Food compounds slow cancer metastasis

More than 40 plant-based compounds can turn on genes that slow the spread of cancer, according to a first-of-its-kind study by a Washington State University researcher. Gary Meadows, WSU professor and associate dean for graduate education and scholarship in the College of Pharmacy, said he is encouraged by his findings because the spread of cancer is most often what makes the disease fatal. Moreover, says Meadows, diet, nutrients and plant-based chemicals appear to be opening many avenues of attack.

"We're always looking for a magic bullet," he said in a statement. "Well, there are lots of magic bullets out there in what we eat and associated with our lifestyle. We just need to take advantage of those. And they can work together."

Meadows started the study, recently published online in the journal Cancer and Metastasis Reviews, with some simple logic: Most research focuses on the prevention of cancer or the treatment of the original cancer tumor. But, it's usually the cancer's spread to nearby organs that kills you. So rather than attack the tumor, said Meadows, control its spread, or metastasis.

He focused in particular on genes that suppress metastasis. As search engine terms go, it took him down many a wormhole in the PubMed research database, as the concept of nutrients and metastasis suppressor genes is rarely identified by journals. It's even an afterthought of some of the researchers who find the genes.

"People for the most part did not set out in their research goals to study metastasis suppressor genes," says Meadows. "It was just a gene that was among many other genes that they had looked at in their study."

But Meadows took the studies and looked to see when metastasis suppressor genes were on or off, even if original authors didn't make the connection. In the end, he documented dozens of substances affecting the metastasis suppressor genes of numerous cancers.

He saw substances like amino acids, vitamin D, ethanol, ginseng extract, the tomato carotenoid lycopene, the turmeric component curcumin, pomegranate juice, fish oil and others affecting gene expression in breast, colorectal, prostate, skin, lung and other cancers. Typically, the substances acted epigenetically, which is to say they turned metastasis suppressor genes on or off.

"So these epigenetic mechanisms are influenced by what you eat," he says. "That may also be related to how the metastasis suppressor genes are being regulated. That's a very new area of research that has largely not been very well explored in terms of diet and nutrition." Meadows says his study reinforces two concepts.

For one, he has a greater appreciation of the role of natural compounds in helping our bodies slow or stop the spread of cancer. The number of studies connecting nutrients and metastasis suppressor genes by accident suggests a need for more deliberate research into the genes.

"And many of these effects have not been followed up on," he says. "There's likely to be more compounds out there, more constituents, that people haven't even evaluated yet."

Meadows also sees these studies playing an important role in the shift from preventing cancer to living with it and keeping it from spreading.

"We've kind of focused on the cancer for a long time," he says. "More recently we've started to focus on the cancer in its environment. And the environment, your whole body as an environment, is really important in whether or not that cancer will spread."

Eat egg yolks, might as well smoke, researchers say

Newly published research led by Dr. David Spence of Western University, Canada, shows that eating egg yolks accelerates atherosclerosis in a manner similar to smoking cigarettes. Surveying more than 1200 patients, Dr. Spence found regular consumption of egg yolks is about two-thirds as bad as smoking when it comes to increased build-up of carotid plaque, a risk factor for stroke and heart attack. The research is published online in the journal Atherosclerosis.­­­­

Atherosclerosis, also called coronary artery disease, is a disorder of the arteries where plaques, aggravated by cholesterol, form on the inner arterial wall. Plaque rupture is the usual cause of most heart attacks and many strokes. The study looked at data from 1231 men and women, with a mean age of 61.5, who were patients attending vascular prevention clinics at London Health Sciences Centre’s University Hospital. Ultrasound was used to establish a measurement of total plaque area and questionnaires were filled out regarding their lifestyle and medications including pack-years of smoking (number of packs per day of cigarettes times the number of years), and the number of egg yolks consumed per week times the number of years consumed (egg yolk-years).

The researchers found carotid plaque area increased linearly with age after age 40, but increased exponentially with pack-years of smoking and egg yolk-years. In other words, compared to age, both tobacco smoking and egg yolk consumption accelerate atherosclerosis. The study also found those eating three or more yolks a week had significantly more plaque area than those who ate two or fewer yolks per week.

“The mantra ‘eggs can be part of a healthy diet for healthy people’ has confused the issue. It has been known for a long time that a high cholesterol intake increases the risk of cardiovascular events, and egg yolks have a very high cholesterol content. In diabetics, an egg a day increases coronary risk by two to five-fold,” says Dr. Spence, a Professor of Neurology at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and the Director of its Stroke Prevention and Atherosclerosis Research Centre (SPARC) at the Robarts Research Institute. “What we have shown is that with aging, plaque builds up gradually in the arteries of Canadians, and egg yolks make it build up faster – about two-thirds as much as smoking. In the long haul, egg yolks are not okay for most Canadians.”

