How To Avoid Cancer Part III-Colon Cancer

Anne Dunev, PhD
One of the cancers that may be most easily prevented with diet and lifestyle changes is colorectal cancer-cancer of the large intestine and rectum.

This is the fifth most common type of cancer and the third leading cause of death in the United States.

When you consider the number of people who are constipated, and the Frankenstein foods that people eat, this may not be so surprising.

Cancer is a systemic disease, which means that the whole system is over-burdened and toxic to the point that rogue cells take hold and develop their own “entity” within the body. Your food and your blood are hijacked to feed the new entity or tumor. Of course, the host eventually dies, and so does the new colony. It is one of the oddities of Nature, considering that survival is the usual operating modality.

Unburdening your toxic load is one of your best defenses against this, and any other type, of cancer. Studies indicate that eliminating highly processed meats, refined sugars and refined (white) grains such as wheat, white rice, and soy may lower risk. Maintaining a healthy weight is a factor, and eliminating refined starches and sugars would help with weight control.

In recent years red meat has been considered a risk factor, but a review of the history of human health and nutrition did not correlate, since humans have eaten higher meat diets in the past, with little historical evidence of cancer. Studies show that it is the preparation of meat that is a factor. Meat that is heavily browned on the surface and over-cooked increases risk. When meat is over-cooked the proteins and amino acids are broken down and can no longer be utilized in, the body for repair and nutrition.

High protein intake over-all was not associated with risk, but even seemed protective in some studies. Consumption of fish and poultry as alternatives to red meat showed some protection. Fish Oil supplementation seemed to decrease risk in women, but also decreased inflammation in both sexes, and therefore may be generally helpful.

Intake of fiber from fresh vegetables and whole fruits appear to be protective of other gastrointestinal issues such as constipation and diverticulitis. However, the high fiber supplementation theory for cancer protection has not borne out. However, diets high in fruits and vegetables were associated with slightly lowered risk of colorectal cancer. Since certain vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts have sulfur compounds, which are necessary for PhaseII Liver detoxification; these vegetables may have potential in cancer prevention for all types of cancer.

Inflammation appears to be an issue and intake of B vitamins that decrease inflammation such as folate are associated with lower risk. Naturally occurring folate is not the same as synthetic folic acid, and folate is what was found to lower cancer risk. Eggs are a good source, as well as dark green veggies such as kale, spinach and broccoli. Look for unfortified Brewer’s Yeast, too. Brewers Yeast is also a good source of selenium, which was associated with a 50% reduction in colon cancer in one study.

Note that red meat contains B vitamins, and particularly the organ meat of the animal. The fact that we no longer consume the most nutritious parts of the animal may be one reason we see more colon cancer now than we did in past times when people did not waste any part of the animal, and organ meat was even considered a delicacy.

Alcohol is a risk, but the amount is not determined. High consumption is definitely a factor, and alcohol metabolism will burn folate and other B vitamins. Whether two or less drinks per day are a risk is undetermined.

Evidence suggests that a high level of physical activity lowers risk, even when weight is not managed in normal ranges.

So, we can conclude that lifestyle and dietary changes can lower the risk of developing colon and rectal cancer, and may lower it significantly. Basic and common sense changes that we know bring about generally improved health and vitality are the key to colon health. If your colon is not functioning well, see your health practitioner. A colonoscopy may check for risks, but it is not enough to prevent problems that could develop into cancer.

How To Avoid Cancer - Part II

Anne Dunev, PhD
We tend to know something about blood, but what do you know about your lymph system? The average 150 pound person has 11.2 liters of lymphatic fluid in the body.

The lymph network transfers minerals and carbohydrates that have broken down into simple sugars and to the cells for energy and nutrition. The lymphatic system also transports waste materials from cellular metabolism away from the cells. Individual cells convert nutrients to energy in a process called “Cellular Respiration”.  Each cell is a tiny engine that requires many small steps to make fuel needed to perform the function of that type of cell.

When there is a build-up of waste material or excess sugar, fermentation occurs. Cancer cells love sugar. So, you can begin to see that keeping the cells healthy and nourished via the lymph system could be improve function and be cancer-preventative.

The primary culprits for sugar excess and mineral deficiencies are processed foods made of white flour, white sugar and chemical flavorings or other additives. Whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products and proteins all contain minerals. Plants draw minerals up from the soil and convert them into minerals that are bio-available to humans, which means they become easily utilized.

Cancer is a systemic disease that means there is a back up in your waste-disposal department. Waiting until there is a diagnosis means that the situation has progressed much too far. So, the time to take action to unclog your filters is now.  Ideally you should do a cleanse of your major organs every six months or yearly.

Changing life-style and eating habits may not only save your life, but give you a better quality of life. The snacks, breads, sweets, diet foods, alcohol and medications you may be using to get you through your day are a very temporary fix. Your mood, stress level and ability to cope are undermined by the bio-chemical changes that occur when you ingest substances that require nutrients to metabolize them.

