Category Archives: Cancer Risk Factors

A Link in the Puzzle: Diet, Microbiota and Breast Cancer

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

BC ribbion & L. puzzle to microbiota_Sm4LI

The microorganisms are important players in human health and disease. Specifically, as we know, the human gut microbiota contributes to colon health and various chronic conditions including obesity and colorectal cancer. Gut microbiota can also exert their effect distantly, e.g., on the brain.

In addition to previously described risk factors of breast cancer and the aforementioned findings, here I’d like to discuss how gut microbiota are tied to the risk for breast cancer in three ways.

1.      Estrogen as a causal link

Estrogen is a causal link to an increased risk of breast cancer. In particular, breast cancer risk is directly associated with high levels of endogenous estrogen and a difference in estrogen metabolism.

We also know that gut microbiota can modulate circulating estrogen levels. Conversely, estrogen-like compounds may regulate or promote certain bacterial species in a large quantity. Moreover, postmenopausal estrogen metabolism is correlated to microbial diversity.

2.      Microbiota as an active player  

Microbiota has been linked to cancer development and progression. The microbiota profile of women with breast cancer differs from that of healthy women. The breast microbiome in women with malignant disease is also remarkably different from that of women with benign disease. Additionally, in breast cancer, changes in microbial composition and totality are noted in tumor tissue, but not much in normal controls.

The differences don’t tell the whole story. Research findings show that certain gut microbes play a helpful role in breast cancer by supporting anti-cancer immunity and immune surveillance and by altering systemic estrogen levels. On the other hand, evidence indicates that dysbiosis (an imbalance of gut microbiota) has been linked to breast cancer, under which conditions a reduced metabolic ability of microbiota and a weakened immune system occur. The microbiota distress can lead to elevated levels of blood estrogens and its metabolites, thereby increasing the risk for breast cancer.

Collectively, not only composition and totality of the microbiota but also their functionalities contribute to tumor growth in the breast tissue through inducing chronic inflammation, triggering uncontrolled immune responses, and modulating hormonal metabolism such as important estrogen levels.

3.      Diet as a critical modulator of gut microbiota  

Diet can modify the composition of gut microbiota, which has a key role in maintaining gut homeostasis and is closely related to our inflammatory and immune responses. Functional foods such as prebiotics and probiotics can help your health.

So, how do you apply today’s knowledge, particularly through diet? Five key points

  • Eat more fermented foods such as yogurt or sauerkraut. They function as probiotics (i.e., “live microorganisms”) to foster good bacteria.
  • Eat abundant fiber-rich vegetables, fruits and whole grains. These foods function as prebiotics (i.e., indigestible fibers to feed beneficial bacteria). Beyond their basic nutrition and anti-inflammatory capacity, they have a positive effect on the composition of gut microbiota, and facilitate a lowered reabsorption of estrogens.
  • Avoid or limit meat-rich and sugar-rich foods, processed foods, sweetened beverages, and artificial sweeteners.
  • Consume real foods, not dietary supplements. Take supplements like probiotics or prebiotics only when necessary. Consult with your physician first regarding your need.
  • Practice personal health hygiene. Hygiene is one of several factors that determine the composition of gut microbiota (besides age, race, diet, genetics, environmental exposures, and antibiotics usage).

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In summary

Pathophysiological alterations in the composition and totality of the microbial community, along with abnormal changes in the cells, have a significant impact on cancer development.

To prevent breast cancer, one fundamental strategy is to modify individual estrogen metabolism, and achieve this through lifestyle modification and/or chemopreventive approach, particularly through diet. A healthy, balanced diet can keep gut microbiota in a dynamic balance with your body and mind.

Key reference:

Fernández MF, Reina-Pérez I, Astorga JM, Rodríguez-Carrillo A, Plaza-Díaz J, Fontana L. Breast Cancer and Its Relationship with the Microbiota. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018;15(8). pii: E1747. (Review)

 

Image credit: Pixabay.com and CPD

 

Be Vaccine-Vigilant, Not Vaccine-Hesitant

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Calendar w-Vaccination_svc.eduThe latest victims of misinformation are hundreds of cases of measles outbreaks. Based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been a confirmed 764 cases of measles from January 1 to early May this year in 23 US states.