Dr. Spence adds the effect of egg yolk consumption over time on increasing the amount of plaque in the arteries was independent of sex, cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, body mass index and diabetes. And while he says more research should be done to take in possible confounders such as exercise and waist circumference, he stresses that regular consumption of egg yolk should be avoided by persons at risk of cardiovascular disease.

Food safety guides for groups most vulnerable to foodborne illness now available

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have partnered to create six booklets with food safety advice for populations that are most susceptible to foodborne illness. The booklets in this “at-risk series” are tailored to help older adults, transplant recipients, pregnant women, and people with cancer, diabetes or HIV/AIDS reduce their risk for foodborne illness. The booklets are downloadable in PDF format at www.foodsafety.gov/poisoning/risk/index.html/. To order booklets for your home, office, or organization, call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) weekdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET, or email requests to fsis.outreach@usda.gov. 

In the News: How stress recovery is made easier by smiling

Just grin and bear it! At some point, we have all probably heard or thought something like this when facing a tough situation. But is there any truth to this piece of advice? Feeling good usually makes us smile, but does it work the other way around? Can smiling actually make us feel better? In a study forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman of the University of Kansas investigate the potential benefits of smiling by looking at how different types of smiling, and the awareness of smiling, affects individuals’ ability to recover from episodes of stress.

“Age old adages, such as ‘grin and bear it’ have suggested smiling to be not only an important nonverbal indicator of happiness but also wishfully promotes smiling as a panacea for life’s stressful events,” says Kraft. “We wanted to examine whether these adages had scientific merit; whether smiling could have real health-relevant benefits.”

In the News: Clif Bar recall

Clif Bar & Company is initiating a voluntary recall of a small amount of 6-packs of Coconut Chocolate Chip CLIF Bars that were distributed to limited Target and Walmart stores. These six-packs may contain Coconut Chocolate Chip CLIF Bars that are mislabeled with White Chocolate Macadamia CLIF Bar wrappers with a Best By date of 16MAY13G1 and do not list coconut in the ingredient statement. Clif is taking this precautionary safety step for people who are allergic to coconut.

Trusting the body’s natural healing functions

By Tonya Yancey

Life is not static, and change is inevitable. Our bodies and lives have been in a state of ebb and flow since conception. Indeed, it is normal to have a loss of health and then to return back. In fact, no one has perfect health and everyone faces some sort of health challenges.

Healing within the body is a natural function as the body is always working toward a state of wholeness and balance.  If you cut yourself, you see in the scab the body’s inherent healing function. When the healing function becomes blocked, overwhelmed or stalled, an illness may be manifesting within the body and then your system needs help.

It is important to make a distinction between treatment and healing.  Healing is a normal instinctive function of the body whereas treatment is something that comes from the outside. We seek treatment, but our body automatically heals or repairs itself at the cellular level.  The challenge is in finding the right support for your body.  Not so easy.  It is definitely a journey and I’m not sure we ever arrive at a final destination, as such is the nature of constant change.

Certainly age and time have a role to play in a body’s healing system to operate at an optimal level.  Young people unquestionably have a more elastic and forgiving body and it is during this youthful time of perceived immortality that habits and patterns become established.  By middle age, at around 40 years of age, the bill comes due.  Our lifestyle choices, habits and even past emotional traumas have accumulated and for many have started to overwhelm the body and create symptoms of discomfort that aren’t as easily remedied.  Our bodies start to nag at us, persistently urging us to change.

A better service of the healing system would be if it gave us these strong messages at younger ages. An immediate effect of consequence being felt in the moment of abusing ourselves would undoubtedly grab our attention. Therefore, the aim is to focus on prevention and to realize that it is not if you are going to face a health crisis, but when you face a health crisis.  Shifting the focus to the intention of prevention then supports your own healing functions to be better able to rebalance.

Indeed most of us desire to have a higher quality of life, especial as we age.  Start today and take action.  Learn to listen to and follow your inner whisperings and realize it takes time to implement those choices into your life.   Action builds energy that leads to motivation and life-affirming habits, so create the intention to support the healing function of the body.

Change is inevitable, life ebbs and flows and we can heal by learning to work with our unique physiology. It may not be easy, but well worth the effort.

Eat your spinach

Nitrate, which is found naturally in spinach and other vegetables, has a powerful effect on muscle strength. Scientists at Karolinska Institute found that mice supplied with nitrate in their drinking water developed significantly stronger muscles – and this at doses obtainable from a normal diet.
Posted on June 25, 2012 from Stone Hearth News

Overcoming obstacles only way to meet goals

By Nikki Golden

I’ve decided that I’m well into my late 30s and maybe it’s time to start taking better care of myself. It started with a discussion of my high cholesterol at the doctor last year, and it culminated in my participation in the Dirty Girl Mud Run this past Saturday. In between, there has been a lot of personal growth—a term I’ve always hated but now understand differently.

