One Habit of Our Ancestors that Should Not be Perpetuated
Traditional diets are better in many ways, except for the propensity toward smoked and cured meats. In addition, excessive use of picked vegetables is not good. Certain areas of China that eat these types of foods have high rates of esophageal and stomach cancer. Refrigeration has significantly decreased the routine eating of these types of foods. In the United States, the increased use of refrigeration paralleled a decrease in stomach and esophageal cancer.

From The Detox Revolution - pg. 66

Gunjan Malik, PhD
Glucocorticoids (GC) are a class of steroid hormones that are used to treat several cancers and various other allergic, inflammatory, and autoimmune disorders. However, their use is often limited by the numerous side effects.

Separation of the anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids from some of their side effects could be achieved by dissociated glucocorticoids, which are defined as those compounds that promote Glucocorticoid receptor (GR)-mediated transrepression of AP-1 or NFκB-dependent genes without increasing GR-mediated transcription, likely due to a lack of GR dimerization necessary for binding to the glucocorticoid-response elements (GRE). These dissociated glucocorticoids may serve as a better treatment strategy by potentially eliminating some of the negative side effects associated with transactivation by typical glucocorticoids, such as hyperglycemia, osteoporosis, and HPA axis suppression.

Our laboratory is studying the effects of glucocorticoids and various natural phytochemicals such as resveratrol from grapes, ursolic acid from rosemary, grape seed extract, ellagic acid from raspberries, calcium D-glucarate from broccoli, as well as Compound A and its derivatives from an African shrub, on skin cancer. Our laboratory utilizes mouse skin models such as in vitro model systems of transformed keratinocytes as well as in vivo models of multi-stage skin carcinogenesis to study the effect of different drug combinations on skin cancer initiation, promotion and full tumor development.

In addition, we plan to determine the mechanism(s) of synergistic action of some of the natural source compounds, known to inhibit one or more stages of skin carcinogenesiscancer, i.e., initiation and promotion/progression. Topical treatment with combinations of selected natural source inhibitors results in synergistic effects leading to more efficient prevention of skin cancer.

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