Author: Claus Hancke

Vitamin D Together With NSAID Medicine Fights Prostate Cancer

Claus Hancke

September 3, 2005

A world-famous Vitamin-D researcher has initiated a study with a very simple treatment of cancer of the prostate. If expectations are met, then it could result in a revolution in the treatment of the most frequent form of cancer in men.

Among men over 60 at least every other have cancer in the prostate, usually without knowing it. It has been discovered many years ago by investigating men who died for some other reason. Cancer in the prostate is typically a disease that you do not die from – but with! Nevertheless, it is the most frequent cause of cancer among men after lung cancer.

It is therefore difficult to deny that there is an obvious need for an effective treatment, but the treatment has been at a standstill for many years. Only now something is about to happen. More and more, the disease has been associated with the extremely widespread lack of vitamin D. Vitamin D has a normalizing and growth-inhibiting effect in many tissues.

Faith in vitamin D has now become so great that one of the world’s leading vitamin D researchers, Professor David Feldman from Stanford University, has launched a clinical study. It targets men with prostate cancer who have relapsed during usual treatment.

Feldman will give them a combination of active vitamin D (calcitriol, see below) and regular arthritis pills (ibumetin or naproxen), both in moderate doses. To avoid side effects of calcitriol, it is given only once a week, but the exact dose is not stated.

Several years of laboratory studies have preceded this. Here, it has recently been shown that calcitriol reduces the growth of prostate cancer by 25%. The same result is obtained by treatment with traditional anti-rheumatic drugs (NSAID preparations, e.g. ibumetin and naproxen).

But most convincingly, when vitamin D and anti-rheumatic drugs are combined, growth slows down by as much as 70%, even if you are content with tolerable doses of each. Both agents counteract the formation of the so-called prostaglandins, which cause the cancer cells to grow and – in another context – cause arthritic pain, etc. If they are combined, the effect is enhanced.

This, as well as the announcement of the new trial, can be seen in, among other things, of a new press release from Stanford University. If the trial fulfills expectations, it will not only have enormous significance for the treatment. It will also be a sleight-of-hand tip for healthy men to get more vitamin D – perhaps a lot more – so they can make enough calcitriol themselves (calcitriol is only available by prescription).

Feldman is not just anyone when it comes to vitamin D. Together with two others, he is behind the book “Vitamin D” (Academic Press), which is a standard work for researchers with 1,800 pages. The newly revised edition costs DKK 3,445, so it is unlikely to be a bestseller. Feldman has been researching vitamin D for many years and has more than 200 scientific articles behind him.

Vitamin D is not a vitamin, but a hormone. It is formed in the skin by sun exposure, but must be converted in the liver and kidneys to become the active calcitriol. It is by now accepted by everyone that the elderly in particular cannot possibly get enough vitamin D if they do not receive supplements or eat plenty of oily fish. This is because, with age, the skin largely loses the ability to form the vitamin. In the dark half-year, the sun is also so low in the sky (in our northern latitudes) that neither young nor old form anything of importance, whether they get sun or not.

There are less than five micrograms of vitamin D in a typical Danish daily diet, but officially it is now recommended that adults get twice as much, nursing home residents four times as much. It is not difficult to find researchers who believe that this too is too little. The upper limit of risk-free intake is estimated at 50 micrograms per day.

By: Vitality Council

Reference:
Moreno J, Krishnan AV, Feldman D. Molecular mechanisms mediating the anti-proliferative effects of Vitamin D in prostate cancer. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2004 Nov;92(4):317-25

Green Diet And Antioxidants Act Against Prostate Cancer

Claus Hancke

August 16, 2005

A radically changed lifestyle together with antioxidant supplementation seems to stop the growth of early prostate cancer, while the blood becomes eight times more capable of fighting cancer cells.

Some studies with humans and numerous animal trials and population surveys have indicated that antioxidants counteract cancer. Nevertheless, only a few researchers have examined whether they help against cancer in humans when the disease is a reality. An American trial now shows that this may be the case, at least by cancer in the prostate.

The trial, which has just been published, included 93 men with early-stage prostate cancer. They were selected because they had refused to accept usual cancer treatment.