Obviously, there is a growing public health threat from measles. I’d like to highlight 5 key points why measles vaccination is critical:

  1. Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by morbillivirus. Severe complications and death can result from measles infection.
  2. Yet some parents resist or hesitate vaccinating their children with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR). However, they should have peace of mind based on solid science: MMR is very safe and effective in preventing measles, mumps, and rubella. There is NO evidence that measles vaccination causes autism, period.
  3. The World Health Organization (WHO) placed vaccine hesitancy on the list of the top 10 threats to global health in 2019. Measles remains a common disease in many parts of the world, and unvaccinated people can get infected. Such people may be at risk of being exposed to and contracting measles on their next international trip or while on a cruise ship.
  4. Take viral infection seriously because virus infection is a well-known cause of cancer in humans. Some common examples: hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a primary carcinogenic agent of liver cancer; human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cancers of the cervix, anus, oral cavity, and pharynx. Simply and conclusively, chronic inflammation as a result of persistent viral infection significantly increases the chance of cancer development.

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  5. Last but not least, understand that there is misinformation circulating across the Internet, and it comes with a price of some sobering health consequences. Be aware and cautious with what you read. Trust reputable medical authorities and consult your physician when in doubt.

The thoughtful bottom line is:

It is a risky and even dangerous choice not to get children vaccinated. It can endanger the health of a child, the family, neighboring kids and adults, all unvaccinated individuals, and the community as a whole. Significantly, it can also harm very vulnerable cancer patients whose immune functions are compromised.

So rather than being vaccine-hesitant, become Vaccine-Vigilant.

Image credit: https://lookingglass.svc.edu

Sensible Caring for a Healthy Heart and Healthy Body

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Heart & Lifestyle_Clipart-CPDFebruary is a month filled with love, festival events, and health observances, including the Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, Black History Month, World Cancer Day, and Heart Health Month.

In addition to sharing love and celebrating festivities, let’s direct our love to two major health issues.

Consider the top two killers in the US—heart disease and cancer. Heart disease causes about 23% of all deaths, and cancers about 22% of all deaths.

Not long ago, one of my husband’s associates described her story of a heart attack. It was not as dramatic as the kind of sudden onset that you often see on TV or read about in the newspaper, but it was indeed a vivid and a life-or-death event. To cut a long story short, her feeling of fatigue, nausea, and left shoulder pain led her to a hospital ER at her husband’s urging. Once there, she suddenly became unconscious at one point during tests and treatment, with a “flat-line” on the electrocardiogram (ECG) that lasted for three to four minutes. Fortunately, the medical team was able to revive her heart using treatments including shocks by a defibrillator and chest compressions.

The incident, consistent with what science tells us, shows that heart attack is not an old man’s disease; it doesn’t discriminate between genders or among ages. A fairly healthy middle-aged lady may experience a heart attack. Strikingly, symptoms of heart attack differ in men and women, particularly the fact that the typical chest pain or chest pressure commonly seen in men may not be a major complaint in women.

The incident reminds us of what is termed a silent heart attack. This is a heart attack without apparent symptoms that can go unnoticed. However, it may be detected by ECG during a routine check-up or a visit for some reason at a clinic.

The incident also reinforces how essential it is to learn the risk factors for heart disease and live a healthy lifestyle. Heart disease and cancer have some common risk factors, esp. those modifiable ones, a healthy lifestyle can offset them. So, every step counts and every choice counts.

Let me take hypertension as an example, because it’s a known “silent killer.” High blood pressure initially doesn’t have symptoms and doesn’t affect daily functions until after it has done severe damage to the heart and vasculature. Hypertension is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Although a causal link between hypertension and cancer has not been established, hypertension and hyperlipidemia are common among patients with cancer. High blood pressure is also associated with an increased risk of developing cancer.
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However, when digging deeper, we find that salt (sodium, diet salt) is a sneaky, slow, and silent killer. More salt intake can increase blood pressure. Average Americans’ daily salt intake exceeds the recommended amount of <2300 mg/d or 1 teaspoon measure, with about 75% of salt coming from hidden sources—particularly processed and packaged foods. Ideally, it’s better to limit salt consumption to <1500 mg/d, as American Heart Association advised.

Take another example, stress. Stress is inescapable in modern life. However, uncontrolled or chronic stress poses a higher risk for the development of hypertension and heart disease. Furthermore, a higher level of stress hormone cortisol in the blood can exhaust or compromise immune system—fundamental defense that keeps cancer at bay.

Therefore, rethink stress and reduce stress. When facing demanding tasks or difficult situations, stop and smell the roses, or at least stop and take a few deep breaths, telling yourself “all shall pass.” Plus, apply any stress-relief techniques that work best for you.

Taking everything into account, there is a lot you can do to lower your chance of having heart disease and cancer. Whatever steps you take, make it attainable and stick with it. And if you stray, get back on track as quickly as you can.

