Naturally Supporting Cancer Treatment

Chapter 1

What is cancer and how does it start?

It’s important for you to have an idea of how cancer starts and progresses so that you can understand how the things I’m suggesting might help you. Please don’t skip this.

Cancer isn’t like an infection, where a microbe has invaded the body. It doesn’t start outside the body. It happens when one of our own cells has a glitch. The cells in our bodies aren’t immortal. Our DNA governs when they’re supposed to self-destruct, a process called apoptosis. When cells divide, the strands of DNA are copied and sometimes a ‘typo’ happens, known as a mutation. The strands of DNA contain our genes, and each gene controls a particular characteristic. If a mutation is on a gene that manages apoptosis, then the cell can become immortal, as it does not self-destruct. Instead, it replicates itself and creates more immortal cells, producing a tumour.

The most common gene managing apoptosis is called p53 and mutations of it are involved in about half of all cancers. As an example, you might have come across the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. BRCA stands for BReast CAncer and these genes manage apoptosis in breast and ovarian tissue. If p53 mutates, sometimes it doesn’t suppress tumours any more, which raises the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers. This mutation can be inherited from either of your parents. If you have the mutation, your risk of breast cancer by the age of 70 rises from about 7% to about 50%, and your risk of ovarian cancer by the age of 70 rises from about 1% to about 30%.¹

Genetic changes aren’t reversible, but epigenetics is a relatively new science that shows that our behaviour, like diet and exercise, can change how our genes work.²

The body has several processes to prevent mutations from creating a problem. Firstly, DNA has a proof-reader that usually picks up any typos and causes the defective cell to self-destruct. If it manages to get past the proof-reader, the immune system kicks in. We have immune cells called natural killer cells (NK cells) that target cancerous cells and destroy them. But sometimes if your immune system isn’t working well that doesn’t happen either and the cell starts to divide. The result is the beginning of cancer. So a healthy immune system is crucial.

As well as being immortal, cancer cells produce their energy differently from normal cells. In normal cells, energy is produced in a 3-step process which is very efficient. The first step is called glycolysis. This step doesn’t use oxygen. It takes glucose and produces pyruvate, lactic acid (which causes your muscles to cramp if you overwork them), and 2 molecules of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (which is what cells use to store energy). The pyruvate then goes through another 2 processes, which need oxygen and can use other fuels, producing about 34 molecules of ATP and carbon dioxide.

Cancer cells, on the other hand, use mainly glycolysis.³ This means they’re very inefficient, so they need a lot of sugar to produce energy, and they produce lactic acid, which causes the environment around them to become very acidic, which they seem to prefer. In Chapter 2, I’ll show you how you can use the fact that cancer cells use mainly glucose to help kill them off. Take a look at Figure 1 below to make the process of energy production described above more clear.

Figure 1: Human energy production

Cancer cells need a blood supply to get enough nutrients to grow. So they form a network of new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis. These blood vessels also form an escape route where some of the cancer cells can break off and circulate to another part of the body, known as metastasis. There they can grow more tumours. Metastasis can also happen when cancer cells travel through the lymph, the fluid that bathes each cell.

Not all cancers produce tumours. The blood-borne cancers (leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma) are mostly in the bone marrow, which produces the immune cells. The most common treatment is a cocktail of chemo drugs, which target the bone marrow to wipe out a good proportion of the cells there and (hopefully) kill off the cancerous cells as well. This is very different from most chemo regimes, which try to save the bone marrow from being destroyed to protect your immune system. If yours is a blood cancer, it’s important not to do anything that protects the bone marrow from being destroyed if the aim of your chemo is to destroy it. I’ll highlight this as you go through the book.

That’s how cancer starts, but why does it start? What causes a genetic mutation? Generally, it’s a result of an injury or ‘insult’ to the body, which could happen because of poor diet, stress, lack of exercise, not enough sleep, or some kind of toxin. I’ll go into detail about all of those and show you how to avoid them.

Some viruses, such as Epstein-Barr (which causes glandular fever), human papillomavirus (HPV), and hepatitis B and C can also cause certain cancers. Increasing your natural immunity will help prevent those, and the advice in this book will help you do that.

There’s also an increased risk of cancers if you have chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, high cholesterol, gouty arthritis, lung disease and chronic kidney disease.⁴ All of these cause some sort of ongoing injury to the body.

