Ask Dr. Mike: Antifungal Medication for Cancer Patients & Green Tea for Weight Loss

Additional Info

• Segment Number: 5
• Audio File: healthy_talk/1519ht5e.mp3
• Organization: Life Extension
• Guest Website: Healthy Talk MD
• Transcription: RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 8, 2015
  Host: Michael Smith, MD
  
  It's time for you to be a part of the show, email or call with questions for Dr. Mike now. Email, AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call 877-711-5211. What are you waiting for? The doctor is in.
  
  DR MIKE: So, if you want to hear your question on air send it to AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com.
  As my listeners know, this is some of my favorite stuff to do. So, next question here, this is about green tea and weight loss and I think I know which commercial this person is talking about.
  
  "There are commercials for green tea as a weight loss supplement, but I drink green tea every day and I definitely could lose 20-25lbs, so what's wrong with my green tea?"
  
  Yes, I know that there is a product out there that really is positioned for women and weight loss and it claims to target a bunch of different issues that women have when it comes to weight, or the struggle to lose weight. I think they recently added a type of green tea and I've seen the commercials myself, I honestly don't remember the name of it, but I think that's the commercial this person is talking about.
  
  So, yes, green tea, by the way, has some decent research behind it as far as being a metabolic booster. What I mean by metabolic booster is I mean burning more calories at rest. Resting metabolic rate decreases as we get older and for some people it really drops.
  
  And so, if we could do things to re-establish a higher resting metabolic rate, that just aids in weight loss. I rarely consider anything that does increase resting metabolic rate to be in and of itself a weight loss product or program. I think it's just part of one and it helps when you're dieting and exercising, especially if you're cutting calories a lot. What happens when you cut calories? Well, your body thinks your starving, so it shuts down metabolism, the complete opposite of what you want. So, if you're going to eat less, and in some cases some of these diets significantly less, you have to do something to boost metabolism at the same time.
  
  Exercise and using a couple nutrients, green tea is one of them; 7-keto-DHEA is another good one. The hot pepper extracts is another good one, but anyway, in this case it's green tea. The key component, the key antioxidant in green tea that we think does this for us, that helps fat cells burn, produce heat, that kind of stuff is EGCG. There's nothing wrong with your green tea, by the way. It's just the amount of EGCG that you're getting into your system from your green tea is questionable, that's the issue. It's not the green tea. It's not the quality of the green tea, it's the amount of EGCG. I know, for instance, at Life Extension we have a green tea extract product. One capsule's the equivalent of like 15 glasses of green tea or something like that, 12-15 glasses.
  
  So, most likely you're not drinking that much, right? I mean, I could assume you're probably doing 1 or 2 glasses a day, so there's nothing wrong with your green tea. You're just not getting enough of the EGCG.
  
  Now, this specific green tea that this one company is marketing now, and other companies, even Life Extension, we have this kind of green tea, it's called a phytosome green tea. It's simply a better delivery system for the EGCG. You get more EGCC into your blood system with this phytosome delivery system and that's what they're using in that commercial. So, there's nothing wrong with your green tea. You're not getting enough EGCG in. You'd have to just take a straight forward EGCG capsule or you could do a green tea supplement that uses this phytosome delivery system. It's just getting more of the key compounds into your blood stream to raise metabolism.
  
  Okay, next question.
  
  "I watched a TV show on the link between fungal infections and cancer. The doctors on the show seems to imply that all cancer patients should be given anti-fungals. What's your opinion on this? Thanks for your show, Darlene"
  
  Well, Darlene, what is cancer? Cancer is a cell. Let me restate the question, what's a cancerous cell? A cancerous cell is a cell that is dividing, making more cells, faster than what is should, in an unregulated matter. That's a cancerous cell. It's diving and making daughter cells in an unregulated really quick way. There's a little more to it, too. Cancer cells are also a little bit less differentiated. What I mean by that, let's say you have liver cell and you compare one of the liver cancer cells to a normal liver cell, that liver cancer cell looks a little different, it doesn't quite look as specialized as a true, healthy liver cell.
  
  So, cancerous cells divide in an unregulated, really quick way and they are less differentiated, less specialized. What causes all that? What causes at least those two things, when you think of a cancerous cell? What causes a cancer cell to de-regulate, what's called mitosis, its dividing process, its growing process, its making daughter cell process, what de-regulates it? And number two, what makes it less specialized?
  
  Well, you have to look at the DNA. There must be something going on in the genes of that cell that are allowing this cell to now divide in an unregulated matter and to act a little less specialized. So, what we now know, through decades and decades of research, is that the hallmark of all cancer cells are mutations to the DNA that regulate growth and regulate specialization. So, the question becomes, "Well, what causes those mutations?"
  
  So, a cancerous cell grows like crazy and looks a little less specialized than the normal cell that it came from. That happens because of mutations to the DNA, what causes the mutations? There is some evidence that infectious disease might be one of the causes. There's not just one cause, right?
  
  But, there is some good evidence, in the literature, showing how certain infections, specifically viral infections more so than fungal, but, certain infections, can actually causes some changes, mutations in those genes that regulate growth and specialization and when those infections get in and they affect the DNA and they change it, that way you can get a cancerous cell.
  
  Cytomegalovirus, CMV. Classic. Herpes type viruses can do this. These are viruses that can get in, causes mutations to those gene and boom, you got a cancerous cell. So, if we have documented cases, good research showing certain viruses doing this, can I extrapolate that to think that certain fungal infection...Sure.
  
  As a matter of fact, certain fungal species that cause disease, pathological fungi, they produce toxins, they're call "mycotoxins" and those mycotoxins, yes, I think they can cause DNA changes that can lead to cancerous cells. Again, you got to be careful, there's all kinds of things that can cause DNA changes. Radiation, right? Certain genetic disorders, infections, I mean, there's a whole class of what we call carcinogens, toxins.
  
  So, do I think mycotoxins, from certain fungal infections, do I think that those can cause those DNA changes? Sure. Not in all cases, but sure. So, to say all cancer patients should go on an anti-fungal, I don't know if that's true. Maybe in some cases and you might think, "Well, why not? Just put them on anti-fungals just in case." Because anti-fungals are powerful drugs, at least right now, with a lot of side effects, so we'd have to make the drugs better. Until then, I don't think everybody should go on anti-fungals to answer your question. But mycotoxins could very easily be a cause of cancer cell initiation.
  
  This is Healthy Talk on Radio MD.
  
  This is Dr. Mike. Stay well.
• Length (mins): 10
• Waiver Received: No
• Internal Notes: NO GUEST
• Host: Mike Smith, MD