Category Archives: Integrative Cancer Treatment

Vitamin C and K3 in Cancer Treatment

August 19, 2014

Research Shows That Vitamin C and K3 Are Effective In Fighting Cancer

Vitamin CCancer has put doctors on ‘motion’ never resting always trying to come up with better ways of cancer treatment. Maybe the more alternatives the better the treatment! Integrative cancer doctors have had much more alternatives to cancer treatments and some alternatives are added every now and then and this situation is not about to end as doctors are still working day and night to give us the best cancer treatment alternatives.  The availability of many cancer treatment alternatives therefore requires that every cancer patient should know the kind of treatment that suits his case but of course with help from an integrative cancer doctor. There are naturopathic cancer treatments that have gained recognition for their whole person healing intent and while chemotherapy has been negatively thought of by many patients some improvements have been done to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy by improving drug uptake by the cancerous cells while reducing chemotherapy drug resistance by the cancer cells which is normally a problem. With these improvements like the use of IPT among others, even the patients are not afraid of it anymore as the side effects are minimal. Some of the cancer treatment alternatives that we have today include the use of vitamin C and vitamin k3 in cancer treatment.

Vitamin C in treating cancer? I know it might be a problem to accept that vitamin C can be used in cancer treatment because you might have been told never to use vitamin C while undergoing chemotherapy. This is because vitamin C is an antioxidant which to many cancer doctors is supposed to interfere with chemotherapy treatment but what most doctors have not known is that vitamin C when used in high doses and given intravenously can be very helpful in cancer treatment as it becomes a pro-oxidant which leads to cancer cell death.

There are studies that have supported the use vitamin c in high doses and given intravenously in cancer treatment. In two Scottish studies, terminal cancer patients given intravenous vitamin C at 10 g per day showed longer survival times than historical controls. Apparently this is not the only study that has been done on vitamin C and its ability to kill cancerous cell. Another study; A Japanese study showed similar results and this are very encouraging. However at mayo clinic a double blinded study of the same using oral vitamin C supplementation did not show any benefit in fighting cancer.

Researchers have shown that oral vitamin C supplementation cannot work well in fighting cancer as it doesn’t produce plasma ascorbate levels that are sufficient enough to kill tumor cells directly. This is the reason why doctors recommend the use of vitamin C intravenously.

When vitamin C is given intravenously, they turn into hydrogen peroxide inside the cancerous cells which then causes the cells to die by poisoning them. This does not affect the healthy body cells negatively since unlike the cancerous cells the healthy body cells have the ability to fight the damage that is caused by the hydrogen peroxide. This allows for selective killing of the cancerous cells while the healthy body cells are left without harm.

Currently there is an ongoing study of Vitamin C by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as an adjunctive therapy for cancer. In their 2008 report, the National Institutes of Health stated that the vitamin C when used in high doses reduced the rate of tumor growth by 50 percent in mice that were infected with brain cancer, ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer. The researchers revealed that Vitamin C got its high anticancer effect from its ability to produce hydrogen peroxide inside the cancer cells killing them outright. Even in this experiment the healthy body cells were not affected by the poisonous effect of the vitamin C.

Vitamin C More effective when Combined with Vitamin K3 in Cancer

Researchers have proved that the cell killing abilities of sodium ascorbate or other vitamin C and combination of 2-methyl-1, 4-naphthoquinone K3 is highly increased.  These have been tested on human ovarian cancer, breast cancer, endometrial cancer and skin cancer cells. These vitamins can work even when given separately. When given separately they have an antigrowth effect on the tumors but must be highly concentrated. When both the vitamins were used as a single mixture, they demonstrated a synergistic inhibition of cell growth by up to 10 – 50 times in lower concentrations. The best part of this combination is that it does not affect the healthy body cells at all. The researchers also observed that when vitamin C and Vitamin K3 inhibited metastasis.

