SUPPLEMENTS AND NUTRIENTS IN CANCER PREVENTION AND THERAPY
SUPPLEMENTS AND NUTRIENTS IN CANCER PREVENTION AND THERAPY By Marios Kyriazis, M.D. When the subject of cancer comes up for discussion, we need to be mindful of these questions: 1. Are we talking about the prevention of all cancers? 2. Or are we talking of preventing only one type? 3. Or are we talking about curing an existing cancer? These are important questions because the approach would be different in each case. In the case of established cancer, it is necessary to find ways to work together with conventional medical therapies such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. There are products and compounds which may help reduce the side-effects from these therapies and may help enhance the action of a particular chemotherapeutic agent. In the case of prevention, we may need to employ not only certain supplements or compounds, but also pay attention to the appropriate nutrition for each type of cancer, as well as general lifestyle measures | 20 | Aging Matters
that are already well known and accepted. Below is a discussion of some nutritional products or other compounds which may play a role in cancer prevention, and/ or may help improve the outcome of conventional anticancer therapies. As a personal note, I mention that I do not recommend selfhelp therapies for cancer if these are not under the direct supervision of a competent specialist. However, a wellinformed, open-minded, and knowledgeable physician may prove to be an invaluable asset in all aspects of cancer management. Resveratrol Let’s start the discussion with one of the most useful agents in health and aging, namely resveratrol. It is worth remembering that resveratrol is a natural polyphenol product, found in grapes
About the author Dr. Marios Kyriazis qualified as an MD from the University of Rome, Italy, and has worked as a clinician in acute medicine for 40 years in Cyprus, the USA and the UK. He is qualified Gerontologist with interest in the biology of aging and a member of the ‘Royal Society of Biology.’ He also has a post-graduate qualification in geriatric medicine from the ‘Royal College of Physicians,’ and an affiliated researcher with the University of Brussels on matters related to longevity.
and red wine, peanuts, and berries, (blueberries, mulberries, blackberries), as well as in supplement form. This, like some other agents that will be discussed below, is a pluripotent agent, meaning that it has multiple beneficial actions affecting several organs and processes in our body. It can affect the progression of several types of cancer, and it is considered as a chemo-preventative agent (it is a chemical that prevents cancerous changes). For example, it induces apoptosis, which is the orderly death of cancerous or otherwise damaged cells from our body, and this reduces the viability of cancerous cells in certain cancers, such as those of the cervix (1). Therefore, it is a potential candidate for use in the case of cervical cancer. But examples of its use in other cancers are numerous.
