Psychological Wounds of Conflict: The Impact of War to children, young adults and soldiers
Psychological Wounds of Conflict: The Impact of War to children, young adults and soldiers
Psychological Wounds of Conflict: The Impact of War
The emergence of the concept of shell shock during the First World War had focused unparalleled attention to the issue of traumatic illness.
Today, the recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has established in the minds of the public, media and the health professionals that war can produce long-term and severe psychological effects. However, it was not always so.
Vulnerability to Stress
In the late nineteenth century, passengers who had been exposed to a terrifying train crash were often diagnosed with “railway spine” to explain why their psycho-somatic symptoms endured after physical wounds had healed. Medical opinion was divided as to whether these were organic effects, related to lesions in the central nervous system, or whether they were due to an inborn or acquired vulnerability to stress.
During World War One, soldiers exhibiting similar patterns of symptoms were given the label “shell shock.” The cause of their invalidity and, therefore, the appropriate form of management was the subject of considerable debate. Some hardline medical doctors, such as Gordon Holmes, believed that servicemen who broke down on the battlefield and failed to return to duty after a short period of recuperation showed a lack of resolve, which should be addressed by military discipline rather than continued hospitalization. By contrast, Charles Myers, consulting psychologist to British forces in France, argued that each soldier patient should be assessed on his merits.
Having observed the capacity of artillery bombardment to erode the morale and determination of the toughest combatant, Myers considered shell shock a legitimate illness, requiring expert treatment no less than any wound or disease. By exposing the citizen armies of Europe to prolonged and extreme danger, World War One generated psychological casualties on an industrial scale. This, in turn, created a military crisis that drew doctors from a diverse range of specialties into the field of mental health; never before had so much attention been focused on a single psychiatric disorder.
Shell Shock
The term “shell shock” emerged in the harsh winter of 1914-15 as soldiers sought to describe how they felt when under fire. During training, they had been instructed to conceal their fears because panic was known to spread rapidly through battalions. Yet, apart from trusting to luck, there was little that an infantryman could do to protect his life when being shelled. Without regulated tours of duty and no prospect of an early end to the conflict, many frontline soldiers were worn down by the emotional demands of trench warfare.
In the aftermath of the Battle of the Somme, shell shock became a military priority as a flood of psychiatric casualties eroded the strength of front-line units. Specialist centers were set up within the sound of the guns to provide rapid treatment and to discourage soldiers from believing that they had escaped military duty. In addition, new regulations governed the use of diagnostic terms, seeking to stem the flow of casualties across the Channel.
In theory, hospitals in Britain were reserved for severe or intractable cases of shell shock. There, teams of doctors researched causation and experimented with treatment. From this concentrated effort emerged various schools of trauma therapy: At the Maudsley Hospital under the direction of Frederick Mott, “an atmosphere of cure” was emphasized through purposeful activity (graduated exercise, carpentry, gardening, games and social events), whilst at the Red Cross Hospital in Maghull clinicians used ideas borrowed from anthropology and psycho-analysis. At Seale Hayne in Devon, where Arthur Hurst had access to farmland and a pottery, occupational therapy was emphasized as a way of restoring soldiers’ self-confidence and physical function.
By the early 1950s it was recognized that all soldiers have a breaking point, however well trained and motivated. As well as the link between physical and psychological casualties, it was also established that factors such as morale, leadership, regular sleep and confidence in equipment could mediate the size of the association but not the association itself.
At least 250,000 UK servicemen suffered from some form of psycho-somatic illness related to the conflict. Many failed to recover once peace had been restored. At first, the government funded treatment for veterans. “Special medical clinics” were opened by the Ministry of Pensions in provincial towns to provide a nationwide service of out-patient psychotherapy. With shortages of doctors qualified in trauma therapy, a training school was set up under Lt Colonel R.G. Rows, medical superintendent of Maghull.
By October 1920, 29 clinics were in operation and in February of the following year, it was estimated that 14,771 ex-servicemen with shell shock were either attending boards for assessment or clinics for treatment. However, a dramatic downturn in the economy and a government committed to public sector cuts saw the clinics close. By the mid-1920s trauma psychiatry had fallen down the health agenda and it took another world war to bring the sub-specialty to prominence.
World War Two
During World War Two breakdown on the battlefield again became a priority for the Allied democracies concerned that high casualties would undermine popular support for the conflict. Military psychiatry became an essential element of medical provision. With the direct involvement of the United States and its wealth of resources, attention was turned to evaluating the nature of breakdown and the effectiveness of treatments. Towards the end of the war, large-scale investigation was conducted into the psychological demands of combat (notably Samuel Stouffer’s two-volume study The American Soldier).
