Such were the findings of a new Canadian study:

But it’s not science fiction. The “new aspirin” could be Vitamin D. Just as we discovered that aspirin can guard against heart disease, Vitamin D could become a useful weapon in the fight against MS, osteoporosis, mild depression and one of the most devastating diseases of our time – cancer.

“As time has gone by, Vitamin D has raised its head as a sort of ambrosia for cancers,” says Dr. Louise Parker, an epidemiologist and a world expert in the environmental exposures that can lead to cancer. Or, in the case of Vitamin D, the lack of exposure.

“One of the most important sources of Vitamin D is from the sun and through your skin,” says Dr. Parker.

Wow, that is really promising and worth watching out for if that is really the case.

While it is true that the most important source of Vitamin D is exposure to the sun, the harmful UV rays of the sun predisposes us to skin cancer.

Will the Vitamin D in pill form circumvents that problem?

Find more details from Dalhousie University.

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Vitamin D: The New Aspirin Against Cancer?

Though the effects are not immediate, in the long run, such diet has a role on cancer prevention.

Now, there is new evidence for the protective effects of fruits and vegetables.

Researchers presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s Sixth Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention, new data that demonstrate how diets full of raw vegetables –particularly broccoli sprouts — and black raspberries could prevent or slow the growth of some common forms of cancer.

You will have to read the full article from Science Daily, but the highlights are the following:

• Black raspberries modulate markers of oxidative stress in patients with Barrett’s esophagus
• Inhibition of urinary bladder carcinogenesis by broccoli sprouts
• Consumption of raw, but not cooked, cruciferous vegetables and reduction of bladder cancer risk

I think these days nobody remains unconvinced with the anti-cancer properties of most fruits and vegetables.

Post from: Blisstree

Fruit-and-Vegetable-Rich Diet and Cancer Prevention

Heparanase Inhibitor, Potential Anti-Cancer Drug Candidate

Cancer Prevention, Diet and Functional Foods

Women Opting for Double Mastectomies

Breast Cancer Victims Subject to Hurtful Reactions

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Cancer Commentary Links 24-Oct-2007

A new theory has come up: Vitamin C may block growth of tumors by destabilizing their ability to grow under oxygen-starved conditions – according to a new study from a team from The Johns Hopkins University.

The team was alerted to a new possible mechanism of antioxidant functioning when it examined cancer cells from those cancer-implanted mice that were not fed antioxidants. There was an absence of any significant DNA damage in these mice.

This led the authors to suspect some other mechanism was involved, such as a protein known to be dependent on free radicals called HIF-1 (hypoxia-induced factor).

This new finding – published and reported this week in the journal Cancer Cell – will lead in more condition-specific and therapeutic uses for Vitamin C.

Read the full report at NutraIngredients.

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Vitamin C’s Cancer-blocking Mechanism, Proposed

Anyway, I can live with the perk the whole day, but at night time I need something to calm me down. I dare not drink coffee beyond 5 pm, otherwise, I will be awake the whole night. So, to calm me down, I usually drink (cups of) tea after dinner. Tea has that soothing effect for me, especially green tea.

We have read and heard so many health benefits from green tea already. It’s anti-heart disease benefits and most importantly, green tea’s anti-cancer benefits. In fact, if you search this blog for the keyword green tea, many entries will come out.

These latest findings on green tea gives light into the mechanism by which the chemicals in green tea can protect us from cancer:

Concentrated chemicals derived from green tea dramatically boosted production of a group of key detoxification enzymes in people with low levels of these beneficial proteins.

According to the study’s lead investigator, H.-H. Sherry Chow, Ph.D., a research associate professor at the University of Arizona:

“They actually convert known carcinogens to non-toxic chemicals, and studies have shown a correlation between deficient expression of these enzymes and increased risk of developing some cancers.

Expression of this enzyme varies dramatically in people due to genetic variation and environmental factors. Green tea catechins somehow increase gene expression of these enzymes, which can be an advantage to people with low levels to start with.”

