eat to beat disease Archives - Amazing Health Advances

How to Eat to Reduce Cancer Risk

AHA Publisher — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 08:00:30 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – What does the best available balance of evidence say right now about what to eat and what to avoid to reduce your risk of cancer? In 1982, a landmark report on diet, nutrition, and cancer was released by the National Academy of Sciences. It was “the first major, institutional, science-based report on this topic.” The report started out saying that “scientists must be especially careful in their choice of words whenever they are not totally confident about their conclusions.” For example, by that time, it had become “absolutely clear” that cigarettes were killing people. “If the population been persuaded to stop smoking when the association with lung cancer was first reported, these cancer deaths would not be occurring.” If you wait for absolute certainty, millions of people could die in the meantime, which is why, sometimes, you have to invoke the precautionary principle. For example, “emphasizing fruits and vegetables to reduce the risk of several common forms of cancer.” We’re not completely sure, but there’s good evidence—and what’s the downside? “There are no disadvantages for healthy people eating more fruits and vegetables,” as I discuss in my video The Best Advice on Diet and Cancer. The 1982 National Academy of Sciences report continued: “The public is now asking about the causes of cancers that are not associated with smoking. What are these causes, and how can these cancers be avoided? Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to make firm scientific pronouncements about the association between diet and cancer. We are in an interim stage of knowledge similar to that for cigarettes 20 years ago. Therefore, in the judgment of the committee, it is now the time to offer some interim guidelines on diet and cancer.” The committee raised concern about processed meats, for example, and, 30 years later, that concern was confirmed. Processed meat was officially declared “carcinogenic to humans.” Maybe if we had listened back in the early 1980s when the red flag first started waving, then we would have been spared Lunchables, about which a CEO of Philip Morris said: “One article said something like, ‘If you take Lunchables apart, the most healthy item in it is the napkin.’” The findings of this landmark 1982 diet and cancer report “generated a striking level of disbelief from the cancer community and outright hostility from people whose livelihood depended on foods in question and the food industry whose products were being questioned.” In fact, one of the authors of the report was “accused of ‘killing more people than those being saved,’” and there were formally organized petitions to expel the researchers from their professional societies. Indeed, “clearly a very sensitive nerve was touched.” The American Meat Science Association and other members of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology criticized the report and released “Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer: A Critique” in 1982. They agreed that perhaps lives would be saved, but argued that the recommended “reductions in meat consumption would sharply reduce incomes to the livestock and meat processing industries….The fruit and vegetable industries would clearly benefit from the expanded demand for their products if consumers were to implement the guidelines. However, fruits and vegetables account for less than 15 percent of cash receipts for U.S. agriculture.” Most of the money is in “cattle, hogs, poultry products, feed grains, and oil crops.” This reminds me of the tobacco industry memo where Philip Morris spoke of the tobacco industry going bankrupt. Maybe it’s not the meat that’s causing cancer, the industry critique continued, but all the marijuana people are smoking these days. “How then can one argue that such an abundant diet causes cancer? Or is this only some jealous attack on the goodness of our diet, like that of the Reverend Jonathan Edwards in Puritan times who condemned bear baiting, not because of the pain for the bear but because of the pleasure of the spectators.” You can’t tell us to cut down on meat, they argued, “one of mankind’s few remaining pleasures is that of the table.” The day the National Academy of Sciences’ landmark report was published was “The Day That Food Was Declared a Poison” according to Thomas Jukes, the guy who discovered you could speed up the growth of chickens by feeding them antibiotics. How dare the National Academy of Sciences recommend people eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains daily, which were said to contain “as yet unidentified compounds that may protect us against certain cancers. How can one select foods that contain unidentified compounds?