"Back to Our Roots-- Curry and Cancer"
It is estimated that tumors start at around the age of 20,
yet detection of cancer is normally around the age of 50 or later,
thus it takes cancer decades to incubate.
Why does it take so long?
Recent studies indicate that in any given type of cancer
hundreds of different genes must be modified
to change a normal cell into a cancer cell.
Although cancers are characterized by the dysregulation
of cell signaling pathways at multiple steps,
most current anticancer therapies involve the modulation of a single target.
Chemotherapy has gotten incredibly specific,
but the ineffectiveness, lack of safety, high cost
of these monotargeted therapies have led to real disappointment,
and drug companies are now trying to develop chemo drugs
that take a more multitargeted approach.
As a result, many pharmaceutical companies
are increasingly interested in developing multitargeted therapies.
Many plant-based products, however,
accomplish multitargeting naturally
and in addition, are inexpensive and safe compared to drugs.
However, because drug companies
are not usually able to secure intellectual property rights to plants.
The development of plant-based anticancer therapies has not been prioritized.
They may work, they may work better for all we know;
they may be safer—they may actually be safe, period.
If you were going to choose one plant-based product to start testing,
one might choose curcumin, the pigment in the spice turmeric,
the reason curry powder looks yellow.
Well, before you start throwing money at research,
you might want to start asking some basic questions,
like, do populations that eat a lot of turmeric have lower cancer rates?
The incidence of cancer does appear to be significantly lower
in regions where turmeric is heavily consumed.
Population-based data indicate that some extremely common cancers
in the Western world are much less prevalent
in regions where turmeric is widely consumed in the diet.
For example, overall cancer rates are much lower in India than in western countries.
Much lower.
U.S. men get 23 times more prostate cancer than men in India.
Americans get between 8 and 14 times the rate of melanoma,
10 to 11 times more colorectal cancer,
9 times more endometrial cancer,
7 to 17 times more lung cancer,
7-8 times more bladder cancer, 5 times more breast cancer,
and 9-12 times more kidney cancer.
And this is not like 5, 10, or 20 percent more, but TIMES more.
So hundreds of percent more breast cancer,
thousands of percent more prostate cancer,
differences even greater than some of those found in the China Study.
Because Indians account for 1/6 of the world’s population,
and have some of the highest spice consumption in the world,
epidemiologic studies in this country have great potential
for improving our understanding
of the relationship between diet and cancer.
Of course it may not be the spices.
Several dietary factors may contribute
to the low overall rate of cancer in India.
Among them are a relatively low intake of meat,
a mostly plant-based diet in addition to the high intake of spices.
40% of Indians are vegetarians,
and even the ones that do eat meat, don't eat a lot.
And it's not only what they don't eat,
but what they do.
India is one of the largest producers and consumers of fresh fruits and vegetables.
And they eat a lot of pulses, meaning legumes—
beans, chickpeas, and lentils.
And it's not just turmeric, they eat a wide variety of spices,
which constitute, by weight, the most antioxidant packed class of foods in the world.
Population studies can't prove a correlation
between dietary turmeric and decreased cancer risk,
but it certainly inspired a bunch of research.
So far, curcumin has been tested
against a variety of human cancers
including colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer,
breast, prostate, multiple myeloma, lung cancer,
and head and neck cancer,
for both prevention and treatment.
We'll look at some of that research, next .