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Breast Cancer and Olive Oil

Researchers at the Catalonian Institute of Oncology (Spain) and the University of Granada (Spain) [Javier A. Menéndez, Alberto Fernández Gutiérrez and Antonio Segura Carretero.] have discovered that extra virgin olive oil may help to combat breast cancer.

This research so far is confined to test tubes. However they did find that extracts of extra virgin olive oil killed breast cancer cells.

There’s a long way to go before this kind of research could be translated into dietary advice, but it does seem very promising.

References: Universidad de Granada (2009, February 10). Extra Virgin Olive Oil May Help To Combat Breast Cancer.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2009/02/090205113743.htm [This is a VERY technical paper.]

Colon Cancer and Fruit and Vegetables
A tiny molecule found in most plant-based foods (quercetin) douses the flames before damaging lesions can form in the colon, according to Dr. Nancy Turner.
Quercetin gets into the body through onions, peppers, tomatoes and most other common produce but also in “fun things like wine,” Dr. Turner said. “Just about any plant-based food in the human diet has some level of quercetin.”
“The nice thing is that . . . the level used in this study is actually similar to what can be achieved in diets around the world such as in, say, the Mediterranean-style diets,” she said.

This study used lab rats – one step further along than the test tube. Quercetin seems to work in two ways. Firstly by suppressing inflammation which leads to lesions (which tends to lead to tumour development) and secondly by suppressing the tumours themselves.

This research is quite close to being applied to the human diet.  Dr. Turner said that, “Overall, one of the best recommendations we’ve all heard from the day we were children is ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ The only addition is, don’t peel your apple,” she said. “Try your best to eat the whole food where ever possible, so that you can get the most from these beneficial compounds [they are stored near the skin in the fruits and vegetables].”
Dr. Turner noted that in addition to colon cancer, quercetin has shown positive impacts in warding off other chronic ailments such as cardiovascular disease.

References: Texas A&M (2009, February 10). Inflammation In Colon May Get Doused Before Fueling Cancer Development.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2009/02/090202175316.htm

If you liked this post you might also like:

Fighting Cancer with Fruit and Vegetables
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I have an eight week membership course, Living Authentically. The next course will begin in early 2009. You can find out more about the course on my Living Authentically page.

My free report, It’s Not About Success, is available on it’s own page.

If you have a topic you would like me to write about please let me know. Just leave a comment on this post about any topic you would like to see discussed. Looking forward to hearing from you.

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Three stories from around the blogosphere – the first about the risk of mobile phone use (what we call ‘mobile phones’ in Australia are called cell-phones in other parts of the world), the second about Vitamin C and the last a blog by a cervical cancer survivor. (I wanted to title this post “Phones, Fruits and Fannies” but decided it would be in bad taste.)

Mobile Phones
There have long been concerns that using mobile phones could lead to some kind of brain damage – especially cancer. Until now there has been little evidence to cause concern.

A swedish team has now done a major study. The team was lead by Kjell Mild. The study compared 2,200 cancer patients with 2,200 normally healthy people.

The study found that heavy mobile phone users were 2.4 times greater risk of a malignant tumour on the side the phone was used on.

A few cautions. Though this is easily the biggest study to date, the smaller ones that have been done have had mixed results – some finding a relationship and others not. The risk of a brain tumour is quite small so multiplying it by 2.4 doesn’t make it a huge risk. (You are still many times more likely to be injured in a car.) It takes a lot of phone calls: the study called 2,000 hours heavy use (about one hour a day, every day, for well over five years).

Having said which: I won’t be making more phone calls by mobile phone than I have to. I’ll be playing safe.

Vitamin C
The idea of treating (or preventing) cancer with Vitamin C has been around for several decades now – most famously being promoted by Linus Pauling in the 1970’s.

The BrainBlogger blog reports that in a few cases (too small to be significant as yet) that Vitamin C injected into the blood stream may fight cancer. The findings are only from three patients but the result is certainly deserving of attention.

Last, but by no means least, a blog from a cancer survivor, Meaghan. It’s called I Kicked Cancer’s Ass – you may not be surprised to know that Meaghan is from the US.

It is authored by Meaghan, who was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer at 28. As she says in her biography on her blog, “We need to start talking about this cancer because it is not rare and it does kill.”

Her blog is not only about her own story with cancer. She has posts about her normal life and other cancer survivors stories too. She has posts about such things as Early Symptoms of Cervical Cancer and a long list of links in her sidebar (I count well over thirty) that cover different kinds of cancer as well as ones to deal with nitty gritty issues (like where to get real hair wigs).

This sounds rather heavy, but, as you’ve probably guessed from the title of her blog, Meaghan’s tone is up-beat and positive.

This is a blog with lots of information, well presented, on an important topic.