Remember: On your journey each day you have a silent partner—your immune system. You can strengthen it by consuming a healthy diet and drink, daily exercise, adequate sleep, and keeping a positive attitude and a joyful spirit. Collectively, these approaches help you prevent both heart disease and cancer.

The bottom line is –

Your heart health and overall wellness deserve your attention all year long, not just on one day or one month.

 

Image Credit: Clipart and CPD

 

What Holiday-Indulging and Junk-Eating Have in Common

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Holiday Meal-2_Oxford w-LinkHave you ever thought or said “I only eat this much around the holidays”?

Well, I confess it first.

Often many of us gave ourselves excuses for holiday indulging, especially when eating healthy all year long. Yes, it’s OK to indulge occasionally. Occasional indulging may not have a long-term impact on your health as long as you live a healthy lifestyle with well-balanced diet and regular exercise.

However, I’d also like to remind you that overeating does matter, particularly for those who adore heavy holiday eating or drinking, because delightful drinks, delicious foods have a dark side in hiding. There is no big gap between regular junk foods and loaded festive meals, in terms of harm to your health.

The damage could be different in a time-fashion, a diet with junk foods contributes to various chronic illness such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, whereas holiday heavy eating or drinking may trigger unforeseen heart attack or heart failure. So, do you see a grave consequence they share?

You can also examine what festive meals and junk foods have clearly in common. Both

  • contain food with high fats, high sugar and high salt, and sugary drinks as well.
  • mix up with alcohol over-consumption.
  • accompanied by stress-eating.
  • implicate extra calories intake resulting in weight gain. Then for some folks, those pounds are not easily shedded off.

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Time after time, holidays after holidays, a gradual weight gain becomes considerable weight gain, overweight or obesity. Obesity mostly comes in an accumulative way, but it is a major risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Now consider if you are having a health issue or an unhealthy eater, then imagine how unfortunate the cost would be to over-indulge during holidays.

Briefly, overindulging (alcohol, junk foods or festive meals) is never good. Overindulging, even overindulging chocolate – which contains some health values – is not worthy, either.

The bottom line is –

Holiday indulging is not trivial. To get more health benefits from food and family time, make it easier just by being mindful when you eat and joyful when you move.

Equally important as smart eating is – blissful when you gather, and peaceful when you rest. After all, it’s the most wonderful time of the year – as we sing the song.

 

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TARCO – A Tool for Your Lifestyle Transformation

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Tools for Health Management_CPDYou say you want to have a healthy lifestyle to prevent cancer and heart disease, but abandoning unhealthy habits can be hard?

I hear you. So I want to suggest a tool I believe can help you achieve that healthy lifestyle you want and need. I call it TARCO, which stands for Trigger, Auto-Responder, Choice, and Outcome.

Before I show you how TARCO can help you ditch an old habit and transform to a new, more healthful one, let’s take a moment to talk about the horrible realities that can result when bad behavior is in play.

A few examples:

Smoking is a bloody wound. That wound hurts because you are bleeding, painful and injured, and worse, because deep inside and invisible it may be causing smoke-brewed cancer and/or the clogging of your arteries that can lead to heart attack.

Eating junk food is an addiction to SAD (Standard American Diet). The “toxic craving” may satisfy your taste or convenience, but it is dangerous because the prescription of animal fats, sweetness, and salts promotes weight gain and the development of many chronic diseases.

Tanning is a fever caused by vanity—caring about one’s appearance so much you allow yourself to be baked with UV radiation. It is dangerous because a hidden scar or lesion is roasted by a known carcinogen, and skin cancer finally surfaces.

So, how do you stop bleeding, the SAD addiction, or the burning? Stop the source. Specifically, to embrace a lifestyle change, work on the trigger (or triggers) to the unhealthy habit, and eliminate it or at least avoid it.

Triggers are ubiquitous in life, and inevitable.

Triggers that are relevant to health may consist of physical, psychological, or emotional signals, or inducements from the social environment.

For example, stress is often a major trigger, leading you automatically to smoke more or drink more or eat more fats and sweets. Any of these risky behaviors can be viewed as an auto-responder or a default mode that results in negative health consequences. At the same time, the behaviors themselves tend to make the stress worse, further exacerbating the unhealthy behaviors and their consequences.
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Now let’s switch to choices.

If you desire better health and are resolved to achieve it, you have various choices in responding to stress. Instead of reaching for that cigarette you feel you need, you can take a walk, take some deep breaths, or take a bath to alleviate the stress. Instead of going for that extra piece of cake you are craving, you can choose to keep a healthy, fiber-rich energy bar handy to substitute for the more harmful alternative. Choices are always available.

