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Omega-6 fatty acids cause prostate tumor cell growth in culture (press release)

Monday, August 15, 2005
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
Tags: health news, Natural News, nutrition


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The study was led by Millie Hughes-Fulford, PhD, director of the Laboratory of Cell Growth at SFVAMC and scientific advisor to the U.S. Undersecretary of Health for the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is being published in the September 2005 issue of Carcinogenesis, and is currently available online.

Working with human prostate cancer cells in tissue culture, Hughes-Fulford and her fellow researchers identified for the first time a direct chain of causation: When introduced into prostate tumor cells in culture, omega-6 fatty acid causes the production of cPLA2, which then causes the production of the enzyme COX2. In turn, COX2 stimulates the release of PGE2, a hormone-like molecule that promotes cell growth.

"What's important about this is that omega-6 fatty acids are found in corn oil and most of the oils used in bakery goods," says Hughes-Fulford, who is also an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco ( UCSF ). "Which means that if you're eating a diet high in omega-6 fatty acids, it's possible that you're turning on this cancer cascade, which has been shown to be a common denominator in the growth of prostate, colorectal, and some breast cancers."

The study points out that 60 years ago in the United States, the dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, a beneficial fatty acid, was 1 to 2. Today, the ratio is 25 to 1. Over that same 60 years, the incidence of prostate cancer in the U.S. has increased steadily.

Hughes-Fulford also found that flurbiprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug commonly prescribed for arthritis, blocked the production of cPLA2 and broke the chain leading to cell growth. This means, she says, that new drugs might be developed that could specifically target cPLA2 and prevent COX2 from being released.

"COX2 has been implicated in the growth of many types of tumors," she notes. "So if you can find a way to block that cascade in the tumor, starting with cPLA2, you might have a new way of modifying or slowing tumor growth."

Hughes-Fulford points out that cPLA2 inhibitors would avoid the problems inherent in the class of drugs known as COX2 inhibitors. These drugs have been shown to be effective against tumor growth as well as in treating the pain associated with inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, but have been implicated in increased risk of cardiovascular problems in people who take them regularly. "COX2 inhibitors also inhibit prostacyclins, which are enzymes that are beneficial to the heart, and cPLA2 inhibitors would not affect those," she explains.

In future research, Hughes-Fulford will be looking at the overall effect of different types of fatty acids on different tumor types in cell lines as well as human biopsies. She plans a study that will correlate type of fatty acid with tumor stage and grade in order to obtain a clearer picture of specific effects of different fats on tumor progression.

Co-authors of the study were Raymond R. Tjandrawinata, PhD, of UCSF, Chai-Fei Li, BA, of SFVAMC, and Sina Sayyah, BA, of SFVAMC and UCSF.

The research was funded by awards from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and in part by grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Funding was administered by the Northern California Institute for Research and Education ( NCIRE ).


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About the author:Mike Adams (aka the "Health Ranger") is a best selling author (#1 best selling science book on Amazon.com) and a globally recognized scientific researcher in clean foods. He serves as the founding editor of NaturalNews.com and the lab science director of an internationally accredited (ISO 17025) analytical laboratory known as CWC Labs. There, he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for achieving extremely high accuracy in the analysis of toxic elements in unknown water samples using ICP-MS instrumentation. Adams is also highly proficient in running liquid chromatography, ion chromatography and mass spectrometry time-of-flight analytical instrumentation.

Adams is a person of color whose ancestors include Africans and Native American Indians. He's also of Native American heritage, which he credits as inspiring his "Health Ranger" passion for protecting life and nature against the destruction caused by chemicals, heavy metals and other forms of pollution.

Adams is the founder and publisher of the open source science journal Natural Science Journal, the author of numerous peer-reviewed science papers published by the journal, and the author of the world's first book that published ICP-MS heavy metals analysis results for foods, dietary supplements, pet food, spices and fast food. The book is entitled Food Forensics and is published by BenBella Books.

In his laboratory research, Adams has made numerous food safety breakthroughs such as revealing rice protein products imported from Asia to be contaminated with toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and tungsten. Adams was the first food science researcher to document high levels of tungsten in superfoods. He also discovered over 11 ppm lead in imported mangosteen powder, and led an industry-wide voluntary agreement to limit heavy metals in rice protein products.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Through the non-profit CWC, Adams also launched Nutrition Rescue, a program that donates essential vitamins to people in need. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource featuring over 10 million scientific studies.

Adams is well known for his incredibly popular consumer activism video blowing the lid on fake blueberries used throughout the food supply. He has also exposed "strange fibers" found in Chicken McNuggets, fake academic credentials of so-called health "gurus," dangerous "detox" products imported as battery acid and sold for oral consumption, fake acai berry scams, the California raw milk raids, the vaccine research fraud revealed by industry whistleblowers and many other topics.

Adams has also helped defend the rights of home gardeners and protect the medical freedom rights of parents. Adams is widely recognized to have made a remarkable global impact on issues like GMOs, vaccines, nutrition therapies, human consciousness.

In addition to his activism, Adams is an accomplished musician who has released over a dozen popular songs covering a variety of activism topics.

Click here to read a more detailed bio on Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, at HealthRanger.com.

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