.

On the other hand, daily aspirin use has been linked with a significantly increased risk of bleeding, including hemorrhagic stroke and gastrointestinal hemorrhages. It also has been found to almost double the risk of melanoma in men.

Now another study has weighed in on the debate — and it seems to come down on the positive side of daily aspirin use, at least for one very serious threat…

Aspirin’s role in colorectal cancer prevention

Colorectal cancer, also known as bowel or colon cancer, is the third most common form of cancer worldwide, with around 1.9 million newly diagnosed cases and 900,000 deaths every year. It used to be considered an older person’s disease, but rates in people under 50 have been on the rise in recent years.

There is a need for more preventives for this deadly cancer. And aspirin could fit the bill…

Previous studies have shown that aspirin reduces the risk of colorectal cancer. One study found it reduced cancer of the large bowel by an impressive 50 percent. It also has been found to inhibit the progression of cancer in the colon.

More recent research has identified the signaling pathway by which aspirin can inhibit these cancers…

 A team from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) in Germany conducted a laboratory study to gain clarity on the molecular mechanisms behind this effect.

According to the results, aspirin prompts the production of two tumor-suppressive microRNA molecules (miRNAs) called miR-34a and miR-34b/c. To do this, aspirin binds to and activates AMPK, an anti-aging enzyme that acts as a “master switch” to determine how our bodies process energy. This in turn alters the transcription factor NRF2, which then migrates into the cell nucleus and activates the expression of the miR-34 genes.

In addition, aspirin allows the activation to succeed by suppressing the oncogene product c-MYC, which otherwise would inhibit NRF2.

To sum all this up, aspirin activates genes that help protect against colorectal cancer.

The results show that miR-34 genes are necessary for aspirin to work to inhibit colorectal cancer cells. Aspirin failed to prevent migration, invasion and metastasis in cancer cells that were miR-34-deficient. It was already known that the transcription factor p53 induces the miR-34 genes, which mediate its effects.

“Our results show, however, that activation of the miR-34 genes by aspirin takes place independently of the p53 signaling pathway,” says Heiko Hermeking, a professor of experimental and molecular pathology at LMU. “This is important because the p53-encoding gene is the most commonly inactivated tumor suppressor gene in colorectal cancer. In most other kinds of cancer, moreover, p53 is inactivated by mutations or viruses in the majority of cases. Aspirin could therefore be employed therapeutically in such cases in the future.”

How to best take aspirin

A lot more research needs to be done before aspirin’s role in colorectal cancer prevention can be confirmed. But if you’re at high risk for colorectal cancer because of family history or other factors, you may be considering adding a daily dose of aspirin to your regime. But is there a safe way to do it?

As is the case with any medication, the first thing to do is to speak with your doctor about it. They will be able to help you decide whether the potential preventive benefits are worth the risks and about existing conditions that need to be considered.

If your doctor does recommend daily aspirin, you’ll want to take a low dose (roughly 75 mg, or the dose in baby aspirin). Make sure to take it with food to help avoid stomach upset. Or you can take it in tablets that dissolve in a drink of water or tablets with a special enteric coating to help protect your stomach.

Of course, you’ll want to do everything you can to reduce your risk of colorectal cancer in the first place. It’s important to maintain a healthy weight, stay active and eat the right foods — particularly resistant starch. This type of starch has been shown to reduce the odds of a range of cancers — including colorectal cancer — by more than 60 percent.

Sources:

Bowel cancer: Aspirin activates protective genes — ScienceDaily

Salicylate induces AMPK and inhibits c-MYC to activate a NRF2/ARE/miR-34a/b/c cascade resulting in suppression of colorectal cancer metastasis — Cell Death & Disease

About low-dose aspirin — NHS

The post An over-the-counter medication activates cancer-protective genes appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And I’m not talking about those fruit-flavored yogurts full of sugar. For me, it’s plain Greek yogurt – thick, creamy, and even better when mixed with a teaspoon of honey.

Yogurt is packed with probiotics such as Bifidobacterium animalis that help keep the gut in tip-top shape. When the gut is healthy, your digestion, mood and cognition are supported.

And on top of that, you can worry less about your risk for obesity, diabetes, and colon cancer.

Bacteria in yogurt, including Bifidobacterium, alter the gut microbiome in positive ways.

Here’s some new research that proves just how powerful yogurt can be in slashing your risk for one of the most lethal types of colon cancer.

Eating yogurt can make colon cancer less deadly

Dr. Shuji Ogino, along with a team of researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard’s H.T. Chan School of Public Health, call themselves “team OPTIMISTICC.”

They conducted a study using data from two well-known prospective cohort studies: the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS). These studies have followed more than 100,000 female registered nurses since 1976 and 51,000 male health professionals since 1986, respectively.

Participants in each study answered repeated questionnaires about their lifestyle choices, including questions about their average daily intake of plain and flavored yogurt and other dairy products. They also answered questions about their disease history, if any.

The researchers also assessed tissue samples for participants with confirmed cases of colorectal cancer, measuring the amount of Bifidobacterium DNA in tumor tissue.

For participants with confirmed cases of colorectal cancer, the researchers assessed tissue samples, measuring the amount of Bifidobacterium (B. bifidum) DNA in tumor tissue.

