Whole-Food Guide for Breast Cancer Survivors (15 page)

In
Garlic for Health
, Dr. Benjamin Lau (1988) writes, “Garlic apparently stimulates the body’s immune system, particularly enhancing the macrophages and lymphocytes, which destroy cancer cells.” In 1996, Dr. Herbert Pierson of the U.S. National Cancer Institute noted, “Garlic is a veritable pharmacopeia. That’s why garlic has been found in every medical book of every culture ever. For thousands of years, garlic has been used for the treatment and prevention of disease. So there has to be something there” (quoted in Bergner 1996, 1). Need we say more?

Experiment with Aloe

Hippocrates was the first to write about the virtues of aloe vera, a succulent plant believed to have existed in Africa for thousands of years. Over twenty years ago, N. V. Gribel and V. G. Pashinski (1986) noted that the juice of the aloe vera plant reduced tumor mass and metastases in rats. Interestingly enough, it is the special sugars in the gel of the aloe vera plant that seem to embody the secret of its potency. These sugars are called
glyconutrients
, and unlike simple sugars, such as table sugar, they have no adverse effect on blood sugar. Potent enzymes produced from these glyconutrients appear to boost lymphocyte (a type of white blood cell) production, thus powering up the immune system. What’s more, aloe functions as a first-rate antioxidant while protecting the all-important master antioxidant glutathione (Norikura et al. 2002). Aloe vera is available commercially as a juice, gel, or concentrated powder. But why not buy yourself a small aloe plant, scoop a spoonful of gel from inside its prickly leaf, and add it to your smoothie?

Consider Chlorella

One of your most powerful allies in maintaining healthy immunity is a tiny, single-celled green algae called chlorella. “Chlorella is my favorite whole-food supplement,” says Dr. Michael Rosenbaum (pers. comm.), an immune specialist practicing in Corte Madera, California. “It’s shown to be a potent immune stimulant, both nourishing and detoxifying. My cancer patients report improved energy, and I see improved white blood cell function in virtually everyone.” The reason for this improvement, as Dr. James Balch and Phyllis Balch (1997) explain in
Prescription for Nutritional Healing
, is that chlorella has more chlorophyll per ounce than any other plant. It is made up of almost 58 percent protein and contains carbohydrates, all the B vitamins, vitamins C and E, all nine essential amino acids, enzymes, and rare trace minerals.

Chlorella is available in powder, liquid, or tablet form.

Glutathione

Few substances can equal the value of glutathione in maintaining overall good health and immune functioning. As the body’s most powerful antioxidant and detoxifier, glutathione neutralizes harmful free radicals and eradicates toxins while supporting cellular health and energy. The result is a winning anticancer compound.

Glutathione is composed chiefly of three amino acids—cysteine, glycine, and glutamic acid—and most of our supply is produced in the liver. Without glutathione, our bodies would become overwehelmed with toxins, making it difficult for the immune system to keep up. Glutathione is also used up during stressful episodes, because excessive adrenaline curbs its production.

Eggs, legumes, brassica vegetables (such as broccoli and cabbage), asparagus, avocado, and walnuts are rich dietary sources of glutathione or the compounds the body needs to make glutathione. Glutathione is also available as a
liposomal
cream, a formulation that is thought to enhance absorption and delivery. We’ll return to glutathione in chapter 9.

Your Nutrients for Immunity

As we discussed in chapter 5, certain nutrients exert a profound effect on immune functioning. Recall that vitamins D, C, and A, as well as the carotenoid family (including beta-carotene) and the minerals selenium, zinc, and magnesium, are protectors of immunity and overall cellular health. Chapter 5 lists food sources of these critical nutrients and offers advice on how to choose supplements that contain healthy forms of them.

