Sodium/Cancer

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

More on a possible connection between excessive sodium levels and

cancer:

http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?

A2=ind9805 & L=paleodiet & F= & S= & P=3620

http://snipurl.com/5acv

Excerpts:

" .............. Staffan and Dean noted that there is strong

experimental as well as epidemiological evidence to incriminate

dietary salt (actually sodium) in the etiology of stomach cancer.

Less well appreciated is the evidence to suggest that dietary sodium

may act as a universal promoter of multiple cancers separate from the

gastrointestinal tract. "

" There is a wealth of information in the hypertension literature

to show that the expanded extracellular fluid volume brought about by

ingestion of sodium chloride likely .......... ultimately leads to

the increased intracellular sodium concentrations demonstrated in

hypertensive subjects. It is likely that this same mechanism alters

the ionic flux in cancer patients. "

" An additional, but not so convincing line of evidence is the

observation made by many early 20th century frontier doctors treating

unacculturated peoples (who generally had limited access to dietary

sodium) was the general absence of all types of cancer. "

" Should dietary sodium inhibit the sodium pump, then it would be

reasonable to expect to find elevated sodium concentrations in a wide

variety of tumor cells. Indeed, this is the case (11,12,13,14,15). "

" There is a well established link between dietary sodium and

hypertension. Therefore, if sodium is somehow related to the

promotion of cancer, there should be an epidemiological relationship

between hypertension and cancer mortality. And indeed there is,

although the information is relatively obscure and unrecognized. I

have included 4 references (1,2,3,4) which show this link. "

MY COMMENT: This evidence is all rather circumstantial. But, in my

opinion, it is another reason to minimize the foods that contain

excessive quantities of sodium. But if iodized salt is eliminated

from the diet an alternative source of iodine will presumably be

necessary. One gram of kelp per month (sic) should do the trick in

that respect.

Rodney.