If you reinforce new behaviors so they develop into new habits, you improve your wellness in a new direction and with rewarding results.

Not all triggers are easily identified.

To find an original trigger, sometimes you need to retrace the steps, recount the environment or emotions, in order to discover what established the trigger in the first place. Then break away from the old “auto-responder” behavior.

For example, returning to stress, ask yourself what triggers your stress? Maybe it is anger with a situation, frustration from a demanding boss, or anxiety over your finances. Finding that trigger(s) may take some clear-eyed digging! Honest, not selective.

And remember: triggers are unavoidable, but they weaken when you identify them and realize that your choices are within your control.

Finally, as a sum-up for TARCO

Take some time to reflect on your work and personal life, examine what triggers initiate your auto-responders, and ask what can you do differently. Choose new choices that are specific, realistic, and immediately actionable. By fortifying a healthy lifestyle to counter an unhealthy one, you are bound to receive beneficial outcomes for your precious health and quality of life.

Cheers for your effort and success!

 

Care about Childhood Cancers

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Think about Childhood CancerYour cute baby girl is your joy of life, yet she is suffering from leukemia. A neighbor’s little boy with a gorgeous smile just completed his cancer treatment. Sadly, many precious young lives have been taken away by childhood cancers…

If you’d like to learn ways to protect children from cancer, to help childhood cancer patients, and/or to improve the quality of life for pediatric cancer survivors, you came to the right place.

Let’s start with the challenges of childhood cancer patients and survivors.

Unique risk factors

Children are not “small adults”. In general, their care challenges are attributed to multiple factors, including their growth and development, psychological features, health condition, socioeconomic status, family and cultural dynamics, nurture at home and support outside of the home.

Childhood cancers are full of complexity and unknown. However, some known risk factors for childhood cancer have been established – mainly genetic and non-genetic ones.

Genetic or inherent risk factors include parental age, birth weight and congenital abnormalities. Some pediatric cancer incidences also vary by age, sex, and race or ethnicity.

Non-genetic factors are controllable and preventable, such as

  • High-dose radiation (The human fetus is very sensitive to radiation)
  • Prior chemotherapy
  • Exposure to environmental toxins or carcinogens, pesticides and air pollution
  • Exposure to infections – especially related to risk of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)
  • Pre- and perinatal lifestyle factors: parental diet, maternal smoking, alcohol or marijuana use, maternal medication, etc.

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Things we can help

Keeping these risk factors in mind, each of us can do our part at each stage of a child’s life. Here is a list of things:

  1. Take a good care during pre-conception and pregnancy period. Unhealthy diet, maternal tobacco or alcohol use, medications and radiation are among the casual link of environmental factors to childhood cancer risk. Particularly, maternal smoking during pregnancy is associated with not only childhood cancer but also weight problems, other health and behavior issues. Avoid or minimize your exposure to second-hand and third-hand smoke too.
  2. Eliminate toxins and carcinogens from home and environment at large. Endless exposure to toxic chemicals through air, water, foods, and products results in a serious impact on public health. Then imagine the threat to pediatric cancer patients and survivors as well as all children, how harmful an early life exposure to toxic chemicals can affect their health decades later. It’s critical to underscore that only a small number of chemical exposures are known – leaving the unknowns are our exposure to many more chemicals in daily life and disease consequences. That’s why environmental protection is vitally important, and a green planet signifies healthful generations.
  3. Get genetic consultation if you question any genetic abnormality. Evaluate how parents’ occupational, environmental, medical or other exposures may contribute to a child’s cancer risk.
  4.  Prevent childhood obesity. This should start as early as possible. Maternal smoking during pregnancy has been linked to childhood obesity, and that may pose a risk to develop obesity in adult.
  5.  Monitor and control kids’ screen time. The radiation emitted from cell phone has been proposed as “a possible carcinogen for humans” by International Agency for Research on Cancer, though controversies still exist. Given the fact that it poses a cancer risk and cell phone exposure or use often begins from an earlier age, it’s wise to keep cell phone safety in mind.
  6.  Ensure overall health status, such as promoting healthy lifestyle, enough sleep and sun protection.
  7.  Foster individual hygiene and infection prevention.
  8.  Get vaccinated. Parents should encourage and educate their children/teens to have vaccinated against HPV and practice safe sex.
  9.  Team up care from society such as in the school setting and community setting. Family dynamic considerations, socioeconomic status or poverty, violence issues are various factors that contribute to pediatric health challenges.
  10.  Advocate healthcare models or payment changes to ease financial burdens of childhood cancer treatment, and to drive disease prevention.

