HOME   HYGIENE LIBRARY CATALOG   CHAPTER 21

   Cancer is a state of cellular growth which occurs when some normal cells of a plant or an animal become abnormal and continue to grow abnormally. It is characterized by the ability of the abnormal cells to subdivide and grow outside of the constraints which automatically limit the subdivision and growth of normal cells. It is uncommon in nature. It does not occur in properly nourished and vigorously healthy humans.

   Cancer, in the many forms we know it, is a disease of civilization, and is practically unknown among primitive people properly nourished on a simple natural diet. Whether such people live in the Arctic or in Africa, and whether they eat fish and whale meat, or mashed corn and bananas, cancer as it afflicts our society, is unknown. The book Cancer--a Disease of Civilization by Vilhjalmur Stephansson, describes studies of Eskimos* in the late 1800s and early 1900's specifically looking for cancer among them, and how not one case could be found. The only Eskimos to ever develop cancer were those who came to live in white man's settlements and who adopted white man's dietary and other living habits. Similar observations have been made by doctors in other primitive natural areas of the world.

*The name Eskimo is derived from a Cree Indian expression meaning "he eats meat raw". Although the primitive Eskimo diet comprised mainly animal protein and fat, most of it was consumed raw, thus providing enzymes favorable for the more efficient metabolism of these substances, as previously described, The Eskimo had no refined foods at all, and did not use salt. In addition, the large amounts of ecosapentaenoic acid (EPA) contained in the diet ensured a non-sticky, free-flowing bloodstream. At the same time, the Eskimos' life was simple and stress-free and they got plenty of outdoor exercise.

   In his book The Cradle of the World and Cancer--A Disease of Civilization (1927), Dr E.H. Tipper said: "Cancer has been suspected of being a disease of civilization. judging from my experience in general practice in London, twenty years in West Africa, and again in rural England, I am convinced that this is true. It is due to the conventionalism and bad feeding of civilization, and is an exact index of the degree to which the alimentary tract has deviated from its natural and normal state of health". And referring to the practice of natives eating only natural foods he said: "There is no such thing as constipation--there is no cancer. At the first dawn of civilization amongst them this disease makes its appearance; where civilization is advanced it is rife".

   Dr Roger Williams in 1898, writing in Lancet, blamed environmental factors of the alarming increase in cancer during the preceding 50 years, and noted the death rate in England had increased from 17 per 10,000 per year to 88. Dr Williams attributed the increase to the fact that meat consumption had doubled, and he advocated eating more vegetables and getting more fresh air and exercise. However, since then the very opposite to Dr Williams' advice has been adopted, and accordingly, cancer as a cause of death is now second only to cardiovascular disease, and continues to increase.

   The most common form of cancer in affluent Western countries is cancer of the bowel which includes cancer of the colon and rectum. The third National Cancer Survey by the US National Cancer Institute showed that this form of cancer now causes more deaths than any other. Previously, breast cancer caused more deaths among women, and lung cancer among men. The incidence of cancer is much lower among vegetarians, particularly those who consume no dairy products.

   Cancer growths are called tumors or neoplasms and may occur in many different forms and in different parts of the body. Arising from cells in originally normal tissue, the initial growth is called a primary tumor. Primary tumors usually occur in tissues which in their day-to-day function have a constant wearing out and renewal of cells--tissues such as the skin and the lining of the digestive tract, the respiratory tract and the female genital canal. Primary tumors also occur at locations in which there is cell renewal due to irritation or injury. Primary cancer rarely occurs in muscle or nerve tissue in which tissue the cells do not normally subdivide and renew, but these tissues are capable of supporting the growth of secondary tumors originating from stray cancer cells from a primary cancer elsewhere.

   Although they vary greatly in appearance and function, all cells of the body are basically the same, having developed from the same primitive cells of the early developing fetus after conception. Having developed into different specialized cells of the various body tissues, they are said to be differentiated. To become cancer cells, normal cells change in degrees to a primitive form capable of the unrestrained reproduction characteristic of primitive undifferentiated cells. The degree to which cells become de-differentiated determines the degree of malignancy of the cancer. If a tumor is composed of cells which are only slightly abnormal and grow slowly with near-normal cell division without spreading, it is considered benign, presenting no immediate threat to life.

   Tumors consist both of cancer cells and cells which are apparently normal, the latter sometimes making up 90% of the total, as if the body was attempting to contain the cancer cells by surrounding them with normal cells. Malignant cells frequently detach from the primary tumor and circulate in the lymph and bloodstream. Usually they are apprehended in the lymph nodes adjacent to the primary tumor and destroyed by the white cells. However, in cancer patients the immune system is defective in varying degrees, and the migrating cancer cells may not only survive in the lymph nodes, but proceed further to colonize elsewhere in the body as a secondary tumor. This process is called metastasis.

   Few people die from the primary tumor, but once the cancer has metastasized the condition is usually regarded in orthodox circles as "terminal".

   When cancer grows or metastasizes, it does not "infect" adjacent cells but grows as an entity, still reproducing abnormal cells the same as itself. For instance, if breast cancer metastasizes to the lung, the secondary tumor in the lung will be composed of cancerous breast cells.

   Whereas in the past, malignancy has been considered as a virtual death sentence, this is no longer the case. Many people have recovered naturally from "terminal" cancer and there now is sufficient knowledge of cancer to help others do the same. (See Spontaneous Remission of Cancer.) With this knowledge the complete avoidance of cancer is simple and easy.

   Some body organs such as the liver and the adrenal gland, having been substantially damaged, can regenerate to almost full capacity. Nerve cells and muscle cells, when destroyed, do not regenerate, but nor do they commonly become cancerous.

   A medical definition of cancer which may assist the reader's understanding and acceptance of the detailed explanation which then follows is given by Professor Otto Neunhoeffer of Hamburg, Germany:

   "The malignant disease is a syndrome characterizing results arising from abnormal biochemical reactions, which if not interrupted or reversed, result in a tumor, which then in itself becomes a very active source for abnormal primary reactions, thus accelerating the entire process.

   "It is an accepted fact that a malignant tumor develops only after an average eight-year period of pre-cancer. To understand this preliminary period when the condition actually existed, even though undetected, it is necessary to distinguish between biochemically malignant disease, and a malignant tumor."

   Whereas cancer patients usually die of cachexia, which is the wasting away of the body as its vital processes progressively fail, and whereas it is clear that the growth of diseased cells is only part of this degenerative process, it is obvious that the prevention and reversal of the disease depend not upon destruction of cancer cells with vicious medical procedures, but in correcting the underlying defects in body chemistry which initiated the whole process in the first place.

How cancer starts

   The general medical viewpoint of cancer being a cellular upset initiated by some quirk of nature, and localized somewhere within an otherwise healthy body, is absolutely untenable to anyone possessing an enquiring mind and reasonable power of observation. Based solely on the existence of the localized symptom (ie. the cancer growth) and completely inconsistent with most of the known facts, this viewpoint, as a basis for cancer treatment and research, has prevented and continues to prevent any chance of solution to the cancer problem.

   Although the "novel" concept of cancer being a constitutional disease primarily of dietary origin has been in existence at least since 1809 when Dr Richard Lambe of London wrote a treatise on the cure of cancer using a diet of raw fruit and vegetables, only recently has the cancer "establishment" started to seriously investigate this possibility, having in the past ruthlessly suppressed such notions and all those who held them.

   Among the many independent physicians who over the years have used dietary methods in researching and treating cancer, are four of the 20th Century's greatest men of medicine, selected here because their descriptions of the cancer process most adequately explain the subject.

1. Dr Otto Warburg, double Nobel Prize winner and Director of the Max Planck Institute of Cell Physiology, Germany. The holder of many international honors, Dr Warburg was considered by Dr Dean Burk, head of the National Cancer Institute at the time, to be the world's greatest bio-chemist.
2. Dr Max Gerson, of Germany, friend and confidant of Dr Albert Schweitzer, who described Gerson as a medical genius.
3. Dr William F. Koch of USA, BA, MA, PhD, MD, described by Dr Willard Dow, founder of the Dow Chemical Company, to be the greatest bio-chemist of his time and so far ahead of his contemporaries they could not understand him.:

   Compassionate men and competent authors, typically "ahead of their time", these doctors between them had over 200 years experience in researching and successfully treating cancer in all its stages.

   Because the opinions of these great doctors on the causes of cancer essentially agree, and because their achieved successes prove their common theory in the absence of any other tenable hypothesis, the explanation which follows is a composite of their theories and observations.

The cancer milieu

   Although individually only a tiny component of the body, every single cell is a living organism in its own right, and needs to be constantly supplied with nutrients, fuel and oxygen, at the same time needing to be cleansed and its waste products to be removed. Responsible for this care is the extracellular fluid (lymph) surrounding the cell which derives from the bloodstream and is continually changing. The quality of this fluid is, of course, dependent on the quality of the blood which is in turn dependent on the quality of the diet and the efficiency of the liver. Not only must the liver supply the bloodstream with the proper nutrients, it must at the same time keep it as free as possible from toxins.

