Tag Archives: Fighting Cancer

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research

How Does Obesity Increase Cancer Risk?

Young Couple Walking Dog
Daily walk could decrease your risk of cancer.

It seems absurd that something as innocuous as taking a daily walk could decrease your risk of cancer, as well as a host of chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes. But, as we noted in our previous post, researchers are finding that regular exercise could be the “magic pill” that saves us from a host of ills, including cancer. Exercise promotes a healthy immune system, improving your body’s ability to fight off cancer; but it is the link between exercise and obesity reductions that intrigues cancer researchers.

Affecting the health of more than a third of American adults, obesity adversely affects the body in several ways that can weaken its ability to fight off cancer and disease:

  • Obesity can change the way your body absorbs and uses energy from the food you eat, resulting in metabolic dysfunction.
  • Obesity can interfere with the process of cytokines, disrupting cell communication which can increase inflammation.
  • Obesity can also impact the body’s endocrine system, affecting production of certain hormones that can fuel cancer tumor growth.

As little as 30 to 60 minutes of brisk walking or other moderate-intensity exercise a day can be enough to promote weight loss, help maintain a healthy body weight, protect you from the deleterious effects of obesity and reduce your cancer risk. (Tip: at moderate intensity you should be able to talk but not sing.) If you don’t have the time or stamina for a 30-minute workout, experts say you can derive the same obesity-fighting, cancer-prevention benefits from several 10-minute workouts. Cumulative exercise time and exercise intensity are what matter.

Next time: Cytokines and cancer

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Could Exercise Be the ‘Magic Pill’ that Wards Off Cancer?

Senior Minority Man Working Out Set On A White Background
Could exercise fight cancer?

Exercise could be the “magic pill” we’ve all been looking for that not only thwarts the growing incidence of chronic diseases but wards off cancer. Vital to good health, physical activity offers the mind and body a panacea of healthy benefits. Exercise promotes a healthy immune system, enhances positive mind-body connection, reduces stress and aids in weight control. Regular physical activity has also been strongly linked to both cancer prevention and reduced cancer recurrence among cancer survivors.

The importance of exercise in preventing obesity appears to be the key to its importance in preventing disease and maintaining a healthy body. As CBS News recently reported in a 2-part series on the connections between cancer and exercise, decreasing your obesity risk can reduce your risk of developing a life-threatening cancer.

Not only have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked obesity, which affects more than a third of U.S. adults, to increased incidence of chronic disease, including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer; but the National Cancer Institute  has linked obesity to increased risk of specific cancers, including cancers of the esophagus, endometrium, pancreas, colon, rectum, kidney, thyroid, gall bladder and post-menopausal breast cancer.

Why does obesity have such a profound affect on our health? Obesity appears to cause significant disruption to the body’s normal metabolic functions, even interfering with basic cell processes. We’ll discuss that next time.

Issels Integrative Oncology uses beneficial immunotherapy to restore healthy, natural metabolic and cell function. To find out more about integrative immunotherapy, subscribe to our new email newsletter.

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Holistic Approach to Cancer Treatment Needed to Address Tumor Complexity

image of DNA
Tumor complexity is tied to unexpected diversity at the cellular level.

“Tumors evolve on a very simple principle; it is all about the survival of the nastiest,” Paul Workman of the British Institute of Cancer Research in London recently told The Guardian.

Their killer survival instinct may be what allows cancer tumors to eventually overwhelm traditional cancer treatments – typically within 6 months — and find new ways of replicating cancer cells. As noted in our previous post, achieving long-term remission of advanced cancer tumors and standard therapy-resistant tumors requires multiple attack paths to counteract the surprising  ability of cancer cells to change attack mode when cancer treatment interferes with their ability to reproduce.

Cancer-causing agents initiate tumor growth in several ways:

  • Trigger cells to divide and spread uncontrollably;
  • Turn off cell mechanisms that normally halt cell division; or
  • Block the DNA repair mechanisms that maintain cell health.

Given the flexibility of cancer cells to change behavior when denied their preferred method of attack, study researchers believe that a multi-pronged treatment program must be employed to effectively counteract all possible growth methods. For many cancer researchers, including those involved in the London study, this means developing new cancer drugs and chemotherapy protocols that could deliver multiple drugs simultaneously or in rapid succession in a manner similar to that used to fight HIV.

The problem with limiting cancer treatment to drugs is one of scope. Of the 23,000 human genes mapped 150 have been identified as cancer-causing agents; but drug treatments are available for only 15. Issels integrative immunotherapy looks beyond drugs, employing a variety of treatment methods that work with the body to effectively attack cancer on multiple fronts.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Probiotics May Help Prevent Cancer, Slow Tumor Growth

Probiotics may suppress the growth of bacteria that convert procarcinogens into carcinogens.
Probiotics may clinically suppress the growth of bacteria that convert procarcinogens into carcinogens.

