How Angiogenesis Affects Cancer
Let’s first get a few things clear about cancer and angiogenesis.
- Most cancers are preventable.
As many as 95% of cancers are related to lifestyle and environment. Your habits (such as smoking), diet (red meat and processed meats, especially), alcohol, and environment (pollution and exposure to carcinogenic chemicals) all affect your risk of cancer. - Many cancers are caused by diet.
Around 30-35% of cancers are caused by lifestyle and environment. Eating certain foods, and staying away from others, can prevent many cancers from occurring in the first place. - Without blood, cancer cannot survive.
Cancer cells needs blood to grow and multiply. Without blood, they remain harmless. - Angiogenesis is a hallmark of cancer.
Angiogenesis means the overproduction of blood vessels in the body. And this blood, in turn, can feed cancer cells. Angiogenesis is a characteristic of every single type of cancer. - Anti-angiogenesis can prevent cancer.
Anti-angiogenesis means the prevention of the growth of blood vessels. If we can prevent blood vessels from growing, we can prevent blood from feeding the cancer – thereby starving out the cancer.
These Cancer Statistics May Surprise You…
It might surprise you to know that many of us already have microscopic cancers somewhere in our body. By the time we reach old age, almost all of us will have them. We need to be do our best, then, to prevent these microscopic cancers from developing further and turning into disease.
Take a look at these stats that Dr. Li shares:
- 40% of women between the ages 40 and 50 have microscopic cancers in their breasts.
- About 50% of men in their 50s and 60s have microscopic prostate cancers.
- Virtually 100% of us, by the time we reach our 70s, will have microscopic cancers growing in our thyroid.
But, he says, “without a blood supply, most of these cancers will never become dangerous.” And the foods we eat can make a big difference as to whether those cancers have enough blood to grow. Diet can have a huge impact on this. Look no further than a Harvard study of 79,000 men, which shows that:
“Men who consume 2-3 servings of cooked tomatoes per week have a reduced risk for developing prostate cancer by 40 – 50%”
– Dr. Lorelei Mucci, Harvard School of Public Health
By simply eating more tomato sauce and other tomato-rich dishes, men can lower their risk of prostate cancer by half! That’s powerful stuff, don’t you think?
How to Prevent Cancer with a Simple Diet Change
Dr. Li’s research shows that if we can prevent the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumour, we can prevent that tumour from turning into disease.
Eating more anti-angiogenic foods is an easy way to take action on preventing cancer. As Dr. Li says:
“We need to start asking, what can we do for ourselves? We can empower ourselves to do the things that doctors can’t do for us, which is to use knowledge and take action – what we eat can really become our chemotherapy, three times a day.”
Anti-Angiogenic Foods for Cancer
There is so much that we have control over when it comes to cancer prevention. Take a look at this list of anti-angiogenic foods and then commit to adding them into your daily diet. It shouldn’t be too hard – after all, there are plenty of tasty dishes that you can make with these nutrient-packed ingredients: fruit salads, stews, soups, veggie salads, smoothies, stir fries…the list goes on. Dark chocolate and red wine are even on the list! So make a plan to start eating more of them, today. Because your knowledge is only as useful as the actions you take.
Image courtesy: The Angiogenesis Foundation
Science-Based Nutrition: Personalized Diets for Cancer Prevention and Treatment
This is why CTOAM offers personalized nutraceutical diets for cancer prevention, in addition to diets cancer treatment and prevention of recurrence. Our personalized diets are based on the latest peer-reviewed, scientific data: nutraceuticals are foods (including anti-angiogenic foods) and supplements that have been proven by science to combat the specific genetic mutations driving your cancer, or the genetic mutations that you may be most at risk for.
Simply put, scientific research shows that when you eat cancer-fighting foods, you can significantly decrease your cancer risk, or speed up recovery.
Please be aware – there are many diets out there that claim to prevent or treat cancer, without having any evidence whatsoever to prove their efficacy. It’s really important that you choose your cancer-fighting foods based on scientific evidence, rather than from hype, diet trends, or the advice of a well-meaning friend. Otherwise, you may very well be wasting your time, money, and effort all for nothing – and giving cancer a chance to grow in the meantime.
