Common Foods that May Contain Carcinogens

New Year's is just around the corner! Many of us starting thinking about our New Years Resolutions for Health and Fitness without a second thought to cancer causing ingredients in our diet but recently all the medical talk shows and magazines are increasing addressing the issue of cancer causing foods and food ingredients. 

If you "Google" cancer causing ingredients that search turns up about 2,160,000 in about .59 seconds! With all the talk about the bad-for-you ingredients in foods, you may be wondering what’s just iffy (like that doughnut in the morning) and what’s really bad. Are there really foods that could be setting you up for  cancer in the future?

Though science can’t yet tell us if eating hot dogs increases the risk for cancer, for example, they can tell us that some ingredients in hot dogs may be carcinogenic. Here are the top ten foods to stay away from for that reason alone.

1.  Potato chips and French fries. According to the National Cancer Institute, acrylamide is a chemical used for industrial purposes that is found in many foods, with particularly high levels in some potato chips, French fries, and other foods cooked at high temperatures. (Baking, roasting, and frying can all produce acrylamide.) Based on animal studies, acrylamide is considered a probable human carcinogen. Though the Environmental Protection Agency regulates levels of acrylamide in drinking water, there are currently no guidelines on acrylamide in food itself. Boiled potatoes have been found to be free of acrylamide.

2.  Hot dogs and deli meats. Many of these contain nitrites as preservatives, which during the cooking process, can form carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds. These compounds have been associated with several different cancers. One study published in Cancer Causes & Control, for example, found that children eating more than 12 hot dogs a month had nine times the normal risk of developing childhood leukemia. Any cured meat may contain nitrites, including lunch meats, bacon, ham, and even cured fish. And so far, “organic” and “natural” hot dogs aren’t much better—an article in The New York Times noted they often contain nitrites, too.

3.  Canned foods. Cans used to store foods are often coated in a type of plastic that’s made with bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical that’s been linked to breast cancer and prostate cancer because of its hormone-altering capabilities. Though not labeled a carcinogen on its own, evidence suggests that it increases cancer susceptibility through changes to DNA. A recent study found that people who ate canned soup for five days straight saw their urinary levels of BPA spike 1,200 percent compared to those who ate fresh soup. Buy foods in boxes, jars, and BPA-free cans.

4.  Chicken and apple juice. Recent studies have found both chicken and apple juice sold in the U.S. can contain small levels of arsenic, which has been linked to skin, lung, and bladder cancer. Some apple juices were found to contain more than the amount deemed safe in drinking water. The good news is that as a result of an FDA study on chicken, the manufacturer of the chicken feed laced with arsenic said it would pull the ingredient off the market. The debate on juice is still ongoing. Carefully research the brands you buy.

5.  Restaurant grilled or pan-fried chicken. A study published in Nutrition and Cancerfound that when 100 samples of grilled chicken from seven popular chain restaurants contained PhIP, a known human carcinogen. The restaurants where the samples were obtained included Applebee’s, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Chili’s, McDonald’s, Outback, and T.G.I. Friday’s—and watch out. Some of the samples tested included the grilled chicken that’s used on salads.

6.  Donuts, rolls, and buns. Most of these are made from white flour, and white flour may contain potassium bromate, a food additive used in the bread-making process that has been found to be carcinogenic in animal studies. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has petitioned the FDA to prohibit the use of potassium bromate, but so far it is not restricted in the U.S. Donuts are also full of sugar and trans fats, so either cut them out completely, or eat sparingly. Look for “potassium bromate” or “bromated flour” on the ingredient label. Brands like Orowheat, Entenmann’s, Pepperidge Farm, and Pillsbury have switched to bromate-free processes. Supermarket chains like Giant, Jewel, Ralph’s, and Von’s also do not use bromate.

Do you have tips for avoiding carcinogens in food? Please share!

References Sources:

National Cancer Institute Fact Sheet, “Acrylamide in Food and Cancer Risk.” 