Last but not the least, improve care and support for pediatric cancer patients and survivors, including all generations of these individuals (i.e. some of them are adults now). Consider what would their life after cancer look like – because of some painful and practical challenges they are facing in daily lives.

Let me elaborate a little more on this. Thanks to medical and technological breakthrough, 5-year survival rates for childhood cancer patients exceed 80%. However, the long-term effects of cancer and its treatment on the quality of life take a huge toll among these survivors.

Specifically, because their treatments take place when they are very young, especially during vulnerable periods of development, the complications from cancer treatment have significant, long-lasting health impacts on these children. The complications of cancer therapy range from impaired growth and development, neurocognitive and psychosocial deficits, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine organ dysfunctions, and gastrointestinal problems.

In addition, children who survive their initial cancers remain at risk for having a cancer recurrence or developing new cancers (secondary malignancies), yet a majority of cancer survivors do not receive risk-based care.

Summary 

Cancer impacts our children’s well-being and life. We all have the responsibility to take care of children, and to protect them from a variety of dangers, including interruptions during pregnancy, genetic anomalies, perinatal injuries, congenital defects, malnutrition, environmental hazards, infections, poverty, violence, and trauma. So, we can do a lot to help address their unique needs and find solutions when we open our hearts and minds.

Please share your thoughts and let us know how we can help pediatric cancer patients – via

Support@CancerPreventionDaily.com  OR http://www.cancerpreventiondaily.com/contact/

 

Image credit: https://www.pixelsquid.com; http://www.icpcn.org; CPD

 

Go Beyond Knowing Obesity Is Bad (Part 2)

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Warn-Danger Fats_FitWtCare & CPDWhat comes to your mind when you hear “Belly fat”?

Call it “Belly fat” as you like, but what I’m specifically talking about is visceral fat, the fat stored deeply inside your abdominal cavity and around your organs – unlike subcutaneous fat (under your skin) that’s visible and pinchable. (Image Credit: FitWeightCare)

Fat on Visceral Organs (i.e. intra-abdominal fat)

Everybody likely has visceral fat whether knowing it or not. but how much is too much?

Although visceral fat can only be measured by CT and MRI now, if you or your loved ones have an overhanging belly and large waist, that’s a warning sign of dangerous fat inside. That said, it doesn’t exclude relatively lean (with normal waistline) folks.

So, how dangerous is visceral fat exactly?

Visceral fat has deleterious effects on a variety of your organs and their functions. Clearly, it is attributed to increased inflammation by provoking inflammatory pathways and releasing pro-inflammatory chemicals. Also, extra visceral fat is strongly linked to insulin resistance and metabolic diseases, and to an elevated risk of death, even for people who have a normal body mass index (BMI).

Carrying around excess visceral fat increases a risk for a long list of chronic conditions or diseases including, but not limited to –

  • Coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke
  • Cancer
  • High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and high blood glucose
  • Obesity – making it hard to lose weight
  • Type 2 diabetes – due to insulin resistance
  • Dementia
  • Depression and mood problems
  • Sleep disorders (e.g. sleep apnea)
  • Endocrinal, sexual dysfunction
  • Arthritis

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Here, I want to lay emphasize on cancer, as cancer’s impact on public health is increasingly prevalent. Excess visceral fat is a risk factor for several cancers of the gastrointestinal system, particularly esophageal, stomach, small intestine, colorectal, pancreatic, liver and gallbladder cancers. This is because overloaded adiposity is associated with fat tissue-derived inflammation, alterations in insulin signaling and sexual hormones’ pathways, then turning normal cells into cancerous ones. Moreover, visceral obesity is greatly associated with breast cancer.

Fat’s Influence on Other Vital Organs (e.g. brain)

Just because visceral fat is wrapped around abdominal organs such as the pancreas, liver and kidneys, it doesn’t mean that its damaging effects are local. For instance, liver fat may have a direct association with brain aging or shrinking. What’s more, greater visceral fat is correlated with a smaller total brain volume, which has been linked to neurodegenerative processes, and used as one of predictors for dementia.   

Excessive visceral fat results from a combination of hormonal, dietary, lifestyle (i.e. sedentary), and genetic factors. Now you can see how any big belly and large waistline are unhealthy.

Obesity and Aging   

As we get older, we store more visceral fat, because changes in body composition occur and co-morbidities accumulate. However, hopefully by now, you’ve come to the realization – simply accepting a growing midsection as an unavoidable product of aging may ignore or tone down your health risks.

On issues of aging and obesity, it’s inevitable not to touch on the gut microbiome, the microbial communities inhabiting the human body and containing a diverse array of microbes (in trillions).

