Asbestos, Diet, and Mesothelioma - Could Eating Right Prevent One of the Deadliest Cancers?

Probably no cancer is more difficult to treat than asbestoses-induced mesothelioma, but not everyone who is exposed to asbestos develops cancer.

Could differences in diet explain why some people who have heavy exposure to asbestos do not develop mesothelioma, but other people who have minimal exposure to asbestos get the cancer? Could identifying the foods and nutrients that lower the risk of mesothelioma lead to a safe and effective treatment for the disease?

These are questions a group of investigators at the National Cancer Institute and Louisiana State University in the USA set out to answer nearly 20 years ago. Their answers have lain in the research literature for almost two decades, important but largely ignored.

In Louisiana, refinery workers, sugar plantation workers, pipefitters, boilermakers, and shipbuilders were for many years regularly exposed to asbestos. Since there was some evidence that fruit and vegetables might prevent lung cancer, the Diet and Mesothelioma task force located 58 people who had mesothelioma and 58 people who had similar asbestos exposure, income, and use of tobacco but who had escaped the disease. The researchers tried to find a connection between mesothelioma and eating three popular snacks, two kinds of sweets, three dairy products, seven kinds of fruit, seven sea foods, eleven kinds of meat, and sixteen kinds of vegetables.

Their findings?

• People exposed to asbestos who stayed cancer-free ate, on average, twice as many servings of home-grown or locally grown fruits and vegetables per week as those who developed mesothelioma.

• People who remained free of mesothelioma ate about twice as many servings of cruciferous vegetables (turnip greens, mustard greens, collards, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and broccoli) as those who did not, about three servings a week, compared to zero to two.

• People who developed mesothelioma ate more cake, candy, and pie than those who stayed cancer-free.

Like a later study in New York, the Louisiana researchers found that getting enough beta-carotene from orange vegetables (primarily carrots, acorn squash, and pumpkin) reduced risk of mesothelioma, but getting a whole lot of beta-carotene had no added benefit. About 4 servings a week, preferably with some kind of oil to enhance absorption of the beta-carotene, was optimal.

But the one dietary element that increased risk of cancer more than any other was sugar. Study participants who developed mesothelioma were eight times as likely to have eaten dessert every day as those who did not. Sugar seems somehow to accelerate the development of the cancer.

Those who stayed cancer-free also ate some desserts, occasionally, but an average of one serving once or twice a week.

This preliminary evidence tells us that the best bet for preventing mesothelioma by diet is to eat the right foods, and your favorite foods, in moderation. Eating regular servings of locally grown fruits and vegetables, at least a few of them yellow or orange, along with eating sugary desserts as occasional treat, may greatly enhance long-term health. And should you develop mesothelioma, there are a few kinds of supplements that may help.

Robert Rister is the author or co-author of nine books on natural health including the critically acclaimed Complete German Commission E Monographs and Healing without Medication. Visit his growing collection of evidence-based articles on natural self-healing at Savvy Natural Healer.

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