By Bonnie Jenkins, Advanced Natural Wellness

A few years ago, a family friend was diagnosed with colorectal cancer at the age of 48. Now, admittedly, this is a bit young to be stricken with this form of cancer. But it proved to be deadly. Within months, he was gone.

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States, and is diagnosed in over 130,000 new patients annually.

According to the journal American Family Physician:

“The lifetime risk of developing this cancer is 2.5 to 5 percent in the general population but two to three times higher in persons who have a first-degree relative with colon cancer or an adenomatous polyp. Between 70 and 90 percent of colorectal cancers arise from adenomatous polyps.”

Pretty scary, isn’t it?

Get Screened

So how do you know if you have these polyps? To date, the best way is with colorectal screening, beginning at age 50. If you don’t have a family history of the disease or other risk factors (smoking, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle), your doctor will probably schedule you for a fecal occult blood test and a sigmoidoscopy. If you are at risk or have passed your 60th birthday, your doctor may recommend a colonoscopy. While no one really looks forward to this uncomfortable procedure, it’s the best way to find polyps and beats the heck out of the alternative – not knowing until it’s too late.

But just because you have polyps, that doesn’t mean you have cancer. Polyps are precancerous and once they are found, they can be removed. In fact, 90 percent of colorectal cancer cases can be prevented by removing polyps.

How often should you get screened? Conventional wisdom says you should undergo a sigmoidoscopy every five years. But, according to a new study by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, that may be too often.

To examine the impact of sigmoidoscopy screening on colorectal cancer incidence, the researchers collected information on the screening history and colorectal cancer risk factors from 1,668 patients with colorectal cancer and 1,294 healthy individuals. Compared with those who had never had a sigmoidoscopy, the subjects who had had a sigmoidoscopy at some point had a four-fold reduction in the incidence of cancer. And, according to the researchers, this reduction seemed to last for more than 15 years – three times as long between screenings then current recommendations.

Fight Back with Food

But you can start protecting yourself against colorectal cancer long before your first screening. And protection is as close as the vegetable bin in your refrigerator.

It’s no surprise that a nutrient-dense diet can help prevent many types of cancers, including colorectal cancer. But, when it comes to keeping colorectal cancer at bay, one food group stands head and shoulders above the rest: fruits and vegetables. Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute surveyed more than 61,000 women and concluded that those with the lowest intake of fruits and veggies had the highest risk of developing colorectal cancer.

While cruising your produce aisle won’t prevent polyps from forming, boosting your fruit and vegetable intake may keep them from becoming cancerous – at least according to a four-year study of 1,781 patients by researchers at the University of Minnesota. During this study, the subjects were separated into three groups: Those that had received colonoscopies and were found to have polyps, those that had been screened and found to be polyp-free, and those that had not been screened and did not know if they had polyps. All of the patients filled out a food frequency questionnaire detailing what foods they ate and how often they ate them. After analyzing the data, the Minnesota team found that those eating large amounts of fruits and vegetables had a significantly lower risk of precancerous polyps developing into cancer.

Fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidant properties, includng carotenoids and flavenoids, which have a positive effect on colon health. But their benefits don’t stop there. Cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts, have been shown to protect the colon from cancer. And calcium-rich kale also has a protective effect.

Boosting your fiber intake is also a smart move. After conflicting reports on the benefit of fiber in preventing colorectal cancer, some experts began to doubt its importance. But recent findings by the National Cancer Institute show just how important fiber really is. In a randomized, controlled clinical trial of more than 33,000 people, researchers found that those who ate the most fiber (especially cereal, grains and fruits) were the least likely to develop colorectal cancer. The goal? Thirty to 35 grams of fiber a day.

Supplement This!

Supplements can also play a critical role in preventing colorectal cancer. And one of the most beneficial is folic acid. In one study, women who had taken supplemental folic acid had 75 percent less risk of colon cancer compared with women not taking supplemental folic acid – but only when they had been supplementing with folic acid for more than 15 years. In another report, the association between dietary folate and protection from precancerous polyps grew much stronger when folic acid supplements were added to the equation. Most experts recommend supplementing with 200 to 800 mcg. of folic acid a day.

Vitamin D is also important. A new study of more than 3,100 veterans, which appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that people consuming more than 645 IUs of vitamin D a day were 40 percent less likely to have advanced precancerous polyps. But, as I told you in a recent bulletin, it’s difficult to get enough of this vitamin through diet alone, so supplements are key. The best source is cod liver oil with 1,360 IUs per tablespoon.

Even something as simple as taking a multivitamin may put the odds in your favor. Because previous studies had indicated that colorectal cancer risk may decrease after long periods of multivitamin use, American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers designed a trial to investigate this relationship.

In 1992, ACS researchers enrolled more than 145,000 men and women in a five-year multivitamin study. All of these subjects had also participated in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort (begun a decade earlier) in which their multivitamin usage was recorded.

During the study, 797 cases of colorectal cancer were reported among the participants. After adjusting for risk factors, researchers found that multivitamin use that began just prior to the study was not associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer. But the participants who had reported regular multivitamin use (4 or more times per week) for at least 10 years fared much better: their group had a 30 percent reduced risk of the cancer.

One Last Thing …

Recent clinical studies have shown that green tea may also reduce the risk of colorectal cancers. What’s more, green tea contains polyphenols, an antioxidant substance that may inhibit the growth of existing cancer cells.

In one study, researchers at Columbia University compared 2,266 patients with colorectal cancer to 1,552 healthy participants and found that those who drank green tea had a lower risk of developing the disease. The researchers also noted that protection was dose-dependent. The more the subjects drank, the lower their risk.

Although early detection can help you avoid this killer disease, it’s far better to prevent colorectal cancer in the first place. Adding green tea to a healthy diet and daily multivitamin just might keep you from becoming a victim of this preventable disease.

Research Brief …

The FDA is at it again – and this time, it’s a real corker!

It seems that our friends at the FDA have been busy contacting credit card companies and package carriers. Why, you ask? They want these companies to “snitch” on their fellow Americans who order unapproved prescription drugs from across the border. While the FDA can’t force these private companies to cooperate, according to the Wall Street Journal, FedEX, UPS, Visa and MasterCard are willing to talk to the agency.

Not surprisingly, this scheme has raised concerns that the government is seeking access to consumers’ private medical records as part of its intensifying effort to crack down on prescription drug imports. Sure, the FDA claims it’s trying to protect us from unsafe drug imports. But you can bet they are more concerned about the health of the pharmaceutical industry’s bottom line than your privacy or your wellbeing.

Will these companies do the right thing? Hard to tell. Meanwhile, I’ll keep you posted on this and other invasions of our medical privacy.

References:

“Fruits, Vegetables, and Adenomatous Polyps – The Minnesota Cancer Prevention Research Unit Case-Control Study” American Journal of Epidemiology. 2002;155.

Jacobs EJ, et al. “Multivitamin use and colorectal cancer incidence in a US cohort: does timing matter?” American Journal of Epidemiology. 2003;158:621-628.

Newcomb PA, Storer BE, Morimoto LM, Templeton A, Potter JD. Long-term efficacy of sigmoidoscopy in the reduction of colorectal cancer incidence. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2003;95:622–5.

Study Finds Vitamin D Helps To Prevent Polyps.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 15 Dec 2003.

“US FDA Scrambles To Stop Canadian Drug Importation.” Wall Street Journal. 16 Dec 2003.