LIFESTYLE AND CANCER
While the MORTALITY (death) from cancer has
declined in the USA (Treatment and Early diagnosis), the incidence (new cases,
lack of prevention, lack of knowledge) is increasing.
"An
increasing number of new cases that are more associated with reproductive,
dietary and hormonal factors."
(Lancet, May 2012)
And of
course we have the Epidemiologists who have no understanding of the context of
lifestyle but blame lifestyle, those troubadours of tragedy, would tell us that
it is the race or genes that is the reason.
The mean adjusted incidence rates were three
times higher in Porto Alegre than in Fortaleza both for men (25.1 vs. 8.6/100
thousand) and women (19.9 vs. 7.1/100 thousand). This rise in incidence rates
may be due to early cancer detection strategies, lifestyle changes, and
alterations in the population age structure. A population profile similar to that of developed countries may explain
the higher incidence rates in Porto Alegre.
Several migrant studies have documented that cancer rates in successive
generations of migrants shift in the direction of the prevailing rates in the
host country, suggesting that the international variations in cancer rates for
most cancers largely reflect differences in environmental risk factors (including
lifestyle and culture) rather than genetic differences.
(Porto Alegre in Rio Grande
do sul in southern Brasil has much more people of European origin than
indigenous, black or mixed. I remember fondly a glass of wine I shared with a
local fellow Jewish doctor, Moacyr Skliar, who is a well known writer of
Novels. The autographed copy I have is: A Majestade do Xingu)
(recently a Quarup, a ceremony to honour ancestors was done at the Parque nacional do Xingu to honour the great Brasilian Anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro)
The increase in the
incidence rates in several Asian and Eastern European countries and Spain is
thought to reflect changes in dietary and lifestyle factors associated with
westernization, including smoking and obesity For example, in some Eastern
European countries such as the Czech Republic, nearly 60% of men are current
cigarette smokers and more than 25% of adults are obese.
So it would be interesting
to speculate what role nutrition plays in all that, it is obvious that that
which makes you fat has chemical harmful to your cells. Are there things in the
nature that are healing agents for this damage? Of course there are, studies
will show that Japanese drink green tea and have lesser prevalence of many
cancers.
Everything has to be done
WHOLE rather than just one thing at a time. Cinnamon may bring down your blood
sugar but certainly, cinnamon is not the treatment for Diabetes!
The rapid increase in
cancers in the developing world point out to a shift from a local traditional
way of life or the so called lifestyle to the one more resembling a western
lifestyle, but without the benefits of being western. Many nerds in India and
wannabees in Indonesia and Malaysia and Singapore think that eating Hamburgers
and drinking Starbucks makes you western, no my dear, read Gilles de Leuze and
some other philosophers to understand the western mind!
In Brasil like in many of
these emerging nations, there is a long tradition of traditional medicine,
using herbs and leaves and roots. In Northeast Brasil rich as they are in folk
history and folk illnesses (nervos for example), there is a tree Pau de Oleo that
is consumed with the belief that it is good for the health. Some researchers
had done some biochemical studies on rats and this is what they found.
Chemopreventive
effect of Copaifera langsdorffii leaves hydroalcoholic extract on
1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced DNA damage and preneoplastic lesions in rat colon
Juliana Marques
Senedese, Jacqueline Morais Alves, Ildercílio Mota Lima, Erick Augusto de Andrade, Ricardo Andrade Furtado, Jairo Kenupp Bastos and Denise Crispim Tavares
·
BMC
Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2013, 13:3 doi:10.1186/1472-6882-13-3
Published: 7 January 2013
Background
Natural antioxidants present in common foods and
beverages have drawn great attention to cancer prevention due to its health
benefits, remarkable lack of toxicity and side effects. Copaifera langsdorffii,
known as "copaiba", "capaiva", or "pau-de-oleo",
belongs to the Leguminosae family and occurs in fields and grasslands in the
northern and northeastern parts of Brazil. Biological studies of Copaifera
corroborate its widespread use by the population. This paper describes the
effects of C. langsdorffii leaves hydroalcoholic extract on the
1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH)-induced DNA damage and aberrant crypt foci (ACF) in
the colon of male Wistar rats.
Methods
The hydroalcoholic extract of C. langsdorffii was
administered to rats by gavage at daily doses of 20, 40 and 80 mg/kg body
weight. To evaluate DNA damage by the comet assay, animals received the C.
langsdorffii extract for seven days and a single subcutaneous injection (sc) of
1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) at a dose of 40 mg/kg on day 7. Animals were
sacrificed 4 h after injection of DMH, to assess DNA damage. For the ACF assay,
animals were acclimatized for one week (week 1) and then treated with the C.
langsdorffii extract five times a week for four weeks (weeks 2 to 5). The rats
received sc injections of DMH (40 mg/kg) on days 2 and 5 of weeks 2 and 3, to
induce ACF. Animals were euthanized at week 5; i.e., four weeks after the first
DMH treatment.
Results
Animals treated with different doses of the C.
langsdorffii extract combined with DMH had significantly lower frequency of DNA
damage as compared with the positive control (animals treated with DMH only).
The percentage of reduction in the frequency of DNA damage ranged from 17.30%
to 40.45%. The groups treated with 40 and 80 mg/kg C. langsdorffii extract
during and after DMH treatment presented significantly lower numbers of ACF and
aberrant crypts compared with the control.
Conclusion
The C. langsdorffii extract significantly reduced
the extent of DNA damage and ACF induced by DMH, suggesting that the extract
has a protective effect against colon carcinogenesis.
It is important to respect the indigenous
knowledge of the people, before the arrogance of our medical training force upon
them hardly proven therapies! American Indians have repeatedly said: these
outsider doctors (meaning non Indian) think that we have no knowledge and do
not respect what we have.
To Gain Respect, You have to give Respect.