In addition, Gilbert W. Beebe, a sociologist, Michael E. DeBakey, a surgeon, and Albert Glass a military psychiatrist researched the relationship between physical and psychiatric casualties. Their findings provided objective evidence on which to build policy for subsequent conflicts.
By the early 1950s it was recognized that all soldiers have a breaking point, however well trained and motivated. As well as the link between physical and psychological casualties, it was also established that factors such as morale, leadership, regular sleep and confidence in equipment could mediate the size of the association but not the association itself. Yet, it was still believed that combat was secondary to personality in terms of causation. War, it was argued, served as a trigger to underlying vulnerability. Robust individuals with no family history of mental illness were expected to recover from the trauma of battle relatively quickly with no lasting ill effects.
Vietnam
The political crisis created by the Vietnam War, combined with significant cultural change, inspired a new interpretation of trauma psychiatry. Anti-war campaigners argued that veterans who had been able to contain their distressing experiences whilst on active service broke down on return to the US when confronted by an unsympathetic public. They called the phenomenon “delayed stress syndrome” or “post-Vietnam syndrome.”
A campaign by veterans and clinicians led to the formal recognition of PTSD by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980. It represented a turning point in aetiological theory. In both World Wars the individual had been held responsible for his breakdown: whether his genetics, family history, up-bringing or unconscious conflict. PTSD reversed this causal explanation. The traumatic exposure, criterion A in the DSM-III definition, was now primary and everyone, whether citizen or soldier, was potentially vulnerable to the new traumatic disorder if exposed to a life-threatening event. Personality factors were now considered secondary determining, amongst other things, the speed of recovery or severity of the disorder.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Shell shock and PTSD are not the same disorder by a different name. The former was a catch-all term for any soldier who broke down and was unable to perform his duties. It was expressed through a range of psycho-somatic symptoms such as chest pain, fatigue, headache, tremor, palpitations and nightmares. PTSD has some features in common with shell shock (notably startle reaction, poor concentration and intrusive images). Both disorders arose in a context of heightened emotion conditioned by extreme threat. They can be seen as culturally determined expressions of distress.
Although there is no direct chain of events from World War One through to the recognition of PTSD in 1980, the shell shock episode had focused unparalleled attention to the issue of traumatic illness. Never before had so many soldiers suffered from psychological disorder. Furthermore, their illness could not be explained by pre-war theories of degeneration, heredity or the side effects of infectious disease. Neurologists, general physicians and even surgeons, doctors who before 1914 would not have shown any interest in psychiatry, were drawn to shell shock.
By bringing new ideas to the discipline, it gave a fresh impetus to the search for psychological understanding and, in this sense, PTSD can be viewed as a progeny of World War One. Whilst today we are better equipped to diagnose and treat psychological trauma, we seem no further forward in preventing the conflicts that are the cause of these illnesses.
PTSD in Children and Teens
This fact sheet provides an overview of how trauma affects school-aged children and teens. You will also find information on treatments for PTSD in children. To learn about PTSD in very young children, please see our fact sheet Very Young Trauma Survivors: The Role of Attachment.
What events cause PTSD in children?
Children and teens could have PTSD if they have lived through an event that could have caused them or someone else to be killed or badly hurt. Such events include sexual or physical abuse or other violent crimes. Disasters such as floods, school shootings, car crashes, or fires might also cause PTSD. Other events that can cause PTSD are war, a friend’s suicide, or seeing violence in the area they live.
Child protection services in the U.S. get around three million reports each year. This involves 5.5 million children. Of the reported cases, there is proof of abuse in about 30%. From these cases, we have an idea how often different types of abuse occur:
- 65% neglect
- 18% physical abuse
- 10% sexual abuse
- 7% psychological (mental) abuse
Also, three to ten million children witness family violence each year. Around 40% to 60% of those cases involve child physical abuse. (Note: It is thought that two-thirds of child abuse cases are not reported.)
How many children get PTSD?
Studies show that about 15% to 43% of girls and 14% to 43% of boys go through at least one trauma. Of those children and teens who have had a trauma, 3% to 15% of girls and 1% to 6% of boys develop PTSD. Rates of PTSD are higher for certain types of trauma survivors.
What are the risk factors for PTSD?
Three factors have been shown to raise the chances that children will get PTSD. These factors are:
- How severe the trauma is
- How the parents react to the trauma
- How close or far away the child is from the trauma
Children and teens that go through the most severe traumas tend to have the highest levels of PTSD symptoms. The PTSD symptoms may be less severe if the child has more family support and if the parents are less upset by the trauma. Lastly, children and teens who are farther away from the event report less distress.