Information on Bifidobacterium content was available in 1,121 colorectal cancer cases. Among those, 346 cases (31%) were Bifidobacterium-positive, and 775 cases (69%) were Bifidobacterium-negative.

The researchers didn’t observe a significant association between long-term yogurt intake and overall colorectal cancer incidence, but they did see an association in Bifidobacterium-positive tumors, with a 20 percent lower rate of incidence for participants who consumed two or more servings of yogurt a week.

Specifically, this lower rate was driven by a lower incidence of Bifidobacterium-positive proximal colon cancer — a type of colorectal cancer that occurs in the right side of the colon.

Studies have found that patients with proximal colon cancer have worse survival outcomes than patients with distal cancers (on the left side of the colon).

“It has long been believed that yogurt and other fermented milk products are beneficial for gastrointestinal health,” said co-senior author Tomotaka Ugai, MD, PhD, of the Department of Pathology at the Brigham and the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Our new findings suggest that this protective effect may be specific for Bifidobacterium-positive tumors.”

In other words, even if they did get colon cancer, the people who ate yogurt twice a week were less likely to get the more deadly type.

Supporting your gut with Bifidobacterium

If you’re a yogurt lover like me, you may get a regular supply of Bifidobacterium — and hopefully have for years.

But if you don’t like yogurt, you may not be out of luck…

Fermented foods have a long history and a lot of science behind their disease-fighting benefits, and yogurt isn’t your only choice.

Other fermented foods that should contain Bifidobacterium include:

• Sauerkraut
• Kefit
• Kombucha
• Kimchi
• Natto
• Fermented cheeses
• Cottage cheese
• Buttermilk
• Miso
• Tempeh
• Pickled cucumber
• Olives
• Apple cider vinegar
• Acidophilus milk
• Kvass

A probiotic supplement is another option. And prebiotics, especially inulin type fructans (ITF) and arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides (AXOS), can be consumed to increase the number of Bifidobacterium in the colon.

Sources:

Long-term yogurt consumption tied to decreased incidence of certain types of colorectal cancer — Science Daily

Long-term yogurt intake and colorectal cancer incidence subclassified by Bifidobacterium abundance in tumor — Gut Microbes

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And this is especially true when it comes to cancer.

In fact, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), up to 50 percent of all cancer cases in the United States could be completely eliminated simply by making simple lifestyle changes.

Here are the five changes they say are most important in cancer prevention…

Cancer’s modifiable risk factors

Their numbers come from a study of 1.78 million cancer cases from 2019 among US adults 30 years and over.

And they found that across the board, your chances of developing or dying from the disease can be dramatically reduced by making simple decisions that make your life healthier.

The researchers discovered that in 19 out of the 30 cancer types they studied, more than half of cases and deaths were linked to potentially modifiable risk factors.

These modifiable risk factors included:

• Cigarette smoking – Hands-down, this habit had the largest proportion of cancer cases attributable to it at a whopping 19.3 percent of cases overall. It’s never too late to quit.
• Excess body weight – Carrying around extra weight was associated with 7.6 percent of cancer cases.
• Alcohol consumption – Drinking was a risk factor in 5.4 percent of cases.
• UV radiation exposure – Sun exposure led to 4.6 percent of cases in the study.
• Physical inactivity – A sedentary lifestyle was directly linked to 3.1 percent of cancer cases.

In other words, if we would all avoid smoking, limit UV exposure and the amount of alcohol we drink while getting active and maintaining a healthy weight — 50 percent of cancer cases in the U.S. would simply disappear.

What’s behind it? Epigenetics.

The field of Epigenetics tells us that our environment, what we do, how we live, what we are exposed to and what we eat, can affect how our genes express themselves. That means if you have genes for a certain cancer, it’s not necessarily written in stone. By the same logic, if you have great genes, bad lifestyle factors could influence good genes to go bad.

More cancer protection

Now imagine if there was even more you could do to guard against cancer…

The good news is that you don’t have to imagine hard because science has already offered us a multitude of natural options, from foods and drinks to supplements.

Just a few include:

#1 – Avoiding low-quality foods

Research has shown that eating low-nutrient foods, like potato chips, sodas and refined flour could be causing the current cancer epidemic. In men, these foods were linked to colorectal cancer, cancer of the upper digestive tract and respiratory tract, stomach cancer and lung cancer. For women, they led to a higher risk of liver cancer and postmenopausal breast cancer.

#2 – Adding in anthocyanin-rich foods

Purple veggies and other foods packed with anthocyanins could hold the anti-cancer key we’ve all been looking for. That’s because studies have found that these molecules are capable of keeping cancer cells from spreading.

#3 – Drinking green tea

Researchers discovered epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), an antioxidant found in green tea, may increase levels of a natural anticancer protein known as p53. This protein guards the genome through its ability to repair DNA damage or destroy cancerous cells—and experts say it’s “arguably the most important protein in human cancer.”

#4 – Taking omega-3’s

Omega-3s are one of the most valuable weapons we currently have against cancer-causing inflammation. Not only that, they turn on genes that power up the immune system and block tumor growth.

