I've been a coauthor on papers produced by Gary Stoner's lab, back when all the money was in tea, rather than berries. While everything said in these papers has some minuscule amount of merit, you have to take it all with a bit of skepticism.
First off, berry polyphenols (and tea, etc) are astringent because they bind proteins very strongly. Many will precipitate them. So if such compounds even make it out of your mouth, where saliva-PRPs (proline rich proteins) will bind and make unavailable, they are subject to the multitude of proteins that can intervene along the way and make them unavailable to plasma. Ellagic acid is notorious for this- it's been "proven" to practically "cure death" (cancer, heart disease, what have you), and yet most research has been abandoned on it because it has also been "proven" to not make it out of your gut.
The antioxidant hypothesis is all the rage behind fad nutraceuticals, and is a big component of diets such as the one promoted by Kurzweil (like his book, Fantastic Voyage, with Terry Grossman). They repeatedly ignore the findings of researchers (like myself) who find strong negative indications, such as the finding that in actual intervention trials, antioxidants like carotenoids kill more patients than they help, because oxidative damage is just a chain and most "antioxidants" are both reduction and oxidation capable, and we really don't understand if there is a net positive effect except under tightly controlled circumstances.
Second, there's a lot of money riding on these things. Grant money, both in the form of corporate sponsorship of this research as well as large ticket grants from the NCI, NIH, etc. to say that his research is "no conflict of interest" is laughable. Everybody in the field has a big ticket vested interest in continued funding, and this funding means keep proving that things cure cancer or lose your big ticket NCI funding. Even if there isn't a sinister motive at work, there's enough to be skeptical about.
Third, as for the paper demonstrating cancer in the oral pouch, it's bullshit, too. You swab some cancer causing agent on their cheek pouch, and they get tumors. You choose your dosing routine carefully, feeding berries or swabbing berry paste or ellagic acid, and that number gets reduced. Voila, proof. It has ZERO relevance in the clinic with people, because the agent and the cancer site are typically long separated by time and physical distance. Everyone who reads this message likely has a handful of cells gone awry, and eating a couple strawberries tomorrow or next week has absolutely no influence on its outcome- it will either die off, fester, or grow up and give you cancer.
There's big problems with both the antioxidant hypothesis and the alkaline water hypothesis: all the proof is in vitro or under very carefully timed or controlled circumstances. Vary the conditions even slightly, or try to take those results to the clinic, and those results disappear. There's a vast number of different pH or redox active events that happen between your food entering your mouth, and the tumors that kill you. It's even been shown that pH goes UP inside of some tumor cells, so how making things alkaline makes things unfavorable for them is even more suspect. That, and oxidative events often prove more deadly for cancer cells, since they grow so fast and any one moment of highly oxidative stress would weigh more heavily.
The best thing that the DIYBio community could do is expose these borderline fraudsters for what they are, and disavow participation in the hype cycles currently at work in the transhumanist/singularity/SENS communities. I know such a potent accusation puts me at risk for backlash from these well monied interests. There's no money in disproving bullshit, because bullshit and the promise you can live forever is just too damn seductive. But that's what our community should be about: using the power of citizen scientists to fight the hype cycle of "natural", "GMO free", "vaccines/xyz is a plot to harm kids", etc, by operating without the stain of corporate shilling.
A good simple diet, mostly vegetables and legumes, and QUITTING smoking, is the key to whatever small degree of longevity we can get. I'm mystified by DIYBio people who smoke, in particular, but even more so among researchers who know the effect of nitrosamines and PAHs in animal studies, and worst of all transhumanists or people rooting for SENS or the singularity. Eating foods high in "antioxidants" is a rounding error blip on the face of that scourge.
Thanks Nathan, I've started reading over this paper and it seems pretty interesting!
Alex
On Apr 23, 2014 12:51 PM, "Nathan McCorkle" <nmz787@gmail.com> wrote:--This one is similar, but not the same... it also features DMBA results:
http://t-emporium.com/lit/Carcinogenesis-2008-Stoner-1665-74.pdf
On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Alex <spider87@gmail.com> wrote:
> Right? And possibly fights cancer? I'm in!
>
> Alex
>
> On Apr 23, 2014 11:47 AM, "Avery louie" <inactive.e@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> That sounds delicious.
>>
>> --A
>>
>> On Apr 23, 2014 11:43 AM, "Alex" <spider87@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I was looking through pubmed and saw this and I'm really curious about
>>> it. Does anyone have access and can grab it for me, please?
>>>
>>> I already tried googling for it with no luck.
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.pubfacts.com/detail/24222110/Chemoprevention-of-oral-cancer-by-lyophilized-strawberries
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> Alex
>>>
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