A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that higher fasting blood glucose levels were associated with an increase in cancer incidence and cancer deaths.
“In the long run, the implication is that as the world becomes heavier and blood sugar rises, that could contribute to an increasing burden of cancer,” said study co-author Dr. Jonathan Samet, chairman of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Fasting blood glucose levels are used to measure the amount of sugar in your blood after you haven’t had anything to eat or drink for at least eight hours. A reading under 110 mg/dl is considered normal, 110-125 mg/dl is impaired, and a fasting blood glucose level over 126 mg/dl indicates diabetes.
The current study looked at 10 years of data from nearly 1.3 million Korean men and women. People in Korea tend to be thinner and have a lower incidence of diabetes than people in the United States.
There were 829,770 men and 468,615 women included in the research. All were between the ages of 30 and 95. During a biennial physical, each person was surveyed about their lifestyle habits, such as smoking and alcohol consumption. They also had their blood sugar levels measured.
During the study period, almost 26,000 people died from cancer. Death rates were highest for those with higher levels of fasting glucose. Overall, those with fasting glucose levels above 140 mg/dl had a 29 percent higher risk of dying from cancer. For pancreatic cancer, the risk of dying was doubled for those with the highest fasting glucose levels. Only 848 of the cancer deaths occurred in people with fasting glucose levels of less than 90 mg/dl.
More than 56,000 people were diagnosed with cancer during the study. Cancer incidence rates also went up as glucose levels rose. Overall, the risk of developing cancer was 13 percent higher for someone with a fasting glucose level between 110 mg/dl and 125 mg/dl, compared to those who had readings under 90 mg/dl. For someone with fasting glucose above 140 mg/dl, the risk rose to 29 percent higher than someone under 90 mg/dl.
Once blood sugar levels rose over 110 mg/dl, cancer incidence rose for leukemia and cancers of the esophagus, larynx, stomach, colon, rectum, liver, bile duct, pancreas, lung, prostate, kidney, bladder and brain, the study found.
–Journal of the American Medical Association
Dr. Keith and Laurie Nemec comments on Blood Sugars and Cancer Rates:
Sugar in all forms causes a weakened immune system which causes cancer. Sugar in all forms causes inflammation which causes cancer. What is the greatest source of sugar in the American diet? Well the average American eats: 150 lbs. of refined sugar a year, and over 150 lbs. of bakery goods, pastas, starches per year.
The greatest source of sugar is cooked and refined food. Bread/pasta and cooked potatoes all cause blood sugar to rise, maybe not as high as refined sugars do but still high enough to cause the immune system to go out of balance and lead to disease.
The answer is simple—learn how to eat a living/raw plant diet of sprouts, seeds, nuts, legumes, vegetables, sea vegetables and avocados.
These foods do not cause sugar levels to go way up and do not cause inflammation and disease.
