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Letter from Dr. Janson
Environment and Cancer
In the Health News
Recipe of the Month: Cauliflower,
Potato and Corn Chowder
Dear Friends,
I have been recommending dietary supplements
to my patients and readers for 25 years, although
it was only after I finished medical school
in 1970 that I began recognize their great value.
I recommend them partly for protection from
toxic environmental exposures: those that occur
naturally, those that are added to food, water,
and air, and those we inflict on ourselves.
Many toxic chemicals and elements such as lead,
aluminum, and cadmium occur naturally (aluminum
is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust).
Some are added to the environment through human
activities, including automobile exhaust, factory
wastes, burning of fossil fuels, farming with
pesticides, fungicides, and weedicides, and
the use of chemicals in the home to control
pests.
Some toxins are inflicted on us for supposed
health benefits such as chlorine to disinfect
water, and fluoride, purportedly to help prevent
tooth decay, although it is not clear that it
does. Other toxins are self inflicted, and the
most damaging of these are tobacco smoke, excessive
alcohol, charcoal broiled fats, household chemicals,
and some cosmetics, such as hair dyes.
Ionizing radiation exposure is more subtle:
it comes from cosmic rays that affect people
who spend a lot of time flying, such as pilots
and flight attendants, but also affects radiation
workers, people who live in the vicinity of
nuclear power plants, and researchers who use
detectors on their lab coats to see how much
they have been exposed to, and are comfortable
if they fall within the “acceptable” limits.
With all of these potential causes of disease,
it is important that you provide your own environmental
protection, as the Environmental Protection
Agency is unlikely to do as much for you as
you can do for yourself. In fact, the government
agency is far too concerned with balancing the
risks of environmental exposures with the economic
impact of controlling those exposures. The economic
impact means that the companies who create the
risks “need protection” from economic hardship,
often at the expense of the health of the people
exposed to the chemicals they produce.
It is not enough to weigh the risks for the
people exposed to the toxins, as they are the
ones who will have to bear the damaging health
effects, the heartache, and the death that are
the devastating impact of the chronic diseases
related to these exposures. Chronic degenerative
diseases, cancer, autoimmune diseases, hormonal
imbalances, brain degeneration, and heart disease
are among the ways these toxins can be damaging
to your health. Lifestyle choices including
chemical avoidance, exercise, a healthy diet,
and a variety of dietary supplements will help
you minimize these risks.
Here is a look at some of the recently-described
dangers posed by various environmental exposures.
Add these to the numerous chemicals we face
everyday, and you will want to give yourself
the greatest possible protection.
While most people are familiar with the
increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease
from smoking, and mouth cancer from cigars and
chewing tobacco, smoking also is associated
with an increased risk of other cancers. And
not only the risk of getting the cancers, but
more significantly, the risk of dying from those
cancers.
The Cancer Prevention Study II started in 1982
and examined almost 800,000 men and women over
the next 14 years. Smoking was shown to increase
the risk of dying from colorectal cancer from
30 to 40 percent. Those who smoked the longest
and the most had the greatest risk. Even in
men who smoked only cigars or pipes for 20 years,
the risk was 30 percent greater.
The good news is that for those who give up
smoking, the risk of dying from colorectal cancer
declines directly with the length of time since
stopping. Once again this shows just how much
control you have over your health.
In addition to stopping smoking, a diet high
in fresh fruits and vegetables helps reduce
the risk of many cancers, including colon cancer.
In addition to lung cancer and colon
cancer, smoking (and even second-hand smoke)
is also related to an increased risk of bladder
cancer. However, bladder cancer (more common
in men than women) is also related to many other
environmental chemicals from industrial waste,
occupational exposure, and personal contamination.
Some of these chemicals include benzene-like
compounds, diesel exhaust, phenacetin in certain
over-the-counter pain relievers, chlorination
byproducts in drinking water, arsenic, cancer
chemotherapy drugs, and some chemicals produced
by cooking red meat called heterocyclic amines
(these are also related to increased risk of
colon cancer).
It is most likely that urinary tract cancers
result from excretion of the chemicals or their
byproducts in the urine. Certain urinary tract
infections also increase the risk of these cancers.
Reducing exposure means cleaning up your personal
and work environment, modifying your diet, avoiding
unnecessary chemicals, and staying away from
contaminated industrial areas. Drinking clean
water without industrial chemicals also helps
(more on this later).
Cosmic rays include naturally occurring
radioactive particles from space. The intensity
of their ionizing radiation lessens as they
pass through the atmosphere to the surface of
the earth.
Flying at high altitude increases the exposure
to cosmic rays, because the atmospheric filtration
is lost, and for people such as pilots, other
airline crew members, and flight attendants
the risk of radiation associated illness is
increased. A new study suggests that the rate
of leukemia is higher in people with repeated
exposure–many hours of flying–even though the
risk is still small.
(Long-haul flying–more than six hours–also
increases the risk of deep vein thrombosis from
prolonged inactivity in airline seats. On long
flights, move around regularly and flex muscles.
Take supplements of ginkgo biloba, vitamin E,
and GLA to reduce excessive blood clotting.)
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What can you do to minimize environmental
damage? You can’t totally eliminate chemical
exposures and other risks from your life, so
you must do the best you can to protect yourself.
First, reduce exposure. Keep car engines and
exhausts in top shape, and get away from cities
as often as possible to breathe cleaner air.
