Cancer Killed Almost 8 Million Worldwide in 2007

(HealthDay News) -- Cancer continues to cut a deadly swath across the globe, with the American Cancer Society reporting 12 million new cases of malignancy diagnosed worldwide in 2007, with 7.6 million people dying from the disease.

The report, Global Cancer Facts & Figures, finds that 5.4 million of those cancers and 2.9 million deaths are in more affluent, developed nations, while 6.7 million new cancer cases and 4.7 million deaths hit people in developing countries.

"The point of the report is to promote cancer control worldwide, and increase awareness worldwide," said report co-author Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, director of the society's Cancer Occurrence Office.

The number of cancers and cancer deaths around the world is on the rise, Jemal said, mostly due to an aging population. "There is increasing life expectancy, and cancer occurs more frequently in older age groups," he noted.

Lifestyle may be another reason for the rise in malignancies in developing countries, Jemal said, as people adopt Western behaviors such as smoking, high-fat diets and less physical activity.

The best way to stem the increasing number of cancer cases and deaths is prevention, especially in poorer countries, the expert said. In many developing nations, the health-care infrastructure simply isn't there to offer cancer screening and treatment for most people, Jemal added.

In developed countries, the most common cancers among men are prostate, lung and colorectal cancer. Among women, the most common cancers are breast, colorectal and lung cancer, according to the report.

However, in developing countries the three most common cancers among men are lung, stomach and liver, and among women, breast, cervix uteri and stomach.

Worldwide, some 15 percent of all cancers are thought to be related to infections, including hepatitis (liver cancer) and human papilloma virus (cervical cancer). But the incidence of infection-related cancers remains three times higher in developing countries compared with developed countries (26 percent vs. 8 percent), according to the report.

In addition, cancer survival rates in many developing countries are far below those in developed countries. This is mostly due to the lack of early detection and treatment services. For example, in North America five-year childhood cancer survival rates are about 75 percent compared with three-year survival rates of 48 percent to 62 percent in Central America, the report notes. The report estimates that 60 percent of the world's children who develop cancer have little or no access to treatment.

The report also includes a section on the toll tobacco use takes around the world. In 2000, some 5 million people worldwide died from tobacco use. Of these, about 30 percent (1.42 million) died from cancer -- 850,000 from lung cancer alone.

Jemal believes smoking is a key culprit.

"Smoking prevalence is decreasing in developed countries. So, as tobacco companies are losing market in developed countries they are trying to expand their market in developing countries," he said.

In China alone, more than 350 million people smoke. "That's more than the entire population of the United States," Jemal said. "If these current patterns continue, there will be 2 billion smokers worldwide by the year 2030, half of whom will die of smoking-related diseases if they do not quit," he added.

In the 20th century, tobacco use caused about 100 million deaths around the world. In this century, that figure is expected to rise to over 1 billion people. Most of these will occur in developing countries.

One expert agreed that many cancer deaths can be avoided through lifestyle changes.
"What is most provocative here is not the total global burden of suffering and death cancer causes, dramatic though that may be, but the variations in cancer occurrence around the world, and the insights provided about how much of the cancer burden need not occur at all," said Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.

In developing countries, cancer of the uterine cervix is a leading cause of death in women, Katz noted.

"Yet this infection-related cancer is now preventable by vaccine, and long treatable when detected early using the Pap smear. As a result, death from cervical cancer in developed countries is dramatically lower. Its toll in the developing world is testimony to missed opportunities to apply our resources effectively, and equitably," he said.

Cancer of the liver, often related to hepatitis infection, is a leading cause of death in developing countries, but not so in developed countries. "Again, an infection preventable with vaccine is causing death because of inequities in the distribution and use of existing resources," Katz said.

Prostate and colon cancers are more common in wealthier countries, where they are likely related to poor diet and obesity, Katz said. "Unnecessary suffering and death are occurring in affluent countries due to dietary excesses," he said.

Katz also noted that tobacco-related cancer is largely preventable. "The toll of tobacco-related disease, including lung cancer, is an appalling example of a global willingness to tolerate preventable suffering and death for the sake of profit," he said.

These data show both developed and developing countries how to move toward the lower rates of specific cancers, Katz said.

"It will be a tragic failure for public health if instead of applying these lessons developed countries continue to export tobacco and dietary transgressions so that the developing world adds to its current cancer burden ours as well," he said.

More information
For more information on cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

Oxy-Powder® Complete Cleansing System $147.75 [ learn more ] Complete Cleansing System with Livatrex™, Oxy-Powder®, Latero-Flora™, and two bottles of ParaTrex®.

Natural Protein Could Help Spot, Treat Liver Cancer

(HealthDay News) -- A natural protein called nerve growth factor (NGF) may prove an effective target for the treatment of liver cancer, Italian researchers say.

NGF is an essential component in the growth and differentiation of neuronal cells, explained the team, who reported their findings in the Oct. 7 issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

This study found that NGF also appears to be a factor in liver cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide.

A team at the National Research Council of Italy and elsewhere found that NGF and its receptor trk/ANGF were expressed in the livers of patients with liver cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The two molecules were not detected in the livers of healthy people.

The findings indicate that NGF plays an important role in the development of liver cirrhosis and its progression to HCC, the researchers said. By targeting NGF, it may be possible to prevent or suppress the development of cirrhosis and HCC.

NGF may also prove a useful marker for early diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and HCC, the team noted.

More information
The American Cancer Society has more about liver cancer.

HEALTH EFFECTS OF XENOBIOTICS

We Are All Toxic!

There is not a person on this earth that does not have some hazardous chemicals in their tissues; exposure to them has been linked to several cancers and to a broad range of reproductive problems, including birth defects.

The increasing incidence of some of these conditions, and our continued exposure to a cocktail of these chemicals, is alarming. On of the patterns being observed in developed countries is the increase in chronic diseases associated with environmental factors: indeed, a quarter of all diseases have been attributed to environmental causes, and there can be little doubt that exposure to hazardous chemicals is one of them.

Hormone (or endocrine) disrupting chemicals inparticular pose a high risk to human welfare and are likely to be causing widespread harm. For example, some man-made chemicals have been linked with:

• a range of effects on the reproductive system including sperm quality and the incidence of male genital abnormalities;


• spontaneous abortion, premature deliveries and low birth weight;


• alterations in the ratio of male to female offspring; and
  delays in development of, and deficits in, the mental ability of children.


• In addition, some chemicals may play a role in certain diseases such as breast and testicular cancer.

It’s a Big Problem!

Global chemical production has escalated from around one million tonnes a year in 1930 to some 400 million tonnes in 2000. By the end of the 1990s, some 100,000 chemicals had been registered in the EU, of which 30,000 have annual production volumes above one tonne.

Synthetic chemicals can affect human biology in numerous ways. Many are carcinogens, others can cause birth defects, and still others can disrupt the hormone system. These chemicals, on the market today, can be found in everything from pesticides, paints and industrial detergents to cosmetics, furniture and hair dyes. Many of these xenobiotics were present in the September 9-11 calamity, as well as some of the other wars in the Middle East - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, pesticides, phthalate esters, brominated diphenyl ethers, and other hydrocarbons.

Some accumulate over time and contaminate our water, soil and food, and some are transported long distances on air and ocean currents, so that they contaminate people living in remote areas as far away as the Arctic. Regulations have not kept up with the scale of chemical production. Most chemicals on the market and in everyday use have never been adequately assessed for their human and environmental safety. Of particular concern to World Wildelife Fund (WWF) are chemicals that are very persistent and bioaccumulative, and those that are capable of disrupting the normal functioning of the hormone (or endocrine) system.

Bioaccumulation of XenobioticsOur bodies build up over time very persistent and bioaccumulative xenobiotics – most of these will last many years and probably be one of the main causes of our mortality. This is really quite a new science as most of the toxic reference ranges set by most authorities are based on a one-dose toxic level, not on a bioaccumulative process - scientists must now put on their thinking caps and begin thinking laterally! It is probably a good idea to begin phasing these chemicals out NOW before they kill our grandchildren and great grandchildren!

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, Reproductive Problems & Obesity

Previous studies have found that exposure to phthalates—found in cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, lubricants, paint, pesticides, plastics and in the coating of some timed-release medicines - may be associated with reproductive problems. More than 75 percent of the United States population is thought to have measurable levels of several phthalates in their urine. Researchers have theorized that this class of chemicals, as well as other environmental pollutants, may be lowering testosterone levels in men and may be responsible for the substantial declines in testosterone levels and sperm quality that have occurred in the United States and other countries over the last several decades.