Vitamin CThe mechanism by which vitamin C and vitamin K3 work in killing cancer is called autoschizic cell death. This is a novel type of cell death characterized by exaggerated cell membrane damage and progressive loss of cell contents. A process during which the nucleus becomes smaller, cell size decreases one-half to one-third of its original size.  Co-administration of sodium ascorbate and K3 induces a cell cycle block on cancer cells making it harder for them to grow and divide.  This is called a G1/S block. The intravenous vitamin cocktail containing sodium ascorbate and vitamin K3 diminishes cancer cell DNA synthesis, increases hydrogen peroxide production, and decreases cancer cell intracellular antioxidant defenses thereby killing them easily.

Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced integrative cancer doctor that has helped many cancer patients in their fight against the disease. She has worked hard not only in treating the disease but also in availing informational support to cancer patients at Awaremed which has become a place called home for many cancer patients. Call on her now and get help on cancer.

Research Shows That Vitamin C and K3 Are Effective In Fighting Cancer

 

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Fatty Acid and Prostate Cancer

August 19, 2014

Research Shows That Fatty Acids May Increase Prostate Cancer Risk

Fatty acidCancer is a disease that has continued to terrorize the human race hence poising lots of challenges to the world oncologists who are trying to curb this disease that has depopulated the world greatly. The disease is not only expensive to treat but also causes lots of pain to its victims. In fact the word cancer is synonymous to pain. Pollution in our environments has exposed us to a greater risk of getting cancer. The foods we eat also play an important role in cancer. Whatever you eat can either help you stay cancer free or will put you at a greater risk of getting this disease. Nutritionists have been involved in cancer treatments and very many researchers have done lots of work in the past to come up with those dietary components that should be avoided at all cost and those that should be used by cancer patients as well as any other healthy person who is interested in keeping away from the disease.  The research that has been done in the past has led to introduction of cancer treatment alternatives that are solely based on diet. Some of the naturopathic treatments involve use of dietary manipulations to interfere with the growth of cancer cells as well as boost immunity an example of diet based treatments is the Gerson’s Therapy. The Gerson’s therapy involves the use of fruits and vegetable soups which are good in improving the body’s immunity as well as fighting free radicals that are known to cause cancer.

Typically, doctors would recommend the use whole foods as they are rich in fiber which is a vital meal component as it helps in excretion of toxic compounds out of the body of the patient. As opposed to commercially grown foods that are mostly genetically modified for faster growth rates, the natural unprocessed whole foods are free from harmful chemicals that may increase our risk of getting cancer. It is therefore advisable to eat foods that are not toxic and will help in fighting cancer.

However there are some dietary components that should be avoided at all cost as they increase your chances of getting cancer. Researchers have linked fatty acids to higher cancer risks and it is therefore safer to avoid foods rich in fatty acids especially the plasma phospholipid fatty acid which is a major culprit.

Study shows Fatty acids increases risks

In a study that was carried out in the US for over 7 years investigating the effects of selenium, vitamin E and a combination of both selenium and vitamin E on patients suffering from prostate cancer, it was found that the unlike selenium which did not invoke any incidence of cancer when supplement there were increased prostate cancer cases in patients that were given vitamin E by up to 17 percent as compared to a group that were on placebo. This study involved three groups of men. Those who had cancer at different stages; those who had high grade cancer, those who had low grade cancer as well as those who had no cancer at all. This study investigated the impacts of increased levels of omega 3 fatty acids on prostate cancer. The findings of this study showed that increased levels of fatty acids in the blood especially docosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids increased the risk to prostate cancer.

The study therefore finalized that eating marine omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids will increase a person’s risk to prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is a leading killer of men especially in developed countries and just like other cancers it is also influenced by both environmental as well as behavioral changes. Factors such as family cancer history, age, obesity, chronic inflammation, tobacco smoking and even sexual behaviors come to play but most importantly are nutrition. It is therefore advisable that we should limit the amount of meat we consume but increase our meat and vegetable consumption in order to reduce cancer risk. It is also important to reduce the level of cytokinins in case of obesity. Cytokinins have been linked to different types of cancers and so the lower the levels of cytokinins the better.