Reduce chemical use in the home, especially
pesticides, solvents, cleaners, and artificial
room scents.
Choose a diet high in fruits, vegetables, grains,
and beans as the best source of the abundance
of vitamins, minerals, flavonoids, antioxidants,
and other phytochemicals. These are repeatedly
shown to offer the best protection against environmental
chemicals and other causes of degenerative diseases.
Such a diet is also high in fiber, necessary
to cleanse the bowel and remove toxins before
they can linger in contact with the lining cells
of the intestinal tract and cause damage, including
cancer. Fiber also improves bowel function,
sugar regulation, cholesterol, and weight control.
Organic foods further lower your exposure to
pesticides, weedicides, and herbicides. For
a list of the most and least contaminated conventional
foods, go to the website of the Environmental
Working Group (www.ewg.org).
Drink adequate pure water every day from a
clean source. Typical tap water may contain
heavy metals, solvents, industrial chemical
runoff , and chlorine and harmful chlorine-hydrocarbon
combinations, such as PCB’s. Even bottled water
has some plastic residues, although it is probably
far better than most tap water.
I recommend a solid carbon-block filter that
produces water free of pathogenic organisms,
hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and other toxins.
I use a MultiPure brand filter in my home, as
this is far better and more comprehensive in
its purification than those that fit on the
tap or those that you pour water through into
a pitcher, and it is far less expensive and
more convenient than bottled water–only pennies
per gallon.
I use MultiPure-filtered water for soups, beans
and grains, herb teas, and vegetables, and all
my drinking water, and even washing vegetables
because it is so cheap. One of my friends who
uses a MultiPure says that if you don’t have
a filter, then you are the filter!
It is sometimes hard to remember to drink enough
water (6 to 8 glasses a day). This is especially
true as we get older and lose our sense of thirst.
Exercise, another support for detoxification,
further increases your need for water. Herb
teas, soups, and dilute fruit juices also count
as fluid intake.
My first recommendation is to take vitamin C
and vitamin E supplements–to reduce oxidative
and free radical damage. I suggest at least
3000 to 4000 mg of vitamin C and 400 to 800
IU of vitamin E each day, and more if you have
been exposed to high levels of toxins.
For liver support, the bioflavonoid silymarin,
derived from milk thistle, blocks the entrance
of toxins into liver cells, helps to remove
them, and helps regenerate liver cells. Silymarin
is also a powerful antioxidant. The usual dose
is 250 to 500 mg of standardized extract twice
a day.
Many toxins are removed by attachment to glucuronic
acid, but a bacterial enzyme in the gut, called
beta-glucuronidase, can break this attachment.
Calcium D-glucarate blocks this enzyme and promotes
the removal of toxins. It inhibits the development
of cancer and reduces tumor growth. The usual
dose is 500 mg for prevention, and 1000 mg to
2000 mg or more for treatment.
I designed an antioxidant combination supplement
called Pr-O2-Tect, containing ascorbyl palmitate,
glutathione, N-acetyl cysteine, and methionine,
all of which work together with other antioxidants
to provide a further level of detoxification
and protection.
Multi Pure filters and Pr-O2-Tect are available
from QCI Nutritionals at 888-922-4848, or at
their website–www.qcinutritionals.com.
•Women with PMS find that they can have at least
50 percent relief of symptoms by taking the
herb agnus castus,also called vitex or chasteberry.
In a German study, published in the British
Medical Journal, standardized extract of the
fruit was effective in relieving irritability,
moodiness and anger, headaches, and breast discomfort.
The women in the study reported no significant
side effects from the botanical remedy. The
study was done with 170 women, half of whom
received a placebo without significant relief
of symptoms. For PMS, I also recommend supplements
of magnesium, gamma-linolenic acid, and vitamin
B6.
• Weight loss helps reduce blood pressure in
hypertensive patients. A mere 10-pound loss
can reduce blood pressure significantly for
3 years, but only about 10-15 percent of people
keep weight off for that long. Other supports
for blood pressure control–vegetarian diets,
large amounts of fruits and vegetables, low
salt, exercise, and supplements of vitamins
C & E, magnesium, coenzyme Q10, essential
oils (GLA and EPA), hawthorn berry, and the
amino acid taurine.
• The risk of stroke is reduced in women who
eat fish 2 to 4 times a week, according to a
study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association. The data was derived from
the Nurses’ Health Study on nearly 80,000 nurses.
However, large fish (shark, swordfish, king
mackerel) are often contaminated with environmental
toxins including methyl mercury, the subject
of a recent FDA Advisory, so it may be difficult
to balance the benefit with the risk. Choose
smaller fish, such as sardines and salmon, or
take fish oil capsules that have the protective
omega-3 oils–EPA and DHA, without the toxins.
This is an easy-to-make recipe that will both
warm and nourish you. It is high in fiber, the
cauliflower (in the cabbage family) is an excellent
source of phytochemicals for protection against
cancer, and the onions and garlic protect against
both cancer and heart disease. After cleaning,
cut eight medium potatoes and one head of cauliflower
into one-inch pieces. Saute two onions and six
cloves of garlic in olive oil for a few minutes,
add the veggies, and stir briefly. Add 3 quarts
of water, season with thyme, dill, and a small
amount of soy sauce, and simmer until done.
Add some chopped parsley, and a packet of frozen
organic corn near the end. Mash some of the
potatoes and cauliflower to make it creamy.
Serve this soup with some whole grain toast
and a salad for a complete meal. |
