Your shopping cart is empty!
Success Stories:
Success Stories:
-199x291.jpg)
Demo Category 1 2-1
Rss
30
Nov /
-0001
Battlling Inflammation Through Food
latimes.com
Battling inflammation through food
Though it's an emerging field, proponents of anti-inflammatory diets point to growing evidence that foods like vegetables and fish can ease an overactive immune system.
By Shara Yurkiewicz
August 17, 2009
If you want to live longer -- avoid heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer -- then pick and choose your foods with care to quiet down parts of your immune system.
That's the principle promoted by the founders and followers of anti-inflammatory diets, designed to reduce chronic inflammation in the body.
Dozens of books filled with diets and recipes have flooded the market in the last few years, including popular ones by dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone and Zone Diet creator Barry Sears.
Those who frequent message boards that discuss arthritis or acne trade tips on which pro- or anti-inflammatory foods may help or trigger their symptoms -- urging co-sufferers to try cherries for their rheumatoid arthritis or avoid gluten for their psoriasis.
But proponents claim the benefits go far beyond that, fighting not just pain from inflamed joints or skin flare-ups but also life-threatening diseases.
"If your future currently looks bleak because of high levels of silent inflammation, don't worry, because you can change it within thirty days," Barry Sears promises in his book, "The Anti-Inflammation Zone."
There's still a lot of science to be done. And should you try such a diet, you probably shouldn't expect any 30-day miracles. But there may be something to eating in an anti-inflammatory way.
"[Chronic inflammation] is an emerging field," says Dr. David Heber, a UCLA professor of medicine and director of the university's Center for Human Nutrition. "It's a new concept for medicine."
The point of an anti-inflammation diet is not to lose weight, although it is not uncommon for its followers to shed pounds. The goal: to combat what proponents call "chronic silent inflammation" in the body, the result of an immune system that doesn't know when to shut off.
The theory goes that long after the invading bacteria or viruses from some infection are gone, the body's defenses remain active. The activated immune cells and hormones then turn on the body itself, damaging tissues. The process continues indefinitely, occurring at low enough levels that a person doesn't feel pain or realize anything is wrong. Years later, proponents say, the damage contributes to illnesses such as heart disease, neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease or cancer.
In general terms, following an anti-inflammatory diet means increasing intake of foods that have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. (Antioxidants reduce the activity of tissue-damaging free radicals at sites of inflammation.) The diet includes vegetables, whole grains, nuts, oily fish, protein sources, spices such as ginger and turmeric and brightly colored fruits such as blueberries, cherries and pomegranates.
Foods that promote inflammation -- saturated fats, trans fats, corn and soybean oil, refined carbohydrates, sugars, red meat and dairy -- are reduced or eliminated.
It would seem logical that a diet that could dampen an overactive immune system could help prevent or slow diseases that are caused or exacerbated by inflammation. And evidence is certainly mounting that such diseases include heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's. (See related story online.)
Studies with animals suggest that the diet's followers may be on to something.
"If you feed rodents different diets, you can very strongly modulate inflammation," says Dr. Andrew Greenberg, the director of the Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. "Fish oil, for example, ameliorates inflammation in rodents."
Resveratrol, found in grape skin and red wine, has been shown to improve blood vessel function and slow aging in rats.
Pomegranate juice decreases atherosclerosis development in mice with high cholesterol. Garlic improves blood vessel functioning in the hearts of rats with high blood pressure.
And curcumin (an antioxidant chemical found in turmeric) improves ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and pancreatitis in mice and has anti-cancer effects in the animals too.
Curcumin has also been shown to ease the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in people, reducing joint swelling, morning stiffness and walking time. In India, turmeric is used to promote wound healing and reduce inflammation. But though curcumin's effects are being tested in several clinical trials addressing various diseases, rigorous human results are lacking -- as is the case for most anti-inflammatory foods.
Large, careful human clinical trials are expensive and few have been designed to test dietary interventions. Small trials on individual supplements have been done, though. And scientists have learned a lot from studying populations -- chronicling the natural habits of people and seeing what diseases they get and which they don't.
