What is cancer?

Cancer is a group of diseases caused by the rapid division of abnormal cells and their rapid spread to other organs and tissues.

These rapidly growing cells may cause tumors and disrupt the body’s function.

Cancer is a significant cause of death globally. According to the World Health Organization, cancer will cause at least 1 in 6 deaths in 2020. As a result, medical researchers and healthcare experts leave no stone unturned in testing new cancer treatments daily.

Risk factors for cancer

Some factors may increase your risk of developing cancer. These factors include:

• High consumption of alcohol
• Tobacco use
• A poor diet high in processed and red meat, salty and sugary snacks, refined carbohydrates such as processed grains and sugars, and starchy foods, as documented in a 2017 study.
• Exposure to radiation
• Air pollution
• A sedentary lifestyle or lack of physical activity
• Prolonged exposure to UV light
• Certain viral infections include human papillomavirus, H. pylori, hepatitis B and C, the Epstein-Barr virus, and HIV.

Age is also a risk factor. Your chances of developing cancer increase as you get older. In general, the risk of developing cancer appears to increase until the age of 70 to 80, after which it diminishes, according to a National Cancer Institute (NCI) study.

A study review suggests that this may be due to:

• Less effective cell repair mechanisms characterized by aging
• Duration of exposure to carcinogens
• A buildup of risk factors throughout a person’s life

Some underlying health conditions that trigger inflammation may also increase cancer risk. Ulcerative colitis is a good example. Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease.

How to lower your cancer risk

Knowing the factors contributing to cancer can help you adopt a lifestyle that decreases the risk of developing this disease.

1. Stop using vegetable oils

Canola oil and other highly processed oils are believed to cause cancer. Medical researchers recommend that you replace your saturated fat with unsaturated fat. But how true is this? Well, here’s something that you should know. It is important to note that most fat and cancer risk studies are questionnaire studies. The quality of these studies is poor and inconclusive. Saturated fat alone does not increase one’s risk of cancer. There are many other variables to be considered when doing this questionnaire-type study.

Unsaturated fatty acids comprise omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties, significantly improving inflammation and decreasing cancer risk. These healthy fatty acids can be found in grass-fed meats.

Now, what about omega-6 fatty acids? The corn oil, the cottonseed oil, etc., that people are telling you to eat more of and replace with saturated fats are directly linked to increased inflammation. Credible data also shows that when you consume these heated seed oils, your risk of developing cancer increases significantly.

Now, what about monounsaturated fats like avocado oil or olive oil? Well, these are pretty good and have very potent anticancer effects.

What does the research say about trans fats? Yes, there are strong links between trans fats and increased cancer risk.

3. Stop eating processed foods

Refined foods are in the family of processed meat and refined carbohydrates, and chemicals. So when we look at fine or ultra-refined foods, it is in the family of processed meat.

Now, the combination with adding a protein with sugar, or fat with sugar with high heat like what happens in French fries and they might contain some whole wheat flour that is so terribly processed that you cannot say that whole grains will help in cancer prevention. So, when you see a study that says that whole wheat grains reduce your cancer risk, you’ll have to consider the whole picture.

Very few people eat whole grains alone. Usually, they combine it with other stuff, but the problem is when you take this processed food, especially refined grains, and add it with certain vegetable oils and heat, you get acrylamide.

Acrylamide is a known carcinogen. So, you should avoid refined foods. But, we also have to consider the quality of whole foods.

4. Eat fiber from whole foods

It is usually said that if you increase your fiber intake, you decrease your fiber intake. Researchers have lumped in all the different types of fiber with vegetable fiber. What can we say about these new synthetic fibers being released daily? They are called functional fibers. Examples include:

• Resistant maltodextrin
• Tapioca fiber
• Corn fiber

These are all new fibers that have not stood the time of safety studies; we don’t know much about them, and they may not affect your blood sugars, but it is important to note that adding highly refined fiber to processed food could have some adverse effects on your health, such as promoting liver cancer according to a new study.

So, of course, future studies will need to disentangle the harmful from the beneficial aspects of gut fermentation.

Your fiber intake should come from real food, not from some synthetic fiber added to your food.

5. What about antioxidants?

There is conflicting information that says that antioxidant supplements cause cancer. Now, how true is this?

Well, it is essential to note that the studies base this information on synthetic antioxidants, not the type you’d get from food. Let’s use beta carotene as an example.

Beta carotene is a carotenoid. It is a fat-soluble antioxidant, and it has a lot of great benefits. But apparently, it is being put in our foods. It is also set in infant formula as vitamin A; it is used to color farm-raised salmon to give it that pink color because if you didn’t, it would have a gray tone. It is also used in commercials to color eggs to give the egg yolk a perfect color.

Now, deep research into the manufacturing processes of synthetic beta carotene shows that they contain all sorts of chemicals. It is made from acetone using different solvents like hexane to give it that unique coloring.

So, all antioxidants are good, but only natural ones.

Disclaimer: Dr. Berner does not diagnose, treat, or prevent any medical diseases or conditions; instead, he analyzes and corrects the structure of his patients with Foundational Correction to improve their overall quality of life. He works with their physicians, who regulate their medications. This blog post is not designed to provide medical advice, professional diagnosis, opinion, treatment, or services to you or any other individual. The information provided in this post or through linkages to other sites is not a substitute for medical or professional care. You should not use the information in place of a visit, consultation, or the advice of your physician or another healthcare provider. Foundation Chiropractic and Dr. Brett Berner are not liable or responsible for any advice, the course of treatment, diagnosis, or any other information, services, or product you obtain through this article or others.