Friday 30 August 2013

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CANCER...
After years of telling people chemotherapy is the only way to try and eliminate cancer, doctors are finally starting to tell us there is another way.
Interesting facts about cancer
  1. Every person has cancer cells in their body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion times.
  2. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
  3. Cancer cells occur in the body between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.
  4. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumours.
  5. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
  6. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
  7. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, to the liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
  8. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
  9. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation does not result in more tumor destruction.
  10. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and Radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
  11. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
  12. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.
WHAT CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
  1. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting out sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.
  2. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting out milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells are being starved.
  3. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
  4. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruit help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
  5. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which are high in caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water is best to drink purified, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
  6. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.
  7. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
  8. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like Vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
  9. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
  10. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

Thursday 29 August 2013

Long-Term Use of Some High Blood Pressure Drugs May Increase Risk of Postmenopausal Breast Cancer

The risk of breast cancer more than doubled among postmenopausal women who took high blood pressure drugs known as calcium-channel blockers for 10 years or longer, 
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women . The chance of an individual developing cancer depends on both genetic and non-genetic factors. Non-genetic factors may include diet, exercise, or exposure to other substances, including medications.
Hypertension—or high blood pressure—is a chronic condition that is often treated with medications known as antihypertensive agents. In fact, antihypertensive agents are the most commonly prescribed class. There are several different types of antihypertensive agents, including calcium-channel blockers, angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs), beta blockers and diuretics.
Although blood pressure medications are widely prescribed, data regarding their long-term impact is sparse. In order to evaluate the relationship between high blood pressure drugs and the risk of invasive ductal and invasive lobular breast cancers among postmenopausal women, researchers conducted a population-based, case-control study in the 3-county Seattle-Puget Sound metropolitan area. The study included 880 women with invasive ductal breast cancer; 1,027 with invasive lobular breast cancer; and 856 women with no cancer who served as the control group. All of the women in the study were aged 55 to 74.
The researchers gathered detailed data regarding health history, obesity, and alcohol and tobacco use as well as the history of hypertension and use of antihypertensive agents—including type, duration, and how recently the drugs were used.
Overall, the use of antihypertensive agents was not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer—regardless of whether the use was classified as current, former, or short-term. However, when the researchers analyzed the results based on the type and duration of antihypertensive therapy, they found that calcium-channel blockers had a significant association with breast cancer risk. In fact, women currently taking calcium-channel blockers who had used them for 10 or more years had two and a half times the risk of developing invasive ductal and invasive lobular cancers compared to women who never used such calcium-channel blockers and compared to users of other forms of antihypertensive agents.
In contrast, the results indicated that other types of antihypertensive agents, such as beta blockers, diuretics, and ARBs, were not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer—even when used long term.
The researchers concluded that long-term use of calcium-channel blockers may be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women.

Tuesday 27 August 2013

The Science of Smell

The sense of smell (or olfaction) is our most primitive sense and is located in the same part of our brain that effects emotions, memory, and creativity. Our sense of smell allows us to identify food, mates, and danger, as well as sensual pleasures like perfume and flowers/nature. Sudden scents, like smelling salts, will jolt the mind.

The senses of smell and taste, two of the five senses identified by Aristotle, are called “chemical senses” and are sometimes regarded as one sense rather than separate senses. About 80% of what we taste is actually due to our sense of smell. Without the sense of smell, we would only be able to recognize five tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savory. A food’s flavor can be altered by simply changing its smell, while keeping its taste the same. In fact, our sense of smell becomes stronger when we are hungry.