The drug factor
It makes sense that anti-inflammatory methods might help the heart, says Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a past president of the American Heart Assn. and professor of physiology and biophysics at University of Colorado Denver's Health Sciences Center.
Statin drugs, for example, are known to cut heart disease risk by reducing cholesterol levels -- among other things, these meds fight inflammation.
"We don't know how much of statins' effect are due to their anti-inflammatory effects," Eckel says. But, he adds, a growing number of researchers suspect that this property is important.
Fish oil, rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids and derived from oily fish such as tuna, salmon and mackerel -- is already recommended by the American Heart Assn. to help prevent cardiovascular disease. It has been shown to reduce blood triglyceride levels and slightly lower blood pressure, lowering the risk for heart attacks and strokes.
There is also reason to believe that anti-inflammatory substances would help to ward off cancers. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to prevent tumors with people with inherited colorectal cancer, for example.
And population studies have shown that people who had been taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meds for other conditions were less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.
In trials, such drugs have failed to treat already-developed Alzheimer's, but the studies suggest that it might be possible to prevent the disease by reducing inflammation, says Greg Cole, a professor of medicine and neurology at UCLA and associate director of the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
But it is not safe to take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for years because of harmful side effects, such as gastrointestinal bleeding. What about anti-inflammatory foods? Several clinical trials, in the U.S. and abroad, have shown that people with mild memory complaints related to aging (not necessarily Alzheimer's disease) showed significant improvement when given the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid, Cole says.
And in an 18-month study released in June sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, treating Alzheimer's disease with docosahexaenoic acid slowed its progression in a subgroup of the study population.
There are other trials with positive results for fish oil in early Alzheimer's cases, but they are not large enough to be definitive, Cole says.
But, he adds, "the real utility is not to slow the progression of someone who's already demented, but it's to treat before dementia happens. We'd like to turn off or keep down [the inflammation] with something that doesn't cause gastrointestinal bleeding or other side effects."
Cole's laboratory is looking at the potential for Alzheimer's prevention by controlling inflammation with omega-3 fatty acids and curcumin. Other food substances -- such as resveratrol in red wine and flavonoids in fruits -- may have anti-inflammatory effects by acting along the same pathway that curcumin does, he says.
Cole suspects that people are more likely to take a supplement or two than to radically change their diets. "Nutritionists, they'll tell you to eat right. It is good, sound advice, but you can't always get people to do it," he says. "The question is, can you find an easier supplement approach that doesn't require a restricted diet?"
Supplements do have their drawbacks. "Many Alzheimer's researchers were prescribing vitamin E [an antioxidant] to all their patients," says Debra Cherry, a clinical psychologist and the executive vice president of the Alzheimer's Assn. of the California Southland. "But some data came out that people had high bleeds and suffered from cardiovascular problems."
Dietary revamp
Perhaps a complete diet overhaul -- difficult though that may be -- would be a better strategy. The Mediterranean diet, named for the region in which it originated, has many anti-inflammatory features.
It includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, whole grains, alcohol, and healthful fats like olive and canola oil. It has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels and reduce the risk of blood clots. Studies have shown that diets high in fish, olive oil and cooked vegetables reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. A Mediterranean diet or elements of it seems linked to reduced risk for a number of chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's. (See related story online.)
"If people noticed they're slightly overweight, or if blood pressure is starting to creep up, or if blood sugar [increases], and they went on a Mediterranean-type diet, they might be able to decrease inflammation and stop the progression of disease," says Dr. Wadie Najm, a clinical professor of family medicine and geriatrics at UC Irvine who directs an integrated medicine clinic at UCI that focuses on complementary and alternative medicine.
Many patients visiting his clinic have chronic inflammatory conditions, including autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and gastrointestinal problems such as Crohn's disease. Patients begin a specialized diet and exercise, and make other lifestyle changes to decrease inflammation.
"In three weeks, if [patients] follow the protocol, we see great results in improvement in symptomology and reduction in flare-ups," says Bianca Garilli, a naturopathic doctor at the clinic.
