Quantitative links between nutrition and immunity (well-being) are being established at universities world-wide on a daily basis.
Dr. Robert A. Good, pediatrician and immunologist at All Childrens Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla.:
"We are discovering that some nutrients can be used as modulators, manipulators or stimulators of the immune system as well as general food sources. This could turn out to be pretty powerful medicine if we can understand it better. As we learn more, we should be able to tailor-make diets to the needs of the moment---for example, using one diet to down- regulate the immunological response that leads to rejection of a transplanted organ and another diet to foster rejection of a cancer."
Dr. Jeffery Blumberg, associate director and professor at the USDA Human Nutrition Center on Aging at Tufts University:
"The evidence is now undisputed that diet and nutrition are directly linked to many of the chronic diseases afflicting older adults."
Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, which oxidize lipids and damage cells.
Dr. Mary N. Haan, director of the Center for Aging and Health at the U. of California-Davis School of Medicine:
"If free radicals were human beings, they would be arrested. They are the gangs, the looters, in our bodies."
Bruce Ames, professor of biochemistry and molecular bology and director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the U. of California:
"Degenerative diseases of aging such as
cancer, cardiovascular disease, cataracts and brain dysfunction, are
increasingly found to have an oxidative origin."
Phyllis Bowen, associate professor of human nutrition
and dietetics at the U. of Illinois-Chicago:
"We are starting to see that oxidative
stress is a huge factor in aging diseases. Eating antioxidants in plant
foods can hold off the damage."
Lester Packer, professor of molecular and cell biology at the U. of California/Berkeley:
"An overwhelming body of evidence indicates that increased consuption of fruits and vegetables can dramatically decrease the risk of many of the degenerative diseases of aging."
In a recent pilot study of 28 women at high risk for breast cancer (27-80 yrs. old; average age was 50), intake of fruits and vegetables was raised from 5.8 servings/day to 10+ servings/day.
After two weeks, DNA damage to their white blood cells dropped 21.5%.
[Carcinogenesis, vol. 20, #2, 1999]
Lead author, Dr. Henry Thompson (AMC Cancer Research Center/Lakewood, CO):
"That's a pretty robust effect in a short period of time. These are very healthy levels of damage reduction."
Dr. Thompson suspects that women not at high risk for breast cancer would also benefit from the same DNA protection.
Dana Sorbel, a former New York Times science writer and market researcher Arhtur Klein surveyed 1,051 arthritis patients ages 10 to 90. Their work led to the book, "Arthritis: What Works" (St. Martin's Press).
47 percent changed the way they ate because of their arthritis. Of these, 20 percent said the dietary changes helped their condition, in some cases, dramatically. 56 percent said their doctors had given them no nutritional information, or told them there was no relationship between diet and arthritis.
Top foods avoided: red meats, 155 patients; sugar, 148; fats, 135; salt, 98; caffeine, 56; plants in the nightshade family such as tomatoes, eggplant, etc., 48.
Top foods favored: vegetables, 204; fruit, 174; fish, 89; poultry, 61.
Dr. Richard Panush of St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J.:
"Some studies suggest a relationship between nutrition and arthritis in some patients, but we need more research."
A study conducted by Dr. Dean Ornish of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausilito, CA, presented at the 11/89 meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans, showed that a vegetarian diet, moderate exercise and an hour a day of yoga and/or meditation could produce a REVERSAL of artherosclerosis in men and women who were strict in following the regimen.
Dr. Claude L'Enfant, director of the National Heart and Blood Institute:
"I feel this is a tremendously important study in the control of heart disease. It's the first study indicating regression of coronary heart disease without pharmeceutical intervention."
Dr. Alexander Leaf, chairman of the dept. of preventive medicine at the Harvard Medical School:
"We can't go on merely buying a little time by doing bypasses and angioplasty, but having the disease continue to worsen, when you can reverse the disease with these methods."
Dr. Herman Hellerstein, cardiologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland:
"One of the most significant changes was reduction in stenosis, or the narrowing of the arteries. While the absolute amount of change is small, the direction is good. It shows it can be done using these methods; it's like the Wright Brothers showing you can fly."
Dr. Ornish:
"We feel the life-style changes, like meditation and yoga, are as important as the dietary ones. The stress-control component is often ignored, but several studies show stress plays a major role in the development of atherosclerosis."
A recent Harvard study that tracked 38,683 men for 8 years found that "men who ate five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day lowered their risk of stroke by 39 percent (citrus fruits, leafy greens, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflow contributed most to the reduced risk)."
Nutritional impacts begin early. Animal studies have shown that maternal malnutrition changes fetal function and long-term development in the child.
Dr. Jeffery Robinson, obstetrician-researcher at the
U. of Adelaide in South Australia:
"What has surprised us in human studies is the strength of the association between prenatal growth and adult disease...when poor nutrition occurs late in pregnancy, it can permanently alter growth of the liver and disrupt that organ's regulation of cholesterol metabolism and blood clotting, both of which are important factors in heart disease."
Medical writer Jean Carper, correspondent for the CNN cable network and author of 'The Food Pharmacy' (Bantam Books):
"I feel good about making these types of nutritional choices. If you have a vision of what happens when you eat food and it gets broken down and sends out all these wonderful chemicals to protect your cells, it gives you an incentive to eat these foods."
Ms. Carper also notes that hundreds of studies show that fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of cancers of the lung, stomach, mouth, larynx, esophagus, cervix, endometrium, bladder, kidney and breast.
Melanie Polk, registered dietician and director of nutrition education at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), a non-profit educational organization based n Washington, D.C.:
"If we were to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day we could decrease cancer incidence by as much as 20 percent...each individual fruit and vegetable has its own profile of cancer-protective substances and nutrients.
NUTRIENTS TEND TO WORK AS A TEAM, SO EATING A VARIETY OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IS REALLY THE KEY (emphasis mine)."
--- fr. 'Diet Is Not A Pannacea, But It Cuts The Risk Of Cancer" (NYT, 12/01/98, pg. D6):
" The cancers most directly linked to diet are those that arise in lining tissues throughout the body, especially cancers of the colon and rectum, lung, bladder, stomach, and, to a lesser extent, the breast, uterus and prostate."
--- fr. the Position Paper on Phytochemicals of the American Dietetic Association:
" The National Cancer Institute estimates that one in three cancer deaths are diet-related and that 8 to 10 cancers have a nutritional/diet component."
Dr. John Potter, prof. of epidemiology at the U. of Minnesota and director of its Cancer Prevention Unit:
"After looking at all the evidence, the conclusion I draw is that the lower disease risk is really associated with vegetables and fruits in general. My current working hypothesis is that its the fruits and vegetables themelves (rather that extracts or pills) that contain the anticarcinogenic "cocktail" that is beneficial to humans."
The core of degenerative disease prophylaxis strategy is simple, yet profound. Since oxidative damage contributes to diseases such as cancer, arteriosclerosis, brain dysfunction, cataracts, arthritis, etc., and an excess of free radicals makes one more suceptible to infection and accelerates the aging process, the challenge is to 1) reduce oxidative stress (i.e., reduce exposure to toxins in foodstuffs, water, air, etc.) and
2) optimize antioxidant defenses.
