Thursday, December 16, 2010

The Apparent Direct Link of Cancer With Industrialization

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There has been many different ideas and theories over the years about how and why does cancer occur in our society. Before the Industrial age it was rarely either seen or recognized as most of society saw a shorter lifespan or were fraught with many epidemics that wiped out populations. Cancer only became more recognized as we became more industrial, more urban and as populations grew. With new industries and therefore new exposures both in the environment and to our households newer changes began popping up .What did the mass introduction and commercialization of tobacco fumes, car exhaust and 8 hour work days in a factory do to change the human organisms way of life ? How did preservation of foods with high salt, high nitrites,or the introduction of MSG, aspartame, EDTA, Sucralose, Saccharin, high fructose corn syrup and Red dye No.5, artificial food coloring and other preservation methods of food do to contribute to changes not in our life and health? Does it mean that it is acceptable that we live longer , but just with more ailments?

Scientist as early as the 1930's such as Otto Warburg began to look at imbalanced metabolism. Since the body is constantly trying to acquire energy to perform functions, it would seem stressors on metabolism cause cells to change.Warburg, a Noble Laureate, posed that when our cells go from combusting basic nutrients in the presence of oxygen to a non-oxygen(non-aerobic) state of acquiring energy, we change our blood chemistry.Blood becomes more acidic. Therefore , by making the PH of blood more Alkaline which now has become widely accepted in nutrition science circles as a means to better health. Our body creates acids like lactate and pyruvate, but at very minimal amounts without there being adequate oxygen; while in the face of Oxygen a very high output of energy is created. Lactic acid may be the culprit because it makes the body work that much harder. Other more ineffective and highly toxic acids can also be put into the blood when there is lack of adequate oxygenation. Acids such as Keto-Acids/Acetone are fatty acids that become the subsrate of energy. What this means is how we exercise physically , handle stress,and what we eat can have quantitative and qualitative effects on cellular life.


Today we are seeing how the oxidation of fats play a critical role in causing a disease state. The oxidation of cholesterol , particularly LDL, creates the scarring on the blood vessels setting up for atherosclerosis in the arteries and later heart attack and other forms of vascular disease. The oxidation and perioxidation of oygen leads to the creation of "free radicals" that cause mutations in the DNA of cells, premature aging and chronic disease. The emissions of combusting fuel is similar to that of a car's engine. Our cells work like engines and put out numerous potentially toxic by-products. Antioxidants act as ways to release these potentially threatening caustic agents.

Today stress plays a key role in our mental and physical health by reducing resistance. Stress hormones such as cortisol is a counter-regulatory hormone which can dump more sugar into the blood this is very bad for setting up the pre-diabetic state or type 2 diabetes ,but it also has an immuno-suppressive effect so that you are more susceptible to infections and other disease. The salt and water retention it causes raises blood pressure. Stress hormones like adrenalin can really raise your blood pressure and cause the heart to beat faster and harder. The shear forces of high blood force on blood vessels may set up for athersclerosis and greater difficulty for the heart to pump.
How do we make sense out of the rapid rise of chronic illness in an amazingly highly technologically advanced civilization where we've conquered space, travel the world within hours and split the atom? How is it with the scientific data proving this link of disease to industry that we are still utilizing pesticides, herbicides, insecticides,fungicides, genetically modified foods, bGH, estrogen, antiobiotics, high fructose corn syrup, saccharin, sucarlose, artificial dyes , food coloring ,irradiation microwaved,with trans fats. Cooked foods are full of acrilimide, PAHs(para-aminohydrocarbons), and HCAs(Heterocyclic Amines). Our Sea Food is now effected by VOCs,PAHs, and Mercury .Even our water has acceptable levels of run off from manufacturing plants , raw sewage, old drugs, and flouride. Non-ionized radiation from cell telephone lines presents another problem to our health as well.

As we advance with further technology, human life becomes more exposed to the result of that which we create. It's probably less important to guess which of these theories of cancer are happening more likely than the other, however, it is time the individual themselves attacks the problem from a cellular level. This can be done by antioxidants to fight the damage done by oxygen free radicals,vitamins refortify the body's defense, hydration with water allows for better blood flow while giving ions to function on a cellular level. Minerals participate in all catalytic or biochemical reactions and are necessary for metabolism. Enzymes are helping us from the moment we digest our foods to carrying or converting particles to more effective products. These can be obtained by eating more raw vegetables,fruits or an organic diet.

While molecular medicine and procedure oriented medicine seeks more bio-medical technology to treat problems created inadvertently by our industries, perhaps we need to seriously re-evaluate the advantages a more simple agrarian diet our pre-industrial ancestors benefited from a greener "way of living". We must look at how to appreciate and "incorporate" their quality of life.

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