Be aware! Soy supplements with isoflavones may “reprogram” breast cancer cells.

A reason you might want to avoid soy protein isolates and soy supplements.

Women with estrogen-responsive breast cancer who consume soy protein supplements containing isoflavones to alleviate the side effects of menopause may be accelerating progression of their cancer, changing it from a treatable subtype to a more aggressive, less treatable form of the disease, new research suggests.

The study, published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, raises troubling questions about the safety and the potential health consequences associated with long-term use of dietary supplements containing soy isoflavones, such as the phytoestrogen genistein.

Scientists at the Univ. of Illinois, Virginia Polytechnic and State Univ. and the National Center for Toxicological Research collaborated on the research. Three preclinical animal studies using mice examined the response of estrogen-dependent breast cancer cells to estradiol and to several levels of genistein delivered in purified forms (500 and 700 ppm) and as soy protein isolate (180 ppm).

The genistein blood levels found in the mice were similar to the serum concentrations found in women whose diets are high in isoflavones.

The soy protein isolate had the natural level of isoflavones found in many commercial protein supplements sold in grocery stores and nutrition shops, said co-author Juan Andrade, who is a prof. of food science and human nutrition at Illinois.

Estradiol and all three genistein concentrations stimulated tumor growth in mice, but when the estradiol implants and higher-dose dietary genistein (750 ppm) were removed, the tumors regressed completely.

Tumors also regressed in the mice that consumed the lower dose (500 ppm) of genistein, but the regression terminated with the tumors at significantly larger sizes than those in the control group.

In the group that consumed soy protein isolate, tumor regression did not occur during the withdrawal phase—instead, the breast cancer cells continued to grow.

“The lower dose of genistein actually does something that is potentially problematic,” said co-author William Helferich, who is a prof. in the same department. “A very low dose of genistein effectively reprograms the tumor cells from estrogen-dependent to estrogen independent, converting them into a tumor that no longer needs estrogen to grow and will not respond to many of the current anti-estrogen therapies.”

After analyzing gene expression markers, the authors speculate that long-term consumption of the lower dose of genistein elicited changes in the breast cancer cells that reprogrammed them from luminal subtype A—the most common and treatable type of breast cancer—to luminal subtype B, a more aggressive and rapidly growing type of tumor that has a poorer prognosis.

The tumors in the mice on the low-dose (500 ppm) genistein diet and the soy protein isolate diet also showed increased expression of the oncoprotein epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2).

HER2 expression, which occurs in 20 to 25% of breast cancer patients, correlates to a poor prognosis because it is associated with endocrine resistance and with higher-grade tumors that proliferate more quickly.

Early epidemiological studies associated whole-soy food consumption with myriad health benefits related to menopause, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis and with lower rates of breast cancer among Asian populations.

More recent findings from isoflavone supplement studies have been mixed, with some researchers suggesting that supplements containing genistein, including soy protein isolates, may have negative effects on estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer.

In a 2004 study published in Carcinogenesis, Helferich and his
co-authors found that soy flour contained biologically active compounds that appeared to greatly inhibit genistein’s impact on tumor growth.

“Lifelong consumption of mostly whole-soybean foods such as tofu, tempeh, etc. as is consumed in Asia is probably healthy and protective because Asian populations consume soy as a complex mixture of bioactive compounds and do so throughout their lifetimes,” Helferich said. “However, the way that we consume soy in the West—through highly enriched isoflavones-containing extracts or as dietary supplements, usually later in life—is probably not going to produce the same effects.”

The findings of the current study are particularly troubling because they suggest that dietary quantities of soy foods – rather than the highly enriched isoflavone-containing extracts and pure compounds often found in dietary estrogenic supplements for women—may have serious consequences for certain populations, especially breast cancer patients, Helferich said.

Source: News Bureau Illinois

One Week of Junk Food May Be Enough to Damage Your Memory

Feed your brain the right foods.

A new study from the University of New South Wales in Australia published in the journal Brain Behavior and Immunity, shows that just one week of eating an unhealthy diet is enough to cause lasting memory impairment in rats.

For a week, the rats were given access to a bottle of sugar water in addition to a healthy diet, or were fed a cafeteria-like diet loaded with cakes, cookies, and fat. Although only the rats on the cafeteria diet gained weight, both groups of rats had memory impairments compared with control animals who ate only healthy foods, suggesting that weight gain alone wasn’t to blame for their memory lapses.

Poor Diet Damages the Hippocampus

The rats had little trouble with object recognition, a type of memory that involves a brain region called the perirhinal cortex. But they did far worse with place recognition, a type of memory that involves a brain region called the hippocampus, which is responsible for many types of memory formation, including retaining new facts.

In the rats on the high-sugar or cafeteria diet, the researchers found that the hippocampus had become inflamed, impairing its function. The inflammation and memory damage lasted for at least three weeks after the rats were returned to a healthy diet.

