A Rare Genetic Mutation Leads to Cancer. The Fix May Already Be in the Drugstore.

@Muzaffar Syed The US congress is buy, for and of the Corporate/Medical/Military. People ....they are the fodder of the Corporate Machine. When the political elite say 'the political will isn't there' they really mean the big money they get is on the other side. Curing people of cancer with pure extract of vegetables....no money in that!

@Fourteen14 I like your posts, but the "big head" description in the story was what got my attention: My brother was born with such a big head that my uncle put his hat on him, and it fit! He also had horrible cystic acne until he was 30, and the supplement is taken now by a lot of people with cystic acne. And he has had prostate surgery for cancer. No, none of these things "run in the family." No one else has a big head, and our skin has always been clear. So yes, I think the descriptions likely are meaningful.

Terrible, misinformed advice. OTC genetic (ancestry) testing does not detect Pten mutations (search it). In vitro (“test tube”) enzyme data frequently does not translate into clinically effective nor toxicity-free therapy. Avoiding the “MD” is a sure way to miss treatable cancers in Pten mutation-associated diseases, with terminal consequences. It’s easy to bamboozle with a bunch of esoteric-sounding data.

@cheryl I am a genetic counselor. Many individuals with PTEN mutations (also known as Cowden syndrome) are born with a larger than average head circumference. It is one of the major clinical criteria of the syndrome.

@mlm Thanks for the answer.

@RLiss I'm assuming you've never been in the position of having a medical condition that's potentially fatal. Unfortunately, I have something similar to the people in this article (but cannot be solved by a supplement), and I think most people would gladly take a supplement if it offered any possibility to avoid further surgeries or cancer. People will take their chances with supplements and try to shop for good options when it's their life on the line.

. @RLiss, . Its not quite that bad. United States Pharmacopeia, aka USP, is available for brands to have be their quality checker. If the supplement passes USP's check, the brand gets to put "USP" on the container. Off the top o my head, I think ConsumerReports is remiss in the very slight coverage, if any, and i'v been a reader for decades.

@RLiss On the efficacy of supplements. Some may be effective, some not. I take glucosamine twice a day against arthritis in my knees and in one of my finger joints. When I stop using it, the pain returns in a few days. Glucosamine has been investigated as a drug against arthritis, but I read a few years ago that no studies have been reported that show a significant beneficial effect. It works however for me. As a single individual I am not statistically significant. Nobody will become rich from my glucosamine use: it is cheap. We live in a world where ethical standards diminish and manipulation increases. People easily bribe and are easily bribed. Corruption is pervasive. So as in so many issues, I have to judge for myself. If you take a supplement against a certain condition, test its beneficial effect upon the condition by regularly stopping to use it.

Such a good video to understand the concept. Very well done!

@Norman Easily one of the weirdest and coolest dance videos I've ever watched.

@Norman wow! What a combination of disciplines, with grace!

@Roberta: Google "dangers of supplements"....they aren't regulated except by their manufacturers (oh, and we should always trust the people making the money from something they sell!!! ). Many are made in third world factories and Consumer Reports did an article once, after examining a random sample, which found mice, rat and roach parts as well as "floor sweepings" in them.....the manufacturers can essentially make ANY claim they want about what the supplements will do for you. Consumer Reports also found the amount of the essential ingredient (such as "vitamin E or "Coenzyme Q" varied wildly per capsule, from way too much to none..... Based on that info, to take a supplement HOPING it will prevent cancer??? No, I don't think so.

@Roberta You don't have to worry about supplements. Just stick with the name brand manufacturers who have been around for a long time and have good reputations. They all have top-notch PhD staff with the best lab equipment and they quality test every batch of raw materials they receive. They test before, during, and after they encapsulate. 50% of Americans take supplements - and not a single person has ever died from taking a supplement - ever, looking back over 50 years, according to the poison control centers. Nevertheless, there are thousands of visits to the ER, most often from teenagers taking herbal energy and muscle supplements. On the other hand, there are 30 Times More ER visits due to pharmaceuticals. (Mostly adults) As for drug deaths, those "quality-tested" pharmaceutical drugs kill over 100,000 people every year from correctly prescribed doses, by MDs, in a hospital setting (AMA statistics). Some people try to commit suicide with supplements. They take a whole bottle or two - and just get better. This points to the real problem with supplements; people do not take enough of them. The problem with pharmaceuticals is that people take them at all.

