Day +413 : Sugar is a cancer feeder?

I am fine today.

After I was diagnosed with Leukaemia, I received many advices through email saying that sugar is a cancer feeder, but no one was able to explain to me exactly how this could be :-( I understand most of them just simply forward the message to me without putting much thought on the subject matter.

A quote from American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR) regarding this phenomenon:

“There’s a lot of scientific and medical information on the Internet, ranging from the rigorously accurate to the intentionally misleading. Unfortunately, much of the stuff that people pass along to friends lies somewhere in between.

That’s why it pays to arm yourself with healthy skepticism about online health information. If you do, it’s easier to spot the hucksters: terms like “scientific breakthrough” and “miracle cure” are, of course, red flags. Often, however, the signs aren’t as clear.”

And particularly on the subject regarding sugar as cancer food, it says :

“The truth, however, is more complex: it’s not that sugar “feeds” cancer, it’s that diets that are very high in sugar and refined carbs can, over time, indirectly raise cancer risk. That’s because routinely elevated levels of blood sugar can raise insulin levels, which may in turn make colon cancer, and perhaps other cancers, more likely. This indirect chain of events is seen most commonly among people who are overweight and sedentary or those who have insulin resistance or diabetes in the family.

Another way that high sugar consumption could increase cancer risk is by leading to weight gain. Lots of sugar equals lots of calories which, over time, equals lots of excess weight. And excess weight is linked to greater risk of several types of cancer.

The e-mail goes on to recommend “natural” forms of sugar instead, which is another misrepresentation. To your body, a sugar molecule is a sugar molecule, no matter if it’s refined (table sugar, corn syrup) or unrefined (molasses, honey, brown sugar). The potential effects on insulin levels and weight are the same.

Again, it’s not sugar that’s the culprit, but too much sugar.

And that, as a general rule, is an important distinction to look for when clicking through your inbox. Does that e-mail demonize (or, for that matter, praise) a specific food, or does it talk about how that food should fit in your overall diet?

When it comes to something as complex and continually changing as the human diet, there are no magic bullets. Individual foods don’t cause cancer, nor can they prevent it. What influences your cancer risk is the overall pattern of choices you make, every day, over the course of your life: what and how much you eat, how and how much you’re physically active.”

You can read the whole article here. I hope the above information will drive you to establish a net of skepticism in dealing with health information :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +324 : Hear two new Leukaemia cases in a day

I am fine today.

On Wednesday, one of my colleagues told me that one of his church members’ brother was diagnosed with Leukaemia. The patient was treated for eyes cancer earlier. So Leukaemia might be developed as a side effect of the earlier treatment – secondary cancer. My colleague said he will refer my blog to the family.

Then on Wednesday night, a classmate of mine who is a senior pastor now called me from Miri, Sarawak. He said a relative of his church member was diagnosed with Leukaemia. He would like to find out how bone marrow transplant is done. The patient is currently reluctant to go for conventional treatment and is trying to combat the disease with health products.

I visited a friend who is doing his third round of chemotherapy in UH on Monday. He told me he saw many new Leukaemia cases recently. It looks like it is gaining popularity now :-(

Leukaemia is considered to be quite rare among cancers. Based on a study on Peninsular Malaysia in 2003, it constitutes of 4% and 7.1% of total cancers among females and males respectively.

The following statistic is contained in the HOPE hand book – a resource guidebook for newly diagnosed cancer patients. It can be downloaded here.


See you next post :-)

Day +269 : Common Misconceptions About Cancer

I am fine today.

On my blog Day +262, I posted a newspaper cutting where the chairman of Malaysian Oncological Society (MOS), Dr Gurcharan Singh Khera, warned the potential risks of taking natural supplements indiscriminately. MOS has a very informative though brief website that provides valuable information to cancer patients.

One of the attractive sections is “Common Misconceptions About Cancer”. I extract the most frequent misconceptions that I encountered from friends and relatives after I was diagnosed with the disease:

Many people suspect my disease is caused by my diet. See what doctor says:

Doctor, what food should I avoid?
Food is not the most important cause of cancer. Neither is it an important modality in the treatment of cancer. It is important that cancer patients observe a diet high in protein, calories and vitamins while undergoing treatment. However, that is a far cry from saying that "this food will prevent cancer" or "that food will cause cancer!"

People sent me document warning me how damaging the conventional treatment could be and advised me to go for alternative treatment – taking organic foods, vitamins, mushroom and many other 'magic' foods, and stop taking many other foods such as sugar, dairy product, meat etc. See what doctor says:

I don't want to undergo cancer treatment because 'good' cells are killed.
Cancer treatment is a judicious combination of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and molecularly targeted therapy. There is no such thing as medical treatment (for any disease, including cancer) that is devoid of side effects, just as there is no such thing as a free lunch. However, most side effects of cancer therapy are temporary, reversible and manageable. Much progress has been made in the control of nausea and vomiting, which is a frequent side effect of treatment. 'Growth factors' (G-CSF, erythropoietin) are available to combat bone marrow suppression, which is another common side effect of cancer therapy. And the list goes on… If cancer is left untreated, there will be great suffering. Death will ensue within two years in most cases.

I received countless proposals to go for one form or another kind of alternative therapy. See what doctor says:

What about alternative therapy?
What about it? There is no alternative civil engineering, no alternative computer technology and no alternative chemistry. Any treatment for cancer has to be subjected to the rigours of scientific enquiry. This inevitably means a slow, laborious, intellectually honest process that starts in the laboratory, proceeds onto animal studies and finally studies on humans. There is only medicine that works and has been proven, and medicine that is not proven and may not work.

The full article can be viewed here. If you have friends or relatives who are diagnosed with cancer, please refer this to them. I believe this would help them to clear a lot of unnecessary doubt.

The MOS website is at http://www.malaysiaoncology.org/.

See you next post :-)