The occurrence of prostate related illness in the West is epidemic. Killing between 40 and 50 thousand annually, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death among men in the U.S. and for the fortunate cancer patients who survive this disease, there are often side effects of treatment that diminish the quality of life. Why is this the case? What can be done? Intense scientific research has recently led to exciting new discoveries on this important medical front. Both treatment and prevention may be within sight as study after study reveal the chemistries at play in the prostate disease process.
A Little Background
Prostate cancer is what is called a multi-stage carcinogenesis, which means it has three distinct phases of development. These phases are 1) initiation, 2) promotion, and 3) progression. Few people know that most men have early expressions of prostate cancer by the time we’re in our twenties! That’s the initiation phase. It’s what comes next that determines whether or not this disease is going to progress in a threatening way. Are the necessary ingredients for tumor promotion in place to make the cancer grow? To put this another way, men don’t die from simply getting prostate cancer: mortality is a function of the growth and proliferation of the cancer cells into other organ systems. What makes the localized prostate cancer cells flourish, grow, and spread? That’s the real health issue. We are discovering that cancer cells, like any form of living tissue or organism, require a particular nutrient in order to survive. Think of prostate cancer cells as an animal that will eat only one type of food—sort of a malignant rabbit that will eat only essential carrots. No essential carrots—no malignant rabbits. This is a bizarre way of visualizing the cancer cells, but it is actually descriptive of the prostate cancer process.
Enter Chemoprevention
What if we could pinpoint the particular essential nutrient fundamental for the growth and proliferation of prostate cancer cells? What if we could then determine how the body obtained or manufacturerd that essential cancer nutrient? All that would be left is to determine how best to help the body prevent the production of that essential prostate cancer cell nutrient. In other words, how can we keep the “malignant rabbits” from their indispensable food source? This would be called “chemoprevention,” but you can also think of it as starving the cancer cells. Significant research is currently being conducted into the abundance of naturally occurring chemopreventive properties found in hundreds of fresh fruits and vegetables around the world. This rich database is now available to link with discoveries being made on the fronts of medical research.
What is this exciting new research all about?
The Good News: Our bodies produce and process an incredible assortment of chemicals, each of which must be maintained in appropriate balance in order to sustain optimal health. Key to the maintenance of this balance are tiny biological processing factories called enzymes, and one of these, 5 Lipoxygenase (or 5-LO for short) has been shown to be associated with the production of a chemical called 5-HETE, without which cancer cells in the prostate cannot survive. Simply put, 5 HETE is the only food that prostate cancer cells eat—it is “essential carrot” for the “malignant rabbits” that want to run wildly throughout the body. What can be done to prevent the body’s creation of 5-HETE? It turns out that the 5-LO enzyme metabolizes arachidonic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid) into 5-HETE. If that enzymatic process does not occur, there is no 5-HETE, and thus, no prostate cancer proliferation. Studies, including a 1999 study published in the distinguished Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from the University of Virginia Cancer Center, have repeatedly demonstrated that prostate cancer cell apoptosis (or cellular suicide) occurs—“massively and rapidly” no more than 1 to 2 hours after the production of 5-HETE by 5-LO has been stopped. How can we stop the 5-LO enzyme from producing this essential cancer nutrient, 5-HETE?
5LO Inhibitors
Remember all that research being done into chemo-preventive fruits and vegetables? Well, it turns out there are a number of common food items rich in nutrients that specifically inhibit the activity of the enzyme 5-LO. These amazing foods include; ginger, green tea, saw palmetto, olive oil, and many others. Ginger leads the way in the government’s USDA database of 5-LO inhibitors, as Ginger has been shown to contain at least 22 different components which act as 5-LO inhibitors. Studies at major medical research labs and university facilities around the world, from Japan to Malaysia, the U.S. and Europe, have found the same results. Naturally occurring 5-LO inhibitors prevent the activity whereby arachidonic acid is metabolized by 5-LO into 5-HETE. The other herbs we have researched for the combination add up to a total of 38 natural inhibitors.
From Theory to Helping Humanity
How can we make use of this information? Should we eat pounds of organic Ginger, consume raw Saw Palmetto berries, and swallow olive oil by the gallon? Well, that is one approach, and it is certainly wise to incorporate into our diets those foods that naturally inhibit the creation of “essential carrots”for the malignant prostate cancer cells. As far as we’re concerned, you simply cannot consume enough organic ginger and you should eat it as a food or find a good organic supplement for that herbal tonic. It is also intelligent to reduce consumption of large amounts of Omega 6 arachidonic acid, which is found in concentrated amounts in the red meats and certain cooking oils like peanut and corn oils. It is also very prudent to consume more of the “good” Omega 3 fatty acids, particularly DHA, as the balance or ratio of Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids is another way to inhibit the inappropriate formation of arachidonic acid by-products. But back to natural 5-LO inhibitors. Although eating the proper foods is obviously the best strategy, it is not feasible in all cases. For example, Saw Palmetto grows in the southeastern United States, is not native to other regions, and its berries have an unpleasant taste and aroma. They are wonderful as a supplement, but not practical as a food. And the same is true for Ginger: the modern American diet simply doesn’t provide enough organic Ginger, and supplementation is appropriate. The quality of the supplements is crucial, as some of the most powerful 5-LO inhibitors are in the resins of the herbs, and those resins are best available from what is called a “supercritical fluid extract.” You should look for such an extract, as it provides the healing resins and does not involve the use of chemical solvents or heat. The herb is thus protected from damage, the ingredients are “broad-spectrum,” and both we and the environment are protected from chemical toxins. Naturally, regular intake of these supercritically extracted chemopreventive substances, together with other natural substances with known beneficial properties, is nature’s solution to the recent explosion of prostate related illnesses. These foods have been eaten for centuries by cultures around the globe. They are safe and readily available. Yes, there exist many 5-LO inhibitors not found in nature’s pharmacopoeia, but they are novel, synthetic, and fundamentally untested in the laboratory of long-term human experience. On the other hand, the natural 5-LO inhibitors, such as Ginger and Saw Palmetto, have withstood the test of time. Billions of people, over thousands of years, with clearly beneficial results. And what are those results? The mortality rate from prostate cancer in cultures that regularly consume Ginger and other 5-LO inhibitors is only 20% that of the western world. That is the epidemiological trump card establishing the wisdom of an herbal approach to 5-LO inhibition and prostate health.
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