Blood Type Groups and Breast Cancer

While most people don't correlate their afflictions with their blood type, there is a correlation.

Mainstream physicians rarely look at this but there has been a movement in the naturopathic medical community to look at the research on this topic and apply it to their patients.

Most of the research is being done by medical anthropologists and medical doctorates in institutions, and the publications are printed in the more obscure journals such as "The European Journal of Dentistry", and the "International Journal of Epidemiology".

Clinicians typically do not read such specific journals, these are most frequently read by researchers in their specific fields.

Among medical anthropologists, it has been noted that people with blood type A have higher rates of esophageal, pancreatic and stomach cancers, while those with blood type O have higher rates of peptic and duodenal ulcers.

In a recent study, researchers looked several groups of women and found a small preponderance of blood type A in the breast cancer groups.

There has been very good research showing that patients with blood type O who have breast cancer do better than other blood type patients, significantly better. The blood types that fair the worst outcomes tend to be AB.

The list in longterm survival rates from best to worst is O>A>B>AB. Note, this is statistics and individual cases always brake the mold. So even though women with blood type A have a slightly greater chance or getting breast cancer, they tend to fair better than those with B or AB, but not as well as those with O.

For more information, read Dr. D'adamo's Eat Right for Your Blood Type. While he does cite research, his ideas are not recognized by mainstream medicine. However, I have found his advice useful clinically and his theories make sense according to the research I have cited in this article.

Soda, Diet Soda and Gum

Aspartame has had a troubled past.

There has been ongoing websites and blogsites writing about the problems regarding aspartame, some seem legitimate and others sensational.

There have been claims by researchers who conducted studies on aspartame years prior to it's approval who've stated that the early studies showed problems but that these studies were "taken off the books".

Recently, a large animal study conducted in Italy by Ramazzini in Italy, showed an increase in breast cancers as well as lymphomas and leukemias in rats fed the equivalent to 100 mg per kg of body weight.

This is an amount larger than what most people are said to consume, however, aspartame is in gum, sugar free and regular. It is in pedialyte, popsicles and all kinds of crazy stuff.

My concern is that many people, especially women consume huge amounts of aspartame between their sodas, yoghurt, gum and diet iced teas, there are many women that might be ingesting this crazy amount.

What the newer studies have shown is a more statistically significant increase in cancers if the rats are exposed to aspartame in utero or in infancy.

The fact that so many parents preferentially give their children sugar free products over regular is alarming. We have no idea what this is doing in terms of affecting the cancer risk factors of the next generation. Presumably, parents are doing this to prevent childhood obesity.

Both regular and diet soda are typically preserved with sodium benzoate. But sodas also typically have citric acid or vitamin c, also for preservation. The combination of sodium benzoate and vitamin c in any form, creates benzene, a known carcinogen.

University of Texas looked at obesity risks and the amount of diet soda drank and found a direct correlation. A persons obesity risk increased with the amount of aspartame they consumed. Presumably the change in brain chemistry (increased phenylalanine and decreased seretonin) that aspartame causes leads to carbohydrate cravings.

But another plausible explanation is that a few years ago, researcher found "taste" receptors in the human gut that stimulate insulin production.

In laymans terms, this means that aspartame could contribute to insulin resistance and increase diabetes.

Eat real and deal with food addictions, this is always the best motto for good health!

Got Milk? Maybe, Maybe Not

To dairy or not to dairy, that is the question.

While there is good evidence linking dairy intake to an increased risk for both prostate and ovarian cancers, this link for breast cancer has oddly not been made.

One of the mechanisms proposed for dairy in it's association with an increased risk for prostate cancer is the stimulation of insulin-like growth factor of IGF-1.

Elevated IGF-1 levels are also associated with an increased risk for breast cancer so it would seem that dairy should increase the risk for this cancer as well. For some reason, large meta-analysis have not proven this association.

One of the reasons that breast cancer risks do not appear to go up with dairy intake while ovarian and prostate cancers risks do, could be due to conjugated linoleic acid or CLA.

CLA is naturally occurring in fatty meat and dairy products. CLA appears to have an affinity for breast tissue and might be protective against cancer.

CLA in high fat dairy has been shown to be protective against colorectal cancer.

In general, high animal fat intake in diets is associated with an increase in all kinds of cancers including breast. Dairy might be the one exception.

I am not urging anyone to go out and start drinking glasses of milk, remember ovarian cancer risks increase with an increase in dairy consumption. I am encouraging those who have the occasional yoghurt or cheese to eat it full fat and preferably organic or at least from grass fed cows (higher CLA content).

I think dairy consumption can be problematic for many people and for many reasons, but for some, it is digested well and not antigenic. If you're going to partake of dairy consumption, make it high quality.

If you're a vegan or can not tolerate dairy, CLA is available as a supplement. One of the main reasons CLA is taken as a supplement is to reduce visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat.