reduce cancer risk Archives - Amazing Health Advances https://amazinghealthadvances.net/tag/reduce-cancer-risk/ Your hub for fresh-picked health and wellness info Thu, 10 Nov 2022 21:56:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/AHA_Gradient_Bowl-150x150.jpg reduce cancer risk Archives - Amazing Health Advances https://amazinghealthadvances.net/tag/reduce-cancer-risk/ 32 32 How to Eat to Reduce Cancer Risk https://amazinghealthadvances.net/how-to-eat-to-reduce-cancer-risk-8161/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-eat-to-reduce-cancer-risk-8161 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/how-to-eat-to-reduce-cancer-risk-8161/#respond Fri, 11 Nov 2022 08:00:30 +0000 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/?p=15349 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.

The post How to Eat to Reduce Cancer Risk appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

]]> https://amazinghealthadvances.net/how-to-eat-to-reduce-cancer-risk-8161/feed/ 0 Slash Your Cancer Risk With Two POTENT Spices https://amazinghealthadvances.net/slash-your-cancer-risk-with-two-potent-spices-7713/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=slash-your-cancer-risk-with-two-potent-spices-7713 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/slash-your-cancer-risk-with-two-potent-spices-7713/#respond Thu, 02 Dec 2021 08:00:34 +0000 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/?p=13484 Karen Sanders via NaturalHealth365 – Within the past few years, scientists at the forefront of cancer research have increasingly given voice to a once radical-sounding concept:  cancer – second only to heart disease as a cause of death for Americans – is largely preventable, with diet playing an important role. In a prominent article published in 2008 in the peer-reviewed scientific publication Pharmaceutical Research, the authors – researchers in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center – boldly state that cancer is, for the most part, a preventable disease that can be avoided with proper lifestyle choices. An article published the following year in the Journal of Clinical Oncology echoes and confirms this finding and goes on to assert that dietary modification alone – namely, increasing intake of fruits, vegetables, and spices – could prevent 20 percent or more of all cases of cancer, saving close to a quarter of a million lives a year.  In a more recent study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health authors concluded that indeed, nutrition is one of the most modifiable aspects of people’s lifestyles and dietary choices that can affect cancer risk. Furthermore, with the maintenance of optimum body weight and regular physical activity added to dietary modification, the authors estimate that up to 40 percent of all cancer cases would simply never occur. Stunning Fact: Nearly 50% of All Cancer Cases Can Be Eliminated With Natural Compounds Imagine the headlines, the fanfare, and the triumphant advertising campaign Big Pharma would unleash if a drug manufacturer were to develop a medication with the same rate of success at warding off cancer.  Yet, the “medication” already exists.  We already have access to safe, natural, and relatively affordable cancer-preventing substances: the phytochemicals contained in luscious fruits, tasty vegetables, and zesty spices. Although a myriad of fresh fruits and vegetables – broccoli, blueberries, garlic, grapes, tomatoes, and dozens more – can help prevent cancer, two spices, in particular, have been impressing researchers with their ability to inhibit and even destroy cancer cells. Fragrant Cloves Offer Up a Protective and Potent Essential Oil Cloves, scientifically known as Sygizium aromaticum, are the unopened flower buds from an evergreen tree indigenous to the Indonesian rain forest.  Their aromatic scent and rich, distinctive flavor arise from their high content of eugenol oil, the constituent also responsible for much of their protective benefits. Recent scientific research supports the ability of eugenol oil to inhibit the proliferation of melanoma cells.  It also suppresses COX-2 mRNA expression, meaning that it works to “turn off” one of the primary genes implicated in inflammation and cancer development. In one particularly encouraging animal study conducted at the Department of Cancer Causation and Prevention at AMC Cancer Research Center and published in 2005 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, eugenol not only slowed the growth of tumors but decreased tumor size by 40 percent.  