Other factors can also affect PTSD. Events that involve people hurting other people, such as rape and assault, are more likely to result in PTSD than other types of traumas. Also, the more traumas a child goes through, the higher the risk of getting PTSD. Girls are more likely than boys to get PTSD.
It is not clear whether a child’s ethnic group may affect PTSD. Some research shows that minorities have higher levels of PTSD symptoms. Other research suggests this may be because minorities may go through more traumas.
Another question is whether a child’s age at the time of the trauma has an effect on PTSD. Researchers think it may not be that the effects of trauma differ according to the child’s age. Rather, it may be that PTSD looks different in children of different ages.
What does PTSD look like in children?
School-aged children (ages 5-12)
These children may not have flashbacks or problems remembering parts of the trauma, the way adults with PTSD often do. Children, though, might put the events of the trauma in the wrong order. They might also think there were signs that the trauma was going to happen. As a result, they think that they will see these signs again before another trauma happens. They think that if they pay attention, they can avoid future traumas.
Children of this age might also show signs of PTSD in their play. They might keep repeating a part of the trauma. These games do not make their worry and distress go away. For example, a child might always want to play shooting games after he sees a school shooting. Children may also fit parts of the trauma into their daily lives. For example, a child might carry a gun to school after seeing a school shooting.
Teens (ages 12-18)
Teens are in between children and adults. Some PTSD symptoms in teens begin to look like those of adults. One difference is that teens are more likely than younger children or adults to show impulsive and aggressive behaviors.
What are the other effects of trauma on children?
Besides PTSD, children and teens that have gone through trauma often have other types of problems. Much of what we know about the effects of trauma on children comes from the research on child sexual abuse. This research shows that sexually abused children often have problems with
- Fear, worry, sadness, anger, feeling alone and apart from others, feeling as if people are looking down on them, low self-worth, and not being able to trust others
- Behaviors such as aggression, out-of-place sexual behavior, self-harm, and abuse of drugs or alcohol
How is PTSD treated in children and teens?
For many children, PTSD symptoms go away on their own after a few months. Yet some children show symptoms for years if they do not get treatment. There are many treatment options, described below:
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is the most effective approach for treating children. One type of CBT is called Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT). In TF-CBT, the child may talk about his or her memory of the trauma. TF-CBT also includes techniques to help lower worry and stress. The child may learn how to assert himself or herself. The therapy may involve learning to change thoughts or beliefs about the trauma that are not correct or true. For example, after a trauma, a child may start thinking, “the world is totally unsafe.”
Some may question whether children should be asked to think about and remember events that scared them. However, this type of treatment approach is useful when children are distressed by memories of the trauma. The child can be taught at his or her own pace to relax while they are thinking about the trauma. That way, they learn that they do not have to be afraid of their memories. Research shows that TF-CBT is safe and effective for children with PTSD.
CBT often uses training for parents and caregivers as well. It is important for caregivers to understand the effects of PTSD. Parents need to learn coping skills that will help them help their children.
Psychological first aid/crisis management
Psychological First Aid (PFA) has been used with school-aged children and teens that have been through violence where they live. PFA can be used in schools and traditional settings. It involves providing comfort and support, and letting children know their reactions are normal. PFA teaches calming and problem solving skills. PFA also helps caregivers deal with changes in the child’s feelings and behavior. Children with more severe symptoms may be referred for added treatment.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR combines cognitive therapy with directed eye movements. EMDR is effective in treating both children and adults with PTSD, yet studies indicate that the eye movements are not needed to make it work.
Play therapy
Play therapy can be used to treat young children with PTSD who are not able to deal with the trauma more directly. The therapist uses games, drawings, and other methods to help children process their traumatic memories.
Other treatments
Special treatments may be needed for children who show out-of-place sexual behaviors, extreme behavior problems, or problems with drugs or alcohol.
What can you do to help?
Reading this fact sheet is a first step toward helping your child. Learn about PTSD and pay attention to how your child is doing. Watch for signs such as sleep problems, anger, and avoidance of certain people or places. Also watch for changes in school performance and problems with friends.
You may need to get professional help for your child. Find a mental health provider who has treated PTSD in children. Ask how the therapist treats PTSD, and choose someone who makes you and your child feel at ease. You, as a parent, might also get help from talking to a therapist on your own. Please see our Where to Get Helppage for treatment resources.