William Neuman, “What’s Inside the Bun?” The New York Times, July 1, 2011. 

Ruth A. Keri, et al., “An Evaluation of Evidence for the Carcinogenic Activity of Bisphenol A,” Reprod. Toxicol, 2007; 24(2): 240-252.

Jenny L. Carwile, et al. “Canned Soup Consumption and Urinary Bisphenol A: A Randomized Crossover Trial.” The Journal of the American Medical Association, November 23/30, 2011, Vol. 306, No. 20, pp 2187-2283. 

Kristie M. Sullivan, et al., “Detection of PhIP in Grilled Chicken Entrees at Popular Chain Restaurants Throughout California.”Nutrition and Cancer Volume 60, Issue 5, 2008. 

Y Kurokawa, et al., “Toxicity and Carcinogenicity of Potassium Bromate—a New Renal Carcinogen,” Environ Health Perspect.1990 July; 87: 309-335. 

Fukushima Children Tested for Thyroid Cancer Risk

Texas Drinking Water Cover-Up

An investigative report by a local Houston Texas news stations reveals numerous top-level Texas Government officials participated in a massive cover up of dangerous levels of radiation causing thyroid cancer  in Texas drinking water.

The report from KHOU 11 in Houston shed light on what government watchdogs are calling "a conspiracy of the highest order" in the aftermath of the release of several email communications between Top Texas Officials in the Governors office, the state legislation, and the state agency in charge of protecting the environment in Texas.

The emails that were ordered to be released by the state attorney general reveal radiation tests of public drinking water were falsified to prevent Federal violations that would have required the local water systems to be cleaned up.

Source: http://theintelhub.com/2011/05/20/massive-texas-drinking-water-radiation-cove... 

VIDEO: Protecting yourself from Thyroid Cancer

Ashley Glass from ABC Action News 

talks to doctors about how to detect and protect yourself from Thyroid Cancer. 

About Radiation, Nutrients and Food

Is there something we can do to protect ourselves from radiation poisoning ? The nuclear blasts in Japan have all of us concerned about radiation poisoning. However World Health Organization officials say “health risk is small” for those of us not living near the power plants.

In Extreme Risk of Contamination

Japanese people living within 12 miles of the Fukushima nuclear power plant are at extreme risk of contamination by inhaled or swallowed radioactive iodine particles. The Japanese government has evacuated 180,000 people from the area and advised everyone to wear a surgical mask and stays in unventilated rooms.

The real danger of these radioactive iodine particles is when they are absorbed by the thyroid and develop thyroid cancer as was the case in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. According to the World Health Organization, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster will cause 50,000 new cases of thyroid cancer among young people living in the areas most affected by the nuclear disaster.

It is postulated that the rate of thyroid cancer in adolescents aged 15 to 18 is also now three times higher than it was before the 1986 disaster took place. The incidence of thyroid cancer in children rose 10-fold in children who lived in the Ukraine region. The most dramatic rate increase is in children who were 10 or younger when the Chernobyl accident occurred, and most specifically, those who were under 4.

Potassium iodide is a pharmacological product. The potassium and iodine in our food do not have the same effect.

Further away from the source, radiation exposure depends on the distance from the plant and on weather conditions, especially wind and rain at the time of the explosion. According to Bloomberg from Business week, he reports: “Radioactive iodine is heavier than air and won’t spread far in mild wind...(but it) has a half-life of eight days, meaning it takes eight days of decay to decrease by half.”

More concerning, is the indirect radiation exposure as Dr. David J. Brenner from the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University told the New York Times: "The way radioactive iodine gets into human beings is an indirect route," he said.

"It falls to the ground, cows eat it and make milk with radioactive iodine, and you get it from drinking the milk." Dr. Brenner then said that the epidemic of thyroid cancer around Chernobyl could have been prevented if the government had immediately stopped people from drinking milk. Officials in South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines will be checking food imported from Japan.