The gut microbiota has emerged as a crucial regulator between how our food interacts with our body. They modulate how we balance levels of blood sugar and how we store fat, as well as how we respond to hormones. They play a key role in obesity.

As we age, altered gut microbiota in their composition and metabolites (called Dysbiosis) occurs. Science reveals that our gut microbiota undergoes the most prominent changes during infancy and old age, and profoundly, our immune health is also in its weakest and most unstable state during these two critical stages of life, indicating that the gut microbiota and immune function develop hand-in-hand with age.

Sure enough, with aging, levels of inflammatory mediators in the blood rise, and hence age-associated inflammation becomes a strong risk factor for morbidity and mortality in elders. It turns out that the gut microbiota may act as invisible yet important players in chronic inflammation.

Aging-associated dysbiosis can promote intestinal barrier’s broken-down, systemic inflammation and immune dysfunction, which all contribute to the pathogenesis and progression of various diseases commonly seen in old people such as obesity-related disorders, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Age-related changes in the gut microbiota have also been associated with various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders due to disturbed gut-brain communication.

Clearly, the gut microbiota can have a potent impact on human health and diseases.  But to date, there is no knowledge on “Which” gut microbe is doing “What”, “Why” and “How”. Without doubt, we can anticipate to learn more soon as a remarkable pace of scientific research is going on.

The Key Point Is –

If fats deposit where they should not be or more than they should be, then that will change a physiological condition to a pathological one through the effects of inflammatory chemicals. Excess body fat is like an inflammation-pumping machine.

For this reason, any extra fat – from both body and diet – any big belly or larger waistline poses a hidden risk. With obesity, people carry not only fat or weight but pain and health consequences.

Obesity is serious, regardless of the debate whether obesity is a disease or a condition. Obesity is just as significant as high blood pressure and high cholesterol – while none of them are actual diseases (but symptoms), all need to be medically treated lest they lead to termed “diseases”.

Indeed, causes of obesity are multifactorial and complex. However, for some, obesity is caused by genetic factor(s) and could be a life-long condition, which needs to be medically treated and individually managed. 

Doses of Wisdom for Prevention

Obesity, in most cases, is a modifiable and preventable. Lifestyle, diet and physical activity are key factors to prevent, ease or slow down obesity even with aging.

So, please don’t see obesity as a death sentence, because it’s not.

Nutritional and physical approaches, that are within your control, can prevent dangerous fat buildup, and thus lower a risk for obesity as well as chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Furthermore, getting a good night sleep and reducing stress are also beneficial for a healthy weight, because the stress cortisol can increase the amount of visceral fat your body stores.

Ultimately, consider to recruit your hidden microbial players, keeping them in harmony and happy, which could help your weight control. 

Bonus: Valuable Principle on Diet

An optimal diet to manage obesity should be individual-focused and ensure a long-term maintenance of weight loss, along with the diet that’s safe, efficient, nutritionally adequate, culturally acceptable and economically affordable.

Critically important and specifically effective are diet plans including low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-calorie but high-protein, high-fiber diet, and Mediterranean diet. Without fail, go for fiber-rich foods (e.g. fruits, vegetables and whole grains), because they are essential to boost growth and activity of beneficial gut microbiota.

Remember low-sugar diet too, as research findings indicate that a high-sugar diet increases visceral fat in humans and animals.

References (including Pt. 1 & Pt. 2) Click here

Image Credit: by FitWeightCare, CPD

 

Why It Is Dangerous to Ignore Infections

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Pathogens_comboWith the arrival of warmer weather and summer, people get active, and so do lots of bacteria and pathogens. This is important to remember whenever you are on vacation or just enjoying the outdoors. And it is why I want to emphasize the danger of infections and the value of prevention.

Infections are everywhere and occur in many types, including flu, food poisoning, tick-borne Lyme disease, and any form of -itis (e.g., meningitis and hepatitis). The consequences of infections vary too, from a temporary harmful or sick condition to long-term diseases and disorders.

Evidence is mounting that infectious agents (e.g., bacteria and viruses) can lead to cancer. Here I’d like to highlight the role of infection in cancer and, to some extent, in chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Role of bacteria in cancer

There is a significant association between bacterial infection and cancer. For example, the following bacteria are responsible for an increased risk of certain cancers:

-          Helicobacter pylori is linked to stomach cancer

-          Chlamydia pneumonia, to lung cancer

-          Chlamydia infection, to ovarian cancer and cervical cancer

-          Neisseria Gonorrhoeae, to bladder, ovarian, and prostate cancer

Notably, some bacteria strains—specifically, Bacteroides fragilis and Escherichia coli—are involved in developing colon cancer, especially the hereditary type. This is because the two strains can bypass the gut barrier, which acts as an intestinal guardian, and reach the epithelial cells (cells that line the insides of organs, including the gastrointestinal tract), turning these cells cancerous.

