For years, you’ve probably heard about one food after another that can prevent or treat cancer. But do foods really have the ability to fight cancer? After all, we’ve all heard stories of people with cancer who radically changed their diet, but still died from the disease. It’s good to have a healthy skepticism when it comes to any “miracle cure” for cancer. But foods aren’t miracles. They are fuel for your body. So it’s time for a new look at foods and how to use them to prevent and treat cancer.

Researchers are always looking for new ways to use food to help us avoid cancer or fight it if it does sneak past our defenses. Their discoveries can shape how we use foods to keep our bodies healthy and restore it to health.

Much of the chemopreventive research has centered on cruciferous vegetables. These include leafy greens, such as kale and arugula, Bok choi, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower. If you find these foods bitter, that’s nothing compared to how cancer cells perceive them. These foods contain anti-cancer agents that include indole-3-carbinol (I3C), sulforaphane, apigenin, and benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC). Many studies have linked eating cruciferous vegetables with lower rates of colon, prostate, lung, and breast cancers, and research on these newly discovered anti-cancer compounds may help explain why these foods are so effective.

Part of the reason cancer can be so difficult to fight is that the cells multiply so quickly. It’s hard to keep up and wipe them out effectively. However, in order to spread like this, the cells need sufficient blood supply. This is where apigenin (commonly found in celery, parsley, cilantro, and chamomile) comes in. Studies of human ovarian cancer cells have found that apigenin helps keep these blood vessel lifelines from growing. It does so by blocking the production of two necessary signaling molecules in the vessel-growth process. These ovarian cancer cell studies also found that apigenin helped prevent the proliferation of the cells and blocked the formation of a protein the cells needed to metastasize.

And that’s not all apigenin can do. You may know that cancer cells thrive on glucose, one of many reasons to follow a low-sugar diet. Apigenin may be able to support your efforts to starve cancer cells of their energy supply. In human pancreatic cells, apigenin has been shown to down-regulate the proteins that feed glucose to the cancer cells. The cancer cells essentially starve to death without their glucose deliveries. Not only that, the apigenin blocks pancreatic cancer cells’ proliferation attempts by modulating the signaling
molecules that tell the cells to multiply. This keeps early cancer cells from becoming a tumor.

We talk a lot about reducing inflammation in the body, and that’s in part because inflammation can trigger the growth of cancer cells and can cause tumors to continue to spread. Research has found that apigenin can help with this too, as studies have found that it helps defend pancreatic cells from the attacks of the inflammatory cytokine NF-kappaB. Apigenin also helps reduce the inflammation associated with lupus and other autoimmune diseases.

Apigenin inhibits the cyclo-oxygenase (COX) enzyme as well. This is a highly pro-inflammatory enzyme. Another bioflavonoid that has this effect is quercetin. Foods high in quercetin include dark cherries, tart cherries, tomatoes, berries (blueberries, blackberries, and bilberries), cruciferouss veggies (Brussel sprouts, cabbage, and broccoli) leafy green vegetables (spinach, kale, and collards), and citrus fruits.

In 2009, researchers at Harvard’s Channing Laboratory in Boston investigated the protective effects of five common dietary flavonoids. Of these, only apigenin demonstrated a significant reduction in cancer risk. While you can find apigenin in a variety of fruits and vegetables, it’s particularly prevalent in parsley, celery, and celeriac as well as chamomile tea. These foods make great additions to an anti-cancer diet.

Cruciferous vegetables should also be at the top of your grocery list to ensure you get adequate amounts of Benzyl-iothiocyanate (BITC). Eating this component of cruciferous veggies correlated with a reduced risk of lung, breast, ovarian, and colon cancers. In breast cancer cells, BITC blocks their ability to use energy properly, causing apoptosis (cell death) before tumors can form. In ovarian cancer cells, BITC goes a different route, imitating a signaling molecule that tells the cells to shut down. BITC can also disrupt the cell cycle that leads to reproduction in breast cancer cells without harming normal cells nearby. Preliminary research suggests BITC may be able to do the same to pancreatic cancer cells as well, which is quite promising. This would potentially make it much safer than chemotherapy, which kills cells more indiscriminately. BITC also can help make cells more sensitive to radiation and increase their production of reactive oxygen species, leading to their self-inflicted deaths.

We regularly encounter carcinogens in our diets and our environments. While we may do our best to avoid them, some exposure is inevitable. You may wonder why we don’t all have some form of cancer considering the number of risks we take every day. Part of the reason is that enzymes in our bodies have to “activate” these carcinogens before they can increase our cancer risk. BITC can help keep these enzymes from acting on these carcinogens. However, BITC works best when you have some of this nutrient in your system before or when you encounter a carcinogen, so you need to be sure you’re consuming BITC-rich foods regularly.