Being overweight is another risk factor. Fat cells produce hormones like insulin, and growth factors that speed up the rate at which cells divide, increasing the chances of a mutation occurring. They also attract immune cells to them, which release chemicals called cytokines to ‘call for more help’, some of which can cause damage. In women after menopause, fat cells also produce oestrogen, which increases the rate of cell division in the breasts and the uterus.⁵

When an injury occurs in the body, we get inflammation. You’ll know this from when you cut yourself. The area bleeds, it quickly clots, the skin around it goes red and hot as blood reaches the area and helps healing, and it might swell as white blood cells, fluid and proteins collect there. The healing process occurs with the creation of new cells to replace the damaged ones, and the removal of debris from the damaged cells.

Inflammation is the body’s way of defending itself against injury and infection and it’s a really important process when you have an acute problem. When the injury keeps happening, though, the inflammation becomes chronic and can dramatically increase cancer risk. In chronic inflammation, the body is constantly churning out new cells. Just like a factory that’s gone into overdrive, it’s in this state that mistakes can happen and mutations can occur. Most of the time the mistakes don’t matter. They might be in a part of a gene that isn’t critical. The more often they happen, though, the more likely a serious mutation is to occur, one that can trigger cancer. So treating chronic inflammation is key to stopping cancer from developing or coming back.

References

1. Genomics & Precision Health. Does Breast or Ovarian Cancer Run in Your Family?. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/features/hereditarycancer/ . Published 2020. Accessed August 19, 2021.

2. Genomics and Precision Health. What is Epigenetics?. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/genomics/disease/epigenetics.htm . Published 2020. Accessed August 19, 2021.

3. Zheng J. Energy metabolism of cancer: Glycolysis versus oxidative phosphorylation (Review). Oncol Lett . 2012;4(6):1151-1157. doi:10.3892/ol.2012.928

4. Tu H, Wen C, Tsai S et al. Cancer risk associated with chronic diseases and disease markers: prospective cohort study. BMJ . 2018:k134. doi:10.1136/bmj.k134

5. Cancer Research UK. Does obesity cause cancer?. Cancer Research UK. https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/obesity-weight-and-cancer/does-obesity-cause-cancer . Published 2021. Accessed August 19, 2021.

Chapter 2

Tweak your diet

‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.’

– Hippocrates

Why is diet important?

According to researchers at the University of Texas, between 30% and 35% of cancer deaths are connected with diet.¹ It’s an astonishing statistic, and it made me much more optimistic about having a cancer-free future because diet is something we all have total control over.

These figures are confirmed by looking at cancer rates in different countries that have varying diets. You can see changes in cancer rates when, for example, Asian women, who have a low rate of breast cancer in their home country, migrate to the USA, where the rate is high, and change their diet. Their likelihood of contracting breast cancer increases substantially.

The rates vary according to which type of cancer you’re talking about. For example, deaths from colon cancer are related to diet in about 70% of cases. But all types are linked to diet to some extent.¹ The ideal dietary regime if you’re fighting cancer or trying to prevent it returning includes the following:

•Eat regularly and enjoy food.

•Where possible, eat organic foods and especially avoid genetically modified foods (GMO).

•Eat plenty of fresh vegetables and some fruit every day. Aim to eat at least one green, one yellow, one red, one orange and one purple vegetable or fruit every day. Hence the saying ‘Eat a rainbow a day.’

•Eat no more than 1 or 2 meals of red meat per week .

•Avoid cooking meat at high temperatures, such as barbecuing and frying.

•Include some healthy dairy products (but see my recommendations later in this chapter).

•Eat plenty of healthy fats like avocado, nuts, and fresh (non-rancid) olive and coconut oils.

•Drink plenty of water, tea (especially green tea) and herbal teas, but avoid carbonated drinks, both sugary and artificially sweetened, and alcohol.

•Avoid sugary foods, salt or artificial sweeteners.

•Eat dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa, avoid milk chocolate and white chocolate.

•Eat fermented foods like yoghurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir and kombucha.

•Avoid eating or drinking anything that interferes with your sleep.

•Avoid using non-stick (Teflon ® coated) pans to cook with, and don’t store your food in plastic. ²

Those are the golden rules. Let’s look at why each of them is important.