   The Western diet and other civilized indiscretions result in a toxic, fat-clogged bloodstream and eventual liver impairment, responsible for the deterioration of the cellular environment to that known as the "cancer milieu".

Oxygen

   In 1947 Dr F. Windesch of Germany demonstrated that by intermittent withholding of oxygen, normal body cells could be changed into cancer cells. This discovery was confirmed in 1953 by Drs Goldblatt and Cameron (Experimental Medicine, 97, 525, 1953).

   Dr Otto Warburg, the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Cell Physiology, in Germany, stated in 1955 that a lifetime of research had convinced him that cancer was caused by oxygen deprivation to the cells.

   Dr H.A. Schweigart, another German, found that cancerous tissue always is depleted in oxygen.

   Dr W. Spencer Way of Florida, writing on the importance of oxygen (Journal of the American Association of Physicians, December, 1951) said: "This confirms the finding of Fischer who kept cancerous mice under a pressure of two atmospheres for 14 hours and cured their cancer. If agents acting as catalyzers were used, the results were even better".

The role of blood viscosity and circulation

   As described in Chapter 11, the degree of viscosity of the bloodstream is a key factor in all disease, more so than ever with cancer. Apart from anything else, the freedom of the blood to flow is a crucial factor alone. As we have seen, the degree of freedom to flow is determined mainly by the viscosity of the blood.

   The connection between high blood viscosity and poor oxygen supply with cancer is clear. Referring again to Dr Dintenfas' paper on blood viscosity:

   "Wardle in 1967 suggested that it is the increased blood viscosity in the small digital arteries which is responsible for the common symptom of malignancy. Red cell aggregation, platelet aggregation and hypercoagulability can contribute to this syndrome. Crenated red cells, raised fibrinogen, increased platelet stickiness are all common features of malignancy."

   It is commonly known that the ESR (red cell sedimentation rate, see Chapter 10) of cancer patients is always high. Dr Melvin Knisely stated in 1947:

   "Thus far, completely unagglutinated blood has been found only in strictly healthy animals and men. No severely ill person has yet been seen who did not have intravascular agglutination of the blood and visibly pathologic vessel walls." (From the paper, "Sludged Blood," by Melvin H. Knisely, Edward H. Bloch, Theodore S. Eliot and Louise Warner, Hall Laboratory of Anatomy, University of Chicago, Department of Zoophysiology, University of Copenhagen, and Departments of Anatomy and Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee, Science, Nov 7, 1947.)

   It appears that in tissues provided with reasonable circulation, primary cancer does not readily occur, and furthermore, should it have already started, there will be no metastasis in tissues where free circulation is maintained. The following extracts from Dr Leopold Dintenfas' book, Rheology of Blood in Diagnostic and Preventive Medicine (1976) explain why:

   "Olwyn (1971) in his editorial, reviewed the effect of anticoagulants on tumor metastasis and noted that a number of investigators found a significant protection from metastasis by the application of heparin, plasmin, warfarin or decoumarol. In an informal survey of 200 patients with a history of myocardial infarction or cerebral arterial insufficiency, receiving heparin daily or every second day for periods of two to 22 years, Griffith (1971) found no instance of malignant tumor. Michaels (1971), who reviewed 540 patients on oral anticoagulant therapy for thromboembolic disorders) found presence of metastasis reduced eightfold against statistical expectation."

   A similar study by Dr Bjorn Stinkvist, University Hospital, Upsala, Sweden, on women maintained on digitalis for cardiac problems, showed that spreading breast cancer was only one-tenth of the rate experienced by women not on digitalis, and even when it occurred the cancer was less aggressive.

   Impairment of free circulation can also be caused mechanically by tight clothing or plain inactivity. In a number of cases tight-fitting brassieres have been suspected as a factor in breast cancer, particularly in overweight women.

Pre-cancer and de-differentiation

   Normal body cells will degenerate if for some reason their oxygen respiration is impaired, and if the impairment is severe enough, of course they will die. As their respiration becomes reduced, the cells, in an effort to survive, gradually change over to a process of fermentation for their energy needs. This is an inefficient process, but capable of sustaining life. Lactic acid is produced as a byproduct instead of carbon dioxide.

   As the changeover progresses, the cells in stages come to resemble primitive forms similar to embryonic cells, although still identifiable with the tissue of their origin. This change is called de-differentiation.

   According to the degree of de-differentiation, the cells look and behave less and less like normal cells and more and more like primitive cells--capable of subdivision and growth outside of normal body control. Such unrestrained growth is cancer, and as there are varying degrees of de-differentiation, so there are varying degrees of cancer. In other words, the degree of malignancy (ie. uncontrollability and rate of growth) is proportional to the degree of de-differentiation and fermentation.

   It is significant that in pre-cancerous tissue, the process of unrestrained growth does not seem to commence until triggered by the call for new cell growth in a location where some form of irritation or injury has occurred. Because of this, the belief has widely been held that cancer can be caused simply by irritation or injury.

   And because the mere restoration of plentiful oxygen does not alone return cancer cells to normal, another widely held belief is that the process of de-differentiation is irreversible, and this would indeed be the case if cancer was caused by a mutation as is commonly believed. Contrary to this belief, Dr Koch always held that if the correct chemistry was provided, it was possible for the cells' respiratory cycle to be restored.

   Another interesting fact is that in all body cells, even those of a newborn baby, there exists a virus-like organism which always multiplies in conditions of disease. This proliferation occurs as a natural event, and so numerous do these organisms become in pre-cancerous cells and cancer cells that at one time it was generally believed that they were the actual cause of cancer. The virus theory of cancer is still believed by some researchers, who have unsuccessfully attempted for years to produce a vaccine against them.

   As cancer growth increases, so too do the levels of lactic acid and other toxic wastes which further worsen the cancer milieu so that a vicious circle ensues. The cancer, relying on fermentation for energy (fermentation is only one-fifteenth as efficient as respiration) demands more nutritional sustenance than the body can afford, and so the body, overloaded with toxins, wastes away. This is cachexia, which leads to death, usually by pneumonia or heart failure.

   The local swelling which occurs with cancer is enhanced due to the fact that cancer cells contain up to 90% of their mass as water compared to 66% for normal cells, according to Dr Raymond Damadian, the inventor of the FONAR* diagnostic scanner. The increased water is due to the high levels of sodium in the cells.

*FONAR is an electronic scanner which can detect cancer cells by interpreting their differently structured water content. The name FONAR is derived from the words, Field Focussing Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. FONAR is expected to replace the currently used CAT scanner and is described in the Journal of the American Medical Association (January 8, 1982) as characterizing "a new wave of medicine"

   Whereas it has been demonstrated in the laboratory that the intermittent withholding of oxygen from a cell can alone cause it to become cancerous, this condition does not appear to occur in the body to the extent of, by itself, causing cancer. Although high blood viscosity, reduced circulation and low oxygen supply are always involved, further nutritional or chemical impairment to the oxygen respiratory cycle within the cell is necessary. In fact, the latter influence alone, if pronounced enough, can initiate the cancer process even if adequate oxygen is available to the cell. In this case the cell is deprived of oxygen because it is deprived of the enzymes necessary to use the oxygen. This depends on nutritional factors, the presence of carcinogens, and the state of the vital organs, the liver in particular.

   Dr Warburg considered the breakdown of cell respiration to be due primarily to the absence of what he called "active respiratory substances" inadequately supplied in the diet, and to a lesser extent, poor oxygen supply in the circulation. He thought in some cases carcinogens were implicated by their effect of inhibiting the action of the active respiratory substances. The active respiratory substances included iron salts Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Thiamin (Vitamin B1) Pantothenic Acid, Nicotinamide and Cobalamin (Vitamin B12).

   Dr Koch said that clinical observations disclosed the persistence of toxemia over a period of as long as twenty years previous to the advent of the growth. The eventual breakdown in the cells' respiratory cycle occurred when various toxic amines deactivated the key respiratory component of the cell called the "functional carbonyl group (FCG)". Oxygen transport from the blood was reduced by poor circulation and gellation of tissue colloids, he said, but this alone, without the deactivation of the FCG was not sufficient to cause cancer. Evidence of subsequent fermentation was the large elimination of lactic acid even when the lungs were well ventilated (from the Survival Factor in Neoplastic and Viral Disease --William F. Koch MD).

   Dr Gerson divided the cancer process into two components, the general component and the local component. "The general component," he said, "comprises mainly of the deterioration of the essential organs of the digestive tract, chiefly the liver. There the damage is done by a permanent daily poisoning brought about by our modern civilization". The subsequent change in cells from normal to embryonic form, using fermentation--ie. the local component--he ascribed to an inadequacy of oxidizing enzymes and the presence in the cell of sodium excess and potassium shortage.