…This is not a scientific recommendation; it sounds like ‘health food store’ literature.” My favorite critique, though, told us to think about the human breast. How can animal fat be bad for us if breast-feeding women create so much of it? Women are animals, and their mammary glands make fat for breast milk. Therefore, we shouldn’t have to cut down on burgers. Huh? Enough of that. What does the latest science tell us about nutrition and cancer? I’ve just talked about eating more fruits and vegetables. What are the other five recommendations that invoke the precautionary principle? Consumption of soy products may not only reduce the risk of getting breast cancer, but also increase chances of surviving it. In terms of dietary guidance suggestions on foods to cut down on, where evidence is sufficiently compelling, recommendations included “limiting or avoiding dairy products to reduce the risk of prostate cancer; limiting or avoiding alcohol to reduce the risk of cancers of the mouth, pharynx [throat], larynx, esophagus, colon, rectum, and breast; avoiding red and processed meat to reduce the risk of cancers of the colon and rectum; [and] avoiding grilled, fried, and broiled meats to reduce the risk of cancers of the colon, rectum, breast, prostate, kidney, and pancreas.” In this context, the researchers are talking about all meat, including poultry and fish. Look, we all have to make dietary decisions every day and “cannot wait for the evolution of scientific consensus.” Until we know more, all we can do to protect ourselves and our families is “act on the best available evidence” we have right now. The level of evidence required to make decisions depends on the level of risk. If we’re talking about a new drug, for example, given the fact that medications kill more than a hundred thousand Americans a year—which is Why Prevention Is Worth a Ton of Cure—you want to be darn sure that the benefits outweigh the risks before you prescribe or take a drug. But what level of evidence do you need to eat broccoli? Do you need randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials? (How would you even design a placebo vegetable?) Even if all of the evidence suggesting how powerful broccoli is turned out to be some crazy cruciferous conspiracy, what’s the worst that could have happened? It’s healthy anyway! That’s the beauty of safe, simple, and side effect–free solutions provided by the lifestyle medicine approach. They can only help. I have so many more videos on diet and cancer for you. How Not to Die from Cancer may be a good place to start before you check out some more in related videos. Key Takeaways Waiting for absolute scientific certainty may result in avoidable disease and even death. For example, had no-smoking efforts taken off when the association between smoking and lung cancer was first reported, instead of waiting for the link to be “absolutely clear,” lives could have been saved. The National Academy of Sciences released a landmark report on diet, nutrition, and cancer in 1982, which included interim guidance. Concerns were raised about processed meats, which were confirmed three decades later. Processed meat has been officially declared “carcinogenic to humans.” The 1982 report’s findings “generated a striking level of disbelief from the cancer community and outright hostility from people whose livelihood depended on foods in question and the food industry whose products were being questioned.” Invoking the precautionary principle, the latest science tells us to eat more fruits and vegetables, consume soy products to reduce breast cancer risk and increase chances of survival, and encourages “limiting or avoiding dairy products to reduce the risk of prostate cancer; limiting or avoiding alcohol to reduce the risk of cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, colon, rectum, and breast; avoiding red and processed meat to reduce the risk of cancers of the colon and rectum; [and] avoiding grilled, fried, and broiled meats to reduce the risk of cancers of the colon, rectum, breast, prostate, kidney, and pancreas.” In this context, the researchers are talking about all meat, including poultry and fish. We don’t have to wait, nor should we wait, for scientific consensus. We can and should “act on the best available evidence” we have right now. The beauty of safe, simple, and side effect–free solutions provided by the lifestyle medicine approach is that they can only help. To read the original article click here.

