CANCER: THIS IS BIG NEWS.
(even though it’s not quite new!)
A very significant study just published shows that fasting may improve cancer response to chemotherapy. Fasting seems to help protect healthy cells and help them become as much as 5 times more resistant to chemo than the cancer cells.
It’s only an animal study but is nevertheless significant, because it backs up everything we alternative doctors have said is critical about diet and cancer. Stressful foods help the cancer; a good diet holds it back. Fasting has been shown to be beneficial for humans with cancer.
Dr. Rodolph Breuss healed many cases during the 1970’s by starving the cancer with a 42-day fast. He thought denying protein to the tumor was what worked. He also developed a herb tea formula, “The Breuss Tea” mix and a specific mixture of organically grown carrot, beetroot, celery, Chinese radish and potato worked wonders on his patients.
The latest research showed starving laboratory mice for two days prior to chemotherapy treatment protected them from potentially toxic high doses of the drug, and they gained back the weight they lost after treatment.
Chemotherapy, of course, kills at least as many healthy cells as cancer cells (including killing cells of the immune system and so paralyzing the fight-back). But inducing temporary starvation increases the cells' resistance to stress, which may allow doctors to use higher doses of current cancer chemotherapy treatments to make them more effective.
In the study, published in the March 31 2008 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers studied the effects of starvation on cancerous and normal cells. First, they induced a starvation-related response in yeast cells, which made them 1,000 times more protected than untreated cells.
Then, they tested the effects of fasting on human and cancer cells in a test tube and in mice. The results showed starvation produced between a twofold and fivefold difference in stress resistance between the normal, starvation-treated cells and normal cells. In tests with live mice, of 28 mice starved for 48-60 hours before chemotherapy, only 1 died (less than 4%). Of 37 mice that were not starved prior to treatment, 20 mice died from chemotherapy toxicity (over 50%).
Why is this important? Well, there’s nothing wrong with chemo, in principle. It’s just that it kills good cells at about the same rate as bad cells. It’s VERY toxic. But if we could increase what is called the therapeutic margin (the difference between the dose which cures and the dose which kills), then all of a sudden it's a completely different game against cancer."
We don’t yet understand what fasting works so well. Researchers believe genetic cues prompt starved healthy cells to go into a hibernation-like mode that produces extreme resistance to stress (chemo is stress). But cancerous cells don't obey those cues and remain stuck in growth mode.
I doubt this and it does not explain why even just modifying the diet helps so much. I think the explanation lies in removing stressor foods (intolerance, allergies, junk chemicals and other poisons). This is why my DIET WISE book is so valuable for cancer victims. It enables them to produce a well-tolerated personal program that provides adequate nutrition.
It’s needed because patients cannot stay on a fast; but they can stay on my program for months or years (my wife does!)
SOURCES: Raffaghello, L. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, online early edition March 31, 2008. News release, University of Southern California.
COMMENT BY ONE OF MY READERS:
Dear Keith,
I am not very active in responses etc., but I do read your posts and this one triggers me to send you a story I heard "from first hand".
A physician in former Yugoslavia experienced three patients who had a very malicious form of cancer (I forgot which type), deadly in a short period in almost all cases.
All three survived.
The only reason he could think of was the fact that because of the war, all three were starved (very little food available).
Advice: Stop eating when diagnosed with cancer, or even better, stop eating too much all together.
Regards, Malcolm
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