After reading that, you might be tempted to think prostate cancer is a big deal. Well, in some cases it certainly can be. Like all cancers, cancer of the prostate has the ability to metastasize, or move into other parts of the body. In organs and bones it can cause serious damage. That’s why it’s good to know that resveratrol can fight prostate cancer in several ways.

 About Prostate Cancer

 Prostate cancer occurs when the prostate cells which produce semen undergo mutations which turn them cancerous. These mutations can be caused by excess hormones, particularly estrogen. Estrogen is most often associated with women, but is found in men as well.

 When these growths begin to occur, several changes can happen in the body. There are hormones which are supposed to stop the accumulation of the materials which cause the tumors, but these are depressed as the cancer cells begin to interfere with regular body operations. Hormones which actually help cancer cells grow, such as prostate-specific antigen (PSA) also begin production in large amounts.

 The Resveratrol Difference

 Studies have shown that resveratrol acts as both a chemopreventive agent and as a treatment in people who already have cancer. The big bonus with resveratrol in comparison to other treatments is that it does not cause the harmful side effects associated with those traditional treatments.

 To treat and prevent cancer, resveratrol will block the production of those hormones we mentioned, such as PSA. Without these chemicals to increase their size, the cancer cells often die.

 Resveratrol also works against cancer cells using their own DNA against them. Doses of the compound have been shown to interfere with the genes in cancer cells that allow them to communicate. That means they have a harder time metastasizing as well as gaining nutrition.

 Finally, resveratrol has been shown to increase the effectiveness of other treatments when taken in conjunction with those treatments. They complement other compounds by targeting cancerous cells at different stages of their development.

 Over all, resveratrol has given researchers reason to think very positively as far as finding a natural source chemopreventive agent which can also treat patients in any stage of cancer, without causing harmful side effects.

 Breast cancer

 Given the number of different cancers there are, it should come as no surprise that there are a number of different types of each cancer. Breast cancer is no exception, but there are a number of things each type has in common.

 The first is that, like all cancers, breast cancers are indicated by the abnormal growth of tumours. If you really think about the many different processes which go on in our bodies, the existence of tumours is a given. We are constantly producing all sorts of different fluids, chemicals, enzymes, cells, and other small particles in our bodies. Tumours are large groupings of these compounds all in one place.

 If that’s so, then why are tumours so alarming? The reason is that our bodies have natural ways of fighting off tumours. Genes in our RNA are specifically designed to suppress the growth of tumours, causing the body to reabsorb and get rid of excess materials. BCRA1 and 2 are examples of these genes.

 However, every once in a while these genes undergo unnatural changes, or mutations. In the case of breast cancer, these genetic mutations are caused by an excess amount of estrogen in the body. Instead of being reabsorbed, the extra estrogen is transformed into what are called estrogen metabolites. These grow and increase in number, becoming ever more dangerous. Eventually, they interact with DNA on the cellular level, causing the many problems identified with breast cancer.

 Resveratrol and estrogen

 Once again, researchers have found that resveratrol (when tested on isolated cells) interacts and destroys the causes of breast cancer in several different ways. First of all, it greatly limits the functions which cause estrogen to be turned into estrogen metabolites. Less of these little lumps floating around mean less exposure of cells to too much of the hormone.

 Next, when the metabolites are present, resveratrol blocks the interaction between them and normally functioning cellular DNA. This means they can’t interfere with the genetic codes.

 Finally, resveratrol does what it does best in all situations, and that is causing an increase of important enzymes in our bodies. In this case, the enzyme activated by resveratrol dosages destroys the estrogen metabolites which have grown in the body.

 For decades, if not centuries, researchers in medicine have sought a cure for cancer, one of the most feared diseases of the human race. There are so many problems for these researchers. We are not sure what causes cancer, and there are just so many it was though impossible to find something that could fight them all. And of course, finding a treatment which could prevent these diseases was a one in a billion chance.

 And yet, it seems that resveratrol combats cancer, in addition to the many other conditions it has been found to fight and even cure. Not just one type of cancer either; resveratrol treatments have been shown to be effective against prostate cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, leukemia, and others. We are going to take a look at specific cancers in future articles, but let’s give a broad overview of how resveratrol fights most forms of cancer.

 Chemopreventive

 Up until now, only chemotherapy of some form was effective in destroying cancer cells. The problem was, the treatment made no differentiation between cancer cells and healthy cells; cancer patients were subject to a whole range of health problems because of this.

 Resveratrol is not only the first natural medicine to be found to combat the range of diseases called cancer, it also differentiates between healthy cells an cancerous cells.

 Resveratrol causes cancerous cells to kill themselves, essentially by starving them. It blocks the protein known as nuclear factor-kappa (AF-kB), which cancer cells “eat” in order to stay alive. Without this substance, the cells die.

 In addition, cancer also blocks the metastasis, or spread, of cancer cells into the bone. There is also evidence to prove that resveratrol blocks estrogen and androgen production, both of which can boost the activity of cancer cells in the body.

 These are not the only ways in which resveratrol combats cancer. There have been 12 known ways in which the compound has been demonstrated to fight various forms of cancer, some broad and some disease specific. We’ll take a look at many of these in our upcoming articles on cancer and resveratrol.