Cancer

Good Nutrition Can Repair Your Genes
You are not a victim of your genes. Indeed, there is a lot you can do to reduce any susceptibility to any disease that you may have inherited. Nutrition can help cause ‘good’ genes to switch on and ‘bad’ genes to switch off. Through nutrition and lifestyle changes, you can turn off genes that can lead to DNA damage and disease and turn on genes that repair damage to your DNA and help you stay healthy. That’s the conclusion of the scientists working in the field. The data reflects a... Read more...
Deep-Fried Cancer Risk Offset by Fruit and Veg?
Dr Paul Clayton’s Health Newsletter June 2014 Interpretation of health research is often difficult. A study showed that people eating deep-fried foods more than once a week have a one-third higher risk of cancer. But was this because the foods themselves caused more cancer; OR because those who ate more fried foods were also eating fewer fruits and vegetables? Several previous studies have found that eating meat cooked at high temperatures is a risk factor for prostate and other cancers. A new piece of research carried out at the Fred... Read more...
Melatonin as Sleep-Aid and Anti-Cancer
Dr. Paul Clayton’s Health Newsletter March 2014 Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland located near the centre of the brain. It has long been known to play a role in the regulation of circadian (daily) rhythms, and such things as sleep/wake cycles; many use it to reset the circadian clock after long-haul flights, as I certainly do. It is also a nutrient. Tomatoes and certain other fruits contain high levels of melatonin, especially when picked at night (Van Tassel et al ’01). When cows are milked at... Read more...
Case for Aspirin Against Cancer is Not Proven
As recently as the turn of the century, there was no medical consensus on the thorny subject of aspirin and cancer. A few scientists were suggesting that aspirin might be chemoprotective, but the majority of medics were sceptical or downright hostile. How could aspirin, an old-fashioned, out-of-patent (hence unprofitable) medicine, protect against one of the most feared and most common of diseases? In fact, the first hints that aspirin might reduce cancer risk emerged from trials designed to measure its cardio-protective effects, which found – to the surprise of the researchers –... Read more...
Prevent 70% of Cancers if You Change Your Lifestyle
According to Cancer Research UK, 1 in 3 adults will face having to deal with cancer. So the conclusion of Harvard University researchers that nearly 70% of all cancer deaths can be attributed to lifestyle factors, which can be altered, is relevant to everyone.     In 2008, the University of Cambridge EPIC – NORFOLK study reported how engaging in just 4 lifestyle behaviours gained an average of 14 years of life compared to people who did not do any of them. By the end of the study, these people were less... Read more...
Cancer – Combining Nutrients is Key
When it comes to putting together a health-protective diet, you would be wise not to rely on any so-called ‘miracle’ food. It is all to do with dietary variety – how and what you put together on your plate. Dr. Yongping Bao, a leading scientist at the Norwich-based Institute of Food Research, showed last year that the combination of selenium plus sulforaphane (a sulphur compound present in brassica) is 13 times more cancer-protective than either compound on its own(1). His latest research demonstrates exactly the same principle(2); that when it... Read more...
Prostate Cancer – The Dietary Links
The American Cancer Society predicted that final figures for new prostate cancer patients in 2001 would exceed 198,100. Approximately 31,500 of those diagnosed would die of the disease, making it the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men. The benefits of screening and early detection (secondary prevention) in reducing the incidence of prostate cancer remain controversial; however, primary prevention is promising and strongly linked to constituents in the diet, such as lycopene (tomatoes), isoflavones (soy), and selenium. (All these factors are reviewed in Health Defence chapter 13.) In a... Read more...
Prostate Cancer – Vitamin D and Tomatoes Cut Risk
Vitamin D Vitamin D is already thought to protect against breast and colon cancer, but a new study at Harvard University has produced strong evidence that it may protect against prostate cancer as well. Dr Haojie Li and the Harvard team analysed blood samples from 1,029 men with prostate cancer, and the same number of matched men without prostate cancer, and compared their vitamin D levels. The results showed that in men with higher levels of vitamin D, the incidence of aggressive prostate cancer was effectively halved. The researchers concluded... Read more...
Folic Acid – Reducing Cancer Risk
The first proven health benefit of folate supplements was a reduction in the incidence of neural tube defects (such as spina bifida) in the newborn. Then came evidence that it could reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, and, by lowering levels of homocysteine in the blood, protect against heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and osteoporosis. The Americans responded by making folate fortification of flour mandatory, and in the last few years have seen significant falls in spina bifida babies and heart attacks in older men. The UK Government refuses to follow... Read more...
Cancer – How Tomatoes and Lycopene Confer Protection
Research presented at the 90th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research heralded the dawn of a new kind of cancer treatment. Following recent epidemiological studies, which suggested that consumption of tomato products protects against prostate cancer, Omer Kucuk M.D., Professor of Medicine and Oncology at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, evaluated the effect of a lycopene-rich tomato extract on patients with existing prostate cancer. In this study, Dr Kucuk and colleagues followed 30 men with localised prostate cancer who were scheduled to undergo surgical removal of... Read more...
Bowel Cancer and Vitamin D
Research from the Portland VA Medical Centre in Oregon saw over 3000 people screened for polyps in the colon. (These polyps are a common precursor to full-blown colorectal cancer, which can often be prevented if the polyps can be removed early enough). Some interesting findings ensued; it transpired that those who ate a diet rich in Vitamin D (645 IU/day or more) were significantly protected; as were those who consumed 4g or more of cereal fibre, or took daily aspirin. Multivitamins helped to a lesser extent. Conversely, in cigarette smokers,... Read more...
The Evidence for Carotenoids
Lutein and zeaxanthin are carotenoids found in such yellow foods as corn and egg yolks. They are also found in green vegetables and fruits. Examples include avocados, broccoli, green beans and kale. Read more...