More on the caveman diet and cancer

Posted by Walker on October 30, 1998 at 13:42:30:

In Reply to: Eat like a caveman posted by Walker on October 29, 1998 at 19:08:51:

Before anyone starts rooting up their lawn for nutritious things to eat, let me state openly that I am not a doctor nor a health care professional.

My post yesterday was a bit of a rant because while I was being treated for cancer, I found it very frustrating to find useful information about health, nutrition and cancer prevention.

Many web sites have this annoying option and . Is it just me or does everyone want to know what the doctors know?

Reading the medical abstracts on cancer studies was a bit taxing at first, but after some time, I felt I was understanding them pretty well and my conclusion was that the link between diet and cancer may be there but it is far from proven and not well understood.

My impression is that many of these studies are done as follows: 1) Find a large sample of people who had some [target of study] disease. 2) Survey them for diet, exercise and as many other potentially contributing factors you can think of [vitamin pills or whatever]. 3) Search the data for some statistically significant correlation [as contrasted with a non-cancerous control group] 4) Make a small report about the 1 or 2 most statistically interesting correlations. 5) Many of these studies find no correlation or inverted relationships [like eating more bar-b-q reduces cancer]. You don’t hear much about these studies. But once in a while some half-baked study finds its way to the media and viola! Headlines read OATMEAL MAY REDUCE RISK OF CANCER.

Doctors, like everyone else, get caught up in this confusion.

I asked my oncologist about vitamins and other foods and he always just said, "Eat reasonably."

I asked him [during chemotherapy] why I was having so many symptoms of diabetes like weight loss, and chronic thirst. He said, "That’s just the effects of the chemotherapy. I would be really surprised if you now have diabetes because it makes no sense after losing so much weight."

So I went to my family doctor and had a blood test. Glucose was at 700 [very serious. Normal is around 100] The family doc told me that prednisone [chemo steroid I was on] is known to raise glucose levels in some people.

So why didn’t the oncologist know that? BTW, he is a very well respected and much sought after physician. But I think he learned his lesson and from that time on, any little question or concern I have he gives serious attention to.

Whether you agree with me about diet or not, it PAYS to learn as much as you can. Don’t be satisfied with what’s printed in the paper [sensationalism] from statistical studies [dubious] or what doctors say [covering their a$$es or too specialized to be informed of things outside their niche]

I hope no one takes this as a rant on doctors. They ain’t much but they’re all we’ve got. I’d be dead without them.

If anyone knows of a book or article that describes in detail how these chemotherapy drugs and radiation work I’d be very interested. For example, this from An Online Pocketbook for Veterinarians describing adriamycin:

PHARMACOLOGY: binds to nucleic acids by intercalation of the planar
anthracycline nucleus with the DNA double helix and inhibits nucleic acid synthesis;
the amphoteric molecule also binds to cell membranes via acidic ring phenolic
groups and the basic sugar amino group and alters membrane function; quinone and
hydroquinone moieties on adjacent rings permit the molecule to act as an electron
donating and accepting agent, generating free radicals which are potent alkylating
agents; the anthracycline also reacts with cytochrome P450 reductase in the
presence of NADPH to form semiquinone radical intermediates which in turn react
with oxygen to produce superoxide anion radicals that are highly destructive to cells.

It would be nice if the book were written in layman terms. I was on CHOP treatment (vincrinstine, prednisone, adriamycin and cytoxan)

So to summarize (if that’s possible for me) The $20/year for vitamins might be good heath insurance. Vitamins may have health benefits, but I still think we’re going on gut feel rather than hard science. Can anyone show that vitamins are anything more modern day tonic? Can someone show me that vitamin supplements added to my burger and fry diet is better than a demagnetizer or shark cartilage or a thigh master?

Intuition tells me that worms and crickets, berries and grass are more healthful than fast food + vitamins, but I can’t prove it.

Follow Ups:

• quackwatch rpcman 23:52:43 10/30/98 (2)
  • vitamin suppliments Walker 12:15:02 11/01/98 (1)
    • Added insurance and even those that eat right may not get enough of everything every day. (n/t) rpcman 18:11:22 11/07/98 (0)