   Dr Moerman observed that cancer only appeared in tissues that were chronically sick, and said, "In perfectly sound tissues cancer has never yet, to my knowledge, come into being". He said the factor which finally caused the breakdown in cell respiration was injury to the oxygenating power of the cell due to the absence of nutritional substances such as Vitamins A, B complex, C and E, together with citric acid, iron, iodine, sulphur and others, together with an adverse sodium-potassium ratio. Dr Moerman said, "It is no longer a theory that cancer is a disease of the body as a whole, it has been incontestably proved. Each cancer patient shows a great number of clinical symptoms which have not been proved to be a consequence of the local tumor, but have been proved to be caused by an abnormal metabolism. To support this opinion I need only to point out the increasing emaciation of the body, which symptom we call cachexy, followed by death. We all know that this emaciation followed by death, occurs repeatedly, whereas on examination it appears that the cancer tumor is no larger than a chicken's egg. It is a fact the emaciation, followed death can never be explained by this tumor somewhere in the body; it can be explained by an abnormal condition of the metabolism. The cancer patient definitely does not die from the tumor in such a case, he dies from the disease of the body as a whole. This disease--and not the tumor exclusively--is cancer.

   "The symptoms that occur with cancer--namely general symptoms, cachexy, multiplication of the virus and the mortal growth of the tumor tissue--are results of disturbed metabolism." (From A Solution to the Cancer Problem --Cornelius Moerman, MD.)

   The "disturbed metabolism" (ie. the cancer milieu) referred to by Dr Moerman, is capable of causing varying degrees of cell de-differentiation but apparently not always to the extent of causing actual cancer--maybe benign tumor growth but not a malignant one. Malignancy requires a greater degree of de-differentiation, and this is where tissue irritation or injury comes in:

   When normal healthy tissue is injured, before healing growth can commence the cells in the injured area must first de-differentiate into near embryonic form in order to multiply rapidly. When the healing is complete, the cells become differentiated again and growth ceases. In pre-cancerous tissue, however, containing cells already partially de-differentiated, the further de-differentiation called for by the attempted healing at the site of irritation or injury may be sufficient to convert some of the cells into cancer cells.

   An illustration of this process is supplied by laboratory experiments in which the powerful carcinogen, coal tar, is applied to patches of skin on mice in order to produce cancer. In properly fed and exercised (ie. very healthy) mice, cancer does not eventuate, but in "normal" laboratory mice cancer usually appears after varying lengths of time. However, if before the appearance of the anticipated cancer, injury such as a cut* is caused in tissue remote from the patch of coal tar, cancer will appear not where the coal tar is, but at the site of the injury. This was demonstrated over sixty years ago by Dr H.T. Deelman of Groningen, Germany. Before that, in 1925, in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Drs Murphy and Sturm reported: "It has not been an unusual observation in our experience that mice, failing to develop skin cancer as the result of the application of tar, are found to have tumors of the lungs".

*See Medical treatment of cancer, danger of biopsy and surgery.

   This shows clearly that the coal tar causes cancer essentially by its poisoning effect of the bloodstream and subsequent breakdown of the body's detoxifying capability, and that the local irritation at the site of the patch of coal tar is only a secondary cause.

   In humans the breakdown of the body's detoxifying capability may take many years, with the gradual deterioration of the liver, kidneys, and other vital organs, depending on the nature of the abuse they have been subjected to.

   It is held by most authorities that the process of cell de-differentiation is irreversible, and for the conventionally held mutation theory to be true this would have to be the case. However, Dr Koch long ago demonstrated how the oxygen respiration cycle could be restored in some cases and the cancer cells returned to normal. More recently, reversions of cancer cells to normal have been again reported and are described in the report of the National Research Council, titled, Diet, Nutrition and Cancer (1982). In one of the cases, cultured cells reverted to normal after the application of ascorbic acid, and in another, cancer cells reverted to normal of their own accord when, in an experiment, they were relocated to their location of origin in the body. One of the leaders in this sort of research is Dr Leo Sachs of Israel, who reported to the 13th International Cancer Congress in Seattle in 1982 how he had changed leukemia cells and sarcoma cells in laboratory animals back to normal differentiated cells, either by the injection of certain protein substances or by agents which caused the cell to produce these substances.

   Epithelial tissues such as the skin and lining of the digestive tract etc., which in a normal healthy body are being constantly renewed by continuous replication of cells and at the same time are exposed to varying degrees of irritation,* are therefore more prone to cancer. For this reason, cancer of the skin and at various locations along the digestive tract and respiratory system are by far the most common and account for the majority of cancer deaths. Cells capable of rapid growth when influenced by certain hormones, such as cells of the female breast, are also more prone in some circumstances to cancer. The most common stimulus to such cell growth is the excessive production of estrogen which occurs on a high fat diet. Such cancers are known as hormone-dependent cancers, but in all cases of common cancers, however, it can be shown that poor blood and reduced circulation are the primary factors.

*Irritation of the mouth and upper digestive tract, including the stomach, may be caused by highly salted or heavily spiced food, very hot food or drink, and the heavy use of alcohol or smoking. Constant pipe-smoking may irritate the lip, sufficiently to trigger lip cancer. Asbestos dust and cigarette smoke are irritants to the lungs, and talcum powder to the female genital tract. As such these are secondary, not primary, factors in producing cancer.

   For many years it has been believed by some doctors that cancer is caused by local irritation alone, so often has cancer been observed to appear at such sites (eg. cancer of the lip among pipe-smokers). It can easily be seen, however, that the irritation is not the prime cause of the cancer but merely the trigger action which by calling for a healing process has instigated the critical de-differentiation of cells.

   Although the intestine lining has a rapid turnover of cells, cancer of the intestine or duodenum is extremely rare. As can be seen from Fig. 20.1, there are four common cancer sites in the digestive tract ahead of the intestine or duodenum and six common cancer sites after it, while the intestine itself appears to be immune. Why is this? The explanation is that the first four sites are exposed to direct damage from irritants contained in food, such as spices, condiments, salt, various chemicals and excessive heat and cold. Once food enters the intestine however, it is no longer too hot or cold and the harmful irritants are neutralized by the enzymes of the digestive juices, and even though there is a high turnover of epithelial cells in the intestine, there is no direct tissue damage and therefore no subsequent cancer. Following the intestine is the bowel (colon) with its six common cancer sites. These are explainable by the toxic process and chemicals produced in the bowel itself, described under the heading "The Role of Diet".

Figure 20.1 Common Cancer sites in the intestines

There is strong medical support for the belief that many 
cancers might be prevented by eliminating chemical 
irritants from food. Malignant growths of the human 
digestive tract tend to appear in the "narrows' of that 
tract where food slows down its passage and rubs against 
the intestinal linings most forcefully. These "narrows" 
are shaded spots in, the above sketch, marked with numbers: 
1. the larynx; 2. the tracheal bifurcation; 3. the entrance 
to the cardiac stomach; 4. the pre-pyloric stomach; 
5. the ileo-cecal valve; 6. the cecum; 7. the right 
colonic flexure; 8. the left colonic flexure; 
9, the sigmoid colon; and 10. the rectum. Occurrence of 
cancers at these point is significant when one notes 
how relatively long are the cancer-free portions of the 
intestine. (Source: Natural Food and Farming,  Atlanta, Texas.)

   Primary tumors rarely, if ever, occur in nerve or muscle tissue, because although capable of healing when injured, they are made of cells which do not replicate.

   That the entire constitution is involved in the cancer process is evident by the fact that, preceding cancer there are many general signs of degeneration. Dr Moerman listed these as:

• Dry, cracked, scaly or horny skin
• Changes in mucous membranes
• Unhealthy color of tongue and inside lips
• Rhagades at comer of mouth
• Scaly rings around the rings of the nose
• Nails hard and crumbly with line formations
• Hair dry and dead looking
• Signs of edema on inside lower leg
• Low vitality
• Bleeding gums (Vitamin C deficiency)
• Easy bruising (Vitamin C deficiency)
• Slow healing of wounds
• Symptoms of anemia, alkalosis, poor blood
• Poor appetite, loss of weight

   Singly, these signs were not pathognomonic of cancer, Dr Moerman said, but in combination they were.

   Another sign which often precedes the appearance of cancer, cirrhosis and kidney failure, is body-wide itching. This finding was made after a study of generalized pruritis (itching) in elderly patients by Drs Gary Kantor and Donald Lookinghill of the Milton Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania.

   Dr R. Stoeger, of Germany, in his book, To Age--But Without Cancer, describes his observations of cancer patients which indicated that they previously had displayed low thyroid activity and lowered immune responses. More recently, studies at St John's Naturopathic Center, Portland, Oregon, reported in the Cancer News Journal, Vol 15, No 4, Winter, 1981, quote:

   "100% of all (cancer) patients had below normal temperatures (96.8-97.8°), but simultaneously with measurable immune response and the patients' increased sense of wellbeing, body temperatures returned to the normal range (98.0-98.6°). And, even more interesting, those patients who continued to improve, stabilized at 98.6°. This included the high percentage of patients who had always had a low temperature. "

   These observations fit in with those of Dr Edward Howell that in well established cancer and other chronic disease conditions, enzyme levels and activity in the body were below normal.