Sources:

Almost 50%t of Cancer Deaths in US May Be Preventable, Study Finds — Science Alert

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Muscle strength helps improve balance and prevent falls as we age. It also lowers the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which can include heart disease and diabetes.

Good cardiorespiratory fitness (also called aerobic capacity) is connected with a lower risk for heart failure and stroke.

Together, these two fitness measures are a good predictor of longevity.

But even in the face of cancer, we’re learning how maintaining muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness can genuinely make the difference between life and death…

Longer life in the face of cancer

An international group of researchers has proven that exercise programs tailored to boost muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness can help increase the chances of survival for cancer patients, even those in advanced stages of the disease.

The researchers analyzed data from 42 studies involving nearly 47,000 patients with various types and stages of cancer.

Here are their findings:

• Patients with high levels of muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness were 31% to 46% less likely to die from any cause than those with poor levels.
• With each unit of increase in muscular strength, this risk fell even further by 11%.
• For patients with advanced-stage cancer (stages 3 and 4), the combo of strength and fitness was associated with an 8% to 46% lower risk of death from any cause.
• For those with lung or digestive cancers, this fitness combo was associated with a 19% to 41% lower risk of death.
• Each unit increase in fitness level was associated with an 18% lower risk of death from cancer itself. 

“Our findings highlight that muscle strength could potentially be used in clinical practice to determine mortality risk in cancer patients in advanced stages and, therefore, muscle strengthening activities could be employed to increase life expectancy,” the researchers state.

In other words, people with advanced cancers could increase their expected lifespan and improve their quality of life by engaging in exercise that improves their aerobic fitness and muscle strength.

Exercise for prevention and survival

Sarcopenia is a progressive loss of muscle mass associated with aging. Though the researchers did not mention this condition, there’s some relevance…

Cancer is prevalent in older adults with sarcopenia, but also cancer treatment can increase the risk of developing sarcopenia. So you can see how regularly exercising for muscle mass and cardiorespiratory fitness is to your benefit.

In addition to fitness being a contributing factor to cancer survival and longevity, exercise can reduce your risk of ever getting cancer.

We’ve previously shared that exercise works like a roadblock to prostate cancer progression, has powerful effects on slowing tumor growth in breast cancer and is essential to surviving colon cancer.

That said, if you have cancer or are under a doctor’s care for an illness, discuss your exercise plans with them before getting started.

Here are some simple exercises that fit the bill:

Strength training exercises include push-ups, squats, planks, and weightlifting. Here is a series of videos from the Mayo Clinic to help you get started.

Gymnastics, swimming, and cycling also strengthen your muscles.

Jumping rope, jogging, tennis, walking and climbing your stairs at home all offer chances for improving cardiorespiratory capacity.

Walking, swimming, tennis, dancing, and elliptical training combine strength training and aerobic exercise. They work both upper and lower body muscles, giving you insurance against sarcopenia.

Sources:

Muscular strength and good physical fitness linked to lower risk of death in people with cancer — Eureka Alert

Association of muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness with all-cause and cancer-specific mortality in patients diagnosed with cancer: a systematic review with meta-analysis — British Journal of Sports Medicine

7 Reasons Why Strength Training Is Key to a Long Life  — AARP

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“Milk — it does a body good.”

These slogans are probably very familiar to you. They all point to milk as a vital part of a healthy diet. And there’s no doubt that milk can help you boost two important nutrients: calcium and vitamin D.

Milk naturally contains vitamin D but at low levels. That’s why it’s been fortified with vitamin D since the 1930s. As far as calcium though, one glass contains roughly 300 mg of calcium. Still, you would need to drink at least a few glasses daily to get your recommended amount of calcium (anywhere between 700 mg and 1,200 mg, depending on your age and health situation).

However, according to research, there may be more benefits to drinking milk than the nutrients it contains. Studies show it can reduce fracture risk, support heart health and lower the odds of developing metabolic syndrome. And now, there’s evidence it can reduce the risk of a type of cancer that’s growing in prevalence and hitting people at younger ages…

An extra glass to lower cancer risk

The disease is colorectal cancer, and incidence rates for advanced disease have increased by about 3 percent annually in people younger than 50 since around 2010. That’s higher than the 0.5 to 2 percent annual increase in people between 50 and 64 over the same time frame.

Researchers from the University of Oxford in the U.K. examined data from more than 500,000 women to explore possible links between 97 different foods and nutrients to colorectal cancer. The research data spanned an average of 16 years, and what they discovered was fascinating.

Foods containing calcium — including dairy products such as milk and yogurt — were linked with decreased colorectal cancer risk.

In fact, consuming an additional 300 mg of calcium, or the amount found in a large glass of milk, every day could reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by 17 percent.

This proved true regardless of whether the food in question was from dairy or non-dairy sources such as dark leafy green vegetables.

Researchers have a theory as to why calcium has this effect. “It’s suggested that calcium might protect against bowel cancer by binding to bile acids and free fatty acids to form a type of a harmless ‘soap’, which stops them from damaging the lining of our gut,” says Dr. Keren Papier of the University of Oxford, lead researcher of the study.  

