Cancer Prevention and Cure, Food as Preventive Medicine.

[Guest guest]

Cancer Prevention and Cure, Food as Preventive Medicine-JoAnn GuestDec 03, 2004 19:51 PST=====================================================================Cancer Prevention and CuresBy James A. Duke Ph.D.One definition of herb—the one I favor—is any plant that can be usedasa healing agent.As our understanding of the healing power of plants continues togrow,so does the number of plants that can be called herbs. If thesedays thedefinition embraces many of our foods, so be it.When it comes to preventing cancer, the key seems to be eating aswide avariety of organic fruits and vegetables as possible.In a sense, if you want to lower your risk of cancer, you can createawhole diet—excluding or minimizing meats and dairy products—thatconsists of healing herbs.So singling out individual plants would be giving you a falsepicture ofhow to use herbs for cancer.I was one of the

first of the high-fiber* flakes, back whennutritionists discovered the importance of what they used to call"roughage".As a matter of fact, my everyday diet turned out to be higher infiberthan the high-fiber diets that were fed to the volunteers in fiveformalUSDA studies. I know, because I was one of the subjects in thosestudies.Of course, I can't prove that my dad's high-fat diet killed him, northat my plant-based diet has spared me from becoming a cancerstatistic.But the research is very clear.As fat and meat consumption increases, cancer rates rise. But infruitand vegetable consumption increases,thereby lowering fat in the diet and increasing the amount of fiberandhelpful phytochemicals, cancer rates fall!Fighting the Wrong BattlesThe National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been waging its war on cancerfor 30 years now. But in every year reported up until 1996,

cancerdeaths were increasing, according to NCI statistics.Some of the increases have to do with the fact that fewer people aredying of heart disease and stroke, so they live long enough to getcancer.But considering all the money and all the effort that this countryhasinvested in beating cancer, we don't have a whole lot to show for it.Lifestyle Keys to Locking out CancerCancer prevention involves many of the same wise moves involved inpreventing many other diseases. You should make the effort to get:· More vegetables and fruits, less fat in red meats and fowl.· Greater variety in your diet, less monotony.· More whole grains and less processed sugar.· More natural food colors, fewer artificial colors.· Some herbal spices, fewer artificial flavorings· More natural, whole foods, fewer processed foods· More estrogen-like chemicals from plants (phytoestrogens), fewersynthetic hormones.·

More fruit and vegetable juices, fewer alcoholic beverages.· More fresh air, less smoke- and pollution-filled air.· More tranquility, less stress.· More exercise, less television.· More public greenery, less pavement.· More organic gardens and farms, fewer pesticides.· More herbal alternatives, fewer pharmaceutical "magic bullets"Over the years, many new chemotherapy drugs have been developed.They might extend life, but they don't cure cancer.And some of the best of those new chemotherapeutics come from plants.Taxol, a treatment for ovarian and breast cancer, originally camefromthe Pacific yew tree Etoposide, a treatment for testicular cancer andsmall-cell lung cancer,from the mayapple; and vinblastine and cincristine, which treatHodgkin's disease, leukemia and lymphomas, both from the Madasgascarperiwinkle.But as far as I'm concerned, something is very wrong with the way theNCI has

approached cancer.The vast majority of NCI research money-our tax dollars- has gone forthe development of chemotherapies, with comparatively little devotedtoprevention.Chemotherapeutics have their place in the grand scheme of things, butthey're not cures.They are usually life-extenders that add a few months or years toaverage survival.But those months or years are often lower-quality time because of themany devastating side effects that chemotherapy drugscause. (a vast understatement in my estimation)From 1977 to 1982, I was involved with the NCI's cancer screeningprogram, a multiyear effort that investigated the cancer treatmentpotential of thousands of plant compounds and gave us the onesmentionedabove.I've also been involved with the embryonic Designer Food Program oftheNational Institutes of Health (NIH), which is attempting to designfoodshigh in healthful phytochemicals

that prevent cancer.I have a greater respect for the potential of the food program thanI dofor the results of the drug-finding programs.Clearly, cancer prevention programs can save more lives thantreatmentprograms can, and at a fraction of the cost. Still, the 30 yearcure-oriented war on cancer gets the most tax dollars, whilepreventionprograms get very little.Green Pharmacy for CancerTwenty years ago, long before scientists reached a consensus on thefactthat a diet high in fruits and vegetables helps to prevent cancer,andlong before the NIH began urging everyone to "strive for five"—fiveservings of fruits and vegetables a day—Prevention magazine asked meforideas on cancer prevention.I came up with several; a big green salad or coleslaw, a big bowl of'minestrone' soup and a Cancer prevention 'Herbal Salad'.Cancer Prevention Herbal SaladAt the core

of the recipe are several plants I lifted from JonathanHartwell's ethnobotanical classic "Plants used against cancer", acompendium of about 3,000 plants cited in the medical-folkloreliterature for treating cancer.More than half of Hartwell's plants turned out to contain a compounduseful in the treatment of some types of cancers, at least in thetesttube.My 'Cancer Prevention' Herbal Salad now includes garlic, onions, redpeppers, tomatoes (organic), red clover flowers, shopping cookedbeets,fresh calendula flowers, celery, fresh chicory flowers, chives,cucumbers, cumin, peanuts, poke salad, purslane and sage.In addition, I came up with a cancer prevention dressing to use withthis salad.It includes organic flaxseed oil, evening primrose oil, garlic,rosemary, a dash of lemon juice and that Latin American favorite, hotpeppers.Fifteen years after I developed my salad, late in 1989,

HerbertPierson,Ph. D. of the NIH called to invite my participation in the DesignerFoodProgram for cancer prevention.This was a major national effort to manipulate foods to increasetheircontent of nutraceuticals (nutrients with medicinal value).The idea was to enhance the amount of cancer fighting chemicals infoods, either by manipulating the plant's genes or by coming up withnecessary techniques that would preserve or enhance the desiredmedicinal effects.Dr. Pierson was most interested in my database of phytochemicals infoodplants and herbs, which includes anti-cancer compounds—the same ever-evolving database on which this book is based. Heinvitedme to attend a meeting where experts would explain the cancer-preventionbenefits of various plants.Imagine my delight when my colleagues and fellow researchers spokeaboutthe anti-cancer phytochemicals that they were finding in

plants.My fellow scientists gave presentations on the sulfides in garlic,thecapsaicin in red peppers, the limonene in citrus fruits and thelycopenein tomatoes.They touted the cancer-fighting potential of such herbs as flax.Licorice, and rosemary. (Ever since, I have added rosemary to mysaladdressing.)The Designer Food Program clearly had a lot going for it. I gotexcitedabout the program and eagerly anticipated five years of helping theNIHin this area.But alas, Dr. Pierson left the NIH, and the program now seems muchlessvisible and exciting.Fortunately, research on the medicinal potential of foods is goingforward in other programs and institutions throughout the nation.Over the next several years, you'll be hearing a lot more aboutnutraceuticals, phytochemicals and meals that heal.Foods and medicinal herbs clearly have healing properties,

includingtheability to prevent and fight cancer.Excerpt from:"The Green Pharmacy"James A. Duke, Ph.D.________________JoAnn Guestmrsjo-www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.