Animal studies have demonstrated that phthalates lower testosterone levels and recent human data has found that phthalates are associated with poor semen quality in men and subtle changes in the reproductive organs in male children. Researchers of the current study decided to investigate the effect of this class of chemicals on obesity after noting that low testosterone appears to cause increased abdominal fat and pre-diabetes in men.

Consequently, if phthalates cause a decrease in testosterone, they theorized, then it could also play a role in weight gain and insulin resistance. The scientists analyzed urine, blood samples and other data from subjects participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a large, multi-ethnic, cross-sectional sampling of the U.S. population conducted routinely by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

After adjusting for confounding factors, the researchers discovered that there was a definite link between levels of several phthalate metabolites and abdominal obesity. Men who had the highest phthalate levels in their urine had more belly fat and a greater prevalence of insulin resistance compared to subjects with lower levels.

This is why it is important to detoxify on a regular basis, clean our liver and gallbladder as well as help to remove these phthalates and other xenobiotics or foreign chemicals – taking HMD can help this process -

Health Effects in Children

Children are exposed to more toxic chemicals in food, air and water than adults because relative to their size, they breathe twice as much air, eat three to four times more food, and drink as much as seven times more water. There is increasing scientific evidence that children face much higher cancer risks from exposure to environmental contaminants than adults.

Only last year, a US study showed that neonate cord blood contained an average of 287 chemicals, of which 180 of these were carcinogens. A similar study in neonates in the Inuit Eskimos living in the North Pole also showed arsenic, lead, mercury and organochlorine pesticides such as DDT which has been banned in the Western world for more than 20 years. This is why the statement “we are all toxic” can no longer be refuted.

Given this level of toxicity from the womb, it should be no surprise that there is a rise in childhood cancers, such as brain cancer, as well as in cancers such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma among adults. The risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has been linked to industrial chemicals used in dark hair dyes and the incidence of this disease was seven times greater in children whose parents frequently used home pesticides.

Neurological and Behavioural EffectsThere is evidence that children’s exposure to some man-made chemicals, especially PCBs, can affect their neurological development and mental ability. Xenobiotics commonly present in women, which are passed on to the developing foetus, can affect the behaviour and mental development of their children, particularly in early childhood. However, these effects may persist to such an extent that impaired reading ability and reduced IQs have still been found in American children aged 11. Man-made chemicals are also suspected of contributing to learning disabilities, including attention deficithyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.

Free e-booksFor all those that have not received my FREE e-books on detoxification, please use this link - Free e-book! - (use the username "HMD" and password "ebooks4me") - and you will be able to download them instantly - one is entitled "DETOXIFICATION: Toxic world, Toxic body - The Secrets of Detoxification. The other is entitled "Flushing Gallstones Naturally: Liver Cleansing Without Painful Surgery or Expensive Drugs."

Best wishes,© Dr. George J Georgiou, Ph.D.,ND.,D.Sc (AM)
Natural Medicine Practitioner & Researcher

Researching Alternatives: A Talk With Donald Abrams

By Bob Huff
June 2003
You have a reputation as being a rigorous clinical researcher and tough advocate for making evidence-based treatment decisions.

Yet you've also been very open to studying a number of alternative and complementary therapies that have been used in the HIV patient community. How did all these concerns come together and what are you involved with these days?

I was training in oncology at UC San Francisco just as the first AIDS cases were reported. I helped found the AIDS program there and I've been participating in academic clinical research for over 20 years. More recently I've become an associate fellow of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona that was founded by Andrew Weil.

This is a two-year program, mostly online, that is increasing my training and background in integrative medicine, including things like botanical medicine, manual medicine, and spirituality. It's been a stimulating experience so far and I'm really enjoying it.

I've been interested in complementary medicine since the very beginning of my career, so one of the reasons I'm doing the fellowship is to learn more that I can integrate into my own healthcare discussions with my patients. Of course another impetus is to see what other things we might want to do clinical research on.

My intention is to continue to investigate the complementary and alternative approaches that our patients are using. We want to determine whether or not they may be beneficial, but also determine whether or not they may be harmful, particularly in how they interact with the conventional medications that patients are taking.

In the earliest days of AIDS we didn't have any treatment for this new disease; people were dying and everybody was frightened. Being here in San Francisco, we were near the Linus Pauling Research Institute in Palo Alto, so there were a number of people in the city who were proponents of high doses of Vitamin C.

One of the first responses we saw in the early '80s were storefront clinics opening up where people went to receive intravenous injections of very high doses of Vitamin C.

At that point in time we didn't even know that it was a virus causing the disease. So I used to go around on the lecture circuit with someone who would talk to audiences of concerned people who listened to him while hooked up to intravenous infusions of Vitamin C.

Then I would speak as the academician who cautioned people that we really don't know if this is beneficial and there may be some dangers to being hooked up to intravenous vitamin C, and so on. Ultimately, this led to me to write a grant proposal in collaboration with the Linus Pauling Institute.

It was right about the time we learned that HIV was the cause of AIDS so we wrote a proposal to the NIH to study the in vitro effects of Vitamin C on HIV. That grant didn't get funded.

In San Francisco at that time there were also a number of DNCB proponents. DNCB, dinitroclorobenzene, is actually a photographic chemical used for developing pictures, but it is also a skin sensitizer that had been used to test for delayed hypersensitivity reactions.

There were people who believed that somehow it might be useful in restoring some of the T-cell immunity that patients with this new disease were lacking. So there were people who would paint themselves weekly or so with DNCB until they developed these skin reactions, thinking that the skin reaction was some sort of improved T-cell immune response that would help combat the virus.

And again, seeing that people were using this and seeing that we really didn't have much else happening, I worked with some of the DNCB proponents, as well as some experts from the University of California -- I remember Jay Levy was involved, as was Marcus Conant and others -- and we wrote a protocol that we submitted to the FDA for funding. That also was rejected.

Around the time that AZT first became available in 1986, I went to a conference in Japan where I was introduced to some investigators from the Ueno Fine Chemicals company who told me that they had the cure for this disease. They said it was something that was very commonly used in Japan but they couldn't tell me about it until I signed a confidentiality agreement.

That turned out to be dextran sulfate. Not long after I was going through the process of filing the paperwork to get approval from the FDA to do a phase I study of dextran sulfate in the United States when evidently some people heard about it.

They realized that it was a product that was widely available in Japan -- I believe it was used for lowering cholesterol -- so they started an importation scheme similar to what had happened in earlier days with isoprinosine and ribavirin, which were brought across the Mexican border.

But people had now become more sophisticated in their methods and began to import dextran sulfate from Japan to sell in the underground AIDS therapy market.

I remember that activists stormed the offices of a Japanese drug distributor in New York for refusing to make dextran sulfate more widely available. Ultimately it became such a political issue that, even though my clinical trial here in San Francisco didn't show much benefit, Congress got involved and the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) was asked to do a study of dextran sulfate through the NIH-funded mechanism. It turned out the drug was not even absorbed into the blood.

Another Japanese product I worked with was lentinin, which was an intravenously administered extract of shiitake mushroom. In Japan it was felt to be an immune booster for patients with cancer. Although it was being used by mainstream doctors in Japan, it was an alternative therapy here because it was not something that we had ever learned about or used in hospitals in the U.S. That's David Eisenberg's description of what an alternative therapy is -- that it's not taught about in medical schools or widely available in U.S. hospitals -- and certainly shiitake mushroom extracts qualified. Again, that's another study we did that had negative findings;

there was no benefit to the intravenous infusions of lentinin. Since I've learned more about botanicals, it would seem to me that if there were immune enhancing benefits to shiitake mushrooms then they are more likely to be obtained by eating them rather than by injecting an extract intravenously.

During that time I was also involved with studies of conventional therapies. Even in the days of early AZT monotherapy, which I was not a big supporter of, I was involved in trying to put some evidence behind the claims of the proponents for these various agents. And since that time, I've had a constant history of investigating conventional therapies through the federally-funded CPCRA (Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS), and more recently through the ESPRIT study of interleukin 2, as well as in other, sometimes pharmaceutical industry-sponsored trials. But always ongoing with those studies, I've been involved with clinical trials of complementary and alternative interventions.

