Download Nutritional Support for Cancer Pts.

Nutrition and Herbal Medicine
for Cancer Support and
Prevention
By Dr. Michael Davidson, Pharm.D., ACN
With some content by Dr. Michael Gaeta,
DAc, MS, CDN
Disclaimer
• The information provided in this lecture should
not be construed as a claim or representation
that any formula, procedure, or product
mentioned constitutes a specific cure, palliative,
or ameliorative for any condition.
• The material contained in this lecture has not
been reviewed by the FDA and is not for the
diagnosis or treatment of any disease.
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Disclaimer
• This lecture and the information it contains is for
educational purposes only; it is not a substitute
for individualized guidance from a qualified
healthcare professional.
• Audiences are cautioned not to use any
substance or product mentioned herein without
reviewing it with their qualified healthcare
professional to determine if it is appropriate for
them.
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Amazing Human Body
• The adult human body is comprised of 60-100 trillion
cells.
• These cells are constantly growing, dividing, and
undergoing controlled cell death.
• Every 14 months, many of the tissues and vital organs of
the body are completely replaced (some many times).
– Epidermis (renewed every month)
– Gut lining (renewed every 2 weeks)
– Platelets (renewed every 10 days)
• Millions of old cells die every day, replaced by new
copies; this process is unfathomably precise.
Pathophysiology
• Normal cell growth, development and
replication is governed by multiple
cellular control mechanisms
• Mechanisms are programmed through
genes
• Malignancy caused by mutations in
genes that encode these control
mechanisms
Graphic taken from wikipedia
Pathophysiology
• Unlike other diseases, cancer is not limited to a
certain part of the body
• More than 200 different types
• Malignant cells characterized by
– uncontrolled cell growth and aberrant function
– Aggressive/invasive behavior
• Different from benign tumors which are limited in
growth and are non-invasive (although some
benign tumors can become malignant under the
wrong conditions).
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Source: WHO
Pathophysiology
• Mutations in genes that encode cell growth
control mechanisms lead to malignant cells that
share 6 characteristics:
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Promote their own growth
Insensitive to growth-stopping signals
Evade apoptosis
Promote angiogenesis
Become invasive/metastasize
Can multiply forever
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Source: “The Hallmarks of Cancer,” Hanahan & Weinberg in Cell, Vol. 100, 1/7/200
Epidemiology
• Cancer causes about 13 % of deaths world-wide and this
incidence is rising.
• Cancer is the second most common cause of death in
the US (after CV dx), accounting for nearly 1 of every 4
deaths
• From 1950 to 1991, cancer incidence increased by
nearly 50% with mortality increasing by more than 10 %
(adjusted for aging and growth of the US population)
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550% increase in lung cancer in women
350% increase in malignant melanoma
200% increase in multiple myeloma
190% increase in prostate cancer
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Sources: WHO, NIH
Epidemiology
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Median age of diagnosis: 67
5 year survival rate is a misleading statistic
Lead time bias
Selection bias
In the US, men have slightly less than a 1 in 2
lifetime risk of developing cancer; for women,
the risk is a little more than 1 in 3
• 90% of all deaths are the result of metastases
–
Sources: national cancer institute’s SEER program, Scientific American
Characterization
• Carcinoma/Epithelioma: begins in a tissue that lines the
inner or outer surfaces of the body (80 % cancer deaths
world-wide).
• Sarcoma: originates in connective tissue: bone,
cartilage, fat, muscle, vascular, etc. (occurs more
commonly in children then adults)
• Leukemia: starts in hematopoietic tissues (bone marrow)
and results in increasing numbers of immature white
blood cells to enter bloodstream
• Lymphoma: begins in cells of the immune system
(includes Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma)
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Source: National Cancer Institute
Etiology
• Primarily a lifestyle disease (90-95% of cancers are
lifestyle related)
• Contributing factors include:
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poor nutrition/obesity
physical inactivity
stress
infections
tobacco use
environmental toxins
radiation exposure
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Source: Anand P, Kunnumakkara AB, Kunnumakara AB, Sundaram C, Harikumar KB, Tharakan ST,
Lai OS, Sung B, Aggarwal BB (September 2008). "Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major
lifestyle changes". Pharm. Res. 25 (9): 2097–116.