If you liked this post you may want to see other posts in the category Cancer.

I have an eight week membership course, Living Authentically. The next course will begin in early 2009. You can find out more about the course on my Living Authentically page.

My free report, It’s Not About Success, is available on it’s own page.

If you have a topic you would like me to write about please let me know. Just leave a comment on this post about any topic you would like to see discussed. Looking forward to hearing from you.

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This is the result of a reasonably sized study (558 people with lung cancer and 837 people who did not have lung cancer had their dietary history analyzed) from UCLA.

Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang, a researcher at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and a professor of public health and epidemiology said:

“What we found was extremely interesting, that several types of flavonoids are associated with a reduced risk of lung cancer among smokers.”

Flavonoids are water-soluble plant pigments that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, both of which can counteract damage to tissues.

Zhang said the flavonoids that appeared to be the most protective included catechin, found in strawberries and green and black teas, kaempferol, found in Brussels sprouts and apples, and quercetin, found in beans, onions and apples.

This is a comparatively small study and larger studies will be needed, but it is certainly a very encouraging result.

There have been similar findings from other studies which I have done posts about here and here.

Sign up for my email health course: “Designing a Long and Healthy Life: making small changes to your lifestyle for big health benefits“  by leaving a comment on this post (I don’t have an autoresponder yet).  Details about the course and my newsletter are on this page.  This course is different – it does not focus on just one aspect of health but helps you design a healthy lifestyle that takes in all aspects of health (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social).  It is twelve emails delivered over six weeks.

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A Little Exercise can Decrease Fatigue

Sedentary people who regularly complain of fatigue can increase their energy and decrease their fatigue engaging in regular, low intensity exercise, according to a new University of Georgia study published in the February issue of the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

Tim Puetz the lead author of the study said,

“We have shown that regular exercise can actually go a long way in increasing feelings of energy – particularly in sedentary individuals.”

Those studied had persistent fatigue that was not serious enough to be classified as a medical condition like chronic fatigue syndrome. This applies to about 25 percent of the general (US) population.

The volunteers were divided into three groups: The first engaged in 20 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise three times a week for six weeks; the second engaged in low-intensity aerobic exercise for 20 minutes three times a week for six weeks; and the third group did not exercise. Surprisingly, the second group (the low-intensity group) had a greater reduction in fatigue levels (65 percent) than the moderate-intensity group (49 percent). Low intensity means walking at normal speed rather than briskly. (If you imagine a scale of 1 to 10 where zero is asleep and 10 is running flat out then low intensity is a 4 and moderate intensity is 7.)

This could mean that moderate-intensity exercise is too much for people who are already fatigued.

One result of the study, which I find very intriguing was that, the improvements in energy and fatigue were not related to increases in aerobic fitness. Puetz said the finding suggests that exercise acts directly on the central nervous system to increase energy and reduce fatigue.

Puetz concludes: “Exercise traditionally has been associated with physical health, but we are quickly learning that exercise has a more holistic effect on the human body and includes effects on psychological health. What this means is that in every workout a single step is not just a step closer to a healthier body, but also to a healthier mind.”

Stress and Cancer
A new study led by Prof. Shamgar Ben-Eliyahu, from Tel Aviv University’s Department of Psychology, published in the journal Brain, Behaviour, and Immunity (2007) has shown that psychological and physiological stress prior to, during and after surgery has a biological impact that impairs immune system functioning. He was studying those operated on for cancer.

Prof. Ben-Eliyahu: “Ours is among the first studies to show that psychological fear may be no less important than real physiological tissue damage in suppressing immune competence. A weak immune system is one of the major factors that promotes cancer metastases after an operation, explains Prof. Ben-Eliyahu.

In a recent study (in progress), Prof. Ben-Eliyahu found that he could increase long-term post-operative survival rates from cancer in animal models, by as much as 200-300 percent.

Prof. Ben-Eliyahu concludes, “By boosting the immune system and blocking its suppression by psychological and physiological stress, starting a day or two before surgery, during surgery and after surgery, we may be able to provide an intervention program that can extend people’s lives and potentially increase their chances for long-term survival.”

If you feel fatigued it is worth trying out a little light exercise – not starting an aerobics routine but something like going for a walk for twenty minutes. And if you are undergoing surgery it is well worth finding ways to reduce fear as much as possible. Our “bodies” and “minds” interact in interesting ways.

P.S. I usually only link to sites that are of immediate, practical use for individuals. However, if you are someone, like me, who loves the big picture then it is worth checking out the Oxford Health Alliance. They take the big picture view of health: concentration on prevention, designing cities with places to play and that encourage walking around. They are also concerned witht the global imbalance in health between the rich and poor. They have a program at www.3four50.com which targets the three biggest risk factors (tobacco, poor diet and inactivity) of the four big chronic diseases (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, lung disease and cancer) which are now responsible for 50% of deaths. So if you love the big picture stuff this is a delightful site to check out.

