Is Sugar a link to Cancer?

Althea, I know what you mean about the green juices! They are not so appetizing all by themselves. I've found the best way to counteract is to add some ginger, an apple, and lemon juice. If you really want to avoid any fruit juices, I've found that cucumber in place of the apple, greens of any kind, a lemon and a small piece of ginger make a pretty palatable juice. I needed a few weeks with at least half an apple though to work towards using no apple.

DeAnn  

Alaska Angel

You made a great explaination about feeding cancer. Also, there has been proven that sugars produce the bad estrogens that lead to cancer growth. I agree with you about the weight factor. I did not have any of the risk factors that we here about most, but I had gained weight in the middle during menopause, which I now know is a huge risk factor. That is why my cure has been to follow a healthy diet and exercise. I have lost 30 pounds, without even trying because I am eating heathier and exercising daily. I never had willpower before, but now I am so use to my lifestyle changes that it seems easy. I am never going back.

DeAnn, I still have not found a good juicer. Your recipes sound great so I will keep looking for one. My doctor tells me to just blend because then you get all the fiber, but I just can't stand the thick texture of blended veggies. And I get so tired of cutting up all that stuff for salad. It would be so much easier to just drink it. Keep those concoctions coming!

Has anyone read any of Dr. Schwarzbein's books?  She's an endocrinologist, and does a wonderful job of explaining the connection between high blood sugar, increased insulin levels, insulin resistance, and disease (including cancer).  If I understand her correctly, it is not the sugar itself that is damaging, it is the constant barrage of elevated insulin levels (which is a response to elevated blood sugar) that causes the damage which leads to disease (including cancer).  Hers is probably one of the sanest approaches to healthy eating that I've read (which is not to say easy to follow!) and is all about balance and whole foods. 

Blessings to all!

Sherri 

I'm a blender...my family chipped in a got me the Vita-mix 4500. It's prices at $450, but I love it.  Much easier to use than a juicer plus you get all that fiber.  Juicer's take out the fiber, but when you blend you leave in the fiber and fiber help's break down the sugar in the fruits.  I read a great book about a lady who juiced for years and started having problem and she realized the most important part of juicing/blending is the green's.  As we age we lose the hydrochloric acid in our stomach's, they have found that is the leading cause of aging.  We can no longer break our food down for our body to use it correctly.   But green's help balance the hydrochloric acid.  I name of the book is "Green for Live" by Victoria Boutneko. I was blending for 8 months and stop.  Now I'm back in treatment and trying to get back to doing it daily.  I felt so much better while I was doing it.

Flalady

In Europe, the "sugar feeds cancer" concept is so well accepted that oncologists, or cancer doctors, use the Systemic Cancer Multistep Therapy (SCMT) protocol. Conceived by Manfred von Ardenne in Germany in 1965, SCMT entails injecting patients with glucose to increase blood-glucose concentrations. 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.19 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 Dresden, Germany. Five-year survival rates in SCMT-treated patients increased by 25 to 50 percent, and the complete rate of tumor regression increased by 30 to 50 percent.20 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 Florida oncologist. She was cooperative and understood the connection between nutrition and cancer. She changed her diet considerably, leaving out 90 percent of the sugar she used to eat. 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, she beat her terminal lung cancer. I saw her the other day, five years later and still disease-free, probably looking better than the doctor who told her there was no hope.

http://www.mercola.com/article/sugar/sugar_cancer.htm

Stevia powder works to sweeten; buy it at Whole Foods or your local health food store; you can do an online search or look in your local nursery for the perennial stevia plant and grow your own too.  I do; air dry the leaves on a paper towel on top of the frig when I pinch them back to make the plant bush; after the leaves are dry, grind them in a mortar and pestle; keep the powder in an airtight jar in your cabinet or freezer if you live in a humid climate.  Works great...a little goes a long way. 

I too am a triple negative....BRCA 1 mutant, e143x variant...been through it all, surgery, chemo, radiation, genetic testing, prophylactic total hysterectomy/oopherectomy, and now they think the spots they thought were just old lady degenerative spine disease is actually vertebral mets...I'm going to start some Iodoral; if spot is indeed CA met, get radiation to the area (L1); them maybe have spinal fusion.  I take Astra-8, melatonin, selenium...both in a supplement and 3 Brazil nuts a day.  Also good B Complex, Vit C 3 gm, Omega-3s, Zinc, Mag Ox, folic acid 800 mg, calcium citrate; I love sugar!  But have sworn it off...I eat fruit or organic dried fruit when I crave a sweet.  Also, Irish steelcut oats every day with organic walnuts and NONPASTURIZED raw almonds (imported to US), organic raisins, organic maple syrup, cinnamon, maybe a banana; organic whole milk to my preferred consistency. 

