INSULIN RESISTANCE PART 3 – CANCER

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 because it pushes cancer cells to grow faster.”

Cancer seems to have an affinity for sugar. Cancer cells thrive on glucose, so whether it’s straight sugar or foods that break down into sugar, it helps promote cancer growth.

Scientists have known for over a century that cancer cells have a great appetite for sugar. It’s the basis for the diagnostic imaging test on cancer patients called a PET scan that injects a short-lived radioactive sugar into the body, which lights up on the scan. Tumors take up sugar at much higher rates than normal cells, and you can see this difference 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.

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. You have to go outside the US for this type of treatment. You also have Dr. Thomas Seyfried, who wrote the book by the title, “Summary of Cancer as a Metabolic Disease.”

When blood sugar is elevated, insulin is elevated. One of the main actions of insulin is to cause cells to grow, and cancer cells are no exception – especially 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 (too much insulin production, which mostly comes from eating too much high glycemic food) have about double the likelihood of dying from 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 that are under our control, which include food and environment.

We are not making claims to cure cancer by any means, but we do think it’s important that you understand the greater role your food plays in the cause of disease.