Hey, fellas: Lower your risk for bladder cancer by eating these vegetables.

When it comes to bladder cancer, men are three times more likely to develop it than women.  One way to decrease this risk is to do the very thing that your parents told you to do since you were a youngin’:  Eat your vegetables.

Now, if you were anything like me when you were young, you didn’t give two hoots about vitamins and minerals.  All you cared about was when you could be dismissed from the table so you could go back out and play.

But now that you’re older—and hopefully a bit wiser—you’re taking advantage of the things you didn’t fully appreciate when you were a young whippersnapper.  You’re eating better, trying to get as much exercise as possible, and doing you’re darndest to avoid devastating diseases.  And as researchers from Australia have found, you’re decreasing your risk for bladder cancer by eating right.

Researchers from the Cancer Council Victoria in Australia reviewed the eating habits of about 565 people, approximately half of whom had previously been diagnosed with bladder cancer.  The remaining participants were healthy adults that served as controls.

These healthy controls had a lot in common, though.  Besides being the only ones in the study without bladder cancer, they were also considerably higher in specific nutrients.  And these nutrients were associated with a protection from bladder cancer.

For example, blood work analysis found that the people that had the highest concentrations of vitamin E were 34 percent less likely to develop bladder cancer.  But that was nothing compared to people who had high concentrations of phosphorus.  For them, the bladder cancer risk was reduced by 51 percent!

Other vitamins and minerals that had protective properties included vitamin D, niacin, and carotenoids.  Carotenoids are naturally occurring pigments found in brightly colored fresh fruits and veggies.  They’re a form of vitamin A.

The study was published in the journal Cancer Causes and Control and was funded in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute at the US National Institutes of Health.

Fortunately, these vitamins and minerals (with the exception of vitamin D) aren’t hard to find in the food supply.  But if you’re looking for a specific vegetables for specific minerals and vitamins:

Phosphorus sources:  Chickpeas, lentils, garlic, soybeans

Vitamin E sources:  Spinach, broccoli, wheat germ

Niacin sources:  crimini mushrooms, asparagus, romaine lettuce

Sources:
naturodoc.com
nutraingredients.com
ods.od.nih.gov
whfoods.org

Chemotherapy drugs are part of traditional medical treatment for bladder cancer.

Clichés are anathema to the writer who wants to pepper his or her prose with provocative witticisms.  But try as they might, clichés find their way into articles and books because – more often than not – they’re true.  Few clichés are more undeniable in their truth-telling than the one coined by furniture designer Ludwig Mies Van Der Roche:  Less is more.

Whether it’s book length, a fashion statement, a meal plan, or a kind word, the lesser the amount, the more meaningful its result.  I’ve certainly found this to be the case.  But all too often, more is equated with more better.

To illustrate my meaning, look no further than bladder cancer.  Yes, bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer is as prevalent a cancer in America as any one you can name – in the top five in America and in the top 10 in England.  But it’s in a class by itself when it comes to the cost patients and families incur through treatment.

Researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that the average high intensity treatment for bladder cancer – i.e. the invasive kind – averaged about $7,200 per treatment, about $4,300 more than the average low intensity treatment! 

Now, subscribers to the “more is more” theory would expect a higher survival rate among those getting the high intensity treatments.  After all, the more testing and procedures, the better the doctors can determine what needs to be done and what treatment(s) to implement.  But that wasn’t the case in the researchers’ findings.  The survival rates were actually quite similar among those who received little treatment and lots of treatment. 

As the good researchers say, who published their findings in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, this suggests that doctors often implement unnecessary testing procedures, putting unnecessary financial stress on the patient, and unnecessary strain on the patient through treatment. 

Perhaps the most damning finding of the researchers was that the aggressively treated patients were more than 2.5 times more likely to need radical procedures due to the rapid decline of their condition – again, despite the intensive nature of treatment!

Now, I understand that some diagnoses require aggressive treatments.  But doctors and, to some extent, individuals themselves, are often loath to try natural treatments for bladder cancer. 

Take frankincense oil as an example.  Today, frankincense oil is traditionally used as a topical crème that improves skin complexion and promotes the healing of wounds.  But way back in the day, it was used as a medicinal elixir for generations in Southeast Asia. Well, researchers from Oklahoma have discovered why their use of it was so commonplace – at least as far as bladder cancer treatment goes.

Through gene expression, researchers from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center found that when regular bladder cells and cancerous bladder cells were exposed to frankincense oil, the frankincense oil was able to decipher between the two, killing the cancerous cells!  

Now, more research needs to be done before frankincense oil can be heralded as a bladder cancer cure, but this is the perfect example of how less treatment often translates to bigger, better results.  And with the boom in the natural health arena, more and more people are realizing this. 

That more and more people are realizing the effectiveness of natural health is the one area of life where the less is more rule doesn’t apply.  Because the more people jump aboard the natural health bandwagon, the better off we’ll all be in the long run.

Sources:
ScienceDaily
ScienceDaily