When we first became aware of immune thrombocytopenic purpora (ITP) in AIDS, I worked with a nurse who was very interested in therapeutic touch and we studied men with low platelet counts to see if therapeutic touch could decrease their stress and increase their platelet counts. That was another study that turned out to be fairly negative.

I then became interested in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and, in fact, one of the colleges of TCM here in San Francisco sent me to China in 1989 just to learn about Qigong (Chi Kung) -- that exercise that's felt to improve the immune system -- to see if it was something that I wanted to study here. Although I never studied Qigong I collaborated with Misha Cohen from the Quan Yin Healing Arts Center here in San Francisco. We did three studies of traditional Chinese herbal interventions for, first, symptomatic HIV, then for patients with diarrhea without a pathogenic source, and then another study for patients with anemia.

The last two were hindered by the fact of being initiated about the time that HAART became available, so patients with diarrhea as well as anemia became scarce. There were also a lot of pills that needed to be taken in these Chinese herbal investigations and patients at that time were taking huge amounts of pills with their antiretroviral regimens, so the studies weren't very attractive. None of these studies had spectacular results and the anemia study was terminated for poor enrollment.

Have "soft endpoints" such as life satisfaction created a problem for designing and conducting credible studies?

The TCM herbal study that we published in 1996 investigated herbs versus placebo in symptomatic HIV infection. At the time of the study in 1993, we had patients with about 14 symptoms on average and we found that there was a significant decrease of symptoms in the herb-treated group -- they decreased from 14 to 12 -- whereas the other group still had 14 symptoms. We also found that they had improved "life satisfaction" which improved by a factor of +0.86 or thereabouts.

Yet, if you look at the rest of the results, the Chinese herbal patients actually lost weight over 12 weeks compared to the placebo group, and their CD4 counts also dropped -- not statistically significant, but it was a trend. So that was an example of where their symptoms improved and their life satisfaction increased, but the parameters that we would normally look at to see if a patient is doing well (i.e., weight and CD4 count) went in the wrong direction. So, although I was also first author on a study that showed that epoetin alfa improves quality of life in HIV patients who are anemic, I'd have to say that a study whose main endpoint is quality of life is something I would find difficult to interpret.

The CPCRA actually did a large study of acupuncture for patients with HIV-related peripheral neuropathy that was published in JAMA. That was a landmark, having the NIH support an acupuncture study, although, again, it turned out to have negative results; acupuncture didn't appear to be effective in treating peripheral neuropathy.

About this time I began trying to study another botanical, which has consumed my efforts for the past decade, and that would be cannabis, or marijuana. Starting in 1992 I began proposing and developing clinical trials to investigate first the effectiveness -- but then I realized that that wasn't going to happen -- so subsequently, the safety of smoked marijuana in patients with HIV.

We finally completed a study in the year 2000, that we hope will soon be published, that looked at the safety of marijuana in patients taking protease inhibitor regimens. And since that time we have obtained funding from the State of California that allows us now to conduct clinical trials to look at the potential effectiveness of smoked marijuana in patients with various syndromes. We have also just completed a pilot study in patients with HIV peripheral neuropathy, which allowed us to ascertain that there was some effectiveness of marijuana. But an open-label pilot study is not going to prove that, so we're now in the process of continuing on with a randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind trial in patients with HIV-related peripheral neuropathy. We're also doing marijuana studies in patients with cancer who have pain who are on opioid analgesics, and another study to look at the effect of smoked marijuana in patients who have delayed nausea and vomiting from breast cancer chemotherapy.

It was working with marijuana and all the problems that are inherent in studying a plant as a therapy that has led me to a broader interest in botanicals and the use of substances that come from nature as medicinal agents. Certainly, for thousands of years, people have depended primarily on these things. Whether or not they worked is unclear, but as an oncologist I know that many of my most potent chemotherapeutic agents were derived from plants. So right now we are waiting to hear if a protocol we submitted to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to investigate the lipid lowering effects of oyster mushrooms in patients on Kaletra is being funded. There's good evidence that mushrooms, including oyster mushrooms in particular, have some activity for lowering blood lipids and cholesterol.

We're also just finishing a three-year NCCAM grant studying the effects of DHEA, dehydroepiandrosterone, which is an over-the-counter adrenal steroid that people are taking for many reasons. We received a grant to investigate it as an antiviral and to see what impact it has on the immune system. Hopefully that data will be available by the end of the year and we will know if DHEA had any impact, positively or negatively, in our patients.

The goal, ultimately, would be to submit a center grant to the NCCAM, to allow us to establish a center here for the study of botanicals in HIV because there are still a number of herbal preparations and mushroom extracts that warrant further investigation for their potential benefit -- and to make sure that they're not harmful in our patients.

Safety keeps coming up again and again as one of the inarguable justifications for doing this research.

There's not a huge amount that we know about some of these botanical products and how they're metabolized, but there's probably more than people think. There are a number of textbooks available that talk about herb-drug interactions. That was the question in our marijuana study: is there an interaction between cannabinoids and protease inhibitors, which are both metabolized by cytochrome P450 enzymes in the liver, that may alter the activity of the protease inhibitors such that patients lose their viral suppression when they mix cannabis with their treatments?

And in fact, in our article that was already published in AIDS, we saw no such effect. We've all heard about garlic and St. John's Wort and their interactions, and I think there are many other agents that we would like to study to make sure that they are not having significant interactions with protease inhibitors. We don't want people to either lose control of their viremia (through underdosing) or experience toxicity (through overdosing) because of antiretroviral concentrations that have been affected by herb-drug interactions.

You had to be enormously persistent to accomplish your marijuana study. In the current political climate, is it going to be more difficult to do marijuana studies?

I think we're blessed to live in the State of California, which is somewhat of a freestanding republic in and of itself. In 1996, the people of California voted to allow physicians to talk to their patients about the medicinal use of cannabis. Then, through the work of Senator John Vasconcellos, one of our state senators, appropriations were made to the University of California that established the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/). And that Center has had funds for the past three years that allows it to support clinical trials to investigate the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Whereas the NIH and NIDA, via their congressional mandate, could only give marijuana to clinical trials that show that it was harmful (they are the National Institute on Drug Abuse, not for Drug Abuse, as NIDA's director Alan Leshner always reminded me), they were not really able to provide us with marijuana to study the benefits. But now, they have modified their system so they can provide marijuana for peer reviewed clinical trials that will look at its effectiveness as a therapeutic agent -- as long as they are not funding it. So they have now created this ability for us to obtain government marijuana.

Is there a need to increase provider knowledge about these issues?

I think a part of the problem is a lack of communication from both sides. Patients don't really perceive that these substances are something that they need to tell their doctor about -- in fact many studies show they don't want to tell their doctor because they're afraid they're going to be reprimanded or told that they're wasting their money. And many physicians never even think about asking about these things as potential confounders or as things that are causing clinical symptoms.

There also may be a variable of where in the country you are. I know many surveys show that we in the West have the highest percentage of people in the population who are using complementary and alternative interventions. So many of my colleagues here might be more familiar with how to ask the question and what to be looking for.

I remember once seeing a patient at our drop-in clinic who clearly had a drug rash. I looked through his chart -- this was when we had paper charts -- and he had a high CD4 count and a low viral load but he wasn't taking any medications.

So I said to the guy, "You're not taking any medications, huh?" And he said, "No."
"Are you taking any vitamins?" And he said, "Yeah."

So I asked him what he took and he listed about four or five vitamin preparations. Then I asked, "Do you take any herbs?" And he said, "Sure."

And so I listed the three or four herbal substances th
at he took.
"Do you take any minerals?" And he said, "Yeah."
By the time I finished I had a list of 12 different things he was taking.
So I asked, "Well, how come everybody else wrote down that you don't take anything?" And he said, "Well, nobody ever asked me before."


more info at:
http://www.dreddyclinic.com/integrated_med/integrated_med.htm

Low Folate Levels Could Cut Colon Cancer Risk

(HealthDay News) -- Conventional wisdom has indicated that high levels of folate cut risks for colorectal cancer, but a new study suggests low levels may do the trick, too.

Folate is a B vitamin found in fruits such as bananas and oranges, leafy green vegetables, asparagus, broccoli, liver, and many types of beans and peas.

Outside experts called the findings intriguing but preliminary, stressing that caution needs to be exercised when interpreting the conclusions.