While 50 percent of the mice in the control group died from metastatic growth of their tumors, all eugenol-treated mice survived. In addition, researchers reported no evidence of cell invasion or metastasis – no spreading of cancer – in the eugenol group.  While clinical studies are lacking, test tube and animal studies point to potential use for cloves as a natural cancer treatment. Cloves Contain a Surprising Variety of Nutrients Although eugenol oil seems to be the major player in the anticancer effects of cloves, these piquantly-flavored buds can also provide health benefits by way of their other constituents.  Cloves are rich in tannins and flavonoids and contain hefty amounts of essential minerals such as iron, manganese, and selenium.  As if that weren’t enough, they are also a good source of the antioxidant vitamin C and A, as well as the antioxidant carotenoid beta-carotene. What’s the Best Way to Add Cloves to My Diet? Opt for whole, organically grown cloves for maximum health benefits, and powder them yourself in a coffee grinder.  Use cloves to enhance meat, poultry, rice dishes, and soups or to add zest to a marinade.  You can also use them to flavor desserts such as gingerbread, pumpkin pie, and fruit compote, or pair them with cinnamon in hot spiced apple cider. But, be warned, overindulging in cloves can cause gastric irritation, so moderation is the best policy.  And, if you have a digestive condition such as gastric ulcers, ulcerative colitis, or diverticulitis, check with your doctor before using them. Fenugreek: An Ancient Mainstay of Ayurvedic Healing, Proves Its Worth to Western Researchers Scientifically known as Trigonella foenum-graecum, fenugreek is a staple of Middle Eastern cooking and is used to make curry and pickles.  It has been employed since antiquity for culinary and medicinal purposes and is particularly prized in the Ayurvedic healing system, known as methi. Recent medical research indicates that fenugreek seeds have anti-cancer properties due to their high diosgenin levels, a steroidal saponin.  In a cell study published in 2006 in Oncogene, researchers found that fenugreek extracts suppressed inflammation, inhibited the proliferation of cancer cells, and caused apoptosis – or self-destruction – of tumor cells.  Like the eugenol found in cloves, diosgenin in fenugreek regulates pro-inflammatory COX-2. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) concurs, crediting fenugreek seeds with chemopreventive properties and citing a study in which fenugreek extracts induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in MCF-7 receptor-positive breast cancer cells.  Although animal and cell studies have been promising, MSKCC points out that studies on humans are currently lacking.  However, research into fenugreek’s therapeutic potential is ongoing. Diosgenin Is Not Fenugreek’s Only Weapon Against Cancer While diosgenin has been shown to destroy cancer cells, it is not the only protective gift fenugreek bestows.  The seeds are also rich in non-starch polysaccharides such as mucilage, pectin, and hemicellulose.  These various types of dietary fiber all have the proven ability to bind to toxins and carcinogens, allowing them to be speedily flushed from the body.  So it is no surprise that decades of research have supported fenugreek’s strong protective effects against colon cancer. Like cloves, fenugreek seeds also store essential minerals such as copper, iron, selenium, and manganese.  They also contain abundant quantities of vitamin A and vitamin C. What are the best fenugreek seeds to get?  Be sure to purchase whole fenugreek seeds from a certified organic supplier – as your best bet for maximum cancer protection.  High-quality fenugreek seeds are golden-yellow, with a rich maple syrup aroma.  Enthusiasts say that the taste – often likened to burnt caramel with bitter overtones – can be mellowed by browning the seeds lightly over medium heat. The toasted seeds can then be ground and used in curries and sauces. Keep in mind, fenugreek seeds can interact with certain medications, so check with your doctor before using them.  Although no one can expect to eliminate all cancer risks, consuming beneficial detoxifying spices such as cloves and fenugreek may help to significantly better your odds while adding sparks of exotic and sophisticated flavor to your recipes. Sources for this article include: NIH.gov NIH.gov NIH.gov NutritionAndYou.com NIH.gov NutritionAndYou.com BiblioMed.org MSKCC.org To read the original article click here.

