Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Facts podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Now I know I'm known for explaining how not to do certain things. Just look at my books,

how not to die. The one I'm working on right now, how not to die it. But what I actually

have to share with you is quite positive and boils down to this. What's the best way

to live a healthy life? Here are some answers. Just in time for a summer fun at the beach,

it's Shark Week here on the Nutrition Facts podcast. Why are millions of dollars spent on

shark cartilage supplements? Here are some answers. An assessment of websites on complementary and

alternative medicine for cancer found that many indoors unproven therapies and some that are

outright dangerous, potentially exploiting highly vulnerable patients and enriching irresponsible

sneak-oiled peddlers. Or for that matter, shark cartilage peddlers. Accounting for millions of

dollars of sales every year. Why shark cartilage of all things? Interesting shark cartilage is an

anti-cancer agent arose because many people believe that sharks did not get cancer. Why would they

think such a thing? Because some shark cartilage supplement hawker wrote a book called Sharks Don't

Get Cancer. But that's simply not true. Sharks do get cancer. Both benign and cancer's lesions have

been reported in 21 species of sharks from more than nine families. Now, some shark cartilage

distributors insist instead that sharks just rarely get cancer, but actual cancer rates and sharks

have never been determined. There's simply been no systematic tumor surveys of sharks for them to

make such a claim. But look, even if sharks were less susceptible to cancer, how can one logically

jump from that to cancer patients benefiting from eating powdered cartilage from a shark?

We know, for example, that there are certain proteins that allow some bacteria to survive

boiling hot springs. Does that mean if we eat those bacteria, we can survive boiling water too?

It doesn't make any sense. The illogic behind the pursuit of shark cartilage therapies have

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