Sunday, January 12, 2014

Can we eat to starve cancer?

     What do strawberries, red wine, yogurt, and maple syrup all have in common?  They can all combat cancer.  According to William Lee these and many other anti-angiogenic foods can defeat deadly cancerous tumors.
    Angiogenesis is the process by which the body produces new blood vessels.  It is required for only a few specific tasks.  For example, when you get a cut, the body produces more blood vessels to heal it.  However, cancer uses angiogenesis against us.  A cancer only becomes dangerous or deadly when it is able to recruit its own blood vessels through angiogenesis, but when it does these new blood vessels are weak and chaotic, which makes them more susceptible to anti-angiogenic therapy.  So by eating these foods and medicines, cancer can be starved and death by cancer delayed or avoided altogether.  This treatment can also be used preventatively either by those who are at risk from cancer or have already beaten it once or twice and want to keep it from coming back.
     In my opinion, this is the best possible way to defeat cancer.  Unlike other treatments there are few to no drawbacks of this treatment, as many of these foods are extremely healthy in ways other than simply stopping the spread of cancer.  While radiation treatments, surgery, other cancer fighting methods can come at a cost to the patient, anti-angiogenic treatments and foods help the body in more ways than one.  I believe that this is the healthiest way to fight cancer.