Although rats aren’t a perfect model for humans, their hippocampus functions in very similar ways to ours. In humans and rats, the hippocampus not only helps us learn but also helps us navigate places and record events as they happen. Keeping it healthy is invaluable for learning and recall.

“A healthy diet is critical for optimum function,” said study author Professor Margaret Morris in an interview with Healthline. “Our data suggests that even several days of bad diet may impair some aspects of memory.”

The hippocampus is also used to regulate the body’s stress system. If it’s not able to do its job properly, stress can get out of control, dumping hormones into your bloodstream that will circulate back to the hippocampus and damage your memory further.

To complete the vicious circle, when stress levels are high, the body’s hunger systems shift. This causes you to selectively crave fatty and sugary foods. 

Memory and Age 

Although a little junk food here and there won’t have too much impact on a young person, a lifetime of poor eating can add up. If your hippocampus doesn’t get a chance to recover from the sugary, fatty onslaught, the inflammation could become long-term damage.

“Some studies show a decline in cognition with aging, and it is possible that an unhealthy diet may be particularly unhelpful in this group,” said Morris. Older brains take longer to recover from insults such as hangovers, so they might also be more vulnerable to damage from a junk food diet.

As seniors living on their own lose mobility, some are more likely to eat pre-packaged foods, such as frozen dinners, which tend to be high in fat, sugar, and salt. So this finding might also help explain the role that diet plays in the development of memory impairment in diseases like Alzheimer’s.

The not so sweet reality of our addiction to sugar.

It is no coincidence that as sugar consumption rises so do obesity and all the related deadly diseases. High fructose corn syrup is the worst of all sugars directly raising triglycerides, stored body fat, leading to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

In the videos below Dr Lustig, Pediatric Endrocrinologist from UCSF discusses his research showing how sugar and processed foods are driving the obesity epidemic.

Part One: Sugar-The Bitter Truth
Part Two: Fat Chance- Fructose 2.0

Geeks to the rescue. Healthsherpa lets you shop for healthcare NOW.

I knew someone would do this. Bravo! Thanks to my heroes at www.theverlastinggopstoppers.com for this story. Kudos go to you entirely!

Quoting with some added comments:  What millions of dollars worth of IT folly could not do in Washington "was done by three geeks in their 20s - George Kalogeropoulos, Ning Liang,  and Michael Wasser –

The trio said they didn’t like witnessing the abysmal rollout of the Affordable Care Act website, Healthcare.gov, so they did what any self-respecting code writing web gurus would do: Saw it as a challenge, and made their own version. On a few nights and weekends.

Said Liang; “They’ve got it completely backwards in terms of what people want up front – they want prices… You come to our website, you put in your zip code… you hit ‘find plans,’ and you immediately see exchange plans that are available for that zip code.’

The result, which the trio built for free, is called Healthsherpa.com and it’s working right now.

CBS News reports that “…using information buried in the government’s own website built by high-priced government contractors, they found a simpler way to present it to users.”

Alpha Lipoic Acid, Omega-3 EPA and DHA, and Vitamin E lower hemoglobin A1c in diabetics.

A study reported in the July-September 2013 issue of the Annals of Medical and Health Sciences Research, found a that supplementation with either 300 mg Alpha Lipoic Acid, 180 mg EPA and 120 mg DHA, or 400 iu Vitamin E resulted in a reduction of hemoglobin A1c and fasting glucose levels in diabetics. These three supplement groups experienced encouraging decreases in blood glucose and HbA1c with no adverse effect. The study authors noted that vitamin E was the most cost effective though the maximum improvement in blood glucose and HbA1c was with the omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA.

Higher vitamin D levels correlated with improved breast cancer prognosis.

An article published online on October 9, 2013 in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment found a link between higher levels of serum vitamin D and improved prognosis in women with early stage breast cancer.
When the lowest versus highest categories of serum vitamin D were compared in a pooled analysis, women whose levels were low had a risk of recurrence that was more than double that of subjects whose levels were high and a risk of death that was 76% higher. 
The authors point out that vitamin D, when activated, can alter the transcription and expression of specific genes, resulting in growth arrest, apoptosis, aromatase suppression, decreased inflammation, and inhibition of angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis, all of which help combat cancer. A measurement of vitamin D at your next checkup will help you determine your level, and if it is below 30 ng/ml a higher level of supplementation should be considered. Be sure your vitamin D is vitamin D3 cholecalciferol and not the less active vitamin D2 ergocalciferol.

Not your mom's cheesy cauliflower.

Now this is different. And delicious. The nutty flavor of roasted cauliflower contrasts so nicely with the perky lemon zest and capers. Toss 1 head cauliflower (cut into 1-inch florets) with 1 1/2 cups grapes, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons capers, 1 teaspoon each grated lemon zest and kosher salt, and pepper to taste. Garnish with another teaspoon of lemon zest after roasting if desired.
 

Roast at 450 degrees F, 25 minutes. Midway through, stir the cauliflower to flip it so it browns on several surfaces.