It has also been proved that the high content of omega 6 and omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the western countries diets has increased the cases of prostate cancer.  The omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids are highly attributed to prostate cancer risks unlike the omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids that has been shown to have anti-proliferative effects on tumor cells which may function well in cancer prevention alongside other metabolic processes.

Fatty acid It is also good to note that other researches that were done on the relationship of high levels of omega 3 fatty acids and prostate cancer yielded different results. In one study it was found that eating fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids has favorable effects in fighting cancer while another study showed that it had no effect on cancer. Researchers are still working to find the consistent relations between the levels of omega 3 fatty acids and prostate cancer. Omega 3 however is associated with food adducts which may increase incidences of prostate cancer. It is also said that fish may have disruptors, such as bisphenols or traces of pesticides which are known causes of hormonal based cancers like prostate cancer.

Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced integrative cancer doctor that has helped many cancer patients in their fight against the disease. She has worked hard not only in treating the disease but also in availing informational support to cancer patients at Awaremed which has become a place called home for many cancer patients. Call on her now and get help on cancer.

Research Shows That Fatty Acids May Increase Prostate Cancer Risk

 

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Mitosis Inhibitors

August 18, 2014

Use of Mitosis inhibitors in cancer treatment

MitosisMedical researchers have done lots of research in the past and still there is lots of research going on in the field of oncology. All these researches that are going on are geared towards giving us the best cancer treatments that will enable us to get better treatment at affordable cost and at reduced risk of the life threatening side effects that most conventional cancer therapies are known for. The work of these researchers is evident in the many cancer alternatives that are now available. Integrative oncologists have made use of both conventional as well naturopathic cancer therapies in treating cancer but there has never been a stop to research on oncology as the doctors are still in pursuit of the ideal cancer therapy. There are known metabolic adaptations of the cancer cell that has led to development of these therapies that are geared towards inhibiting cancer cell survival as well as spreading. One of the ways of fighting cancer is by use of mitosis inhibitors.

For cancer cells to spread there are processes that must be accomplished. Before certain processes are accomplished, the cancer cells cannot spread to other body parts making it easier to fight them. For example there must be angiogenesis for cancer cell metastasis. This has availed an avenue that doctors have used to fight metastasis. Mitosis is also another crucial process in cancer cell survival and spreading. Mitosis inhibitors are therefore effective in cancer treatment.

Noscapine as mitosis inhibitor

Noscapine is a compound found in plants of the poppy family. This compound has medicinal properties but unlike morphine it does not kill pain neither is it addictive. In the past noscapine had been used infighting coughs and is an ingredient in most cough drugs sold over the counter. Currently researchers have discovered that noscapine is also good in fighting cancer.

Mitosis is a process by which body cells duplicates themselves giving rise to genetically identical cells daughter cells. Mitosis encourages the cancerous cells to divide uncontrollably giving rise to many cancer cells that spread throughout the body making it hard to fight cancer. Mitosis occurs through spindle formation. During spindle formation, spindles pull chromosomes to the opposite sides of the cell in preparation for the cell division. Without spindle formation the survival of the daughter cells is not possible as they are separated without getting the appropriate genetic composition from the parent cell. Noscapine inhibits spindle formation therefore making it hard for the newly divided cancer cells to survive hence it affects mitosis which in turn helps in fighting cancer.

Researchers have also discovered that this compound does not only help in cancer treatment by inhibiting spindle formation. Research has shown that this compound has very powerful anticancer ability. Noscapine is said to contain strong cell killing properties that enables it to kill tumor cells before they duplicate and metastasize.

