Cancer News Information

Everyone is mystified as to why there is so much cancer now yet when you look at who's getting cancer and where it is predominately a problem it is not difficult to find the reasons why. Today the food we eat has changed and so has the rate of cancer in western developed countries where it is highest. Today we suffer from a different set of health problems than 50 to 60 years ago and cancer is one of the main ones.

What we eat determines our state of health. Most patients who are successful in healing cancer make significant changes to their diet and life-style. In fact, healing requires changes, big changes. If we attack the tumour without improving the underlying system, the body will usually grow more cancer. It's important for someone just diagnosed with the problem to do something about it themselves instead of just leaving it to your doctor to solve the problem.

This is not something that has just been discovered as there are many clinics around the world that are using our natural food as medicine successfully. The Gerson therapy has been using food to heal cancer patients since the 19:50s. Another is the Joanna Budwig diet which has helped many people, also the macrobiotic diet which addresses the reasons why it first grew. All these therapies strengthen the immune system which is our self-repair system and has the amazing ability to heal the body of diseases when it is functioning properly.

If you got cancer from eating the wrong food, would you look for a cure by considering the treatments that are in place today while you kept on eating more of this same food that caused the problem? No. So why then do we spend so much time and money on finding a cure, while why we keep pouring in the food that allowed cancer to grow in the first place. Change the food you are eating and a cure will happen. That is common sense.

There are certain foods we love to eat that must be eliminated from the diet if you are going to beat the disease. Fatty processed meats that are low in fibre and contain the carcinogenic additive sodium nitrate which is known to contribute to cancer. Also food that is highly salted, pickled or smoked. Meat can also become carcinogenic because of the way we cook it with barbequing or frying as high temperatures in cooking are known to promote cancer.

Nature, on the other hand gives us an array of food to beat the disease and this food will attack the underlying causes that allowed cancer to first appear. This almost exclusively revolves around a plant based diet and at the top of the list is food from the cruciferous family which are broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts and cauliflower. They are unequalled in helping someone survive the disease.

To stop cancer your diet must include freshly grown and in season fruit and vegetables, preferably from a variety of colour so start your day with a healthy fruit breakfast. The perfect food for lunch is a salad using an assortment of colour which should include garlic. Pumpkins, sweet potatoes, carrots including green leafy vegetables are great for the evening meal. Finish off with dessert of berries, grapes or watermelon.

Consuming fruit and vegetables in their natural state is an important way to reverse any cancer because freshly grown food is our medicine that keeps us disease free. These foods have been created and grown by nature, and nobody can improve on nature.

Remember there is no treatment or drug and there will never be one that cures the reason why cancer first developed.

With the determination of the base sequence of the human genome, research is turning more towards genetic variation. Every normal human genome is unique in that no two people are exactly alike. Genetic variation also includes incidental changes that result in mutation or genetic mistakes. The mutation of a single base may have no effect on the protein product of an expressed gene. However, a single mutation can lead to the production of a protein completely different from the necessary protein. These mutations can have detrimental results.

Single Base Changes in the Gene: Substitution

The human genome consists of 3 billion repeating bases designated as A, G, C or T. The combination of 3 bases, a codon, determines what amino acid that will be added to a protein chain. This calculates to a total of 64 possible 3 base combinations that represent the 20 amino acids forming a protein molecule. Therefore, certain amino acids are represented by more than one codon. One example of an amino acid is Serine. The codes for Serine include TCT, TCC, TCA, and TCG. A mutation in the third base of the codon for Serine does not effect the formulation of the protein. It should be noted that Serine is also coded with AGT and AGC. Mutation that results in the third base to A or G would change the amino acid expressed by the gene to Arginine. This may or may not affect the protein.

Mutations are not Limited to Substitution

Mutations that can have more profound effects on gene expression are the result of the insertion or deletion of single or multiple bases. This is called an indel, which stands for insertion-deletion. The effects of an indel cause change by shifting the entire code of the gene, also known as a frameshift, resulting in the formation of a completely different protein. An example of this is an indel's affect on the DNA sequence TTC-CCC-AGC-GAC. This codes the four amino acids Phenaline-Proline-Serine-Asperine. If one base is deleted from the DNA code giving TCC-CCA-GCG-ACX, then the amino acids coded are Serine-Proline-Alanine-Thromine. The resulting protein may provide no useful function.

Examples of Genetic Diseases Caused by Mutation

Tay-Sach's disease is a well-documented disorder caused by a base deletion in the gene coding for hexosaminidase. This enzyme is important for removal of certain toxic chemicals that can build up in the brain. Tay-Sach's causes mental and physical impairment and can be fatal. An insertion in chromosome 15 causes a frameshift in the hexosaminidase gene.

Crohn's Disease is caused by the addition of a cystosine base along chromosome 16. The addition of this base does not completely eliminate the function of the enzyme product. However, it does reduce overall activity, thus leading to inflammatory bowel disease.

There are a number of well-known methods researchers use to detect mutations in genetic materials. Quite often it is a matter of comparing an unknown sample with a wild type to locate base differences. Automated Sanger sequencing is used to identify single base polymorphisms or SNPs. A sample is isolated from genomic DNA and amplified by the Polymerase Chain Reaction to produce useable copies of a particular region of the genome. Humans and other species are hereozygous so they contain two copies of each gene. A mutation in one copy would be detected as a hereozygote where two bases occupy the same position in the sample.

Mutations do not necessarily cause negative effects in gene function. Mutation has been one of the driving forces behind evolution. An alternative trait resulting from genetic differences could lead to an improved characteristic that increases survival capability.