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Preventing and Controlling Cancer
By Dan Kenner, Ph.D., L.Ac
January 14, 2010

We have seen alternative cancer treatments appear in the pages of Health Freedom News over the last year. The discovery of the powerful cancer reducing effect of the naturally-occurring substance Gc-MAF (Glycoprotein macrophage activating factor) alone could be a revolution in cancer therapy if allowed into the medical marketplace. We have also read about the method of Tullio Simoncini, M.D. of Rome, Italy, which is a completely nontoxic method of regulating the acid-alkaline balance at the cellular level and has resulted in complete remission of numerous cases of cancer. There are also many other methods that have been used successfully by people diagnosed with cancer who refused the conventional methods of treatment.

If you have ever witnessed a remission of cancer in a patient, friend, or loved one who refused conventional therapy, it makes an impact on you that you are not likely to forget. It doesn’t seem fair to call it “spontaneous remission” in many of the cases where a person makes enormous sacrifices to go through the detoxification, emotional release, and other personal ordeals to heal themselves through a committed personal effort. Many people who choose this route also have to resist the tremendous pressure of well-meaning family members and friends, as well as the medical establishment, who all want you to submit to conventional treatment. The people who care about you will demand that you go to medical professionals for chemotherapy, radiation, and other high-tech approaches that are considered to be scientific in our culture. What courage it takes to buck the system! It makes it difficult, to say the least, to make this choice of “healing over medicine.”

Most people with a cancer diagnosis will choose conventional therapy. People who don’t are few and far between, but they are usually people who have witnessed the suffering of a loved one who underwent conventional treatment, medical professionals who understand the effects of treatment and decide that anything else is better, or people with a strong background or exposure to natural medicine who decide to take charge of their healing process.

Of course there are cases where conventional medicine plays a useful and healing role as well. But regardless of what we may choose, we must recognize that simple removal or destruction of a tumor often has no significant long-term benefit to survival or quality of life. It is necessary to correct the original underlying condition that generated the tumor in the first place. If we do this, we create conditions where we can gain the maximum benefit from a treatment plan, even from chemotherapy or radiation. It is essential to improve the whole metabolic condition of the body and mind. What is the nature of underlying conditions that can cause tumor formation?

There is ongoing scientific debate about the cause of cancer in terms of molecular biology, but a lot is known about what promotes cancer development. We all produce cancer cells daily, by the thousands; but they are not allowed to take hold and are routinely eliminated by the fundamental integrity of our metabolic condition and the activity of the immune system. What causes a disruption in this process of controlling the proliferation of abnormal cells? We need to know this not only to prevent cancer or its recurrence but also to maximize whatever benefits we can from conventional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation.

Inflammation Fuels Cancer Growth

Cancer uses inflammation to accelerate abnormal growth. Chronic inflammation not only promotes the growth of cancer cells, but the abnormal cells also fan the flames of inflammation. Cancer cells manufacture large quantities of “pro-inflammatory” substances that promote cell multiplication and break down barriers surrounding the tumor so that cancer cells can infiltrate neighboring tissues and metastasize through the blood and lymph. Pro-inflammatory chemical factors also prevent the cancer cells from dying a normal death; they just keep growing. Cancer cells are thus able to grow with no restraint. The more the tumor grows, the more inflammatory chemicals it secretes to fuel its growth, creating a vicious cycle.

Oxidation Promotes Cancer Growth

Our cells have an “antioxidant” defense system. Oxidative stress or oxygen damage causing free radical formation is the result of a decrease in antioxidant protection and a failure to repair oxidative damage. Oxidative stress is a well-known aging factor as well as a factor in cancer development. An antioxidant diet is a diet high in vegetables and low in cooked and smoked meats. Antioxidant supplements are also useful but they are certainly not a treatment for cancer. Nevertheless, reducing oxidative stress still plays a vital role in achieving a successful outcome with any method of treatment.

Glycation Accelerates Cancer Growth

Glycation is the uncontrolled reaction of sugars with proteins. Glycation is also very important in the damage done to diabetics when their sugar levels rise above normal, and in damage done to critical proteins of long-lived nerve cells in aging. Advanced glycation end products (AGE) are produced with normal aging. Recently, some reports have indicated that AGE has a role in cancer development. Glucose can combine with lipids as well as proteins to form a glycated product.

Nobel laureate Otto Warburg’s discovery that cancer metabolism is fermentation is widely accepted, but his observation has not led to treatment methods. Diagnostic PET scans are an indication of the importance of glucose metabolism in cancer. PET scans are used to detect cancer because they highlight the parts of the body that consume the most glucose (blood sugar). The observations of Warburg have led to the proposal that sugar in the diet should be avoided because it is fuel for cancer.

Cancer cells demonstrate a three- to five-fold increase in glucose uptake compared to healthy cells. Increased glycation results in tissue destruction, oxidation, cancer, and premature aging. Prevention of glycation by-products depends upon a low glycemic diet consisting of complex carbohydrates. In terms of lifestyle this means that a low glycemic diet is as important to cancer patients as it is to those who suffer from diabetes.