This “soap” then cleanses these bile and fatty acids out of the gut so they can’t build up and are less likely to cause damage.

According to the study, most women participating were consuming more than 700 mg of calcium a day. However, this could be because they consumed foods supplemented with calcium and some that naturally contained calcium. Calcium is added to products like bread and plant-based milks.

While the current findings are promising, more research is underway to determine whether calcium supplements and calcium-fortified foods have the same effect in reducing colorectal cancer risk as foods that contain calcium naturally. This ongoing research gives us hope for further advancements in cancer prevention.

Keeping your colon healthy

The study uncovered links between other foods and cancer risk that went in the opposite direction…

For instance, drinking an additional 20 g of alcohol, the equivalent of a large glass of wine was found to increase colorectal cancer risk by 15 percent.

To understand how calcium can best be utilized to help prevent colorectal cancer, Papier and her team intend to probe further into calcium’s role in the prevention of the disease in different populations with diverse diets.

In the meantime, adding an extra glass of milk to your diet can’t hurt if you’re looking to reduce colorectal cancer risk. But check with your doctor before adding calcium supplements.

A German study, published in 2012 found a surprising link between calcium supplements and an increased risk of heart disease in women. Among 24,000 people, women who were exclusively taking calcium supplements to meet their recommended daily calcium intake doubled their risk for a heart attack.

Sources:

1. Bowel cancer risk could be reduced with an extra glass of milk — Cancer Research UK

2. Diet-wide analyses for risk of colorectal cancer: prospective study of 12,251 incident cases among 542,778 women in the UK — Nature Communications

3. Vitamin D and Your Bones — New York State Department of Health

4. How much calcium do you really need? — Harvard Health Publishing

5. Colorectal Cancer Facts & Figures 2023-2025 — American Cancer Society

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And the role of the gut has become a focal point of those unexpected links.

For example, there’s the latest on preventing cancer…

There are hundreds of unique bacterial species living in the gut, but it seems that one in particular might be able to fight cancer.

Research is still in the early stages, but it’s looking like something as simple as a vitamin could help this cancer-fighting bacterium thrive.

Vitamin D supports cancer-fighting bacteria

A new study has uncovered the possibility that vitamin D could be the key to helping a cancer-fighting bacterium live and thrive in our gut.

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London have uncovered a link between a vitamin D-rich diet in mice and their increased ability to resist tumor growth.

When cancer cells were transplanted into mice who were then fed a diet high in vitamin D, the mice showed improved resistance to the cancer and slower tumor growth.

The researchers were surprised to find that vitamin D acts on specific cells in the intestine, which in turn increases the amount of a bacteria called Bacteroides fragilis (BFS).

This suggests that BFS is responsible for the improved resistance to tumor growth.

Indeed, these findings support a 2023 study at the University of Medical Sciences in Iran, where mice receiving infusions of BFS showed a 98% reduction in tumor volume, and where 75% of the mice were tumor-free after about three weeks of BFS infusions.

How these findings apply to us

These findings certainly add to the growing mountain of evidence that vitamin D status impacts cancer including previous research indicating it powers up a cancer-fighting gene, can reduce risk for developing advanced cancer and reduces death from cancer.

Here’s what Caetano Reis e Sousa, head of the Immunobiology Laboratory at the Crick Institute, has to say:

“This could one day be important for cancer treatment in humans, but we don’t know how and why vitamin D has this effect via the microbiome.

“More work is needed before we can conclusively say that correcting a vitamin D deficiency has benefits for cancer prevention or treatment.”

And Evangelos Giampazolias, another member of the Crick research team, says, “A key question we are currently trying to answer is how exactly vitamin D supports a ‘good’ microbiome. If we can answer this, we might uncover new ways in which the microbiome influences the immune system, potentially offering exciting possibilities in preventing or treating cancer.”

Making vitamin D work for you

It’s important to know that in 2023, the VITAL study determined that vitamin D is not a one-size-fits-all vitamin.

In fact, it is metabolized differently in people at higher body weights and may account for inconsistent results in some studies concerning its impact on cancer…

Senior author JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH, chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hosptial said of the VITAL study, “This study sheds light on why we’re seeing 30 to 40 percent reductions in cancer deaths, autoimmune diseases and other outcomes with vitamin D supplementation among those with lower BMIs but minimal benefit in those with higher BMIs, suggesting it may be possible to achieve benefits across the population with more personalized dosing of vitamin D.”

Research by Trinity College Dublin has also shed light on several factors that impact optimal vitamin D status — including cholesterol levels — that support the argument for personalizing supplementation.

For these reasons it’s becoming more apparent that the recommended daily allowance of 600 IU is barely enough to even support bone health — and why it’s more common to see recommended therapeutic dosages ranging from 4,000 to 5,000 IU daily.

One last suggestion for adequate vitamin D supplementation: Make sure you’re taking a supplement containing D3, the form most effectively absorbed by the body.

Sources:

Vitamin D alters gut bacteria to give better cancer immunity, study suggests — The Standard

Vitamin D regulates microbiome-dependent cancer immunity — Science

Anti-tumor effects of Bacteroides fragilis and Bifidobacterium bifidum culture supernatants on mouse breast cancer — Science Direct

How Much Vitamin D Should You Take For Optimal Health? — Healthline

The post The vitamin that helps cancer-fighting bacteria thrive appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But unless you have a medical condition like chronic hypertension and have been warned to stay away from caffeine, it shouldn’t be an issue.

