Since you’ve chosen to subscribe to this newsletter, I know it’s because you want to have the latest information about how to keep your body healthy and strong – naturally. You don’t want to expose your body to excessive medications or treatments that come with dangerous and difficult side effects. You’d rather use the secret weapons nature has given us to help your body restore itself in a holistic manner – or avoid getting any sort of disease altogether.

One issue of particular concern for my readers is cancer in all its many insidious forms. And I know you’re also interested in one of the best natural resources we have for fighting cancer: your diet. Researchers are regularly discovering new ways that our food can help us avoid cancer or fight it if it does sneak past our defenses. But can the foods we eat really prevent and treat cancer? Most conventional doctors will tell you no. That’s why they don’t adjust the diet of cancer patients as part of their treatment. But what’s the truth?

The short answer is absolutely yes! There’s a lot of research proving this. But you need to know which foods to eat.

Much of the chemopreventive research has centered on cruciferous vegetables, which include leafy greens like kale and arugula, bok choy, 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 and complicated 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 comes in. Studies of human ovarian cancer cells have found that apigenin (found commonly in celery) helps keep these blood vessel lifelines from growing 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 down-regulated the proteins that transported glucose to the cancer cells. The cancer cells essentially starved to death without their glucose deliveries. Not only that, the apigenin blocked the pancreatic cancer cells’ proliferation attempts by modulating the signaling molecules that tell the cells to multiply. This kept the early cancer cells from amassing into a tumor.

We talk a lot about reducing inflammation in the body. 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. Researchers have found that it helps reduce the inflammation associated with lupus and other autoimmune diseases as well.

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 BITC. BITC also correlates 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. It also may help make these 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. I3C does this as well, while also helping 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. Researchers also have found that DIM 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 I don’t particularly want to drink broccoli sprout tea regularly, and I’m guessing you don’t either, I think this study is a good reminder to make broccoli and broccoli sprouts (if possible) a regular part of your diet.

Researchers at South Dakota State University would agree, as 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, making 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 may be able to 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 watercress regularly to get high levels of PEITC.

Of course, cruciferous vegetables aren’t the only source of anti-cancer compounds. You can also try seaweed and medicinal mushrooms such as Maitake, Reishi and Cordyceps, all of which contain, believe it or not, a sugar or polysaccharide called beta glucan that has been shown to 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 patients 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 called Alginol (800-791-3395). Alginol is an extract from an edible seaweed called ecklonia cava, and it’s incredibly rich in antioxidants that are both fat- and water-soluble, helping them reach and protect every cell in your body. So you can take an easy-to-swallow capsule if you’re not sure you’ll enjoy the taste of seaweed.

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, which 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 is being done in this arena. 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. I’m sure many of these are familiar to you as components of the foods I’m often encouraging you to eat.

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 a serving or two every day. But don’t stop there!

Prediabetics Need to Ask Their Doctor to Check for This Health Condition

If you have high-normal blood sugar or your doctor has told you that you are “prediabetic,” it’s time to get your thyroid checked.

As you may know, the symptoms of low thyroid include fatigue; weight gain, especially if it’s unexplained; swelling, particularly in the lower limbs; sensitivity to cold; muscle aches; dry skin; thinning hair; thinning outer eyebrows; brittle nails; irregular menstruation; depressed mood; and poor memory and concentration. Many of these are symptoms of diabetes as well.

While anyone can develop hypothyroidism, women are 10 times more likely to do so than men. Hypothyroidism is also more common among Asians and Caucasians, and certain drugs, such as lithium (a mood stabilizer) and interferon, can also contribute to hypothyroidism.

If you have these risk factors or symptoms, it’s a good idea to get your thyroid levels checked. But there’s a problem: “normal” thyroid test results can represent only part of the picture. That’s because “normal” thyroid levels can vary quite a bit from person to person. So what’s normal for me may not be what’s normal for you. Making matters worse, the symptoms of hypothyroidism are widely varied and at first glance don’t seem to make much sense. And they generally develop slowly, so it’s easy to miss them. The same is true of diabetes.

According to research recently published in the journal Hormone and Metabolic Research, these issues can be compounded if you’re obese. The researchers found that subclinical hypothyroidism is on the rise in this population group. In these patients, levels of thyrotropin (TSH) increase to try to compensate for low thyroid levels.

