Cancer Cure Now

For many years, it has been suggested by researchers that high levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) lead to cancer.

The link between sugar consumption and cancer has been known for 70 years. The 1931 Nobel laureate in medicine, German Otto Warburg, Ph.D., first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells.

The basis of his Nobel thesis was that malignant tumors often display an increase in anaerobic glycolysis -- the process whereby glucose is used as a fuel by cancer cells with lactic acid as an anaerobic byproduct -- compared to normal tissues.

The large amount of lactic acid produced by this fermentation of glucose from cancer cells is then transported to the liver. This conversion of glucose to lactate produces a lower, acidic pH in cancerous tissues as well as general fatigue from lactic acid buildup. This inefficient energy pathway yields only 2 moles of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) energy per mole of glucose, compared to 38 moles of ATP in the normal aerobic oxidation of glucose.

By extracting only about 5 percent (2 vs. 38 moles of ATP) of the available energy from the body's glucose stores, the cancer "wastes" energy, and the patient becomes tired and malnourished. Eventually, 40 percent of cancer patients die from malnutrition, or cachexia.

The sugar - cancer connection has been rediscovered recently. One tumor detection device, the PET (positive emission tomography) scan, even relies on the affinity of tumors for glucose. PET scans involve the administration of radioactively labeled glucose to detect sugar-hungry tumor cells. PET scans are used to detect the presence of hidden cancer metastasis.

A recent epidemiological study of 21 modern countries (Europe, North America, Japan and others) that keep statistics of morbidity and mortality revealed that sugar intake is a strong risk factor that contributes to higher breast cancer rates, particularly in older women.

A 2005 study of approximately 1.3 million Koreans linked high blood glucose to increased deaths from cancer, especially pancreatic cancer but also colorectal, esophageal, liver, and cervical cancer.

After controlling for known cancer risk factors such as smoking and alcohol use, researchers found that the men in the study with the highest fasting blood sugar levels (those greater than 140 mg/dl) were 29% more likely to die of cancer than men with the lowest levels (those less than 90 mg/dl). The difference among women with the highest and lowest blood sugar levels was 23%.

According to a study published in the May 1998 issue of the Lancet, Harvard researchers found a positive relation between circulating IGF-1 concentration and risk of breast cancer among premenopausal but not postmenopausal women.

Many tumor cells have elevated numbers of insulin receptors, which makes them prone to fast growth in the presence of insulin. Ira Goldfine's group at UCLA studied breast cancer cells and found that tumor cells with a normal amount of insulin receptors to be more similar to normal cells and more subject to normal controls on cell growth, and therefore less likely to grow back aggressively than tumor cells with a higher number of receptors.

Diets high in refined starch and sugar provide tumors with the high blood glucose levels that these primitive cells need to thrive, and increase levels of insulin, which is a cellular growth stimulant. High consumption of sugar causes tumors to develop more frequently and spread more rapidly. Do your best to avoid sugar and high-fructose corn syrup! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seely S Horrobin DF Diet and breast cancer: the possible connection with sugar consumption. Med Hypotheses 1983 Jul;11(3):319-27. (1). Sun Ha Jee, PhD, MHS; Heechoul Ohrr, MD, PhD; Jae Woong Sull, PhD, MHS; Ji Eun Yun, MPH; Min Ji, MPH; Jonathan M. Samet, MD, MS Fasting Serum Glucose Level and Cancer Risk in Korean Men and Women   JAMA. 2005;293:194-202.