Whole foods fill your nutrient bank. Snacks, breads, sweets, alcohol, excessive coffee, cigarettes, recreational and pharmaceutical drugs, artificial and chemical foods, all deplete your nutrient bank. That means that you are running on empty. If you don’t eat the foods needed for cells to function, and to replicate and form healthy new cells, mutant cells may start to grow.

Chances are your mirror will tell you when you need to make changes. Bloating, weight gain, rashes and blemishes, indigestion, constipation, menstrual irregularities, cravings for alcohol, drugs or sugar, fatigue, sleep issues, fogginess, allergies and asthma, depression and anxiety are all signs of a toxic overload.

Your medical doctor is not trained in prevention. Getting laboratory tests is not prevention. By the time your blood work indicates a problem, a disease state may have already set in.

Stay ahead of the game by changing your game plan. It is not easy to break the habit of snacking and grazing on crap-ohydrates and chemical foods. It starts with a decision to not only get healthier, but to look and feel better, too. If your body is crying out for better nutrition, don’t feed it chocolate until it shuts up!

In Europe and Asia lymphatic massage is far more common than in the U.S. The lymphatic fluid can be moved and stagnation decreased with massage and with moving the body. Rebounding (light jumping on a mini-trampoline) has been demonstrated to be useful for moving lymph. Walking, stretching and movement in general may be helpful. The human body was not designed to sit in a chair staring at a screen or fighting traffic. Get up and move. Drink the purest water you can find (and not distilled-remember you need minerals).

Good health can be yours, with a few simple decisions. The follow-through may be a challenge, so set realistic goals. In a short while you may be surprised to find that you ever craved some things you have felt you could not live without. Or you may find that you enjoy your favorite treat more when you only have it once in awhile. Your lymph is in your hands.

How to Avoid Cancer

Anne Dunev, PhD

One thing that comes up often as a health concern for my patients is how to avoid cancer. Many have lost family members and they are concerned about the genetic component. It is alarming how many people today have cancer, and yet cancer was relatively rare before 1900. And it was not just that people lived shorter lives then.  Consider the changes in the environment and the food supply just in the last 60 years since World War II.

But, let’s go back to a new discovery in the 1880’s that brought about a dramatic change in a staple food and how that may be affecting us today and contributing to cancer. Emperor Louis Napolean III offered a prize for anyone who could invent a substitute for butter to be used by the lower classes and armed forces. French chemist Mege-Mouries took up the challenge and invented oleomargarine in the laboratory. Since it was white in color, and the addition of yellow coloring was banned in many countries, including the U.S., for almost 100 years, margarine did not intially threaten the dairy industry and the use of real butter in the marketplace. For example, it was not legal to sell colored margarine in Australia until the 1960’s.

 In the mid 1880’s, margarine was taxed at 2 cents a pound in the United States, and in several states with big Dairy interests legislators passed laws demanding the addition of pink coloring to make margarine unpalatable to consumers.

In the 20th century bootleg colored margarine became common and yellow coloring was sold separately so that people could make their own white margarine appear yellow. What happens when you ban a product? Human nature seems to demand that it become desirable.  So, despite added taxes, margarine did sell.

World War I brought strict rationing of dairy products, and margarine consumption increased enormously, both in the U.S. and Europe.

Originally margarine was made from beef fat, until hydrogenation of plant matter was developed. This makes the melting point of plant oils higher, so that you get a solid spread at room temperature and not a pool of oil for your toast. And herein lies the problem with margarine. Hydrogenation is a process that takes place in a chamber so that heat and pressure can be applied to the oil, along with a metal catalyst of nickel or palladium, to force hydrogen into the chains of fatty acids. This creates trans-fats, which have been linked to cardiovascular disease. Newer methods of manufacturing have attempted to limit the risk of hydrogenation, but all spreads and margarines are still laboratory made, not natural foods.

My advice is always to stick to the Nature-made when it comes to food. Real butter is a fat that also contains Vitamins A and D, Vitamins E and K, anti-oxidants, selenium, conjugated linoleic acid for lean muscles, iodine, and other factors essential for human health. Margarine contains no nutrients and has the same calories as butter. All fats have about 100 calories per tablespoon. Altered, laboratory made, adulterated foods are a giant science experiment. We don’t really know the effects of these foods. But we do know that we have far more heart disease and cancer, obesity and Type 2 Diabetes and the numbers keep growing. There appears to be an inverse relationship to the consumption of Nature-made fats and heart disease. The more processed fats consumed the higher the rates of heart disease.

The first written reference to butter dates back to 4500, hammered on a limestone tablet that illustrated how butter was made. Humans have consumed butter as long as they have lived with domesticated animals, pre-dating farming and raising grains. There are many religious references to butter, both Biblical and Hindu.

Taste test? No contest! Look for organic butter, as many synthetic hormones and petro-chemicals are fat-loving. Butter is truly a health food.