"In a lot of ways, it's counterintuitive, but it may have validity," said Dr. Howard Manten, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "We need confirmatory studies."

"It's an interesting study, but with relatively small numbers of patients," added Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La.

This advice does not necessarily pertain to pregnant women, he added, since there is good evidence that extra folate in the diet greatly cuts the risk for having children with neural tube defects such as spina bifida.

Indeed, folic acid has long been known for its effect on reducing certain birth defects when taken in sufficient quantities by pregnant women. That was the rationale behind the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 1998 order for folic-acid fortification of enriched grain products such as cereals and breads. Canada made fortification mandatory that same year.

According to the study, which appears in the April 25 online issue of Gut, there are also initiatives now in Europe to fortify food with folate.

Previous research had found that folate might protect against colorectal cancer. But many of those studies had looked at dietary intake rather than how much folate was circulating in the body, the authors stated.

In the current study, the biggest-ever prospective look at circulating levels of folate and colorectal cancer risk, researchers at Umea University, Sweden, looked at 226 people with colon cancer and 437 controls from the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Cohort.

Participants completed questionnaires on lifestyle, including diet, and also submitted blood samples for analysis.

People with either the lowest or highest levels of circulating folate were the least likely to develop bowel cancer, the researchers found. Those in the middle were almost twice as likely to develop the disease.

People with a common mutation in the MTHFR gene, which lowers a person's circulating folate levels, also had a lower risk of developing the cancer.

There was no apparent link between homocysteine, an amino acid which may play a role in atherosclerosis, and folate. B vitamins, including folate, tend to keep homocysteine levels down.
If nothing else, the findings should make people think twice before they supplement their diet with large amounts of any one nutrient.

"The study shows us that before we start adding extra things into our diet, we may want to really study them carefully, as we may be doing more harm than good," Brooks said.

More information
To learn more about folic acid, visit the American Dietetic Association.

Statins Stop Hepatitis C Virus From Replicating

HOBOKEN, NJ -- July 7, 2006 -- A new study shows that statins, which are typically used as anti-cholesterol medications, can inhibit the replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). They could replace ribavirin in combination therapy with interferon.

These findings are published in the July 2006 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).Currently, 170 million people worldwide are infected with HCV. The standard treatment is a combination therapy of interferon and ribavirin, which is only effective in about 55 percent of patients. The remaining 45 percent face a threat of the disease progressing to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Based on recent reports that one statin, lovastatin, inhibits HCV replication, researchers led by Masanori Ikeda of Okayama University in Japan, tested other statins in search of a more effective anti-HCV therapy.Using the OR6 cell culture assay system, they evaluated the anti-HCV activities of five statins: atorvastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin and simvastatin. When the statins were tested alone, all except pravastatin inhibited HCV replication. Fluvastatin had the strongest effect. Atorvastatin and simvastatin had moderate effects while lovastatin had a weak effect. While pravastatin exhibited no anti-HCV activity, it did work as an inhibitor for HMG-CoA reductase, suggesting that the anti-HCV activities of the other stains are not due to the direct inhibition of HMG-CoA.The researchers determined that the anti-HCV activities of statins were not related to cytotoxicity, meaning they did not kill the host cell. Additional experiments also suggested that, "the statins possess the ability to inhibit the replication of HCV RNA via a specific antiviral mechanism," the authors report.

The researchers tested the theory that certain proteins are required for HCV RNA replication and that statins block the replication by inhibiting those proteins. In support of this theory, they found that the addition of both mevalonate and geranylgeraniol restored HCV RNA replication in the statin-treated cells.To evaluate statins as potential replacements for ribavirin in combination therapy, the researchers tested the anti-HCV activities of each one when combined with interferon. Each combination, except the one including pravastatin, had even stronger inhibitory effects on HCV RNA replication than when the statin was used alone. Again, fluvastatin plus interferon exhibited the strongest effect. "We clearly demonstrated that co-treatment of interferon and fluvastatin was an overwhelmingly effective treatment," the authors report. This combined therapy was more effective against HCV RNA replication than interferon alone and more effective than the standard combination therapy of interferon and ribavirin."Statins are good reagents for combination therapy with interferon in patients with chronic hepatitis C," the authors conclude. "Furthermore, our developed OR6 assay system will be useful for the time-saving screening of new anti-HCV reagents."The journal Hepatology is published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.REFERENCE:"Different Anti-HCV Profiles of Statins and Their Potential for Combination Therapy with Interferon," Masanori Ikeda, Ken-ichi Abe, Masashi Yamada, Hiromichi Dansako, Kazuhito Naka, Nobuyuki Kato, Hepatology; July 2006; (DOI: 10.1002/hep.21232).
SOURCE: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Sugar and Cancer

Sugar and Cancer

Originally printed by
The Alternative Research Foundation
It puzzles me why the simple concept "sugar feeds cancer" can be so dramatically overlooked as part of a comprehensive cancer treatment plan.

Of the 4 million cancer patients being treated in America today, hardly any are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy beyond being told to "just eat good foods." Most patients I work with arrive with a complete lack of nutritional advice.

I believe many cancer patients would have a major improvement in their outcome if they controlled the supply of cancer's preferred fuel, glucose.

By slowing the cancer's growth, patients allow their immune systems and medical debulking therapies -- chemotherapy, radiation and surgery to reduce the bulk of the tumor mass -- to catch up to the disease.

Controlling one's blood-glucose levels through diet, supplements, exercise, meditation and prescription drugs when necessary can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer recovery program. The sound bite -- sugar feeds cancer -- is simple. The explanation is a little more complex.

The 1931 Nobel laureate in medicine, German Otto Warburg, Ph.D., first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells.

The crux of his Nobel thesis was that malignant tumors frequently exhibit an increase in anaerobic glycolysis -- a process whereby glucose is used as a fuel by cancer cells with lactic acid as an anaerobic byproduct -- compared to normal tissues.

The large amount of lactic acid produced by this fermentation of glucose from cancer cells is then transported to the liver. This conversion of glucose to lactate generates a lower, more acidic pH in cancerous tissues as well as overall physical fatigue from lactic acid buildup. Thus, larger tumors tend to exhibit a more acidic pH.

This inefficient pathway for energy metabolism yields only 2 moles of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) energy per mole of glucose, compared to 38 moles of ATP in the complete aerobic oxidation of glucose.

By extracting only about 5 percent (2 vs. 38 moles of ATP) of the available energy in the food supply and the body's calorie stores, the cancer is "wasting" energy, and the patient becomes tired and undernourished. This vicious cycle increases body wasting.

It is one reason why 40 percent of cancer patients die from malnutrition, or cachexia. Hence, cancer therapies should encompass regulating blood-glucose levels via diet, supplements, non-oral solutions for cachectic patients who lose their appetite, medication, exercise, gradual weight loss and stress reduction. Professional guidance and patient self-discipline are crucial at this point in the cancer process. The quest is not to eliminate sugars or carbohydrates from the diet but rather to control blood glucose within a narrow range to help starve the cancer and bolster immune function.

The glycemic index is a measure of how a given food affects blood-glucose levels, with each food assigned a numbered rating. The lower the rating, the slower the digestion and absorption process, which provides a healthier, more gradual infusion of sugars into the bloodstream.

Conversely, a high rating means blood-glucose levels are increased quickly, which stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin to drop blood-sugar levels. This rapid fluctuation of blood-sugar levels is unhealthy because of the stress it places on the body.

Sugar in the Body and Diet
Sugar is a generic term used to identify simple carbohydrates, which includes monosaccharides such as fructose, glucose and galactose; and disaccharides such as maltose and sucrose (white table sugar). Think of these sugars as different-shaped bricks in a wall.

When fructose is the primary monosaccharide brick in the wall, the glycemic index registers as healthier, since this simple sugar is slowly absorbed in the gut, then converted to glucose in the liver. This makes for "time-release foods," which offer a more gradual rise and fall in blood-glucose levels.

If glucose is the primary monosaccharide brick in the wall, the glycemic index will be higher and less healthy for the individual. As the brick wall is torn apart in digestion, the glucose is pumped across the intestinal wall directly into the bloodstream, rapidly raising blood-glucose levels.

In other words, there is a "window of efficacy" for glucose in the blood: levels too low make one feel lethargic and can create clinical hypoglycemia; levels too high start creating the rippling effect of diabetic health problems.

