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FIVE FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SUGAR AND CANCER

November 24, 2017 2 Comments

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Never mind Black Friday, you know it’s nearly Christmas when the Quality Street and mince pies start circulating in the office. And don’t get me wrong – I’m rarely the person who says ‘No’ to a mid-afternoon sweet treat at this time of year. But we know that refined sugar is no friend to healthy ageing.

Refined sugar impacts every facet of our health.  And cancer, which devastates so many lives, is no exception.  A shocking report was published this week, which re-evaluates research done in Birmingham in the 1960s. The 50-year-old research appears to have uncovered a link between sugar intake and cancer (specifically, bladder cancer) but the initial research was funded by the Sugar Research Foundation. Funding was pulled when the sugar-cancer link was made and the findings were forgotten until now.  There could have been all sorts of reasons for this but isn’t it awful? Makes me very cross.

With that in mind, I’ve been researching sugar, diet  and cancer in recent days and these are five key points:

  1. More than 1 in 20 cancers in the UK are linked to being overweight or obese. And Cancer Research UK says ‘being overweight is the biggest single preventable cause of cancer after smoking.’ Being overweight is also linked to 13 types of cancer.
  1. Sugar can cause weight gain, of course, but does it actually, ‘cause cancer’? No, says Cancer Research. Healthy cells, and cancer cells, both use glucose in different ways. Healthy cells create energy using the mitochondria, cancer cells bypass this process. Known as the Warburg Effect, this allows cancer cells to generate energy more rapidly to meet demand.
  1. Scientists are trying to understand how to shut down energy generation by cancer cells without starving healthy cells. But it’s not a question of simply changing diet – read this from Cancer Research UK http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2017/04/19/taking-advantage-of-cancers-abnormal-metabolism-could-lead-to-a-new-way-to-starve-tumours/
  1. Another area of research currently attracting widespread interest is insulin. Lewis Cantley, director of the Cancer Centre at Weill Cornell Medicine in the US, believes it may be the foods that spike insulin that need investigating rather than body weight. So simple sugars and carbs, which elevate insulin levels, are the real danger, rather than what we see on the scales.
  1. His research reveals how insulin activates the signalling pathway known as PI3-kinase: the key to the growth of many cancers. He says “So if you follow the logic that anything that drives activation of PI3-kinase ultimately results in cancer, and that insulin is the best way to do it, then that suggests that having high levels of insulin is likely to drive your cancer. And what drives insulin levels is sugar.”

So the next time the Quality Street come round I’ll try to remember that while this is the season of sugar and spice, it’s time to start treating sugar itself as a spice.

 

Susan

 

  • Conditions: Cancer
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Comments

  1. hilary defriez says

    November 24, 2017 at 5:33 pm

    I am delighted that you have raised this. My husband was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones, 3 years ago (weight not an issue). Almost the first thing he discovered when researching how best to help himself was the sugar/cancer link. He mentioned this to the NHS oncologist, who at first said she was unaware of the fact – and then admitted that she knew about it but ‘we don’t tell patients’. We were flabbergasted – why not tell people about the one relatively easy thing they can do which might help slow down cancer growth? We are not naive enough to speak of ‘cure’. He has been given no dietary advice whatsoever by the NHS, but follows a ketogenic diet.

    Reply
    • Susan Saunders says

      November 24, 2017 at 5:44 pm

      Thank you so much for sharing this Hilary. Do you think the ketogenic diet has made a difference?

      Reply

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Susan was lucky enough to spend a day at the olive Susan was lucky enough to spend a day at the olive harvest at Bidni Extra Virgin Olive Oil @bidni_evoo in Malta in late September. Fresh from the press, the oil was pretty peppery! That’s the polyphenols at work.

Polyphenol levels in olive oil also play a vital role in its brain boosting properties. They help reduce neuroinflammation and slow cognitive decline.

A study presented at a conference this summer by Harvard School of Public Health looked at the cognition of more than 90,000 people over 30 years. It found that those who consumed half a tablespoon of olive oil each day, as opposed to mayonnaise or margarine, had a 28%  lower risk of dying from dementia. Interestingly, this research found that the brain benefits of olive oil held up, regardless of the quality of the rest of the participants’ diet. So even those who didn’t adhere to other guidelines of the Mediterranean diet still got the benefits from the oil.

There’s more on the blog - link in bio

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New research has identified a very simple way of blocking the accumulation of kynurenine (and its toxic by-products) in our blood and tissues: regular, heart-beat-raising movement.

2️⃣ Platelet Factor 4 (PF4). This compound appears to keep our brains and memories sharp. And it too is released when we move. Discovered by a team from the University of Queensland Brain Institute, PF4 is a protein secreted by the tiny blood cells that prevent blood clotting (known as platelets). This protein rejuvenates brain cells (neurons) in ageing mice, and researchers now think it may be the reason that exercise  and movement amplify the production of new neurons in the brain.

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In today’s Observer: Check out our top tips for In today’s Observer: Check out our top tips for caring for ourselves and our parents. Take a multi vit for 50+, persevere with technology and/or try something new every day, walk daily, stay social, consume sufficient protein, supplement with vits D and B12… 

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Autumn giveaway! 🍂 We’ve got a bundle of two Autumn giveaway! 🍂

We’ve got a bundle of two books to give away here on Insta - one copy of The Age-Well Project and one of 52 Ways to Walk. 

To win, simply leave a comment below letting us know your favorite landscape for autumn and winter walks. Do you like hills, mountains, flatlands, canals, rivers, coastlines, cities, cemeteries, your local park, moorland...? Just a few words to tell us where you’d most like to be walking in the next few months to help you age well. 

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So how does sauna help us age well? The extreme heat activates heat shock proteins which researchers think can maintain the healthy functioning of our cells.  As we get older, the proteins in some of our cells start to misfold and collapse. They then clump together forming plaques, including the plaques thought to cause Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Heat shock proteins – triggered by a sauna stint and possibly by hot baths – appear to prevent the misfolding and collapsing of cellular proteins, as well as clearing out those that have already misfolded. Which is to say they keep our cells in good shape. 

There’s more on the blog - link in bio 

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