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Foods That Can Reduce Anxiety, Depression & PTSD with Nutritional Psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo

AHA Publisher — Tue, 18 May 2021 07:00:30 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – Nutritional psychiatry is the use of healthy, whole foods to improve mental fitness, which includes our emotional health and mental wellbeing. This is fairly new science; over the past two decades, scientists have just begun to realize that what we eat and how we feel are very connected. Nutritional psychiatry is based on personalized eating plans that suit the individual best. It is not a “one size fits all” program. Rather, nutritional psychiatry is based on a holistic, integrated and functional approach that allows you to work closely with your physician to design an eating plan that works best for you and your mind. Dr. Uma talks about this approach to mental health in detail in her new book This is Your Brain on Food. As she notes, when it comes to mental health, we need to speak to the person, not just label them and move on. We need to understand the context behind their mental distress and take a holistic and integrated approach to their healing. What are ways to help the patient feel better that actually work for them? The basis of nutritional psychiatry is the conversation that goes on between the gut and the brain.Both the gut and the brain arise from the exact same cells in the body during fetal development, and they are connected through the vagus nerve—a two-way superhighway between these two organs that is busy 24/7. In fact, around 95% of our serotonin is produced in the gut, while it is also responsible for an estimated 75% of our immune system. The gut truly is a massive and important organ! As Dr. Uma notes, the close relationship between the gut and brain makes what we eat very important when it comes to our mental health. For example, highly processed and refined junks foods can impact the gut-brain connection if eaten regularly over time and affect our mental and emotional wellbeing. On the other hand, during the colder and darker months, what we eat (such as foods high in Vitamin D) can help us feel better and manage seasonal affective disorder. One of the easiest tweaks many of us can make right now is to eat more fruits and vegetables. As Dr. Uma notes, this is one of the main principles of the Mediterranean diet. But does this mean that the Mediterranean diet works for everyone? No—we are all different, and we all have different nutritional needs when it comes to our mind and body. There are many ways to incorporate good foods into our diet to improve our physical and mental health, such as eating more fiber-rich foods and fermented foods, which studies have shown can help improve overall gut health and the communication between the gut and brain. Of course, in a perfect world, we should try to get most of our nutrients from our food. But because we don’t live in a perfect world, sometimes we may need to supplement (with the advice of a medical professional) to get what we may be missing in our diets. This article has been modified. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

The post Foods That Can Reduce Anxiety, Depression & PTSD with Nutritional Psychiatrist Dr. Uma Naidoo appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Eat to Beat Disease: How to Eat for Optimal Health

AHA Publisher — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 08:00:04 +0000

