The Rusty Bucket

Rust is a common form of oxidation.

#oxidation #redox #ROS #cancer #rust

#antioxidants

A few years ago, my husband came back from the local discount store with a galvanized metal bucket, silver in color with a wood handle. “It was on sale,” he said with a proud grin, the grin he wears when he buys something on sale. 

The bucket ended up in our bathroom. When I 'd take a bath, I’d save the water and use the bucket to scoop up the bath water to flush the toilet. As a long-time Californian, who has lived through many drought years, I proudly recycled my bath water. 

After a few years of use, that bucket got rusty. The silver colored bottom had bright orange spots of rust. And it reminded me of one of the more important strategies of managing cancer: oxidation. 

Most of us are familiar with rust, a common form of oxidation that we can see with our own eyes. Cars rust, nails rust, and metal buckets rust. Oxidation, the transfer or loss of electrons from one atom or molecule to another, is also a strategy for managing cancer.

Apple with oxidation from exposure to air

A flaky and brittle material, rust exposes a fresh layer of iron underneath the outer layer of the bucket to water and carbon dioxide in the air. The rusting process continues deeper into the metal, eventually eating it away entirely. You can speed up the rusting process by adding saltwater. Salt increases the electrical conductivity of water, making the electrons move faster. This is why where I live (near the Pacific ocean), cars rust more quickly. The sea spray from the ocean makes the oxidation happen faster.

Oxidation actually doesn’t have to involve oxygen (despite the sound of the word) but is essentially the loss of one or more electrons to another atom or molecule. The other atom or molecule gains the electrons (which is oddly enough called reduction). One way chemistry students remember this combination is “LEO the lion says GER.” Lose electrons = oxidation. Gain electrons = Reduction.

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LEO the lion says GER. (Lose Electrons = Oxidation. Gain Electrons = Reduction)

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Another common example of REDOX (reduction/oxidation) include a slice of apple turning brown.

How to remember what oxidation and reduction mean

Like the rusty bucket, cancer cells are under oxidative stress and can collapse when exposed to more oxidation over time. In the cancer cell, oxidation occurs because of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). ROS are unstable oxygen-containing molecules like hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and superoxide free radicals (O₂-). 

Why are cancer cells under oxidative stress? Many cancers have higher metabolism, mitochondrial dysfunction and oncogene activation. These three things mean that cancer cells generate a higher than normal level of ROS. To survive these damaging molecules, many cancers produce large amounts of antioxidants (like glutathione). Often dubbed the body’s master antioxidant, glutathione is naturally produced by cells. Cancer cells overproduce glutathione to shield themselves from dying from oxidation. If you have cancer and want to manage the growth of your cancer cells through stressing them with more oxidation, you probably don't want to take over- the-counter antioxidants. like vitamin C.

Some chemotherapy treatments, such as doxorubicin and bleomycin, work by overwhelming or depleting the glutathione shield to trigger programmed cell death called apoptosis.

But you may not need chemotherapy to generate cancer cell death. There are two key nutraceuticals you can take to destroy the glutathione shield of cancer cells and to overhelm them with oxidative stress. You can speed up the oxidation by adding these two supplements to your diet without hurting your normal cells. They'll make the oxidation of your cancer cells happen faster, eventually destroying them. What are these nutraceuticals?

That’s in the next post.