Allopathic Treatment
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Surgery
Chemotherapy
Radiation
Immunotherapies
Targeted therapies (peptides, anitbodies, enzyme
inhibitors, etc.)
• Hormonal therapy/inhibitors
• Success of conventional therapies often measured in 5year survival rates (don’t take quality of life into account)
• In the US, approx 75% of people with cancer receive
chemotherapy
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Source: Reclaiming Our Health, John Robbins
When Might Chemotherapy Help?
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Must always weigh potential benefit vs risk (toxicity, reduced quality of life,
etc.)
Some Pts. May benefit:
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Most Hodgkin’s disease
Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)
Testicular cancer
Wilms’ tumor
Ewing’s sarcoma
Rhabdomyosarcoma
Retinoblastoma
Ovarian cancer
Small-cell lung cancer
And some rare cancers:
– Burkitt’s lymphoma
– Choriocarcinoma
– Lymphosarcoma
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Source: Questioning Chemotherapy, Dr. Ralph Moss
Chemotherapy
• Chemotherapy drugs often lose their
effectiveness against cancer cells.
• This process is analogous to how pathogenic
bacteria gain resistance against antibiotics
• mutations allow cancer cells to survive exposure
to the chemotherapy toxins and enable the
malignant cells to outcompete normal cells.
• Hence often, after a seemingly successful
treatment, the cancer can return
–
Sources: Scientific American, Questioning Chemotherapy
The Wholistic Model
• Cancer cells are present in the body at all times;
in healthy individuals, the body’s defense
mechanisms keep these cells in check
• When the immune system becomes weakened,
cancer cells can replicate and spread beyond
the body’s ability to control
• Thus by supporting optimal function of the whole
organism, we allow the person’s own defense
mechanisms to fight the cancer to the best of its
abilities.
Contributing Factors
• Immune deficiency
• toxicity and radiation
• inflammation
Immune Deficiency
• poor nutrition (refined sugar and starches,
etc.
• Stress/insufficient rest
• Pancreatic insufficiency
• Drugs
• Synthetic antioxidants
• All weaken immune system, allowing
cancer-causing pathogens to invade
Epidemiological Data: Traditional
Diets Prevent Cancer
Dr. Royal Lee, 15 July 1959
• Refined foods cause cancer because they
fail to supply essential nutrients (that
protect genetic material)
• Fat soluble vitamins (E,K,F) and
cholesterol form shells that protect our
genetic blueprints (in the chromosomes)
Epidemiological Data: Traditional
Diets Prevent Cancer
Dr. Royal Lee, 15 July 1959
“Cancer is a peculiar development of
civilization again. When Dr. Albert
Schweitzer went to the heart of Africa as a
missionary 25 odd years ago, he said
there was absolutely no cancer among the
natives. When civilized foods followed him
into the jungle, why, cancer came with it.
The natives never had cancer until they
ate refined foods.
Epidemiological Data: Traditional
Diets Prevent Cancer
Dr. Royal Lee, 15 July 1959
In the Hunza country in India, Dr McHarrison
made the same statement. He said there was
no cancer among the Hunzas: never heard of it.
He was there for many years. [He was] the
author of the celebrated book, Studies in
Deficiency Disease, written in 1921. McHarrison
said there was no cancer until they got civilized
foods in those countries, except where the
people where already on a deficient diet such as
in the large cities.
Epidemiological Data: Traditional
Diets Prevent Cancer
Dr. Royal Lee, 15 July 1959
When Dr. [Weston] Price made his celebrated trip
around the world and came back and wrote his book,
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, he had the same
story. Where ever he visited areas where people had
their own locally-produced foods, there was no cancer.
