Saturday, December 27, 2014

ENCORE! #3: “HOLD ON THERE BABA LOUIE!” – Exercise “reduces cytokines in adipose tissue” might be PURE HYPE!



In order to give more variety, I’m going to repost “old” posts in order of popularity or the number of times people looked at a particular post. I’m also going to pick my favorites or ones that continue to be an issue or continue to make me thing. I hope you enjoy these – or find them as useful as I did when I wrote them!

Doctors harp on exercise.

Despite the harping – or in my case, perversely because of it – I avoid exercise like the plague.

Even so, as I read more and more sites promoting the “exercise makes you better if you have breast cancer” meme, I found that almost none of them give any kind of evidence as to WHY exercise fights cancer and promotes healing.

So I dug into the sites and finally found some evidence supporting this wild, “Do this one weird thing…” kind of meme. This week, it’s number:


1) Increased levels of pro-inflammatory factors and decreased levels of anti-inflammatory factors have been linked with increased cancer risk. Physical activity might reduce systemic inflammation alone or in combination with reduction in body weight or composition through reducing inflammatory cytokines in adipose tissue.


What are pro and anti-inflammatory factors...


Let’s start with CYTOKINES and let me warn you, even researchers are still a bit fuzzy about these molecules, which explains the “might” in the paragraph above. We’ll take this subject as a “details at 11” kind of thing – it’s changing every day, but TODAY and to the best of our knowledge, we can say that we’re pretty sure that cytokines are small molecules that are given off by numerous cells and are used to communicate with each other. Cytokines are a large and diverse family of molecules with many jobs. One thing we are pretty sure they do to control the immune system – that collection of white blood cells and chemicals that spring to work when you’re hurt or sick and the body has to fight off an infection. The line between cytokines and hormones is also pretty blurry but PROBABLY, cytokines come from lots of places and there are only set amounts in the blood – though that amount can leap up during trauma or infection. Hormone levels are steady. Many cells produce cytokines. Most hormones come from specific glands (adrenal, pancreas, etc). Also, while usually specific, some cytokines act like hormones to have an effect on the entire body. Last of all, some cytokines act outside the immune system and affect the development of the human body.


As to breast cancer, at least one cytokine affects both the presence of and severity of breast cancer:


In a study published in the January 15th issue of Cancer Research…researchers showed that activation of the CXCR4 [cytokine] receptors [on the cancer cells] resulted in increased tumor growth and metastasis…and less dependent on estrogen for continued growth…to become metastatic and resistant to endocrine therapy…[in] A second study published in the current issue of Surgery…authors reported that all benign breast tissues had no detectable CXCR4 levels, whereas all 101 breast cancer patients showed at least some level of this cytokine receptor.  Of these breast cancer patients, 79 had low levels of CXCR4 and 22 had high levels of CXCR4.  These high CXCR4 levels were linked with increased breast cancer recurrence and worse chances of survival…overexpression of CXCR4 cytokine receptors is linked to worse breast cancer outcomes…blocking this pathway might become a valuable breast cancer treatment for patients overexpressing this cytokine receptor.”


The big “might” up above has given breast cancer, cytokines and exercise a high level of interest. The third reference below cites a study that, as of my referencing of it, was still recruiting participants.


So – I’m going to label THIS particular aspect of exercise and breast cancer as a big MAYBE, LET’S WAIT AND SEE. So don’t go spreading the word that exercise reduces cytokines and decreases breast cancer.


Nobody knows enough yet to say one way or the other.


Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine, http://breastcancerfightnowbydraarontabor.blogspot.com/2011/01/cytokine-receptor-cxcr4-worsens-breast.html, http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00851812
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQV27CfFqnrNKvU6XZxscA3VxfzsVsRCskJ-0N2kSxqeiQz68i0Ld8jpfompfrpBXhsivcIFRFUdF8_o96szMppuTJU3rtggjJ5Rm-o0yM8UZcfkqiZwmpzquBl2v1ER2CzAii3M_YQok/s1600/LYIN+LION+(11).png

Saturday, December 20, 2014

GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT #10…Cancer and the Holidays


From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

My favorite Christmas specials – “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!”, “A Christmas Carol” (TV version, with Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart), and “Joyeux Noel” (a WWI film my daughter introduced us to several years ago) – all contain wonderful, quotable moments.

Today the one I can hear repeatedly in my mind is, “Herbie doesn’t like to make toys!” This announcement is greeted by the elves of the North Pole with derision and eventual rejection. The reason I’m listening to it today is that the First Christmas after my wife’s breast cancer diagnosis was a huge challenge to us. When the diagnosis happened in March along with the double mastectomy then chemo over the summer, the following Christmas was…strange, to say the least. You can even tell how strange that first Christmas was because I didn’t mention a single thing about Christmas – it was all talk about lung cancer.

Whew. Talk about avoidance!

I write this morning from a place of profound hope and thankfulness. I didn’t even mention Christmas in this blog until the third time around in 2013. This Christmas, with my son, his wife and our two grandchildren in our house; my daughter and her boyfriend; my foster daughter; and my daughter-in-law’s mother…we will celebrate a tradition that we deliberately started 21 years ago: the cutting of the Christmas tree at a tree farm many miles north of her. In many way, the cutting of the tree brings to MY mind my thought process regarding breast cancer…

OK – so this is NOT linear!

The bit from “Rudolph”? During those first Christmases post-cancer-diagnosis and treatment, I only WISHED our problems were that trivial. On further reflection though, what appears trivial now, was not trivial then. My prayer for those experiencing breast cancer for their first Christmas, is that they have the strength they need and the joy that they desire.

The fact that I can even write this with a thankful heart show that I have both grown and hoped for the past four years. I pray for all of those who are experiencing their first “cancer Christmas” the gift of hope and the peace this season CAN bring. I pray they will rest in hope.

