Even more ways to prevent cancer, or treat it....

Today's Post: Monday, 12-14-2009

I have a family history of prostate cancer. I want very much to avoid the aggressive form of it and to escape all other cancers if I can.

So, as many of you know who have read my posts for awhile, I’ve posted often on preventing prostate cancer and preventing cancer generally.

There are now so many ways to do each, I almost need a library and information management assistant to keep track of them all.

But there have been so many recent promising studies that I felt I needed to do a new post listing most of them!

1. First, a quick reminder, staying away from cigarette smoke (and lighting cigarettes with lighters) by both not smoking or quitting ASAP AND staying away from second hand smoke will prevent over 30 % of ALL kinds of cancer, not just lung cancer. And the percentage may be even higher, in one oncology ward I visited, half the people there were smokers or former smokers.

2. Next, a relative has melanoma and is getting chemo.

Some of the information I just got on preventing and treating cancer is in this next section that I adapted from an email I just sent my relative.:

Two things that may turn off cancer growth or metastasis without slowing down chemo.

Vitamin D3.

Taking 2,000 iu a day (in his case 5,000 a day might be better) of vitamin D3 tends to prevent many cancers and the way it's thought to work may mean it will also slow down existing cancers. (We now have evidence the RDA for vitamin D3 should be 2,000 to 3,000 iu instead of the 400 they have had.)

Vitamin D3, apparently boosts your immune system overall; and increases the number &/or effectiveness of macrophages that eat invading organisms etc. And, it may help your immune system recognize cancer cells as cells to attack.

And, since it does NOT appear to be an antioxidant, it looks as if it can do these things without interfering with chemo which some antioxidant vitamins might do.

(I take 3200 iu a day of D3 in addition to what I get in milk and the limited sun exposure I get.)

Turmeric (curcumin).

Turmeric may be an even better bet. Turmeric supplements which contain curcumin have at least 3 cancer fighting capacities. (Turmeric is what gives curries their yellow color. The incidence of cancer in India is low; and that may be in part because they eat a lot of curried food.)

Like vitamin D3, turmeric increases the number &/or effectiveness of macrophages that eat invading organisms etc. (For this reason and perhaps others, both vitamin D3 and turmeric help your macrophages clean amyloid protein from your brain and both prevent -- and perhaps in the early stages reverse -- Alzheimer's disease.)

New research shows that turmeric may also inhibit the stem cells cancer cells use to grow and metastasize! <<<<

Turmeric also helps prevent your immune response from overdoing the growth of new blood cells in the presence of inflammation. This may well also act to deprive cancer cells of the new blood vessels they need to grow.

I take one 600 mg capsule a day of what is labeled as curcumin; but is clearly turmeric inside. I take that as a preventive for Alzheimer's disease. But I'm pleased it looks to also prevent many cancers too.

If I had melanoma, I'd take 3 or 4 of those capsules a day I think.

Here again, I've seen no reports that turmeric inhibits chemo.

In summary, taking vitamin D3, taking turmeric or curcumin supplements, & eating curry often each look to prevent and may also help treat cancer.

2. Two ways to protect your liver from chemo.:

Milk thistle or its active ingredient,

-- one name for which is silymarin, is so protective for your liver, it has saved the lives of people who have eaten death cap mushrooms though they did need a very concentrated extract.

In today's health news, I found this.:

"Milk thistle may limit liver damage from chemo

By Amy Norton NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Monday, 12-14-2009

A study of 50 children undergoing chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), reported today that milk thistle appeared to reduce treatment-related liver inflammation as measured by the indicators AST and ALT; & the reduction in AST was significantly large.

This study was published online in the journal Cancer.

Apparently liver inflammation is common among children undergoing chemotherapy & adults too I suspect.

It looks like milk thistle or a silymarin extract from it, may lessen the impact of the chemo doctors think would best kill the cancer by making it safer for you to have a higher dose of chemo.

Vitamin K.

I read of one study of a group who had some kind of condition, hepatitis C, I think it was, where normally 50% of the people get liver cancer.

They tested a matched group of people who took vitamin K. And, in that group, only 10% got liver cancer.

Both vitamin K1 & vitamin K2 have effects on how fast your blood clots which is important if you are on a blood thinning drug.

The best news is that eating Kale and/or broccoli raw has lots of vitamin K AND they each contain other cancer fighting compounds.

Drinking several cups of green tea a day also has vitamin K and other ingredients also thought to fight cancer, particularly stomach cancer.

Lastly, you can take green tea extract supplements.

Note that vitamin K, protects your liver and prevents liver cancer. In fact, both vitamin K and the foods and teas that contain it, likely help to prevent all cancers, not just liver cancer.



Of this list, vitamin D3 is quite inexpensive ($5 to $8 after tax for 100 capsules of 1,000 iu each); and kale and broccoli and green tea may already be in your food budget and are not expensive.

Turmeric and milk thistle supplements cost a bit more but not a lot more; & look to be well worth it.


3. Other news on cancer prevention.:

Drinking lots of coffee (or decaf, so it’s the coffee, not the caffeine) makes prostate cancer less likely and the aggressive form even less likely. (I’ve also seen a coffee extract supplement that might be worth using.)

I read that taking 3 mg a day of boron cuts prostate cancer incidence in half. More recently I read some information that may explain why. Boron apparently boosts or helps activate the cancer fighting and other health benefits of vitamin D3.

Taking a hops extract, which is already available, was found to lower PSA levels, and may also directly attack prostate cancer cells. For people where the DST breakdown product of testosterone is driving their cancer, hops extract attacking the cancer directly looks particularly likely.

Eating nuts, taking omega 3 supplements, and limiting omega 6 oils turns down inflammation and also helps prevent cancer (& heart disease). In addition, pistachios, pecans, and walnuts are high in gamma tocopherol that prevents prostate cancer.

Both regular vigorous exercise and regular walking independently were found to prevent prostate cancer. Each one does; and doing both does a lot.

Also, if you do both, you’re less likely to be obese and will be far less fat than you otherwise would be. And carrying excess fat is a risk factor for getting all cancers.


That is a lot of things to do to prevent cancer & prostate (&/or breast cancer); but some are inexpensive (you can even save money by NOT smoking); and some you may already be doing.

Do the ones you can already; & add as many of the rest as you can.

It looks like they all work!