The 1997 American Diabetes Association blood-glucose standards consider 126 mg glucose/dL blood or greater to be diabetic; 111 to 125 mg/dL is impaired glucose tolerance and less than 110 mg/dL is considered normal.

Meanwhile, the Paleolithic diet of our ancestors, which consisted of lean meats, vegetables and small amounts of whole grains, nuts, seeds and fruits, is estimated to have generated blood glucose levels between 60 and 90 mg/dL.

Obviously, today's high-sugar diets are having unhealthy effects as far as blood-sugar is concerned. Excess blood glucose may initiate yeast overgrowth, blood vessel deterioration, heart disease and other health conditions.

Understanding and using the glycemic index is an important aspect of diet modification for cancer patients. However, there is also evidence that sugars may feed cancer more efficiently than starches (comprised of long chains of simple sugars), making the index slightly misleading.

A study of rats fed diets with equal calories from sugars and starches, for example, found the animals on the high-sugar diet developed more cases of breast cancer.

The glycemic index is a useful tool in guiding the cancer patient toward a healthier diet, but it is not infallible. By using the glycemic index alone, one could be led to thinking a cup of white sugar is healthier than a baked potato.

This is because the glycemic index rating of a sugary food may be lower than that of a starchy food. To be safe, I recommend less fruit, more vegetables, and little to no refined sugars in the diet of cancer patients.

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What the Literature Says
A mouse model of human breast cancer demonstrated that tumors are sensitive to blood-glucose levels. Sixty-eight mice were injected with an aggressive strain of breast cancer, then fed diets to induce either high blood-sugar (hyperglycemia), normoglycemia or low blood-sugar (hypoglycemia).

There was a dose-dependent response in which the lower the blood glucose, the greater the survival rate. After 70 days, 8 of 24 hyperglycemic mice survived compared to 16 of 24 normoglycemic and 19 of 20 hypoglycemic.

This suggests that regulating sugar intake is key to slowing breast tumor growth.

In a human study, 10 healthy people were assessed for fasting blood-glucose levels and the phagocytic index of neutrophils, which measures immune-cell ability to envelop and destroy invaders such as cancer. Eating 100 g carbohydrates from glucose, sucrose, honey and orange juice all significantly decreased the capacity of neutrophils to engulf bacteria. Starch did not have this effect.

A four-year study at the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection in the Netherlands compared 111 biliary tract cancer patients with 480 controls. Cancer risk associated with the intake of sugars, independent of other energy sources, more than doubled for the cancer patients.

Furthermore, an epidemiological study in 21 modern countries that keep track of morbidity and mortality (Europe, North America, Japan and others) revealed that sugar intake is a strong risk factor that contributes to higher breast cancer rates, particularly in older women.

Limiting sugar consumption may not be the only line of defense. In fact, an interesting botanical extract from the avocado plant (Persea americana) is showing promise as a new cancer adjunct.

When a purified avocado extract called mannoheptulose was added to a number of tumor cell lines tested in vitro by researchers in the Department of Biochemistry at Oxford University in Britain, they found it inhibited tumor cell glucose uptake by 25 to 75 percent, and it inhibited the enzyme glucokinase responsible for glycolysis. It also inhibited the growth rate of the cultured tumor cell lines.

The same researchers gave lab animals a 1.7 mg/g body weight dose of mannoheptulose for five days; it reduced tumors by 65 to 79 percent. Based on these studies, there is good reason to believe that avocado extract could help cancer patients by limiting glucose to the tumor cells.

Since cancer cells derive most of their energy from anaerobic glycolysis, Joseph Gold, M.D., director of the Syracuse (N.Y.) Cancer Research Institute and former U.S. Air Force research physician, surmised that a chemical called hydrazine sulfate, used in rocket fuel, could inhibit the excessive gluconeogenesis (making sugar from amino acids) that occurs in cachectic cancer patients.

Gold's work demonstrated hydrazine sulfate's ability to slow and reverse cachexia in advanced cancer patients. A placebo-controlled trial followed 101 cancer patients taking either 6 mg hydrazine sulfate three times/day or placebo. After one month, 83 percent of hydrazine sulfate patients increased their weight, compared to 53 percent on placebo.

A similar study by the same principal researchers, partly funded by the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., followed 65 patients. Those who took hydrazine sulfate and were in good physical condition before the study began lived an average of 17 weeks longer.

The medical establishment may be missing the connection between sugar and its role in tumorigenesis. Consider the million-dollar positive emission tomography device, or PET scan, regarded as one of the ultimate cancer-detection tools. PET scans use radioactively labeled glucose to detect sugar-hungry tumor cells. PET scans are used to plot the progress of cancer patients and to assess whether present protocols are effective.

In Europe, the "sugar feeds cancer" concept is so well accepted that oncologists, or cancer doctors, use the Systemic Cancer Multistep Therapy (SCMT) protocol. Conceived by Manfred von Ardenne in Germany in 1965, SCMT entails injecting patients with glucose to increase blood-glucose concentrations.

This lowers pH values in cancer tissues via lactic acid formation. In turn, this intensifies the thermal sensitivity of the malignant tumors and also induces rapid growth of the cancer.

Patients are then given whole-body hyperthermia (42 C core temperature) to further stress the cancer cells, followed by chemotherapy or radiation.

SCMT was tested on 103 patients with metastasized cancer or recurrent primary tumors in a clinical phase-I study at the Von Ardenne Institute of Applied Medical Research in Dresden, Germany. Five-year survival rates in SCMT-treated patients increased by 25 to 50 percent, and the complete rate of tumor regression increased by 30 to 50 percent.

The protocol induces rapid growth of the cancer, then treats the tumor with toxic therapies for a dramatic improvement in outcome.

The irrefutable role of glucose in the growth and metastasis of cancer cells can enhance many therapies. Some of these include diets designed with the glycemic index in mind to regulate increases in blood glucose, hence selectively starving the cancer cells; low-glucose TPN solutions; avocado extract to inhibit glucose uptake in cancer cells; hydrazine sulfate to inhibit gluconeogenesis in cancer cells; and SCMT.

A female patient in her 50s, with lung cancer, came to our clinic, having been given a death sentence by her Florida oncologist. She was cooperative and understood the connection between nutrition and cancer. She changed her diet considerably, leaving out 90 percent of the sugar she used to eat.

She found that wheat bread and oat cereal now had their own wild sweetness, even without added sugar.

With appropriately restrained medical therapy -- including high-dose radiation targeted to tumor sites and fractionated chemotherapy, a technique that distributes the normal one large weekly chemo dose into a 60-hour infusion lasting days -- a good attitude and an optimal nutrition program which included Sam's formula nine times/day, she beat her terminal lung cancer cancer.

I saw her last month, five years later and still disease-free, probably looking better than the doctor who told her there was no hope.

more informations:

• breast cancer
• Lung cancer

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Omega-3 Fats Curb the Growth, Spread of Liver Cancer

The first study compared the effect of omega-3 and omega-6 fats on human hepatocellular carcinoma cells, the most common cause of all liver cancers (up to 90 percent) and usually fatal within six months, for up to two days. No surprise, omega-6 fats had no effect on cancer cells, but the omega-3s -- in the form of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) -- induced apoptosis (programmed cellular death).

In the latter study, omega-3 fats were just as effective in treating cholangiocarcinoma tumor cells, an aggressive and fatal type of liver cancer that forms in bile ducts.

RxPG News April 3, 2006
Nutra Ingredients.com April 4, 2006

DrEddyClinic.com

Smokers More Likely to Die in Middle Age

Summary:
A new study shows that people who smoke are more likely to die during middle age than people who never smoked or those who gave up the habit. The research was done in Norway and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Why it's important:
Although many studies have shown that smoking causes premature death, most of those studies included only men. Less was known about how smoking affects women. This study looked at both genders, so it gives us a better idea of how smoking harms women, too.
It also shows why it is so important that smokers quit, and why younger people should never start smoking in the first place, according to Ronald M. Davis, MD, of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. He wrote an editorial about the study.

What's already known:
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the world, causing about 5 million deaths worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States, some 438,000 people die from tobacco use each year. Smoking is responsible for most cases of lung cancer (both small cell and non-small cell), and is linked to at least 10 other cancers. It is also a major cause of heart disease, stroke, and other lung diseases such as emphysema.
"What this study does in a detailed way, with the advantage of outstanding long-term follow-up and health records, is clearly demonstrate the impact of smoking on the duration of life," said Len Lichtenfeld, MD, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society.