BITC isn’t the only compound that can help block these enzymes. Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) does this as well, while also helps us detox from the carcinogens themselves. Moreover, our stomachs convert I3C into a compound called diindolylmethane (DIM), which helps us produce immune regulatory molecules. Like apigenin, DIM can also help block the development of the blood vessels that feed cancer cells, cutting off their fuel supply. DIM also increases apoptosis rates in prostate and breast cancer cells.

When you eat cruciferous vegetables, you’re not just getting apigenin, BITC, and I3C. You’re also getting sulforaphane, a by-product of the digestion process that helps both prevent and fight cancer by helping us detox, contributing to apoptosis, interfering with the cancer cell reproduction cycle, and fighting metastasis. In fact, it may be one of the best nutrients we have for defending ourselves from the damage UV rays can cause.

One study conducted in China investigated residents of the Qidong province. Liver cancer rates are excessively high in this area because many residents consume foods that have been contaminated by a fungal carcinogen called aflatoxin. When the study participants drank a tea made from broccoli sprouts, those who had the highest levels of sulforaphane in their urine had fewer urinary markers for DNA damage caused by aflatoxin. The participants also experienced a significant drop in levels of another carcinogen, this one caused by burning fuel. While most of us probably don’t want to drink broccoli sprout tea regularly, this study is a good reminder to make broccoli and broccoli sprouts a regular part of our diet.
Researchers at South Dakota State University would agree. They recently found that a compound and enzyme in cruciferous vegetables can help keep some cancers from recurring and spreading. When you chew these vegetables, this compound and enzyme mix together to produce a substance called phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), which can kill cancer stem cells.

You may have heard of stem cells before. They’re usually a good thing because our bodies can use them to form any type of cell we need. This makes them incredibly valuable both for our health and for research purposes. Cancer stem cells are just as important to cancers. And they’re hard to wipe out. Even when treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation, destroy tumors, the stem cells often survive, making recurrence of the cancer a possibility. They can also travel through our blood vessels, causing cancer to spread. And because they’re incredibly small and treatment-resistant, they can be nearly impossible to wipe out.

PEITC can help. When researchers combined PEITC with human cervical cancer stem cells in a Petri dish, after 24 hours approximately 75% of the stem cells were dead. In another study with mouse lung tissue, exposure to PEITC significantly reduced the spread of cancer. While these studies are still just the beginning of this line of research, the results are promising, particularly because you can obtain the amounts of PEITC used in the studies through diet alone. The researchers particularly recommend eating raw watercress and cabbage regularly to get high levels of PEITC. In a study, non-smokers who ate only three or more servings of these vegetables a month had a 73% lower risk of developing bladder cancer compared with smokers who did not eat these vegetables. Interestingly, the benefits of the cruciferous vegetables only last in the body for 12 hours. This would mean that the participants only received 36 hours of nutritional benefit out of the 720 hours in the month.

Of course, cruciferous vegetables aren’t the only source of anti-cancer compounds. You also can try seaweed and medicinal mushrooms such as Maitake, Reishi and Cordyceps, all of which contain, believe it or not, a sugar or polysaccharide. This sugar is beta glucan, which can improve the body’s production and function of B-cells, T-cells and Natural Killer cells. We often tell cancer patients to avoid sugar because cancer cells use it as food, but this form is different. This sugar, beta glucan, may help fight melanoma and breast and stomach cancers. It’s particularly exciting because it may even help people who have developed a resistance to existing cancer drugs.

I know eating seaweed may not sound appealing if it’s not something you’re used to. Fortunately, there’s a great supplement I can recommend: Alginol. It’s an extract from an edible seaweed called ecklonia cava. This seaweed is incredibly rich in antioxidants that are both fat- and water-soluble, helping them reach and protect every cell in your body. You can just take an easy-to-swallow capsule if you’re not sure you’ll enjoy the taste of seaweed. You can order Alginol from Advanced Bionutritionals by calling 800-791-3395. Be sure to give them offer code WHC316 when calling. A remarkable benefit of supplementing with ecklonia cava is that it has been shown to reduce BMI, body fat ratio, waist circumference. That means weight loss. In addition, it has a remarkable benefit to the lipid profile LDL (low density lipoprotein) and total cholesterol after only 12 weeks.

Avoiding cancer is a complex undertaking, and what works for some people won’t work for everyone. Part of this is due to variations in our genes. Our genes influence our susceptibility to diseases such as cancer and our prognosis if we do experience them. When our genes become unstable, whether due to telomere damage or damage from outside sources, we can become more susceptible to mutations and other dangers.

