eileen

Telluride, Colo. - In the last article (Daily Planet, 3/7/08 and on my Web site) I began a discussion on apoptosis and why we can’t live without it. Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death; the natural process of self-destruction in cells. This mechanism allows for a turnover of cells; the removal of those cells that are damaged giving space to the propagation of healthy new cells. Your red blood cells, for example, have a life cycle of 120 days.

In their natural death process, the cells disintegrate and are then removed by phagocytosis, the body’s way to remove pathogens and cell debris. Much in the way that old paradigms and points of view must die in order to make room for new truths.
Apoptosis is an essential part of the development and maintenance of the body. It is a process we want to have ongoing in a balanced, healthful way in our body. If this mechanism is disrupted, disorders can occur. For example, if the cells are dividing faster than they die, a tumor results. If the cells are dividing slower than they die, cell loss is the result. With defective apoptotic pathways, cells can live past their “use-by-date” and are then able to pass along faulty messages, increasing the possibility of the cell becoming cancerous or diseased.

When functioning properly, the body can induce apoptosis to rid itself of cancer. If malfunctioning and the cells of a tumor are unable to commit suicide, they survive and proliferate with their errant message.

Radiation and drugs can stimulate apoptosis. This is the mechanism of chemotherapy, to stimulate apoptosis, leading to the death of cancer cells. Problems can occur when cells become resistant to the drugs, surviving the cancer therapy and continuing to multiply.

There are natural mechanisms that enhance apoptosis in the body as well as mechanisms that can cause its disruption. What might those mechanisms be? Here is where the nutritional wisdom pot may be stirred.

I have been building on this conversation for several articles (which you can catch up on my Web site, www.thejoyofhealth.com.) as to the need for ionized calcium in the blood and the importance of using pro-oxidants through natural foods as opposed to synthetic antioxidants. Ionized calcium (the free, metabolically-active portion of calcium) and pro-oxidants both play an important role in the regulation of apoptosis.
From the Journal of Leukocyte Biology in June 1996, scientists from The University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center wrote a lengthy report on “The role of calcium in the regulation of apoptosis.” In their review of 125 scientific articles from independent laboratories, they examine the role that ionized calcium has in triggering appropriate apoptosis.

A research article in the April 2000 Journal of Biological Chemistry noted that it is the inhibition of apoptosis that plays a role in the development of prostate cancer. This study looks at the role that ionized calcium plays in restoring apoptosis.

Vitamin D has also been shown to play a role in apoptosis. In 2002, researchers St George’s Hospital Medical School in London reviewed the mechanisms of the action of vitamin D in prevention of breast cancer. They found that vitamin D does so by regulating cell cycles, forcing apoptosis. From previous articles you will remember that vitamin D plays a role in elevating ionized calcium in the blood, so we may ultimately be looking again at the benefits of calcium.

Further peer review in the 2001 Current Opinion in Cell Biology also refers to the multiple roles that ionized calcium plays in apoptosis. Here cellular ionized calcium is suggested to be in the final pathway of cell death. It appears that ionized calcium rushes into the cell in service to destroy it, making sure that the cell dies.

Now here is where it gets interesting. In the calcium cascade in the death of the cell, it is shown that reactive oxygen species are sent in to be the final sword of death. We need the oxygen carrying vitamins from whole foods, not antioxidants to support this mechanism. From the 2004 Journal of Nutrition article titled “Antioxidants Suppress Apoptosis” is written “in most forms of cell suicide, the signaling cascade utilizes reactive oxygen species as essential messenger molecules. This is the reason antioxidants are capable of inhibiting apoptosis. Antioxidants such as alpha-tocopherol can delay or inhibit apoptosis.”

More and more research articles are pointing to the ineffectiveness of using synthetic antioxidants. Doctors often request that their patients be off any synthetic supplements while in chemotherapy and it appears rightfully so, as the synthetic antioxidants can inhibit the very apoptosis that the drug is looking to inspire.

Past articles have spoken as to helpful ways to get ionized calcium into the body. It begins with a properly working digestive system as well as easily absorbable calcium from your supplements and foods. To feed your body with pro-oxidants, rely on getting your nourishment from whole foods and concentrated whole food supplementation versus the synthetic, man-made versions. We just can’t fool Mother Nature.

Lynn Mayer is a Certified Nutrition Consultant and Health Coach here in Telluride, Colorado. Lynn is available for consultation in person, by phone 970 369-4790 or through her website www.thejoyofhealth.com.

Source Link: http://www.telluridenews.com/lifestyle/x325164398

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under-exposure to uv rays is as dangerous as over-exposure...This is "D" life! (eileen)