How this study was done:
Researchers from the University of Bergen studied smoking habits and causes of death in nearly 50,000 people in 3 rural counties in Norway. The men and women were between the ages of 35 and 49 when they were recruited for the study (between 1974 and 1978). They were asked about whether they smoked, how much they smoked, and when they'd started smoking. They were also asked about other factors like exercise, marital status, and education. The researchers used death certificates to see how many people in the group died, when they died, and what they died of: lung cancer, other smoking-related cancers, other cancers not linked to smoking, heart disease, alcohol abuse/liver disease, other medical conditions, and accidents/violence.

What was found:
Smokers were much more likely to die between the ages of 40 and 70 than nonsmokers. Just 9% of women who had never smoked died during that period of life, compared to 26% of women who smoked 20 or more cigarettes per day (heavy smokers). The difference was even greater for men: 14% of those who never smoked died in middle age, compared to 41% of the heavy smokers.
The more people smoked, the more likely they were to die in middle age. There were no significant differences in lung cancer deaths, or deaths from other smoking-related cancers, in men and women who smoked.
There was one piece of good news from the study. Quitting at any age lowered the risk of dying -- but those who quit in their 40s fared better than those who waited until their 50s or 60s to kick the habit.

The bottom line:
The Norwegian study serves as a powerful reminder of the dangers of smoking, and the importance of tobacco control efforts like the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, experts say.
"Numbers can be dry and boring," Lichtenfeld noted, "but when you consider the real-life impact of the deaths reported in this study, you can begin to appreciate the impact cigarettes have on everyday folks."
Citation: "Smoking and Deaths between 40 and 70 Years of Age in Women and Men." Published in the March 21, 2006 Annals of Internal Medicine (Vol. 144, No. 6: 381-390. First author: Stein Emil Vollset, MD, DrPH, University of Bergen, Norway.
"Measuring the Health Impact of Smoking and Health Care Providers' Performance in Addressing the Problem." Published in the March 21, 2006 Annals of Internal Medicine (Vol. 144, No. 6: 444-446). First author: Ronald M. Davis, MD, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit.
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RedOrbit - Health - Integrating the Best of EAST & WEST

RedOrbit - Health - Integrating the Best of EAST & WEST:
By YONG TIAM KUI

IN their quest for more effective treatment methods, Chinese doctors have been combining Western and Chinese medical practices for decades. This has resulted in the creation of what they call Integrated Medicine, writes YONG TIAM KUI.

HERE in Malaysia, many people believe it is dangerous to take Western and Chinese medicines simultaneously. This is certainly true as far as self-medication is concerned.

But in China, it has been the accepted practice for more than 50 years for doctors to treat patients with a combination of Western and Chinese medicines.

Zhang Xichun, a traditional Chinese doctor in the city of Tianjin during the twilight years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), was one of the pioneers of this approach.

One of the things Zhang did was to use a simple mixture of gypsum, a traditional Chinese remedy, and aspirin to treat fever.

Now, more than one hundred years later, close to two thirds of the Chinese population have benefited from Integrated Medicine, a comprehensive treatment approach which merges Western and Chinese medicine.

"Integrated Medicine is neither alter
native medicine or complementary medicine. It is not simply about adding traditional Chinese medical treatment to Western medical treatment.

"It is a comprehensive form of medical care that combines the strengths of Western and Chinese medicine and makes up for the inadequacies and possible side effects of both types of disciplines," said Professor Dr Wang Wenjian of Fudan University, China.

Dr Wang, director of the university's Institute of Integrated Medicine, says doctors who practise Integrated Medicine have to spend six years training in Western medicine and two years in Chinese medicine.

As they have access to a wider range of treatment options, this allows them to select the safest and most effective approach.

So, how exactly does a doctor who practises Integrated Medicine treat his patients?

Dr Wang says he usually begins by using modern Western diagnostic methods. This is followed by the application of traditional Chinese diagnostic techniques to further determine the exact nature of the patient's ailment.

For instance, if a patient appears to be suffering from gastric ulcer, modern Western diagnostic methods, such as endoscopy, are used to determine whether he really is having gastric ulcer or something more serious such as, say, cancer.

Having made a conclusive diagnosis of gastric ulcer, the doctor applies Chinese diagnostic techniques to find out whether the problem is due to conditions such as "stomach heatiness, stomach cold, liver qi invading the stomach or spleen-stomach vacuity cold".

At this point, the doctor has to decide what is the most effective course of treatment - Western medicine, Chinese medicine or a combination of Western and Chinese medicine.

During the SARS epidemic for example, said Dr Wang, patients treated with a combination of Western and Chinese medicine responded better than those who were treated only with Western drugs.

"Patients who were treated with conventional Western drugs had to put on a respirator for an average of 14 days.

"Patients treated simultaneously with both Western drugs and Chinese herbs to clear heat, resolve dampness, stimulate blood circulation and and invigorate qi (life force) only spent an average of five days on a respirator."

Dr Wang was in Kuala Lumpur recently to promote the use of red yeast rice (hong qu) in lipid regulating therapy for the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease.

Red yeast rice is produced by fermenting a type of yeast called Monascus purpureus over red rice.

It is used in traditional Chinese medicine to promote blood circulation, soothe upset stomachs and invigorate the spleen.

In a seven-year study involving 4,870 Chinese individuals aged 18 to 75 who had survived a heart attack, Dr Wang and his team found that red yeast rice extract reduced total cholesterol level of subjects by an average of 13.2 per cent, triglycerides by 15 per cent and low density lipoprotein by 20.2 per cent, and increased high density lipoprotein by 4.9 per cent.

It reduced the incidence of coronary heart disease by 45.1 per cent and reduced fatalities by 31 per cent.

Clearly such impressive figures calls for further investigation and research.
* yongtk@nst.com.my

CONSULT YOUR DOC
In Malaysia, the vast majority of people refer to Western medicine, though it does not mean that they have altogether turned their backs on traditional medicine.

However, before you embark on a red yeast rice programme for cholesterol control, do consult your regular Western-trained doctor.
Source: New Straits Times

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The Macrobiotic Diet

THE MACROBIOTIC DIET
has become one of the most popular health-oriented diets in the world. During the past several decades, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have taken this approach to eating, in whole or in part.
Two followers of the macrobiotic way have published books on their experiences. The actor Dirk Benedict in his book. Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy, attributes his recovery from cancer to macrobiotics. (3) Dr. Anthony Sattilaro recounts his battle with cancer on the macrobiotic road to health in Recalled by Life. (6)
Individual accounts such as these have helped the macrobiotic diet to become one of the most popular dietary therapies used by cancer patients today. Adherents see macrobiotics as more than just a diet. To them it is a philosophy and a way of life.
The macrobiotic diet consists of approximately 50 percent whole cereal grains, 20 percent to 30 percent locally grown vegetables, and smaller amounts of soups, beans, and sea vegetables;
white meat, fish, and fruits are permitted in limited amounts. The methods of preparation and cooking are important.

The goal of the macrobiotic life-style is to teach people to take responsibility for their own state of health as they develop a more nature-oriented, balanced way of living. Followers of the macrobiotic way of life believe this change in attitudes is essential to recovery from disease.
Macrobiotics does not promote a single diet for everyone. Based on the principles of Oriental medicine, it is a dietary approach that takes many things into account, including climatic and geographical variations, age, sex, levels of activity, and ever-changing individual needs.

