Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Burlington Chiropractor | Brant Arts Chiropractic - Dr. Brent Moyer

Burlington Chiropractor | Brant Arts Chiropractic - Dr. Brent Moyer

This is a link to my new health-local.ca web page and listing. Here you can read more about my clinic, services and find links to my twitter, facebook and clinic web page where you can read some frequently asked questions.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Anti-Cancer Diet: Foods and supplements to reduce your risk.

This is a perfect addendum to my previous post about Nutrition and the 5 Pillars of Health.

I would like to talk about Nutrition and its effects on Cancer. Many cancers and chronic diseases can be treated and prevented by nutrition! It is estimated that 30-40% of ALL CANCERS can be prevented by lifestyle and nutritional factors.

It has been scientifically proven, that obesity, low nutrient foods, excessive eating, high sugar foods, low fibre intake, red meat consumption and an imbalance in omega 3 and 6s will increase your risk of cancer. Instead a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, flax, sulforophane, fibre, omega 3, antioxidants and supplements like selenium, Vitamin D, probiotics, enzymes, chlorophyll, folic acid and B vitamins can be cancer fighting. A diet consuming the above is estimated to reduce breast cancer, colorectal, and prostate cancer by 60-70% and lung cancer by 40-50 %. Prevention is always the best course of action, but someone fighting for their life with cancer could benefit from this type of nutritional and supplemental guideline. Let's go into some more detail...

The biggest risk of cancer is over consumption of calories, in other words, eating too much. Along with additional health risks with obesity. In the USA, over 60% of adults are overweight or obese. The idea is to eat 70-80% of the required amount of calories to maintain normal weight, while consuming proper vitamins, minerals etc. This approach has a lot of science behind it, to actually increase the average life span which was found in rats, fish and mice. Studies now are being done on primates. This approach will also reduce the incidence of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. A study found that caloric restriction in rats resulted in 55% reduction of tumors!!!

Another big cancer risk is a diet high in refined sugars (or a high glycemic load). Studies found an increased risk for gastric, GI, endometrial, ovarian, and colon cancer with high glycemic load diet. Studies have also found a very strong link between diabetes and colorectal cancer with a high glycemic diet.

A diet low in fibre is another risk factor. Refined grains have very low fibre in them and dairy and meat have absolutely NO FIBRE. Incidentally, an animal diet and refined grains is the typical diet in the USA, which is very low in fibre.

There is a link between red meat and colorectal cancer.

Omega 3s are comprised of EPA, DHA and are cancer protective and proven in animal studies. Omega 6s on the other hand are arachadonic acid and linoleic acid which are cancer promoting and cause inflammation. So the omega 3:6 ratio should be balanced. Higher omega 3s is desirable.

Flaxseed is another cancer fighting food that is high in omega 3, lignans, and fibre! There is some compelling research being done by Lilian Thompson out of the University of Toronto on flax and its effects on cancer. A study was done by her group where they injected rats with breast cancer cells and allowed 8 weeks for the tumors to grow. They fed the rats a diet comprised of 10% flax and this resulted in a reduction of tumor growth and metastasis by 45%!!!!

Cruciferious veggies are things like broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and cabbage which contain sulforophane which has anti-cancer properties. The Nurses' Health Study found 33% lower risk in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma when taking 5 servings per day. Regular fruits and veggies are protective against cancer and diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Supplements like Selenium (a mineral) have antioxidant and anti-cancer properties and can increase the immune system. Selenium also reduces prostaglandins which cause inflammation. Chlorophyll found in any dark green leafy vegetable is cancer fighting. Folic acid works with other B vitamins such as B6 and B12 and are important for DNA synthesis. Vitamin D is protective against prostate, ovarian, breast, bladder, endometrial, renal, kidney, lung, pancreatic cancers and multiple myeloma. Antioxidants such as beta carotene and alpha carotene are also protective. Carotene is found in carrots, squash, pumpkins and pretty much any orange vegetables and some citrus fruits. Lycopene which is found in tomatoes has been found to reduce the risk of prostate cancers. Vitamin C is another powerful antioxidant which has been correlated with overall better health and cancer preventing. The great Linus Pauling was the first to recognize high doses of Vitamin C with cancer therapy. It has been found that IV doses of vitamin C are more effective than oral doses.

Probiotics are essential to maintain gut health. They help to maintain natural bacteria in the intestinal tract to produce antibiotics to fight off bugs, produce vitamin B and enzymes to maintain good gastrointestinal health. Probiotics have been found to decrease pathogenic bacteria and inflammation in the colon and theoretically reduce the risk of colon cancer. Digestive enzymes, specifically proteases have anti-tumor and anti-metastatic activities.

In summary, you can see the many foods and supplements that can be cancer fighting/preventing and other foods and diets that can increase your risk for cancer. Michael Donaldson, a research scientist reviewed hundreds of research papers and summarized what the anti-cancer diet would include:
This is what it looks like...

• adequate, but not excessive calories,
• 10 or more servings of vegetables a day, including cruciferous and allium vegetables; vegetable juice could meet part of this goal,
• 4 or more servings of fruits a day,
• high in fiber,
• no refined sugar,
• no refined flour,
• low in total fat, but containing necessary essential fatty acids,
• no red meat,
• a balanced ratio of omega 3 and omega 6 fats and would include DHA,
• flax seed as a source of phytoestrogens,
• supplemented with ~200 μg/day selenium,
• supplemented with 1,000 μg/day methylcobalamin (B-12),
• very rich in folic acid (from dark green vegetables),
• adequate sunshine to get vitamin D, or use 1,000 IU/day supplement,
• very rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals from fruits and vegetables, including α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, vitamin C (from foods), vitamin E (from foods),
• very rich in chlorophyll,
• supplemented with beneficial probiotics,
• supplemented with oral enzymes

Please share this with family members and friends to keep us healthy. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in North America. Let's fight to push cancer as maybe the 10th or 11th cause of death. Nutrition is NATURAL MEDICINE! (Studies and references found http://www.nutritionj.com/content/3/1/19)

May you be TOUCHED, MOVED and INSPIRED!

For more information you can visit Dr. Moyer's website www.drbrentmoyer.com , follow him on twitter http://twitter.com/brantartschiro or his facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brant-Arts-Chiropractic/296220027102956