Well, don’t we just love green tea more for the above reasons? Findings appear in the August issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention – a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

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Green Tea Defend Against Cancer-Causing Toxins

For the first time, a new study published online in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications has proven that capsaicin can kill tumor cells by directly targeting their energy source.

The Nottingham study has shown that the family of compounds to which capsaicin belongs, vanilloids, can kill cancer by attacking the mitochondria of the tumour cell, commonly known as its ‘powerhouse’, which produces ATP, the major energy-containing chemical in the body.

By binding proteins in the cancer cell mitochondria the compound triggers apoptosis, or natural cell death, without harming the healthy surrounding cells.

The compound has already been laboratory-tested in human lung cancer and pancreatic cancer cells with startling positive results.

This could only mean one thing: patients could control the onset of cancer by eating a capsaicin-rich diet. Besides, capsaicin is safe to eat and have always been part of the human diet.

According to Dr Timothy Bates, the study’s leader, a member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) College of Experts and an internationally-renowned researcher in the areas of mitochondrial research and anti-cancer drug development:

“This is incredibly exciting and may explain why people living in countries like Mexico and India, who traditionally eat a diet which is very spicy, tend to have lower incidences of many cancers that are prevalent in the western world.”

Westerners should stop being bland in their food and go spicy instead, don’t you think?

Find more details from the press release at The University of Nottingham.

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That Kick in Spicy Foods (Capsaicin) Kick Tumor Cells’ Energy Source

A significant finding according to Tulane cancer researcher Matthew Burow because of the lack of effective therapies available to women with advanced breast or ovarian cancer and that unlike some of the available therapies, the glyceollins did not stimulate uterine cancer growth.

Published in the December 2006 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, the study demonstrated that a glyceollin-rich diet can help fight breast and ovarian cancer.

Source: Tulane University

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Tulane Cancer Research Found Soy Compound A Potential Anti- Breast and Ovarian Cancer

• pterostilbene can help lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease
• pterostilbene is a powerful antioxidant that shows cancer-fighting properties similar to those of resveratrol

Such studies have been led by USDA/ARS Chemist Agnes Rimando.

Her recent study with colleagues at Poland’s University of Medical Science which tested pterostilbene (a derivative of resveratrol) and other resveratrols confirmed pterostilbene’s anti-cancer properties.

”…targeted an enzyme called cytochrome P450, which sets off a variety of compounds–known as “procarcinogens–that can turn substances such as cigarette smoke and pesticides into cancer-causing agents. Cytochromes are a factor in people’s varying responses to drugs and toxins entering their bodies.

While more studies are needed to explain the process, in this study, pterostilbene showed strong inhibitory activity (much more than resveratrol) against a particular form of cytochrome P450.

Source: USDA/ARS

[Photo Credit: www.cpq.net]

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New Cancer Inhibitor in the Limelight: Pterostilbene, Move Aside Resveratrol

However, there is actually a belief that mistletoe extract is an anti-cancer drug.

Following a case of case of a cancer patient who attended hospital with a tumour-like growth under the skin induced by mistletoe, doctors warned in an article published in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal that this is just a myth and may actually cause harm.

The theory that mistletoe might help treat cancer is based on the fact that, like cancer, mistletoe is a parasitic growth that eventually kills its host. Despite the implausibility of this idea, studies have shown that mistletoe or its main constituents do have anticancer activity.

However, many plants have some sort of anticancer activity, but in most cases the compounds cannot be used. Proponents claim that regular injections of mistletoe extract improve the natural course of cancer by slowing down or stopping tumour growth and improve quality of life.

There are patients that actually inject themselves with mistletoe extract in the hope of improving their condition.

However, there is already a wide range of serious adverse reactions listed: anaphylaxis, breathing difficulties, joint pain and kidney failure while some studies even suggest mistletoe extract may enhance the proliferation of some cancers.

Thus, making the claim that mistletoe injections have no serious risks is misleading, concluded complemetary medicine expert, Professor Edzard Ernst.

Source: Science Daily

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You can Still Kiss under the Mistletoe but it is no Anti-Cancer Drug