In the upper valleys of the Alps, where they had no good
roads and people had to live on their own rye bread and
Swiss cheese that they produced in their own little valley,
there was no cancer. When they built a good road and
brought in civilized food, they had to build a hospital to
take care of the cancer victims and other disease that
followed the use of the civilized food.
Epidemiological Data: Traditional
Diets Prevent Cancer
Dr. Royal Lee, 15 July 1959
Stefansson tells us that the Eskimos had
no cancer whatever until they brought in
civilized foods. We have many reports
from the old time doctors who studied the
health of the Indians in this country and
they said the same thing – that
malignancies were practically non-existent
among the Indians when they were living
in their aboriginal states. Those are the
facts.”
Toxicity and Radiation
• Foods (pesticide and chemical laden)
• Pollution (air, water, smoking, asbestos)
• Radiation: cell phones, x-ray radiation, etc.
Refined Foods Promote Cancer
Dr. Royal Lee, 15 July 1959
• “ This experiment has been reported in the
Journal of Cancer Research. They took
two-hundred test animals. They fed half of
them natural foods; the other half refined
foods, and then planted cancer in all of
them. They got ninety percent takes
(cancer cases) in those on refined foods,
and those on natural foods threw out the
cancer, and there was 100% resistance to
the cancer; there were no takes.
Refined Foods Promote Cancer
Dr. Royal Lee, 15 July 1959
The experiment had been repeated on
penitentiary prisoners who had volunteered for
the purpose in Pennsylvania within the last few
months. They couldn’t get cancer to grow in
men who had been getting any king of
reasonable diet. Of course, they didn’t have a
group that they put on a highly deficient diet like
they did the animals. But the normal individual is
resistant to cancer – is immune to cancer – and
he has to develop that susceptibility by many,
many, years of refined food eating.”
Refined Foods Promote Cancer
Dr. Royal Lee, 15 July 1959
“Dr. Quigley tells us that when he takes his
cancer patient, who has had an operation and
had his cancer removed, and gets him to follow
a natural food diet – eliminate all refined foods
from his food pattern, and bake his own bread at
home from fresh ground wheat – he said that in
25 years of experience he never had a
recurrence of cancer among his patients who
would follow that schedule. He also said that all
the patients who refused to listen to his advice
had recurrences.
Refined Foods Promote Cancer
Dr. Royal Lee, 15 July 1959
In other words, his experience was exactly the
same as the test animals, and this is a very
wonderful piece of scientific proof, because the
patients that followed his advice after operations
became immune, and those that didn’t follow his
advice were still susceptible to cancer. And if
you’re susceptible to cancer and you’ve had an
operation for cancer it’s going to grow right back,
because the surgeon can’t remove every cell; it’s
practically impossible.”
Inflammation
• from poor nutrition (processed/refined
foods, lack of essential fatty acids)
• Smoking
• “chronic inflammation can play an
important role in the progression of some
types of tumors from a pre-malignant state
to full-blown disease.”
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Source: Scientific American
Sugar feeds Cancer
• Malignant cells waste the body’s energy
• This is why 40% of cancer pts. die from
malnutrition or cachexia
• Cancer cells need sugar to survive and
grow
• Thus, having a low glycemic index/load
diet is essential to arrest cancer growth
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Warburg O. On the origin of cancer cells. Science 1956 Feb;123:309-14.
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Grant JP. Proper use and recognized role of TPN in the cancer patient. Nutrition 1990 Jul-Aug;6(4
Suppl):6S-7S, 10S.
Lifestyle Promoting Cancer
• Tobacco use causes 30% of all cancers
• Nearly 25% of US population still smokes
(25% of men and 20% of women)
• Very conservative estimate:1/3 of all
cancers are related to poor nutrition,
physical inactivity, obesity, or other lifestyle factors
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source: National Cancer Institute
Other Oncogenic Factors
• Overuse of pharmaceutical drugs (eg.
