Tag: Polyphenols

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Understanding Cancer Glucose Metabolism

The Role of Polyphenols and Botanicals in Reprogramming Metabolism

According to the World Health Organization, one-third of all cancer deaths are preventable through an increased consumption of natural compounds able to modulate key molecular signaling cascades that ultimately inhibit cancer cell proliferation and induce apoptosis.[1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6] 

One of the many cancer targeting effects of botanical and food compounds is their ability to increase efficiency of energy metabolic pathways and potentially reprogram cancer cell metabolism. The metabolic properties of malignant cells differ significantly from those of normal cells, providing the potential to target cellular metabolism to improve the selectivity of anticancer therapeutics.[7]

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Neuroplasticity, Brain Health, Mood and ‘Smarty Plants’

Our brains have the remarkable capacity to adapt and change throughout our lives. This ability to form and reorganize neural pathways in response to learning, experience, injury, disease, or aging is called neuroplasticity.

“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

~ Dr. Martin Luther King

Neuroplasticity helps the brain process sensory input along with creating suitable adaptive responses to stimuli. Neurons must have purpose to survive, and those with weak or ineffective connections are pruned. Through a variety of structural and molecular mechanisms, neurons compensate for injury or disease.

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Current Research into Botanicals and Cancer

As a follow-up to my post last week, Botanical Medicine: A Symphony in Harmony Against Cancer, I want to present some of the latest research into botanicals and cancer.

Researchers are investigating the potential of botanicals to treat all types of cancers, studying the use of natural compounds to prevent or reverse the process of carcinogenesis. For example, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is one of the most fatal cancers. Despite advances in the management of HNSCC, the overall survival for patients has not improved significantly due to advanced stages at diagnosis, high recurrence rate after surgical removal, and second primary tumor development. To develop approaches that can intervene at any stage of cancer development requires understanding of the crosstalk between cancer signaling pathways and networks to retain or enhance chemopreventive activity while reducing known toxic effects. Researchers are discovering that many natural dietary compounds have been identified as multiple molecular targets, effective in the prevention and treatment of cancer.1

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The Relationship of Insulin Resistance and Cancer: A Botanical Approach

It’s well known that elevated fasting blood sugar is a precursor to diabetes. Less well known, but increasingly recognized, is that elevated fasting serum glucose and/or insulin levels are also risk factors for cancer, and the risk grows as fasting blood sugar and insulin levels rise. With the escalation of obesity and diabetes worldwide, it is important to recognize these diseases as causative factors for cancer development, especially for older individuals.

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The Dangers of Commercial Sunscreens, Part 2

Sunscreen

In last week’s post, I talked about the toxicity of commercial sunscreens, and why they are bad for your health. I also mentioned that the sun is not the primary cause of skin aging and skin cancer, and promised to share my conclusions with you this week.

Despite the enormously bad press the sun has received in the past few decades, all skin damage is not the fault of the sun. The root cause of skin aging (including wrinkling, hyperpigmentation, and loss of collagen) as well as skin cancer is oxidative damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS). While the sun is one of the factors that create ROS, there are many other culprits, including external factors (air pollution and chemical exposure) and internal factors (poor diet, emotional stress, lack of sleep, and the natural aging process). ROS are believed to trigger skin cancer and photosensitivity diseases by activating proliferative and cell survival signaling that can alter apoptotic pathways (the self-destruction of abnormal cells).

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You Can Reduce Your Risk of Cancer

Nutrition to Treat Cancer

The recent detailed U. S. national report on cancer (released every two years) revealed that despite the billions of dollars poured into cancer research and innovative treatments, current approaches are not delivering on their promise of a cure. In fact, progress against the disease is excruciatingly slow, and much of the decline in cancer deaths in the U. S. is the result of decreases in smoking, not cutting-edge technological treatments.

After 25 years of research and working with thousands of people with cancer, I am convinced that the search for a “magic bullet” that will cure or eradicate cancer is misguided. As long as we continue to focus primarily on eradicating cancer, we are missing the bigger picture—the terrain in which cancer evolves.

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