Nutrition and the Immune System

In one blog last week, February 07, I mentioned the importance of thymus health, because the thymus produces T cells. The rest of this paragraph is a repeat of what I said at the end of that blog. "T cells are killers for tumour cells. T cells are lymphocytes of a type produced in the thymus that participate actively in the immune response. One problem that arises is that both aging and malnutrition reduce thymus ability to assist immunity. Apparently zinc is required to boost thymus health. Malnutrition with Zinc deficiency causes thymic atrophy apparently. Red meats and seafood contain much more zinc than vegetables." 

Now, although the idea of boosting zinc intake seems to encourage me to each steak and lobster, it is probably not a good idea given the fact that I only have one kidney and animal protein metabolism is known to put a heavy load on the kidneys (http://kimberlysnyder.com/blog/2012/05/12/7-foods-that-are-actually-damaging-your-kidneys/). I should actually be eating more peanut butter - now that is ok with me. So where will I get the required zinc?

I read a lot of labels these days and the Fixodent that I use to secure my dentures so they don't rattle around in my mouth has enough zinc to provide more than my daily requirement if I use it on my dentures once a day (http://www.fixodent.ca/en/questions-and-answers.php). I have been using Fixodent for nearly 20 years. So my thymus should be in great shape in spite of my 75 years of youngness! And the T cells are produced at a good rate then to fight cancer cells. Could that be one reason why the cancer is shrinking in my lungs now that the cancerous left kidney has been removed?

Doctors at the Cross Cancer Institute poo poo the idea of minimizing sugar (glucose, sucrose) as having any affect on killing cancer cells from the point of view that cancer cells like a high sugar environment. They claim that all carbohydrates are metabilised to sugar so minimizing sugar in the diet can have nothing to do with treating cancer. Hey, wait a minute! I thought the whole idea was to strengthen the immune system, with drugs like Sunitinib if necessary, so that our natural immune systems using T cells and so on could kill cancer cells.

I insist that sugar is important. Take a look at http://www.mercola.com/article/sugar/sugar_cancer.htm where Dr Patrick Quillin states the following early in his year 2000 nutritional science article: "Of the 4 million cancer patients being treated in America today, hardly any are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy beyond being told to "just eat good foods." Most patients I work with arrive with a complete lack of nutritional advice. I believe many cancer patients would have a major improvement in their outcome if they controlled the supply of cancer's preferred fuel, glucose. By slowing the cancer's growth, patients allow their immune systems and medical debulking therapies -- chemotherapy, radiation and surgery to reduce the bulk of the tumor mass -- to catch up to the disease."

So the message there is that minimizing sugar will slow cancer growth through sugar starvation. And here is another question. What effect does eating sugar in large quantity have on the immune system?

Here are two more quotes from Quillin's article: "The quest is not to eliminate sugars or carbohydrates from the diet but rather to control blood glucose within a narrow range to help starve the cancer and bolster immune function;" and:

"In a human study, 10 healthy people were assessed for fasting blood-glucose levels and the phagocytic index of neutrophils, which measures immune-cell ability to envelop and destroy invaders such as cancer. Eating 100 g carbohydrates from glucose, sucrose, honey and orange juice all significantly decreased the capacity of neutrophils to engulf bacteria. Starch did not have this effect." So there you have it. This is not the only available information pointing to the fact that the immune system is weakened by sugar intake.

With reference to https://healthfree.com/nutrition-sugar-immune-system-foods.html "According to Health Services at Columbia University, when you eat 100 grams of sugar, about as much sugar as you find in a 1 liter bottle of soda, your white blood cells are 40 percent less effective at killing germs. This can cripple your immune system for up to 5 hours after eating sugar!" So, is removing sugar from the diet to help in reducing cancer growth and killing cancer cells a myth? I don't think so.

Oh yes, and how about a News Focus article in the January 6 2012 issue of Science entitled "Unravelling the obesity-cancer connection", an interview with author Gary Taubes (don't know if this link will work or not: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/335/6064/28.full). Early in the article is states: A curious thing happens
if you try to wean the tumor cells off insulin, however: They “drop off and they die,” says Stambolic, a cancer researcher
at the University of Toronto in Canada. “They’re addicted to [insulin].” Now it is not rocket science to know that if you increase sugar intake you increase insulin production in the pancreas. I haven't yet done a literature search. This was simply the first article to pop up when I put "sugar feeds cancer" in the Science search engine.

The point is that my Stage 4 cancer tumours had become visibly smaller between December 6 2015 and February 6 2016 using CT scanning. My thesis is that, once the cancer source - the left kidney with its huge tumour was removed, my healthy immune system, combined with minimizing sugar and simple carbs from the diet (except through eating a moderate amount of fresh fruit) caused the cancer to begin shrinking. The next appointment with Dr North April 18 in Yellowknife will tell the tale.