Researchers continue to seek out more targeted treatments that can both destroy cancer cells more effectively and protect patients’ healthy cells. Much of the research in this area focuses around avoiding genomic instability.

A recent report in Seminars in Cancer Biology highlighted the work that researchers are doing in this area. In particular, researchers are focusing on preventing DNA damage in the first place and improving DNA repair. They’re investigating the roles of a number of nutrients in this process, including vitamins D and B, selenium, carotenoids, and resveratrol.

When we talk about eating a healthy diet, it’s easy to think of doing so only as it relates to achieving or maintaining a healthy weight. But while that is important, the foods we eat can clearly do so much more, from helping repair DNA damage to actually killing off cancer stem cells. This is why it’s so important to consume a wide variety of fruits and vegetables regularly. You’ll get so much benefit from the nutrients they contain, whether it’s BITC and PEITC or compounds whose effects haven’t even been discovered yet. Since so much is known about the power of cruciferous vegetables, I encourage you to start there. Have at least one serving every day.

How to End Constipation Without Laxatives

IOne issue that tends to plague women as they age isn’t fun to talk about. But resolving the issue can have significant benefits for your quality of life – and is often easier to do than you might think.

This issue is chronic constipation. It’s often a problem for women in general and the elderly in particular. While the typical definition of constipation is fewer than three bowel movements per week, individual experiences can vary. This is because the range of “normal” bowel movements is quite large, spanning three per day to three per week and because a variety of other sensations can contribute to a feeling of constipation.

For example, if you normally experience more than one bowel movement per day and suddenly decrease to 4 or 5 per week, you’re likely to feel constipated even though you don’t fit the standard definition. Or you may not experience a change in frequency, but you do notice a change in stool consistency, a feeling of incomplete emptying, unusual straining, or a greater urge to go.

Any one of these issues can point to a problem with constipation, even if your bowel movements are fairly regular. You also may have forgotten that you struggle with constipation because you rely so heavily on laxatives. In fact, anywhere from 50 to 74% of the elderly who live in care homes take a laxative every day to keep them regular. While this can work, there are gentler, more natural ways to help resolve issues of constipation.

Start by examining your dietary habits. I’m sure you know by now that you should be getting at least 25 grams of fiber every day to help move things along. Make sure you’re meeting or exceeding this target. You can try psyllium or chia seed, if you need some help meeting this number. However, if you do take these, it’s absolutely vital that you drink enough water. Dehydration can contribute to constipation anyway, but psyllium and chia seeds rely on water to bulk up and move the stool along. Without sufficient water, they can actually make constipation worse. Oftentimes, when you begin adding fiber, you will experience gas. If this happens to you, stop for two days and then cut the amount in half. In addition, try drinking chamomile tea after taking the additional fiber.

If you have good fiber and water habits, but still struggle with occasional constipation, give Advanced Constipation Relief a try. This blend of herbs and nutrients has a natural laxative effect and promotes healthy digestion through a blend of three fruits known as Triphala. Triphala will not only help you have productive bowel movements but will help keep your whole digestive system operating smoothly.

Triphala is a mix of three medicinal plants called Emblica officinalis, Terminalia chebula, and Terminalia belerica. While Triphala has been used for centuries with great success, you know modern medicine always has to check things out for itself. As expected, Triphala stood up to the scrutiny. Researchers have conducted a number of studies on this combination through the years. More recently, a team of researchers did a review study of all these studies and published their results in the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine.
The review confirmed that Triphala has a number of beneficial properties. It’s great at scavenging for free radicals. It has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anticancer, chemoprotective, adaptogenic, and hypoglycemic effects. It also promotes wound healing.

With all of these benefits, it’s not surprising that Ayurvedic medicine uses Triphala to help resolve a number of ailments. But one of its most common uses is for treating gastrointestinal disorders. The review study confirmed that Triphala is great for this purpose too. They found that it has excellent laxative effects, improves appetite, and reduces gastric hyperacidity.
Because of these properties, Triphala is particularly effective at helping to relieve constipation. That’s why I’m glad to see it’s a key ingredient in the new product Advanced Constipation Relief.