   Food aversions are yet another sign of cancer. It is common for cancer patients to develop aversions to certain food substances such as meat, chocolate and caffeine, which are known to be cancer causing. Such aversions are obviously a defense reaction by the body. In the book, Human Nutrition and Dietetics by Davidson, Passmore, Brock and Truswell, the authors state: "Doctors and dieticians should be constantly aware of the diagnostic significance of loss of weight, anorexia and food aversions as early signs of malignant disease".

   Notwithstanding the many general signs which precede the onset of cancer, it is difficult for conventional researchers to recognize the constitutional nature of the disease because they study only the biological process of the disease in its final stage. In their experiments with animals they apply a powerful chemical to the animals and observe cancer appear as a result. To the observer, a single chemical has caused the cancer, even though he knows that dietary factors can influence the onset and course of the disease. The confusion in the medical outlook is unavoidable while cancer is viewed as a local cellular disease. Researchers concentrate on looking only for what Dr Gerson called the local component. They should read Dr Gerson's book which, in referring to experiments on animals shows that whatever chemical assault is necessary to cause cancer in them, the cancer never commences until after the liver has been damaged "together with pathological changes in the kidneys, spleen and lymphatic apparatus". Further enlightenment would follow after reading the description of Dr Gerson's experiment in which he completely eliminated cancer in a rat simply by interconnecting* its blood circulation with that of a healthy rat with a fully functioning liver.

*This is possible with inbred strains of animals which, like identical twins, are fully compatible.

   However, the constitutional nature of cancer--a point of medical contention for nearly two hundred years--is gradually being realized in conventional circles. It is now recognized that cancer occurs in stages and references are made in medical reports to conditions of pre-cancer. A fairly recent news item is significant, headed:

   "Cancer Detected Before It Begins" (Sydney Daily Telegraph, September 2, 1980) "A unique technique detecting the onset of breast cancer before it appears is being developed by a Sydney biophysicist. Dr Veronica James is working at the University of NSW on an x-ray technique to pick up changes in breast tissue which might herald a cancerous tumor. Changes occur in the elastic substance collagen of the breast before even a minute cancer appears, according to Dr James."

   It must soon become obvious to everyone that cancer does not suddenly originate from a mutation in the nucleus of a healthy cell.

   Once the biological sequence necessary for cancer is complete, and cancer cells have actually formed, cancer growth will still not eventuate if the immune system has reasonable function. Many people live apparently cancer-free because of this protection. Therefore, although not a cause of cancer, failure or partial failure of the immune system is a necessary prerequisite for development of cancer growth.

   In his book, Cancer--The Facts (Oxford University Press, 1979), Sir Ronald Bodley Scott says: "In the majority of cases there is a preliminary period of vague ill-health rapidly succeeded by a phase in which the symptoms are those of the primary tumor".

   Thus the cancerous growth or tumor is really only a symptom of the real disease which is lipotoxemia and the subsequent tissue degeneration and immune system weakness which follow. A world famous cancer specialist, Dr D.W. Smithers in his paper "Cancer, an Attack on Cytologism" (Lancet: 493, 1962) said: "overgrowth and de-differentiation (of cells) are effects of disorganization--repercussions, not driving forces. Cancer is no more a disease of cells than a traffic jam is a disease of cars".

Metastasis

   Secondary tumors are formed by cells of the primary growth detaching and colonizing elsewhere in the body. As mentioned, most circulating cancer cells do not survive; for such cells to establish as secondary growths they need to be stationary in contact with tissue in a location favorable to them, such as within a blocked vessel or stationary blood clot. As mentioned in The Role of Blood Viscosity, metastasis does not occur when the bloodstream is kept free-flowing, either by proper diet or the use of blood thinning drugs. Once established, the growth of secondaries may be comparatively rapid compared to that of the primary tumor and is usually considered, in the orthodox view, as a "terminal" condition.

   The more rapid growth of metastasized cancer in some cases may be explained by the fact that. while in their original location cancer cells are still partially responsive to normal growth restraint, while in the distant location there is no restraint. To illustrate this, experiments have shown that it is possible for certain cancer cells to become normal when returned to their original tissue.

   One such case is described as follows: "Certain cancers can be produced simply by transplanting cells to novel sites in the body where they can multiply without the usual restraint or by placing them next to inert solid surfaces such as plastic or metal. It seems unlikely that mutation plays any part in these processes, especially since certain of the cancers produced in this way will recover their normal restrained behavior when they are returned to their normal location" (from Diet, Nutrition and Cancer, US National Research Council, 1982).

Cancer tests

   By the time you have read this chapter, it will be appreciated (or perhaps not appreciated) there is a strong likelihood that the average person, if they have not already developed cancer, is probably well on the way to doing so. Autopsies of people who have died from various other causes than cancer have showed that unsuspected pre-cancer or cancer was present inside the majority. Cancer tests are not exact, and even well developed cancer may not be revealed. Tissue biopsies and exploratory surgery, whatever they may reveal, are damaging and more likely to accelerate the development and spread of cancer anyhow.

   Kasper Blond, MD, FICS, world famed cancer specialist, says: "Certain liver function tests are a more reliable indication of pre-cancerous and cancerous conditions than biopsies. These tests indicating a disordered function of the liver are not specific for cancer and are present in all chronic nutritional disorders as well. . . An increase of the fasting blood sugar over 90 mg% is always a sign of a pre-cancerous disorder. The number of tests indicating that cancer is a general disease is constantly increasing and no scientist today can seriously consider cancer as a local disease.

   If a patient has less than 10 mg% of Vitamin C in his blood, one is justified in suspecting cancer.

   "Supporters of the early diagnosis of cancer do not realize that the appearance of a local tumor occurs at a very late phase in the course of the cancer disease.

   "Anyone who has studied the results of correct feeding of the cancer patient must be impressed by the number of chemical blood-changes in the course of the disease."

   So when all is said and done, what really is the point of medical tests? Non-invasive tests are open to doubt, invasive tests cause harm and are likely to worsen the situation. Whatever medical treatment which follows is innocuous anyhow.

   No matter what the tests reveal, there is only one sensible course of action to start with, and that is to stop doing the things which cause cancer.

The role of diet

   A study conducted at Loma Linda University, California, on 100,000 Californian Seventh Day Adventists, with emphasis on diet showed that their cancer rate (all kinds) is half that of the national average.

   The Australian, June 10, 1975 reported: "According to a survey of 800 Adventists in Sydney, incidence of common malignant diseases such as lung cancer and stomach cancer is only one-third that of the rest of the community. Incidence of abnormal blood pressure and high cholesterol levels was about 10% of that of the rest of the community".

   Upon investigation, the connection between bad diet and cancer becomes just as obvious as its implication with the other degenerative diseases.

   The pollution and oxygen deprivation in the fluids of the body which form the environment surrounding the cells of all tissues is directly attributable to bad diet, and the factors causing lipotoxemia have already been fully described. In the cancers common in industrial countries, once again fat appears to be the main villain (see Figs 20.2, 20.3, 20.5), followed by cholesterol and excess protein. Apart from its contribution to lipotoxemia, fat adds further to the cancer risk, as already mentioned, by causing increased production of the growth stimulating hormone, estrogen. As previously explained, red cell aggregation, platelet stickiness and high blood viscosity invariably accompany a diet high in these substances, and are made worse by sugar, alcohol, tea, coffee, salt, and the rest of the tasty junk with which our bodies are assaulted.

Fig 19.2 Breast cancer mortality rates

Breast cancer mortality (age adjusted) vs per capita consumption of animal fat. 
Compare this group with Fig. 19.5. Italy, Israel and Malta, with low animal fat
intake, still have high cancer mortality. This is accountable to the high 
intake of vegetable oils by these people.

Fig 19.3 Colon cancer mortality rates

Colon cancer mortality (age adjusted) vs per capital consumption of 
total dietary fat, both animal and vegetable.

   Moreover, the Western diet, as discussed earlier, is very deficient in Vitamin C due to inadequate amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. Vitamin C is essential for building and maintaining collagen, the protein substance which binds the tissue cells together; it is necessary for proper utilization of oxygen by the cells, for the integrity of the immune system, and for detoxifying the body. All vitamins and minerals of course are essential, especially Vitamins A and E, in preventing cancer, but Vitamin C is the most difficult to obtain from normal food sources in adequate amounts.

   Dr F.W. Forbes Ross of England, in his book Cancer: Its Genesis and Treatment (published in 1912) emphasized the paramount importance of potassium in the diet in the prevention and reversal of the cancer process. He ensured all his regular patients maintained an adequate intake of potassium and claimed that not one of them ever developed cancer, notwithstanding that many had come to him with an obscure internal disease which he suspected may have been cancer. Dr Forbes Ross also claimed a high success rate in treating patients who came to him with cancer, by supplementing their diets with bicarbonate of potash.