Sources
This fact sheet is based on a more detailed version, located in the “Professional” section of our website: PTSD in Children and Adolescents.
Email tax giveaway chief, Senator Orrin Hatch
The GOP is planning to reform our tax system — by handing out massive tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires, and wealthy corporations, while making deep cuts to critical public services we depend on.
The chief architect of this tax giveaway is Senator Orrin Hatch, chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. He’s requesting input “from experts and stakeholders” on how best to reform the tax system — by the end of the day this coming Monday, July 17.
CLICK TO SEND AN EMAIL
Hatch is expecting to hear from corporate lobbyists, but we’re stakeholders, too. This is about our communities and our future. So Hatch should hear from you, too, Connie b.
Hatch has set up an email address to receive comments by Monday, July 17. So we’re joining with allies to flood that inbox.
It’s critical that we push back against the disastrous tax plan that Donald Trump and his allies in Congress will try to ram through.
Half of the Trump tax cuts will go to the richest 1%, while big corporations holding profits offshore get a huge tax cut. They’ll pay for this by cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, and other critical services.
ADD YOUR NAME
Keep fighting,
Mara Schechter, Daily Kos
Stretching for seniors
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- Joints are the junctions that link bones together. The architecture of each joint — that is, whether its structure is a hinge, pivot, or ball-in-socket — determines how the bones can move.
- Tendons are flexible cords of strong tissue that connect muscles to bones.
- Ligaments are tough, fibrous bands of tissue that bind bone to bone, or bone to cartilage, at a joint. An example is the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), one of five ligaments that together control the movements of the knee. Among other things, the ACL keeps the knee joint from rotating too far.
When you stretch, you’re working muscles and tendons rather than ligaments. Ligaments are not supposed to be elastic. An overly stretchy ligament wouldn’t provide the stability and support needed for a safe range of movement.
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Mgmt in Adults/Adolescents: 2015 CDC STD Guidelines | Epocrates Guideline Synopsis
| Guideline |
| Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Mgmt in Adults/Adolescents: 2015 CDC STD Guidelines | Epocrates Guideline Synopsis |
Key Points
Wide variation in s/sx makes PID difficult to diagnose; many episodes go unrecognized; can damage reproductive health. Maintain low threshold for dx; multiple etiologies possible, incl GC/CT; also test for HIV; abx tx is empiric, broad spectrum.
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Social interaction affects cancer patients’ response to treatment
Social interaction affects cancer patients’ response to treatment
Biological basis is unknown but may be related to stress response, NIH researchers say.
This image depicts a chemotherapy ward co-presence network. Circles are patients with color based on when they began chemotherapy (white corresponds to January, 2000, and red corresponds to December, 2008). Patients are connected when they were both in the chemotherapy ward at the same time more than expected by chance. Jeff Leinert, NHGRIHow well cancer patients fared after chemotherapy was affected by their social interaction with other patients during treatment, according to a new study by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Cancer patients were a little more likely to survive for five years or more after chemotherapy if they interacted during chemotherapy with other patients who also survived for five years or more. Patients were a little more likely to die in less than five years after chemotherapy when they interacted during chemotherapy with those who died in less than five years. The findings were published online July 12, 2017, in the journal Network Science.
“People model behavior based on what’s around them,” Jeff Lienert, lead author in NHGRI’s Social and Behavioral Research Branch and a National Institutes of Health Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program fellow. “For example, you will often eat more when you’re dining with friends, even if you can’t see what they’re eating. When you’re bicycling, you will often perform better when you’re cycling with others, regardless of their performance.”
Lienert set out to see if the impact of social interaction extended to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Joining this research effort were Lienert’s adviser, Felix Reed-Tsochas, Ph.D., at Oxford’s CABDyN Complexity Centre at the Saïd Business School, Laura Koehly, Ph.D., chief of NHGRI’s Social and Behavioral Research Branch, and Christopher Marcum, Ph.D., a staff scientist also in the Social and Behavioral Research Branch at NHGRI.
They based their findings on electronic medical records data from 2000 to 20009 from two major hospitals in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. The researchers examined the total time a patient spent with the same patients undergoing chemotherapy and their five-year survival rate. The five-year survival rate is the percentage of people who live at least five years after chemotherapy treatment is completed. For example, a five-year survival rate of 70 percent means that an estimated 70 out of 100 people are still alive five years after chemotherapy. They also reviewed a room schematic to confirm the assumption that patients were potentially positioned to interact.
“We had information on when patients checked in and out of the chemotherapy ward, a small intimate space where people could see and interact for a long period of time,” Lienert said. “We used ‘time spent getting chemotherapy in a room with others as a proxy for social connection.”