Of course, these dietary and other lifestyle changes might help treat pain conditions through the placebo effect -- a belief in a treatment rather than the treatment itself, says Dr. Roger Chao, an associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University and director of clinical guidelines development for the American Pain Society.
"You're giving something for people to focus on and do something good for themselves," Chao says.
At the end of the day, there is evidence to suggest that your best bet at curbing inflammation is to eat a healthful diet -- and keep your weight in check -- without specifically thinking about anti-inflammatory foods.
"There is no doubt that if you lose weight, inflammation is dramatically improved," Greenberg says. When a person is overweight or obese, body fat breaks down into fatty acids, which circulate in the blood. These fatty acids promote an immune response in the same way that infection does, increasing inflammation.
It will take time to tease apart the effects of anti-inflammatory diets and supplements. But Cole thinks the effort is well worth it. "The alternative to these kinds of things aimed at prevention is to pay for treatments," he says. "And we can't always afford them."
health@latimes.com
That's the principle promoted by the founders and followers of anti-inflammatory diets, designed to reduce chronic inflammation in the body.
Dozens of books filled with diets and recipes have flooded the market in the last few years, including popular ones by dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone and Zone Diet creator Barry Sears.
Those who frequent message boards that discuss arthritis or acne trade tips on which pro- or anti-inflammatory foods may help or trigger their symptoms -- urging co-sufferers to try cherries for their rheumatoid arthritis or avoid gluten for their psoriasis.
But proponents claim the benefits go far beyond that, fighting not just pain from inflamed joints or skin flare-ups but also life-threatening diseases.
"If your future currently looks bleak because of high levels of silent inflammation, don't worry, because you can change it within thirty days," Barry Sears promises in his book, "The Anti-Inflammation Zone."
There's still a lot of science to be done. And should you try such a diet, you probably shouldn't expect any 30-day miracles. But there may be something to eating in an anti-inflammatory way.
"[Chronic inflammation] is an emerging field," says Dr. David Heber, a UCLA professor of medicine and director of the university's Center for Human Nutrition. "It's a new concept for medicine."
The point of an anti-inflammation diet is not to lose weight, although it is not uncommon for its followers to shed pounds. The goal: to combat what proponents call "chronic silent inflammation" in the body, the result of an immune system that doesn't know when to shut off.
The theory goes that long after the invading bacteria or viruses from some infection are gone, the body's defenses remain active. The activated immune cells and hormones then turn on the body itself, damaging tissues. The process continues indefinitely, occurring at low enough levels that a person doesn't feel pain or realize anything is wrong. Years later, proponents say, the damage contributes to illnesses such as heart disease, neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease or cancer.
In general terms, following an anti-inflammatory diet means increasing intake of foods that have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. (Antioxidants reduce the activity of tissue-damaging free radicals at sites of inflammation.) The diet includes vegetables, whole grains, nuts, oily fish, protein sources, spices such as ginger and turmeric and brightly colored fruits such as blueberries, cherries and pomegranates.
Foods that promote inflammation -- saturated fats, trans fats, corn and soybean oil, refined carbohydrates, sugars, red meat and dairy -- are reduced or eliminated.
It would seem logical that a diet that could dampen an overactive immune system could help prevent or slow diseases that are caused or exacerbated by inflammation. And evidence is certainly mounting that such diseases include heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's. (See related story online.)
Studies with animals suggest that the diet's followers may be on to something.
"If you feed rodents different diets, you can very strongly modulate inflammation," says Dr. Andrew Greenberg, the director of the Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. "Fish oil, for example, ameliorates inflammation in rodents."
Resveratrol, found in grape skin and red wine, has been shown to improve blood vessel function and slow aging in rats.
Pomegranate juice decreases atherosclerosis development in mice with high cholesterol. Garlic improves blood vessel functioning in the hearts of rats with high blood pressure.
And curcumin (an antioxidant chemical found in turmeric) improves ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and pancreatitis in mice and has anti-cancer effects in the animals too.
Curcumin has also been shown to ease the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in people, reducing joint swelling, morning stiffness and walking time. In India, turmeric is used to promote wound healing and reduce inflammation. But though curcumin's effects are being tested in several clinical trials addressing various diseases, rigorous human results are lacking -- as is the case for most anti-inflammatory foods.
