Health for life

Georgetown University Medical Center researchers say a compound derived from cruciferous vegetable such as cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli protected rats and mice from lethal doses of radiation.

Their study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests the compound, already shown to be safe for humans, may protect normal tissues during radiation therapy for cancer treatment and prevent or mitigate sickness caused by radiation exposure.

The compound, known as DIM (3,3-diindolylmethane), previously has been found to have cancer preventive properties.

"DIM has been studied as a cancer prevention agent for years, but this is the first indication that DIM can also act as a radiation protector," says the studys corresponding author, Eliot Rosen, MD, PhD, of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

For the study, the researchers irradiated rats with lethal doses of gamma ray radiation. The animals were then treated with a daily injection of DIM for two weeks, starting 10 minutes after the radiation exposure.

The result was stunning, says Rosen, a professor of oncology, biochemistry and cell & molecular biology, and radiation medicine. "All of the untreated rats died, but well over half of the DIM-treated animals remained alive 30 days after the radiation exposure."
Rosen adds that DIM also provided protection whether the first injection was administered 24 hours before or up to 24 hours after radiation exposure.

"We also showed that DIM protects the survival of lethally irradiated mice," Rosen says. In addition, irradiated mice treated with DIM had less reduction in red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets — side effects often seen in patients undergoing radiation treatment for cancer.

Rosen says this study points to two potential uses of the compound. "DIM could protect normal tissues in patients receiving radiation therapy for cancer, but could also protect individuals from the lethal consequences of a nuclear disaster."

Rosen and study co-authors Saijun Fan, PhD, and Milton Brown, MD, PhD, are co-inventors on a patent application that has been filed by Georgetown University related to the usage of DIM and DIM-related compounds as radioprotectors.

If youre a human being, and you are, more than likely youve been affected by cancer in some way.  Whether its a close relative, or a friend, or someone more distant, weve all dealt with it.  Ive been one of the lucky ones, though.  I only had my first encounter with the deadly disease a few months ago, when my good friend Shawns mother passed away after a battle with breast cancer.  She was a wonderful woman, and it certainly was, and continues to be, a difficult time for all involved.

Unfortunately, nobody truly understands what causes cancer to develop.  Sure there are some things we know can cause cancer, like excessive sun exposure.  But the truth is there are more unknowns that knowns.  Take diet for example.  It seems intuitive that cancer would be linked to what we eat, and no doubt it is.  But what foods actually cause cancer?  Which foods protect against it?  And how would you even go about studying something like this scientifically, when the disease takes a lifetime to develop?

Well there seems to be have been a breakthrough, according to this recent video presentation by Craig Thompson, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  And I quote...

"If you overfeed somebody with fat, you dont increase their cancer risk at all.  You overfeed somebody with carbohydrates, and you dramatically increase their cancer rate.  And protein is halfway in between."



Do a double take if you need it.  Queue up the video at about 27:10 for the real meat and potatoes.  And I repeat...  Overeating fat does not increase your risk for cancer, but overeating on carbohydrates DRAMATICALLY increases your risk for cancer.  And Id like to reiterate, this is not some bozo on the internet saying this... this is the president and CEO of the #2 ranked cancer hospital in the country.  This is mainstream news.  This is real.

Now.  Here are my points, displayed in an organized fashion.


1.)  Eating fat does not increase your cancer risk.  And Ive said this before, like two years ago in fact (1, 2, 3).  Youve been fed a load of bullshit.  I told you so.

2.)  We eat too many carbohydrates.  In the past few decades, we as Americans have increased our caloric intake.  Many of us are eating more calories than we need.  Fact.  However... our fat intake has barely changed.  The extra calories were eating are coming from CARBOHYDRATES (4)!  This does not bode well for our cancer risk.  


3.)  We do not eat too much fat.  Although Mr. Thompson feels that overeating on fat is perfectly fine for your cancer risk, he still thinks you should keep the fat in check for the sake of your heart health.  According to him, "Right now, every dietary guideline that youve learned about in school was developed for heart fitness.  Youre much, much less likely to die of the diseases associated with heart disease [on a low fat diet].  And so weve had a dramatic decrease of almost 60% in the deaths in one generation from heart disease."

Okay, so weve had a 60% decrease in deaths from heart disease... but were not eating less fat!  There are plenty of reasons were not dying as often from heart disease, like a reduction in societal stress (believe it or not, its true (5) ) and widespread use of statin drugs (they may not save lives, but they certainly reduce your risk for heart disease (6) ). 

4.)  Eating fat, specifically saturated fat, does NOT increase your risk for heart disease.  If theres anything Ive talked about exhaustively on this blog, its this very topic... the best of which can be found HERE, while related articles can be found here and here.  This mans specialty is in cancer, and I think he should stick to what he knows best.

5.)  Go enjoy a stick of butter!  Okay not really, thats gross.  But a small slab??  Aint nothin wrong with that!


I leave you with a little poem I wrote...
Fat doesnt give me cancer,
And it wont give me heart disease. 
Why dont I stop worrying then,
Pass the butter, please!

Resveratrol, a compound found commonly in grape skins and red wine, has been shown to have several beneficial effects on human health, including cardiovascular health and stroke prevention. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has discovered that the compound can make prostate tumor cells more susceptible to radiation treatment, increasing the chances of a full recovery from all types of prostate cancer, including aggressive tumors.


"Other studies have noted that resveratrol made tumor cells more susceptible to chemotherapy, and we wanted to see if it had the same effect for radiation therapy," said Michael Nicholl, an assistant professor of surgical oncology in the MU School of Medicine. "We found that when exposed to the compound, the tumor cells were more susceptible to radiation treatment, but that the effect was greater than just treating with both compounds separately."

Prostate tumor cells contain very low levels of two proteins, perforin and granzyme B, which can function together to kill cells. However, both proteins need to be highly "expressed" to kill tumor cells. In his study, when Nicholl introduced resveratrol into the prostate tumor cells, the activity of the two proteins increased greatly. Following radiation treatment, Nicholl found that up to 97 percent of the tumor cells died, which is a much higher percentage than treatment with radiation alone.

"It is critical that both proteins, perforin and granzyme B, are present in order to kill the tumor cells, and we found that the resveratrol helped to increase their activity in prostate tumor cells," Nicholl said. "Following the resveratrol-radiation treatment, we realized that we were able to kill many more tumor cells when compared with treating the tumor with radiation alone. Its important to note that this killed all types of prostate tumor cells, including aggressive tumor cells."

Resveratrol is present in grape skins and red wine and available over-the-counter in many health food sections at grocery stores. However, the dosage needed to have an effect on tumor cells is so great that many people would experience uncomfortable side effects.

"We dont need a large dose at the site of the tumor, but the body processes this compound so efficiently that a person needs to ingest a lot of resveratrol to make sure enough of it ends up at the tumor site. Because of that challenge, we have to look at different delivery methods for this compound to be effective," Nicholl said. "Its very attractive as a therapeutic agent since it is a natural compound and something that most of us have consumed in our lifetimes."

Nicholl said that the next step would be to test the procedure in an animal model before any clinical trials can be initiated. Nicholls studies were published in the Journal of Andrology and Cancer Science. The early-stage results of this research are promising. If additional studies, including animal studies, are successful within the next few years, MU officials will request authority from the federal government to begin human drug development (this is commonly erred to as the "investigative new drug" status). After this status has been granted, researchers may conduct human clinical trials with the hope of developing new treatments for cancer.