By Neal D. Barnard, MD
Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine
President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC

Author of The Cancer Survivor’s Guide: Foods that help you fight back!

Dr. Neal D. Barnard appeared on Dr. Oz on January 5, 2012 and writes how people can lessen their chance of developing stomach cancer.

Stomach cancer strikes about one million people each year. It is especially common in other parts of the world – in Asia, in particular – and it was something we thought we did not have to worry about in the US. However, recent reports have uncovered a disturbing new trend – a surprising rise in stomach cancer rates among young people in the US.

Stomach cancer often goes undetected. There is no lump to feel and nothing that might show up on an X-ray. By the time it is found, usually with a look into the stomach through an endoscope, it can be very hard to treat.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that food choices can protect you. Some foods reduce the risk that stomach cancer could strike. Other foods are harmful, and we now know which ones they are.

Cancer-Fighting Foods

Citrus fruits. It’s no secret that oranges, tangerines and clementines bring us vitamin C; they are among the richest sources of this critical vitamin. Vitamin C does more than help you fight colds. It is also a cancer-fighter. Vitamin C knocks out free radicals, dangerous compounds that arise as a part of body metabolism. Just as cars produce exhaust and factory chimneys release smoke, the chemical reactions in your body produce free radicals that can damage DNA. And DNA damage is the first step in the cancer process. Vitamin C shields you, neutralizing free radicals as they form.

If you were thinking you might have to eat a bushel-full of oranges to protect yourself against cancer, it’s actually much simpler. Just one a day provides measurable benefit.

Citrus fruits also contain lesser-known nutrients, called flavonoids, that inhibit cancer cells from being able to invade your healthy body tissues. Flavonoids are not in the main part of the fruit – you’ll find them in the peel. Adding a little orange zest to your salad does not just make it pretty, it makes it healthier, too. So, citrus fruits help in two ways. Their vitamin C stops cancer from starting in the first place, and their flavonoids inhibit any existing cancer cells from harming you.

Carrots. That bright orange color seen in carrots is beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant. It knocks out free radicals, just as vitamin C does. In fact, the two work as a team. Vitamin C patrols the blood stream, neutralizing free radicals it finds there, while beta-carotene guards the surface of each cell.

Sweet potatoes. These are also rich in beta-carotene, as you can see by their orange hue. But they have another secret ingredient called caffeic acid. No, it is not related to caffeine, coffee or cappuccinos. Caffeic acid cuts off the blood supply to growing tumors.

Allium vegetables. Garlic is an allium vegetable. Ditto for onions, shallots, leeks and scallions. As they sit in produce department bins, they have very little scent. But if you were to take a garlic clove and crush it on your cutting board, its intense aroma quickly emerges. That’s allicin. Allicin is a cancer fighter. It forms from natural compounds in the garlic plant that are separated from each other until it is crushed.

You do not have to eat the whole knob of garlic. Even a clove or two of garlic each day has health benefits. But be careful – crush the garlic first and wait about ten minutes before cooking it to allow the allicin to form. If you are impatient and cook it too soon after crushing, you’ll stop allicin formation prematurely.

Citrus fruits, carrots, sweet potatoes and vegetables from the garlic-family will go a long way toward helping you prevent stomach cancer. But there is even more you can do to protect yourself.

Harmful Foods to Avoid

Processed meat. Meats that are preserved by curing, smoking or the addition of nitrites are called “processed meats,” a group that includes sausage, bacon, ham, bologna, and, yes, even typical hot dogs. They are strongly linked to digestive-tract cancers, including stomach cancer.

While many doctors usually advise ”moderation,” many are now saying that we should avoid processed meats completely, because the evidence linking them to cancer is so convincing. This is especially true for children.

Salty foods. The body needs only a tiny amount of salt for normal body processes, but many of us get far more salt than we need. In excess, salty foods are linked to stomach cancer. Go easy on potato chips, cheese, salty canned products, and the salt shaker.

Helicobacter pylori. The last thing to avoid is not a food, but a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori (H pylori). This common bacteria can lead to gastritis and ulcers. Many people have it in North America and worldwide. Doctors can easily test you for H pylori, and if you have it, can knock it out with a short course of antibiotics.

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.

When it comes to her health, actress, anti-aging expert and best-selling author Suzanne Somers doesn’t hesitate to reject conventional treatments. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer 11 years ago she chose alternative therapies that stunned the mainstream medical community.  Once again, she’s taken the revolutionary route by undergoing an experimental procedure using her own stem cells and body fat to rebuild her withered breast.

Somers detailed her alternative journey and boasted about her quality of life to Dr. Oz on his show last Friday.

“Look at me,” she told Dr. Oz. “Eleven years later, I am so healthy. I’ve had this incredible quality of life all of these years.”

After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 it took about two days for her to recover from the shocking news.

“I woke up, looked at my husband and said, ‘I can handle this.’ And then it was like I went to war and I was going to do it my way,” she said.

And so she did. She was offered the standard of care: a lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy and after-care drugs and told to give up bioidentical hormones, which she refused to do despite her doctor telling her she would die if she didn’t. She believed keeping her hormones balanced would help her prevent a cancer recurrence following the lumpectomy.

But she did agree to radiation, which she was told would be a “walk in the park.” Hardly. She vomited daily throughout each day and spent much of the time curled in a fetal position. The radiation eventually left her with a “withered, nearly pancake breast on the right side (barely a B cup) and my full natural breast on the left side (a D cup),” she writes on her website.

“Here I am a sex symbol and I have one and one-third breasts,” she said to Dr. Oz. “…I could write a book, What They Don’t Tell You about Radiation.
After researching chemotherapy and being dissatisfied with its success rate, or lack thereof, she rejected that treatment. “Looking back, it was the best thing I ever did,” she said.

To help prevent a recurrence of cancer, she was injected with Iscador, which is extracted from mistletoe, for eight years. She also “ate as if my life depended on it” and still does. She grows her own food, buys organic and when she can’t get organic she loads up on antioxidants to kill free radicals.  She also continued taking her bioidentical hormones and opted against reconstruction because she didn’t want an implant.

“As an avid participant in anti-aging and alternative medicine, I instead searched for another option. I heard about Dr. Kotaro Yoshimura who has been performing stem cell breast reconstruction in Japan, but it was not legally available to women in this country. After years of research and international travel, I was able to assist a remarkable group of doctors in having an IRB (International Review Board) set up at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in California. I considered going to Japan for the surgery, but I wanted to help open the door for women in America. I am proud to say I am the first person in this country to initiate the clinical trial for a stem cell breast reconstruction at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Joel Aronowitz (who trained with Yoshimura in Japan) was the lead surgeon, along with Dr. James Watson. This procedure used my own adult stem cells, harvested from my fat, then reinjected into my breast to “regrow” my breast to its original size. While I don’t yet have long-term results, I can say the initial results are nothing short of miraculous.”

If ever there was a poster child for alternative therapies and being in control of your own health, it is Somers, who says, “It is so wonderful for all people to know how your body works and to understand the fuel, which is in good nutrition, and to know the questions to ask when you are having any kind of procedure so that you can be in charge of your body because nobody will care as much about your body as you.”

Mistletoe Extract as Cancer Therapy

Benefits of Stem Cell Breast Reconstruction

Joan Valentine - A Foundation for Natural Cures, Inc. - Provides education and integrative medicine solutions to those suffering from cancer and their families.