Low Immunity Allows Cancer to Take Hold

Immunological research has identified the physiological basis whereby physical and emotional injury can set the stage for chronic illness in previously healthy individuals. A variety of effects upon host immunity have been observed, but reduced Natural Killer (NK) cell activity appears to be a consistent feature of the immune system response to stress.

NK cells are sometimes seen as the “sentinel” cells of the immune system, providing a first line of defense against a wide variety of pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, infectious microbes, and early stages of malignant growth. Among other things, they protect us by destroying the cancer cells we all produce every day. Unlike cytotoxic T cells, they don’t require a specific antigen to recognize and attack a target cell. Instead, they simply inject chemicals that break down the target cells until they rupture and die.

NK cells are a significant “mind-body” link. Decrease in NK cell activity is one possible physiological explanation of how trauma can result in the development of cancer. It is established that we all produce abnormal cells, malignant cells, every day, but there are immune mechanisms that destroy them and thus keep their development under control. NK cells do not decrease in number under stress; but during stress and from the effects of sugar or drugs, their activity becomes sluggish. They become inert and ignore abnormal cells to which they would normally attach themselves and inject destructive granules that swirl within them.

If we create a toxic, congested terrain, this sets the stage for cancer cells to develop and proliferate; but another factor could be a trauma that can inactivate NK cells so that they no longer keep the incipient malignant cells under control, allowing the malignancy to accumulate and proliferate.

Seven Steps to Optimizing the Cellular Environment

Optimizing the cellular environment is just a fancy way of saying that in order to heal, we do not “fight disease” but create health. It may sometimes be necessary to fight disease, but success comes more easily when we have strong biological assets.

Step One is Detoxification. Detoxification, the process of internal cleansing, goes in stages. There are extreme detoxification programs that have been successful with cancer. Several established methods of cancer treatment such as the Gerson program, the Kelley program, and the Gonzalez approach use deep detoxification methods.

Step Two is Diet. This is the opposite of “out with the bad.” This is “in with the good.” Changes in our diet have been an important cause of what we call “diseases of civilization.” There is almost no doubt that these dietary changes have contributed to the cancer prevalence we see today. There are many foods that have well-known antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. We also know that vegetables are antioxidants and foods that are low glycemic will prevent damage from glycation.

Step Three is the Use of Supplements. Concentrated nutrients and “functional foods” are necessary for many of us who have had insufficiently nourishing diets or else are overly exposed to toxins and pollutants. Many supplements have been tested for use with cancer patients and some have even been found to enhance the outcome in patients undergoing conventional chemotherapy treatment.

Step Four is Lifestyle. There are many dangers in our environment. This is a very diverse subject ranging from the use of cell phones to cooking utensils. There are so many toxic threats in our environment, toxic chemical exposure, electromagnetic exposure, drugs, and the like that maintaining our health requires considerable vigilance. Attention to some of these routine toxic exposures may seem like “micromanagement” of our lifestyle to the point of being excessively fastidious, but it is still necessary for people with a cancer diagnosis or a history of cancer to expand their awareness of and control over these factors.

Step Five is Exercise. The importance of exercise to cancer patients cannot be overstated because, among other reasons, exercise improves cellular oxidation, lowers psychological and emotional stress, and reduces inflammation. It is as important a longevity factor as diet.

Step Six is Emotional Healing. Ryke Geerd Hamer, M.D. of Germany is the founder of German New Medicine. Dr. Hamer strongly believes that trauma is a major force in the origin of disease, including cancer. Dr. Hamer has collected more than 40,000 case studies that he claims support his thesis. He claims that healing can only take place after the initial trauma has been resolved, therefore the strategy of treatment in German New Medicine is to identify and treat the trauma and relieve its widespread effects on the whole system, which occur even at the level of organs and tissues. We need to understand the importance of trauma in a tangible way. Even if we look outside Dr. Hamer’s work, the effects of trauma on immunity are significant and well established.

Step Seven is Psychospiritual Healing. Psychospiritual healing is at a different level from the healing of emotional trauma. This is the level at which we address the existential issues of survival and of life after death. Whether you are a believer or unbeliever you can take advantage of meditation practice, qigong practice, or go on a vision quest, to name a few options. Studies show that there is measurable improvement of quality of life in cancer patients who take steps to connect to their spiritual nature. In China, qigong is even used as a cancer therapy.

Conclusion

What we do about our inner fitness is decisive in the outcome of our treatment, our longevity, and our sense of well-being. There is probably no method of treatment, conventional or otherwise, that is a stand-alone treatment. Success of any therapy depends upon our inner resources, both physical and emotional. Cultivating and reinforcing these inner resources is the key to success. Some people have robust vital resources; some have robust spiritual resources and strong will power; some people are deficient in inner resources and have fragile health. Regardless of the starting point, it is almost always possible to create some type of improvement in the status of your health and well-being if the willingness is there.

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Dan Kenner is a member of the NHF Board of Governors and is author of The Whole-body Workbook for Cancer (New Harbinger, 2009). Look for updates on cancer research on his website www.dankennerresearch.com.