Probiotics are live microorganisms, the “good” bacteria, that live in our digestive tract. Available in foods, notably yogurt and cheese, and supplements, probiotics are believed to not only help mitigate the deadly effects of chemotherapy, as discussed in our previous post; but may also help prevent cancer and slow the growth of cancerous tumors.

The human gut is home to more than 500 strains of bacteria whose primary role is to assist in food digestion and maintain a healthy intestinal tract. But probiotics also seem to play a role in boosting the immune system, aiding it in fighting invasive bacteria and rogue cancer cells.

One of numerous international studies linking probiotics to cancer prevention, particularly colon cancer and breast cancer, an Argentine study concluded:

“Probiotics may suppress the growth of bacteria that convert procarcinogens into carcinogens, thereby reducing the amount of carcinogens in the intestine.”

Separate Australian research that supports that finding also found:

“Probiotic bacteria and prebiotics suppress tumour development in animals” indicating a possible similar reaction in humans.

On Heal Thyself, Pat Robinson provides a comprehensive review of research linking probiotics and cancer available on PubMed.gov, the online publication of the U.S. National Library of Medicine maintained by the National Institutes of Health.

Probiotics are classed as a dietary supplement and are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. If you are considering adding a probiotics supplement to your diet, choose a supplement made by a well-known company that lists the names and amounts of the specific bacteria it contains. Current cancer patients should talk to their Issels cancer treatment team about including probiotics in their immunotherapy treatment plan.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Probiotics May Mitigate Deadly Effects of Chemotherapy

Probiotics May Help Lessen Chemo Side Effects
Probiotics May Help Lessen Chemo Side Effects

In what is being heralded as a “cancer breakthrough,” a new study revealed that maintaining a healthy intestine could be the key to surviving chemotherapy. As explained on NaturalNews.com, University of Michigan researchers have discovered that naturally produced cells found in the intestine are integral to the body’s ability to survive chemotherapy’s onslaught of poisonous chemicals.

The problem with chemotherapy and radiation in cancer treatment is that the patient is likely to die before he is cured. In a study with mice, Michigan researchers found that a naturally-occurring intestinal substance — called Rspo1 or R-spondon1 — triggers the production of stem cells.

The body’s building blocks, stem cells carry the genetic code vital to tissue creation and regeneration. When activated during chemotherapy, R-spondon1 triggered the repair of damaged intestinal tissues faster than tissues were being destroyed by chemotherapy, thus increasing chemo survival rates in experiments with mice. In the Michigan study, 50% to 75% of the mice that received R-spondon1 survived a fatal dose of chemotherapy.

Michigan researchers believe that since human and mouse intestines behave in much the same way, humans should respond in a similar manner. The key to making the system work is good intestinal health which is promoted by healthy gut bacteria. Probiotics, which promote the growth of healthy natural intestinal bacteria, create an intestinal environment that supports cell regeneration, enhancing your body’s ability to survive chemotherapy.

Probiotics could spark a new wave of body-boosting alternative cancer treatments. Just as Issels’ cancer vaccine program enhances the body’s immune system, increasing its ability to fight cancer; probiotics enhance the natural immune response of the intestinal tract, boosting the body’s ability to survive chemotherapy.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy Offers Healthy Solution to Cancer Over-Treatment

Cancer Advancements at the Genetic Level
Cancer Advancements at the Genetic Level

Scientific advancements in genetic research and screening tests now makes it possible to detect abnormalities at the cellular level; however, as previously noted, detection of an abnormality does not necessarily indicate cancer. Yet America’s defensive approach to cancer treatment encourages surgical removal and aggressive treatment of abnormalities with chemotherapy and/or radiation when a “wait and see” approach could be healthier for the patient. Radical cancer treatments carry their own medical risks. Given the onerous side effects of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, for many cancer patients the “cure” can be more damaging than the disease.

This is particularly true of certain precancerous conditions and slow growing cancers that are unlikely to impact the patient’s health during his or her lifetime. In such cases, traditional cancer treatments present a far greater risk to the patient’s health and well-being. Ongoing research will eventually increase our ability to determine which tumors require treatment and which are unlikely to be dangerous and can be watched or effectively ignored, but an alternative cancer therapy offers an immediate solution.

Integrative immunotherapy is regarded by both traditional and alternative cancer experts as the future of cancer treatment and the most likely avenue to a cure for cancer. Unlike chemotherapy and radiation which attack and can harm the body, immunotherapy works with the body, boosting the body’s immune system and its natural ability to fight off cancer cells. Even when the path of abnormal cells is not known, immunotherapy follows the primary medical precept: Do no harm. And increasing the effectiveness of the immune system may actually be a determining factor in preventing abnormal cells from becoming cancerous.