Lung cancer prevention methods are very important because of the difficulty to detect lung cancer until it is in an advanced stage, when treatments are really not effective. A few simple steps have the potential to prevent the incidence of lung cancer. Smoking and the use of tobacco products should be completely avoided or stopped. Data reveals that long-term cessation of smoking reduces the incidence of lung cancer by over 50%. Exposure to radon gas and other carcinogens like petroleum products should be avoided.
The unfortunate reality is that many of those deaths could have been prevented -- fully 85% of all lung cancers are caused by smoking. This includes those who breathe in second-hand smoke from others in the vicinity. If everyone were to give up smoking, the incidence of lung cancer would drop dramatically.After smoking, radon exposure is the second most common cause of lung cancer in America. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 21,000 deaths are caused every year by radon exposure.
As with most lung-related cancers, smoking increases the odds of contracting mesothelioma significantly. Some studies indicate that a smoker who has been exposed to asbestos has 50 to 90 times the chances of developing mesothelioma and other cancers of the lung, when compared to a non-smoker with similar asbestos exposure. A non-smoker who has been exposed to asbestos has about 5 times higher chance of developing mesothelioma compared to people who were never exposed to asbestos.
One of the gases in cigarette smoke is carbon monoxide. This gas interferes with the process of oxygenation of blood in the lungs. In fact if you inhale too much carbon monoxide you will suffocate and die. This gas is present in car exhaust fumes and is responsible for the deaths of many people each year using this as a form of suicide.
Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, monoclonal antibody therapy or other methods. Although radiation damages both cancer cells and normal cells, most normal cells can recover from the effects of radiation and function properly. Studies have shown that high body temperatures can affect and often kill cancer cells. Perhaps taking aspirin to reduces the body temperatures at the first sign if an illness is not the wises course of action. More studies in this area are needed.
Eat wide from many sources for a balanced diet. Include nuts, herbs, lentils and fresh, organic, locally grown produce. Increase your daily intake of fruit and vegetables. These are thought to help protect against cancer of the bowel, cervix and possibly breast. Eating plenty of grain cereals also increases the effect against colon cancer.
Throw your microwave away. The latest scientific tests show that food you prepare in microwave is exposed to a high risk of providing cancer cells in your body. Avoid factory farmed products such as milk, eggs, fish or cheese. Animals are often fed large amounts of antibiotics as a precaution and live in very stressful conditions. Avoid genetically modified food.
Popular press reported the US study of 77,721 people found that taking 400 milligrams Vitamin E per day long-term increased cancer risk by 28% over a projected 10 year period. This study was published in the March 2008 American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine by researchers at the University of Washington1 and picked up by the major wire services.
These results could also be stated ?Taking high doses of one form of vitamin E, but not other forms, was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer mostly in smokers by a statistically significant, but clinically small factor of 0.0018 - based on an average study risk of 0.0067 (521 / 77721).? I will explain below.
In fact, what was reported in the popular press is not what the researchers wrote in their abstract: ?Supplemental vitamin E was associated with a small increased risk of lung cancer (HR, 1.05 for every 100-mg/d increase in dose; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-1.09; P = 0.033). This risk of supplemental vitamin E was largely confined to current smokers (HR, 1.11 for every 100-mg/d increase; 95% CI, 1.03-1.19; P < 0.01).?
8 Vitamin E Isomers
Scientists have known for years that there are 8 isomers (forms) of vitamin E. They are alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-tocopherols and alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-tocotrienols.
Most Vitamin E and multivitamin supplements contain only the alpha-tocopherol isomer. It is the most abundant form in the blood and the least expensive form to produce. It is the form taken by an estimated 99% of the subjects in the study, however the researchers did not ask which form was taken.
It seems that when large doses of the alpha-tocopherol form of vitamin E are available, as from most single or multivitamin supplements, the alpha-tocopherol form displaces the other forms that may be available in food. In 2003, Dr. Han-Yao Huang and Dr. Lawrence J Appel, researchers at Johns Hopkins University, showed that supplementing with alpha-tocopherol only, reduced the plasma level of gamma-tocopherol by 58% and reduced detectible levels of delta-tocopherol from 50% to 13% in 184 human subjects.2
Two studies provide more specific information than this study. Before this study was initiated, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America published a study that showed that gamma-tocopherol reduced cancer cell proliferation, while the alpha-tocopherol form of Vitamin E demonstrated slight to no effect on cancer cells.3 In a Japanese study published in 2006, researchers studied the independent effects of all 8 isomers of vitamin E. In their study, alpha- and gamma-tocotrienols inhibited metastasis (the proliferation (spread) of cancer cells), while the tocopherols had little effect.4
Food Sources of Vitamin E
Food sources of vitamin E provide all 8 isomers of vitamin E, which your body knows how to use in the special ways that call for these exotic (and more expensive) forms of the vitamin. Unfortunately, the food supply is deficient in all isomers of natural vitamin E. Food producers are rewarded for increasing crop yields, keeping down costs, and the look and taste of the food. They enhance the soil with nutrients to make the crops grow faster, look better and increase yields, not to enhance the nutritional value of the food. As a consequence, one would need to eat huge amounts of fruits and vegetables to receive an optimal level of nutrients. The state of our current food supply may fill you up, but not give you all the nutrients your body needs.
Someone has to be concerned with nutritional intake. In all likelihood, that person is you and your patient. And there are alternatives. Sophisticated new supplements provide all 8 isomers of Vitamin E, along with other nutrients that are no longer adequately supplied in food.
Other studies have demonstrated that a single vitamin in isolation is not nearly as effective as a balance of vitamins, such as provided by food or a multivitamin. I thus recommend a balanced diet and a sophisticated multivitamin such as Rejuvenation Science? Maximum Vitality?, rather than individual vitamin supplements. Of course, smoking and second-hand smoke should be avoided.
Independent Multivitamin Evaluation
The 2007 edition of the Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements by researcher Lyle MacWilliam has established 18 criteria for evaluating nutritional supplements. Bioavailability and form of vitamin E are two of those standards. Other considerations include: completeness, potency, mineral forms, antioxidant support, bone health, heart-, liver-, metabolic-, and ocular-health, methylation support, lipotropic factors, inflammation control, glycation control, bioflavonoid profile, phenolic compounds profile, and potential toxicities. In the book, 1,600 multivitamins in the U.S. and Canada are evaluated against these standards. The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements is available from Rejuvenation Science at http://www.rejuvenation-science.com/multi-comparative-guide.html. And as you already know, our Maximum Vitality? multivitamin was rated the best value and compliance in the top-rated 1% in the study.
Conclusion
What you can learn from this study is that smoking increases the risk of lung cancer, taking vitamins cannot offset that risk, and the form of vitamins in your supplement is important. One fraction of a vitamin in isolation (such as the alpha-tocopherol form of vitamin E) is not nearly as effective as a balance of nutrients. In addition to a varied and healthy diet, your patients seek your guidance finding a sophisticated multivitamin supplement that is formulated using up-to-date research. The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements is a good place to start.
References
1. Slatore CG, Littman AJ, Au DH, Satia JA, White E. Long-term use of supplemental multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and folate does not reduce the risk of lung cancer. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2008 Mar 1;177(5):524-30. Epub 2007 Nov 7.
2. Huang HY, Appel LJ. Supplementation of diets with alpha-tocopherol reduces serum concentrations of gamma- and delta-tocopherol in humans. J Nutr. 2003 Oct;133(10):3137-40. PMID: 14519797
3. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2000, Vol 97, Iss 21, pp 11494-11499.
4. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communication, 2006 (339), 949-955.
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