44 of them were instructed to follow a fairly strict diet where only 10% of calories were allowed to come from fat. They had to have a pure plant diet and avoid dairy products, but in return received a protein supplement in the form of a soy drink. In addition, they had to exercise equivalent to half an hour of brisk walking a day and had to perform various yoga exercises and meditate for another hour. Of course they weren’t allowed to smoke!

You’d think most people would quickly give up such a strict lifestyle. But the vast majority persist, perhaps because they are doing well. The leader of the trial, Dean Ornish, has described that when he let a group of men with bad hearts follow this recipe, their atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries of the heart decreased – mind you, not just in the first year, but quietly in a continuing process that all in all lasted at least five years.

In the current trial, however, Ornish supplemented with nutritional supplements:

  • Vitamin E 400 units/day.
  • Vitamin C: 2 grams/day.
  • Selenium: 200 micrograms/day.
  • Fish oil: 3 grams/day.

Better after a year
All had the so-called PSA value measured, first at the start of the experiment, and again after one year. PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) is an approximate expression of the spread of the cancer. That was the main purpose of the trial to measure what happened to PSA.

What happened was that when a year had passed, the PSA value had fallen by an average of 4% in the 44 in active treatment, while that in the control group – which was closely followed by their own doctor – had increased by 6%.

That in itself was an exciting result. But in addition, six men from the placebo group became so ill that they had to withdraw from the trial and undergo traditional treatment. If the six men from the control group had not dropped out – because they became very ill – the difference would have been even greater.

No actively treated patients left the trial
As a supplement to the PSA measurements, one more experiment was performed. They took serum from all participants and examined how it affected the growth of prostate cancer cells in laboratory experiments. After a year, a huge difference had emerged: the treated men’s serum inhibited the growth of cancer cells eight times as much as the control group’s!

These results are statistically very confident. One must therefore expect that there is an effect, but what causes it? Was it the predominantly green diet, soy, exercise – or perhaps yoga and meditation? Or was it the antioxidants?

One can only guess. Dean Ornish believes that overall lifestyle changes made the difference. But the assumption that antioxidants help against cancer is of course supported. In any case, the experiment is highly thought-provoking.

By: Vitality Council

References:
Ornish D et al. Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer. The Journal of Urology 2005;174:1065-70.
Ornish D et al. Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease. JAMA 1998;280:2001-7.

Ridiculous vitamin pills?

Claus Hancke

June 21, 2005

In (Danish) Morning-TV they laugh about the Americans’ enriched foods. But American researchers take vitamins serious.

Now, the TV News channel TV2’s nutrition expert, Orla Zinck, has once again been on morning TV. He had returned from the United States, bringing some of the American’s ridiculous, vitamin-enriched foods. There is of course plenty of healthy food.

The light ironic tone remained. You could understand, for example, that all you get from taking extra vitamin C is severe diarrhea. You have to stay permanently in the toilet. It’s not true, but it sounds funny. And when you ridicule what you oppose, you make it sound like you’re right ….

Elsewhere in the world it is taken a little more seriously. Below follows what is thought at one of the world’s most recognized universities, Harvard University in the USA. Harvard has an official website on vitamins: www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamins.html. It is intended for e.g. doctors, who can probably assess the seriousness a little better than the majority of Danish Morning TV’s viewers.

The website opens with a statement: “If you eat healthy, do you need to take vitamins? Not many years ago, most experts would have answered emphatically “No”. Today there is solid documentation that a daily vitamin pill makes sense for most adults”.

But what new has happened? asks the article. Yes, it has been discovered that vitamins do not just prevent deficiency diseases such as scurvy and beriberi. Several of them are also likely to prevent heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and other chronic diseases – if you get more than what is needed to avoid deficiency disease! The Harvard website concentrates on this new knowledge.

One section is about the B vitamin folic acid. It appears that folic acid not only prevents atherosclerosis and heart disease, but also cancer (in the colon and breast). Apparently it also negates the greatly increased breast cancer risk that women get from alcohol in even moderate amounts.

