FACING CANCER RISKS

Newsweek (6/23/08) has an informative
article on: "Your Lifestyle, Your Genes, and
Cancer." It discusses the growing consensus
among experts that genetic damage, particu-
larly to our DNA that is done by free radicals
(also called "oxygen radicals" and "oxy radi-
cals") is the main cause of most cancers. Oxy
(free) radicals are manufactured continually
in all of our 30 trillion cells simply as by-pro-
ducts of breathing. They cause ageing, and
eventually kill us. That's because oxygen is
poison! It only makes up 20% of the air we
breathe. The rest is inert nitrogen. Pure
oxygen would kill us within 48 hours, due to
free radical damage to our lungs. Smoking
doubles the free radical damage, because the
smoke contains those killers in abundance.
That's why smoking takes ten years off your
life even if you don't get lung (or some other)
cancer from it. (I'm full of good news today!)

Oxygen is what rusts steel into dust and rots
fruit, wood, and everything else that rots or
"goes bad." Those are fairly slow oxygenation.
Fire is fast oxygenation! Oxygen even breaks
down granite, given enough time. So it's
powerful stuff. When it is used in our bodies,
it breaks down, releasing into our system these
notorious free radicals (FR).

Free radicals are wild because they are hungry!
All of them are one electron short. So they rob
the nearest normal molecule of the electron
they need. That turns the robbed molecule into
a free radical, and creates a chain reaction that
damages more and more cells. When DNA is
damaged in this fashion, it may respond by re-
producing out of control, turning into cancer.

Why doesn't everyone have cancer then? Be-
cause our bodies, besides making FRs, also
make antioxidants that tame them and render
them harmless. Plants also do the same thing,
and hence are an abundant source of additional
antioxidants for us. And as we get older, we
need all the help we can get. That's because the
polluted air, water and food we take in are also
loaded with FRs. Processed foods frequently
contain high levels of lipid peroxides, which
produce FRs that damage the cardio vascular
system, as well as our DNA. Stress also adds
to the damage. The hormones which cause the
stress reaction in the body degenerate into par-
ticularly destructive FRs.

Enough with the bad news, already! What
should we do? The Newsweek article, while it
mentions oxygen radicals as the probable
cause of most cancers, said (erroneously) that
we are at a loss as to what kind of diet might re-
duce that risk. (I suspect the giant food pro-
cessing industry may have an influence there.)

According to the Harvard Health Letter, "A raft
of large studies have consistently shown that
whole grains, legumes, fish, fruits and vege-
tables and vegetable oils have the potential to
protect your body against heart disease and
cancer." We do, in fact, know a great deal
about foods that are rich in antioxidants. (If
you are interested, google "antioxidant-loaded
fruits" and "purple berries with antioxidants"
for starters.

Newsweek's failure to supply this vital informa-
tion is baffling and inexcusable. While main-
line medicine is waiting for absolute proof that
dietary antioxidants help prevent cancer, there
are thousands of competent doctors practising
"alternative medicine" who have been using
this information successfully to prevent and
treat a long list of ailments, including heart
disease and cancer.

The research for this goes back 50 plus years to
Denham Harman, a prof. of medicine and bio-
chemistry at the U. of Nebraska, He began
linking free radicals (oxy radicals) to a multi-
tude of diseases. The Shute brothers, up in
Canada began using vitamin E (a powerful
antioxidant) on their patients with remark-
able success. That was back in the '70s. (See
Vitamin E for Healthy and Ailing Hearts, by
Wilfred Shute, M. D.) The North East Nurses
Study, going on for years with 87,000 nurses,
found those regularly taking vitamin E had 40%
less heart disease than those not taking it.
(That, of course, does not constitute "proof."
There could be many other factors involved.)
On this, see The Antioxidant Miracle, by Les-
ter Packer, Ph. D. He is head of the Bio-chem
lab at UC Berkley that is named for him. His
book is a gold mine for evidence of the free-
radical and disease connection. He writes a
chapter discussing each of the most impor-
tant antioxidants, their sources, and the
voluminous research backing what he says
about each. He is one of the top authorities
in the world on this vital subject, and the book
is a result of a lifetime of dedicated study.
Here's to good health!