No side effects through chemo, lost weight (desired!), mild radiation pneumonitis, no skin problems with radiation, no evidence of disease except the L1 area and they aren't sure if it's mets...doing the MRI, then biopsy if indicated before any other treatment.  All my docs are amazed I have done so well, and I attribute it to the supplements, non toxic living (cosmetics, toiletries and house cleaning agents), and mental attitude during all this...they said it was real bad and expected the treatment wouldn't work well because tumors were so aggressive.

As a dietitian, we were taught a "standard of care" concept ---as I know many doctors and other care givers are. 

I just finished reading "Good Calories; Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes ----

FASCINATING reading.  It has turned my thinking around totally...carbs increase the insulin and it is the insulin that triggers various reactions---increased cancer risk among them according to the book.  Of course, I still think cancer is a crap shoot because I know many diabetics who have never had a cancer Dx of any kind.

Genetics' accomplice: Emerging field of epigenetics hints at new cluprits in disease.

After scientists decoded the human genetic blueprint, the mysteries of disease were supposed to be simpler to solve.  But researchers are starting to warn that the genetic blueprint has extra text that's only beginning to emerge.  Solving some disease mysteries, they say, won't happen until this extra information is fully understood.  Scientists already know this extra layer of information commands cancer cells to flourish.  Now there's speculation that it might be at the root of autism or ohter neurological disaorders, or even account for certain birth defects in test-tube babies.

This extra information could also solve some genetic brainteasers, such as why "identical" twins aren't always identical or how your grandparent's diet can land you in the hospital.  Techniques to study this add-on to the genetic code are still emerging, but as tools improve, researchers anticipate revelations about disease and a new frontier for medicine.  Scientists refer to the extra layer of information as "epigenetic" - outside ordinary genetic inheritance.  BAsic hereditary information is spelled out in long chains of DNA letters that make up an organism's genetic blueprint.  Cataloging the human genetic blueprint, or genome, took more than a decade, and has already given insights into why some people get sick and others stay healthy.

An excerpt taken from the geneimprint website.

Gene switch can 'turn off cancer' link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3726124.stm

From the National Institute for Medical Research Website:  For complicated organisms like us, this type of inheritance, the epigenetic inheritance, is essential in other ways. Remembering that every cell in the body contains the entire DNA sequence, it is crucial to decide which genes to turn on and which to shut down. For example, we do not want our brain cells to make liver enzymes or skin cells to manufacture blood. Epigenetic marks act as an instruction book that tells each cell how to read its own DNA, when to switch genes on or off. From the Greek prefix epi, which means ‘on' or ‘over', epigenetic information affects gene expression without changing the DNA sequence. The best-understood and longest-studied epigenetic marker is DNA methylation. As a general rule it works like this: if a methyl group attaches to a naked cytosine, one of the four DNA ‘letters' or nucleotides, that gene is silent. But methylation can act either as an accelerator or a brake. It can turn gene expression up or down depending on how much of it is around and what part of the genetic machinery it affects. DNA methylation is the best understood epigenetic modification, but it is not the only one. In very complex organisms such as us, there are a few different epigenetic systems issuing orders, commanding genes what to do.

How the cell packages DNA provides another chance for epigenetic control. In the nucleus, there are globular proteins called histones, which the DNA wraps itself around. Histones were once considered blobs of inert scaffolding whose only purpose was to help pack in a couple of metres of DNA into a tiny cell nucleus. But it is now becoming clear that histones are actively involved in deciding whether the thirty to forty thousand genes within each cell should be switched on or shut down. Researchers have now realised that there is an array of different chemical flags decorating histones - ethyl, acetyl, phosphate, ribosyl and ubiquitin groups - which can control gene expression. From a gene's standpoint, some marks look like green flags that indicate ‘go' while others look like red ‘stop' signs - depending on the pattern of chemical groups. The enzymes that put these flags on and off are important gene regulators. They act like molecular switches, controlling whether or not a gene is expressed. So although DNA reigns supreme as the ultimate heredity molecule, epigenetic factors appear to be the ultimate controllers. Biochemical patterns on histones decide which genes are activated and, unlike DNA, these patterns are constantly changing in response to the environment. Evidence that epigenetic modifications link our environment and our genes is mounting. If a cell is stressed, through exposure to toxic chemicals or ultraviolet light, for example, patterns of phosphate groups change to activate systems that protect the cell. Hormones can also alter gene expression by triggering chemical reactions. The response is quick - it takes only minutes - giving the cell a chance to respond swiftly to challenges posed by an environment that presses for prompt changes. In disease states, epigenetic patterns change quite dramatically. The thrilling possibility is that tinkering with faulty epigenetic marks might open up new ways of controlling devastating diseases such as cancer, Huntington's and lupus, which have so far eluded scientists' efforts to find a cure.

