LifeCare Chiropractic

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Pancreatic Cancer Prevention

Pancreatic Cancer; Are You Already at Risk?

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pancreatic cancer prevention
gwolters/Dollar Photo Club

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the scariest cancers out there.  Very painful and fatal in almost every case.  The survival rate is dismal.

I have written before that if the resources available to Patrick Swayze and Steve Jobs were not enough to overcome this cancer, the rest of us don’t stand a chance.  The good news is that pancreatic cancer is almost completely preventable.

The scary thing is that you may already be at risk.  But lowering your risk starts by preventing another disease.

Given that the pancreas is our principle organ to dealing with sugar handling it should come as no surprise that the diabetic spectrum (from prediabetes to diabetes) is the problem.

Prediabetes has already been linked to almost every chronic disease, including multiple types of cancers, including pancreatic cancer.  The reasons for this are many and likely have to do with the elevated levels of insulin (which causes cells to divide more—a precursor to cancer) as well as the unhealthy cells that no longer respond to the insulin in the correct manner.  Elevated insulin will also lead to cancer cells having more access to sugar to divide faster (a concept known as the Warburg effect).

This particular study looks at the relationship between blood sugar levels and the risk of pancreatic cancer in 2408 patients who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer by looking across 9 different studies.

Here’s what they found:

  • The risk of pancreatic cancer went up 14% for every 10 mg/dL increase in fasting blood sugar.

The important thing to notice about this is that these results don’t talk about a blood sugar value ABOVE a certain amount.  In other words, the relationship between higher blood sugar and pancreatic cancer is direct.  Higher levels = higher risk.  In situations like this, lower is always better and it also means that, even at NORMAL blood sugar levels, there is still an increased risk.

While it is always a good idea to live an anti-diabetic lifestyle, avoiding pancreatic cancer is an added advantage.  If you’re not sure all that this entails (which is far too large of a topic for this post), feel free to check out my Diabetes eBook by clicking here.

 

Pancreatic Cancer: 3 VERY Scary Findings, 2 Great Ones

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Of all the cancers out there, pancreatic cancer is high on the list of scary ones. Treatment is expensive, debilitating and really does little to extend life except in unusual circumstances. Look at it this way–if Steve Jobs and Patrick Swayze could not find resources to help them, what chance does the average person stand?

I don’t mean to sound negative, but it’s a very harsh reality when it comes to this particular cancer. Part of this may be due to the difficulty in diagnosis (it has a tendency to mimic other conditions like ulcers, abdominal pain, reflux and gallbladder problems), but I think it is just a very hard cancer to treat.

And the rates of pancreatic cancer are increasing at an alarming rate.

Just in case all the above has you scared, good. Maybe this will be enough to make the necessary changes to your lifestyle because pancreatic cancer is heavily preventable.

Sure, smoking, a family history of pancreatic cancer and a history of acute or chronic pancreatitis are risk factors that most know about. I remember being in a room with an oncologist telling a patient that we don’t really know why this person got pancreatic cancer because there were none of the traditional risk factors noted above.  Sad that the oncologist apparently does not read medical journals.

So what do we know of that contributes to pancreatic cancer risk besides family history, smoking and pancreatitis?  The list starts here:

  1. Prediabetes and diabetes are massive risk factors for developing pancreatic cancer.
  2. Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to pancreatic cancer.
  3. Higher intakes of compounds from tea, cabbage, fruits and wine led to a whopping 41% reduction.
  4. Soft drinks greatly increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.
  5. Obesity combined with inactivity doubles your risk of pancreatic cancer.

The list certainly gets longer, but you get the idea.

Just in case you STILL don’t get the idea, let me point out this particular study.

Researchers looked at the levels of certain heavy metals and certain minerals to see how they related to the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Normally, I don’t blog on these types of studies, but the levels of risk and protection were so striking that I couldn’t pass it up. Here’s what they found:

  1. Cadmium (high in cigarette smoke, certain fertilizers) increased risk 358%
  2. Arsenic (mining, smelting and pesticides) double the risk
  3. Lead exposure topped the risk chart at 626% increased risk.

On the flip side, researchers found that two elements were very protective against pancreatic cancer:

  1. Higher levels of selenium (very high in Brazil nuts) led to a whopping 95% lower risk (yes–that’s almost a complete elimination of risk).
  2. Nickel (found in beans, cocoa, hazel nuts, almonds and  pistachios) led to a still-honorary 73% lower risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

Looking at these numbers, you can see that, with the right choices, the risk of one of the scariest cancers known to man can be almost eliminated.

As would be expected, the American Cancer Society lists only cigarette smoking as a risk factor for the development of pancreatic cancer. While the above study is not concrete, the recommendation to eat more Brazil nuts and avoid heavy metal exposure would certainly benefit everyone with little risk involved.

Prior to reading this blog post, were you aware that pancreatic cancer was preventable?