   On a good diet it is unnecessary to use supplementary vitamins or minerals (with perhaps the exception of Vitamin C, as previously discussed) and it should be noted that both potassium and magnesium are inadequately provided in meat, eggs, cheese, fat, sugar and grains.

   The chemical circumstances which directly influence the behavior of body cells is determined, moreover, not only by the substances of which the food is formed, but also by whether they are cooked or raw and by the way in which they are digested and assimilated and the wastes eliminated.

   Constipation: For over a hundred years it has been observed by doctors that the most common factor associated with all forms of cancer is the condition of constipation. Not only does the Western diet cause blood pollution and high blood viscosity, it is guaranteed also to cause constipation. In most respectable homes can be found, along with all the other patent medicines, some form or other of bowel-opening preparation, and perhaps one or two magazines in the bathroom.

   Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, the famous British surgeon,* repeatedly emphasized that he had never known a single case of cancer which had not been preceded by prolonged intestinal stasis. Professor Aviles of the Biochemistry of Cancer Department, Guadalajara, Mexico, in an article entitled "The Anti-cancerous Properties of Vitamin F" (Let's Live, September 1954), said that out of 7,715 cancer patients examined over a 15 year period, 99% had suffered from constipation and that the degree of malignancy was parallel to the degree of constipation.

*Sir Arbuthnot Lane considered the large intestine (colon) to be the seat of many diseases and at one time specialized in completely removing this organ. This drastic measure worked inasmuch as metabolic disorders such as arthritis symptoms, gall bladder "involvements", thyroid difficulties etc. would disappear in a few days following the operation. (See The Health Secrets of a Naturopathic Doctor, M. 0. Garten, 1967.)

   Dr Denis Burkitt and Dr Hugh Trowell of England both spent 25 years as doctors in areas of rural Africa. These doctors observed over that time that constipation in these areas was virtually non-existent, and so too was cancer. Dr Burkitt noted that the rural Africans passed about one pound of fecal matter per day, about four times the amount of English people and that the Africans' feces were soft, bulky and almost odorless.

   Investigation showed another significant thing. The transit time from eating to elimination was for the African about 24 hours whereas with the English it was three days or more. This meant that, even with a daily bowel movement, the wastes of food eaten by the English remained within them three times as long.

   The obvious cause of these differences was the sort of food eaten. The average African villager ate mainly cornmeal, beans, bananas and potatoes. This diet was low in fat and animal protein, devoid of refined carbohydrate, and contained about three times the amount of vegetable fiber of the English diet.

   The researchers analyzed countless medical records, and this is what became evident:

1. Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in Western countries, was virtually unknown in rural Africa.
2. The cancers of civilized populations were also virtually unknown.
3. So too were diabetes, hypertension, appendicitis, hemorrhoids, diverticulosis, varicose veins, phlebitis, obesity and hernia.

   The "civilized" Western diet not only causes lipotoxemia and high blood viscosity by virtue of excess fat, cholesterol, protein and so on entering the system from the digestion, but in addition causes autointoxication when unexpelled wastes putrefy in the colon (large bowel). The digestive process involves bile from the liver and the action of bacteria normal to the colon. These bacteria comprise 20-30% of the bulk of the feces. There are different types of colon bacteria. Healthy people have a type which requires oxygen to live, called aerobic bacteria. With the putrefying remains of a high fat, high protein, low fiber diet, the bacteria change to a form called anaerobic bacteria, which take over the colon, and these react with acids in the bite to form poisons, which include apcholic acid and deoxycholic acid which are carcinogenic. Not only is the colon therefore constantly exposed to these carcinogens in an oxygenless situation, but at the same time the toxins are taken up by the bile fluid which circulates back to the liver, and so enter the already toxic bloodstream to exert their carcinogenic effect throughout the entire body.

   The Western diet is further conducive to cancer in that it lacks not only the necessary fiber but lacks also the anti-carcinogenic substances contained in the missing raw fruit and vegetables.

   On the other hand, with a low fat, high fiber diet, normal aerobic bacteria operate free of toxins, the high fiber feces contain a much higher proportion of intact bile, and the fecal matter stays in the colon less than 18 hours. This study was described by Dr M.G. Hall of the Bacterial Metabolism Research Laboratory, London, in the papers, "Fecal Bile Acids and Clostridea in Patients with Cancer of the Large Bowel" (Lancet, March 8, 1975) and "Steroid Nuclear Dehydration and Colon Cancer" (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 27, 1974)

   Appendicitis is caused by poisons and harmful bacteria of the colon. As described by Dr Norman Walker in his book, Colon Health, the appendix secretes a powerful germicidal fluid into the cecum, which is located between the small intestine and the colon. This germicide acts as a barrier protecting the intestine from the entry of colon bacteria and likewise protecting the colon from any harmful substance entering it from the intestine. So constant sometimes is the demand upon the appendix that it may lose function and become inflamed. This is appendicitis.

   At the end of his long medical career, Dr Ernest Tipper (referred to at the start of this chapter) stated explicitly: "In the case of cancer, constipation and excessive meat eating should be the two suspects; when they are present cancer is rife, where absent there is none".

   High protein: Correlations between dietary fat and cancer have been evident for many years, and similar correlations exist with high protein intake. When dietary tests are conducted with animals, the "test" animals are compared with animals on a standard diet which are called the "controls". Both groups are subjected to chemicals known to cause cancer and the two groups are compared. In a test using the virulent carcinogen aflatoxin, rats on a diet containing 20% protein all developed cancer, but those on a 5% protein diet developed no cancer at all. A similar test in which large amounts of sugar were added to the diets of both groups was described by Dr M. H. Ross ("Proteins, Calories and Life Expectancy", Federation Proceedings, 18:1190, 1959): "40% of the rats still alive after one year, whose intake of both milk protein and sugar was high, developed spontaneous tumors of all kinds throughout their bodies. In contrast, only 20% of the rats on low protein, high sugar intake developed tumors. Further, coronary arterial athermatoid lesions and unusually high blood levels of cholesterol were found in rats maintained on high protein diets, even without extra fat. And after one year, 75% of the rats on high protein developed kidney disease".

   Cooked protein is difficult to digest, and when incompletely digested protein enters the colon it putrefies and ammonia is formed.

   Dr Willard Visek, Professor of Clinical Sciences, University of Illinois Medical School, said recently: "In the digestion of proteins, we are constantly exposed to large amounts of ammonia in our intestinal tract. Ammonia behaves like chemicals that cause cancer or promote its growth. It kills cells, it increases virus infection, it affects the rate at which cells divide, and it increases the mass of the lining of the intestines. What is intriguing is that within the colon, the incidence of cancer parallels the concentration of ammonia".

   Dr Broda Barnes (mentioned earlier for his studies of heart disease) ascribes the association of high protein diet with cancer as being due mainly to hypothyroidism brought about by the demands of protein metabolism upon the thyroid. (See Hypothyroidism. )

   Meat: Consumption of meat is strongly suspected to be conducive to cancer. Dr John Berg and associates of the US National Cancer Institute and Tohoku University School of Medicine (Japan), studied 179 colon cancer patients and 357 non-cancer patients, all Japanese of varying origin and background, and found that consumption of beef was the only factor common to all the cancer patients. Dr Raymond Shamberger of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation told the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in San Diego in May, 1975, that he has identified in beef, and to a lesser degree in pork, chicken and fish, the potent carcinogen malonaldehyde. This chemical begins to form in flesh soon after death. Leftover food contains more of it than fresh. The measurement of malonaldehyde content has been used in the food industry for years to determine if food is stale or rancid, but was not known to be carcinogenic.

   As described in Chapter 15, cooked meat causes damage to all vital organs, and it must be clearly understood that in order to prevent cancer or reverse it, these organs must be capable of reasonable function.

   One hundred years ago, Dr Charles de Lacy Evans, who had been a surgeon in an English cancer hospital before devoting his career to natural medicine, described the cancer inducing properties of meat. He added: "When meat is given, it should be boiled, and the liquid broth, soup or beef tea, thrown away. It contains the irritating constituents of the flesh which encourage the growth of cancer".

   In 1977, the International Agency for Research on Cancer reported a comparison between Copenhagen and rural Finland. In Copenhagen the consumption of meat was very, high compared to Finland whereas the Finns consumed a great deal more fat. However, despite the much lower consumption of fat in Copenhagen the incidence of colon cancer there was four times higher than in Finland. A comparison between New York and Finland revealed the same situation.*

*Other factors to be taken into account in this comparison are: 1. The Finnish diet is much higher in fiber. 2. The consumption of beer has been related to colon cancer and in both Copenhagen and New York the beer consumption is much higher than in Finland. 3. The stress factor in cities is much greater than in rural areas.