Aromas, scents and fragrances, good and bad smells, are all odors or odorants. An odor is a chemical dissolved in air, generally at a very low concentration, which we perceive by the sense of smell or olfaction. Odors are also called “smells,” which can refer to both pleasant and unpleasant odors. In contrast, “stench” and “stink” are used specifically to describe an unpleasant odor. The terms fragrance,” “scent,” or “aroma” are used primarily by the air treatment companies like Prolitec as well as food and cosmetic companies to describe a pleasant odor. The term “perfume” is used to refer to fine fragrances or wearable scents.
Humans are able to distinguish over 10,000 different odor molecules. When inhaled, these odor molecules travel into the nose and interact with odor eceptors. The odor receptors then transmit the information to the olfactory bulb, which is located in the brain’s limbic system. The limbic system also controls memory and emotions, and is connected to the pituitary gland and hypothalamus area that controls the release of hormones that affect our appetite, nervous system, body temperature, stress levels, and concentration.
While there is no theory that explains olfaction fully, one theory is that millions of axons or nerve fibers cover the circumference of the olfactory bulb. Depending on which nerve fibers interact with or capture the odor molecules, a pattern of activity is generated which cause the perception of a unique smell. Another theory is that odor receptor function like a key-lock system. If the airborne molecules of a certain chemical can fit into the lock, the nerve cell will respond.
Some odors are perceived as pleasant like flowers, perfumes, and cooking aromas. Some odors are called malodors because they are perceived as unpleasant, stench or stink. Malodors are like pleasant odors and caused by specific combinations of chemicals. The perception of all odors is subjective and based on cultural conditioning or emotional state.
Since the olfactory system is located in the brain, the sense of smell is closely tied to memory, mood, stress, and concentration. For example, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, doctors use fragrance to reduce anxiety during medical testing. Doctors from Duke University Medical Center are treating women in menopause with fragrances to alleviate depression and mood swings. This use of scent to affect mood or behavior is called aromatherapy.
Anosmia is the loss of one’s sense of smell. The inability to smell can lead to loss of appetite, libido, and depression linked to smell memories. Anosmia is sometimes an early symptom of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are degenerations of systems associated with the Limbic System.
The human olfactory system adjusts over time and has trouble detecting both bad and good odors provided they are not too strong. This is called olfactory adaptation and it usually takes an hour to become adapted to an odor or scent. For example, people working in a scented environment often adapt to the scent and lose their ability to detect it even if people entering the space can readily perceive it.
                                                                SCIENCE OF SMELLING

Monday 26 August 2013



Bee Venom Destroys HIV And Spares Surrounding Cells


Nanoparticles containing bee venom toxin melittin can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while at the same time leaving surrounding cells unharmed, 

The researchers said that their finding is a major step toward creating a vaginal gel that can prevent HIV spread. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

Melittin destroys some viruses and malignant tumor cells
Melittin is a powerful toxin found in bee venom. It can poke holes in the protective viral envelope that surrounds the human immunodeficiency virus, as well as other viruses. Free melittin in large-enough quantities can cause considerable damage.

Senior author, Samuel A. Wickline, MD, the J. Russell Hornsby Professor of Biomedical Sciences, has demonstrated that nanoparticles loaded with melittin have anti-cancer properties and have the capacity to kill tumor cells. 
Normal cells remain intact - the scientists showed that nanoparticles loaded with melittin do not harm normal, healthy cells. Protective bumpers were added to the nanoparticles surface, so that when they come into contact with normal cells (which tend to be much larger), the nanoparticles bounce off rather than attach themselves.

A bee
Scientists have discovered a powerful toxin in bee venom that could end up playing a crucial role in preventing the spread of HIV.
HIV is much smaller than the nanoparticles and fits in between the bumpers. When HIV comes across a nanoparticle it goes in between the bumpers and comes into direct contact with its surface, which is coated with the bee toxin, which destroys it.
Melittin on the nanoparticles fuses with the viral envelope. The melittin forms little pore-like attack complexes and ruptures the envelope, stripping it off the virus.

While most anti-HIV medications work on inhibiting the virus' ability to replicate, this one attacks a vital part of its structure. The problem with attacking a pathogen's ability to replicate is that it does not stop it from starting an infection. Some HIV strains have found ways to circumvent replication-inhibiting drugs, and reproduce regardless.

Melittin nanoparticles may prevent and treat existing HIV infections
Hood believes that the melittin-loaded nanoparticles have the potential for two types of therapies:
  • A vaginal gel to prevent the spread of HIV infection
  • Therapy for existing HIV infections, particularly drug-resistant ones
In theory, if the nanoparticles were injected into the patient's bloodstream, they should be able to clear the blood of HIV.
Melittin attacks double-layered membranes indiscriminately, making it a potential for drug therapies beyond HIV infections. The hepatitis B and C viruses, among several others, rely on the same type of protective envelope and could be targeted and destroyed by administering melittin-loaded nanoparticles.
The gel also has the potential to target sperm, the researchers explained, making it a possible contraceptive medication. The study, however, did not look at contraception.
This study was carried out in cells in a laboratory environment. However, the nanoparticles are easy to produce - enough of them could easily be supplied for future human studies.