Have regular meals and enjoy them

Mealtimes should be an enjoyable experience, ideally shared with family and friends. This helps you relax, which in turn means better digestion. When under stress, you produce hormones that slow down digestion. In days gone by, if we needed to escape from predators, digestion was put on hold until we were safe again.

If you’re having chemo, you may have lost your appetite and you could have difficulty keeping food down. It’s important to get as many nutrients as possible because cancer can cause you to lose weight and particularly muscle mass, known as cachexia. It’s better to eat small meals more often because they’re often easier to manage. If you find that hot food makes you nauseous, look for cold foods that you can safely eat, or eat hot food once it’s cooled. Sandwiches with fillings such as tinned salmon, nut spreads or hard-boiled eggs, and some carefully washed salad vegetables might work for you.

Eat organic foods and avoid genetically modified foods

Organic foods contain between 18% and 69% higher levels of antioxidants than conventionally grown foods.³ Antioxidants counteract the effects of free radicals, also known as reactive oxygen species (ROS). Our bodies produce ROS all the time but when the levels get too high they can cause damage to our cells. This causes inflammation, which we need to avoid. We produce some antioxidants ourselves but we need a lot from our diet too.

The best-known antioxidants and some of their best sources are shown below.

Organic foods have lower levels of cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, and pesticides, which have been shown to cause DNA mutations. Organic meat, milk and dairy products also have higher levels of omega 3 fatty acids.³ The average Western diet these days has high levels of omega 6 fatty acids, which are pro-inflammatory, whereas omega 3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory.

Organic foods can be more expensive and difficult to find, although the major supermarkets have begun to stock some. Farmers’ markets are usually a good source and they sell local produce, which is usually fresher. Antioxidant levels of some foods can drop significantly if they aren’t fresh. If you can’t find any stockists locally, you might find online sources that will deliver.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a US non-profit organisation whose aim is to educate people to live healthily. They produce a guide to the foods most likely to be contaminated with pesticides. For 2021, these are, starting from the worst:

•strawberries

•spinach

•kale, collard and mustard greens

•nectarines

•apples

•grapes

•cherries

•peaches

•pears

•capsicum and chillies

•celery

•tomatoes. ⁴

If you aren’t able to buy organic produce, wash these fruit and vegetables in unperfumed Castile soap, as this will help remove any residues on the surface. Alternatively, soak them in a solution of 1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate per litre of water for about 12 minutes. After washing or soaking them, rinse with fresh water with a few drops of apple cider vinegar. This removes any soap or sodium bicarbonate and kills bacteria and fungi.

Genetically modified foods have been created to be able to withstand herbicides like glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup. Glyphosate alone was declared safe for use on foods but Roundup, which is often used by farmers, contains compounds designed to make it 100 times easier to absorb. So the safe level has been well and truly exceeded. There are no human studies showing the effects of Roundup because they wouldn’t be approved for ethical reasons, but population studies show a correlation between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Roundup use (see Chapter 6). Some states in the US have banned its use and on 29 July 2021 Bayer, who took over Monsanto, announced that Roundup would no longer be available in the US for home use. Animal studies show evidence of liver and kidney toxicity, together with effects on blood cells, spleen, adrenals and the heart.²

Labelling laws for genetically modified foods are poor, but the major genetically modified crops are canola (rapeseed), corn and soy, so I suggest avoiding these unless they’re labelled GMO (genetically modified organism) free. Organic foods are by definition GMO free.

Eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit

Eating a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fruit with different colours ensures that you get many of the vitamins and minerals you need. They also contain phytochemicals which have antioxidant properties. These can prevent damage to your DNA and counteract some of the toxic effects of your treatment.⁵

Fresh vegetables and fruit are also an important source of fibre. Constipation can be a problem during cancer treatment, and fruit and vegetables can help stop it. The body gets rid of toxins, which include medications and break-down products, via the faeces, so avoiding constipation is important.

All the evidence shows that eating more vegetables and fruit is strongly associated with a protective effect against a range of cancers, including oral, throat, oesophageal, stomach, bowel, pancreatic, lung and endometrial cancers. Vegetables offer greater protection than fruit, and raw vegetables are the most protective. Among the best vegetables are the onion family (onions, garlic, leeks, spring onions etc.), carrots, green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower), and tomatoes.⁶

Vitamin C is found in vegetables and fruit. The American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) found that foods containing high amounts probably protect against oesophageal, oral and throat, lung and stomach cancers, and may also protect against liver, bowel and pancreatic cancers.² Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, needed for regenerating other antioxidant vitamins like Vitamin E. At normal doses, it also protects DNA from mutations and prevents the formation of carcinogens.

