In Future, Cancer Cells May Kill Themselves

Once cancer (from radiation or any other source) is diagnosed, it would be great if only we could convince cancer cells to kill themselves. This might actually happen in the near future (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show): Researchers have developed a treatment for cancer using a method that causes cancer cells to self-destruct while sparing surrounding healthy cells.

Researcher W T. Godbey takes a gene from a cancer cell, extracts the current DNA message from the gene and replaces it with a code that instructs the cell to kill itself. While clinical trials with human patients are two to three years in the future, the treatment has been successful in animal models.

You knew that vegetables are good for you, but now scientists have learn how good they really are. In particular, vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage are filled with compounds that could help reverse or prevent cancers and other aging-related diseases. Biologist Trygve Tollefsbol says, "Your mother always told you to eat your vegetables, and she was right,” but now we better understand why she was right–compounds in many of these foods suppress gene aberrations that over time cause fatal diseases." Foods that help prevent cancer include soybeans, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage. Green tea, fava beans, kale, grapes and the spice turmeric. Drinking the equivalent of three cups of green tea has been shown to reverse breast cancer in laboratory mice by suppressing the gene that triggers the disease. Similarly, a daily cup of broccoli sprouts has been shown to reduce the risk of developing many cancers.

One of the BEST ways to stay healthy is to lose weight, and Anne Strieber’s famous diet book "What I Learned from the Fat Years" can help you do just that! When she found her clothes were getting too tight she thought they had all shrunk, until she realized she had gained weight due to Type II diabetes, a genetic condition that manifests in late middle age and makes it easy to gain weight and hard to lose it. She not only discovered WHY some of us have this gene, but what to do about it, and after three years of diet and exercise, she managed to lose 100 pounds–and YOU can too!