LifeCare Chiropractic

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lung cancer

Vitamin B6 and Lung Cancer

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COMMON VITAMIN SLASHES RATES OF CERTAIN TYPE OF CANCER

There has been much controversy lately over whether or not to supplement with B vitamins.  Do they help with heart disease?  Stroke?  Colon cancer?  The answers are not always clear.  In this particular study, researchers found that rates of lung cancer for those with the highest blood levels of B6 and methionine (a B vitamin found in nuts, seeds, whole grains) had drastically lower rates of lung cancer.  Due to the potential increase in the rates of colon cancer, some are recommending we do not supplement with B vitamins.  This recommendation may come with a cost.  To add some clarity to the argument, here are some things we DO know.  Fortification of processed grains throws additional folic acid into the mix, so, more processed grains = higher levels of folic acid.  Avoid processed grains and this will be less of an issue.  Second, a good quality diet provides a broad source of the related B vitamins to prevent “kinks” in metabolism.  Third, there is NO doubt that genetic uniquenesses play a pretty major role in this process, specifically the MHTFR and MTRR.  Knowing these gives you a much greater ability to decide if supplementation is right for you.  There are companies that can cheaply and easily check this aspect of your genetics.

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Intake of specific carotenoids and risk of lung cancer – (10-30-00)

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Intake of specific carotenoids and risk of lung cancer

You may remember the controversy several years ago when a research study was cancelled because of an increase in lung cancer in smokers taking beta carotene. Well, many jumped to the conclusion that beta carotene was bad. Unfortunately, this was yet another example of man trying to best nature. Nature actually makes hundreds of carotenoids, and they interact in ways to protect our health that scientists can only dream of. To isolate ONE of these carotenoids and use it in large doses to affect a certain disease, is it really a surprise that the results were not as promising as would be hoped? Well, this study redeems the value of a mixture of carotenoids on health.

AJCN — Abstracts: Michaud et al. 72 (4): 990

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LUNG CANCER RISKS FOR NON-SMOKERS

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I recently had a short discussion with an old high school friend who was raising money for a national lung cancer advocacy group.  The initiating connection was that another high school friend had been diagnosed with lung cancer but was not a smoker.

So the promotion goes that we need to raise money for these lung cancer groups so that we can find a cure for lung cancer.  As anyone donating money to an organization such as this should do, a mere few minutes of due diligence on the organization’s website was enlightening.  There was not a shred of money that went to prevention. 

All the money was earmarked for early detection and treatment.  So how would this information help non-smokers NOT develop cancer in the future?  It wouldn’t.

On the other hand, a quick search on the American Institute for Cancer Research’s website (www.aicr.org) found some helpful information about preventing lung cancer in the first place.

This particular article again stresses that, yes–even in non-smokers–there are ways to reduce your chances of developing lung cancer.  The culprit in this study?  The usual one–prediabetes.

Smoking ups your risk of lung cancer about 10 times.  Pretty heavy risk.  Being prediabetic, however, also doubles your risk.  Not as high as smoking, certainly, but certainly a major player and one that is completely modifiable.

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