Iron, Cancer, Chelators and Rice Bran

Age is the primary risk factor for cancer. Most skin cancers occur after age 50. Most cases of prostate and breast cancer occur after age 65. The Merck Manual says that "although cancer occurs in persons of every age, it is fundamentally a disease of aging. Sixty percent of new cancer cases and two-thirds of cancer deaths occur in persons over 65 years of age." Aging is accompanied by an accumulation of iron in the body. Eighty percent of iron in the body resides in the red blood cells. During childhood, iron is being utilized to make new red blood eells. Red blood cells are dying and being replaced at a rate of 2 million per second in adults . In growing children the demand to make new red blood cells is greater than in adulthood and all available iron is used to produce new blood cells. The risk for cancer is low during the growth years. The demand for iron, to make new red blood cells, slows once full growth is achieved. Women delay the accumulation of iron by virtue of the faet they lose iron during monthly menstrual flow, or donate iron to their unborn babies. The slow accumulation of iron, after full growth in males (after age 18 or so), or when menstruation ceases in females (menopause or early hysterectomy), gradually increases the risk of cancer. More specifically, females dump about 30 milligrams of iron per month through menstruation, whereas males accumulate about 1 milligram of iron per day after they reaeh full growth {after about age 18).' By middle age men have an excess of 3000-5000 milligrams of iron compared to women and experience twice the rate of eancer, diabetes, heart disease and infections. Tumor cells, bacteria, viruses and fungi ail depend upon iron as their primary growtb factor. The accumulation of iron in non-menstruating women either from early hysterectomy or menopause increases the risk of cancer.^