Boosting the immune system -step 2 Sugar

The battle to boost Ranjan's immune system is on! In my last post I talked about chronic stress and how it was the main cause of Ranjan's cancer. Today I take on sugar, a tricky one when the man loves sugar in all its avatars not to forget the Scottish one. I have been badgering about how sugar feeds cancer but though he makes all the appropriate sounds and gestures, I do not think the gravity of the situations registers in his brain. The proof: his perennial question after every meal and what's for dessert!

Convincing him that sugar has to be give up is going to be my biggest challenge. I need to arm myself with as much knowledge as I can and hope that my constant nagging will bear fruit. In this case I do not mind being called the nagging wife! So let us begin.

Eating or drinking too much sugar curbs immune system cells that attack bacteria. As if that was not enough CANCER CELLS FEED ON SUGAR!

There innumerable articles that prove this fact. Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg made many startling discoveries about cancer. According to him cancer metabolises through a process of fermentation and fermentation requires sugar. Voila!

It is interesting to note that the way laetrile or the component found in apricot kernels is because cancer loves sugar. Here is how it works: cancer loves sugar. The sugar in the apricot pits surrounds a phytochemical called: nitriloside. The cancer draws in the sugar, eats it, and releases the nitriloside. Now cancer cells contain great quantities of beta-glucosidase, an enzyme. When beta-glucosidase meets with nitriloside, they create hydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde. Both are poisons. Since they've been released at the cancer site, they kill the cancer. Interesting!

And there is more a new MRI study shows that cancer thrives on sugar. After sensitising an MRI scanner to look specifically for glucose in the body, it was revealed that cancer tumours, which feed off sugar, light up brightly as they contain high amounts of sugar. Maybe in the future MRI would not have to use radioactive materials but inject sugar.

There is no doubt, cancer feeds on sugar. It is now considered as toxic as alcohol and tobacco. It is believed that sugar and cancer are locked in a death grip, yet oncologists often fail to do what's necessary to stop their patients from feeding their cancers with sweets.  In research published June 26, 2012 in the journal Molecular Systems Biology, Graeber and his colleagues demonstrate that glucose starvation—that is, depriving cancer cells of glucose—activates a metabolic and signalling amplification loop that leads to cancer cell death as a result of the toxic accumulation of reactive oxygen species.

I think I have sufficient data to prove my point. Now I need to make it palatable and acceptable to someone who loves sugar and yearns for it. It is not mean task. Wish me luck.