Role of viruses in cancer

A growing body of knowledge indicates that viruses can cause cancer. Here are some well-documented examples:

-          Hepatitis B virus, can lead to liver cancer

-          Hepatitis C virus, to liver cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma

-          Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), to anal and cervical cancer, Kaposi sarcoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma

-          Human papillomavirus (HPV), to cancers of mouth, pharynx, anus, cervix, vulva, vagina, ovary, and penis, as well as lung cancer.

-          Human herpes virus type 8 (Kaposi sarcoma herpes virus), to Kaposi sarcoma

-          Epstein bar virus (EBV; Herpesviridae family), to lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, gastric cancer, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Cancers occur when the genetic material (DNA) within the cells develops mutations that lead to uncontrolled cell growth. The mutations may result from damage in DNA structure or errors in DNA replication. However, viruses can insert themselves into the cell’s DNA, causing the same mutation and consequence.

An estimated 12 to 20% of human cancers are caused by viruses. Because there is no vaccine available for some viruses, prevention is critical to protect you from cancer risks.

Role of pathogens in Alzheimer’s disease

It is intriguing that increased bacterial populations and different proportions of specific bacteria are found in Alzheimer’s, compared with healthy brains. These findings suggest that bacterial infection and neuro-inflammation in the brain may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

Lyme disease is caused by a bacterial infection and is a tick-borne disease. Ticks infected by spirochetes bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi) transmit Lyme disease through a bite on hosts such as humans, deer, mice, and pets.
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Interestingly, spirochetes bacteria that are linked to Alzheimer’s disease are the same type that causes Lyme disease. Coincidental or not, both diseases display brain inflammation and memory loss.

Although two hallmarks, amyloid b plaques and neurofibrillary tangles with protein tau, are considered the major contributors to Alzheimer’s disease, the Amyloid b-Tau-Inflammation pathway might provide a closer fitting to pathogenesis of this neurodegenerative disease.

Role of Inflammation

Inflammation is a reaction to bacterial or viral infection. However, when chronic immune-stimulated inflammation persists, it becomes a toxic driver of chronic illnesses, causing cells in vital organs to dysfunction or degenerate.

Again, infection may be gone, but the inflammation may remain.

Consider that H. pylori—a bacteria causing gastritis, gastric ulcer, and cancer—infects the gastric ecosystem in 50% of all humans. Once H. pylori settles in the gastric environment, it stays for the lifetime of a host.

Another example: An association between the spirochetes bacteria (carried by ticks to cause Lyme disease) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma has been observed, though the findings are inconsistent. However, the point is – as seen in Lyme disease, chronic inflammatory response plays a part of cancer cell signaling in lymphoma.

Collectively, it’s evident that a variety of infectious agents are linked to numerous chronic diseases. Infection and subsequent chronic inflammation can increase the risk of cancer. Therefore, it is crucial to eliminate the cause of infection when it arises by getting timely treatment. The best measure you can take before infection occurs is to prevent infection in the first place.

Finally, some main preventive strategies and tips

1.      Be hygiene-conscious. Wash your hands—a very important health practice. Sounds simple, right? However, not everybody does it. Let me elaborate a bit more, because good hand-washing is very effective for blocking a contact-oral or fecal-oral route of infection.

First, wash frequently, especially after the bathroom, handling trash, or touching any dirty surfaces, and before eating food. Wash thoroughly, with soap over the entirety of the hands, not just a quick rinse of the palms.

I always recommend to wash hands after touching cash. The concern with cash is not how many people have touched it, but who, i.e. whether pathogen carriers have handled it—a huge unknown that makes cash potentially contagious.

Equally important is to teach kids to do so; it takes time to develop habits. Cultivating this heathy habit provides them considerable lifelong protection.

2.      Maintain food hygiene. One way germs enter a human body is by mouth. So carefully watch what you eat and drink. For example, wash fruits and vegetables before eating, and cook meats, fish, and seafood fully. It’s also better not to share utensils.

Intake of contaminated food or water can result in salmonella infection or becoming infected with other pathogens such as hepatitis virus (HAV). And it takes at least boiling, i.e. 100oC (212oF) to kill the hepatitis virus. That’s why chewing ice cubes is not always “cool” unless you know the exact water source that made the ice.

