Aerobic exercise and prostate cancer cells:
A low fat, high fiber diet made the blood much less hospitable to prostate cancer cells in vitro. A study authored by Barnard, et al. consisted of using the blood from 3 different groups of 51 to 64 year old males to treat cultured prostate cancer cells in the lab. They compared the blood placed in petri dishes with prostate cancer cells from 3 different groups. The groups included an exercise group that did a consistent exercise program for at least 10 years, a diet plus exercise group who did a consistent diet and exercise program for at least 10 years, and a placebo group. The diet and exercise group were part of a “Pritikin” program and ate low fat, high fiber and complex carbohydrates along with exercise 4-6 days per week. The exercise group exercised for 1 hour per day 5 days per week at a University program in Nevada but did not have any diet program. The placebo subjects were sedentary with poor dietary intake and felt to be at risk of prostate cancer. The blood from the diet plus exercise group caused a significantly greater rate of apoptosis of cancer cells and less growth rate in cancer cells in vitro than the exercise alone or placebo groups.(4) Serum markers of breast cancer in vivo decreased and apoptosis in breast cancer cells increased in vitro after diet and exercise. A study involving 38 overweight or obese postmenopausal women adhered to a low-fat (10-15% kcal from fat), high-fiber (30-40 g per 1,000 kcal/d) diet, and participated in a daily exercise class for 2 weeks. The diet and exercise was found to reduce several serum markers for breast cancer including estrogen, obesity, insulin and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), even while subjects remained overweight or obese. The in-vitro analysis used serum drawn from the study group before and after the 2 week intervention and placed it with cancer cells. It was found that the growth in different types of breast cancer cell lines was reduced by 6.6-18.5%. Cell death of several different cell types of breast cancer also increased by 20-30% after the intervention.(22)