Thursday 22 August 2013


Systemic enzymes work as anti-inflammatory

agents




Inflammation can be uncomfortable on a scale that ranges from minor nuisance to major pain; however, 
it is an important part of the body as it is the natural reaction of the immune system, the body's way 
of defending against irritations that occur. These irritations are caused by injuries, foreign substances, 
and other unnatural elements within the body. To ward off the pain of inflammation, anti-inflammatory
 medication is prescribed by doctors all over the world, but the best natural anti-inflammatory
 agents are systemic enzymes (also known as metabolic enzymes).
Enzymes are important in keeping the body's many systems running smoothly because they speed up the various chemical reactions that take place, allowing systems such as digestion to be performed at an optimal level. This is not the only function of enzymes, though, as they also work to decrease inflammation - a function that has allowed them to become a very popular natural anti-inflammatory treatment.

When an injury occurs or a foreign body is detected, the immune system responds by creating a Circulating Immune Complex, or CIC. The CIC causes the inflammation by attacking the point at which the injury or foreign body is found, attempting to rid the body of a potentially harmful substance. The pain that this causes is what initially brings the injury or other problem to the attention of individuals; however, after fulfilling this role it can continue to cause unnecessary discomfort. Systemic enzymes are able to essentially destroy the CICs that are causing this excess pain, reducing the inflammation and the pain that it causes.

Why are systemic enzymes safer than over the counter pain killers and anti-inflammatory therapies? First, the over the counter brands contain chemicals that can harm the body. Aspirin, ibuprofen, and other pain killers can cause liver, kidney, and intestinal damage. Part of this damage can be attributed to the chemicals, but part of it is due to how these therapies work. Unlike systemic enzymes, they prevent all CICs from forming. While this does attend to the pain that individuals are trying to dull, it also prevents "good" CICs from taking care of other aspects of the body, such as the intestinal lining and the proper maintenance of the kidneys.

The body contains thousands of different systemic enzymes, and the market offers a large variety of natural products that can be used to fight inflammation. Individuals seeking systemic enzyme therapy as an anti-inflammatory treatment should speak to their doctors about which brands are the most effective and should follow the directions on the label.

Systemic enzymes are an important aspect of the proper functioning of the body and have been proven to be an effective and natural therapy that reduces inflammation. For people that are in need of a safe anti-inflammatory, systemic enzymes are the wonderful method of treatment. 




 DNA repair helps prevent cancer



The biological information that makes us unique is encoded in our DNA. DNA damage is a natural biological occurrence that happens every time cells divide and multiply. External factors such as overexposure to sunlight can also damage DNA.
How DNA repair helps prevent cancer


Results from computer simulations show that it is energetically less expensive to bend mismatch-containing, defective DNA (G:T, C:C, C:T, G:A, G:G, T:T, A:A, A+:C) vs. non-defective DNA (containing A:T or G:C base pairs). DNA repair mechanisms likely take advantage of this feature to detect defective DNA based on an increased bending propensity. Credit: Michigan State University