This year, many things have happened that have driven home the message that life is too short. As a result, I’ve decided to embrace situations I would have otherwise been quick to avoid—those that push me to step outside of my comfort zone.  Some of these have been simple, such as choosing vegetables instead of my beloved French fries. But others have been more difficult, like taking a boxing class by myself. (Boxing is awesome exercise and a great way to de-stress.)

So when a lady I went to high school with started to put together a team to participate in the Dirty Girl Mud Run, I decided to join.

I do not run unless chased, and I had the upper body strength of an 80-year-old woman. So the idea of a 5K obstacle race, where there would be climbing over a wall, was really out of the ordinary for me, coupled with the fact that I was doing this with a group of people I either didn’t know or hadn’t seen in 20 years.

So I trained, adding strength training, like boxing, to my exercise routine and running a mile and a half one day a week. And I started to take better care of myself in terms of my food portions and choices.

Since embarking on this journey, I have lost about 25 pounds and gained definition in my arm muscles.  

I stressed out about my ability to finish a course such as this, tossing and turning the night before over the wall climb. And I actually thought about skipping out on the event all together when I woke up. But I, instead, adorned myself with fake tattoos and my team T-shirt and determined to make the best of it, even if I walked most of the route.

The thing that I liked about the Dirty Girl Mud Run was that it was a women-only event, which to me seemed less daunting than something similar with men. And I was right. The atmosphere was one of encouragement and support. For example, the wall climb was the third obstacle in. There was a line backed up waiting, giving the people space to take their time attempting this obstacle. When someone was straining and taking a long time and looked as if they might give up, the crowd spontaneously started to cheer as the person made it over the top of the wall.

Disclaimer: I didn’t make it over the wall. I got to the top and was too afraid of the height to make it over to the other side. But I give myself props for getting to the top, rather than skipping it all together.

And when I got to the mesh wall that loomed many feet in the air, I took a deep breath, and with a teammates’ encouragement, I made it up and over (albeit with some tears of fear).

Since embarking on this journey, I have lost about 25 pounds and gained definition in my arms. In fact, when I tried to eat a half of victory pizza, which would have been in the past done in two bites, I actually felt sick. That is a sure sign that my overall lifestyle is much healthier.

12 most toxic fruits, vegetables guide updated

EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides has been updated. The guide lists fruits and vegetables with the most pesticide residues and the most important to buy organic. You can lower pesticide intake substantially by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated produce.

This year, EWG has expanded the Dirty Dozen with a Plus category to highlight two crops -- green beans and leafy greens, meaning, kale and collard greens - that did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen criteria but were commonly contaminated with highly toxic organophosphate insecticides. These insecticides are toxic to the nervous system and have been largely removed from agriculture over the past decade. But they are not banned and still show up on some food crops.  Commodity crop corn used for animal feed and biofuels is almost all produced with genetically modified (GMO) seeds, as is some sweet corn sold for human consumption. Since GMO sweet corn is not labeled as such in U.S. stores, EWG advises those who have concerns about GMOs to buy organic sweet corn.
Source: www.ewg.org

Even exercise can't cure health risk caused by sitting

From ScienceDaily— Good physical condition is a route to better health, and in order to improve it, exercising several days a week is recommended. Although it is possible to become healthier by exercising, long daily sedentary periods cause a health risk despite physical activity.

Prior to this, it has not been clear how these two extremes in physical activity levels are connected. Does, for example, going to the gym reduce the time spent on sedentary activities, or should one also find something else to reduce it? Answers to these questions were sought in a newly published study by the University of Jyväskylä's Department of Biology of Physical Activity.

No differences between men and women.

Are genetically modified foods killing your kidney cells?

A new European study shows low doses of Bt biopesticide CryA1b as well as the glyphosate herbicide used by Monsanto in genetically modified crops (GM) kills human kidney cells. The herbicide is bred into plants and currently accounts for 39% of globally cultivated GM crops. This is the first study that provides evidence on the toxicity of Bt protein in human cells. This work comes at a time when the French environment and agricultural ministers are seeking an EU-wide ban of Monsanto’s MON810 Bt corn variety that is outlawed in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Greece, and Luxembourg.

Monstanto has been accused by researchers and by activist of having a monopoly on the global food supply, including GM alternatives to natural fruits and vegetables. There even exits an “I Hate Monstanto” Facebook page. In addition, the Organic Consumers Association has a website dedicated to tracking the company’s toxic products and relationships with politicians.

Learn more.

The Dirty Dozen foods that could be poisoning you

By Mary Rose Roberts

Do you know about the Dirty Dozen? It is a list of the most dangerous foods we buy based on the pesticide levels needed to grow them. So when you are shopping, protect your own and your family’s health by always purchasing the organic version of the foods listed below:

The Dirty Dozen

1. Apples

2. Celery

3. Strawberries

4. Peaches

5. Spinach

6. Nectarines (imported)

7. Grapes (imported)

8. Sweet bell peppers

9. Potatoes

10. Blueberries (domestic)

11. Lettuce

12. Kale/collard greens

Source: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/