Nutrition

At any given time, everyone has hundreds if not thousands of cancer cells in their body -- sun damaged skin cells, a kidney cell mutated by aspartame as it decomposes into methanol and formaldehyde in your digestive system. The list is endless. Normally, the body's immune system recognizes and kills the mutant cells before they can establish themselves. But cancer thrives on sugar, and a diet low in essential nutrients and high in glucose and added sugar gives the normally hapless enemy every advantage to grow its army and attack the body while leaving your immune system too weak to properly defend itself. That's basically what happened to me as I worked late hours at the office subsisting on M&M's and Mountain Dew. Coming home too tired to make a real meal, I'd turn to a frozen pizza loaded with nitrates, followed by scoops of sugar and fat-laden vanilla ice cream. This high-glucose fuel allowed the cancer to move from its impersceptible chronic phase to the more symptomatic phase.

I'm not saying don't enjoy the good things in life, but I am saying don't abuse them or your body for the sake of convenience. My perception of what the good things really are certainly has evolved in a short time. We all know that good nutrition is fundamental to preventing cancer, but often assume that as long as the ingredients have some form of natural origin we'll be okay. Unfortunately, avoiding Twinkies, soda pop and food that doesn't decompose or grow mold is not good enough. Even when relying on all-natural ingredients, the nutrient/sugar ratio of our diets plays a fundamental role in determining whether we'll get cancer and whether we'll beat it if we get it. These concepts are best described in Patrick Quillin's "Beating Cancer with Nutrition".

Regarding sugar: I'm trying to minimize it, not replace it. I was surprised to see that since Aspartame's (aka Equal/Nutrasweet) introduction in 1980, there has been a 280% increase in the rate of occurence of brain tumors. Given the plethora of cultural changes that have impacted our lifestyles and environment over the past 3 decades, Aspartame can't be given the full blame for the increase, but it is interesting to note that during the FDA approval process, several scientists protested approval because of the high rate of occurence of brain tumors in lab rats consuming Aspartame (wiki Aspartame). Based on current research, Splenda appears to be the safest alternative artificial sweetener and Stevia appears to be a safe natural alternative. Still, I prefer to just reduce sugar and avoid alternatives altogether.

Now that I have cancer, a fundamental nutrional lifestyle change has occurred. No more ice cream (at least until I go into remission -- and then it will be a rare occasion), no more soda, no more candy, and I minimize processed foods and foods with a high glycemic index (like white potatoes and processed rice and potato flour). Sometimes I eat salad for breakfast, but usually it's yogurt with a side medley of peppers, onions, garlic and oriental mushrooms sauteed in olive oil. Top it off with a fried eggwhite, vitamin and herbal supplements (A, C, D, kelp, magnesium, chromium, cinnamon, ginger) and a cup of tea. I drink Rooibos tea two to three times daily, keep a supply of fresh vegetables ready for snacking in the refrigerator, and have a bowl of sunflower seeds sitting on the counter at all times. Vitamin C is similar to sugar in its molecular structure and in high quantities is able to fool cancer cells into trying to consume it as fuel -- resulting in apoptosis of the tumor cells.

Among the foods I've added to my arsenal are quinoa, the most nutritious of the whole grains, and cancer fighting oriental mushrooms like agaricus blazei, reishi, shiitake, and maitake. Update (4/12/09 -- *** WARNING *** using mushrooms to increase cytokine production such as TNF may enhance the proliferation of HCL. See post from 4/12/09 and Tallman, pp. 107-126). All of these have undergone testing that shows they inhibit tumor metastasis and the progression of various leukemias. If they're good enough for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, they're good enough for me.

At this point, 25% of you think I'm nuts, 50% of you confirmed your prior suspicions, and 20% are thinking even if you wanted to do that, there's no way you could. The other 5% had already confirmed I was nuts long ago. When you have cancer, there's not much you can control, and many of my fellow HCL'ers choose not to control anything -- just take the chemo, go into remission and wait. I choose to control my diet and treatment, and so far it's proved beneficial. My counts have stabilized and in many cases improved. My dizzy spells are less frequent and my endurance has improved. I see my hematologist this Thursday for another CBC. Let's hope the results show continued improvement so that when I go in for chemo, my immune system's arsenal will be fully prepared to defend the good cells while letting the chemo do its job against the bad ones. I believe that these dietary changes are a lifetime commitment -- required to minimize the proliferation of the disease after chemo, maximize the period between recurrance and increase the possibility of organic eradication.

One last note: hairy cell leukemia also consumes cholesterol. Several studies have shown that hairy cells contain more cholesterol than their normal B-cell counterparts. Likewise, patients with hairy cell leukemia typically have low levels of both LDL (bad) and HDL (good) cholesterol. My HDL had been lower than normal for several years prior to my diagnosis. Even with lack of exercise, it was considered low. I took fish oil pills for two years with little improvement. My LDL level dropped suddenly as the disease progressed and symptoms increased. I'm going to ask my hematologist to run a cholesterol test this Thursday to see if the level has continued to drop. Typically, an abnormally low level of bad cholesterol is not dangerous although it is a marker that a causitive disease, such as HCL, is present. It's also associated with a higher than normal incidence of stomach cancer.

Note:  Going on a low cholesterol diet during treatment to try to starve HCL is probably a bad idea since many studies indicate that cholesterol is a necessary agent in B-cells to induce apoptosis (cell death via suicide).