Background
The earliest known recorded usage of the term macrobiotic is found in the fifth-century B.C. writings of Hippocrates, who used the word to describe a group of healthy, long-lived men. Literally translated, it means "large life." The term also occurs in the Writings of Aristotle and Galen.
In 1797 the German physician and philosopher Christoph W. Hufeland wrote what was in his time an important book on the relationship between diet and health, titled Macrobiotics, or the Art of Prolonging Life.
The Japanese educator Yukikazu Sakurazawa is credited with initiating the twentieth-century revival and evolution of macrobiotics. Sakurazawa, who wrote under the pen name of George Ohsawa, reportedly cured himself of a serious illness by changing from the post-World War II modern, refined diet that is becoming so popular in Japan to a simple diet of brown rice, miso soup, locaFsea vegetables, and other traditional Japanese foods.
In his writings and teachings, George Ohsawa began combining elements of the Zen Buddhist philosophy with the macrobiotic diet. Then in 1959 he made the first of several trips to the United States. He viewed cancer as an opportunity to make positive changes in life-style and health. As he often said, "Congratulations. You've got cancer! Now you can start a new life!" (4)

Macrobiotics in the United States
Michio Kushi, who studied with Ohsawa in Japan, came to the United States in 1949 and eventually became one of the most prominent leaders of the macrobiotic movement in the United States. In 1978 he founded the Kushi Institute, near Boston, where he and his staff offer a wide array of programs that teach the macrobiotic way of life.
According to Kushi, macrobiotics is neither a treatment nor a therapy, but rather a common-sense approach to daily living and a comprehensive approach to the maintenance of health. The macrobiotic diet is the most prominent aspect of the macrobiotic bclief system.
Another leader of the U.S. macrobiotic movement is Herman Aihara, who is president of the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation in California. Aihara has written two books, Basic Macrobiotics (1) and Acid and Alkaline (2), which give his macrobiotic guidelines for cancer patients.
Even though the macrobiotic diets were not initially developed as a treatment for cancer, much of the recent macrobiotic literature, including Kushi's own popular book. The Cancer Prevention Diet, directly promotes the macrobiotic diet as a method of cancer prevention and treatment.

Yin and Yang
The traditional Oriental concepts of yin and yang are woven through all aspects of the macrobiotic philosophy and life-style. According to Kushi, yin and yang are the antagonistic and complementary forces that create and balance all phenomena in the universe.

CHART 1
Examples of Yin and Yang Influences

YIN
YANG
Category
Function Movement
Separation -Slower
Gathering -Faster
Position
Outer
Central
Temperature Light Moisture
Colder Darker Wetter
Hotter Brighter Drier
Work
Mental
Physical
CHART 2
Yin and Yang Classification of Cancer Sites
MORE YIN
MORE YANG

COMBINED YIN/YANG
Skin
Stomach (upper area)
Breast
Brain (outer area)
Mouth (except tongue)
Leukemia
Esophagus
Colon
Prostate
Ovary
Brain (inner area^
Bone
Rectum
Pancreas
Lung
Stomach (lower area)
Uterus
Bladder/Kidney
Tongue
Liver
Spleen

Mechanism of Action
Macrobiotics approaches cancer and other diseases from the perspective of Oriental medicine, beginning with classifying a patient's cancer as predominantly yin or yang—sometimes a combination of both, depending on the type of cancer and the location of the primary tumor.
In general, tumors in peripheral or upper parts of the body or in hollow, expanded organs are considered yin. Examples include lymphoma, leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, tumors of the mouth (except the tongue), esophagus, upper stomach, breast, skin, and outer regions of the brain.
Tumors in the lower or deeper parts of the body or in the more compact organs are considered yang. Examples are cancers of the colon, rectum, prostate, ovaries, bone, pancreas, and inner regions of the brain. Cancers thought to result from a combination of yin and yang forces include melanoma and cancers of the lung, bladder, kidney, lower stomach, uterus, spleen, liver, and tongue. (5)

The Macrobiotic Cancer Diet
In The Cancer Prevention Diet Kushi outlines specific dietary recommendations for most major types of cancer. However, he does not advise individuals to treat themselves. He strongly recommends that the diet and therapy be administered under the supervision of a physician who is trained in macrobiotic dietary practices. The Kushi Institute, near Boston, offers referral services to help patients find macrobiotically trained physicians to work with.
Macrobiotics also classifies all foods according to their basic yin or yang energies, so after classifying the disease as yin or yang, changes are made in one's diet, behavior, and exercise regimen to correct the energy imbalance. For an individual who is diagnosed with a cancer that is classified as primarily yang, Kushi recommends the standard macrobiotic diet, but with more emphasis on the yin foods. Conversely, for cancers that are classified as primarily yin, the standard diet, with an emphasis toward yang foods, would be recommended. (5)

Macrobiotic Dietary Guidelines
The guidelines that follow form the basis of the standard macrobiotic cancer-prevention diet. Please remember that for people who have cancer or a serious precancerous condition, adjustments must be made depending on the type and location of the cancer and the condition of the individual patient, under the supervision of a physician.

WHOLE GRAINS
Approximately 50 to 60 percent of the daily food intake should consist of cooked whole cereal grains, including brown rice, millet, oats, barley, corn, rye, buckwheat, and whole wheat.

SOUPS
About 5 to 10 percent of the daily diet should consist of soup. This means one or two bowls of soup a day, prepared from grains, beans and/or vegetables, using miso or tamari as the basis of the soup stock.

VEGETABLES
About 25 to 30 percent of the daily intake should come from fresh vegetables, prepared by sauteing, steaming, boiling, baking, or pressure cooking. Up to one third of the vegetable intake may be eaten raw in the form of a salad.

BEANS AND SEA VEGETABLES
From 5 to 10 percent of the daily intake can come from various types of beans, bean products, or sea vegetables. The main sea vegetable is seaweed, which is a highly nutritious form of algae and very popular in Japan. It often takes Americans a while to develop a taste for it.

BEVERAGES
Recommended daily beverages include good-quality fresh water and nonaromatic, nonstimulating herb teas.

OCCASIONAL FOODS
For individuals in good health, moderate portions of the following foods may be eaten a few times per week: white-meat fish, fresh fruits, and unsweetened or naturally sweetened desserts.

Clinical Studies
Two studies on the relationship of macrobiotic diets and cancer were conducted by Dr. James P. Carter at the Tulane School of Public Health. One of these studies compared a group of men who had advanced prostate cancer with bone metastasis and who had switched to a macrobiotic diet with matched controls who ate the usual American diet. The men following the macrobiotic program lived three times longer (average of 62 months) than the men in the control group, who had an average survival of 18 months. It was also reported that, overall, the patients on the macrobiotic program experienced some healing of bone lesions and had a significantly improved quality of life.
The other study conducted at the Tulane School of Public Health, from January 1980 through June 1984, compared patients who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer with matched controls. In this study the patients who followed the macrobiotic life-style survived an average of 17.3 months, versus an average of only 6 months for the controls.
Traditional cancer specialists claim that these Tulane studies are flawed and that the results are untenable. On the other hand, even if the study designs were not 100 percent correct, it is quite obvious that the patients following macrobiotics had increased survival times and better quality of life during the length of the studies.

Case Histories
Six impressive, medically well-documented case histories of terminal cancer patients who recovered by switching to macrobiotics are presented in the recently published book Cancer-Free: Thirty Who Triumphed over Cancer Naturally. (4) These cases were presented by a Philadelphia physician, Vivian Newbold. One of Dr. Newbold's cases was her own husband, who recovered from "incurable" metastasized colon cancer after switching to macrobiotics.
In another case a thirty-two-year-old Texas businessman, James Templeton, was diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma. Tem-pleton quit chemotherapy after two treatments because the horrendous side effects were making him so sick. He began a strict regimen of macrobiotic treatment and after one year had no sign of cancer. Today, after five years, he is still cancer free, reports feeling "reborn," and shares his life-saving experience with others as a nutritional counselor in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Dr. Newbold reported the case histories of her six patients with advanced cancer who had switched to a macrobiotic program to the OTA's Advisory Panel as part of the government's attempt to evaluate alternative cancer therapies. These six patients also received either a partial or a complete program of traditional treatment. As so often happened in the OTA study, supporters of alternative cancer therapies showed a positive response, while mainstream medical advisers were skeptical, claiming that the benefits could have been the result of the traditional therapy the patients had received.
Dr. Newbold reports that her efforts to submit an article on these medically well-documented macrobiotic cases to medical journals produced repeated rejections by the editors because the topic was of "insufficient interest."

Side Effects
Critics claim that strict adherence to macrobiotics can result in serious nutritional deficiencies. One fear is that seriously ill cancer patients might not get enough calories, while another is that adequate protein requirements might not be met. However, a rotated, varied macrobiotic diet will obviously be much healthier than just eating millet and steamed carrots every day.
Vitamin and mineral supplements are not recommended in the macrobiotic program because the diet is specifically designed for its physical and mental effects. There is also a concern that concentrated nutrients, in the form of vitamins, may produce a dependency on supplements and cause the kidneys to overwork in an effort to excrete excess vitamins.
One of the main difficulties with macrobiotics is that many of the ingredients are ethnic, foods that are rather hard to find. Also, the macrobiotic approach to preparation and cooking is very time consuming. Switching to macrobiotics requires a significant commitment of time, effort, and energy spent changing dietary habits.
Adherents of macrobiotics advise that the best way to switch is to attend one of the one-week residential seminars conducted by the Kushi Institute. The seminar includes daily cooking classes and lectures on the other macrobiotic principles and philosophy of life. In some ways the change to a macrobiotic way of life is like adopting a kosher kitchen. It is more than a matter of eating different foods, and the complete program may not be suitable for all people. For this reason some people take on only part of the entire system, though Kushi insists that strict adherence to the diet and macrobiotic way of life is necessary if it is to be effective.