Large, careful human clinical trials are expensive and few have been designed to test dietary interventions. Small trials on individual supplements have been done, though. And scientists have learned a lot from studying populations -- chronicling the natural habits of people and seeing what diseases they get and which they don't.
The drug factor
It makes sense that anti-inflammatory methods might help the heart, says Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a past president of the American Heart Assn. and professor of physiology and biophysics at University of Colorado Denver's Health Sciences Center.
Statin drugs, for example, are known to cut heart disease risk by reducing cholesterol levels -- among other things, these meds fight inflammation.
"We don't know how much of statins' effect are due to their anti-inflammatory effects," Eckel says. But, he adds, a growing number of researchers suspect that this property is important.
Fish oil, rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids and derived from oily fish such as tuna, salmon and mackerel -- is already recommended by the American Heart Assn. to help prevent cardiovascular disease. It has been shown to reduce blood triglyceride levels and slightly lower blood pressure, lowering the risk for heart attacks and strokes.
There is also reason to believe that anti-inflammatory substances would help to ward off cancers. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to prevent tumors with people with inherited colorectal cancer, for example.
And population studies have shown that people who had been taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meds for other conditions were less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.
In trials, such drugs have failed to treat already-developed Alzheimer's, but the studies suggest that it might be possible to prevent the disease by reducing inflammation, says Greg Cole, a professor of medicine and neurology at UCLA and associate director of the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
But it is not safe to take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for years because of harmful side effects, such as gastrointestinal bleeding. What about anti-inflammatory foods? Several clinical trials, in the U.S. and abroad, have shown that people with mild memory complaints related to aging (not necessarily Alzheimer's disease) showed significant improvement when given the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid, Cole says.
And in an 18-month study released in June sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, treating Alzheimer's disease with docosahexaenoic acid slowed its progression in a subgroup of the study population.
There are other trials with positive results for fish oil in early Alzheimer's cases, but they are not large enough to be definitive, Cole says.
But, he adds, "the real utility is not to slow the progression of someone who's already demented, but it's to treat before dementia happens. We'd like to turn off or keep down [the inflammation] with something that doesn't cause gastrointestinal bleeding or other side effects."
Cole's laboratory is looking at the potential for Alzheimer's prevention by controlling inflammation with omega-3 fatty acids and curcumin. Other food substances -- such as resveratrol in red wine and flavonoids in fruits -- may have anti-inflammatory effects by acting along the same pathway that curcumin does, he says.
Cole suspects that people are more likely to take a supplement or two than to radically change their diets. "Nutritionists, they'll tell you to eat right. It is good, sound advice, but you can't always get people to do it," he says. "The question is, can you find an easier supplement approach that doesn't require a restricted diet?"
Supplements do have their drawbacks. "Many Alzheimer's researchers were prescribing vitamin E [an antioxidant] to all their patients," says Debra Cherry, a clinical psychologist and the executive vice president of the Alzheimer's Assn. of the California Southland. "But some data came out that people had high bleeds and suffered from cardiovascular problems."
Dietary revamp
Perhaps a complete diet overhaul -- difficult though that may be -- would be a better strategy. The Mediterranean diet, named for the region in which it originated, has many anti-inflammatory features.
It includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, whole grains, alcohol, and healthful fats like olive and canola oil. It has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels and reduce the risk of blood clots. Studies have shown that diets high in fish, olive oil and cooked vegetables reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. A Mediterranean diet or elements of it seems linked to reduced risk for a number of chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's. (See related story online.)
"If people noticed they're slightly overweight, or if blood pressure is starting to creep up, or if blood sugar [increases], and they went on a Mediterranean-type diet, they might be able to decrease inflammation and stop the progression of disease," says Dr. Wadie Najm, a clinical professor of family medicine and geriatrics at UC Irvine who directs an integrated medicine clinic at UCI that focuses on complementary and alternative medicine.