The key here is to understand how these defects are recognized. "DNA damage occurs frequently and if you couldn't repair your DNA, then you won't live for very long." This is because damaged DNA, if left unrepaired, can compromise cells and lead to diseases such as cancer.Understanding how the human body recognizes damaged DNA and initiates repair fascinated Michael Feig, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University. Feig studied the proteins MutS and MSH2-MSH6, which recognize defective DNA and initiate DNA repair. Natural DNA repair occurs when proteins like MutS (the primary protein responsible for recognizing a variety of DNA mismatches) scan the DNA, identify a defect, and recruit other enzymes to carry out the actual repair.
A high-level atomic resolution simulations was needed. "These are expensive calculations for which we need hundreds of CPUs to work simultaneously and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) resources made that possible."
DNA chains are made of four precise chemical base pairs with distinct compositions.The research is being carried out by, Feig and his research team showed that the identification and initiation of repair depended on how the MutS protein bound with the base mismatches.
The biological repair machinery seems to take advantage of this propensity by 'testing' DNA to determine whether it can be bent easily. If that is the case, the protein has found a mismatch and repair is initiated.
"When the MutS protein is deficient in certain people, they have a high propensity to develop certain types of cancer," . research i being carried out, how exactly this protein works. The long-term idea is to develop strategies for compensating for this protein, basically substituting some other mechanism for recognizing defective DNA and enabling repair."
The strongest link between diseases and defects from the MutS protein has been made for a specific type of genetically inherited colon cancer.
"If an essential protein like MutS is missing or less than adequate, then the cells will not behave in a normal way,". "They will turn cancerous. The cells will refuse to die and proliferate in an uncontrollable state." In these cases, cancer is not a result of damaged DNA, but occurs because of a problem in the DNA repair mechanism itself.

Wednesday 21 August 2013


Discovery of cell memory mechanism

AUG 22, 2013- The cells in our bodies can divide as often as once every 24 hours, creating a new, identical copy. DNA binding proteins called transcription factors are required for maintaining cell identity. They ensure that daughter cells have the same function as their mother cell, so that for example muscle cells can contract or pancreatic cells can produce insulin. However, each time a cell divides the specific binding pattern of the transcription factors is erased and has to be restored in both mother and daughter cells. Previously it was unknown how this process works, but now scientists at Karolinska Institute have discovered the importance of particular protein rings encircling the DNA and how these function as the cell's memory.
The DNA in human cells is translated into a multitude of proteins required for a cell to function. When, where and how proteins are expressed is determined by regulatory DNA sequences and a group of proteins, known as transcription factors, that bind to these DNA sequences. Each cell type can be distinguished based on its transcription factors, and a cell can in certain cases be directly converted from one type to another, simply by changing the expression of one or more transcription factors. It is critical that the pattern of transcription factor binding in the genome be maintained. During each cell division, the transcription factors are removed from DNA and must find their way back to the right spot after the cell has divided. Despite many years of intense research, no general mechanism has been discovered which would explain how this is achieved.
 Jussi Taipale, professor at Karolinska Institute and the University of Helsinki,is behind the discovery.

 The scientist found that a large protein complex called cohesin is positioned as a ring around the two DNA strands that are formed when a cell divides, marking virtually all the places on the DNA where transcription factors were bound. Cohesin encircles the DNA strand as a ring does around a piece of string, and the protein complexes that replicate DNA can pass through the ring without displacing it. Since the two new DNA strands are caught in the ring, only one cohesin is needed to mark the two, thereby helping the transcription factors to find their original binding region on both DNA strands.                                                                                                                                                                  
Transcription factors play a pivotal role in many illnesses, including cancer as well as many hereditary diseases. The discovery that virtually all regulatory DNA sequences bind to cohesin may also end up having more direct consequences for patients with cancer or hereditary diseases. Cohesin would function as an indicator of which DNA sequences might contain disease-causing mutations.

A new biomarker for chronic stress: Hair Cortisol

AUG 22, 2013-   Cortisol is a well-known stress hormone and until recently, we have only been able to understand how stressed a person has been for about the past 20 minutes or the past day. Now, with about 100 strands of hair clipped from the scalp, we can get a biological indicator of stress over the past three months. Since hair growth approximately 1 cm per month, with 3 cms, we capture cortisol retrospectively, so we can measure "chronic" or accumulated stress.This study was conducted by the University of Massachusetts, Boston campus, in which they included students, staff, and community members.
File:Cortisol2.svg
                                     CORTISOL