When patients were around those during chemotherapy who died in less than five years following chemotherapy, they had a 72 percent chance of dying within five years following their chemotherapy. The best outcome was when patients interacted with someone who survived for five years or longer: they had a 68 percent chance of dying within five years. The researchers’ model also predicted that if patients were isolated from other patients, they would have a 69.5 percent chance of dying within five years.
“A two percent difference in survival – between being isolated during treatment and being with other patients – might not sound like a lot, but it’s pretty substantial,” Lienert said. “If you saw 5,000 patients in nine years, that 2 percent improvement would affect 100 people.”
“Mr. Lienert’s research is the first to investigate, on a large scale, how social context in a treatment setting can play a significant role in disease outcomes,” said Koehly. “As cancer care moves more towards targeted therapies based on genomic tumor assessments, NHGRI is interested in understanding how these social environmental factors might impact treatment efficacy.”
The researchers didn’t study why the difference occurred, but hypothesize that it may be related to stress response. “When you’re stressed, stress hormones such as adrenaline are released, resulting in a fight or flight response,” Lienert said. “If you are then unable to fight or fly, such as in chemotherapy, these hormones can build up.”
While the researchers also didn’t investigate the impact of visitors on cancer patients undergoing therapy, the effect would likely be similar, he said.
“Positive social support during the exact moments of greatest stress is crucial,” Lienert said. “If you have a friend with cancer, keeping him or her company during chemotherapy probably will help reduce their stress. The impact is likely to be as effective, and possibly more effective, than cancer patients interacting with other cancer patients.”
Read the article here: Social influence on 5-year survival in a longitudinal chemotherapy ward co-presence network(link is external)
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is one of the 27 institutes and centers at the NIH, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The NHGRI Division of Intramural Research develops and implements technology to understand, diagnose and treat genomic and genetic diseases. Additional information about NHGRI can be found at: www.genome.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
Modern Health Care News
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TODAY’S TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS
A proposed $900 million cut in spending on the 340B drug discount program could lead to a rollback in services at hospitals or even closures if finalized, according to industry insiders. The CMS however has insisted that the reduction in 340B spending isn’t a cut but a redistribution of funds. READ MORE
Regulators should close regulatory loopholes that allow certain branded-drug developers to “game the system” and thwart competition, policymakers and healthcare experts said at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s meeting Tuesday. READ MORE
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Athenahealth CFO Stubelis heads to Arcadia Health Solutions Karl Stubelis is leaving Athenahealth Friday after a little over a year as the EHR vendor’s CFO. He will be Arcadia Health Solutions’ new CFO and lead capital strategy for the company. READ MORE
Edward Marx, a former University Hospitals CIO who most recently served as executive vice president at the Advisory Board Co., will start in his new role Sept. 1. READ MORE
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PHARMACEUTICALS
Missouri becomes last state to create drug-monitoring plan Missouri became the final state to create a prescription drug-monitoring program Monday when Republican Gov. Eric Greitens signed an executive order aimed at combating a scourge that killed more than 900 residents last year. The announcement surprised lawmakers. READ MORE
Takeda shrinks its HQ workforce in suburban Chicago as it adds in Boston Takeda Pharmaceuticals is finishing a major reorganization that has forced hundreds of Chicago-area executives to relocate to the Boston area and slashed hundreds more field sales jobs across the country. READ MORE
CLINICAL PRACTICE
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The so called President money laundering thru real estate
- Valerie Plame won the internet yesterday
- Fox News host: Trump family ‘has done more for this country than any Democratic elected official’
- Sen. Al Franken broke down in tears describing the impact of government policies in his own family
- It’s July 19 and Daily Kos is still $128,499.82 away from our July goal. Can you chip in $1 to support the team that brings progressive news to your inbox every day?
- Trump appears to be serious in his efforts to defeat insufficiently loyal Republican senator
- Fox legal analyst: Start felony investigation into Trump collusion
- Lawsuit forces Trump administration to hand over previously secret Mar-a-Lago guest list
- Trump says new Pennsylvania coal mine created 45,000 jobs. The actual number is 70.
- Eighth man in Trump Tower conspiracy reinforces purpose: money laundering through real estate
- Republican congressman asks NASA whether we have found civilizations on Mars—for real
- Sign if you agree: We will never end mass incarceration if citizens convicted of a felong are stripped of their right to vote.