Should you worry about saturated fat? There is no proof that saturated fat (fat that is hard at room temperature) winds up in your arteries. Sugar is probably far more dangerous, because triglycerides are made from sugar, not fat. We really don’t know why some people have clogged arteries and others don’t. All the studies are inconclusive. We do know that some people who die from heart attacks have clear arteries on autopsy and other people who do of other causes have completely clogged arteries but had no symptoms of heart disease.

We also know that indigenous people on native local diets of animal protein, fermented or raw dairy, natural fats and carbohydrates from vegetables and fruits had no Diabetes, Heart Disease or Cancer until they began eating the white man’s diet of white flour and white sugar.

The French have one quarter the heart disease of Great Britain. With their low incidence of heart disease but high butter and cheese consumption, the French also enjoy great tasting food!

By the way, ever wonder what shortening is? Often made from soybean or cottonseed oil, shortening is an hydrogenated fat that is used in baking because it is 100% fat. Butter and margarine are only 80% fat. It is called shortening because it “shortens” the gluten strands in bread, making the dough more elastic and yielding a softer loaf.

Nature-made fats are vital for human health and are referred to as “essential fatty acids”. Any nutrient that is vital for health is going to be cancer-protective, since human cells need the genuine, unprocessed fats for cellular metablolism, and they don’t need Frankenstein fats made in the laboratory.

In my next Health tip I will tell you more about certain fats that may help protect you against cancer.

Fishing for Compliments

Anne Dunev, PhD (Los Angeles Certified Nutritionist and Naturopathic Practitioner)
In our office we recommend fish oil supplements for many of our patients. When I had a practice in Ketchum, Idaho, I could barely keep fish oil caps on the shelf. Because of the dryness at that altitude, dry skin is a big factor. Dry skin equals discomfort and early wrinkles. Once a woman started on fish oil supplements, she would come back and buy more for her mother, daughter and friends.

With our current fat-phobia, fish oil supplements are a great way to add a controlled amount of fat into the diet comfortably. You will see on this blog that I am a big proponent of good fats, and I think that many of our current chronic disease conditions would improve drastically if we flipped our eating around to include plenty of healthy fat and jettisoned the breads and sugar.

But if you aren’t ready for such a drastic change, fish oil supplements have wonderful benefits, besides balancing your skin and improving wrinkles.

The brain is the only organ in the body that uses fat (fatty acids), so fish has been called “brain food”. Do eat wild caught fish, rather than farm raised, as often as you can, such as salmon, cod and halibut. If mercury is a concern, limit tuna, and particularly swordfish. Concerns about health risks from mercury in fish are not shared by all. Fish contain a less toxic form of mercury called methyl mercury cysteine. The ocean is rich in selenium and that binds some of the mercury, making it less toxic.

In Japan, the amount of mercury ingested from the high fish consumption greatly exceeds what is recommended as safe. However, Japanese children excel in school and out-perform American children. And there are no health issues apparent in Japanese kids that would indicate the mercury is poisoning them. So, mercury in fish does not seem to a reason to avoid eating fish a few times per week.

Pregnant women and very small children are more vulnerable.  Mercury poisoning from methyl mercury chloride is a concern at any age, so avoid silver dental fillings.

The best fish oil supplements undergo molecular distillation to remove mercury, and the benefits of fish oil outweigh the risk of contamination

Fish oil is anti-inflammatory, so helpful for joints, ageing, arthritis and autoimmune disease. Fish oil may lower cholesterol levels. It is helpful for dry eye symptoms and helps you maintain a healthy weight by keeping blood sugar more balanced, and cutting cravings. Fish oil helps depression and mood, and may help normalize blood pressure.

It is hard to find any supplement that offers so many health benefits and can be supplemented at any age. Look for fish oil supplements that do not repeat! There is nothing worse than burping fish oil.  Here are my personal favorites:

Tuna Omega Oil by Standard Process®-There is a regular gel cap and Tuna Omega also comes in a chewable gel cap that tastes like orange, so kid-friendly and great for anyone who does not like to swallow pills. Both the flavored and non-flavored capsules are very small, so helpful for anyone who has difficulty swallowing large pills. Also, no burping or after-taste. Standard Process is the gold standard of nutritional supplements and makes the best, and most tested, in the world.

Metagenics DHA-EPA , with higher potency DHA. Break this capsule open and the fish oil is not “fishy” but fresh smelling. Larger capsule due to higher concentration.

Both of these supplements are available at our office. Call 818-729-9149 to order.

I also like Nordic Naturals, available at your local health food store or online at Amazon.com  or at NordicNaturals.com  This company specializes in fish oil and offers a variety of fish oils for various needs. They offer both concentrated for higher potency and regular concentration. The lemon flavor is a good choice if you are concerned about burping and there are chewables for kids.

Please feel free to forward this to your friends. Receive $15 off your next consultation for any referrals.