Insulin resistance and cancer have a connection. Insulin resistance pushes cancer cells to grow faster. Borrowing again from Dr. Ben Bikman‘s work on insulin resistance, he states that, “Regardless of its specific cause, cancer is a disease of cellular growth; certain cells begin to multiply uncontrollably.” And insulin resistance is part of this equation.
Cancer seems to have an affinity for sugar. Cancer cells thrive on glucose. Whether it’s straight sugar or foods that break down into sugar, it promotes cancer growth.
Scientists have known for over a century that cancer cells have a great appetite for sugar. The diagnostic imaging test on cancer patients called a PET scan injects a short-lived radioactive sugar into the body. This lights up on the scan. Tumors take up sugar at much higher rates than normal cells. This difference is seen on film. The darker the spot, the higher the sugar uptake. It’s how we locate cancer in the body.
You may have heard of a German physician and scientist by the name of Otto Warburg. About 100 years ago he discovered that cancer cells rely almost totally on glucose as their primary fuel.
Cancer cells don’t need oxygen to grow.
What’s more, he also noted that, instead of using their mitochondria to burn that glucose for fuel, cancer cells were able to do so outside of the mitochondria, which means they don’t need oxygen to grow.
Many people today have expanded on Warburg’s research. The integrative Hope for Cancer treatment center in Mexico, is famous internationally for its approach to cancer treatment. It is necessary to go outside the US for this type of treatment. Helping with treatment is Dr. Thomas Seyfried. He wrote the book by the title, “Summary of Cancer as a Metabolic Disease.”
One of the main actions of insulin is to cause cells to grow, and cancer cells are no exception.
When blood sugar is elevated, insulin is elevated. One of the main actions of insulin is to cause cells to grow. Cancer cells are no exception. This is especially case if the cancer cell has made itself more sensitive to insulin than a normal cell. In addition, cancer has been studied widely in its relationship to insulin-like growth factor-1. This protein promotes general growth in the body. It’s overall a good thing, but growth factor-1 is also a common feature in the growth of many cancers.
The combination of glucose/sugar and insulin is important to understand if we want to know why people with hyperinsulinemia have about double the likelihood of dying from cancer. Those with hyperinsulinemia have too much insulin production, which mostly comes from eating too much high glycemic food.
Controlling insulin resistance helps control breast cancer.
Trials have been done by treating breast cancer patients with insulin sensitizing medication. The outcome demonstrated that controlling insulin resistance helped control the breast cancer. They saw an improvement in the disease. As with breast cancer, a common feature with prostate cancer is the presence of excess insulin receptors. So, excess insulin and increased insulin receptors in the prostate create a very powerful growth signal.
Cancer can have multiple causes and can react differently in everyone.
There will always be some variables that are out of our control. We can and should, however, do our best to affect the variables we can control. These include food and environment.
We are not making claims to cure cancer by any means. We do think it’s important that you understand the greater role your food plays in the cause of disease.