Statins)
• GM foods
• Carcinogenic food additives, sweeteners
• Xenoestrogens (eg. BPA)
• Obesity
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Dr. Michael Gaeta, DAc, MS, CDN
Infectious Disease
• 17% of all cancer cases (more than 1.8
million/year) are caused by viruses and
other infectious agents.
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Source: American Cancer Society
• Immune system is key in cancer support
and prevention.
3 Stages of Malignancy
• Initiation: related primarily to toxicity (eg.
exposure to carcinogens, radiation, etc.)
• Promotion: related primarily to inflammation.
Inflamed precancerous tissue produces signals
that recruit cells that effect angiogenesis,
allowing it to grow into a malignant tumor.
• Progression: through metastasis
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Source: Scientific American
3 Stages of Malignancy
• “Genetic damage is the match that lights
the fire of malignancy, and inflammation is
the fuel that feeds the flames.” (Scientific American)
• Chronic Inflammation can also damage
DNA and other critical components of
cells, contributing to mutation and cancer
initiation.
(MIT Biological Engineering Division, as reported in MIT News, 7/25/06)
Inflammation & Cancer
• To defend itself and promote its
developments, tumors recruit the
innate/inflammatory immune system.
• Cancerous tumors are “wounds that do not
heal.” (cancer biologist Harold Dvorak,
Harvard Medical School)
Chronic Inflammation & Disease
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Chronic inflammation also contributes to:
Cardiovascular disease
Diabetes
Alzheimer’s disease
Psychiatric d/o
Allergies and asthma
Endocrine and digestive d/o
Chronic pain syndromes
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Dr. Michael Gaeta, DAc, MS, CDN
Wholistic Pillars of Support
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Detoxification
Improve Immune Function
Reduce Chronic Inflammation
Change cancer promoting lifestyle
patterns
Detoxification
• Whole food diet (no processed foods or
sugars)
• Regular exercise
• Supervised detoxification/purification
program
• Smoking/recreational drug use cessation
• Reduce daily chemical exposure
• Have pharmacist do MTM to minimize
carcinogenic meds
SP Purification Program
• Simple diet
• Regular exercise
• Whole food nutrition / herbal medicine
Immune System
• Innate Immune System: prevents most
disease; marked by the inflammatory
immune response
• Adaptive/acquired immune system: more
advanced/specific; targets pathogens with
specialized proteins (antibodies)
Immune Enhancement
• Nutrient-dense foods
• Regular exercise
• Whole food nutrition / herbal medicine
Reduce Chronic Inflammation
• Low-inflammation diet:
– Minimize soy, refined foods, pasteurized dairy
– Wild fish
– 9 servings of raw vegetables (including
cruciferous and carotenoid-rich)
– Sufficient omega-3 fatty acids (97-99% of US
population deficient in these)
• Detoxify heavy metals (if high burden
exists)
Cruciferous (Brassica) Vegetables
Eat plenty of these: broccoli, kale, brussels
sprouts, cauliflower, arugula, chard,
daikon, mustard greens, bok choy,
cabbage, Chinese cabbage, radishes,
watercress, collard greens, kohlrabi,
rutabagas
Synthetic “vitamins” increase
cancer risk in smokers
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Results: Unexpectedly, we observed a higher incidence of
lung cancer among the men who received beta carotene than among those
who did not (change in incidence, 18 percent). Fewer cases of
prostate cancer were diagnosed among those who received alphatocopherol than among those who did not. Beta carotene had little or no
effect on the incidence of cancer other than lung cancer. Alphatocopherol had no apparent effect on total mortality, although more deaths
from hemorrhagic stroke were observed among the men who received this
supplement than among those who did not. Total mortality was 8 percent
higher among the participants who received beta carotene than among
those who did not, primarily because there were more deaths from
lung cancer and ischemic heart disease.
Conclusion: We found no reduction in the incidence of lung cancer among
male smoker after 5-8 years of dietary supplementation with alphatocopherol or beta carotene. In fact, this trial raises the possibility that these
supplements may actually have harmful as well as beneficial effects.