Noscapine is also very effective as an anti-angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels. Cancer cannot spread without angiogenesis as it is through angiogenesis that that the tumors get fed. Supplies like nutrients pass through these new blood vessels to reach the tumors and so if angiogenesis cannot happen then the growth and spread of the tumors will be inhibited and the tumor cells will be starved. It does this by inhibiting HIF-1 alpha which supports the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Vascular endothelial is known to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels.

Noscapine also helps in fighting cancer by inhibiting bradikinin which is a very powerful cancer growth factor. Oncologists have learnt that any drug that can inhibit bradikinin can be very essential in cancer treatment just as chemotherapy. In fact majority of research findings point out those agents that inhibit bradikinin are better at reducing cancer cell growth than even chemotherapy.

Noscapine has very strong anticancer abilities a fact that has led to it being used by many oncologists in their clinics to treat cancer. Noscapine has been found to be exceptionally effective in treating most type of cancers like breast, prostate, lung, ovarian, brain, and lymphomas. Though it is known to many as just a cough suppressant, it can be very effective in cancer treatment.

A research study done in 2010 Current Drug Targets proved that noscapine is not only good as anti-mitosis but was also very effective as it made the cancer cells more vulnerable to chemotherapy. Researchers have opined that cancer patients on chemotherapy can benefit from the use of noscapine to increase the cell killing ability of the chemotherapy treatment.

This research supports the use of noscapine in cancer treatment citing its effectiveness. The medical research finding availed information that supports Noscapine as an effective anti-cancer agent. The study findings stated that Noscapine was the most effective anticancer after it was discovered that it induces cancer cell apoptosis. The experiment used Mg-63 tumor cells which are a common type of bone tumor.

MitosisDr. Israel Barken from San Diego is one of the doctors who have come out openly to be using the noscapine in treating cancer. However he has been using it to treat his prostate cancer patients alone. He availed information on his website that proved that Noscapine reduced prostate cancer in mice greatly.

Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced integrative cancer doctor that has helped many cancer patients in their fight against the disease. She has worked hard not only in treating the disease but also in availing informational support to cancer patients at Awaremed which has become a place called home for many cancer patients. Call on her now and get help on cancer.

Use of Mitosis inhibitors in cancer treatment

 

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Ketogenic Diet and Cancer

August 18, 2014

Ketogenic Diet And Cancer – Donnie Yance Approach To Whole Foods In Cancer Treatment.

Ketogenic dietAs I have always said diet counts when it comes to fighting cancer. Whatever you eat can either help you evade cancer or increase your risk of getting cancer. Any person concerned about his health must know that there are healthy foods that can help you not only in evading cancer but also in building stronger immune system that will be able to fight against all sorts of disease causing pathogens that may invade the body. Nutritionists have always emphasized consumption of fruits and vegetables as they are rich in antioxidants that help in fighting cancers. In programs like the Gerson’s therapy fruits and vegetables are used as the main treatment ‘tools’. I would not endorse the use of fruits and vegetables as I have already done that and that is the way to go. Some of the dietary approaches to cancer treatment have worked well while some have not been effective as they ought to be but all of them are based on cancer cell metabolism and survival mechanisms and most are geared towards denying the cancer cells their nutrient supplies hence starving them. One of the diets that have been utilized in fighting cancer is the ketogenic diet. However we will look at the ketogenic diet and try to know how doctors regard it. Our today’s doctor will be Donald “Donnie” Yance and we will learn his opinions on the effectiveness of the ketogenic diet as well as his approach to whole food diets for cancer.

A ketogenic diet advocates for high quality proteins and healthy fats while it eliminates all but non-starchy vegetable carbohydrates. The argument behind the ketogenic diet is that: since cancer cells need glucose to survive and the carbohydrates turn to glucose in the body reducing the amount of glucose in your body starves the cancer cells. The healthy cells also rely on glucose for survival; fortunately our healthy cells are flexible enough to turn to ketone bodies for energy unlike the cancer cells that suffer defects that deny them this flexibility to turn to ketone sources of energy. This gives a loophole to starve the cancer cells by reducing the amount of glucose in the body.