3.      Become vigilant on the hygiene of your surrounding area. This includes from keeping clean the kitchen area where foods are prepared, to preventing hospital-associated infections, etc. When traveling, be aware of germy surfaces such as door handles and keypads used for many cashless tasks or transactions.

4.      Practice sex hygiene. Sexually transmitted infections can lead to cancer and death, and not all of them can be cured. Get immunized, get to know your partner, and apply safe measures to reduce the risk of infections.

5.      Get vaccinated. Vaccination is important because it helps protect not only you, but also the people around you and communities.

6.      Support your immune function and minimize inflammation. Your immune system is the front line of your body’s defense against toxins and diseases, including cancer. See previously covered solutions and tips for effective immune-boosting at CancerPreventionDaily.

In brief, practicing good hygiene and developing habits that foster strong immunity are beneficial for your long-term health.

 

Image credit: mstechkmedlin.weebly.com; PetMD

 

Our Well-being and Earth Health –– Environmental linking from cancer to lung and autoimmune diseases

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Green Earth_1144864_Ten_aEarth day (April 22) is celebrated once a year around the world for raising awareness to appreciate our planet and protect the natural environment.

Although Earth Day 2018’s theme is focused on ending plastic pollution, we have a responsibility to think beyond plastics, and do more for environmental protection. Here is one of the reasons:

Pollution from macro- and micro-environment is tightly and significantly connected to public health. Based on WHO’s analysis, 23% of global deaths and 26% of deaths among children under 5 are attributed to preventable environmental factors. 

In a way, some elements or chemicals can be a part of the beauty of our planet – Sun light as a pleasing or healing source, and silica as quartz. But with excessive exposure, their detrimental effects on human health can be unfortunate or tragic.

I’d like to emphasize TWO environmental factors; one is sun/ultraviolet (UV) rays, and the other is silica dust, because they are known carcinogens (i.e. cancer-causing agents), classified by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Also, they have broader and more harmful effects on your body.

Take UV Radiation as an example first.

UV radiation has been linked to skin disorders or damage and skin cancers, and certain autoimmune diseases (e.g. systemic lupus erythematosus, myositis). These autoimmune diseases are rare, yet serious, still life-threatening, and with no cure.

Let me make it very clear here. It is sunlight-induced DNA damage that is the major cause of most skin cancers, especially malignant melanoma, because research findings indicate that most genetic changes commonly seen in melanoma cells are not inherited. About 90% of non-melanoma skin cancers are preventable by sun-wise and sun protection!

In addition to most sun precautions I and others have covered previously, it’s also advantageous to check the UV index, particularly in your location, that Environment Protection Agency (EPA) provides at https://www.epa.gov/sunsafety/uv-index-1 for your sun safety.

Then let’s look at Silica / Silica Dust. (Only a brief outline, as it’s not the focus of this post)

Silica is naturally distributed in almost all rocks, sand, soil, and bricks or concrete products. Exposure to inhalable silica dust can occur from both occupational (e.g. construction, drilling, grinding, etc.) and non-occupational sources, i.e., workplace, communities, and your home.

Diseases from this outdoor and indoor air pollutant (or contaminant) include:

  • Silicosis, asthma, and Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • Cancers of lung and esophagus
  • Autoimmune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis, myositis, vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis)
  • Kidney diseases

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Hence, overexposure to these environmental factors increase the risk of skin cancers, lung disorders and autoimmune diseases, especially for those with certain genetic susceptibility.

Finally, the key take-home message:

Remember – Photoprotection and Pollution-protection

Furthermore, I’m encouraging you to explore the ways we can protect people and the environment around us in day-to-day life. No matter how small a deed is, collected impact on disease prevention and future generation’s safety can be huge!

Should we live everyday as Earth Day throughout the year? Yes! Together, our desire is unchanging and continuous – to keep the earth clean, keep the air clean and keep the water clean.

 

Image credit: by Ten_a

Color-Coded Foods Guide Your Immune System and Vitality

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Rainbow Color Foods_pixabay.comDoes the food color panel tell something about your diet and your body?

Are you fully aware how your daily diet contributes to chronic inflammation? — which has been proven to be a link to countless chronic diseases, especially heart disease and cancer.

Plant-based, colorful foods, i.e., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple vegetables and fruits, are filled with nutrients. The “food rainbow” contains not only vitamins and minerals, but most importantly, phytonutrients and antioxidants. Accumulated scientific evidence has shown their anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, anti-pollutant, and anti-cancer properties.
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Therefore, rethink your diet, think about colors and rainbow, and eat a plenty of them for your physical and psychological benefits.

 

Image credit: Pixabay