In fact, I’ve got more good news for you: not only isn’t coffee bad for you, but it could keep colon cancer from coming back…

Coffee may prevent bowel cancer recurrence

Recently, I shared some great news about how coffee can help post-menopausal women keep their bones strong.

Now, there’s research showing that coffee drinking can also be a life-saver.

Right now, 30 percent of patients treated for colorectal cancer (bowel cancer) experience a recurrence of cancer.

But an international team of scientists in the Netherlands discovered that coffee seems to improve the odds of staying cancer-free longer…

They looked at 1,719 patients with colorectal cancer and found that those who drank at least two cups of coffee a day were less likely to relapse.

In fact, patients with stage I, II or III bowel cancer who drank at least five cups of coffee a day had a 32 percent lower chance of the cancer returning over the following six years.

Recurrence was defined as recurrence in the same segment as the primary tumor, in the lymph nodes of the same segment or in the draining lymph nodes — or distant metastasis.

The Dutch researchers also saw a noticeable link between how much coffee a patient drank and their risk of dying from any cause.

Three to five cups seems to be the “sweet spot.” People who drank that much saw about a 29 percent reduction in all-cause mortality. But drinking more didn’t make that number go up.

What is it about coffee?

Stacks of research show the health benefits of coffee are many — and some have begun to look at the components in coffee that could be responsible for those benefits — including caffeine.

In fact, there’s been indication that decaff isn’t as potent against cancer as regular caffeinated coffee — at least for breast cancer.

Then there’s the sheer amount of antioxidant content in coffee. Not only that, some reports suggest that Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source.

And one of those powerful antioxidants is a polyphenol known as chlorogenic acid (CGA).

CGA is known to fight inflammation in fat tissue. That’s important because inflammation is also a hallmark of cancer and is widely recognized to influence all cancer stages from cell transformation to metastasis.

Some experts suggest around 35 percent of Americans live in a state of chronic, systemic inflammation — and that more than 50 percent of deaths worldwide are attributed to chronic inflammatory diseases, like cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

The Dutch researchers noted that because CGA improves endothelial and vascular function by increasing the availability of nitric oxides — important for maintaining cardiovascular health — the antioxidant could be key to the decrease in all-cause mortality their study found.

What if you’re not a coffee drinker?

So, you’re not a coffee drinker…

Well, it is possible to get your antioxidants elsewhere, though we’re not 100 percent sure yet what other substances in coffee may be responsible for its impact on cancer.

But if you don’t drink coffee, you’re likely falling short on antioxidants anyway and should certainly boost your intake from other sources.

A popular fruit that’s high in antioxidants has been shown to fuel cancer-fighting cells against colorectal cancer. So consider trading a coffee cup for a pomegranate smoothie.

Some berries are outstanding sources of CGA.

Need more suggestions? Check out the antioxidant diet on easy ways to add more to every meal.

Sources:

Drinking Coffee Dramatically Lowers The Risk of Bowel Cancer Coming Back — Science Alert

Coffee consumption is associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer recurrence and all-cause mortality — International Journal of Cancer

Ageing: from inflammation to cancer — Immunity and Aging

Chronic inflammation: Why it’s harmful, and how to prevent it — Novant Health

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Nausea, fatigue, hair loss, fever, and bowel problems are just the start. Chemotherapy can also cause anemia, nerve and muscle problems, skin breakdown, and mood changes.

Science is always looking for alternative treatments that are both effective and less punishing on the body.

There’s a new and promising discovery that could change the game. It involves the use of a person’s own fat cells to starve cancer cells, offering a ray of hope in the fight against cancer.

Beige fat leaves little for cancer to “eat”

Scientists at the University of California San Francisco used advanced gene editing technology to turn ordinary energy-storing white fat cells into fat-burning beige fat cells, which consume large amounts of calories to make heat. 

First, they grew beige fat cells and cancer cells in a “trans-well” petri dish. The cancer cells were on the bottom, and the fat cells were above them in separate compartments that kept the cells apart but forced them to share nutrients. 

The results were so surprising that they initially thought they’d made a mistake. This unexpected turn of events kept them on their toes and led to further exploration.

In repeated trials, they found the beige fat cells consumed more nutrients and outlived five different types of cancers — including two different types of breast cancer cells and colon, pancreatic and prostate cancer cells.

Still, they needed to know if these results would carry over into live subjects.

They implanted the newly-grown beige fat cells into mice with pancreatic and breast cancer. The cancer cells starved as the fat cells gobbled up all the available nutrients. This worked even when fat cells were implanted far from the sites of tumors.

Finally, to see if this would work with human tissue, the researchers worked with Dr. Jennifer Rosenbluth, a breast cancer specialist at UCSF who had access to a “library” of breast cancer mastectomies containing both fat cells and cancer cells.

“Because the breast has a lot of fat, we could get fat from the same patient, modify the fat, and grow it in a single trans-well experiment with the patient’s own breast cancer cells,” says senior study author Dr. Nadav Ahituv.