The post Slash Your Cancer Risk With Two POTENT Spices appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

]]> https://amazinghealthadvances.net/slash-your-cancer-risk-with-two-potent-spices-7713/feed/ 0 New Study: LOWER the Risk of Cancer by Exercising at the “Right Time” of the Day https://amazinghealthadvances.net/new-study-lower-the-risk-of-cancer-by-exercising-at-the-right-time-of-the-day-6940/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-study-lower-the-risk-of-cancer-by-exercising-at-the-right-time-of-the-day-6940 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/new-study-lower-the-risk-of-cancer-by-exercising-at-the-right-time-of-the-day-6940/#respond Fri, 13 Nov 2020 08:00:11 +0000 http://amazinghealthadvances.net/?p=10387 Sara Middleton via NaturalHealth365 – A new study published in the International Journal of Cancer might just give you all the extra incentive you need to set your alarm and get up for that early morning workout.  Because, we all know that popular saying, “timing is everything.” The study, conducted by a team of Spanish researchers, reveals that working out earlier in the day may reduce your cancer risk.  Of course, the benefits of exercise – from improved weight loss to better heart and brain health – can still be achieved no matter when you workout, but the new data champions the idea of being an early bird. People who workout at this time of day appear to have a LOWER risk of cancer The study in question was published in late September 2020.  The researchers wanted to figure out if and how time-of-day for physical activity influenced a person’s risk of cancer. From 2008 to 2013, the researchers analyzed the data of 2,795 people from a Spanish multi case-control study cohort, 1,285 of whom had breast cancer or prostate cancer. The researchers asked these individuals about their physical activity habits, including what time of day they worked out. This information was compared to about 1,500 age-matched controls who were cancer-free. While not all their findings reached statistical significance, the researchers did pull out some intriguing trends. For example, based on a mathematical model the researchers hypothesized that the odds of developing breast cancer decreased by 25% when exercising in the morning compared to not exercising at all. The same model hypothesized that early morning workouts reduced the risk of developing prostate cancer by 27% compared to not exercising. There also appeared to be a protective benefit of late-night workouts for prostate cancer, with the researchers estimating a 25% reduced risk in people who worked out between 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. But overall, the researchers conclude that exercising between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. appeared to offer the greatest potential benefit for reducing the risk of cancer. Why would early morning exercise potentially reduce cancer risk? Here are a few possible explanations: Breast cancer is associated with increased levels of the hormone estrogen.  Estrogen happens to be decreased by exercise. Estrogen production also appears to be most active in the early morning, so exercising during this time may help lower the overall levels of this influential hormone. Research has also suggested that melatonin – a key hormone involved in a person’s circadian rhythm – may protect against cancer, but that exercising later in the day or at night time may delay melatonin production. As mentioned, the results of this study did not achieve statistical significance. And, certainly, most health experts would agree working out at any time of the day is likely better than not working out at all as far as cancer prevention goes. But this study may provide extra motivation for anyone hoping to get their workout done earlier … especially if they tend to skip their workout after a long day. Want to start working out in the morning? Set yourself up for success with these three tips If the thought of getting up early to workout sounds impossible, here are three simple hacks that can make it easier (and safer): Go to bed earlier: Adequate sleep is essential for general health. Plus, chronic sleep deprivation has been shown to increase the risk of accidents and impair physical performance. Set your alarm early enough so you have time to complete a proper warm-up. Warming up before any exercise is important from a safety point, but it’s especially important in the early morning when your joints and tissues are stiffer. Recruit some external accountability: Sign up for an exercise class or team up with an exercise buddy. Knowing other people are relying on you to be there will prevent you from skipping your gym session and hitting the snooze button. Sources for this article include: Medicalnewstoday.com, ISGlobal.org, Wiley.com, Healthline.com To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

The post New Study: LOWER the Risk of Cancer by Exercising at the “Right Time” of the Day appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

]]> https://amazinghealthadvances.net/new-study-lower-the-risk-of-cancer-by-exercising-at-the-right-time-of-the-day-6940/feed/ 0