AS regular readers will know, I'm looking at ways to stop or slow metestases. People don't die from cancer; they die from metastases.
One of my interests is how saturated fat helps cancer spread. I have long noted that where prostate cancer patients send me their blood results (PSA, estradiol, oestrone, testosterone, DHT, triglyceride and cholesterol levels), as soon as the triglyceride and cholesterol levels climb, the DHT is not far behind and the cancer is coming back with a vengeance.
Antihistamines increase survival time
Clues to what was happening first emerged at Johns Hopkins in 2002 when some bright spark noticed there was a doubling of survival time after colorectal cancer surgery, where people were taking an antihistamine. Only a couple of years ago, much the same happened at the Karolinska when someone noticed the women with breast cancer who co-incidentally took an anti-histamine for their allergy, they lived longer too!
Research has shown that cancer cells have much higher levels of histamine receptor sites on their surfaces. They pick up histamines and this inflames them, making them ‘sticky’, so they can stick to each other and form new tumours, or stick to your liver or lungs, after their stickiness has helped their transport through blood and lymph.
The issue is, “How does the immune system not see them when they are on their travels?”. The answer again comes from research. First, researchers in Barcelona at the Institue for Biomedicine showed that only 10% of cancer cells actually can spread. What these have in common is a CD36 molecule on their surface. And this attracts bad fats in the blood stream. The sticky cancer cells then take on a fatty cloak - they hide in a fat bubble - and thus they can move freely around the body without being attacked by the immune system.
Not surprisingly, about 2 years ago there was then a big American study which showed people with higher levels of blood fat have more metastases and lowered survival times.
Take an antihistamine; beware high levels of LDL and Triglycerides
First, check your blood fats and never let your cholesterol and triglycerides get above the upper safe limit. In fact, keep them in the mid range if possible - we often suggest people use Lycopene. There's good research that it outperforms statins without the side-effects. Another strategy is to consume fresh ginger - it reduces lipid levels in the blood stream, amongst its many other benefits.
Importantly, consider taking an antihistamine like Loratadine. No estrogen conflicts, it reduces the stickiness of cancer cells. They will have more difficulty spreading, and less ability to take hold in your peripheral organs. We've used it with patients in our Personal Prescriptions for 6 years or more now.
Many antihistamines are cheap OTC medicines with few side-effects; you can take them for 6-10 weeks and up to a year. It’s not rocket science.
I wrote my first article on the benefits of antihistamines to cancer patients in 2006. If you followed CANCERactive then, you could well have benefitted from these observations. Research has now proven them correct.