Is Diet A Cause Of Skin Cancer?

A new study shows that skin cancer in young women increased 50 percent between 1980 and 2004. There hasn't been an increase in men. Why is this? Researchers say studies need to be done to see if it could be from longer sun exposure or tanning beds.

Two things different in young men and women -
Young women use more skin care products - do we know how safe these are? I'll post about this tomorrow.
Also women tend to diet more often for weight loss. When dieting we might not be getting the nutrients our body needs to prevent cancers of all kinds.

Is diet a cause of skin cancer?
Our diet gets worse every year. More processed foods hit the store shelves, we consume more fast food and junk food. With this food trend we are losing the nutrients our body needs to prevent cancer while adding cancer promoting food.

Cancer promoting oil.
We have to cut back on oils high in omega-6 fatty acids. That includes corn oil, safflower oil and sunflower oil. Eat more of the omega-3 type fat in fish. I don't eat near enough fish so I add fish oil to my morning drink. I use Carlson's Norwegian Cod Liver Oil, as recommended by Dr. Heidi Dulay.

How fats effect sun cancer risk.
When your cells have too much omega-6 fat and not enough omega-3, the production of prostaglandins goes into overdrive, encouraging the onset and growth of skin tumors. A proper balance of fish oil helps block the disastrous biochemical cascade of events.

A study with mice:
In mice, safflower and sunflower oils, high in omega-6, definitely spur the growth of melanoma. Studies have also shown that patients with melanoma ate about twice as much omega-6 type polyunsaturated oil as a similar group without the cancer.

Keep the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids high. Eat fish (wild not farmed) at least twice a week and avoid high linoleic acid vegetable oils, such as corn oil. Olive oil is fine. An international conference in 1989 found that eating butter, with a higher ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 was safer than eating high omega-6 vegetable oils.

Don't forget the antioxidants.
Eating fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants combats the ability of omega-6 fats to promote melanoma. Putting antioxidant vitamin C in the drinking water of mice with melanoma inhibited tumor growth, size, invasiveness and increased survival time.

Here's an interesting study about NK (natural killer cells) and antioxidants:

A study at the German Cancer Research Center compared the blood of male vegetarians and meat eaters. They found that vegetarians' white cells were twice as deadly against tumor cells as those of carnivores. This means vegetarians needed only half as many white cells to do the same job as meat eaters did. Why vegetarians' white cells are more deadly is not clear. Researchers speculated they may yield greater armies of natural killer cells or more feroious (natural killer) NK cells.
You don't need to be vegetarian - do get those fruits and vegetables in your diet.

Eat more omega-3 oils - eat more fruits and veggies to protect the skin you are in.

A surprising source of Vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids oils- without sun exposure.


Part Two tomorrow.

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