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DMN, CNS – It’s no secret that what you eat has immense effect on your health, and it turns out you can actually eat to beat disease. No one know this better than Dr. William Li, MD, author of the book “Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Health Itself.” Li has been featured on numerous media outlets, and he’s also the author of over 100 scientific publications, including research published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet. He’s also served on faculty at Harvard Medical School and has spent decades practicing medicine. I was lucky enough to talk with Dr. Li on my podcast, where he shared insights on how to combat cancer and other diseases through diet by activating the body’s five health defense systems. Here are his insights on how to eat to beat disease. The Study of Food One of the biggest breakthroughs for Dr. Li during his career was the realization that while the practice of medicine is vital and life-changing, a lot of his formal training focused on treating diseases and little on prevention. “When I went to medical school, I was really taught about health for maybe a few courses, and then everything else was about disease and what we should do to stamp it out, treat it, cut it burn it, give chemotherapy or antibiotics. That’s really how I entered the world of medical practice,” he says. “It is really just waiting for the horse to come out of the barn, which is illness, and then throwing the kitchen sink, ideally, smartly at it. “… I started to realize after many years of practice that the science was advancing so rapidly for treating disease and yet it didn’t seem like it was being applied to actually preventing disease, and you know prevention is really the mirror image of treatment.” Li realized that you can’t really use drugs as a prevention method so in order to focus on disease prevention, he shifted his attention to food. That led him to start researching the effects of food on health in the same manner medical researchers studied drugs, utilizing the same tools and methods to understand just how powerful food can be — and how to eat to beat disease. “I grew up uh eating traditional Asian cuisines and Mediterranean cuisines, whole foods freshly cooked not too much, designed to be really tasty. So I always felt that food was something that sustained me and sustained my well-being,” says Li. “… As an adult on my own eating in the cafeteria or hospital food, traveling around and going to restaurants, I started to realize we’ve actually lost touch with what our own history and cultures actually have given us, which is something pretty elemental that speaks to the body.” The focus for many today is on dieting, which can cause its own issues. Most diets are strict and exclusionary, and that can make them difficult for people to follow and sustain. “I just felt like there’s got to be a better way to do this, and what I discovered is when it comes to food and health, in fact it’s not just about the food — it’s about how our body responds to what we put inside it,” Li says. “You have to understand first before you choose any diet and any food combination how your body responds to keeping your health intact.” What Li found working for more than 30 years with Dr. Judah Folkman, a pioneer in the medical field, is that health is critically dependent on circulation. When circulation is excessive, it can feed diseases like cancer, while lack of circulation can cut off oxygen and nutrients to tissues so they die off — which in turn can promote disease. “Lab research has shown when a cancer that doesn’t have a blood supply suddenly gets one, that tiny little tumor can grow 16,000 times in only a couple of weeks. That’s enough to kill somebody. That’s led to the development of more than 18 medicines that cancer doctors use to cut off the blood supply to cancers,” Li says. “Using the same tools to discover medicines that can interfere to cut off a blood supply to starve a cancer, I’ve actually been able to test food, and when you test food in those systems, you can test them head-to-head, side-by-side, you wind up seeing that green tea, soy, lavender, citrus fruits, broccoli — they can stand up right next to cancer drugs.” The 5 Health Defense Systems The body is designed to protect health, while environmental factors all around are trying to get in. “Think of our body as a fortress. If you remember a medieval castle, you got the moat, you got the tall, sloping walls, you’ve got the little slits in the walls where people could shoot arrows out, you’ve got the little tiger traps, little holes with spikes in middle it, you got the winding staircases — all these things. A fortress is designed to protect itself from invaders,” says Li. “That is exactly our body except that rather than stone structures or spears, it’s actually biology.” There are five main health defense systems, according to Li: Blood or circulation/angiogenesis — The body grows blood vessels that feed every cell in the body. Stem cells in bone marrow — Help us heal from the inside out and regenerate our organs as we age or when we’re injured. Microbiome — This is the healthy gut bacteria, and humans have almost 40 trillion gut bacteria. “You know how a pregnant mom says, ‘I’m eating for two?’ We’re eating for 40 trillion, and that’s leading to a whole new insight into what we eat and how it impacts our gut defense,” says Li. DNA — Our DNA is hardwired to protect us against the assaults from the environment. Immune system — “It is more powerful than we ever thought because we now know that even an elderly person in their 80s, their immune system is so powerful that it can not only help resist infection, but it can help resist cancer as well.” “These five health defense systems are at play all the time, and when we sit down to eat something we are either building up and fortifying and boosting these defense systems or we’re taking it down and destroying it, ” says Li. “Everybody who thinks about food and health according to the traditional ways that have been everywhere for the last few decades, it’s about what program should I get into and what things should I cut out and what do I need to eat every single day. Here’s the news flash, which is good news: There’s no one size fits all. It’s about our individual preference, what our bodies seek, what we enjoy — and by the way, the enjoyment’s really important because if you can pick something that’s healthy that you enjoy, then you are already ahead of the game.” How to Eat to Beat Disease In “Eat to Beat Disease,” Dr. Li touches on 200 foods that can help boost immunity and activate the health defense systems. Here are some of the top foods to eat to beat disease: 1. Soy “There’s a belief out there that soy is actually dangerous for your health because it can cause breast cancer, and we believe this because there’s a plant estrogen in soy that we know is there, and we know that some types of human breast cancers can be activated by human estrogen. However, if you look at soy plant estrogen vs. human estrogen, they don’t look anything alike, and it turns out the science shows us that plant estrogens actually counter the effects of human estrogens so they actually block human estrogens almost like a drug does,” says Li. “There’s a study of 500 women who already have breast cancer, and it was studied that those women with breast cancer who actually ate more soy had better survival — they had about a 30 percent reduced risk of dying from breast cancer — and those who ate more soy were able to decrease the risk of having the cancer come back.” A note is to be wary of highly processed foods, including in soy products. A lot of soy milk is overly processed and contains unnecessary and sometimes harmful additives. That’s why I’m a proponent of natto, a fermented soy. It’s also why I’m in favor of fresh foods instead of buying juiced foods. Eating blueberries or an apple vs. buying blueberry juice or apple juice — it’s better to eat the whole, fresh fruit that hasn’t been processed or had any unhealthy ingredients added. Flaxseeds have a similar compound as soy that can protect against disease, along with lavender, vitex, clary sage. They can actually balance estrogen. 2. Tomatoes “There’s a lot of people out there saying tomatoes are harmful because they’re related to the nightshade plant,” says Li. “In fact, tomatoes don’t have any of the poisons of nightshade, and in fact there is a really important natural chemical called lycopene which is present in tomato. “Lycopene in tomato has been studied. There’s a study of 35,000 men, and they looked at their intake of tomatoes, cooked tomatoes, and found that those men who ate two to three servings of cooked tomatoes actually had up to a 30 percent lowered risk of developing prostate cancer. “In those men who did develop prostate cancer, the more tomatoes they ate, the less aggressive their prostate cancer because lycopene is anti-andorgenic, which means it cuts off the blood supply feeding cancers. It starves cancer in this really remarkable way.” 3. Green Tea Drink two-plus cups of green tea a day. It floods the system with natural bioactive chemicals that come from the tea plant that can actually cut off the blood supply to tumors, actually even kill cancer stem cells. It also protects blood vessels. 4. Tree Nuts Pistachios, almonds, cashews, macadamias and walnuts are some of the best options. “A major study of over 700 people from the American Society of Clinical Oncology showed that people who ate a couple handfuls of walnuts a day, about 15, a week actually had up to a 50 percent reduction in death if they had stage 3 colon cancer, and if they had their cancer successfully treated, it also markedly decreased the risk fo their cancer coming back,” shares Li. “A couple handfuls of nuts as a snack is a really great way to reduce your risk of cancer. “It turns out nuts not only have healthy omega-3 fatty acids that can cut off the blood supply feeding cancer cells, but they also have insoluble fiber. They’re a great source of fiber. “This insoluble fiber feeds our microbiome and activates our immune system. It lowers inflammation, which lowers cancer risk.” What Does Dr. Li Eat to Beat Disease? First and foremost, Dr. Li stresses “there’s no single food you need to eat all the time. It’s eating diversity, mostly plant-based foods, minimal processing like ultra-processed foods and cutting down on your meat also reduces your risk of cancer as well.” Instead, he says to focus on dietary patterns, such as the Mediterranean dietand traditional Asian diets. In addition, he likes to focus on plant-based foods and tries to build his meals around a vegetable. So what does Dr. Li typically eat to beat disease each day? Breakfast “When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is reach for either green tea or coffee,” Li says. “Coffee contains caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, all these natural bioactives that are amazingly healthy for you. They increase your telomeres, which slows down cellular aging. They’re anti-androgenic so they cut off the blood supply feeding cancers, and they make our blood vessels actually healthier. Many lower the risk of dementia. “… I’ll have tea or coffee every day. Every day...