Noteworthy Herbs for Immune Balance

Literally hundreds of herbs have been examined for both immune-boosting and cancer-protective properties. While space is limited here, an invaluable resource for learning about herbs and cancer in brilliant detail is herbalist Donald Yance’s book
Herbal Medicine, Healing, and Cancer
(1999). According to Yance, the essential beauty of herbs is that they provide a concentrated assortment of phytonutrients that balance and heal injured cells and tissue. They signal the immune system to be more precise in its surveillance and deployment missions. The herbs described next are rich in trace minerals and protective bioflavonoids that send extra healing energy to weary circulating cell defenders.

ASTRAGALUS

This herb is used for its immune-enhancing properties and to bolster white blood cell counts. In long-established studies from the NCI and other leading U.S. cancer institutes, astragalus has been shown to strengthen the immune system (Sun et. al 1983). Based on these studies, it is evident that astragalus does not attack cancer directly, but instead strengthens the body’s immune system.

CAT’S CLAW (UNO DE GATO)

Cat’s claw is a woody vine native to the South American rain forest whose bark has been used traditionally for its immune-enhancing characteristics. While human trials have not yet been conducted, in vitro studies have indicated that alkaloids from the plant intensify the rate of
phagocytosis
(the process of engulfing and destroying foreign particles) and fuel the production of
interleukin
, an important substance produced by white blood cells to help orchestrate incoming attacks on invaders (Lemaire et al. 1999).

A CAUTIONARY NOTE ABOUT HERBS

Herbs are powerful, complex remedies that contain hundreds of compounds working together synergistically. For this reason, we suggest that you consult with a seasoned herbal practitioner before embarking on a program of herbal supplementation. Be sure to describe your regimen with other practitioners you are seeing, and be alert for potential interactions.

Bringing It All Together

Dr. Andrew Weil, noted author and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, has written extensively about the body’s ability to heal itself. Consider checking out his book
Natural Health, Natural Medicine: The Complete Guide to Wellness and Self-Care for Optimum Health
, which has a chapter on how to protect your immune health. You can take advantage of the body’s innate ability to heal by eating well, exercising regularly, and striving for spiritual well-being. It’s important to eliminate negative factors such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and other assaults on your body. Smile, play, celebrate, and cherish your precious body.

To Do

• Monitor your white blood cell count with a CBC (complete blood count) to make sure you have a healthy population of immune cells.
  
• Get sufficient sleep and exercise to help maximize immunity, but avoid the tendency to overexercise.
  
• Practice Eating for Health, especially avoiding sugar, which directly lowers immune function.
  
• Make sure your diet is rich in selenium, vitamin C, carotenoids, mushrooms, garlic, and other immune-enhancing foods and nutrients.
  
• Experiment with specialized foods, such as aloe vera, chlorella, and whey protein, to further boost immunity.
  
• Work with a qualified herbal practitioner to use immune-enhancing herbs effectively and wisely.
  
• Share your regimen with your other health care practitioners.
  

Last Word

The best part of eating to fortify my immune system was learning to prepare a variety of delicious new foods: mushroom soup, spaghetti squash with pesto sauce, and whey protein bars for midday snacks—yum!

—Holly G., breast cancer survivor

8.
Inflammation

Wherever flaxseeds become a regular food item among the people, there will be better health.

—Mahatma Gandhi

Chapter Goal: Reduce inflammation levels and keep them low

Consider the simple pimple, sunburn, or mosquito bite. Minor ailments such as these produce inflammation. So do worse injuries, like a sprained or broken ankle. But in this chapter, when we talk about inflammation, we are referring to chronic inflammation, the kind you can’t feel or know. Experts now believe that chronic inflammation may be linked to various forms of cancer as well as other major diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and heart conditions. New studies continually increase our understanding of the complex inflammation process and how it relates to breast cancer. In 2010 several pieces of the inflammation puzzle came together when researchers (Liu et al.) at Thomas Jefferson University definitively demonstrated that breast inflammation is fundamental to the growth and spread of breast cancer.

While the relationship between inflammation levels and breast cancer continues to be closely examined, there are steps you can take to lower chronic inflammation naturally, reduce your risk of recurrence, and improve your overall health at the same time. But first, let’s take a closer look at what inflammation is, as well as its causes and effects on the body.