The researchers compared obese patients with normal TSH levels to those with elevated TSH. They found a number of significant differences between the two groups. Those with elevated TSH had lower fasting plasma glucose, HDL (good) cholesterol, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. They had much higher fasting insulin and C-reactive protein levels. And their thyroids had much lower secretion capacities. They even displayed more severe chronic low-grade inflammation.

None of these markers are what we want to see, particularly in individuals who need to lose a bit of weight. Having proper thyroid levels is important both to your weight-loss goals and to your overall health. Moreover, research recently presented at the Endocrine Society’s 98th annual meeting explained that low thyroid levels are linked to an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes, which is particularly concerning for obese individuals, as they are already at risk. The link is most pronounced in people who already have prediabetes.

In general, 10% of people with prediabetes develop type-2 diabetes every year. However, for people with low to low-normal thyroid function, this risk skyrockets to 40%. For the general population, reduced thyroid function increases type-2 diabetes risk by 13%.

While researchers have known for some time that there’s a connection between low thyroid and type-1 diabetes, the findings regarding type-2 are new.

The researchers who made this discovery are recommending that everyone with prediabetes be screened for low thyroid function, and if you know you have low thyroid function, take steps to ensure that you keep your blood sugar under control while you work to improve your thyroid levels.

The link between thyroid and diabetes may be a result of the role thyroid hormones play in the regulation of metabolism. Past research has also identified a link between low thyroid levels and reduced insulin sensitivity.

The American Thyroid Association suggests that all adults (especially women) over the age of 35 have a blood test every five years to test thyroid function. This is a good place to start. However, it’s important to keep in mind that even if the test comes back “normal,” you may not be in the clear. “Normal” is rather arbitrary, and keep in mind that even people with low-normal function were found to be at an increased risk for type 2 diabetes. So the test will help you establish a baseline for determining what’s normal for you, and it will also tell you if your results are off-the-charts low. But if you’re experiencing any of these symptoms or you’re pre-diabetic, find a doctor who will help you adjust your thyroid levels until they’re in a range that feels right to you, even if the test says you’re OK.

Medications and/or natural thyroid supplements can certainly help with this. In addition, there are some choices you can make in your everyday life that can help you protect and even boost your thyroid levels. Believe it or not, one of the most important choices has to do with what types of oil you consume. That’s because vegetable oils or polyunsaturated oils, particular soybean oil, which many of us eat every day, can interfere with thyroid function.

These oils are made up of long-chain fatty acids and are often used in livestock feed to help animals pack on pounds. I’m guessing that’s not what you’re hoping to get out of your diet. Fortunately, there’s an alternative, in the form of medium-chain fatty acids, found in coconut oil. These fatty acids actually boost your metabolism and help you lose weight. This is much better news for your thyroid!

Long-chain fatty acids hurt the thyroid in part because they oxidize quickly. When this oxidizing fat gets deposited in your cells, it can keep the thyroid hormone T4 from being converted to T3, which is a necessary process in creating enzymes that turn fat into energy. Coconut oil, on the other hand, doesn’t oxidize nearly as easily, and it breaks down in a different way, so it doesn’t create enzyme stress or interfere with the T4-T3 conversion.

If you find that your thyroid levels are low and you begin taking supplemental thyroid hormones but continue to consume oils that interfere with your thyroid, your actions will be self-defeating. You need to drastically reduce the amount of long-chain fatty acids you consume in order to make supplementation worthwhile. Read ingredient lists carefully and avoid products containing hydrogenated vegetable oil or soybean oil.

You also should stay away from fried foods whenever possible — they’re almost always cooked in vegetable oils, often ones that have been reheated multiple times, accelerating the oxidization process. Instead, use olive oil, butter, and particularly coconut oil to cook at home. And if you do have low levels of thyroid, you may want to consume as much as two-to-three tablespoons of coconut oil a day until your levels have improved. You may find that a number of previously mysterious symptoms disappear – along with some of the stubborn pounds you’ve been carrying and your increased diabetes risk! I’ll have more on the connection between low thyroid and diabetes in future issues of Women’s Health Letter.

Nutrition Detective

Why You Should Eat More Brussels Sprouts This Winter

It’s that time of year when we get to eat different types of vegetables. Our menus see more pumpkin, squash, and one of my top 20 “superfoods” – Brussels sprouts. I know Brussels sprouts can be a polarizing vegetable, but they’re well worth adding to your regular rotation. For starters, they’re high in vitamins C and K and even give you a respectable amount of protein for a green vegetable. But that’s not all they can do.