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Tips for Beating Cancer: Activate Your Body’s 5 Health Defense Systems

AHA Publisher — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 08:40:49 +0000

William W. Li, MD via Dr. Axe – Tips for beating cancer should always include dietary components, but all too often, this part of cancer treatment is ignored. We turned to William Li, MD, world-renowned doctor and author of the New York Times bestseller Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself to learn more about his thoughts on using food to activate our bodies’ innate healing abilities. Q: Could you share a list of the top surprising foods linked to cancer? A: There’s a laundry list of foods that increase risk for cancer, and these include some disturbingly common foods such as processed meat, which is classified as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization, and grilled meats. Grilling meat produces polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). These are carcinogens that form when oils from the meat drip into the flame and smoke. The rising smoke deposits the carcinogens right on the meat. High grilling temperatures also convert amino acids and proteins in meat into toxic heterocyclic amines (HCA). And if you don’t carefully clean the grill surface and leave the black char, the next time you put food on the grill, you are coating it with carcinogens. Q: We often hear that the body “wants to be well” and has an incredible capacity to heal itself. Why, do you think, don’t more oncologists talk about food choices when a person is diagnosed with cancer? A: The body is hardwired with health defense systems that work to help us resist diseases, including cancer, from the time we are born to our last breath. These health defenses, which I describe in my book Eat to Beat Disease, are: • Angiogenesis • Our regenerative system • Our microbiome • DNA protection • Our immune system These systems help our body heal itself. However, when they are weakened or damaged, cancer can develop. Oncologists aren’t trained to look at health defenses — they are trained to diagnose and treat the cancers that have evaded them. The treatments involve surgery, drugs and radiation — food is not part of their traditional toolbox. And all doctors have little to no education or training when it comes to nutrition. All of this is changing because oncologists are beginning to recognize the impact of food in cancer treatment. For example, a study by oncologists of 826 patients with Stage III colon cancer undergoing treatment found that those who ate two servings of tree nuts each week had a 57 percent improvement in survival. Another oncology study of 249 patients with various cancers who were being treated with immunotherapies found that those who did not respond were lacking a healthy bacterium in the gut microbiome called Akkermansia. The only way to grow Akkermansia is by consuming foods like pomegranate, cranberries and mangoes. This is emerging evidence that food can collaborate with medicine to improve cancer treatment. Oncologists are starting to pay attention. Q: If someone is newly diagnosed with cancer, what are the most important foods to start working into the diet right away? A: Everyone is different, and it’s important to individualize diet based on a person’s needs. For example, someone with diabetes tolerates foods differently from someone with celiac disease. But, there are some general principles for using food as medicine, especially when it comes to cancer. We know cancers grow blood vessels to feed themselves, so it’s important to eat foods that can starve cancer by cutting off these bad blood vessels. These are called antiangiogenic foods, which include: soy, tomatoes, green tea, oily fish, berries and brassica vegetables. We also know that cancers are especially dangerous because they contain cancer stem cells, which can keep cancers coming back after treatment. New research shows that cancer stem cell-killing foods exist, including purple potatoes, green tea, coffee and walnuts. We know a strong immune system can help wipe out cancer cells. Immune-boosting foods include: broccoli sprouts, blueberries and chili peppers. Eating prebiotic foods that contain fiber, like mushrooms and beans, can feed healthy gut bacteria, which helps lower inflammation and improve immunity. Other microbiome-boosting foods include fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut and yogurt. Knowing your health defenses, and which foods boost them, is key for using diet to fight cancer. But remember, food is not a cure, so diet is an important part of the toolbox along with modern treatments, like immunotherapy or antiangiogenic therapy. Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add? A: There are some foods that people should really think twice about consuming, because they disrupt the health defenses that help you avoid cancer. These are: processed meat, sugar sweetened beverages, artificial sweeteners, and ultra-processed foods. These foods are everywhere, and part of the typical American diet, but consuming them regularly should be considered a risk. Your health defenses can be boosted or lowered by different foods. Choose the ones that boost your health. William W. Li, MD, is an internationally renowned physician, scientist and author of the New York Times bestseller Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself. His groundbreaking work has led to the development of more than 30 new medical treatments and impacts care for more than 70 diseases including cancer, diabetes, blindness, heart disease and obesity. His TED Talk — Can We Eat to Starve Cancer — has garnered more than 11 million views. Dr. Li has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, CNBC and the Dr. Oz Show, and he has been featured in USA Today, Time Magazine, The Atlantic and O Magazine. He is president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation. More information can be found at: www.drwilliamli.com and on social media @drwilliamli To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Axe click here.

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