In the US, many foods are fortified with folic acid, but the article supports that you also take supplements so that you reach at least 400 micrograms per day. “Vitamin supplements are becoming more and more important”, it says.

Vitamin B12 is recommended in a daily dose of 6 micrograms, so far more than is normally recommended. It is mentioned that many elderly people have a B12 deficiency and, as a result, impaired memory. They may be disoriented and perhaps hallucinating in addition to having sensory disturbances in the feet. Sometimes people mistakenly think they have Alzheimer’s.

Regarding vitamin C, it is said that a pattern is emerging regarding the effect, and “as more knowledge is gained, an intake of 2-300 mg per day seems to be a goal worth striving for” , is it called. This is 3-4 times as much as Danes get in their diet and twice as much as in a regular diet, supplemented with a multivitamin pill.

Vitamin E is recommended in a dose of 400 units – or more – per day. It is 20 times as much as in the diet or in a multivitamin pill. This will very conceivably prevent heart disease, it is said.

Regarding vitamin D, it is mentioned that the optimal intake is 25 micrograms (1,000 units) per day. That is five times what is in a “full daily dose” vitamin pill. The purpose is to prevent the tendency to fall, osteoporosis and presumably cancer.

Through Danish TV2’s Morning TV, you get the impression that only uninformed people take vitamin pills, and it was made into something that was a bit laughable in the broadcast.

But the experts from one of the world’s leading universities, from which a stream of vitamin research emanates, think there is nothing to laugh about.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. (Danish) Good Morning TV, 16 June 2005.
2. Harvard University, USA; official website about vitamins:
www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamins.html

Vitamin B6 Acts Against Colon Cancer

Claus Hancke

June 14, 2005

Alcohol increases the risk of several types of cancer. This may be because alcohol disturbs certain essential metabolic processes. But vitamin B6 and folic acid appear to repair the damage caused by alcohol, thereby restoring those processes.

If you allow yourself 1-2 glasses of red wine a day, you probably prolong life and help yourself against arteriosclerosis. It is a known matter. At the same time, however, it increases the risk of breast cancer and colon cancer. It is also a known matter. Less well-known is that this disadvantage apparently can be eliminated with the B vitamins folic acid and vitamin B6. When alcohol is a cancer risk, it may be because alcohol interferes with the processes that the two vitamins are involved in.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. Larsson SC, Giovannucci E, Wolk A. Vitamin B6 intake, alcohol consumption, and colorectal cancer: a longitudinal population-based cohort of women. Gastroenterology. 2005 Jun;128(7):1830-7.
2. Eunyoung Cho et al. Alcohol intake and colorectal cancer: A pooled analysis of 8 cohort studies. Annals of Internal Medicine 2004;140:603-13.

www.gastrojournal.org/scripts/om.dll/serve
www.annals.org
www.iom.dk

New Type of Antioxidant Protects Against Sunburns

Claus Hancke

June 6, 2005

A new type of antioxidant protects against sunburns and is thought to have other, additional health benefits. Similarly, vitamins C and E have been found to work too.

French researchers have created an innovative substance, incorporating a special form of the important antioxidant/enzyme SOD (Super Oxide Dismutase), that can be taken orally without fear of the SOD being destroyed in the stomach prior to assimilation.

The human body itself creates SOD, an essential enzyme. So far, it has only been possible to supply SOD by injection. But thanks to a combination of the enzyme with the wheat protein gliadin, this difficulty has now been overcome. The product (Glisodin) can be bought in Denmark.

By. Vitality Council

(Shortened)

References:
1. CARD (Annual Congress of Dermatological Research) meeting in Brest on May 28th 2005, (report).
2. Placzek M et al. Ultraviolet B-induced DNA damage in human epidermis is modified by the antioxidants ascorbic acid and D-alpha-tocopherol. J Invest Dermatol. 2005 Feb;124(2):304-7.
3. Bialy TL et al. Dietary factors in the prevention and treatment of nonmelanoma skin cancer and melanoma. Dermatol Surg 2002;28:1143-52.

www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/jid
www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp
www.iom.dk

Perhaps selenium can prevent hereditary breast cancer

Claus Hancke

May 30, 2005

Women with a genetic tendency towards breast cancer have unstable chromosomes. Studies now show that these chromosomes can be stabilized by taking selenium supplements.
About every twenty cases of breast cancer are due to inheritance. Most often, the cause is an innate mutation in the so-called BRCA1 gene, which, under normal circumstances, repairs damage to chromosomes.