- CNN’s Jeffrey Lord compares Dreamers to Russian operatives from Trump Tower meeting
- Donald Trump’s dinner with Vladimir Putin is a middle finger to America
- Mitch McConnell’s broken Senate
- Trump held second, secret meeting with Putin with no other Americans present
- ‘Doctor Who’ reverses the polarity of the show’s gender dynamics
- Wounded vets, Olympic hopefuls will be blocked from Potomac river training each time Trump golfs
Speech patterns, hearing loss may increase dementia risk
Sugar addiction of cancer cells
Source: Sugar addiction of cancer cells
Sugar overload to cancer
Source: Sugar overload to cancer
Sugar overload to cancer
Sugar Addiction, Cancer and Ill Health – PART III
he effects of sugar on the immune system –
The dreaded “C” word
Yes, the “C” word is cancer. A total of 1,660,290 new cancer cases and 580,350 cancer deaths
are projected to occur in the United States in 2013. Do you know that sugar can cause cancer? I told you in Part II that I would show you how this. Here’s how.
Cancer cells in the body
There are naturally many cancer cells in the body. Some are not harmful. The immune system systematically maintains a balance of health by killing them. There is a constant process of this seeking out, marking them for destruction, then the body sends the troops in to wipe them out. You never know they are there, but they are in everyone, even in infants. But the immune system can be compromised. When this happens, the cell growth is exponential and uncontrollable. That is when the cancer becomes dangerous.
Sugar can be the kiss of death.
When I say sugar is the problem, I mean too much sugar in any form, for sugar comes in many forms. Sugars include: fructose in fruits and some vegetables, refined white sugar, refined white flour products like pizza and pasta that turn rapidly into sugar in the body, the Frankenfood High Fructose Corn Syrup.. Combine sugar with other foods, distill sugar, and it is still sugar.
When you eat, the liver and pancreas and their troops convert food to glucose, the form of sugar which the body recognizes as energy producing nutrients to live. This works only in healthy qualities and quantities that allow the liver and pancreas to do their work of converting the food to glucose. Americans overload these incredible organs with too much sugar for them to function, and there is where poor health wins. Sugar simply overwhelms the organs and makes them inefficient or breaks the healthy functions completely resulting in obesity, diabetes, pain and early death from an assortment of disease. It is so easy, unfortunately.
Cancer cells = lactic acid = more sugar = overwhelmed liver
All cancer cells are basically the same, whether bladder, prostate, breast or brain. They all secrete lactic acid.* When they secrete lactic acid, the body becomes more acidic. When it becomes more acidic, the liver acts quickly to convert this lactic acid to glucose, which is sugar. It is back into sugar form.
Cancer cells are ravenous for sugar, they take 8 times more glucose than other cells. Then they secretes an acid which covers them with a kind of slime which has a cloaking effect, hiding it from cells designed to kill it. The more advanced, the more the liver works full time just to handle and give energy to the cancer itself, abandoning its necessary functions.
The liver regulates most chemical levels in the blood and excretes a product called bile, which helps carry away waste products from the liver. All the blood leaving the stomach and intestines passes through the liver. The liver processes this blood and breaks down the nutrients into forms that are easier to use for the rest of the body. So abandoning this vital action and hundreds of other functions it daily performs, the body is harmed by not having the liver doing its full job. This compromises the immune system.
How did you get your “sweet” tooth?
Every human has a natural sweet tooth. Mother’s milk is sweet, far sweeter than cow milk. It is innate to have this sweet tooth for it signals survival to us on a very fundamental, subconscious level.
Sugar, or in particular glucose, is absolutely needed as the basic food for the body. Foods are made into glucose which then is fed to the cells to energize the body’s many functions.
Human DNA was not designed to deal with the amount of carbohydrates* we eat today. For millions of years he evolved being very active as hunter/gatherer. Then for ten thousand years he became a farmer of grains. He made it on this diet, but was still very active. Now he is not active, has a huge intake of carbs his DNA is not designed to handle, and recently the “low fat” scare drove him to an even higher carbohydrate diet. Now America is the most obese country in the world.
The vital role of Insulin*
I talked about this in Part II. You eat sugar. The brain tells the pancreas and liver to go into action. The pancreas then begins to excrete insulin to reduce the sugar and transport the glucose to the cells. Of course you simply gorge yourself on sugars, and insulin begins flowing like Niagara, at least for a while until your sugar utilization mechanisms breaks down creating diabetes. Americans consume a ridiculous amount of sugar every year.