Ionizing radiation consists of particles or electromagnetic waves that are energetic enough to detach electrons from atoms or molecules, thus ionizing them. Direct ionization from the effects of single particles or single photons produces free radicals, which are atoms or molecules containing unpaired electrons, that tend to be especially chemically reactive due to their electronic structure.

The degree and nature of such ionization depends on the energy of the individual particles (including photons), not on their number or intensity. High frequency radiation has enough energy to damage DNA in the cells which often leads to thyroid cancer. The extent of damage is directly related to the dose of radiation.

The American Cancer Society points out that low-frequency radiation coming from power lines, radio waves, microwaves, cell phone, TV and computer screens have not been shown to cause cancer. The topic remains under study.

Antioxidants for Prevention

To fight off environmental toxins and the low levels of radiation we encounter every day, it's very important to eat an abundance of antioxidant nutrients found in plant foods. Antioxidants protect the cells from damage by keeping toxic byproducts in breaking havoc our DNA and vital cell structures. If these free radicals or byproducts are not destroyed they can lead to aging, cancer and other chronic diseases.

The Vitamins C, Vitamin A and Vitamin E are antioxidants as well as Selenium, and the many phytochemicals, such as beta-carotene in dark green and orange plants, lycopene in red plants, lutein in dark green leafy vegetables, resveratrol in grapes, myricetin in walnuts, and many more antioxidants to name. The overriding message is that every vegetable, fruit, legume, kernel, nut, and seed contains antioxidants and play an vital role in keeping us healthy.

Reduce your health risks now. Learn more about personalized physician supervised preventative programs and the science behind functional medicine at Milwaukee Center for Longevity Medicine

About the Author: Alexandra Solano MD is a Fellow in the field of Anti-Aging Regenerative and Functional Medicine. She works with clients in Brookfield to prevent and reverse degenerative disease of aging and improve overall well-being through lifestyle changes and integrative medicine.


SOURCE: BookfieldNow.Com/Blogs

Radiation Exposure and Cancer Risk Basics

Thyroid cancer for sure. Leukemia, probably. Too much radiation can raise the risk of developing cancer years down the road, scientists agree, and the young are most vulnerable. But just how much or how long an exposure is risky is not clear. Those are among the unknowns scientists are contemplating as the crisis unfolds at Japan's stricken nuclear power plant.

In Japan, the Science Ministry said radiation levels about 19 miles northwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant rose at one point Friday to 0.15 millisieverts per hour, about the amount absorbed in a chest X-ray. But levels have been fluctuating, and radiation at most sites that distance from the facility have been far below that.

Long term, it is clear radiation can induce cancer. But researchers can't just count cancer cases after a disaster and declare radiation responsible. Rates before and after must be compared to know if more cases occurred than would be expected.

That is why, 25 years after the Chernobyl accident, there is still controversy over its effects beyond the undisputed 6,000 cases of thyroid cancer. Of these cases, only 15 had proved fatal as of 2005, even though the Soviets were slow to treat victims of the catastrophe.

The records necessary to spot trends in other types of cancer as a result of Chernobyl are poor, said Dr. Fred Mettler, a University of New Mexico scientist who led a United Nations-sponsored team investigating Chernobyl's health effects.

"At the end of the day, the scientific data isn't there. My instinct is, there probably is an increase there, but it's too small to see," he said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that no amount of radiation is absolutely safe above the 3 to 6 millisieverts a year that most of us get from normal living. In contrast, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that low doses - less than 100 millisieverts spread out over years - are not harmful. Researchers have not documented danger from such low levels, said Kelly Classic, a radiation physicist at the Mayo Clinic and a spokeswoman for the Health Physics Society, an organization of radiation safety specialists.

High doses - over 500 millisieverts - can raise the risk of leukemia, breast, bladder, colon, liver, lung, esophageal, ovarian and stomach cancers, and the blood cancer multiple myeloma, government scientists say.