In one cup of steamed Brussels sprouts, you’ll get 195% of your recommended daily allowance of vitamin K, 125% of your vitamin C, and 10% of your vitamin A. You’ll also get some vitamin B6, folic acid, potassium, and even manganese. And you’ll get all this to the tune of only 38 calories!

That vitamin K in particular is a big deal because vitamin K helps protect your bone health. The lower your vitamin K levels, the greater your risk of fracture. Brussels sprouts help you strengthen your bones by modifying your bone matrix proteins and improving calcium absorption. And you don’t have to look very far to get that calcium to absorb – 3/4 of a cup of Brussels sprouts contains 38 mg of calcium. So the vitamin K and the calcium behave synergistically.

If it’s still warm enough out that you’re grilling (or you’re willing to brave the cold), you might want to include some Brussels sprouts with your grilled meats. That’s because they contain large amounts of chlorophyll. This blocks the carcinogenic impact of the heterocyclic amines produced when you grill meats at a high temperature. By eating strategically, you can decrease your risk of cancer.

Some people don’t like Brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables because of their bitterness. But the sulfur-containing compounds that give them that taste are proven to have cancer-prevention properties. That’s because sulforaphane inhibits a harmful enzyme called histone deacetylase that’s associated with the creation of cancer cells. Research has shown that you can lower your risk of melanoma as well as esophageal, prostate, and even pancreatic cancer simply by eating a cup of cruciferous vegetables a day.

Finally, like many other green vegetables, Brussels sprouts also contain alpha lipoic acid (ALA). ALA lowers glucose levels, increases insulin sensitivity, and reduces oxidative stress. If you are pre-diabetic or diabetic, Brussels sprouts are a particularly good option for you.

Here’s a very simple recipe: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. In a bowl, mix Brussels sprouts (1 lb), olive oil (1-2 TBSP), Himalayan salt (1/2 -2/3 tsp), coarse pepper (1/4-1/2 tsp), and granulated garlic (1/2 tsp). Roast in the preheated oven for 30-45 minutes. You may want to shake the pan after 20 minutes to brown them evenly.

LETTERS

Q: Five years ago, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease. I currently take 25 mcg of Levothyroxine. I have read a lot about the benefits of iodine. Can I take an iodine supplement? — Gail S. Redwood City, California

Dear Gail,

In a word, no. Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease and there’s some strong scientific belief that iodine will suppress thyroid function in a person with Hashimoto’s.

Q. I was diagnosed with migraines recently. My doctor told me that it may very likely be my estrogen replacement therapy. I don’t want to stop my HRT. Do you have any suggestions of what I might try? – Virginia T., San Mateo, CA

Dear Virginia,

You have probably tried lifestyle techniques, such as excluding offending foods and anything in your environment or lifestyle that triggers them. If not, you’ll want to start here. After you’ve done this, there’s another option.

One of the most remarkable natural remedies is a special extract of butterbur root. The Germans are so impressed with it, they have made it a prescription remedy. Studies show it reduces the frequency of migraine by 50% when used daily for three to four months. See if this will help.

If the butterbur extract is not successful and, in fact, it’s the hormones, you may want to consider counterbalancing the HRT with a supplement such as DIM. In the lead article of this newsletter, we talked about cruciferous vegetables preventing cancer. Part of how they do this for women is that the ingredients, of which DIM (Diindolylmethane) is one, help to prevent us from becoming excessively estrogen dominant. “Hormonal” migraines have been linked to excessive estrogen or “estrogen dominance.” DIM is most helpful in giving your body extra support in balancing this excess.

Q. I’m having quite a bit of pain in my knee. How would I know if I need a knee replacement? — Sarah B., Portland, OR

Dear Sarah,

There are a number of factors that would determine this. These include:

• Your pain persists and there’s little that improves it
• Your knee hurts while you move and especially after you exercise
• Over the counter and prescription medication is no longer helpful
• You have worse pain when its damp and rainy
• You even have pain when you sleep
• Your knee is swollen and stiff and you have difficulty walking up the stairs
• You haven’t seen the second floor of too many buildings
• Just getting in and out of a chair is painful

If you experience many of these problems, it might be time to speak to your doctor about a knee replacement. However, before you do, try Prolozone, PRP, or a combination of the two. You can find doctors who perform these treatments at www.oxygenhealingtherapies.com.