If you carry this mutation, you already have a high risk of breast cancer: Approximately 60% will get the disease before they reach 50, and approximately 85% will get it before they reach 70. At the same time, the risk of ovarian cancer is no less than 60%.

It is a despairing situation to be born with this mutation, which presents the affected with difficult decisions. Some prefer to prevent the cancer by having their breasts and ovaries removed at a young age, while others wait and see if they are among the unlucky ones. Those affected must at least think about having the children they want at a young age if they want to retain the opportunity to breastfeed. There is no certainty as to when the disease will strike.

Now, however, a highly interesting Polish study suggests that the risk can be significantly reduced with a simple supplement of selenium. The supplement drastically reduces the frequency of chromosomal damage in women with the congenital defect. This can, if the results hold, buy the vulnerable women time and reduce their risk of instability in the protective chromosomes.

The experiment was carried out at the Pomeranian Academy of Medicine in Szczecin. It was about measuring the amount of mutations – so-called chromosome breaks – on white blood cells, which in the laboratory were exposed to “chemical radiation” in the form of the chemotherapy drug bleomycin.

Two experiments were performed. In one, chromosome breaks were compared in 26 women with and 26 women without the congenital defect. In the first, 0.59 fractures per cell were measured, while women without the defect had only 0.39.

35 other women, all of whom were carriers of the mutation, now participated in the second trial. Half of them received a daily supplement of approx. 280 mcg selenium a day, after which they had blood samples taken after 1-3 months, so that their blood cells could also be exposed to bleomycin. The result was almost exactly as in the first experiment: In the blood cells of the women who did not receive selenium, 0.63 chromosome breaks occurred per cell, while those who received the selenium had only 0.40 fractures per. cell.

In other words, women with the inherited mutation could increase the stability of their chromosomes to normal with something as simple as a daily selenium supplement. The question then is how this is to be interpreted. Does this mean that they also had their cancer risk reduced?

There are many indications of this, but one cannot be sure. Researchers have concluded that hereditary breast cancer is due in part to unstable chromosomes. Others have found that breast cancer patients have clearly more chromosomal abnormalities in their white blood cells than healthy ones. In addition, several experiments have shown a correlation between the susceptibility to cancer in general and the level of chromosome rupture.

In addition, a study of 3,812 workers who were exposed to mutation-promoting substances showed that those who had the most chromosomal abnormalities were also most likely to get cancer later on. The clues are many.

Selenium has an antioxidant effect and has been shown to be strongly anti-cancer in several trials. As the soil in Poland (just like Denmark) is very low in selenium, the researchers believe that a similar experiment in other countries could give a different result.

The participants received the equivalent of approx. three regular selenium tablets with organic selenium a day. It is a dose that certainly does not exceed what is allowed.

By: Vitality Council

References:
Kowalska E. et al. Increased rates of chromosome breakage in BRCA1 carriers are normalised by oral selenium supplementation. Cancer Epidem Biomarkers Prev 2005;14(5):1302-6.

cebp.aacrjournals.org

www.iom.dk

Antioxidants Prolong Life

Claus Hancke

May 17, 2005

An antioxidant enzyme that protects cellular energy production has been found to prolong the lifespan of mice by 20%. A world-renowned researcher thinks that this same method may also be used for humans.

Antioxidants prolong life. If you manipulate with the genes of mice to form extra much of the antioxidant enzyme catalase, the mice will live on average 20% longer.

At the same time they age more slowly, as seen by a lower tendency to cataracts as well as less age-related weakening of the heart muscle. Something similar can be achieved with human beings, though manipulation with human genes is not an option.

………………………………..