   Meat not only contributes large amounts of fat, cholesterol, protein and substances known to be carcinogenic, at the same time it contains no fiber and therefore causes constipation. In addition, growth hormones given to beef cattle to make them grow faster can have the same artificial stimulating effect within the body of someone who eventually eats the beef. Furthermore, it has also been recently demonstrated that dietary cholesterol specifically inhibits the anti-cancer action of macrophages, the large white cells of the body's immune system.

   An animal experiment reported in Nature, December 1978, showed that dietary cholesterol paralyzes the macrophages. Two groups of animals were fed a synthetic diet containing 8.5% protein and only 1% fat, the same diet which has been shown to support healthy growth in children. Cholesterol, the equivalent of two eggs a day (600mg) for a human, was added to the diet of the test group and both groups were given a carcinogen to promote cancer. At the end of one year, 100% of the cholesterol group had cancer with 90% deaths, whereas the other group suffered only a 20% incidence, all of which died; however, the remaining 80% remained perfectly healthy and free of cancer.

   Most human studies comparing the incidence of cancer with blood cholesterol levels have shown the expected positive relationship. However, the Framingham study, in the case of males, showed an inverse relationship in which colon cancer incidence was 2.7 times higher at blood cholesterol levels below 190 mg%, and because of this observation some health authorities have recommended that levels above 190 be maintained. This advice is wrong, because the Framingham conclusion did not take all factors into account. The error is explained in a paper titled "Diet and Colon Cancer", from the Pritikin Research Foundation, May 1982. In the Framingham cases, says Pritikin, the cancers are still related to the intake of cholesterol although not to the level of cholesterol in the blood. The blood cholesterol level is relatively low only because it is being used up to produce the large amounts of bile acids needed to process the large amount of fat in the diet, and it is the excess of bile acids in the colon that increases the cancer risk.

   Processed starch and sugar: In a 43-country survey by the British Cancer Institute, sugar featured as the primary dietary factor in breast cancer, fat second and protein third.

   Dr Victor Bagnall, writing in "Nutrition: Its Relation to Cancer" (Cancer News Journal ), showed sugar consumption to be correlated to breast, prostatic, ovarian, bladder, intestinal and rectal cancer. Dr Joseph Issels of Germany also has made this correlation.

   Processed starch food taken in large quantities is associated with stomach cancer. An Israel study described in You Can Fight Cancer and Win by Jane Brody and Arthur Holleb (1977), showed that stomach cancer incidence was greater among people consuming high levels of bread, noodles, cereals, beans and nuts.

   Salt: As mentioned in Chapter 14, salt is a powerful irritant and a strong inhibitor of enzymes, as well as interfering with circulation by causing fluid retention in the tissues. Even in small quantities, salt has been observed to increase the rate of cancer growth.

   Dr E. D. Robinson of the National Biochemical Laboratory, Mount Vernon, New York, considered common salt "the most active cancer cause among inorganic agents". Dr Albert Schweitzer, when he went to work in Africa in 1913, said he knew of no cancer there among natives and put this down to their diet. "The most significant difference," he said, "was that natives 200 miles from the coast consumed no salt. Later, when these natives started using salt, we have seen cases of cancer in growing numbers on our region . . . Salt is the chemical enemy of potassium, and can cause body chemical imbalance."

   Raw food vs cooked food (refer to Chapter 15 ): The main factor underlying the disease called cancer is the cooking of food--not just because of the deleterious effects on the food--but chiefly because cooking renders palatable the animal protein and fats which cause most of the harm. Foods which in their natural uncooked state would be rejected by humans, are made edible and tasty by cooking and flavoring.

   As long ago as 1829, Vincent Priessnitz of Silesia discovered the adverse effects of eating cooked food. He fed two pigs on experimental diets--one on cold raw foods, the other on hot cooked foods. When he killed them, he discovered that the pig fed on the raw food had firm healthy flesh but the flesh of the pig fed on cooked food was inflamed and brittle.

   Not only does the cooking of any food deplete its nutritional value and tend to produce pathogenic substances, it also destroys natural enzymes which normally assist in the digestive process. Whereas a healthy person can supply from body sources the necessary enzymes in adequate amounts regardless of whether enzymes are contained in the food or not, ailing people or the elderly may to a varying extent lack this capability. In this latter case, eating cooked food may deplete enzyme reserves to the detriment of proper metabolism elsewhere in the body.

   In addition to the depletion or destruction of enzymes, vitamins and minerals, other pathological changes occur in food when it is cooked and this is indicated by the excited reaction of the immune system when the food is eaten. The white blood cell count of the healthy person increases to a level proportional to the degree to which the food has been heated or processed, and may double or even treble. This effect, already described, is called leucocytosis.

   The greatest demand on the digestive organs is the digestion of cooked food, particularly meat and cereals, and it will be remembered that the constant consumption of cooked food produces marked hypertrophy of the pancreas.

   Dr Edward Howell of Chicago pointed out over fifty years ago that the hypertrophy of organs consequential to excessive function often proceeds to the atrophy of exhaustion, and that atrophy of the pancreas occurs in many terminal wasting disease.

   Vitamin, mineral, enzyme deficiencies: Most people in Western countries, mainly by virtue of the fact that most of the food they eat is cooked or processed in some way, are likely to be marginally supplied with many vitamins and minerals. At the same time their enzyme systems will be overtaxed, often to the extent of damaging the pancreas, and it is not surprising that patients with chronic disease conditions usually display a number of deficiencies. As already mentioned, cancer patients usually have low enzyme levels and low body temperatures. Drs A. Goth and I. Littmann in a paper entitled "Ascorbic Acid Content in Human Cancer Tissue" (Cancer Research, Vol 8, 1948) described how cancer most frequently originates in organs whose ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) levels are below 4.5 mg% and rarely grows in organs containing ascorbic acid above this concentration.

   Other deficiencies most commonly associated with cancer are those of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and the minerals iodine, selenium magnesium, potassium and germanium, and many people as a protection take these substances in synthetic form. As already discussed, it is far better to follow proper dietary rules rather than work with the guesswork associated with synthetic products.

Anti-cancer diets

   As a person with cancer, or developing the early stages of cancer, has already defective blood chemistry, with marginal function of vital organs and diminished enzyme activity, it is imperative that only the simplest, purest, most easily digestible foods such as fresh ripe fruit be eaten. Ripe fruit is virtually pre-digested and its digestion demands very little enzyme activity.

   The principles of correct dietary procedures have been used in the prevention and correction of cancer and other conditions for at least as far back as 1809, and probably throughout history. There are today probably hundreds of special diets designed to promote good health, and by this stage the reader should be qualified to assess them.

   The Gerson diet: The Gerson diet, based on raw fruit and vegetables, low in sodium and high in potassium, has proven most effective in the restoration of cancer patients and patients with all manner of other metabolic diseases. Although, as mentioned, similar diets have been used successfully since the early 1800s to restore cancer patients, Dr Gerson's diet, which includes supplementary enzymes,* was developed more scientifically in the light of 20th Century research over many years of successful cancer treatment, and today forms the basis of all successful cancer therapy.

*Dr Gerson provided his patients with supplementary enzymes by giving them raw calves' liver juice to drink. Enzymes of many kinds derived from both plant and animal sources are now available in powdered or tablet form.

   Sir Arbuthnot Lane summed it up over fifty years ago, thus:

   "What we should do then if we would avoid cancer is to eat wholewheat bread and raw fruit and vegetables, shunning all meat. First that we may be better nourished, second that we may more easily eliminate waste products and thus adequately drain the house in which our cells live. * Whoever will correct his diet to a reasonable extent, take reasonable exercise, and keep his digestive tract absolutely clean, need have no fear of cancer."

*Dr A Garten in his book The Health Secrets of a Naturopathic Doctor, described how Dr Senator founded the concept of autointoxication in 1888 and how Dr Melke in 1897 observed that a dietary change from meat to bread, fruits and vegetables resulted in a complete alteration in the intestinal bacteria and the disappearance of poisonous substances.

   Vegetables and herbs: Early in 1984 the National Cancer Institute reported a study in North Carolina which showed that women who ate less than two servings of fresh fruit or vegetables a day were three times more likely to develop cancer as women who ate four or more servings a day.

   It is recognized that all the many nutrients, some of them still possibly undiscovered, play a part in the chemistry of every cell. Dr Leo Wattenberg, working at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, discovered that rats fed a balanced, highly purified diet containing all know vitamins and nutrients were not able to make certain enzymes (biological catalysts) in the liver which inactivate cancer-causing chemicals. However, when the rats were fed a crude diet containing alfalfa (known in Australia as lucerne) they were able to produce the enzymes. And when alfalfa alone was added to the purified diet, this caused the enzyme to be made. Other experiments showed that this enzyme increased protection against cancer even when cancer-causing chemicals were added to their diet. Dr Wattenberg found that cabbage, Brussels sprouts, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, dill and celery caused the enzyme to be made but varied in effectiveness according to their freshness and the soil in which they were grown.