Not surprisingly,  a patient’s beige fat cells consumed more nutrients than their cancer cells, both in a petri dish and when implanted in mice.

7 ways to change your white fat to beige

Hopefully, you’re not fighting cancer, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to change some of your white fat to beige.

Beige fat cells have other benefits. They are thermogenic (they burn energy), just like brown fat cells. Therefore, they help to reduce the excess blood sugar and fatty acids that lead to diabetes and heart disease.

Here are seven things you can do right now to increase beige fat in your body. These simple lifestyle changes could have a significant impact on your health and well-being…

Lower the temperature. Some studies suggest that keeping your house at a cooler temperature and taking cold showers or baths can stimulate white fat to convert to beige fat.

Get some resveratrol. Mouse studies have shown that this powerful antioxidant not only prevents inflammation and improves heart health but also helps stimulate white fat to turn beige.

Try capsaicin. A chemical found in chili peppers, capsaicin helps trigger non-exercise activity thermogenesis, a term used for the energy the body uses for physical activity other than exercise, sleeping, and eating.

Drink coffee. Researchers in England found that drinking coffee can stimulate the activity of brown fat cells.

Take fish oil supplements. Japanese research with mice showed that fish oil turns white fat into beige.

Exercise. Studies suggest that exercise activates the hormone irisin, which stimulates white fat to become beige fat.

Get more iron. Take a good supplement or add iron-rich foods like whole grains, dark leafy greens and beans to your diet.

By incorporating these strategies into your daily routine, you can promote the conversion of white fat to beige, potentially reducing your risk of cancer and other metabolic diseases.

Sources:

How hungry fat cells could someday starve cancer to death — Eureka Alert

Implantation of engineered adipocytes suppresses tumor progression in cancer models — Nature biotechnology

Metabolism slowing with age? Reverse it — Easy Health Options

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Chronic inflammation increases cancer risk. But in the case of colorectal cancer, something else is happening that is both astounding and terrifying.

Researchers have uncovered some disturbing facts about how ultra-processed foods help to “feed” colon cancer…

“A wound that won’t heal”

Previous research from Tufts and Harvard Universities had already proven that men who live on ultra-processed foods are increasing their risk of colorectal cancer by nearly 30 percent.

And now we have a big clue how it works…

A new study suggests that ultra-processed foods and inflammatory seed oils used in packaged food products may contribute to chronic inflammation, fueling colorectal cancer.

“It is well known that patients with unhealthy diets have increased inflammation in their bodies,” said Dr. Timothy Yeatman, a renowned physician-scientist and professor of surgery in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and associate center director for Translational Research and Innovation at the TGH Cancer Institute.

“We now see this inflammation in the colon tumors themselves, and cancer is like a chronic wound that won’t heal — if your body is living off of daily ultra-processed foods, its ability to heal that wound decreases due to the inflammation and suppression of the immune system that ultimately allows the cancer to grow.”

When the researchers used advanced techniques to identify trace amounts of lipids in 162 tumor samples, they saw an excess number of molecules that promote inflammation and a shortage of those that promote healing.

Dr. Yeatman added, “A human’s immune system can be extremely powerful and drastically impact the tumor microenvironment, which is great if harnessed correctly for health and wellness,” he says, “but not if it’s suppressed by inflammatory lipids from processed foods.”

Eating to prevent colon cancer

The colon is the “last stop” in your digestive system, so it stands to reason that what you put in your mouth will affect the health of your colon.

“Our bodies are designed to actively resolve inflammation through bioactive lipid compounds derived from the healthy fats, like avocados, that we consume,” said Ganesh Halade, associate professor in the USF Health Heart Institute and a member of the Cancer Biology Program at TGH Cancer Institute.

“Bioactive lipids are very small molecules derived from the foods that we eat and, if the molecules are coming from processed food products, they directly imbalance the immune system and drive chronic inflammation.”

So, the first place to start is to eat more of those healthy fats and ditch the bad ones when you eat fewer processed foods. Healthier fats also include omega-3s from fatty fish.

In fact, Dr. Yeatman’s team saw promise in early trials using specialized derivatives of fish oil to address inflammation at its root cause.

The next step is removing bad oils from your diet…

Seed oils were particularly mentioned for fueling cancer — so that’s the ingredient you to avoid. Seed oils include a group known as the “hateful eight”:

• Canola oil (aka rapeseed oil).
• Corn oil.
• Cottonseed.
• Grapeseed oil.
• Soybean oil.
• Sunflower oil.
• Safflower oil.
• Rice bran oil
• Peanut oil.

According to nutrition experts at the Cleveland Clinic, seed oils have high levels of omega-6 fats, which can lead to inflammation. Everything that’s unhealthy about seed oils is compounded when they are used in processed foods.

Sources:

Ultra-processed foods may drive colorectal cancer risk, study finds — Science Daily

Integration of lipidomics with targeted, single cell, and spatial transcriptomics defines an unresolved pro-inflammatory state in colon cancer — BMJ

Seed Oils: Are They Actually Toxic? — Cleveland Clinic

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They’re critical components in the membranes that surround the cells in your body, provide calories to give your body energy and support many functions, including heart, blood vessel, lung, immune system and endocrine system health.

