Tuesday, August 13, 2019

REDUCING CANCER RISK - by Richard Harkness & Steven Bratman, M.D.


pg. 59) American Cancer Society Dietary Guidelines

To keep pace with the scientific evidence, the American Cancer Society issued new general nutrition guidelines in 1996 that are consistent with the USDA's food guide pyramid:

* Choose most of your foods from plant sources.

* Eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

* Eat several servings from other plant sources (breads, cereals, grains, rice, pasta, beans) each day.

* Limit intake of high-fat foods, particularly from animal sources (saturated fat).

* Limit meats, especially high-fat meats.

*Be physically active; achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

* Be moderately active for 30 minutes or more on most days.

*Limit alcoholic beverages.
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pg. 61) Vegetables fruits, and whole grains contain essential vitamins and minerals as well as hundreds of phytochemicals that may protect against cancer and other chronic diseases such as heart disease.

* Over 200 studies worldwide clearly show that a plant-rich diet lowers the risk for numerous cancers. The key to this protection may be the way nutrients and phytochemicals in foods work together against cancer.

* Avoid or reduce your consumption of fats (especially animal fats), red meat, (beef, pork, and lamb), grilled or overcooked meats, pickled and salt-cured meats, and those in which aflatoxins are present.

*The evidence against food additives and pesticides is not strong - most experts think there's no convincing evidence that these substances are harmful when consumed in amounts typically found in foods. However, an option is to eat organically grown produce.

* Evidence suggests that a diet high in fats may be linked to increased risk of several cancers, including those of the breast, ovary, prostrate, colon, and lungs. Red meats are linked to an increased risk of colon and prostate cancer, and possibly breast and pancreatic cancer. Polyunsaturated or monosaturated fats should be substituted for saturated fats in the diet. Monosaturated fats may offer some advantages. For example, they are less likely to produce free radicals than polyunsaturated fats. Additionally, monosaturated fats such as olive oil may actually have a protective effect against breast cancer and possibly other cancer.

* Emphasizing foods low in fat and high in fiber can significantly reduce your risk of cancer. The USDA Nutrition Facts food label and food guide pyramid are valuable tools that make it easier than ever before to select health-smart foods.

pg.67) Observational studies suggest that foods high in vitamin E, beta-carotene and vitamin C provide strong preventive effects against a wide variety of cancers.The much fewer studies of single nutrients in supplement form have not shown the same across-the-board benefit, but some of them have shown protective effects against specific cancers.

Of the nutrients in supplement form, vitamin E, selenium, and multivitamin formulations appear to be the most effective cancer preventives. Other vitamins and minerals believed to  possess some degree of cancer-preventive effects include folic acid, vitamin D, calcium, and molybdenum.

pg.68) Vitamin E: Helpful Both As a Supplement and in Food

Vitamin E (tocopherol), a potent fat-soluble antioxidant, shows the strongest cancer-preventive among the supplemental nutrients. Scientists think vitamin E may defend cell membranes and DNA against damage caused by oxygen free radicals. Vitamin E also appears to bolster the immune system, which may play a significant role in cancer prevention. Vitamin E and other antioxidants such as vitamin C, beta-carotene, and selenium appear to work as a team.

What is the Scientific Evidence for Vitamin E?

Vitamin E in supplement form appears to significantly lower the risk of prostate cancer, as well as protect against cancers of the colon, mouth, and throat. Consumption of vitamin-E rich foods is associated with a lower risk for cancers of the colon, stomach, mouth, throat, esophagus (food tube) liver, and breast.

pg.) 69 Positive results for various cancers have been found for dietary vitamin E. In Finland, a study of 36,265 adults found that a diet low in vitamin E increased the overall cancer risk by 50%.

Positive results have also been found for vitamin E in supplemental form. In a study of 11,178 elderly individuals (the group at highest cancer risk), those who reported taking vitamin E had a 59% reduction in cancer deaths. After adjustments for alcohol use, smoking history, aspirin use, and other medical conditions, the results still stood.

pg. 70) Prostate Cancer

Results from the Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-carotene Cancer Prevention Study (ATBC), a major chemoprevention intervention trial, showed that vitamin E in supplement form exhibited a significant preventive effect against prostate cancer in men who smoked.

The trial followed more than 29,000 male smokers in Finland who took supplements of either 50 mg of synthetic vitamin E (dl-alpha-tocopherol), 20 mg beta-carotene, both, or a placebo (inactive pill) daily for 5 to 8 years. This study is exciting because it is an intervention trial in which participants took vitamin E supplements under controlled conditions.

Those taking 50 mg of dl-alpha-tocopherol (about 55 IU of synthetic vitamin E) daily for 5 to 8 years had a 32% lower incidence of prostate cancer and 41% fewer prostate cancer deaths. Surprisingly, positive results came soon after the start of supplementation. Prostate cancer grows very slowly, and this suggests that vitamin E might block the progression of the disease to a more dangerous stage. It's possible that vitamin E supplementation may work even better in nonsmokers, but we don't know this for sure.

pg. 71) Colon Cancer

The ATBC study also found that vitamin E supplementation reduced the risk of colon cancer by 16%. Again, the ATBC study was a controlled intervention trial, the type of study that yields the most dependable results.

Another supplemental study, though not an intervention trial, found vitamin E even more effective. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle determined that supplemental vitamin E (200 IU or more daily) cut colon cancer risk by 57% compared to those not taking vitamins. Interestingly, a daily multivitamin supplement lowered the risk by almost as much - 51%. The risk was also lowered in people taking supplements of vitamins A, C, folic acid, and calcium, but not as much.

