Friday, September 3, 2010

Bipolar, Cancer, Stroke. What's One Connection?

Epigentics, influenced by food, toxins, environment and even our grandparents' lives may connect seemingly unrelated medical illnesses such as bipolar, schizophrenia, cancer, stroke and heart disease.

There is good news in this!

Conceivably, the extensive amount of money poured into cancer research and prevention may pay off for these other illnesses as well. [1]

Diverse problems, ranging from cancer to cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders, can all be caused at least in part by altered "histone modifications," and their effects on the reading of DNA in cells, says Rod Dashwood, a professor of environmental and molecular toxicology at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) enzyme can "switch off" tumor suppressor genes which is bad news, but "HDAC inhibitors" have already been identified in common foods such as cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli), and vegetables containing organosulfur compounds like garlic and onions. Naturally occurring organoselenium compounds in the diet has been recently added to the list of dietary compounds which positively affects the HDAC inhibition mechanism.

Even the act of eating fibrous vegetables can help since butyrate, a compound produced in the intestine when dietary fiber is fermented, is an HDAC inhibitor.

Dashwood says:
"Some therapeutic drugs already used for cancer treatment in the clinical setting probably work, at least in part, because they are acting as HDAC inhibitors.  And what's most intriguing is that HDAC inhibition may affect many degenerative health issues, not just cancer. Heart disease, stroke, bipolar disorder, and even aging may all have links to HDAC/histone alterations.

In the future, a single HDAC inhibitor conceptually could have benefits for more than one degenerative disease problem."
Read more on Brain Health: Nutrition and Epigenetics

Now, just my opinion, but don't go ditching your current regimen for good foods expecting some miraculous cure!  There are so many different types of underlying factors that go into illness. For instance, I doubt any amount of foods or medications can somehow correct the schizophrenia in people whose symptoms caused by severe straight genetic (DNA) or mitochondrial (mDNA) problems affecting brain function.[2,3] Of course, those cases are not all cases.

What this DOES show, is there is a lot of credence in the saying that we are what we eat. In fact, we are also what our parents and grandparents ate. And better yet, there is still hope we can improve our current state.



References:

[1] Original Article Source was prepared by Heart Disease Weekly editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2010, Heart Disease Weekly via http://www.NewsRx.com.The full copy of the article can be found at many Internet sites. Here is one:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428081836.htm

Original Source:  Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

[2] Strong synaptic transmission impact by copy number variations in schizophrenia

[3] Mitochondrial Dysfunction & Psychiatric Symptoms 

Outside link:
Adjuvant Cancer Protocols from the Life Extension Foundation:

Books of Interest

And last but not least - Kris Carr Video - Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips




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Copyright: September 2010
Last Updated: 16 April 2011

1 comment:

Jeanie said...

A comment about the connection between mitochondrial dysfunction and cancer has just been posted to Mitochondrial Dysfunction & Psychiatric Symptoms that is worth reading.

To re-post, Herb says,"Almost 3 years ago, I posted a comment to the effect that research into mitochondrial DNA would take on a special importance. Recently, a link between mutations in mitochondrial DNA and cancer has been found. Although too early to tell what the cause and effect relationship is, it does reinforce the view as to the importance of research into the field. If mutations of the DNA of our mitochondria might be involved in cancer, what other mischief it might be involved with."

Thank you, Herb.