Last of all – I pray they all experience the thankfulness for both life and family, in whatever form their family takes.

It is with a peaceful, joyful, and thankful heart that my wife is alive and healthy this FOURTH Christmas after the diagnosis. I pray for all of us men with beloved women who have, had, or will have, a breast cancer diagnosis...

Saturday, December 13, 2014

ENCORE! #2 -- Husbanding A Bigger Middle







With my focus on Liz’ cancer, I’ve not paid much attention to what I’m eating. Well, not exactly. My problem is that I pay too MUCH attention to what I eat and what I don’t do.

See, I’m not an exercise nut. I’m exercise-a-phobic. It’s strange, but my GOOGLE search turns up a name for being afraid of everything EXCEPT fear of exercise. Smartalecks chime in on CHACHA and YahooAnswer to quip that the fear of exercise is laziness. But I’m not so sure – this person isn’t, either:http://exercise.about.com/od/plateausmotivation/a/overcomingfear.htm so I’m going to name it: exercerophobia: fear of exercise; from the Latin from L. exercitium "training, exercise," from exercitare, frequentative of exercere "keep busy, drive on," lit. "remove restraint," fromex- "off" (see ex-) +arcere "keep away, prevent, enclose,"

While that may not seem significant to you, naming something allows me to deal with it. When the breast cancer Liz had received a name: infiltrative ductal carcinoma, I was able to GOOGLE it and read about it. While I don’t consider myself an expert, some of my terror was allayed and I was able to read about treatment, steps to take and what it was.

Madeleine L’Engle, one of my favorite writers both as a kid and as an adult, has this to say about “naming”:

"I Name you Echthroi.
I Name you Meg.
I Name you Calvin.
I Name you Mr. Jenkins.
I Name you Proginoskes.
I fill you with Naming.
Be!
Be, butterfly and behemoth,
be galaxy and grasshopper,
star and sparrow,
you matter,
you are,
be!
Be caterpillar and comet,
Be porcupine and planet,
sea sand and solar system,
sing with us,
dance with us,
rejoice with us,
for the glory of creation,
seagulls and seraphim
angle worms and angel host,
chrysanthemum and cherubim.
(O cherubim.)
Be!
Sing for the glory
of the living and the loving
the flaming of creation
sing with us
dance with us
be with us.
Be!"
- Madeleine L'Engle, A Wind in the Door

Knowing what something IS helps me to face it. To know it, it needs to have a name. Once it has a name, then I can call it out. Breast cancer has a name I can understand and while we haven’t experienced complete victory yet, the enemy we confront has a name and we can do battle.

I’ve been fighting exercerophobia for years without knowing what its name was. Now that it’s REALLY important that I remain healthy, I’ve found its name – and can engage in battle.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #27: “Selenium Effective Against Breast Cancer!”



http://www.topsan.org/@api/deki/files/7887/=FR14867A_oligomer_b.pngFrom the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141020121408.htm

This article and an advertisement running on the same page of the Science Daily website gave me pause to consider...

When my wife was first diagnosed with breast cancer three years and seven months ago, the initial horror was soon replaced by the overwhelming necessity to decide (or so it seemed) EVERYTHING. We were caught in a flood of queries and opinions and counter-opinions on everything from how many days the victim should take off from work and how many days the caregiver should take off from work, to asking, “How are we going to...” and then having to find an answer (“How are you going to shower with 5 drainage tubes in your chest wall...” – “Oh! You have to do sponge baths until the tubes are all out...”)

After the initial surgeries, then came the decision about chemotherapy. Drowning in a sea of opinion, one of them involved a friend who pressed my wife to go the “natural route” of various and sundry megavitamins, etc. One of those minerals/vitamins, of course, is selenium.

What IS selenium?

Most simply, it is element number 34 on the Periodic Table of the Elements. You don’t find selenium laying around on the ground – it’s typically part of the ore we get copper from. After the copper ore is crush and treated to get the copper out, selenium remains, though it’s locked up the another element called sulfur. Mostly used today in making glass, agricultural fungicide, and as a color in paints, it forms salts that are both extremely toxic in large amounts – and absolutely essential to all animals on Earth in TRACE amounts. This includes humans.

So – we need it; it helps us stay alive...so why not just give breast cancer patients selenium pills?

Because it’s toxic – and even thought the ADVERTISING on the page (“Fight Cancer With Rawfood – Learn how raw foods help fight cancer”) suggests that eating right will help you defeat your cancer! – you can’t just run around eating selenium. The fact is that this advertiser is clearly capitalizing on possibility that the only two things you read in the article are selenium – and the ad directly below with the words “raw food” made into one MAGIC word, “Rawfood”...

As you can tell, this really bugs me – because the article and the research in it has nothing to do with eating OR with food! “Selenium, when attached to a monoclonal antibody [an identical twin cell grown from another, parent cell that is effective against cancer] presently used to treat breast cancer, has shown greater success in destroying cancer cells in a patient who has developed resistance to the chemotherapy...” is what the article is talking about!

There is nothing in the research about “if you eat Raw Food”...it’s about attaching selenium atoms to monoclonal antibodies – what you see in the illustration to the left! You can’t attach selenium to a monoclonal antibody (made by humans in a medical research lab) by eating raw foods any more than you can create gasoline for your car by grinding charcoal briquettes to dust and then running over them with a steam roller.

So the article is saying, quite clearly, that when selenium is added to monoclonal antibodies ALREADY being used to treat breast cancer and who become resistant to the therapy, attaching selenium atoms to the monoclonal ramps up the effectiveness of the treatment by sneaking past the cancer cell’s defenses.

And THAT’S good news!