In between the high and lower levels, the picture is murky. Much depends on the type of radiation people are exposed to, how old they are, and how well each person's body repairs any DNA damage the radiation may cause.

"There's no linear relationship to say if you got this amount, it would cause a certain percent of cancer down the road," said Dr. Clifford Chao, chief of cancer radiation at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Children are the ones at risk for radiation's most obviously related cancer - thyroid. Radioactive iodine collects in the thyroid gland in the neck. Potassium iodide pills can block its absorption and minimize harm, but they must be given within 12 hours of exposure to do much good.

When Chernobyl exploded, health workers "had millions of square kilometers to cover and it was all rural areas and they didn't really have anything stockpiled," Mettler said. Children also drank milk from cows that grazed on contaminated grass for weeks after the disaster, compounding their exposure and risk. More than 6,000 thyroid cancers have been documented in people who were children in the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia when the disaster occurred. But In Poland, where the antidote pills were given out, there were no higher rates of thyroid cancer.

Properly treated, the most common type papillary and follicular thyroid cancer "are some of the least deadly cancers," the American Cancer Society says. And low levels of radioactive iodine exposure have not been shown to increase thyroid cancer risk in studies of fallout from nuclear weapons testing in the western United States during the 1950s, the society says.

Studies of atomic bomb survivors have found higher rates of cancer. But those disasters involved different radioactive elements than the type emitted from the Japanese nuclear plant so far.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer also commissioned a study of more than 400,000 nuclear industry workers in 15 countries to estimate cancer risk following protracted low doses of radiation. The 2007 study found a dose-related higher risk of cancer death, but questions have been raised about its methods.

The results also were driven largely by higher rates in Canada; once that country's results were excluded, no increase is seen, Mettler said. There have been questions about the data from Canada, Mettler said. Also, the authors of the study say they need to do more work to assess how smoking and other factors affected their estimates.

So for now, the clearest information on cancer risk from a nuclear plant accident may come from Chernobyl. That disaster exposed 5 million people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to large amounts of radioactive material for 10 days, according to the 2008 report that Mettler helped write for the United Nations' Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, which represents 22 nations on nuclear safety.

Exposure to cesium was a big concern because it affects the whole body, not just the thyroid gland. And exposure among cleanup workers and emergency responders ranged as high as a few hundred millisieverts over the following few years. Evidence suggests a higher rate of leukemia in these workers, "but it's not certain," Mettler said.

Research is continuing in that group, and longer follow-up should establish that more clearly, he said.  "Leukemia increases have not been seen in the children" who are now adults, he said. Nor have increases in breast, lung, stomach or other cancers been documented, though this population became very mobile after Chernobyl and the breakup of the Soviet Union, so the true rates are hard to establish, and rates before the accident in some cases are unknown, Mettler said.

As bad as Chernobyl was, the average radiation dose over 20 years to people who live in contaminated areas was "relatively low" - 9 millisieverts, nearly the equivalent of a CT scan - once the short-term doses to the thyroid were subtracted, the UN report said. That means there should not be "substantial health effects in the general population that could be attributed to radiation," the report concludes.

The NRC has said that typical annual background exposure to radiation shaves 18 days off the expected lifespan. Working in a nuclear plant under ordinary conditions - not in a crisis like the one unfolding in Japan - shortens life expectancy by 51 days. By comparison, being 15 percent overweight cuts two years; smoking a pack of cigarettes a day costs six years of life.

REFERENCES & SOURCES:

http://www.vcstar.com/news

http://chernobyl.cancer.gov/

http://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/chernobyl.html

EPA decides to regulate drinking-water chemical linked to thyroid cancer

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that it has set a national standard for the allowable level of perchlorate, a chemical linked to thyroid cancer, in tap water.  The agency will likely set the safe level at one part per billion, a level recommended eight years ago by a committee convened by the EPA, the Associated Press reports.

