And now researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle have uncovered a powerful, drug-free way to supercharge the anti-cancer benefits of losing weight. Keep reading. . .
Continued below…
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According to their studies, you can rev up the anti-cancer power of weight loss by taking vitamin D supplements as the pounds come off.1
The health benefits they have found by combining weight-loss with vitamin D stems from the way the combo significantly reduces inflammation in the body.
“We know from previous studies that by losing weight, people can reduce their overall levels of inflammation, and there is some evidence suggesting that taking vitamin D supplements can have a similar effect if one has insufficient levels of the nutrient," says researcher Catherine Duggan. "(Ours is) the first study to test whether adding vitamin D augments the considerable effect of weight loss on inflammatory biomarkers.”
Inflammation figures heavily in many diseases
If you've been following the research in the past few years that has focused on inflammation, you've read about how it can cause or worsen a wide variety of diseases like diabetes and heart disease as well as cancer. But scientists are just beginning to untangle all of the subtle – and not so subtle – ways inflammation changes the way the body functions.
The studies all support the conclusion that inflammation can threaten your life in a lot of ways. To that you can add the fact that inflammation increases when you add extra body fat around your middle. This means the world's growing obesity epidemic is a major factor in boosting the percentage of people at risk for cancer.
The 218 overweight women in the Hutchinson research were all lacking in vitamin D at the start of the study. When the women took vitamin D and also lost between five and ten percent of their body weight during the course of a year, they reduced their level of a protein that circulates in the body called interleukin-6 (IL-6).
IL-6 is a trouble-making molecule linked to inflammation. Unfortunately, as you age your body becomes less and less efficient at limiting the production of IL-6 and thereby tamping down inflammation.
A good portion of the undesirable IL-6 originates in your digestive tract. Research at the Norwich Bioscience Institute in England shows that as the intestines age, they tend to produce more and more of this cytokine (cytokines are proteins that send signals among cells). The Norwich scientists think that this elevation of IL-6 is a basic factor that speeds the aging process.2
"Inflammation is increasingly being seen as a key event behind aging, and our results suggest a pivotal role for the gut in this 'inflammaging' " process,” says researcher Claudio Nicoletti from England's Institute of Food Research.
IL-6 may lead to leaky gut
There's other bad news about the IL-6 in the digestive tract: It can lead to the condition called leaky gut. That means that the walls of the colon start to spring microscopic leaks, allowing toxic substances, microbes and even bits of undigested food to enter the body.
All of those unwelcome entrants to the bloodstream can lead to even more inflammation when the immune system begins to recognize and react to the foreign invaders.
Get better at controlling stress
Aside from protecting the walls of your intestinal tract, another key advantage of limiting your levels of IL-6 may be to learn how to moderate stress in your life.
Research at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York links a reduction in IL-6 to being more resilient in the face of stress as well as being less susceptible to depression and anxiety.3
In their initial lab tests on animals, the scientists found a direct connection between being vulnerable to stress and having elevated levels of IL-6 in the body. They found that animals who had more leukocytes (white blood cells that makes and release IL-6) were less able to cope with stressful events.
And after the results of this animal study were in, the researchers confirmed that people suffering major depression also have higher levels of IL-6.
While the Norwich researchers studied IL-6 produced in the intestines, the Mount Sinai scientists were more concerned with what is called the peripheral immune system – the immune cells that chiefly originate in the lymph nodes. They found that when this part of the immune system becomes overly sensitive and prone to inflammation, it impacts your emotional health as well as your physical well-being.
Inflaming your mind
Having higher levels of IL-6 in your body also make surgery a much riskier proposition, especially as you age.
A study coordinated by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston shows that a person suffering the condition known as delirium after having an operation is much more likely to have high levels of IL-6 circulating in the blood.
Delirium is an intense form of confusion and mental anxiety that often occurs in older people following an illness or a surgical procedure.
When these researchers examined older patients in the aftermath of surgery, they found that those suffering delirium had extra IL-6 in their blood as well as higher levels of IL-2 (another inflammatory protein).4
But IL-6 was the major factor in causing delirium. The delirious patients had, on average, about ten times more IL-6 in their blood than did those who didn't suffer this condition.
Studies indicate that up to two out of three seniors who have surgical procedures suffer some degree of delirium. According to the Beth Israel researchers, this delirium may triple your eventual risk for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
As researcher Edward Marcantonio points out: "Delirium is the most common complication among hospitalized elders. Once widely assumed to be a short-term, transient condition, there is now evidence that delirium and its effects can last long after patients have left the hospital."
New drugs on the horizon
Meanwhile, scientists at Ohio State are working to try to find a drug to block the activity of IL-6 as a tool to fight breast cancer.
Biophysicist Chenglong Li explains that, "In the case of breast cancers, a medical review systematically tabulated IL-6 levels in various categories of cancer patients, all showing that IL-6 levels elevated up to 40-fold, especially in later stages, metastatic cases and recurrent cases."
Li has been using a supercomputer to process the structure of IL-6 and potential chemicals that might interfere with the way it spurs inflammation.5
Of course, even if he comes up with a potential IL-6 inhibitor, it will still have to go through a long process to test if it is safe and doesn't produce deadly side effects. You might want to consider taking a supplement made from aronia berries.
The aronia berry is a natural anti-inflammatory, shown in studies to neutralize IL-6 molecules. It is completely safe for long-term daily use, and has no side effects. Our sister company, Green Valley Natural Solutions, offers an aronia berry supplement.
Do-it-yourself inflammation control
As this shows, you don't have to wait until the fellows and gals with lab coats cook up a promising brew in the lab. Besides aronia, as I mentioned before you can bring down your own IL-6 levels by keeping your weight down and making sure you're getting enough vitamin D with supplements.6
The recommended amount of vitamin D-3 keeps going up as scientists learn more. 5,000 IU is safe for practically everyone, and most people can probably take 10,000 IU or more. The best way to find out is to see a doctor who will test your blood levels of vitamin D. Most people are way too low, including those who have been supplementing.
If you're feeling adventurous, you can also use yoga to drive down your IL-6.
While Li keeps himself busy with his supercomputer, across the campus another group of Ohio State researchers have found that a consistent yoga program reduces inflammation and IL-6. They also have discovered that while stressful events can drive up your IL-6 levels, folks who do yoga experience a much lower increase.7
This study involved 50 women whose average age was 41. When the women had to undergo stressful experiences (the researchers had them sink their feet into ice cold water and then do math problems in their heads) the women who were experienced at yoga had IL-6 levels more than 40 percent lower than the women who didn’t practice yoga.
Help your body help itself
Sometimes, when I look into the factors in the body that make us more susceptible to diseases like cancer, I am reminded of an old saying that used to run in the comic strip Pogo – “We have met the enemy and he is us.”8
Sometimes your own immune system – when it can't shut down the inflammatory process – can be your own worst enemy. But it doesn't have to be that way if you give it a little help with supplements, stress reduction and dietary changes that fight inflammation.
Last issue we talked about a fruit that will probably be on your table on Thanksgiving – cranberries. It turns out they have powerful anticancer benefits. If you missed this news, you can read it below.