In the early 1980s, German and US research teams found a link between cancer and aberrant DNA methylation which, at the time, some found hard to believe. Nowadays we know that in the mammalian genome, about 70 per cent of all cytosine nucleotides are normally methylated. Too little methylation across the genome, or too much methylation can lead to problems, and cancer is one of them. Scientists no longer argue over the importance of epigenetics in cancer. The consensus is that it matters. Academics and pharmaceutical companies are stepping up their efforts to create anti-tumour drugs that work by returning epigenetic patterns to normal. Last May, the drug azacitidine was approved to treat myelodysplastic syndrome -a bone marrow disorder that produces abnormal, immature blood cells and leads to leukaemia. In this type of cancer, the genes that suppress tumours are bogged down and silenced by too many methyls. Azacitidine strips the methyls from them and in doing so, turns these tumour-fighting genes back on.

Another promising strategy targets the histones around which the DNA is entwined. It is well known that the acetyl groups that decorate histones are a benign influence, helping genes to be activated and expressed. But in many cancers the enzymes that take them off are overactive. One tactic to reverse cancer is to find compounds that stop these stripper enzymes to restore acetyl groups on histones. Around twenty different drugs that block these overenthusiastic enzymes are being tested in clinical trials. The hope is that these drugs might restore normal acetylation patterns and, in doing so, return malignant cells to their normal state. In animals, the results have been spectacular. Initial tests in humans have been more than encouraging but it will take at least another five to eight years before any of these drugs reach patients. Epigenetic marks could also explain why we age. Abnormal histone tags are a hallmark of ageing: some marks decrease with age, while others accumulate, causing atypical activity in certain genes. Conversely, epigenetic modifications could also explain the higher incidence of health problems in babies born by high-tech assisted reproduction and why human cloning has remained so difficult to achieve.

In the mammalian embryo, a bizarre phenomenon known as ‘imprinting' is driven by epigenetic signals. An ‘imprinted' gene behaves differently depending on which parent it was inherited from. Genes exist in pairs, one from the mother and one from the father. For the vast majority of genes, it is not possible to tell the two genes apart - they behave in the same way regardless of parentage. But imprinted genes are different: in some cases an imprinted gene is only active if it comes from the sperm, in other cases, it is activated if it comes from the egg. The mother's and father's imprinted genes are caught in a fierce conflict over the developing embryo. A father wants bigger babies, because they are usually healthier and fitter. But a mother prefers them to be small, because a fetus that grows too large may drain her resources and jeopardise her ability to sustain additional pregnancies. The first imprinted gene to be discovered - a gene for a growth hormone called Igf2, for insulinlike growth factor 2 - is waging this parental battle. While the father's Igf2 stimulates fetal growth, on the maternal side, an imprinted gene for a receptor that mops up Igf2 tends to suppress growth. If the male and female imprinted genes strike a balance, the result is a normal-sized baby. If a child inherits too many paternal copies of the Igf2 gene, or if the gene is mutated, the balance is broken and the result is Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Affected babies grow unusually rapidly in the womb and certain parts of the body, such as the tongue, grow larger than normal. This disorder of imprinting leads to childhood cancer of the kidney as well as intellectual delay.

Researchers believe there will be many more diseases influenced by imprinting errors. A tantalising possibility is that imprinted genes affect the development of the brain leading some scientists to speculate that autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other diseases reflect epigenetics in action. Some researchers are anaysing methylation patterns across the chromosome in DNA form post-mortem samples of brain tissue. They look at samples from affected and unaffected individuals, homing in on those regions that show clear differences to pinpoint altered patterns of gene expression. To date about fifty imprinted genes have been identified. There may be hundreds of such genes and missing or malfunctioning imprinted genes have been implicated in human diseases, ranging from heritable obesity to childhood cancers. Today, epigenetics has ceased to be an eccentric passion pursued by maverick scientists. There is even an effort to pinpoint every epigenetic variation in the entire human genome. The Human Epigenome Consortium has as its mission the creation of an ‘epigenome map' that catalogues the genomic positions of distinct methylation variants. Set up in 1999, it is an endeavour spread between British, French and German research centres. The studies involve screening tissue samples from large numbers of people with certain diseases and from unaffected controls. The expectation is that this concerted effort will throw up clues as to why certain human conditions, for example, autoimmune diseases, remain intractable. These new technologies will also be examining the epigenomes of families involved in ongoing studies of autism, bipolar disorder and diabetes. Other research groups studying pairs of twins in which only one suffers from schizophrenia have already found substantial differences in DNA methylation. It will not be a straightforward task to distinguish spurious signals from those relevant to disease, and it is even more complicated by the fact that different tissues may show epigenetic differences.

But in the end, what will epigenetics offer to people suffering from these diseases? It opens up the thrilling possibility of reversing diseases that so far have proved incurable. Epigenetic marks have the advantage of being fully reversible while genome mutations remain fixed. So in whose hands does our destiny lie after all? The mindset has changed: more and more people accept that susceptibility to disease is a combination of genetic and epigenetic modifications, interacting with the environment. Perhaps it is time to ignore Lady Macbeth's fatalism and quiz our grannies about their diet.