How Tumors Use Meat to Grow: Xeno-Autoantibodies
Cancer may use a molecule found in animal products to trick our immune system into feeding it with inflammation.
Cancer may use a molecule found in animal products to trick our immune system into feeding it with inflammation.
Plant-based diets may help rheumatoid arthritis by decreasing exposure to an inflammatory compound found in animal products.
We may have a billion different types of antibody-releasing cells in our immune system, such that each recognizes a different molecular signature.
Because certain tumors such as breast cancers thrive in settings of low-grade inflammation, our immune response can sometimes facilitate tumor growth.
The spice fenugreek appears to significantly improve muscle strength and weightlifting power output, while possessing anticancer properties in vitro.
For decades, studies on Gerson therapy for cancer have questioned its safety and efficacy. But, what does the latest head-to-head trial of a Gerson-style regime, versus chemotherapy, show in terms of survival and quality of life for pancreatic cancer ?
Gerson Therapy is a largely diet-based alternative treatment for cancer. What have 65 years of medical research concluded about its efficacy and safety?
Do compounded bioidentical hormones for menopause carry the same risks as conventional hormone replacement drugs, such as Premarin?
Exclusive breastfeeding for a full six months may, ironically, improve our children’s taste for vegetables—whereas children fed formula grow up with increased rates of inflammatory diseases such as asthma, cancer, and diabetes.
The official National Cancer Institute report on the “unacceptable” burden of cancer stemming from industrial chemical pollutants is strongly worded, but lacks sufficient dietary guidance.
Chlorophyll, the most ubiquitous plant pigment in the world, may protect our DNA against mutation by intercepting carcinogens.
Lower levels of the cancer-promoting growth hormone IGF-1 in those eating vegan is not expected to affect their accumulation of muscle mass.
To maintain the low IGF-1 levels associated with a plant-based diet, one should probably eat no more than 3-5 servings of soy foods a day.
Vegans consuming 7 to 18 servings of soy foods a day may end up with circulating IGF-1 levels comparable to those who eat meat.
While animal proteins increase levels of the cancer-promoting growth hormone IGF-1, and most plant proteins bring levels down, “high quality” plant proteins, such as soy, may not significantly affect levels in either direction. This, however, may depend on the quantity consumed.
Animal protein consumption triggers the release of the cancer-promoting growth hormone IGF-1.
Those eating vegan had significantly lower IGF-1 levels and higher IGF-binding proteins than those just eating vegetarian, suggesting that the more plant-based one’s diet becomes, the lower one’s risk of fueling growth hormone-dependent cancer growth.
Lower cancer rates among those eating a plant-based diet may be a result of reduced blood levels of IGF-1, and enhanced production of IGF-1 binding protein.
Congenital IGF-1 deficiency can lead to Laron Syndrome (a type of dwarfism); but with such low growth hormone levels, those with the condition have dramatically lower cancer rates. This raises the question of whether one can achieve the best of both worlds—by ensuring adequate IGF-1 levels during childhood, while then suppressing excess growth promotion in adulthood.
Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) is a natural human growth hormone instrumental in normal growth during childhood, but in adulthood can promote abnormal growth—the proliferation, spread (metastasis), and invasion of cancer.
Eating a plant-based diet may protect against BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy, an enlarged prostate).
All men should consider eating a prostate-healthy diet, which includes legumes (beans, peas, lentils, soy); certain vegetables (like garlic and onions); certain seeds (flax seeds); and the avoidance of refined grains, eggs, and poultry.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH—an enlarged prostate gland—affects 80% of older men, but like many other Western chronic diseases, it appears to be a consequence of our diet.
Whose blood is better at killing cancer cells? People who eat a standard diet and exercise strenuously, or those who eat a plant-based diet and just exercise moderately?
Two weeks on a plant-based diet appears to significantly enhance cancer defenses against breast cancer and colon cancer cells. The blood of those eating a vegan diet for a year suppresses cancer cell growth nearly eight times better.
Within a matter of weeks, participants placed on the vegan diet outlined by the prophet Daniel experienced improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin levels, insulin resistance, and C-reactive protein levels, a marker of inflammation within the body.
Certain good bacteria in our gut can turn the fiber we eat into an anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer compound—called butyrate—that we absorb back into our system. We may be able to boost the number of butyrate-producing bacteria by eating a plant-based diet.
Iron is a double-edged sword. If we don’t absorb enough, we risk anemia; but if absorb too much, we may increase our risk of cancer, heart disease, and a number of inflammatory conditions. Because the human body has no mechanism to rid itself of excess iron, one should choose plant-based (non-heme) sources, over which our body has some control.
Death in America is largely a foodborne illness. Focusing on studies published just over the last year in peer-reviewed scientific medical journals, Dr. Greger offers practical advice on how best to feed ourselves and our families to prevent, treat, and even reverse many of the top 15 killers in the United States.
The whole grain phytonutrient phytic acid (phytate) partially inhibits mineral absorption, but has a wide range of health-promoting properties, such as anticancer activity. By concurrently eating mineral absorption enhancers, such as garlic and onions, one can get the best of both worlds by improving the bioavailability of iron and zinc in plant foods.
Though our life expectancy is improving, our health expectancy is not. In fact we are living fewer years without serious disease and disability.
A competing risks analysis of the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study compares the danger of smoking cigarettes to the danger of animal product consumption (cholesterol), and the benefits of plant foods (fiber) to the benefits of exercise.
Measuring the effects of a plant-based diet on the expression of hundreds of different genes at a time, a research group found that an antioxidant-rich portfolio of plant foods such as berries, pomegranates, purple grapes, red cabbage, oregano, and walnuts was able to significantly modify the regulation of genes in the blood of volunteers.
Plant-based diets help prevent cancer not only by blocking DNA damage, but by increasing our DNA repair enzymes’ ability to repair any damage that gets by our first line of antioxidant defense.
Now officially incorporated into the Centers for Disease Control STD Treatment Guidelines, the topical application of phytonutrients from green tea on external genital warts results in an astounding 100% clearance in more than half the patients tested—a testament to the power of plants.
Gorlin Syndrome, also known as basal cell nevus syndrome, is a rare genetic condition in which one’s body becomes covered in skin cancers. An astounding case is reported of a woman suffering from the syndrome, whose cancer progression was apparently reversed with topical green tea body wraps.
A single meal of meats, eggs, and dairy can cause a spike of inflammation within hours that can stiffen one’s arteries. Originally, this was thought to be the result of saturated animal fat causing our gut lining to leak bacterial toxins into our bloodstream, leading to endotoxemia.
Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory properties of white compared to yellow and purple potatoes. Purple potatoes may also help lower high blood pressure.
For the same reason aspirin should be avoided in pregnancy, chamomile has such powerful anti-inflammatory properties that regular consumption may result in a serious fetal heart problem—premature constriction of the fetal ductus arteriosus, which allows the fetus to “breathe” in the womb.
People taking dietary supplements may, in some cases, be paying to make themselves sick. This video covers folic acid, beta carotene, and green tea supplements.