Glucose and Insulin are enormously inflammatory
Both glucose and insulin are highly inflammatory. Inflammation causes damage all over the body, and is the cause of pain. Cancer cells have way more “receptor sites”* than normal cells, and use four times more glucose. This creates a sugar/carbohydrate hunger. On top of this, according to a new study, the pancreas releases a protein called S-catenin, which causes cells to replicate, giving them literal immortality. These cells then, sucking in enormous amounts of glucose, can grow without fear of death like normal cells and can grow totally out of control.
Here comes Cholesterol* to the rescue
Cholesterol gets a bad rap. It is a commonly held belief that it is the “cause” of arteriosclerosis.* Not! Cholesterol circulates in the lymphatic* system as part of the immune system*. It is the first step in making all hormones—testosterone, estrogen, in the endocrine system. Like a fat kid pulling one end of a see-saw down, things get unbalanced – the fat kid being sugar, in this case. The more sugar, the more insulin. This causes the problem.
Cholesterol and Insulin, so what?
Here comes the kicker in this whole obesity gig. The arch villain is not really revealed. When the huge flood tide of glucose hits the liver and pancreas, they frantically work at handling the load. Get the idea of 100 phones ringing at the same time and you are the telephone operator. You can’t take them one at a time or it will all shut down so you try to answer them all at once, which is literally impossible. Insulin enters the blood stream, causes tearing and lesions in the arterial walls. Cholesterol races to the rescue to plug the holes and fix the problem, and begin to fill up the arteries in an attempt to repair.
One reputed cardiologist/vascular surgeon said that every artery he explores looks like they have been scratched by a wire brush. They are inflamed and torn. He says that without sugar this would never happen. He says that these conditions have increased exponentially over the last 30 years directly in proportion to the increase in consumption of sugar, sugar products, high fructose corn syrup and processed foods.
Conclusion
Regardless of what else you do, unless you learn the secret of eating the right foods, sugar can effect your health adversely. I will tell you in the Part IV what different foods do to you, and the show how many are really sugar in disguise, and you will be introduced to the sugar Frankenchild, High Fructose Corn Syrup. Then in Part V, I will show you how to win. We hope that knowing the truth about how to beat sugar addiction will help you understand and change your habits.
GLOSSARY
Arteriosclerosis: Degenerative changes in the arteries, characterized by thickening of the vessel walls and accumulation of calcium with consequent loss of elasticity and lessened blood flow.
Cancer: A disease caused by an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body. The cells go out of control and metastasize, invading nearby areas and spreading through the body.
Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are found in a wide array of both healthy and unhealthy foods—bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, soft drinks, corn, and cherry pie. They also come in a variety of forms. The most common and abundant forms are sugars, fibers, and starches.
Cholesterol: Cholesterol plays a part in the production of hormones such as testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, aldosterone and cortisone. Cholesterol, a waxy substance produced by the liver and found in certain foods, is needed to make vitamin D and some hormones, build cell walls, and create bile salts that help you digest fat. Many foods contain it, but actually, your liver produces about 1,000 milligrams of cholesterol a day, enough cholesterol so that if you never touched another cheese fry, you’d be OK.
Immune System: The immune system is the body’s defense against infectious organisms and other invaders. Through a series of steps called the immune response, the immune system attacks organisms and substances that invade body systems and cause disease. The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect the body. The cells involved are white blood cells.
Lactic Acid: Known as “milk acid”. It is mainly produced in muscle cells and red blood cells. It forms when the body breaks down carbohydrates to use for energy during heavy exercise.
Lymphatic System: The lymph system is the body’s drainage system. It is composed of a network of vessels and small structures called lymph nodes. The lymph vessels convey excess fluid collected from all over the body back into the blood circulation. Along the way, however, these fluids are forced to percolate through the lymph nodes so that they can be filtered. Harmful organisms are trapped and destroyed by the specialized white blood cells, called lymphocytes, that are present in these nodes. Lymphocytes are also added to the lymph that flows out of nodes and back to the bloodstream. The lymph system is a network of organs, lymph nodes, lymph ducts, and lymph vessels that make and move lymph from tissues to the bloodstream. The lymph system is a major part of the body’s immune system.
Lymph nodes: Lymph nodes are soft, small, round- or bean-shaped structures. They usually cannot be seen or easily felt. They are located in clusters in various parts of the body, such as the neck, armpit, groin, and inside the center of the chest and abdomen. Lymph nodes make immune cells that help the body fight infection. They also filter the lymph fluid and remove foreign material such as bacteria and cancer cells. When bacteria are recognized in the lymph fluid, the lymph nodes make more infection-fighting white blood cells, which causes the nodes to swell. The swollen nodes are sometimes felt in the neck, under the arms, and groin and inside the center of the chest and abdomen. Lymph nodes make immune cells that help the body fight infection. They also filter the lymph fluid and remove foreign material such as bacteria and cancer cells. When bacteria are recognized in the lymph fluid, the lymph nodes make more infection-fighting white blood cells, which causes the nodes to swell. The swollen nodes are sometimes felt in
Receptor Sites: a location on a cell surface where certain molecules, such as enzymes, neurotransmitters, or viruses, attach to interact with cellular components. Locations on a cell that receive nutrients.
