When the incidence of many cancers in the United States is much higher compared with the cancer rates in other world populations, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, it's quite clear that we Americans must be doing something quite different. There are a great number of lifestyle differences, however, and many scientists suspect that one of the key differences is directly related to our diet. Specifically, a notable difference is in the reduced use of herbs and spices, and increased use of processed foods, compared to other cultures.

Why are herbs and spices important? Good nutrition is the foundation of good health. Herbs and spices are all part of the essential health-restoring process. Nature has provided us with many phytochemicals that help maintain a normal inflammation response, and reduce the free radical process.

Ten Ways to Naturally Support a Healthy Inflammation Response:

1. Replace at least some of the coffee normally consumed with herbal infusions or teas, including green tea, chamomile, nettle or holy basil. Spice your drinks with cloves, cinnamon, ginger, etc.
2. Add herbs to food: majoram, rosemary, sage, thyme. Add spices: turmeric, ginger, cloves.
3. Eat more vegetables, and especially the cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower.
4. Eat grapes and cherries, and drink their juices.
5. Drink red wine in moderation.
6. Eat more fish, seeds, and nuts.
7. Avoid fried food and heavily charred barbequed meat.
8. Reduce Omega 6 fatty acids, found in foods like red meat, pork, dairy and in vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, canola oil, and corn oil. Such oils are often found in processed snacks, baked products, and commercial salad dressings.
9. Avoid stress; manage the stress you do have (exercise, diet, getting adequate sleep).
10. Avoid smoking and second-hand smoke.

Chronic inflammation (created by overproduction of the COX 2 enzyme) is not a normal response, and can lead to many degenerative diseases, such as arthritis and other auto-immune disorders, and potentially even cancer. Recent studies have demonstrated that chronic inflammation may be responsible for as much as 40% of all cancers.

Amazingly, this fundamental cause of many of our most threatening diseases was only discovered in the last few years. Drug companies immediately begin the race to come up with pharmaceutical substances to inhibit the enzyme's devastating effects. In this quest, scientists tried to find plant compounds and herbs to synthetically copy or mimic, and they identified many traditional herbs that safely modulate the COX 2 process. Many of the herbs in this category are culinary herbs which have been used by many cultures around the world, who have unknowingly received many healing benefits from these botanicals for thousands of years.

Note: These herbs and spices are NOT drugs that specifically block activity of this enzyme. Instead their numerous constituents affect MANY of our biological pathways and are safer than COX 2 drugs because they do not cause an unnatural imbalance.

This research is still very preliminary but several emerging studies show a lot of promise. For instance, in 2006, a study at John Hopkins University School of Medicine found that natural compounds in onions and curry, (quercetin and curcumin), may significantly reduce the risk of colon cancer.

After long periods of chronic inflammation, tissue changes occur that are exacerbated by free radical damage.

References
Akira Murakami* and Hajime Ohigashi. Targeting NOX, INOS and COX-2 in inflammatory cells: Chemoprevention using food phytochemicals. Int. J. Cancer: 121, 2357-2363 (2007)

Coussens LM, Werb Z. Inflammation and cancer. Nature 2002; 420:860-7.

Curry, onions found to protect against colon cancer. Thursday, August 03,
http://www.naturalnews.com/019859.html

James B. LaValle, R.Ph.,

Young-Joon S. et al. Redox-Sensitive Transcription Factors as Prime Targets for
Chemoprevention with Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidative Phytochemicals1-3. J. Nutr. 135:2993S-3001S, December 2005. http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/12/2993S?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Phytochemical&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

Ringman JM et al. A potential role of the curry spice curcumin in Alzheimer's disease. Curr Alzheimer Res. 2005 Apr;2(2):131-6.

Cancer Risk and Diet in India

Sinha R, Anderson DE, McDonald SS, Greenwald P
Cancer Risk and Diet in India. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine.2003:49 (3)222-228