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. Science (DOI 10.1126/science.1106653).
2. Rudolph RE, Vaughan TL, Kristal AR, Blount PL, Levine DS, Galipeau PC, Prevo LJ, Sanchez CA, Rabinovitch PS, Reid BJ Serum selenium levels in relation to markers of neoplastic progression among persons with Barrett’s esophagus. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003 May 21;95(10):750-7.

www.sciencemag.org
jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals.org
www.iom.dk

Carnitine, a Stimulant for Heart, Brain, and Muscles

Claus Hancke

May 9, 2005

Carnitine creates energy in aged cells. The message from a new scientific congress is that supplementation of carnitine seems to help against both heart disease, arteriosclerosis, and dementia.

Are your memory failing or are you loosing strength, then perhaps carnitine is the remedy for rescue

Carnitine is an – undeservedly – overlooked dietary supplement that is on its way into the ‘scientific warmth’. A clear signal is that the New York Academy of Sciences dedicate a whole volume of its famous scientific annals to carnitine alone.

Here you can read more than 197 pages from all 18 contributions given at a two-day conference on carnitine held by the academy in March 2004. The contributions are, among other things, about the importance of carnitine for the burning of fat, for the functioning of the muscles and the heart and about its promising role in the fight against a weakened memory.

………………………

By: Vitality Council

Reference:
Salvatore Alesci et al. (Eds.). Carnitine: The Science behind a Conditionally Essential Nutrient. Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences 2005, vol. 1033.

www.annalsnyas.org
www.iom.dk

Vitamin D Helps Against Lung Cancer

Claus Hancke

May 2, 2005

Vitamin D looks more and more like a sharp weapon against cancer. An American study points towards high Vitamin D status being a great advantage, if you have lung cancer.

The belief that vitamin D counteracts cancer is strongly growing. It is based, among other things, on the known normalizing effect of the vitamin on cells and tissues, but also that the frequency of, for example, breast, prostate and colon cancer is considerably higher in countries low in sun such as Denmark, where the sun low in the sky from September to May, so low that No vitamin D is formed in the skin. In addition, the Danish diet completely lacks vitamin D, except fatty fish.

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. American Association for Cancer Research. Press Release 18 April 2005.
2. Trump DL et al. Anti-tumor activity of calcitriol: pre-clinical and clinical studies. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2004 May;89-90(1-5):519-26.
3. Nakagawa K et al. 22-oxa-1{alpha},25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 inhibits metastasis and angiogenesis in lung cancer. Carcinogenesis. 2005 Feb 17;[Epub ahead of print].

www.aacr.org
www.sciencedirect.com
carcin.oupjournals.org
www.iom.dk

Fish Oil Prevents Stroke

Claus Hancke

April 25, 2005

Many believe that fish oil protects against stroke, but French researchers have now discovered how this works. Fish oil helps the brain to better cope with a reduced blood supply.

Fish oil must be close to being the world’s best medicine. If you get fatty fish two to three times a week, you protect yourself against suddenly suffering cardiac arrest. The risk is halved. But also the risk of a blood clot in the brain – by far the most frequent cause of so-called cerebral hemorrhage – and thus suffering a stroke, decreases. According to the largest, but not final study, so far, it is reduced by 40%.

It is consistent with animal research. Mice that are artificially exposed to a blood clot in the brain get less extensive brain damage if they in advance are fed with fish oil. Now French scientists have proven a mechanism that might explain this phenomenon.

Scientists from France’s National Science Research Center, CNRS, are behind the discovery. They have shown that the protection of the brain cells is due to the effect of fish oil on the cell’s potassium channels.

…………………………

By: Vitality Council

References:
1. Heurteaux, C et al. TREK-1, a K(+) channel involved inneuroprotection and generaql anesthesia. EMBO J. 2004, E-pub 2004, June 03.
2. Lauritzen, I et al. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are potent neuroprotectors. EMBO J 2000;19:1784-93.
3. Ka He et al. Fish consumption and risk of stroke in men. JAMA 2002;288:3130-6.
4. Salachas, A., et al. Effects of low-dose fish oil concentrate on angina, exercise tolerance time, serum triglycerides, and platelet function. Angiology, Vol. 45, December 1994, pp. 1023-31.

embojournal.npgjournals.com
jama.ama-assn.org
www.springerlink.com
www.iom.dk