If this is an issue you struggle with, the Triphala in this product can help you resolve it gently and naturally, just as it’s done for followers of Ayurvedic medicine for hundreds of years.
If fiber, water, and Advanced Constipation Relief don’t resolve your constipation, be sure to see your doctor to rule out a more serious issue. You can order Advanced Constipation Relief by calling 800-791-3395 (be sure to give them offer code WHC416).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2874462/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27468969
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16044407
http://jmcb.oxfordjournals.org/content/3/1/1.abstract

Nutrition Detective

Why Colon Cancer Is on the Rise — And What You Can Do to Avoid It

Rates of colorectal cancer, now the fourth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, have been on the rise for the last 60 years or so. Given that human genetics haven’t changed much during just a few decades, chances are good that there’s an environmental factor affecting this increase. And researchers at Georgia State University’s Institute for Biomedical Sciences think they know what it is.

This team of researchers at the Institute have been studying dietary emulsifiers for several years. They recently published a study in the journal Cancer Research indicating
that consuming such emulsifiers made tumor development in mice worse.

As you may know, your gut microbiota is vital to not only your digestion but your total health. Imbalances in the good and bad bacteria in your intestines can lead to inflammation, which in turn contributes to conditions such as metabolic disease and, yes, colorectal cancer. The researchers found that consuming dietary emulsifiers can fan this inflammation, setting the stage for cancer growth.

For their study, the researchers gave mice the emulsifiers polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulose. They tried to keep their doses comparable to the amount humans consume in their diets, given that these emulsifiers are found in a wide variety of processed foods. They found that in the mice, the emulsifiers changed their gut microbiota in such a way that their guts became more susceptible to inflammation as well as to tumor growth. The reason? It’s because of the way the bacteria interact with the immune system.

The researchers also found that if they transferred the gut microbiota of emulsifier-fed mice to the guts of mice who had their microbiotas removed, those mice had a tendency to develop tumors in their intestines as well. This provided further evidence of the key role the microbiota plays in this disease.

Emulsifiers began showing up in our food supply right around the time that our colorectal cancer rates started climbing. The researchers don’t think this is a coincidence. I don’t either. Hopefully, this gives you yet another reason to choose whole, unprocessed foods whenever possible. Fruits and vegetables don’t need detergent-like molecules added to improve their texture.

However, realistically it’s hard for us to totally avoid processed foods. If you find yourself consuming them occasionally, you can at least move them out of your body as quickly as possible. PectaSol Detox Formula (800-791-3395) can help with this. It contains soluble fiber from modified citrus pectin and
seaweed alginate to help your body trap toxins and move them out of your body right away. You also may want to take a probiotic to ensure your healthy bacteria have a fighting chance against any potential pro-inflammatory changes in your gut.

LETTERS

Q: The alert you wrote on predicting your health by early menopause really caught my attention. I’m 47 and already going through menopause. I’m really struggling with hot flashes. Do you have anything I can do to avoid the hot flashes and slow down the transition? — Elizabeth R., via email

Dear Elizabeth,

There are several things you can begin to try. Sleep is very important and often disturbed by the hot flashes. So make sure you’re getting sleep.
If you’re not having an easy time with your sleep, consider taking a sleep supplement like 3 mg of melatonin or a more comprehensive formula such as Pure Sleep (800-791-3395).
Many women find that during peri-menopause, 3 mg of melatonin makes a significant difference in their ability to fall asleep. If your issue is remaining asleep, consider a timed released 3 mg melatonin supplement.

For the hot flashes — consider Femessence. This is a maca product that’s not hormonally based, but remarkable in helping to restore metabolic balance. You can find it at many health food stores and online, including Amazon.com.

Many women respond very well to 1,000 mg of pantothenic acid. Take this dose in capsule form two to three times a day for two weeks. This often is enough to shut down the cycle of the hot flashes or at least minimize them.

In addition, you can use homeopathic Lachesis 30x or 15c three times daily as needed for a week to help shut down the flashing cycle.

Q. My mother is a frail 81-year-old woman. She was sharp as a tack until her doctor began statin drugs for her high cholesterol. She got herself off and began using supplements to control it several years ago. Then after having two stents this year, her doctor again placed her on statins. My sister, who is a nurse, got her a pill box and makes sure she takes the statin drugs along with antidepressants, and Gabapentin for pain and to sleep, and many more. What do you think she should do? — Rosa M., El Paso, TX

Dear Rosa,

At 81 with the list of medications you sent, it is possible that your mother would be well served by a second opinion. Consider contacting a doctor in El Paso who is practicing “Functional Medicine.” You can search for one near you at www.acam.org. This doctor will have different strategies for your mother’s pain.

Specifically for her cholesterol, she may want to try Mediterranean Cholesterol Formula (800-791-3395). This is a formula that not only impacts total cholesterol, but helps to improve HDL and lower LDL. It also has a unique benefit in that many users are reporting improved digestion. Please stay in touch and let us know how your mother does.