So, it’s not surprising that omega-3 supplements have grown in popularity.

But when it comes to men’s health, specifically anything prostate-related, there’s been some controversy…

Studies have shown omega-3s could slow the growth of prostate cancer, while some have seen a slight increase in risk.

As with research, there can be many variables, but a team of UCLA-led investigators decided to take a closer look at men with low-risk prostate cancer and are hopeful their findings may influence treatment strategies…

The prostate cancer benefits of omega-3s

Many men with low-risk prostate cancer choose active surveillance over immediate treatment. That means they have chosen to undergo regular monitoring of their cancer without immediate intervention.

However, within five years, about half of these men need to undergo therapy with either surgery or radiation. That’s why patients are eager to find ways to delay the need for treatment, including through dietary changes or supplements.

But so far, there have been no specific dietary guidelines established for prostate cancer patients under active surveillance. Clinical trials have looked at increasing vegetable intake and healthy diet patterns. Still, none have found a significant impact on slowing progression.

The UCLA team recruited 100 men under active surveillance for low-risk or favorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Participants were randomly assigned to continue their regular diet or follow a diet low in omega-6s and high in omega-3s, supplemented with fish oil, for one year.

The typical American diet contains 14 to 25 more omega-6s than omega-3s and is not considered healthy. Unlike omega-3s, omega-6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory and have been linked to heart disease, cancer, the development of high blood pressure in people with diabetes and high triglycerides.

Participants in the intervention arm of the study received dietary counseling from a registered dietician nutritionist who guided them on reducing the consumption of food with higher omega-6 content, including chips, cookies, mayonnaise and other fried or processed foods. They also were counseled to eat fish rich in omega-3s and given fish oil capsules for extra omega-3s. The control group didn’t receive any counseling or fish oil capsules.

The researchers tracked changes in a biomarker called the Ki-67 index, indicating how fast cancer cells multiply. This is a key predictor of cancer progression, spread and survival. Same-site biopsies were obtained at the beginning of the study and at the one-year mark. What did they find?

Great results, with a caveat

According to the results, those following an omega-3-rich diet, low in omega-6s and supplemented with fish oil, had a 15 percent decrease in the Ki-67 index. In comparison, the control group saw a 24 percent increase. In other words, consumption of the omega-3 diet significantly reduced the growth rate of prostate cancer cells in men with early-stage disease.

“This significant difference suggests that the dietary changes may help slow cancer growth, potentially delaying or even preventing the need for more aggressive treatments,” says Dr. William Aronson, a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and first author of the study.

While these results are promising, the researchers didn’t see any differences in other cancer growth markers commonly used to track prostate cancer progression. They caution that further study is needed to confirm the long-term benefits of omega-3s and lowering omega-6s in managing prostate cancer.

Omega-3-rich foods include fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and sardines, as well as plant-based oils like hemp and linseed and some algae like spirulina.

Other options include adding a fish oil supplement to your daily regimen — or better yet, a krill oil supplement. Some studies indicated that the fatty acids in krill oil are more easily absorbed. In fact, one study found that taking krill oil versus fish oil resulted in higher levels of omega-3s EPA and DHA in the bloodstream.

Sources:

A low omega-6, omega-3 rich diet and fish oil may slow prostate cancer growth — ScienceDaily

High Omega-3, Low Omega-6 Diet With Fish Oil for Men With Prostate Cancer on Active Surveillance: The CAPFISH-3 Randomized Clinical Trial — Journal of Clinical Oncology

Omega-3 Fatty Acids — National Institutes of Health

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But, despite the damage it can do, alcohol has never carried any such warning, other than those urging drinkers not to drive and not to drink while pregnant.

The present surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, wants to see this change. His 17-page advisory, titled “Alcohol and Cancer Risk,” outlines the evidence for a strong link between alcohol consumption and at least seven types of cancer.

What is a Surgeon General’s advisory?

A Surgeon General’s Advisory is a public statement that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health issue and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed.

Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.

Health issues that have prompted a surgeon general’s advisory in the past include cigarettes, AIDS, and obesity.

In the late 1980s, Surgeon General Dr Everett Koop issued an advisory on deaths due to drunk driving in the United States. This advisory resulted in tougher blood-alcohol level standards and higher taxes on alcoholic beverages.

But this is the first time an advisory has warned us about the direct health consequences of drinking alcohol.

What the advisory says about alcohol and cancer

“Many people out there assume that as long as they’re drinking at the limits or below the limits of current guidelines of one a day for women and two for men, that there is no risk to their health or well-being,” Dr. Murthy said in an interview. “The data does not bear that out for cancer risk.”

Here are the main points of Dr. Murthy’s advisory:

1. Consuming alcohol increases the risk of developing at least seven types of cancer:
   • Mouth
   • Throat
   • Esophagus (esophageal cancer has doubled in adults under 65)
   • Voice box (also known as laryngeal cancer)
   • Breast
   • Liver
   • Colon and rectum
2. Alcohol causes cancer in four ways:
   • Alcohol breaks down into acetaldehyde, which damages DNA in multiple ways, resulting in an increased risk of cancer.
   • Alcohol induces oxidative stress, which increases cancer risk by damaging cells and increasing inflammation.
   • Alcohol affects estrogen levels which can increase breast cancer risk.
   • Alcohol leads to greater absorption of carcinogens.