An analysis of the Iowa Women's Study Cohort found that foods high in vitamin E significantly reduced the risk of colon cancer in women under age 65. This effort was part of a larger study of breast cancer funded by the National Cancer Institute. The study of 35,215 women ages 55 to 69  found that those with the highest dietary intake of vitamin E had the greatest protection. The protective effect was marginal for those over age 65. Results broke down like this: Women ages 55 to 59 showed the greatest benefit - an 84% lower risk; women ages 60 to 64 had a 63% lower risk; and women; and women ages 65 to 69 had a 7% lower risk. Women under age 55 were not studied.

Dosage

pg. 73) The recommended daily value for vitamin E is 30 IU. The optimal dose of vitamin E for cancer prevention has not been determined, but a recent study analysis found that 50 mg of synthetic vitamin E (about 55 IU) daily for 5 to 8 years reduced the incidence of prostate cancer by 32% and colon cancer by 16%.

pg. 74) Food sources, listed in general order of higher to lower vitamin E content, include wheat germ oil, sunflower seeds and oil, almonds, hazelnuts, safflower oil, peanuts, cod-liver oil, peanut butter, corn oil, corn oil margarine, lobster, salmon, soybean oil, and pecans. Unlike with vitamin C and beta-carotene, it is more difficult to get large amounts of vitamin E from your diet (most people get 3 to 15 IU daily from the diet). Except for wheat germ oil (about 36 IU per tablespoon).

Safety Issues

Vitamin E has an excellent safety record. Relatively large doses of vitamin E have been taken for extended periods without apparent harm. Most adults tolerate doses of up to 1,000 IU daily without adverse effects.
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What is the scientific Evidence for Selenium?

pg. 77) Selenium in supplemental form has been associated with a lower risk of cancers of the prostate, colorectal, and lung, as well as a substantial reduction in cancer deaths. Dietary sources of selenium are associated with a lower risk for cancers of the esophagus and stomach.

After reviewing the cancer research on selenium, the Food and Nutrition Board's Committee on Diet and Health stated that "Low selenium intakes or decreased selenium concentrations in the blood are associated with increased risk of cancer in humans." The National Research Council said, "A large accumulation of evidence indicates that supplementation of the diet or drinking water with selenium protects against tumors induced by a wide variety of chemical carcinogens."

Cancers of Prostate, Lung, Colon, and Rectum

pg. 78) Selenium shows promise in preventing prostate, lung, colon, and rectal cancers. In a large intervention trial, people who took supplemental selenium had a 37% decrease in prostate, colorectal, and lung cancers as well as a 50% reduction in cancer deaths. That was the unexpected discovery of this 10-year trial on prevention of skin cancer, as reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Breast Cancer

pg.79) In studies involving women, the Nurses' Health Study analyzed toenail clippings (reflecting selenium intake) collected from 62,641 female nurses and found no link between selenium intake and cancer. Similarly, a 3.3 year prospective Dutch study of 62,573 women found no associations between dietary selenium and breast cancer.

What do these results mean? One possible interpretation is that selenium is not as important in women as in men. Another may be that the benefits of selenium depend on taking amounts greater than nutritional doses.

Dosage

The recommended daily value for selenium is 70 mcg in men and 50 to 55 mcg in women. It is not difficult to obtain this level from the diet, and most multivitamin-mineral supplements contain selenium. A cancer-preventive dosage is undetermined, but the usual recommended supplemental dose is 50 to 200 mcg daily. In children this may be reduced to 1.6 mcg per pound of body weight.

Grains are an excellent food source of selenium. Food sources, in order of higher to lower selenium content (111 mcg to 39 mcg per 100 gram serving) are wheat germ, Brazil nuts, oats, whole-wheat bread, bran, barley, orange juice, turnips, garlic, brown rice. The amount in foods varies according to selenium content of the soil from which they come.
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1.) FOODS & ARTHRITIS -  PHYSICIANS COMMITTEE for RESPONSIBLE MEDICINE
http://www.pcrm.org/health/health-topics/foods-and-arthritis

2.) VEGAN DIETS: FIGHTING ARTHRITIS & CANCER

http://scottsbuddhismveg.blogspot.com/2017/09/arthritis-alternative-medicine.html

3.) PETA PRIME: Can a Plant-Based Diet Cure Cancer?

http://prime.peta.org/2009/12/can-a-plant-based-diet-cure-cancer

4.) VEGAN DIETS FIGHT CANCER! - from the Huffington Post with Kathy Freston
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/vegan-diet-cancer_b_2250052.html

5.) VEGAN DIETS REVERSE DISEASES - from Scott's Buddhism & Vegetarian Blog

http://scottsbuddhismveg.blogspot.com/2017/09/vegan-diets-reverse-diseases.html

6.) A NEW 29-YEAR STUDYof 12,168 PEOPLE: Latest Nail in the Coffin for Meaty Diets
https://scottsbuddhismveg.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-new-study-of-12168-people-suggests.html

7.) THE PLANT - POWERED DIET - scientific reasons to adopt a plant-based diet

http://www.scottsbuddhistiveg.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-plant-based-diet-scientific-reasons.html

8.) PALEO DIET: DEAD LIKE a CAVEMAN
http://www.scottsbuddhistiveg.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-end-of-dieting-in-progress-by-dr.html

9.) KILLING ANIMALS is BAD KARMA
https://scottsbuddhismveg.blogspot.com/2017/09/according-to-eastern-philosophy-humans.html










 

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