 Furthermore, this research examines potential differences in biological and perceived stress by racial/ethnic identity, SES, sex and age. We obtained domain-specific indices of stress (i.e. personal perceived stress, chaos in the home and neighborhood assessments) and examined associations between CORT, subjective stress and health indicators [blood pressure and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)]. Finally, we also investigated the interactions of well-known factors associated with health disparities: racial/ethnic identity and SES with both hair CORT and the perceived stress indices as the dependent variables.
It has been found through research that the highest cortisol levels in males, the group aged 18-22 (the entire sample was 18-66 yrs.), and those who identified as an ethnic minority. Critically, we also found perceived stress was positively related to hair cortisol. Specifically, when an individual was higher across several domains of stress (e.g., stress at home, stress in their neighborhood); this was associated with higher secretion of the stress hormone. One important interpretation of this is that perceiving something as stressful, whether happening or not, can be just as meaningful on our biological reactions to stress.
An unanticipated finding was that hair cortisol levels were higher for minorities in the higher socioeconomic status (SES). Much of the literature examining the SES/health gradient posits that better health is associated with higher objective and subjective status. However, there is related evidence that minority members may not always be conferred this benefit. One interpretation is that minorities in higher SES experience greater, albeit more subtle discrimination. Researchers suggest that in high SES, race becomes more salient, along with greater instances of misunderstanding cultural differences and awkwardness during interactions.
Interestingly, CORT was associated with only one of the other biomarkers of stress, higher systolic blood pressure. Waist and WHR were not significantly associated with CORT in these data. This was unexpected, since WHR is a well-known indicator of allostatic load and has been positively associated with CORT in other research (e.g.Manenschijn, et al., 2011). The relationship between CORT and health risk indicators needs further investigation. It is not yet known whether CORT will be consistently associated with chronic health issues and reliably predictive of chronic diseases associated with allostatic load.
Since hair grows approximately 1 cm per month, capturing 3 cms of hair (about 75-100 strands) can give us a retrospective window of stress levels for the past 3 months, rather than moments or days. Hair cortisol is a promising measure of cumulative or long term stress stress. And chronic stress is quickly becoming recognized as the mediator for multiple psychological and physical health outcomes

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Vitamin D Deficiency May Raise Allergy and Asthma Risk in Obese Children, Teens

august 21, 2013 —One reason why obese children and teenagers are more likely to have hard-to-control asthma and allergies may be vitamin D deficiency, a new study finds. 
The increased risk for asthma and allergies, and for more severe cases of allergic disease, in overweight and obese adolescents has not previously been understood," said Candace Percival, MD, lead investigator and a pediatric endocrinology fellow at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD. "However, past research has shown that vitamin D is important for a normal immune system and that vitamin D deficiency is common in obese individuals."
The study, conducted in 86 subjects ages 10 to 18 years, aimed to determine whether vitamin D deficiency plays a role in the increased allergy risk in youth with excess weight.
Fifty-four study subjects were overweight or obese, as determined by their body mass index (BMI) being at or above the 85th percentile for their age and sex on growth charts. The remaining 32 subjects had a healthy weight. For each subject, the researchers calculated the BMI standard deviation, called the BMI Z-score. All subjects had a vitamin D blood test called serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and all obese subjects were vitamin D insufficient, Percival said.
She and her team also measured levels of certain hormones called adipokines that originate in fat cells. Specifically, they assessed leptin and adiponectin, which laboratory and animal studies have shown change with obesity, with leptin becoming elevated and adiponectin decreasing. They evaluated whether these two hormones correlate with vitamin D levels and, in some subjects, with the body's allergy signaling pathways -- biochemical measures of allergic disease.
A subgroup of 39 subjects (19 with overweight or obesity and 20 with a healthy weight) underwent blood tests to measure their levels of immunoglobulin E (IgE), which is one of the main players in allergic reactions. Of these 39 subjects, 36 (17 overweight/obese and 19 healthy-weight) also underwent measurements of chemical messengers called cytokines that contribute to allergy and asthma, specifically interleukins (IL) 4, 6, 10 and 13 and interferon-gamma.
The investigators found significant correlations between the severity of the subjects' obesity, the adipokine levels and some biochemical measures of allergic disease. As expected, the higher the BMI Z-score was (indicating greater obesity), the higher the level of leptin and the lower the levels of adiponectin and vitamin D, the authors reported. Obese subjects also had increased levels of IgE, IL-6 and IL-13. However, Percival said, "the relationship between the BMI-Z score and the adipokines and markers of allergic disease seemed to depend on the vitamin D deficiency seen in the more obese patients, leading us to conclude that the increased risk for allergy in obesity may be mediated by vitamin D to some degree."