   Dr Wattenberg identified the actual chemicals in the vegetables which cause the protective enzymes to be formed. They belong to a well-known family of organic chemicals called indoles. He also found that citrus fruits contain chemicals called flavones which have the same effect as indoles. Beans and seeds are rich in plant proteins called lectins which have been found to protect animals against cancer in laboratory experiments.

   In other experiments by Dr M. R. Mainlow at the Oregon Primate Research Center, alfalfa, when added to experimental diets had been shown to lower assimilation of cholesterol from food. In tests on monkeys and rabbits, assimilation was reduced from 76% to 47%. The active substances in alfalfa are known as saponins, a type of glycoside found 'in plants. Saponins lower the surface tension of water, and historically have been used as wetting agents for cleaning purposes. Cast into rivers, saponins kill fish without rendering them poisonous to eat. They are hemolytic if injected into the bloodstream, but are not absorbed into the bloodstream from the intestines. It would appear these substances dissolve fat and thereby lower blood viscosity.

   As indoles derive also from glycosides, the protective actions of alfalfa and other vegetables may be related in a similar manner to those of ginseng and eleuthococcus. (See Relief of Stress. )

   Amygdalin is a substance contained in many kinds of plants and is claimed by many people in the field of cancer treatment to be capable of inhibiting or destroying cancer cells. Amygdalin is also known as Laetrile or Vitamin B17, and is in common use by unorthodox practitioners as a primary anti-cancer agent. The results obtained from its use have varied widely and have been inconsistent and inconclusive, and there has been great controversy in medical circles about it. Some amygdalin proponents claim it works as a vitamin (usually deficient in the diet), while others say that its anti-cancer action is brought about by cyanide released specifically only in cancer cells triggered by a substance in the cell, and therefore harmless to normal cells.

   It is evident, however, that when good results have been obtained using amygdalin it has always been in conjunction with modified diet usually supported by supplementary digestive enzymes, as well as in association with other lifestyle changes.

   In addition to amygdalin, there are countless other herbs and herbal extracts claimed over hundreds of years in folk medicine to inhibit and sometimes cure cancer. Many of these are currently being investigated by medical researchers.

   There is no question that many complete remissions of cancer have been achieved by herbal medicines taken internally and in some cases applied directly to external cancers. The famous Hoxsey Clinic in Texas successfully employed this form of treatment for many years, but although an independent investigation in 1954 by ten senior physicians from different states certified to the superiority of Dr Hoxsey's methods, the AMA eventually had his clinic closed.

   Apart from inhibiting or reversing the growth of cancer, herbal mixtures have been reported to alleviate angina and reduce symptoms of diabetes, in which cases it is clear that fat metabolism and blood viscosity must be favorably influenced.

   Obviously the correction of any errors, be they deficiencies or excesses, must favorably affect cellular chemistry. This may explain why, in the history of folk medicine, an enormous variety of herbal substances and extracts, used singly or in combinations, have been shown to favorably influence the course of various diseases, often effecting cures. There are far too many reports and claims of this kind, from all over the world, to be disregarded.

   However, what works in one case may not work in another, and with so many variables involved in the processes of cell chemistry leading to cancer, consistent results cannot be expected unless all factors are optimised.

The role of carcinogens

   Diseased teeth: In his book Prevention and Cure of Cancer, Dr Mulhim Hassan of Lebanon insists that a prime cause of cancer is the poisoning of the bloodstream by diseased and infected teeth, and his book is illustrated with many photographs showing the healing of various cancers and eye infections subsequent to removal of the infection source. Dr Joseph Issels of Germany (referred to later) has for over forty years asserted the causal connection of oral infections with cancer, and the removal of infected teeth is considered by him to be absolutely essential as part of the cancer therapy. Dr Max Garten, also of Germany, said in agreement with Issels: "This is one phase in the cancer treatment that requires adamant and uncompromising attention".

   Food additives as carcinogens: In July 1976, specialists from the US National Cancer Institute, American Health Federation, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Wistar Institute of Philadelphia, testified before the US Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs to the effect that the potential of food additives for causing cancer had been grossly exaggerated, but that the "Standard American Diet" itself, high in fat, protein, highly-refined carbohydrates and low in "roughage", is possibly a causative factor and certainly a predisposing factor in hundreds of thousands of cancer cases each year.

   The liver is the body's first line of defense against harmful organisms and substances ingested in food. If the major cause of cancers were indeed carcinogens in the food, surely cancer of the liver would be most common. But it is not.

   Denmark has very strict prohibition against most food additives but has a cancer death rate 20% higher than Norway and Sweden which have far fewer restrictions on additives. In Cancer Research, Vol 35, page 3379 (K. Carroll), the dietary fat intake per capita in Denmark was reported as 158 gm per day and in Norway and Sweden as 132 gm per day, a difference of 20%. Again the cancer rate correlates exactly with the fat intake.

   All the observations and animal tests over and over reveal that with or without carcinogens, high fat levels constitute the greatest danger.

   Saccharin: In tests where rats were fed saccharin the equivalent for humans of 800 12 oz bottles of saccharin-sweetened soft drink per day cancer occurred in about 14% of the second generation rats. So it, was banned by the US Food and Drug Administration even though it was never shown to cause cancer in humans. Thus many people reverted back to sugar which has indeed been shown to increase human mortality.

   Fluoride and chlorine: Fluoride is an insidious, cumulative poison strongly suppressive to the immune system. There have been a number of occasions where the concentration of fluoride in water has inadvertently reached high levels, resulting in serious sickness through poisoning. Some people have died.

   High levels not only cause white teeth to mottle, but Dr J. Yiamouyiannis, Science Director of the US National Health Federation, after researching the records of the National Cancer Institute covering 25 cities, concluded there is a definite link between fluoridation and the cancer death rate.

   Dr Dean Burk, for thirty years in cancer research with the US National Cancer Institute and formerly Chief of Cyto Chemistry there, now runs the Dean Burk Foundation in Washington, DC and is currently working with Dr Yiamouyiannis. On December 10, 1983, Dr Burk issued an open communication which reads as follows:

   "The trends of the average annual cancer death rates (CDRs), from 1940-1969, of the 10 largest artificially fluoridated American cities, whose fluoridation commenced during the period 1952-1956, were compared with the corresponding trends of the average annual cancer death rates of the 10 largest American cities of equivalent initial CDR that remained nonfluoridated over the same period of 30 years. Comparisons were made with both weighted and unweighted averages. By 1969, the US officially reported, observed, average cancer death rate had reached an excess of more than 10% in the fluoridated group (population ca. 10,000,000) above that in the nonfluoridated group (population ca. 7,000,000). Initiation of this differentiation took place coincidental with initiation of artificial fluoridation, and was clearly evident statistically and graphically within 3 to 5 years, thus specifically indicating a causal, time-linked fluoridation-cancer association.

   "The foregoing observed ('crude') data were adjusted for age, sex and ethnicity simultaneously and separately by conventional indirect methods, using the 1950 total US population as standard, for the periods 1940-1950 and 1950-1970, so as to consider trends before and after fluoridation. In these adjustments all censal and interpolated intercensal data were used, in accordance and with widespread practice, and also a number of variations in choice of standard populations, and age groupings, (eg. to, 9 or 4), and also with respect to both ratio (SMR) and difference between CDR observed and CDR expected. The results obtained indicate that no more than about 20-40% of the fluoridation-cancer linkage can be explained by the indicated adjustments for age, sex and ethnicity, leaving the fluoridation factor dominant.

   "All proposed contraindications to this finding of a highly harmful (mortal) fluoridation-cancer link, most notably those contraindications advanced in Britain, were in error from inadequate consideration of available and necessary data of the type just indicated, primarily (1) prefluoridation period data and (2) otherwise widely used intercensal data (interpolated or officially estimated). The contraindication advanced in the Opinion of Lord Jauncey (Edinburgh Court of Session, June 1983, page 362, item 131) suffers from the same scientific inadequacy, and is at odds with the Decisions in the three major American courts where fluoridation was ruled a dangerous to health (Judge Flaherty, Pittsburg, November 1978; Judge Niemann, Illinois, February 1982; and Judge Farris, Houston, May 1982), and where much the same scientific information was presented in evidence."

   T. Okamura and T. Matsuhisha reported a similar correlation between fluoride and gastric cancer in Japan. Due to a number of deaths of patients treated on kidney machines using fluoridated water in the USA and Canada, the US Surgeon General cautioned all American hospitals to avoid use of fluoridated water in kidney machines. (See also Subtle fluoride poisoning , Chapter 21.)

   Chlorine is a chemical used to disinfect water supplies in certain areas and it too is known to be suppressive to the immune system. Its effect is described in the discussion on the immune system which follows.

   Other carcinogens: There are innumerable chemical substances used in industry and domestically which in addition to various chemicals used in the processing of food, are known to be detrimental to body chemistry to the extent of favoring the onset or growth of cancer.

