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.
Ex Vivo Cancer Proliferation Bioassay
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Pritikin’s work has continued through his research foundation, which has really done some elegant work. They put people on different diets, drip their blood on cancer cells growing in a petri dish, and then just stand back and see whose blood is better at suppressing cancer growth.
They were among the ones that published that study showing the blood of those on a vegan diet was dramatically less hospitable to cancer. Even the blood of those on a Standard American Diet fights cancer. If it didn’t, everyone would be dead. It’s just that the blood of those eating vegan fights about eight times better.
The blood of those on the Standard American Diet slows cancer growth down about 9%. Put people on a plant-based diet for a year, though, and their blood just tears it up. The blood circulating within the bodies of vegans has nearly eight times the stopping power, when it comes to cancer cell growth.
Now, this was for prostate cancer—the most common cancer among American men—followed by lung, then colon. In women, it’s breast cancer, then lung, then colon.
So, the Pritikin researchers tried duplicating the study with women, using breast cancer cells instead. Now, they didn’t want to wait a whole year to get the results, though. So, they figured they’d see what the diet could do in two weeks.
First, they took samples of blood to get a baseline. And then, they asked a dozen women to eat a plant-based diet for 14 days. Then, they took a second sample of blood from those same women at the end of the two weeks, so they’d kind of serve as their own controls.
Now, it was time to pit breast cancer cells against the defenses of these women, before and after eating healthy. They dripped their before and after blood upon three different lines of human breast cancer. For example, MCF-7 stands for Michigan Cancer Foundation. It’s an estrogen-receptor positive invasive ductal carcinoma, taken from a 69-year-old Caucasian woman—Sister Catherine Frances, a nun in the convent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Monroe, Michigan.
This is the before: cancer cell growth powering away at 100%. And then, this is after eating a plant-based diet for 14 days.
Now, slowing down cancer growth rate is nice, but getting rid of cancer cells completely is even better.
This is the before: measuring cancer cell death. This is the after. Pre- and post-plants.
The same blood that was now coursing through their bloodstream gained the power to significantly slow down, and stop, breast cancer cell growth—thanks to just two weeks of eating a plant-based diet.
What kind of blood do we want in our body? What kind of immune system? Do we want blood that just kind of rolls over when cancer cells pop up? Or, do we want blood circulating to every nook and cranny in our body that has the power to slow down and stop them?
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Kerry Skinner.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Barnard RJ, Gonzalez JH, Liva ME, Ngo TH. Effects of a low-fat, high-fiber diet and exercise program on breast cancer risk factors in vivo and tumor cell growth and apoptosis in vitro. Nutr Cancer. 2006;55(1):28-34.
- Ornish D, Weidner G, Fair WR, Marlin R, Pettengill EB, Raisin CJ, Dunn-Emke S, Crutchfield L, Jacobs FN, Barnard RJ, Aronson WJ, McCormac P, McKnight DJ, Fein JD, Dnistrian AM, Weinstein J, Ngo TH, Mendell NR, Carroll PR. Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer. J Urol. 2005 Sep;174(3):1065-9; discussion 1069-70.
Images thanks to Pritikin Longevity Center, and frankkeillor via flickr
Pritikin’s work has continued through his research foundation, which has really done some elegant work. They put people on different diets, drip their blood on cancer cells growing in a petri dish, and then just stand back and see whose blood is better at suppressing cancer growth.
They were among the ones that published that study showing the blood of those on a vegan diet was dramatically less hospitable to cancer. Even the blood of those on a Standard American Diet fights cancer. If it didn’t, everyone would be dead. It’s just that the blood of those eating vegan fights about eight times better.
The blood of those on the Standard American Diet slows cancer growth down about 9%. Put people on a plant-based diet for a year, though, and their blood just tears it up. The blood circulating within the bodies of vegans has nearly eight times the stopping power, when it comes to cancer cell growth.
Now, this was for prostate cancer—the most common cancer among American men—followed by lung, then colon. In women, it’s breast cancer, then lung, then colon.
So, the Pritikin researchers tried duplicating the study with women, using breast cancer cells instead. Now, they didn’t want to wait a whole year to get the results, though. So, they figured they’d see what the diet could do in two weeks.
First, they took samples of blood to get a baseline. And then, they asked a dozen women to eat a plant-based diet for 14 days. Then, they took a second sample of blood from those same women at the end of the two weeks, so they’d kind of serve as their own controls.
Now, it was time to pit breast cancer cells against the defenses of these women, before and after eating healthy. They dripped their before and after blood upon three different lines of human breast cancer. For example, MCF-7 stands for Michigan Cancer Foundation. It’s an estrogen-receptor positive invasive ductal carcinoma, taken from a 69-year-old Caucasian woman—Sister Catherine Frances, a nun in the convent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Monroe, Michigan.
This is the before: cancer cell growth powering away at 100%. And then, this is after eating a plant-based diet for 14 days.
Now, slowing down cancer growth rate is nice, but getting rid of cancer cells completely is even better.
This is the before: measuring cancer cell death. This is the after. Pre- and post-plants.
The same blood that was now coursing through their bloodstream gained the power to significantly slow down, and stop, breast cancer cell growth—thanks to just two weeks of eating a plant-based diet.
What kind of blood do we want in our body? What kind of immune system? Do we want blood that just kind of rolls over when cancer cells pop up? Or, do we want blood circulating to every nook and cranny in our body that has the power to slow down and stop them?
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Kerry Skinner.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Barnard RJ, Gonzalez JH, Liva ME, Ngo TH. Effects of a low-fat, high-fiber diet and exercise program on breast cancer risk factors in vivo and tumor cell growth and apoptosis in vitro. Nutr Cancer. 2006;55(1):28-34.
- Ornish D, Weidner G, Fair WR, Marlin R, Pettengill EB, Raisin CJ, Dunn-Emke S, Crutchfield L, Jacobs FN, Barnard RJ, Aronson WJ, McCormac P, McKnight DJ, Fein JD, Dnistrian AM, Weinstein J, Ngo TH, Mendell NR, Carroll PR. Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer. J Urol. 2005 Sep;174(3):1065-9; discussion 1069-70.
Images thanks to Pritikin Longevity Center, and frankkeillor via flickr
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Title
Ex Vivo Cancer Proliferation Bioassay
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Today starts a three-week video series on the elegant sequence of experiments I highlighted in Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death, but didn’t have time to fully explore. So, I’m so excited to finally be able to go more in depth. If you don’t recognize the name Pritikin, my video, Engineering a Cure, might help. I first touched on these experiments in Slowing the Growth of Cancer, and Cancer Reversal Through Diet. But because Cancer Prevention and Treatment May Be the Same Thing, these findings are relevant for everyone. I’ve got an ever-growing collection of videos on cancer, including dozens specifically on cancer survival, as well videos on over two thousand other topics.
For further context, check out my associated blog posts: Top 10 Most Popular Videos of the Year; Cancer-Proofing Your Body; How Do Plant-Based Diets Fight Cancer?; Vegan Men: More Testosterone But Less Cancer; How Much Soy Is Too Much?; Increasing Muscle Strength with Fenugreek; Plant-Based Diets for Rheumatoid Arthritis; Apple Peels Turn On Anticancer Genes; Flax Seeds for Prostate Cancer; and Strawberries Can Reverse Cancer Progression.
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