Tag Archives: Diet Tips

American Institute for Cancer Research List Cancer-Fighting Foods

Cancer Fighting Foods
Cancer Fighting Foods

Do you need more motivation to consume a healthy diet? According to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), excess body weight is a cause of more than 130,000 new cases of cancer in the United States each year.

Consuming nutritious plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans, provides a double-whammy against cancer. Fewer calories mean no weight gain, while the vitamins and minerals are strong tools against developing cancer.

What’s on Your Grocery List?

Fortunately, there’s a wide variety of delicious foods to choose from. Here are some of the products that rank high on AICR’s list.

  • Dark green leafy vegetables such as kale, spinach and romaine lettuce contain carotenoids that attack free radicals, which are unstable molecules that cause cell and tissue damage.
  • Tomatoes get their red color from an antioxidant called lycopene. They’re also rich in fiber, which protects against colorectal cancer.
  • Coffee has gained a bad reputation with some, but it’s actually full of antioxidants that may become more potent during the roasting process.
  • Kidneys, black beans and other legumes are a good source of fiber and protein. They also contain a resistant starch used by “good” bacteria in the colon to manufacture protective short-chain fatty acids.
  • Blueberries are considered one of the “superfoods” that have some of the highest antioxidant content.

Good Nutrition and Immunotherapy for Cancer: A Powerful Combination

At our Issels® center, diet and other lifestyle factors are taken into consideration when creating our personalized immunotherapy for cancer treatments. Contact us for more information about non-toxic protocols such as cancer vaccines and NK cells.

Cancer Experts Find New Dietary Guidelines Lacking

Where Does Red Meat Fit In?
Where Does Red Meat Fit In?

Your 10-year-old may object to the omission of candy and pizza from the U.S. government’s eating guidelines. The revised version, issued this past January, has gained more influential critics who believe the guidelines don’t go far enough to discourage consumption of foods linked to cancer.

Is there a place for red meat in a healthy diet?

Katie McMahon of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network is one of the experts questioning the new guidelines, particularly the failure to recommend limiting red meats. Decades of research clearly indicates a link to development of cancer, which is one reason integrative immunotherapy considers lifestyle factors along with the disease itself.

Are industry lobbyists to blame?

The Health and Human Services Department and U.S. Department of Agriculture are the government agencies responsible for creating the guidelines. Lately they have come under fire from accusations of succumbing to pressure from meat industry lobbyists.

Dr. Walter Willett, head of the nutrition department at Harvard School of Public Health, is among those speaking out. He points out that consumption of red meat, even when it’s lean, has been shown to increase risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease as well as certain types of cancer.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell dismisses charges of catering to special interest groups. Alice Lichtenstein, a nutrition professor from Tufts University who was a member of the advisory committee, claims the guidelines were focused more on preventing chronic diseases such as diabetes than on cancer.

The integrative immunotherapy programs at Issels® address nutrition and other lifestyle factors. Visit our website for more information about our state-of-the-art non-toxic treatments.

Could Eating Eggplant Boost Cancer Fighting Immune Response?

Immune System Building Foods
Fighting Cancer With Veggies

A diet rich in fruits and vegetables can reduce your chances of developing cancer. It’s also beneficial in boosting your immune system if you do receive a cancer diagnosis. Studies have found that eggplant is full of nutrients and substances that specifically fight cancer.

A nutritional powerhouse

While eggplant is a staple in many Eastern cuisines, it’s not used often in America. Eggplant is related to the tomato, and as such is actually a fruit, not a vegetable. It comes from a variety of nightshade, which is why it was considered poisonous at one time.

Nutrients found in eggplant include vitamins K, B and C along with potassium and copper. Thanks to its rich, deep-purple skin, eggplant is loaded with antioxidants and anthocyanins which block the activity of free radicals that can cause cancer.

Eggplant is put to the test

A study published in the International Journal of Clinical Medicine examined the effects of applying eggplant extract cream in two cases of 60-year-old men suffering from basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma. In the first case, breakdown of the tumor after only two weeks reduced lesion sizes by half. The second case resulted in normal tissue replacing some of the cancerous tissue after six weeks. After another three weeks, tissue was completely normal and the lesion much smaller.

The extract penetrates more deeply through the skin, so eating eggplant may not produce the same results. But its nutritional profile still makes it a worthwhile addition to your diet.

