Nine-year-old study published in the medical journal “Nature Communications” shows clear link between sugar and tumor

The recent results of a nine-year study by Belgian molecular biologists, , showed how sugar is indeed responsible for stimulating tumor growth.

This helped solve a question that has plagued oncologists for decades, and offered new solutions for tumor prevention through dietary change. Most non-cancerous cells are energized through airborne respiration, a process that involves breaking down digested food into colynx energy rich in molecules through a whole series of chemical processes, which require oxygen and after which carbon dioxide is released as a result of the reaction.

But, this is not the case with cancer cells. “Warburg” effect or how sugar is related to cancer cells Even when they receive enough oxygen for the process of converting glucose into “fuel” ie. in energy for the body, cancer cells are happy to choose energy from fermented sugar. In this way, less energy is created and subsequently used than in the regular chemical processes by which cells are otherwise used.

This one a phenomenon is called “Warburg” effect. The researchers conducted their experiment on yeast cells and found that through the process of fermentation – the same one that cancer cells prefer – it actually stimulates tumor growth. Those results suggest that genes that commonly cause growth, called Ras proteins, fuel aggressive tumors with the help of sugar. In short, sugar “wakes up” existing cancer cells by multiplying them and successfully increasing their spread in the body.

The leaders of the research, the Belgian molecular biologist Johan Thevelin and professor from The Catholic University of Leuvenexplain how “Hyperactive consumption of sugar by cancer cells leads to a vicious cycle of constant stimulation of tumor growth. Biologists believe that this new understanding of the interaction of cancer and sugar will have far-reaching consequences for future research, and previous ones have tended more toward that discovery.

This has made a difference in the dietary plan of those who are at risk of or already have some forms of cancer, but the researchers say that the study is still ongoing because it is not fully understood why the carcinogens have such a “sweet tooth”.