NMW Day 2: Cancer prevention

Cancer is some­thing we have inside of us, all of the time.

Before you google this state­ment and begin to panic, it is a simple phe­nomenon that hap­pens in our bod­ies when the nor­mal mech­an­isms for “con­trol” go wrong. Our cells have con­trolled rates of growth and con­trolled rates of death. Our bod­ies are gen­er­ally good at clean­ing out the gunk (inside and out­side cells, and even cells them­selves) when things are not work­ing properly. This is called apop­tosis.

However, like every sys­tem, things can break down and the cel­lu­lar growth mech­an­ism can go awry. Apoptotic mech­an­isms that ini­ti­ate cel­lu­lar death in unhealthy cells can become dis­rup­ted. This is how can­cer begins. Of course, I have sim­pli­fied the pro­cess for the pur­poses of this discussion.

We know there are many trig­gers that can affect apop­tosis, and that pre­vent­ing the pro­cess is key. Many trig­gers are envir­on­mental, such as heavy metal or pesti­cide expos­ure that change the chem­ical struc­ture of the DNA in the cell and thus its mech­an­isms for growth. Sometimes unchecked inflam­ma­tion in the body (which involves cel­lu­lar migra­tion and increased cell pro­duc­tion) can be a trig­ger, as hor­monal factors also can be involved. What to do?

Cancer pre­ven­tion with your natur­o­pathic doctor

Curcumin/​Turmeric

A bright spice known for its pres­ence in cur­ries and stews, tur­meric has amaz­ing anti-​cancer cap­ab­il­ity as seen in human cell lines as well as animal mod­els of can­cer. A large study begin­ning in the United Kingdom for colon can­cer and the impact on the expres­sion and pro­gres­sion of can­cer in human tri­als is now explor­ing labor­at­ory evid­ence. Well-​versed with herbal usage, natur­o­pathic doc­tors are the indi­vidu­als to speak with regard­ing the appro­pri­ate dosage of tur­meric for pre­ven­tion of cancer.

Green tea catechins

Green tea, known for the potent anti­car­ci­no­genic molecule epi­gal­loc­at­echin gal­late (ECGC) con­tent, is immensely import­ant for can­cer pre­ven­tion. For reas­ons like a caf­feine high, buck­ets of green tea is per­haps not the answer. Finding the right dosage and how to get the adequate amounts of EGCG in your body is another method of natur­o­pathic sup­port for can­cer prevention.

Vitamin C

When done intra­ven­ously for those with precan­cer­ous or cancer-​containing cells, Vitamin C is an amaz­ing tar­get for can­cer cells as it does not cause cell death to healthy cells (the way chemo­ther­apy does as an unfor­tu­nate side-​effect) but also enhances many chemo­thera­peutic treat­ments for can­cer by improv­ing the effic­acy and tar­get­ing can­cer cells. Many natur­o­pathic doc­tors are cer­ti­fied in intra­ven­ous (IV) ther­apy to assist along­side onco­logy to improve can­cer out­comes and extent lifespan.

Check out the web­site and blog of natur­o­pathic doc­tor Lyse Alschuler who her­self has tri­umphed with her treat­ments for breast can­cer, and a natur­o­pathic doc­tor cer­ti­fied in onco­logy. Bet you didn’t know that NDs can do that too!