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The Metabolic Syndrome

By John D Zelem, MD
Do you find yourself having trouble losing weight even with exercise and, for all intents and purposes, watching what you eat?

I suspect that you have been told to eat a low fat, high carbohydrate diet and you have done that. So why is there still a problem? You probably have thought of every possible reason for your lack of success. You may have thought that your thyroid gland is not working properly or your metabolism has slowed down: probably not. Possibly your hormone levels are off or maybe you need to step up your exercise program, or maybe you need one of these more dramatic diets to go on: not likely. That sounded like me and how I was thinking.

Normal Energy Production And Storage
You may or may not have been aware of something called “The Metabolic Syndrome.”

What is it, you may ask?
Allow me to give you a little background of basic information before I define this syndrome.

Our bodies need fuel for energy just like any machine. Sugar is that source. We need to get down to the cellular level where this energy production actually occurs. Glucose is the sugar utilized by the cell for the production of energy in the furnaces of our cells, which are called mitochondria. The entry of glucose into the cells is facilitated by the hormone insulin, which is produced in the pancreas. This hormone also will drive glucose into muscle and the liver for storage in a more complex form called glycogen. This will be used as a source of energy at other times such as periods of starvation and exercise. Any amounts over and above normal usage for immediate energy and storage in liver and muscle are sent to fat cells for greater storage of energy sources.

There is an opposing hormone, glucagon, which is also produced in the pancreas and is responsible for releasing fat for energy when stimulated by the intake of protein. The intake of carbohydrates and excessive levels of insulin suppress it.

Normally these hormones work in conjunction with each other maintaining a balanced situation of energy substrates utilization and storage. Situations such as dieting, starvation, exercise and the Metabolic Syndrome will alter this balance.

Glycemic Index
Whenever we ingest sugar or carbohydrates our bodies react with a rise in the blood sugar inducing the secretion of insulin to get the sugar into our cells and produce energy and store the excess in muscle, the liver, and eventually, fat. The Glycemic Index is a measurement of the rate of the rise of blood sugar following the ingestion of a particular test food relative to that of a standard food such as glucose. The measurement for glucose is 100. This index will quantitate the rate of secretion of insulin. Under 55 is generally considered to be a low-glycemic food and over 70 is high-glycemic.

Low GI = 55 or less
Medium GI = 56 - 69
High GI = 70 or more

Our diet today is mainly composed of over-processed carbohydrates in the form of our modern-day flour. This flour is the result of removing all of its complex components, leaving us with a pure, super-fine white powder that, when ingested, causes our blood sugar to rise rapidly to higher than normal levels. This leads to an exaggerated insulin response. This rapid rise in insulin will cause blood sugar levels to drop precipitously to relatively low levels, lower than normal, causing drowsiness, and fatigue. The subsequent rebound also results in a desire to eat again to restore blood sugar levels. Long term this becomes an uncontrollable craving for carbohydrates. This roller coaster effect occurring over and over, leads to carbohydrate addiction, carbohydrate craving, nighttime eating, insulin resistance, and the beginning of the Metabolic Syndrome. These high insulin levels also shut off the glucagon response and leave no way that fat can be utilized as a source of energy. This is when weight gain occurs and weight loss becomes almost impossible.

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Eventually, this syndrome will cause inflammation and narrowing of the small arteries going to the muscles of your body causing them to constrict. This leads to a decreased ability of insulin to deliver glucose to the muscles for use and storage. Insulin levels will then increase significantly to try and accomplish this task but, eventually, most of the glucose will be diverted to fat cells causing what is called “insulin resistance.” Glucagon is totally shut off at this point.

Some of the other effects of the Metabolic Syndrome are high blood pressure, increased triglyceride and cholesterol levels, and decreased HDL, all leading to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This Syndrome has been said to occur in about 20-25% of the population. A significant portion of this group will go from insulin resistance to full blown Diabetes as the Metabolic Syndrome causes a “burn-out” of the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. This is also one of the reasons why we are seeing a lot more obesity and diabetes, especially in our young. It is getting to epidemic proportions.

Low-Glycemic ResponseThere is hope! There is an answer. It is called a low glycemic diet. This must be considered a lifestyle change, not a temporary eating habit. Traditional diets do not work because they are designed to be an acute solution to a chronic problem. Also the faster one loses weight, generally, the faster it comes back. The chances of losing up to 10% of your total body weight and keeping it off for 5 years is the same as the 5 year survival rate for cancer the lung, 5%. This is a very sobering statistic. You will find that it may, and should, take 18-24 months for you to achieve your end results. You should set short-term goals along the way. I have actually chosen to let my body decide what its end-point will be and take as long as it needs to get there since my program also involves exercising, which yours should too.

You need to understand that this syndrome is reversible with time while the alternative of not making this change is diabetes, which is never reversible. Remember, if you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get what you have always gotten.

When an individual eats a low-glycemic meal there is a totally different metabolic response. Eating foods such as fruits, vegetables, good carbs that do not cause a rapid rise of your blood sugar, good protein and fat is the answer. The “whites” are out: the white breads, the white potato, and the white rice. Even most whole wheat bread is not our friend. It cannot be enriched wheat flour; it must be stone ground.

These types of carbs will allow a slow rise of blood sugar, leading to a more modest release of insulin balanced with a proper release of glucagon. The insulin encourages the muscle to take up the sugar and the rest goes to the liver and fat. On the other hand, glucagon is also present in normal levels and will break down the fat, at about the same rate it is created, initially at a greater rate. The result of this equation is no weight gain or possible weight loss. Even if you have the Metabolic Syndrome, the start of a low glycemic lifestyle, not diet, may allow a reversal of all of the bad effects of this syndrome. Eventually, exercise must become a part of this healthy lifestyle.

Conclusions
So how do we summarize this complex bit of information and put it into a useful tool that is easy to follow. First of all, how badly do you want the results, the goals that you set? If the goal is important enough the work will follow and you will accomplish it. Remember that the Metabolic Syndrome is reversible with time, and Diabetes is never reversible.

Here are some general guidelines to follow. Low glycemic food will not raise your blood sugar as high and as rapidly as high glycemic foods will and, at the same time, will start to increase your body’s sensitivity to insulin. Low glycemic diets will help you to lose weight, help those who already have diabetes maintain better control of their blood sugar. Low glycemic foods will help you to stay full longer. Finally, high glycemic foods may replenish carbohydrate stores after exercise but low glycemic foods will improve physical endurance.

Foods that have a low glycemic index generally had a low glycemic load. Eliminate foods with both high glycemic indexes and high glycemic loads. Optimize your insulin levels by eating fruits and vegetables and whole grains. The fiber in these foods will both be healthy and release sugar into your bloodstream slowly.

I want to reiterate for you that I have changed my lifestyle to low-glycemic index, low glycemic load and have seen a significant change in myself. I am not hungry all the time anymore. I am free of carbohydrate addiction and cravings. I can actually sit in front of the TV at night or read a book and not have a high-glycemic snack next to me. I have not been doing it long enough to get off all of my meds but I see that in the near future and I recently was able to reduce my high blood pressure medication. Remember, getting healthy is a process and this is just one of the steps. It is not about what has happened to me, but I do know this can work for you.

I am not saying that this is the lifestyle change that you have to make, but if you see yourself in a similar situation, take a good look. Obviously you will need to discuss this with your doctor and see if it is a fit for you.

You should also work out a program with your personal physician to regularly check your labs, weight, and blood pressure. Remember, if you continue doing what you are doing, you will continue to have what you have. If you want to make some changes in your life, you must make some changes in your life. I wish you success and good health.

Dr Zelem is the author of the book "The Process of Becoming Healthy" contains a detailed explanation of this syndrome and is available for seminars.

Visit http://www.streamlineintelligence.com/,
email mailto:emailjz@streamlineintelligence.com
or call 866-222-4884
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