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Cancer Cells Show Sensitivity to Metabolic Stress

Eat Healthy And Avoid Metabolic Stress
Eat Healthy And Avoid Metabolic Stress

Every day it seems researchers are learning something new about cancer. Recently, it was discovered that cancer cells could be vulnerable to metabolic stress. According to an article on Medical News Today’s website, this discovery could pave the way for new cancer therapies that won’t be harmful to normal cells. 

How Tumor Cells Get Stressed

Research has shown that a tumor is usually not made up of identical cells. When someone goes through chemotherapy the cells frequently change. This chromosomal instability causes cancer cells to stress out. When they are stressed, it could lead to metabolic disruption.  

What is metabolic stress? Metabolism is essential to life. It’s what turns food into energy. Metabolic stress puts a strain on the immune system, and could diminish muscle strength. 

Experiments are currently being conducted on Drosophila flies that will show how much stress unstable cells can tolerate. Dr. Gregory is hoping this study will be the jumping-off point to developing treatments that have no side effects. 

Ways to Avoid Metabolic Stress 

According to the article, chemotherapy is toxic to all dividing cells. That’s why there are so many chemotherapy side effects such as hair loss, pain, and infections. The immunotherapy treatments we provide at Issels® Integrative Immuno-Oncology have been shown to stop the growth of unstable tumor cells in many patients.

Other ways to avoid metabolic stress is by radically changing one’s eating habits and by working out. Exercise has also been linked to cancer prevention and reduced cancer recurrence

If you’re looking for a way to treat cancer that doesn’t involve weakening your body or the use of toxic chemicals, contact us at Issels® Integrative Immuno-Oncology. Our experienced doctors are happy to walk you through our immunotherapy treatments.

Keeping a Healthy Weight While in Cancer Treatment

Eating During Cancer Treatment
Eating During Cancer Treatment

You may be thinking to yourself, “isn’t going through cancer treatment enough without the need to worry about my weight?” While this is a legitimate complaint, following your doctor’s instructions is vital in order to remain strong throughout the treatment.

Going through cancer treatment takes its toll physically and emotionally but you have a hand in controlling how much. Treatment can have a decided affect on your appetite which impacts your eating habits. If both are in a negative mode of operation, the end result is weight loss, plain and simple.

Weight loss and weight gain can be a significant side effect of cancer treatment. For those losing weight, this may be caused due to a lack of appetite. Nothing seems tantalizing and while you do eat something, you may not eat as much as before taking in less calories. This will cause a loss in weight and also impacts the amount of nutrients your body needs.

For other patients, especially those who are obese, weight loss may be recommended while treatments are ongoing. A nutritionist or dietitian are good options for helping determine healthy menus that provide the calories, nutrients, vitamins, and protein to help maintain a healthy weight.

Dietary supplements are also an option for getting the fuel your body needs to handle the rigors of cancer treatment.

Learn more about integrative immunotherapy and holistic treatments at the Issels® blog. The informative articles can help answer questions and concerns you may have about the best approach to cancer treatment.

New Research Tackles Chemotherapy Side Effects

Tackling The Side Effects
Tackling The Side Effects

Researches at Wichita State University are delving into nanotechnology in an effort to decrease the negative side effects cancer drugs have on patients. The technology will be a huge boon to patients suffering the many side effects of cancer treatment: nausea, bowel issues, hair loss, infections, pain, anemia, and more, preventing patients’ bodies from being further weakened by the treatment of the disease.

Technology 100,000 times smaller than a strand of hair
The mighty but miniscule technology has been developed to magnetically target drugs with the goal of localizing treatment effects specifically to tumor sites, thus decreasing the spread and negative effects of the drugs throughout the body.

Positive results have researchers hopeful
Targeted for patients with skin and breast cancer, “in vitro” (petri dish/test tube) studies as well as “in vivo,” studies involving mice, have shown positive results. The group, including WSU professors Ramazan Asmatulu, Paul Wooley, Shang-You Yang, and several graduate students, is in the final stages of receiving a patent from the study, which will later be tried on humans.

How it works
Nanocomposite, magnetic microspheres were created which are capable of carrying protein-based chemotherapy drugs. The spheres are later incorporated with an albumin and biodegradable polymer and injected into the body. With the help of a magnetic field, the accumulation of drugs can be increased at targeted cancer sites.

Looking for cancer treatment options that help build your body without the weakening effects of traditional therapies? Issels® can help. Learn more about our individualized, comprehensive immunotherapy treatments today.