What Kind of Collagen Makes Cancer Less Likely?
What Kind of Collagen Makes Cancer Less Likely?
Author: Hikaru Ishii, Physician, PhD (Medicine)
Through 30 years of clinical research on collagen, I have obtained a European patent and published peer-reviewed papers. With that background, I would like to introduce collagen to you in a way that is easy to understand.
The Relationship Between Cancer and Collagen
You have probably never heard about the relationship between cancer and collagen. In fact, the two are closely related. Among cancers, adenocarcinomas account for 85% of the total. Adenocarcinomas arise within the mucosa. They include thyroid cancer, lung adenocarcinoma, laryngeal cancer, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, uterine cancer, and prostate cancer.
Strictly speaking, an adenocarcinoma that is still within the mucosa is not cancer. What makes cancer frightening is that it metastasizes. When it metastasizes, it breaks through the mucosa, travels around the whole body on the bloodstream, and spreads. Once it has metastasized, it is called stage 4; it becomes advanced cancer and, in the worst case, the patient dies. If the cancer stays within the mucosa, it does not metastasize, so there is nothing to fear.
The difference between cancer that stays within the mucosa and cancer that breaks out of the mucosa lies in collagen. To break through the mucosa, cancer has to break through the submucosa, and the submucosa is made of collagen. When the submucosa is firm, it is difficult for cancer to break through. Taking in high-quality collagen makes the submucosa firm, which helps prevent cancer.
What Is High-Quality Collagen?
What is high-quality collagen? It is natural cod skin collagen from cod caught in the North Atlantic. It is no exaggeration to call it the best collagen in the world. Both my patent and my papers used natural cod skin collagen. Other collagens are made from fish scales or pig skin, but they can hardly be called high quality. Natural cod skin collagen costs 10 times as much as scale collagen, so manufacturers do not use it.
The difference comes from the composition of the collagen and the extraction method. Scale collagen is treated with hydrochloric acid when the collagen is extracted. Manufacturers call it high-quality collagen, but although at the laboratory level it can be broken down enzymatically using EDTA, the reagents are expensive and simply cannot be used for commercial products, so hydrochloric acid is used. Hydrochloric acid is a strong acid, so it destroys the collagen and makes it useless. Major companies take scales, which are waste material, mass-produce collagen by hydrochloric acid treatment, and sell it heavily through TV commercials. Please understand that all cheap fish collagen is made from scales.
