There is a growing concern in Iowa that the increasing cancer rate (10% over the national average, including rates of prostate, breast, colorectal, melanoma and lung cancer) at a time when cancer onset is decreasing in all but three states, could be associated in part with toxins in the environment.
Iowa is a big producer of corn and soybeans and also raises hogs. Corn and soy production leads to nitrogen runoff, which can end up in river water used for drinking. The EPA doesn’t yet list nitrates, which come from chemical fertilizers and animal waste, as carcinogens, but they can be converted inside the human body via nitrosation into probable carcinogens. At the same time, there is concern about the use of pesticides and “forever chemicals.”
The Make America Healthy Again movement, led by HHS Secretary RFK Jr., has put its big thumb on the scale in favor of decreasing exposure to these chemicals. Candidates on both sides of the political aisle are jumping on board.
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MAHA Action President Tony Lyons told me that the need to decrease chemical exposure is crucial and that not all politicians in Iowa are as sincerely committed to change. He said that numerous studies have linked contaminated water, loaded with nitrates from fertilizer and manure, to cancer. Studies have also linked chemicals in many pesticides “to higher risk of colorectal, bladder, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and other cancers.”
As Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn has said, “Any discussion that does not include water quality and the nitrate load when we’re talking about cancer isn’t a serious discussion. It doesn’t matter if you’re left or right, you’re drinking the water.”
Keep in mind that state-funded research at the University of Iowa still shows that most — but not all — of Iowa’s above-normal rates for several cancers can be explained by demographic and behavioral factors, such as smoking and binge drinking.
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At the same time, the University of Iowa has also ramped up its cancer research because of the focus on the increasing cancer rate. Linda Jacobs, age 64, is a direct recipient of a medical miracle resulting from this research. She, along with her medical angel, Mohammed Milhem, MBBS, could easily have stepped right off the pages of my new book, “The Angels Among Us.”
A decade ago, she had recurrent breast cancer necessitating a bilateral mastectomy and radiation therapy. Unfortunately, she developed an extremely aggressive and unresponsive angiosarcoma. Milhem injected her tumor with a genetically altered herpes virus he has been studying, and it rendered her cancer-free.
Of course, it would be better not to develop cancer in the first place. This is why the focus not just on lifestyle change but also on detoxifying the environment is so important.