Nerdy Science Blog

A couple food scientist at Texas Agrilife Research, Dr. Susanne Talcott and Dr Steve Talcott, studied the effectiveness of mango in preventing and stopping cancer cells.

The Talcotts examined five common varieties of mango in the United States.  They found that polyphenol extracts from mango promote anticancer activity in certain colon and breast cancer cells in lab.  The polyphenols also have some effects on lung, leukemia and prostate cancers.  Polyphenols can be found in tea, wine grapes, walnuts, and cocoa.  The scientists explained polyphenols consisted of tannins.  Tannins have the function of interrupting cell cycle, hence stopping mutated or damaged cells from going wild.  The polyphenolics do not cause harm to normal cells.

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A team of researchers at Rockefeller University found that Western diet, which is high in fat, and low in fiber, vitamin D and calcium, is associated with colorectal cancer.

Researchers found that high fat diets induce inflammatory response in mice colon, and such inflammation could be the cause for carcinogenesis in mice colon. Carcinogenic process is a process normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. High fat diets will induce oxidative stress and alter immune responses, and this will eventually increases the risk of colorectal cancer.

The result was published in November 2009 issue of The Journal of Nutrition.

Colon cancer is a deadly disease that affects millions of people around the world today and appears to be the third most common form of cancer worldwide. There are also evidence shows that consumption of red meat, processed meat and alcohol are also likely to increase the risk of colorectal cancer.

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“Resting to walk a longer distance,” is a Chinese proverb.  It has the same meaning as English proverb “after dinner sit a while, after supper walk a mile.”  This ‘resting’ philosophy has been proved by a recent study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.

The study showed that exercise is important in reducing women’s cancer risk, and sleeping itself is also essential in prevention.  The lead author, James McClain, who is also cancer prevention fellow at the National Cancer Institute said that consistent exercise may alter hormone levels, immune function, and body weight to prevent cancers, including breast and colon cancers.  The study focused on the connection between physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE), sleep duration, and risk of beast and colon cancers.  The study started in 1998, following 5968 women who are at least 18 years through the Washington County Cancer Registry and Maryland State Cancer Registry.  The study showed that women slept less than seven hours a day had higher cancer risk.  The link between physical activity and sleeping is not clear yet.  Researchers will investigate the potential mechanisms involved in cancer prevention, and also assess the effect of insufficient and prolonged sleep duration.

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Colon cancer has been America’s second biggest killer.  The use of colonoscopy has scared many people from colon cancer screening.  The use of X-ray colon cancer is cheaper and less invasive than the colonoscopy.  The success rate of the new ‘virtual colonoscopy’ a.k.a. computed tomogrpahic (CT) colonography in detecting colon cancers or abnormal growth, which are detected by normal colonoscopy, is as high as 90%.  However misinterpretation of the X-ray can lead to the spotting of polyps, therefore follow-up results are needed to confirm the analysis.  There are other drawbacks of this new technology in detecting colon cancer which need to be further investigated and improved.

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