Some fruits like grapefruit and apples contain high amounts of flavonoids, which inhibit formation of carcinogens and are antioxidant.² Grapefruit can interfere with some medications, so check with your doctor or pharmacist before eating them.

Berries are rich in ellagic acid, an antioxidant which slows cancer cell division and neutralises some carcinogens. Raspberries and strawberries are particularly good sources. Strawberries are also rich in flavonoids. The most powerful antioxidants known are anthocyanosides and they are found in purple, blue and red berries and in purple vegetables such as eggplant and beetroot.²

Cruciferous vegetables are particularly good for cancer patients. They contain compounds such as indole-3-carbinol and glucosinolates, which have anti-cancer properties.⁷ They reduce inflammation⁸ and are high in fibre. If you have a hormone-sensitive cancer, such as breast, ovarian, endometrial or prostate cancer, cruciferous vegetables can reduce the hormonal effects, and help with anti-oestrogenic and anti-androgenic therapies.⁹, ¹⁰

Cruciferous vegetables can affect your thyroid if you eat large amounts of them raw, but they’re safe to eat if you cook them, even if you have thyroid problems.¹¹ However, boiling for just 5 minutes reduces the anti-cancer effects significantly, so stir frying or lightly steaming/microwaving them for 3—4 minutes is best.²

Cruciferous vegetables include:

•bok choy

•broccoli

•brussels sprouts

•cabbage

•cauliflower

•kale

•kohlrabi

•maca

•radish

•rocket (arugula)

•swede

•turnip

•watercress.

Tomatoes contain high levels of lycopene, which is powerfully antioxidant. In vitro research shows it encourages cancer cells’ apoptosis and stops them growing, stops metastasis and angiogenesis, and is anti-inflammatory. It’s particularly helpful for anyone undergoing prostate cancer treatment.¹² Lycopene levels are higher in cooked tomatoes than raw, and adding some olive oil makes it easier to absorb.²

Mushrooms have anti-cancer properties and boost the immune system, have an antioxidant effect, block the effects of oestrogen, encourage apoptosis of cancer cells, prevent metastasis, and can even stop cancer recurrences. Not all mushrooms have this effect. Shiitake mushrooms do and are easily available.¹³ You’ll find further information about mushroom extracts in Chapter 8. Beware of eating wild mushrooms: they can be deadly.

Eat red meat no more than twice a week

Eating a lot of red meat has been convincingly linked to many cancers, especially in the bowel, but also breast, lung, endometrium, pancreas, kidney, oesophagus, stomach and bladder cancers, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Processed meats such as bacon, ham and deli meats contain nitrites and nitrates that are linked to these cancers particularly and others too.¹⁴

In 2007, the WCRF and AICR advised that red meat was a cause of colorectal cancer, and that higher red meat intake was linked to higher cancer rates.¹⁵ The same report showed there was ‘convincing evidence’ that processed meats cause colorectal cancer and ‘limited evidence’ that they cause lung, prostate, oesophageal and stomach cancers.¹⁵

In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified processed meats as ‘carcinogenic to humans’ and red meat (including lamb, goat, mutton, veal, pork, beef and horse) was classified as ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’, causing colorectal, prostate and pancreatic cancers.¹⁶ A meta-analysis of 800 studies concluded that for each 50 g portion of processed meat eaten daily, the risk of colorectal cancer rose by 18%.¹⁶

Processed meats include any meat, including beef, pork, poultry, offal and blood, that has been cured, salted, fermented, smoked or processed by any means that improves shelf-life. That includes sausages, ham, bacon, corned beef, hot dogs, beef jerky, canned and deli meats, and meat-based foods and sauces.¹⁶

Nowadays, red meat contains a lot of omega 6 fatty acids. Livestock used to be put out into the fields to graze, whereas now they’re generally raised in feedlots, where they’re fed grains. Grass-fed meat has higher levels of omega 3s than grain fed meat and is therefore less inflammatory.¹⁷ The grains that livestock are fed are quite often genetically modified too, which means they’re potentially very high in glyphosate