@Fourteen14 says "... not a single person has ever died from taking a supplement - ever ..." This is not correct. A simple Google search found this: "On the other hand, liver injuries caused by the nonbodybuilding herbals and supplements led to death or liver transplantation in more than 1 in 10 cases (13%). In fact, liver injuries caused by the nonbodybuilding herbals and supplements led to death or liver transplantation more frequently than liver injuries caused by medications (3%)." https://www.consumermedsafety.org/medication-safety-articles/item/771-liver-injuries-from-herbals-and-dietary-supplements-have-led-to-death-and-liver-transplants

@J.I.M.: See my previous post about supplements or just google "danger of supplements".

@J.I.M. I started taking DIM 40 days ago and it has changed my life. I started taking it to regulate my hormones and boy, has it! I feel like my old self again.

@August Yes. DIM (diindolylmethane) is produced during the digestion of the i3c in cruciferous vegetables - like broccoli and brussels sprouts and cabbage. So DIM is better than i3c because it's been made bioactive and does not need to go down the biochemical conversion pathway so you can use it (you might only get a partial conversion of i3c to DIM if you have a mutation in a gene blocking the conversion pathway). DIM is an aromatase inhibitor, so it slows the conversion of testosterone into estrogen. Try also Stinging Nettle extract at a double dose. Supplements are far more effective than Big Pharma's drugs and they are also far safer and cheaper. These are all natural non-synthetic substances that are easily cleared at any dose and the body just takes what it needs. We co-evolved with these natural substances so they have generalized beneficial side-effects - since the body is about a million times smarter than any MD, it will properly use supplements wherever else it is needed according to priority.

@Norma McL: Talk to your doctor about your concerns for him and encourage him to talk to his.....I'm a retired RN and I have no idea. If he had this mutation, I imagine by now he would have developed a cancer.

@RLiss My brother lives in France, and I and my doctor are in the States. The surgery he had was for prostate cancer. I doubt it was recommended, given that he had no trouble; it was found during a routine checkup--bloodwork, I think. He is hyper vigilant about his health, and moderation is not in his vocabulary, so nothing less than surgery would do. But if the cancer was taken out--he was told it was--could it recur even at 75 if he has the Pten mutation?

@lechrist I'm alive and well today because of "Big Pharma" (a term I never use). If you take a knee-jerk, antagonistic stance toward anything related to the development of pharmaceuticals, you risk denying yourself life-saving medication should you ever need it. Think in shades of grey, not black and white.

@EvelynLongterm use of any synthetic drug will damage some other part of your body. Drugs inhibit or promote certain bodily processes, but also damage other processes that use the same metabolic pathway. An exaple is statins that, while they lower cholesterol (not necessarily a good thing) also inhibit production of CoQ10 a very important energy molecule, especially for the heart. So, beware.

@Evelyn: the reason so many refer to it as "big Pharma"??? Because it is.... a drug available to all is $8.00 in Australia....in the U.S. it is $2000. see: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/aoc-hiv-drug-cost-us-australia-ceo-gilead-video-a8919316.html

@Susan However if the NIH were to do the research and then license to the drug companies the Treasury could reap the benefits and help to fund Universal Health Care.

Supplements are unregulated industries. For example, a study of probiotics showed that most of the products with probiotics had dead bacteria. Another study of melatonin showed that the dose of melatonin per tablet was inconsistent even within a brand. It is important to study something pharmaceutical-grade for that reason. Also, you don’t know the unintended consequences of taking the supplement or side effects from taking high doses of it. That is the worst case scenario. Other scenarios include that it may also be useless in humans (because mice are different than humans), or only work to prevent some cancers and not others. In the meantime, if someone is taking it, they may stop doing extensive cancer screenings, and then die of cancer. That is why studies are needed. I wish it were as easy as taking a supplement, but most things are not. I think that is why some people like the supplement industry more than seeing a doctor. Medicine is always hung up on facts, truth, weighing risks/benefits, and recommending treatments that have proven benefit—usually “miracle drug” is code word for the placebo effect or modern-day “snake oil” (ie, something that does nothing).

@BrookfieldG The NIH brags that it provided the money for the research that led to the shingles vaccine. I ran into a friend recently who was having the shingles shot. Even with Medicare and Medicare supplemental insurance, the shot cost her $165. Frankly, this prices the shot out of reach for most seniors. If the NIH is going to use taxpayer money for research that is essentially designed to benefit a pharmaceutical, I think the responsibility to taxpayers should be taken a bit more to heart. And no, I cannot imagine that happening in my lifetime.