How much is too much?

Dr. Murthy says it’s important to know that our cancer risk rises as we consume more alcohol.

At the same time, each person’s risk is particular to their family history, genetic makeup and exposure to environmental toxins.

“I wish we had a magic cutoff we could tell people is safe,” Dr. Murthy says. “What we do know is that less is better when it comes to reducing your cancer risk.”

“If an individual drinks occasionally for special events, or if you’re drinking a drink or two a week, your risk is likely to be significantly less than if you’re drinking every day.”

Three years ago, a Chinese study confirmed that alcohol causes cancer. But we still haven’t caught up with this news.

Dr. Murthy hopes that warning labels will convince us to avoid alcohol as much as possible.

Hopefully, his warning will make you rethink the amount of alcohol you consume. Just another way to buy yourself more years of a healthy life.

Sources:

Alcohol labels should carry cancer risk warning, U.S. surgeon general urges — NBC News

Surgeon general calls for cancer warnings on alcohol — NY Times

Alcohol and cancer risk — Office of the Surgeon General

New genetic study confirms that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer — Oxford Population Health

Alcohol metabolism genes and risks of site-specific cancers in Chinese adults: An 11-year prospective study — International Journal of Cancer

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It can cause a lot of damage to other areas of health, including increased risks for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and more than a dozen types of cancer.

The worst part is the older you get, the easier it is to gain weight and the harder it is to lose it. A friend of mine tried absolutely everything to lose weight to no avail. But the one thing that finally worked for her was metabolic-bariatric surgery.

This type of surgery makes changes to the digestive system that result in weight loss. And lose weight she did — to the tune of 100 pounds. But that’s not the only benefit she received…

Her blood pressure and cholesterol came down and her prediabetes resolved itself. In fact, studies have shown that weight-loss surgery can lower the risk of death and major heart complications more effectively than weight loss through more conventional means. It also can result in better blood sugar control.

Surgery may not be for everyone. But for those who opt for it, researchers have discovered another big benefit to weight-loss surgery — protection against one of the most lethal cancers…

Weight-loss surgery and pancreatic cancer

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are risk factors for various forms of cancer, including pancreatic cancer. Because pancreatic cancer is so hard to diagnose, it’s often not caught until it has advanced to the point where chances of survival are slim.

A team of international researchers examined 12 studies that explored the effects of metabolic-bariatric surgery on pancreatic cancer rates, with a total of 3,711,243 adults with obesity.

Their findings were astounding…

Surgery was linked with a 44 percent reduction in pancreatic cancer risk among obese individuals without type 2 diabetes. And in those with both obesity and type 2 diabetes, risk was reduced by a whopping 79 percent.

“Metabolic-bariatric surgery not only has beneficial effects on obesity and type 2 diabetes but also may play a crucial role in reducing the risk of pancreatic cancer in these individuals,” says corresponding author Dr. Angeliki M. Angelidi of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

“These findings underscore the need for further research to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and understand the full spectrum of health benefits of metabolic-bariatric surgery beyond weight loss.”

Types of weight-loss surgery and what’s involved

If you think you may want to undergo metabolic-bariatric surgery, you’ll want to talk with your doctor first. You’ll have to be evaluated to see if you qualify as a candidate for surgery.

There are several different types of weight-loss surgery, and the type you get will depend on a number of factors. The main types of surgery performed in the U.S. are:

• Gastric sleeve, in which a majority of the stomach is removed.
• Gastric bypass, in which the stomach is stapled, leaving a small pouch, and that pouch is attached directly to the lower part of the small intestine.
• Adjustable gastric band, in which a surgeon places a ring with an inflatable band around the top of the stomach to create a small pouch. This surgery has become less common because of its complication rate.

The main goal of all three surgeries is to make you feel full after eating only a small amount of food so that you don’t consume as many calories and thus lose weight.

Weight-loss surgery isn’t without risk. Initial side effects can include bleeding, infection, diarrhea, blood clots in the legs and leaking from the site where the sections of the stomach, small intestine or both are stapled or sewn together. Rarely, surgery-related problems can lead to death.

A previous study published in the journal Obesity Science & Practice found that several factors including vitamin D status have a definite impact on bariatric surgery outcomes.

There are other potential complications over the long term. You often have to take prescribed vitamins and minerals to ensure your body is getting enough nutrients, and sometimes these nutrients can be poorly absorbed. This can lead to health problems like anemia and osteoporosis. Also, gallstones can occur after rapid weight loss, so some doctors prescribe medication to prevent this.

Sources:

Can weight-loss surgery help prevent pancreatic cancer in people with obesity? — EurekAlert!

Metabolic–Bariatric Surgery Reduces Pancreatic Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis of Over 3.7 Million Adults, Independent of Type 2 Diabetes Status — Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews

Weight-loss (Metabolic & Bariatric) Surgery — National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Weight-loss Surgery Side Effects — National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Types of Weight-loss Surgery — National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

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