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Cancer
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Make Nutrition Your First Defense Against Cancer
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At a recent cancer conference in San Diego, California, I was on the speaker’s program along with Dr. Patrick Quillin, one of the world’s top experts on nutrition and cancer. For many years, Dr. Quillin was the director of nutrition for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, a group of four medical centers across the United States (Seattle, Washington; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Zion, Illinois; and Philadelphia) that integrate the best conventional and complementary therapies in their treatments.
An integrated approach to any disease resonates deeply with me. That, after all, is how I treat cardiovascular disease.
In his talk, Dr. Quillin mentioned that most of the country’s 10,000 oncologists still don’t understand the beneficial role of nutrition in cancer treatment. Eight million patients suffer as a result, he said.
Afterward, I talked at length with Dr. Quillin and learned more about his experience in applying nutrition against cancer. We are solidly on the same page as far as dealing with cancer is concerned—we both see it as a fight against an insidious enemy that requires each individual to be a smart and strong self-advocate.
In this battle, there are no magic knockout drugs or nutrients; however, a well-nourished body and a healthy diet and supplement program are powerful deterrents.
Generally speaking, a well-nourished body can effectively activate protective and self-repair mechanisms that identify and destroy abnormal cells. People whose bodies are poorly nourished lack the nutrients to keep this process functioning efficiently, which makes them more vulnerable to disease.
Just as good nutrition can make you less vulnerable to cancer, it can also work to your advantage if you develop the disease. Well-nourished patients have a better chance of survival and a higher quality of life after remission. They are also less prone to the “wasting away” commonly associated with cancer, and have a greater ability to withstand the toxicity of conventional treatments.
Dr. Quillin and I agree that there is an unfortunate and widespread misconception among oncologists that supplements reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation. This is simply not true. Hundreds of studies have shown that specific nutrients can help chemotherapy and radiation treatments eliminate cancer and cause less damage to the healthy surrounding tissue.
For example, the drug cisplatin—which is used to treat testicular, bladder, lung, stomach, and ovarian cancers—often damages nerve tissue, causing numbness and pain. Studies show that patients who take oral vitamin E (400 IU daily) are less likely to develop this problem.
So what can you do from a nutritional perspective to reduce your odds of developing cancer?
First and foremost, cut sugar out of your diet. You can take all the vitamins and supplements in the world, but they won’t protect you if you eat a diet filled with refined carbohydrates and sugar. Why? Cancer cells feed almost exclusively on glucose (the sugar in the blood that is broken down from carbohydrates). When you cut down on the sweet stuff, you deny cancer its basic nourishment. If that’s not motivation enough, consider this: A person who eats the typical American diet consumes 140 pounds of sugar a year. In relation to cancer, that’s like throwing gasoline on a smoldering fire.
I personally consider sugar—especially refined sugar—to be Public Enemy #1. Not only does it feed cancer cells, it’s a menace to the heart as well. Sugar stimulates excess insulin production, which leads to damaging arterial inflammation—a major cause of heart disease.
Second, identify which nutrients you are in need of—especially if you’ve been diagnosed with cancer. Those nutrients can have a powerful restorative effect on failing protective and repair mechanisms in the body, and even help reverse cancer. In his book Beating Cancer with Nutrition, Dr. Quillin lists more than 200 specific vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, glandulars, probiotics, herbs, and plant extracts that can give patients a powerful boost in their recovery battle. I highly recommend the book, which is available through book retailers, including www.amazon.com.
Another important resource on new approaches to cancer is integrative medicine expert Burton Goldberg’s DVD, Cancer Conquest (CustomFlix, 2006). I recently viewed this two-hour documentary and found it full of great insights from cutting-edge cancer experts. It features the newest approaches to cancer that Goldberg has discovered since writing his 1,000-page Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Cancer (Alternativemedicine.com Books, 1997). You can buy a copy of this documentary from his Web site, www.burtongoldberg.com.
This article originally appeared in the November 2006 issue of Dr. Sinatra’s monthly written newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition. HMDI has reprinted this article with permission from Healthy Directions, LLC ( (© 2006 Healthy Directions, LLC). Heart, Health & Nutrition and Dr. Sinatra’s free e-letter are both available via subscription at Drsinatra.com.
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