The healthy cells will survive in absence of glucose as they can depend on ketone bodies for energy and live on however the cancer cells solely depend on glucose hence will be starved to death.

The ketogenic diet also minimizes the mTOR pathway that enhances cell proliferation. This diet that restricts all starchy vegetable carbohydrates but advocates for healthy fats and high quality is a better way to kill the cancer cells and should be adopted by anybody not only to treat cancer but as a daily feeding lifestyle as it is an ideal fat burning diet.

Donnie Yance on ketogenic diet

Dr. Donald Yance is a world renowned herbalist and nutritionist who founded the Centre for Natural Healing in 1992, and the Mederi Foundation in 2006. He has vast botanical knowledge that he has used to help people in their journey against cancer as well as other diseases. He shares his view on the ketogenic diet.

Dr. Yance agrees that he has received lots of questions from individuals who are trying to find out if ketogenic diet can work well in cancer treatment or not. He admits that this diet that uses very low carbohydrate diet that contains moderate amounts of protein and a high percentage of fats may work in cancer treatment. He explains that this diet may combat cancer cells since cancer cells rely on glucose for survival and when carbohydrates are reduced the levels of glucose in the body is cut and so the cancer cells will not have no source of glucose and so they will be starved. The healthy cells that typically depends on more than one source of energy, that is primarily oxygen but secondary on glucose, ketone bodies and fatty acids will be able to get ketone bodies from the fats and use it for energy while the cancer cells will be starving.

Dr. Yance accepts that the ketogenic diet seems good on the surface he says he can’t recommend it because it is an improvement of a poor nutritional diet hence not his ideal diet. On ketogenic effectiveness he says that when the cancer cells are deprived of glucose they may adapt, diversify or hijack the metabolic system thereby altering certain amino acids like glutamine for production of energy they need to survive on. Dr. Yance opines that the cancer cells may even make glucose by catabolic breakdown of the healthy tissues. He says that in adverse situations the cancer cells hustle for glucose may result in cancer-related cachexia which leads to weight loss, loss of appetite and muscle atrophy.

Using whole meals for cancer

He advocates for use of whole foods in fighting cancer and these foods are used in their natural forms. He has endorsed the use of vegetables, fruits and even grains. He recommends elimination of refined carbohydrates, simple sugars, processed foods and genetically modified foods from a diet. He says that eatinga wide variety of fresh vegetables (including high carbohydrate root vegetables), fresh fruits, and whole grains provides your body with an abundance of essential phytonutrients that offer potent protection against all types of cancer, as well as every other degenerative disease. He opines that elimination of high carbohydrate vegetables from a diet is not wise.

Ketogenic dietDr. Yance says that grains are not as bad as they have been recently featured in the media but are very healthy foods that even current research has found to be very helpful in fighting cancer and so should be included in every diet. His ideal plate should contain 50 % vegetables, 25% whole grains and 25% proteins. He says that the vegetables should double the size of proteins and grains.

Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced integrative cancer doctor that has helped many cancer patients in their fight against the disease. She has worked hard not only in treating the disease but also in availing informational support to cancer patients at Awaremed which has become a place called home for many cancer patients. Call on her now and get help on cancer.

Ketogenic Diet And Cancer – Donnie Yance Approach To Whole Foods In Cancer Treatment.