Saturated fat: In the past few decades, saturated fat has been blamed for having a causative role in heart disease. However, research has not shown this to be the case. Saturated fats are found in animal products, including meat and whole milk dairy products, as well as certain plant oils like palm, palm kernel and coconut oils. Trans fats are found in the artificially created “hydrogenated” oils used in fast foods and found in solid oils, like vegetable shortening and stick margarine.
Triglycerides: Triglycerides are the form in which the body stores fat (our body fat is mainly made up of triglycerides.) When we talk about someone’s triglyceride level, however, we usually mean the amount of triglycerides that show up in the blood when it is tested. A high triglyceride level is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
Sources:
Blood Sugar Solution, Dr. Mark Hyman, MD.
Deep Nutrition, Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food, Catherine Shanahan, MD, Luke Shanahan
Dr. Marlene Merritt. Merritt Wellness Center, Austin Tx. Sugar: The link to heart attack, cancer and other preventable diseases. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCkQdPZjF-
Dr. John Axe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA-4CilNCcc
Dr. Michael Farley, Pathology Consultant, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHQ-ZdHBvRo
Dr. Jeff Donatello, Why sugar loves cancer
Sugar addiction of cancer cells
RESEARCHERS DISCOVER SUGAR-ADDICTION OF CANCER CELLS IN CHILDHOOD LEUKEMIA
July 10, 2017 | by Katie Neith
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) represents the most frequent type of cancer in children and young adults. Despite a good general prognosis and increased survival rates over the past decades, outcomes have not improved for the approximately 25 percent of patients who relapse after initially successful treatment. More than 60 percent of patients who experience ALL bone marrow relapse will die from their disease.
Now, a team led by City of Hope’s Markus Müschen, M.D., Ph.D., founding chair of the Department of Systems Biology and the Norman and Sadie Lee Foundation Endowed Professor in Pediatrics, thinks that sugar uptake and energy supply may play a key role in the relapse of ALL.
A paper published in a recent issue of the journal Nature outlines their findings, which point to increased glucose as the driver of the energy needed for specific cells to transform into malignant cancer cells. ALL typically arises from B cells, which are known for producing antibodies in the human immune system. B cells can also transform into childhood leukemia when something goes wrong in their development.
By taking a closer look at how B cells are regulated, Müschen and colleagues found that factors that determine B cell identity can also restrict glucose — or sugar — and energy supply. Hence, B cells have much lower energy levels than any other cell type.
“While transformation to cancer and childhood leukemia takes large amounts of energy, we discovered that low energy levels in B cells protects from malignant transformation toward leukemia and cancer,” said Müschen, who recently joined Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope.
“The low energy levels in normal B cells are simply too low to allow transformation to cancer and leukemia,” said Lai Chan, Ph.D., the study’s first author and assistant professor in the Department of Systems Biology.
The team also found that deletion of genes that encode B cell-determining factors occur in almost all cases of childhood leukemia. Conversely, they saw that the addition of large amounts of sugar can make B cells susceptible to malignant transformation by giving them the energy needed for tumor formation.
Müschen says these results back up a previous finding that obese children with high blood sugar levels are much more likely to develop drug-resistant leukemia and experience relapse than children who are not overweight. The findings also indicate that dieting could be an important consideration for children who have survived leukemia.
Avoiding obesity and excessive energy supply, or sugar, may help to decrease the risk of leukemia relapse,” he said.
To test that theory, Müschen plans to perform experiments in animal models to evaluate the efficacy of dietary restriction on patient-derived childhood leukemia cells.
He also plans to assess the activity of drugs that reduce the ability of leukemia cells to take up glucose and energy supply.
Since future relapse patients are indistinguishable from patients who will respond well to standard chemotherapy, many of the approximately 110,000 childhood ALL survivors in the U.S. would benefit from milder forms of chemotherapy, yet are treated with an aggressive regimen and will suffer late effects from unnecessary toxicity, said Müschen.
“We found that these drugs strongly work together with existing anti-leukemia drugs, and preclinical safety studies suggest that these drugs can be given to patients without any additional toxicity or adverse side effects,” he said.