The news source added that this recommended level was later increased to 15 parts per billion under President George W. Bush, whose administration decided not to pass any official public health standards concerning the chemical. The new regulations will supersede that decision.

Perchlorate is a volatile molecule that contributes to the combustion reaction in airbags, fireworks and solid rocket fuel, the agency said. It was formerly used to treat to treat some forms of hyperthyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid gland overproduces hormones.

Since the chemical interferes with the production of thyroid hormone, its presence in drinking water has been associated with hypothyroidism, certain thyroid cancers and glandular disorders in pregnant women and newborns. Extended exposure to perchlorate caused thyroid cancer in laboratory rodents, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Even if thyroid cancer were not a risk, the agency says that the chemical affects the way that the thyroid takes up iodine, which can, in turn, affect nearly every system in the body.  Once the EPA has finalized the chemical's regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, public water systems will be largely responsible for ensuring that the level of perchlorate stays at or below the recommended level.

The agency states that perchlorate may currently be present in the drinking water of more than 16 million Americans.  In the U.S., more than 44,000 people are diagnosed with thyroid cancer every year, according to the CDC.

Perchlorate in Drinking Water Associated with Thyroid Function Abnormalities

The Associated Press is reporting that Federal Regulators do not have any plans to try and regulate the amount of perchlorate that is in public drinking water, which has been found to pose a risk to individuals' thyroid function. The chemical can also cause developmental health risks, especially for babies and fetuses.

The decision made by the Environmental Protection Agency is not final, however, and the agency will collect public comments for thirty days before concluding the decision process as to whether or not the chemical in drinking water should be regulated.

What is Perchlorate?

The Department of Defense used perchlorate in the testing of rockets and missiles. It is estimated that the drinking water of nearly twenty million Americans is contaminated with the chemical. Perchlorate is the main ingredient of rocket and missile fuel and is an explosive element. The chemical has contaminated the drinking water supplies of many states, particularly Texas and California.

How does Perchlorate Affect the Thyroid?

Perchlorate affects human health by inhibiting iodine uptake into the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland helps to regulate the metabolism in adults and releases thyroid hormones. In children, the thyroid gland is important in proper development. Perchlorate is becoming an urgent threat to human health and water resources.

Perchlorate and Children

Toddlers are particularly vulnerable to perchlorate in their drinking water because they eat and drink a significant amount of food and water in relation to their tiny size.  

A research study conducted by the Environmental Working Group analysis of FDA data discovered that perchlorate levels even as low as four parts per billion in drinking water could possibly expose the average two year old toddler to a dangerous amount of rocket fuel contamination in their every day lives.

Cleanup of Drinking Water

The research findings of the FDA highlight the importance of the cleanup of drinking water so that small children are not exposed to rocket fuel in their drinking water. Perchlorate in drinking water can be minimized through filtration and clean up. The cleanup of perchlorate in food is more difficult because the origination of the chemical is more difficult to pin point.

Importance of Cleanup of Drinking Water

The National Academy of Sciences, also referred to as the NAS, research finding found that the health effects of perchlorate are severe.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is also referred to as the CDC, have released research conclusions that indicate thatAmerican women, especially those with low iodine intake, could possibly have reduced thyroid function as a result of perchlorate exposure. Similar thyroid function effects were not found for men.

Filter Drinking Water at Home to Protect Your Thyroid

Many people are asking the question as to whether tap water or bottled water is better for health. Because of cost, many families prefer tap water as it is more readily available than bottled water. And many prefer tap water because of environmental issues relating to the use of plastic containers that are associated with bottled water.

The standard faucet filter that many people have in their kitchen is not sufficient. Reverse osmosis drinking water treatment systems have been shown to filter out the dangerous perchlorate chemical in drinking water and aid in the protection of thyroid health.

Consult a Professional

If you have questions about your drinking water, perchlorate and the effect that it has on your thyroid health, consult a thyroid health professional.