Hannah Bradley's Story

The Huffington Post have recently shown the following article about Hannah's fight against a very aggressive brain tumour called Anaplastic Astrocytoma.

Hannah's desire to beat this cancer led to make a number of treatments, clinical trials and lifestyle changes. One of the biggest changes has been dietary; specifically cutting out most sugars from her diet.

Learning that the exclusive food of cancer is sugar, Hannah cut out, almost completely, starchy carbohydrates and refined sugars by incorporating a sugar free/starch free food plan. The idea being that this diet would feed the body and mind and starve the cancer into submission.

Worth a read and find out more information by visiting:
http://www.teamhannah.com/
http://www.teamhannah.com/blog/

Lovely couple. Pleased to hear she is progressing well and I wish both Hannah and her partner Pete all the best for the future.

Brain Cancer - Cat Parasite Link

Don't know how many of you caught this last month but I came across this article whilst on the internet:

Published July 27, 2011

"An infectious parasite spread by cats may be a cause of brain cancer in humans, research suggests. The single-celled organism Toxoplasma gondii infects about a third of the world's population. Often it causes no symptoms, but the parasite can be fatal to unborn babies and damage the nerve systems of people with weak immune systems.

The new study shows a positive correlation between rates of infection by T. gondii and brain cancer incidence around the world. Scientists collected global data on brain cancers in men and women and compared them with figures on T. gondii prevalence. Adjusting for a range of factors that can influence brain cancer statistics, the researchers found that cancer rates went up with greater exposure to the parasite.

Across the range of infection prevalence, from 4 of the population, T. gondii was associated with a 1.8-fold increase in the risk of brain cancer. The scientists, led by Frederic Thomas, from the CNRS research institute in Montpellier, France, wrote in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters: "We feel our results are sufficiently strong to propose that T. gondii potentially increases the risk of brain cancer in humans." Previous research had already linked the parasite to brain tumours in animals. There is also other evidence that T. gondii has effects on the brain leading to changes in behaviour."

According to a comment following this article a reader commented that there is very little risk of contracting this from healthy indoor cats and he goes on to advise that the most common method of infection in humans is actually via the consumption of undercooked or raw meat.

BRAIN TUMOUR NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA

Just reading through a local paper here in Queensland last week and it reports that Brain cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Australias youth and accounts for more than one third of cancer deaths in children under 10. One person dies from malignant brain cancer every eight hours in Australia!

These are alarming statistics. More awareness and funding is desparately required for further research as brain cancer research is the least funded but deadliest cancer in Australia today. A leading Neurosurgeons commented that it will take AU$50 billion over the next 30-50 years to find a cure for brain cancer but that funds are required urgently now to make an impact on reducing the alarming statistics above.

Once diagnosed, patients have just a 5% chance of surviving this extremely aggresive disease and most die within 12 months. Brain cancer remains the least understood of all cancers. Risk factors are unknown and there are no screening procedures in place.

A third of all other cancers can be prevented by us making concious lifestyle choices, for example by regular exercise, not smoking and eating balanced diets. However, brain cancer in indiscriminate and due to lack of research they do not know how to prevent it.

For more information on Brain Cancer Action Week and how to donate please visit: Brain Cancer Action Australia

Everyone Should Have A Chance!