Insulin Resistance
Insulin resistance increases cancer risk
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Insulin 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.
Different 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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