how do we prevent cancer?

or at least reduce risk in an integrative way through nutrition, supplements and/or environment? what’s proven?

Re: how do we prevent cancer?

OK, I'll bite.

First I recommend one looks at the American Cancer Society site - prevention

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/ped_1.asp

They list:

Tobacco
Sun
Food
Fitness
HPV
Environment
School health

It depends where you want to focus…. BUT tobacco is huge as the number one preventable, not only for N. America but globally. In considering how to help developing countries anti -smoking programs are key.

Some of the figures are suprising like over 30% grade 12 white kids in USA smoke, vs 10% African American.

What cancers does smoking produce? Lung is the really big one, but also mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney and bladder (those are the top clear association ones). This is not counting the impact on heart and lung disease.

For details search for CPED2005v5PWSecured.pdf

Also the NCI site is super… for tobacco go to

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/tobacco

Men peaked with smoking habit and lung cancer rates which are now falling (a little). Women are smoking more and the rate of lung cancer is climbing fast and will peak in another decade (my guess without going to find the graphs).

Other peoples thoughts?

X

Re: how do we prevent cancer?

great post, Xrisham! rigorous yet enlightening!

i love the generalizability of your comments with smoking, sun damage, etc. my focus is more on prevention of breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical cancer. there’s lots of new data on these which i’m going to try to codify for my next post. but the newish things i’ve heard recently include:

- nighttime exposure to light is associated with a dramatically increased risk of breast cancer. this has been found especially in shift workers who are under the fluorescents 5 nights/week. now i don’t turn on any lights when i pee at 4am….

- new vaccine available now for prevention of HPV. only for certain subtypes and studied mostly in younger women. really interesting and i wonder about the generalizability to older women especially since divorce is so common as are affairs.

- role of insulin resistance in cancer – do you know about this? seems very important.

more later
blessings,
sara

Re: how do we prevent cancer?

So you look after women mostly and I look after men. 80% of my work is with prostate cancer. Sharing resources can be helpful though. Some of the materials I use are accessible to me through site licenses though and are expensive to the public. This can be frustrating because it is so important that the public has access to good accurate information.

Light - pineal - biorhythms — yes I think you are on to something there. Our world is very disruptive to our natural cycles. I am not sure where I would go for refs on this though for cancer in general, prevention in particular. A QUICK peek tells me stuff is active this year alone e.g.

But doubtless you have come across this somewhere to have piqued your interest. Were you refering to any study in particular?

Of course I think one key element is to focus on remediable factors. I mean a woman is born with a family history or not but what can a woman do with habits, diet, lifestyle etc to effect risk. Empowerment is central.

More later…

PS Let me know if you want to split into new postings e.g. men's health, women's health.
This am there are 31 zpods posting on health. FYI.

X

Re: how do we prevent cancer?

well, xrisham, we both pay a lot of attention to cancers related to sex steroids. how do you hormonally reduce the risk of prostate cancer, if that’s possible?

nice bibio on shift work and breast cancer! i haven’t read the data but heard the comment from Andy Weil at his nutrition conference in new york a few months ago. shift work and something about alpha-linoleic acid and cancer. do you know anything about that?

how about if we keep the threads intertwined for now on men’s health & women’s health. there must be some generalizability, especially with micro- and macro-nutrients and such.

pranams,
sara

Re: how do we prevent cancer?

Prostate cancer prevention:

There is just an awful lot we don't know and the more we learn the more we realise how complex it all is. I don't know that I can / would just put my finger on hormones factors.  These are the basics of diet that any man can do though… (adapted from the prostate cancer foundation materials)

1. Reduce or eliminate the consumption of red meat

2. Reduce or eliminate high-fat, farm-raised fish

Salmon, trout and catfish are fatty fish. The type of fat in these fish is the healthy omega-3 type, so it's okay to eat fresh, wild salmon, trout or catfish.

3. Minimize or eliminate consumption of cheese

4. Use soy protein meat and cheese substitutes, tofu, soy milk, and soy protein powders, bars or drinks. 

5. Limit or eliminate salad dressings made from oil and minimize use of cooking fats.  

6. Minimize or eliminate consumption of ice cream, frozen yogurt, cakes and pastries.

7. Use garlic, spices and flavoring rather than cooking oils whenever possible. 

8. Cover 1/2 to 2/3 of your plate with steamed vegetables  (include fruits and vegetables with every meal.)

Make it a point to never have a meal without at least one serving of fruits or vegetables included. Fruit should always be included in your breakfast. And fruit snacks are easy to include in even the busiest schedules. Try to include cruciferous vegetables whenever possible.
9. Eat beans, peas and lentils more often than refined breads and  pastas and white rice.

There is a large pdf at this place

The other area is the SELECT trial using SELenium and vit E. You don't want to overdo vit E though as it increases cardiac risks at higher levels.

Lycopene in cooked tomatoes is likely good from the Italian study.
Vitamin D promotes prostate cancer cell death.
Beer, pomegranate also see to do this although evidence is minimal and I'm not suggesting we all take up boozing with a shot of grenadine ;}

Then I would mention Dean Ornish and his groups work in watching the behaviour of a small group of patients with EARLY LOW risk localised prostate cancer. Vegan diet, yoga, stress reduction program, exercise with meditation I believe and some encouraging PRELIM results published J Urology Sept 05.

Pop some links from time to time with Seth / Monica?

X/G

Re: how do we prevent cancer?

thank you, X/G. all that sounds like common sense although it mostly seems to be aimed at eliminating fat. are there randomized controlled trials to support these recommendations? what about good fats (omega 3s, 6s, etc) vs bad fats? where’s the olive oil in that lovely list? it seems like the nutrition world is moving away from the low-fat diet craze to healthy fat/healthy protein approach.

i’ll check out the links and get back to you.

namaste,
yogini