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Insulin Resistance

August 17, 2014

Insulin resistance increases cancer risk

Insulin ResistanceInsulin is a crucial hormone in the body. Hormones are the body’s messengers that are made by the Endocrine glands. The hormones flow through the bloodstream to the organs and tissues where they help in accomplishing some bodily processes. The hormones are very important in the entire body of humans as they affect most bodily functions. The hormones will give us good health when there functions are at optimum. In case they do not function well a person may get some diseases and the major cause of hormonal dysfunction is hormonal imbalance. In case the balance between crucial hormones is not achieved disease like cancer will be knocking on the doors of your immunity. The changes in hormone dominance may occur naturally. This is because as we are growing production of some hormones is halted leading to some hormones being dominant. This can be addressed by help of an integrative cancer doctors as dominance of certain hormones increases your risk to cancer. However these fluctuations in levels of hormones may be induced by environmental factors such as the pathogens in the environments and the heavy metals that may remain in the vegetables we eat as a result of harmful herbicides used. Hormones play a great role in cancer etiology and therefore levels of some hormones like insulin should be monitored to avoid levels that may increase cancer risk.

Insulin Hormone Resistance

The blood sugar level is controlled by insulin hormone. It is responsible for transporting food that is converted into simple sugar (glucose) and transports it to the cells where it is broken down through oxidation to release energy. At times our bodies may have more sugar than what the insulin hormone can transport. This will lead to insulin resistance and eventually will cause obesity and diabetes. The connection between insulin resistance and cancer is that, when there is plethora of carbohydrates that cannot be broken down, they are store as fats. Excess body fats increase the levels of estrogen hormones, estrogen dominance leads to higher risk of breast cancer.

Insulin resistance is a situation is a condition when the body organs become resistant to insulin’s ability to transport the glucose into the cells. This condition is common after taking a meal that is high in carbohydrates. When there is insulin resistance and the glucose is not transported into the cells, the pancreas will react by producing more insulin hormones which leads to high hormonal levels in the blood. The pancreas may compensate for insulin resistance for some time but this won’t last long, therefore when the pancreas becomes overwhelmed and stops producing more hormones the insulin level in the blood will drop therefore leading to high sugar levels in the blood this increases cancer risk. Researchers have opined that insulin hormone resistance may be caused by obesity.

Insulin hormone inhibits growth and it increases when we eat more processed foods, carbohydrates and sweets. When this hormone is in high levels it increases the Insulin growth factor (IGF) which triggers the growth of cancer cells. There is a research that was done by Vanderbilt University in 2004, the findings of this research proved that increased growth factor and insulin resistance increased the risk of breast cancer in women. Women who have high levels of insulin resistance and increased growth factor are highly at risk of getting breast cancer. Another doctor, Dr. Pamela Goodwin while working at Mt. Sinai Hospital observed that most of the women who had breast cancer had high Insulin growth factor.

Insulin can also increase the sensitivity of cells towards other growth factors. Cancer is a disease that is rather complex and multifactorial but all types of cancer is characterized by uncontrolled growth and cell division. They are also resistant to programmed death also known as mitosis. Growth factors have been shown to be critical to cancer development and growth.  Researchers have shown that people who have higher levels of insulin growth factors are at increased risk of cancers such as the colon, breast and prostate cancer than those who have lower levels of Insulin growth factors.

Insulin resistance affects the ability of the insulin to transport the glucose into the cells but it does not affect the growth promoting abilities of the insulin hormone. The glucose transporting ability is the only thing affected. This therefore means that in a case of insulin resistance the high levels of circulating insulin hormones may increase risk to cancer in a person. The pancreases ability to supply high levels of hormones during insulin resistance may help in avoiding diabetes but are worst to cancer as higher levels of circulating hormones increases cancer risk.

Insulin ResistanceDifferent organs breast differently to high insulin levels in circulation .some organs become more vulnerable to the adverse effects of insulin hormone while others are not as vulnerable. The most vulnerable organ is the colon. Researchers have shown that colon has risk factors similar to diabetes. Factors that increase colon cancer risk include obesity, extra fat along the waistline, and lack of exercise, refined foods and diets that are high in saturated fats.

Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced integrative cancer doctor that has helped many cancer patients in their fight against the disease. She has worked hard not only in treating the disease but also in availing informational support to cancer patients at Awaremed which has become a place called home for many cancer patients. Call on her now and get help on cancer.

Insulin resistance increases cancer risk

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