What Is Inflammation?

Inflammation is your immune system’s natural response to an injury, such as a pulled muscle, or to germs, allergens, chemical irritants, and other threats. Your immune system reacts by releasing white blood cells and chemicals into the bloodstream, which infiltrate your tissues, causing the indicators of inflammation that most of us are familiar with: redness, heat, swelling, and pain. There’s a biological domino effect at work here: all of these symptoms are created by the activity of immune cells breaking down injured tissue so that fresh, healthy tissue can replace it. This is a normal and appropriate response; our bodies
need
to stay vigilant in order to fend off an invasion or injury with aggressive pro-inflammatory mechanisms, such as clotting, fever, and swelling. But too often, inflammation becomes a chronic condition, and in this state, we leave ourselves more vulnerable to breast cancer occurrence and recurrence.

Here’s how: When inflammation arises, chemicals known as inflammatory
cytokines
, or
chemokines
(proteins that serve as messengers between cells) are released into the blood and tissues. These types of cytokines are created primarily by immune cells engaged in the process of mounting an inflammatory response
,
as a way of dealing with a health threat to the body. By relaying messages between the cells, the cytokines help to modulate the immune system response to whatever threat is at hand. But the presence of too many inflammatory cytokines harms our normal cells—and there’s the rub.

Inflammation and Breast Cancer: An Unwholesome Relationship

We’ve known for quite some time that inflammation and cancer have shared some sort of functional relationship. In fact, as long ago as 1863, German pathologist Rudolph Virchow first hypothesized that cancer originated at sites of chronic inflammation (Coussens and Werb 2002). Now it seems that modern science has caught up with nineteenth-century observations. It wasn’t easy.

It took twelve years and the breeding of a highly specialized mouse for researchers to finally prove that inflammation in the breast is one key to the development of breast cancer (Liu et al. 2010). The researchers in this study specifically tested the activity of a principal inflammatory pathway known as NF-kappaB to assess its effect on breast cancer—no easy task, as the researchers had to find a way to turn off inflammation in the breasts only. And, ingeniously, they did, paving the way to their discovery.

Another noteworthy study (Pierce et al. 2009) confirmed a link between chronic inflammation and breast cancer
recurrence
. In this study, scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center at the University of Washington noted that women with high levels of two other inflammation markers—
C-reactive protein
and
serum amyloid A
—were more likely to die early or have a cancer recurrence than women with lower levels.

Although many inflammatory substances have been shown to have a relationship with cancer, three of the most widely researched enzymatic compounds to date are known as COX, LOX, and the chemical signal NF-kappaB (and no, Dr. Seuss did not come up with these names!). While the particulars of each enzyme are not critical to this discussion, it is important to understand the need to keep a balance between the “pro-inflammatory” and “anti-inflammatory” forces at work in our bodies.

Inflammation Enables Angiogenesis

Another important characteristic of chronic inflammation is its relationship to angiogenesis, the development of new blood vessels. COX and LOX are enzymes that promote inflammation, and hormonelike chemicals from these enzymes play a major role in creating new blood vessels. While this is a natural and normal process, it is also one that tumors (even those too small to show up on a mammogram) can hijack to build a blood supply to accommodate their growing needs. Inflammatory cells stimulate the formation of new blood vessels that then transport nutrients and oxygen to the tumor. This is a recipe for chronic inflammation, with each process promoting the other. Clearly, inflammation and the resulting angiogenesis are outcomes that need to be kept under control.

On the flip side, research suggests that enzymes that block inflammation also inhibit angiogenesis, so by inhibiting one of these processes, you are positively affecting both (Jackson et al. 1997).

Factors That Influence Inflammation

A number of lifestyle factors play a role in contributing to chronic inflammation. Inflammation can be set in motion by your fork and knife. Not surprisingly, packaged foods that are high in sugar or trans fats are among the most potent of pro-inflammatory foods. And the type of fat you eat just might play the biggest role of all in determining levels of systemic inflammation, as you’ll see shortly.