Many patients visiting his clinic have chronic inflammatory conditions, including autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and gastrointestinal problems such as Crohn's disease. Patients begin a specialized diet and exercise, and make other lifestyle changes to decrease inflammation.
"In three weeks, if [patients] follow the protocol, we see great results in improvement in symptomology and reduction in flare-ups," says Bianca Garilli, a naturopathic doctor at the clinic.
Of course, these dietary and other lifestyle changes might help treat pain conditions through the placebo effect -- a belief in a treatment rather than the treatment itself, says Dr. Roger Chao, an associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University and director of clinical guidelines development for the American Pain Society.
"You're giving something for people to focus on and do something good for themselves," Chao says.
At the end of the day, there is evidence to suggest that your best bet at curbing inflammation is to eat a healthful diet -- and keep your weight in check -- without specifically thinking about anti-inflammatory foods.
"There is no doubt that if you lose weight, inflammation is dramatically improved," Greenberg says. When a person is overweight or obese, body fat breaks down into fatty acids, which circulate in the blood. These fatty acids promote an immune response in the same way that infection does, increasing inflammation.
It will take time to tease apart the effects of anti-inflammatory diets and supplements. But Cole thinks the effort is well worth it. "The alternative to these kinds of things aimed at prevention is to pay for treatments," he says. "And we can't always afford them."
health@latimes.com
30
Nov /
-0001
Carbohydrates Good Carbs Bad Carbs
How Carbohydrates and Obesity are Linked: The Kind, Not the Amount
It's the kind of carbohydrates you consume, not the number, that becomes a reflection of the number on your bathroom scale. Contrary to popular belief, overweight people don't eat more carbohydrates than those of normal weight. However, it was discovered that overweight people were more inclined to eat an excess of refined carbohydrates such as white bread and pasta, which trigger a rapid spike in blood sugar.
The culprit of weight gain, refined carbohydrates, can be found in processed foods high in sugar. Refined carbohydrates add on extra pounds through their high glycemic index, which means they cause a quick surge in blood sugar. The sugar is then stored in muscle and if it is not used it turns into fat.
On the contrary, other carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables don't have high glycemic indexes.
Even though statistics showed that people are eating less fat, it was revealed that over the course of the past 20 years the rate of obesity has been steadily increasing.
To determine if carbohydrates played a factor in obesity researchers conducted a study by measuring the height and weight of nearly 600 healthy participants. One of the main requirements of the study was for the participants to document the kind of carbohydrates they ate for one year.
The study revealed two key findings:
· People with a higher body mass index--a measure of weight that factors in height -- tended to eat carbohydrates with a higher glycemic index
· The amount of carbohydrates people ate had no influence on body mass index
Researchers of the study also noted that some countries are now adding glycemic levels on food labels as a guideline to those who are trying to lose weight or control diabetes.
American Journal of Epidemiology February 15, 2005;161(4):359-367
Need help contact Ultra Lite www.ultralite.com.au 1300730307
Need help contact Ultra Lite www.ultralite.com.au 1300730307
30
Nov /
-0001
Weight Loss Education
Being in the weight loss and health management industry we may be more aware of latest research on weight loss, diseases associated with obesity and sugar overload and other interesting information that we feel substantiates our beliefs and philosophy.
In this section we will periodically update information that we find in various newspaper clippings, internet research, etc. in relation to the dangers of obesity and how many diseases, especially cancers that can be avoided just by maintaining a healthy weight.
We have all heard that there is a worsening problem in this country with obesity on the increase and this is forecast to worsen as childhood obesity is currently a problem today. It is even reported that children in the future will be dieing at earlier ages, before their parents, due to obesity related diseases and poor food choices.
30
Nov /
-0001
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
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.
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
Furthermore, an epidemiological study in 21 modern countries that keep track of morbidity and mortality (Europe, North America,
Limiting sugar consumption may not be the only line of defense. In fact, an interesting botanical extract from the avocado plant (Persea
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
For those seeking to give up sugar and reclaim their health check the Ultra Lite Ketogenic Weight and Health Management solution on www.ultralite.com.au
Showing 1 to 4 of 4 (1 Pages)