This Common Food Makes Cancer Light Up On An MRI
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just scan the body every now and then to find cancers before they spread all over? In many ways this is one of the most important issues in cancer therapy today. AND the time for this technology might be here, surprisingly with an MRI.
Current technology allows us to use radioactive glucose to find where potential cancer is using PET technology. The problem is that using radioactive material limits how much you can use the technology.
As you may know, cancers need glucose to survive. Unlike healthy cells, they can’t metabolize fat.Cancer must rely completely on glucose for the energy they need to survive. **Although this is not true for every single kind of cancer, it’s the case in the majority of cancers. Scientists figured out that if you give a person with cancer radioactive glucose, the cancer will take up large amounts of the glucose – amounts that are much greater than normal tissues would take up.
Then you could use the equivalence of a Geiger counter to see if there was any place in the body that had excessive levels of the radioactive glucose uptake. If you do find an area with excessive uptake, that area is probably a cancer. Hospitals around the world do this every day.
Radioactivity limits the use of these PET scans.
First, you would not want to expose someone to that much radiation just to look for the possible presence of a cancer. It’s just not worth it.
Second, you can’t see cancers less than one centimeter (about 3/8 inch) on PET scans.
A new discovery by a team of scientists at the Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging in London may have solved these problems.
These researchers have found a way to detect the uptake of glucose in the same way that PET scans do, but with two important differences. One, they can use regular, NON-radioactive glucose. Two, they can find smaller cancers. So imagine the implications. You could go into a hospital every now and then and have your whole body scanned for cancer with absolutely no dangers or side effects. If they found a cancer, it could be treated long before it was “too late.”
The scientists found a way to sensitize an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner so that it can detect glucose uptake. As you probably already know, unlike CT scans and X-rays, MRIs do not use radiation. Cancers that are too small to be detected on a PET scan can now be found. The new technique is called “glucose chemical exchange saturation transfer” or GlucoCEST for short. Lead researcher Dr. Simon Walker Samuel explained how it works, “GlucoCEST uses radio waves to magnetically label glucose in the body. This can then be detected in tumors using conventional MRI techniques.”
Here’s how it works.
“The method uses an injection of normal sugar,” says Dr. Samuel, “and could offer a cheap and safe alternative to existing methods for detecting tumors, which require the injection of radioactive material.”
Professor Mark Lythgoe, a senior author on the study, said: “We can detect cancer using the same sugar content found in half a standard-sized chocolate bar! Our research reveals a useful and cost-effective method for imaging cancers using MRI, a standard imaging technology available in many large hospitals.” He continued: “In the future, patients could potentially be scanned in local hospitals, rather than being referred to specialist medical centers.”
There is one problem with the procedure.
The studies so far have done this only on mice. It won’t be until studies are done on humans that GlucoCEST becomes available commercially. This will probably take three to five years. So until then, my advice is what it has always been — the best treatment for cancer is not to get it in the first place. You can do that by all the good lifestyle stuff you hear me preach about: get enough sleep, don’t stress, forgive and forget, eat healthy, stay at a high level of fitness, and most importantly… Get regular chiropractic care. Your nervous system is the most important system in the body because all healing happens because the nerves carry the information. If you make sure your nerves are working at their full potential, your body will keep you healthy.
Yours for better health,
Dr. Jack Belitz, DC
PS mention this article and you can get a free computerized exam of your nervous system and make sure it’s doing all it can to keep you well. Call 402-333-4848 and make your appointment right now.