If you enjoyed this article you may be interested in this post:

Four Simple, Little Things to do for Big Health Benefits

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This is the message from a report in the US by their National Cancer Institute and the University of Rochester.

As one of the co-authors, Ronald M. Epstein, says

“You can have the best treatment in the world but if you don’t understand it, or have access to it, it does you no good.”

The article is titled “Patient-Centered Communication in Cancer Care: Promoting Healing and Reducing Suffering“.

However, this is not as simple as it may sound.  Options for treatment can be complex: their are five year survival rates for the different options and differing side effects.  This can lead to patients needing to make very complicated calculations about what this means for their lives – as well as the lives of their friends and loved ones.

A friend of mine was diagnosed with a melanoma at a very young age – in their thirties.  They had taken precautions against exposure to the sun since childhood – very rarely for an Australian they had never even been badly sunburned once in their life.  This person was presented with statistical information on their treatment option in terms of percentages.  Their very natural reaction was: but the odds have already gone against me -

so what do these statistics really mean? 

Communication, and assisting patients make decisions, is much more than just preventing ‘facts’.

The change in culture that the internet has brought has also changed the challenges for communication between doctor and patient.  Up until a couple of decades ago the doctor would be the source of information for the patient.  Now the patient may well be overwhelmed with information.  The doctor’s role is not to inform but to help sort through a mass of information that the patient may already have from the internet.  (In my experience this has never been done well by any doctor.)

Finally a correction.  Mr Epstein believes that doctors in other countries may be better at communicating with patients than they are in America.  He believes that Australian patients receive audio recordings of their visits.  I can assure him that if this ever happens in Australia, it is very far from usual.

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The study was published in the academic journal Glycobiology, the August issue, and was conducted by Debra Mohnen at the University of Georgia UGA Cancer Center where the study is also reported.

So far this is only a laboratory experiment – putting prostate cancer cells in the same test tube as pectin. It is not clear what happens would happen to prostate cancer cells when we eat pectin, or eat it as part of fruit and vegetables.

But the finding is remarkable: 40% of the prostate cancer cells exposed to pectin died. Dr Mohnen’s research also found that:

. . . if you take human prostate cancer cells and add pectin, you can induce programmed cell death . . . If you do the same with non-cancerous cells, cell death doesn’t occur.

Pectin has also been shown (in the lab and in animal studies) to kill colon cancer cells.

Pectin has another health benefit (even if we don’t know how much eating it will fight prostate cancer): it reduces cholesterol.

All of which means that there are more good reasons for eating extra fruit and vegetables.

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The results are only preliminary (test tubes and rats) but they are remarkable. The growth of cancer cells can be slowed and in some cases the cancer cells are killed.

The anti-oxidants involved are those which give fruit and vegetables a purple, blue or red colour. The star performers are purple corn and chokeberries (whatever chokeberries may be),

the anti-oxidant from these, in lab tests, stopped the growth of colon cancer cells and killed 20% of the cancer cells.

The study was led by Monica Giusti, from Ohio State University.

When rats with colon cancer were fed these anti-oxidants the rate of cancer fell by60-70%.

So far the anti-oxidants haven’t been tested for their effect on cancer in humans. So we don’t know how much of these things we’d have to eat to reduce our chances of getting cancer. And we don’t know if it would be possible to give these anti-oxidants as a supplement – a daily anti-cancer pill.

But these findings certainly seem to be good news. And it adds weight to the argument for eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, which will lead to better general health too.

Is this study enough to influence the way you eat? Do you take anti-oxidant supplements?

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There has now been a study published by Australian researchers at the University of Tasmania on the long-term risks of exposure to high-voltage power lines in childhood.

The study was conducted by Professor Ray Lowenthal, from the University of Tasmania School of Medicine, and others.

The finding most remarkable to me is that: if someone lived within 300 metres of a powerline up to the age of five then they were five times more likely to develop some forms of cancer (such as leukaemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma).

However, it seems that less exposure and exposure at later ages is also a risk.  If someone lived within 300 metres of a powerline up to the age of 15 they were three times more likely to develop cancer as an adult; and for each year lived within 50 metres of a powerline, the risk of cancer increased by 7 per cent.

These are extraordinary findings.  And how the powerlines affect our risk of cancer (if that is what is going on) is unknown.  So we can’t say that ‘high-voltage causes cancer’.  There is a lot of work to be done before statements like this could be made.  But there is more than enough evidence for us to be cautious.

How much does a study like this influence you? Would how close powerlines are influence whether you purchased a house for instance?

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