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N Engl J Med. 1994 Apr 14;330(15):1029-35. The effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of
lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers. The Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention
Study Group.
Resources: books for patients
• Why your doctor recommends nutritional
supplements by Stephanie Selene Anderson
• The Real Truth about Vitamins and Antioxidants
by Judith DeCava
• Why do I need Whole Food Supplements, by
Lorrie Medford
• Going Back to the Basics of Human Health, by
Mary Frost
• seleneriverpress.com
Exercise
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Decreases stress/tension
Improves GI motility, circulation, and muscle tone
Reduces spasms and muscle tightness
Circulates lymph
Messages internal organs
Activates biochemical pathways that increase stamina,
resistance to stresses/diseases
• Makes one more aware of their body
• Improves overall structure and function of body
• At least 30 min 5 x/wk or 1 hr 3-4x/wk of moderately
vigorous aerobic (cardiopulmonary) exercise
The Sunshine Vitamin
• Vitamin D reduces risk of
cancer by:
– Enhancing calcium absorption
(in the case of colorectal
cancer)
– Promoting cell differentiation
– Increasing cancer cell
apoptosis
– Reducing metastasis and
proliferation
– Reducing angiogenesis
– “…vitamin D can be
considered one partial
antidote to the American diet.”
– Joseph Mercola, DO
Graphic taken from The New York Academy of Sciences
How much Sunlight is Enough?
• Experts on Vitamin D generally recommend daily
exposure of 10-15 min. (or 20-25 min 3x/week)
with 40 % of body surface area exposed without
sunscreen. – Natural Solutions, Fall 2007
• More precise method: approximate how much
time you can spend in the sun before your skin
just begins to redden slightly. Spend 1/2 - 2/3
of that time with 40 % of BSA exposed in the sun
(preferably between hours of 10-4) in the sun 35 days/wk.
The Vitamin D Connection
• “Responsible, routine sun exposure will save 10 lives
from non-skin cancers for every one skin cancer death.” –
Cedric Garland , PhD, professor, Univ. of California’s School of Medicine & Moores Cancer Center
• “UVB is protective to a total of 16 types of cancer,
primarily epithelial (pertaining to the surface) cancers of
the digestive and reproductive systems.
• It is estimated that 45,000 Americans die from cancer
annually related to inadequate levels of vitamin D: half
from UVB doses based on location, and half based on
living in an urban environment with reduced solar
radiation exposure.” – Joseph Mercola, DO
Enzyme Support Principles
• Cancer may relate to pancreatic enzyme
insufficiency
• Patients who supplement their diet with
enzymes seem to fair better than those
who don’t
–
Dr. Michael Gaeta, DAc, MS, CDN
Enzyme Support Principles
• MOA: unknown. “the enzymes probably attack
the proteins on (cancer) cell membranes. They
knock them out so that the cells can’t
communicate and can’t survive. It’s like they’re
blinded. We think that’s what it is. No one
knows. We know they work; the human and
animal studies show they work even in
aggressive laboratory models of cancer in mice,
but we don’t know the mechanism.” – Nicholas
Gonzalez, MD
Enzyme Support Practitioners
• John Beard, MD, England, 1902
• FL Morse, MD, St Louis, 1920s
• William Kelley, DDS, 1960s – Author of
“One Answer to Cancer”
• Nicholas Gonzalez, MD, New York, 1987
The success of this approach has been
well-documented and supported by lab
findings and long-term clinical follow-ups.
Combined Support
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To promote detoxification, improve
immune function, and reduce chronic
inflammation:
Whole Food Nutrition (including whole
food supplements)
High quality herbal support
Enzyme Support
Change cancer promoting lifestyle
patterns to cancer preventing/inhibiting
Acknowledgements
• I would like to thank Dr. Michael Gaeta for
the content of many of the slides
presented in this lecture.