   Although most people are exposed to them, only a minority actually develop cancer even among those who are heavily exposed. Thus such chemicals must be considered to be not primary causes, but "trigger" factors which influence pre-cancerous tissue to further adverse change. Cigarette smoking is an example of this as described in the discussion on lung cancer. Another example, not as clearly proven, is aluminum which enters foodstuffs from aluminum cooking utensils. Suspected of being the most widespread pollutant of indoor air is formaldehyde, a chemical used in particle board, artificial wood-grain finishes, foam insulation, plastics, disinfectants, paper products, even toothpaste, and many other products. The chemical continually enters the air (a process called "off-gassing") from the various sources and causes allergic responses which range from irritation of eyes, skin and respiratory tract to nervous disorders and asthma. Recent research by the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology showed that rats exposed for two years to formaldehyde fumes developed nasal tumors.

   Reference earlier in this chapter was made to the association of beer consumption with the incidence of cancer. A possible link is suggested by the report from a British Regional Heart study of 7,000 men aged 40 to 60 in which it was found that heavy beer drinkers had 30% more lead in their system than light drinkers or teetotallers. Those that smoked as well, had even higher amounts of lead. It is known that commercially manufactured beer also contains nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic substances. It is known also that beer, even in small quantities, increases the level of blood fats, reducing circulation and increasing blood pressure.

The role of smoking

   Smoking directly contributes to the cancer process in many ways.

1. Inhaled carbon monoxide inhibits the oxygen-carrying capacity of the red blood cells.
2. Stress is produced in the body.
3. The effect of 1 and 2 is to increase blood viscosity and reduce blood circulation.
4. Carcinogenic chemicals are introduced into the body.
5. Smoking destroys Vitamin C, essential to collagen integrity, oxygen metabolism, and body de-toxification.
6. Irritation in the respiratory tract is capable of triggering lung cancer.

The role of exercise

   The direct effect of aerobic exercise in the metabolism of fat, lowered blood viscosity, and vastly improved oxygen transport has been fully described. It has been shown too, that physical fitness provides enormous protection against physical and emotional stress--in fact every single body function becomes more efficient, including the function of the immune system, a most crucial factor in cancer.

   Its protective effect against all disease can be clearly seen, regardless of all other factors, and it has been observed that the incidence of cancer among athletes is only one-seventh that of the average population. Although immensely effective, aerobic exercise cannot, however, convey full protection when the other cancer factors, which may include the stress of overtraining and intense competitions are severe.

   Studies by Dr Andervont (1944) and Dr Muhlbock (1950) of Holland, with laboratory mice susceptible to mammary cancer, demonstrated that by segregating them in different sized groups in different cages of different materials, the incidence of cancer among the females varied from 29% to 83%. In one experiment using two groups of mice caged under identical conditions but with one group provided with an exercise wheel, the group with no wheel had a cancer incidence of 67%, and the group with the exercise wheel only 43%. It was assumed that the exercise wheel provided a psychological advantage to the mice in that group, but it is more likely that the benefit was a physical one. Another study by the Labor Research Institute of Japan, reported in Prevention, February 1977, showed that mice given the carcinogen Lexzidine suffered 33% less cancer when an exercise wheel was provided to the experimental mice.

   Other tests on mice showed when a test group was fed only half the amount of food that was consumed by the control group, ie. the same food but only half as much, when carcinogens were added, only 2% of the test group developed cancer as against 40% of the controls. However, if the extra calories where burned up by exercise, the incidence in the control group was also only 2%.

The role of stress and personality

   Stress and its relationship to disease has been described in Chapter 8. Intense and prolonged stress has been shown clearly and specifically to be strongly associated with the onset of cancer. In this regard its effects are widespread.

1. Oxygen available to the tissue cells is decreased because of elevated blood fats and increased blood viscosity which follow stress.
2. It likewise decreases oxygen available to the lymphocytes, the protective white cells of the body's immune system, thus debilitating them.
3. The immune system, constantly stimulated by stress, becomes exhausted and impotent, the thymus shrunken.
4. Other hormonal upsets may occur.

   In this condition, the body's defensive white cells, although capable of destroying the cancer cells, make no effort to do so.

   Dr G.J. Nossal of Melbourne, in his book, Antibodies and Immunity (Nelson), discussing the destructive effect of x-rays on white cells says, "It is not unusual for human beings to have placed on them a stress as great as near-lethal (to the lymphocytes) x-irradiation".

   Whereas emotional stress appears to be the most significant stress factor, it should be remembered that faulty diet, alcohol and tobacco are also stress factors and that all stress factors are additive.

   Galen, the famed Greek physician of the 2nd Century AD attributed cancer to a melancholy disposition.

   A century ago the physician, Sir James Paget wrote: "The cases are so frequent in which deep anxiety, deferred hope and disappointment are quickly followed by the growth and increase of cancer, that we can hardly doubt that mental depression is a weighty additive to the other influences favoring the development of the cancerous constitution".

   Sir Heneage Ogilvie, a British surgeon, in his book, No Miracles Among Friends says: "The instances when the first recognizable onset of cancer has followed almost immediately on some disaster, a bereavement, the breakup of a relationship, a financial crisis, or an accident, are so numerous that they suggest that some controlling force that has hitherto kept this outbreak of cell communism in check has been removed".

   J. I. Rodale, a lifetime student and author on the subject of health, collated so much material linking state of mind with cancer that he wrote a book on the subject called Happy People Rarely Get Cancer.

   Dr Lawrence Le Shan, an experimental psychologist and research specialist, noticed this link among his patients over twenty years ago. He made a preliminary test to confirm for himself the link of emotional disturbance with cancer which involved 28 subjects, 15 patients with cancer, eight patients with no cancer and five free of disease. Considering emotional factors only, he correctly selected 14 out of 15 cancer patients, missing out on one patient with skin cancer. He incorrectly picked three patients, one with arteriosclerosis, one with allergy and one with hypothyroidism, as having cancer. The factors he considered were: loss of a crucial relationship and loss of purpose for living, the inability to express hostility, and emotional tension over the death of a parent, not necessarily recently. In 22 years of continued research, the syndrome of despair, the bleak hopelessness of ever achieving any meaning, zest or validity in life, he found to be the predominant factor. Seventy-six percent of all cancer patients studied, Dr Le Shan said, had this syndrome as against 10% of non-cancer patients.

   Historically, cancer rates have always been significantly higher in cities throughout the world. In the Scientific Australian, July 1979, it was reported that: "More than one-third of Sydney-siders suffer from depression, according to a survey conducted recently by Professor John Gibson at the Australian National University. The feelings ranged from deep melancholy to intense despair". The advent of cancer for the deposed Shah of Iran is understandable considering the enormous stress he suffered.

   Certain personality types are more susceptible, in our modern way of life, to cancer and other degenerative diseases. These types relate closely with the type'A' classification of Drs Rosenman and Friedman. In his book You Can Fight For Your Life (M. Evans & Co, NY 1977) Dr Le Shan says: "Cancer victims seem to have a strong life potential, creative, more inner 'fire'. This impression was so strong and consistent that I often found myself speculating whether cancer might not be a selective disease that is more likely to appear in those with the highest level of emotional force, especially if their lives did not allow for the full venting of that force".

   This is readily understandable inasmuch that the higher the intellect, the more exposed it is to the syndrome of "future shock", one of the most harmful factors of modern civilization*. The more creative and active a person is, the more they over-commit themselves to diverse personal relationships and projects until they become intolerably over-involved and therefore over-stressed. It would seem that, with higher aspirations and emotions, they not only reach higher peaks in life, but suffer greater depression from emotional set-backs.

*A study reported by the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation showed the cancer death rate among the mentally retarded was only one-fifth that of the general population, but that in paranoid patients the rate was higher.

   This type of person, however, has the best record of recovery from cancer. When they are down, they count their blessings and get up again. A report published in April 1978 by the Institute of Neotic Sciences, San Francisco, by Dr C. Simonton, former chief of radiation therapy at Travis Air Force Base, and psychologist, Jeanne Achterberg and Stephanie Matthews, remarked that people who show remarkable powers to resist the ravages of cancer seem to display special personality traits. "They are verbal, confrontive, at times scrappy but generally receptive and highly creative people." The report rated these people highly in the qualities of nonconformity, ego strength, self-control, self-reliance, independence and energy. This too is readily understandable as such people do not easily accept defeat and even without knowledge of cause and effect, would attempt lifestyle changes in a determined effort to survive. In many cases just one or two commonsense changes would make the vital swing to the right side of a borderline condition.

   It is Dr Le Shan's opinion that it is not the fear of death--a negative emotion--that marshals the body's resources for survival. Instead, it is the positive emotion of the wish to live that provides the vital force.

   In his book You Don't Have to Die, Dr Harry S. Hoxsey says: "Cancer is not only a disease, it is also a psychosis. Tell a victim he is hopeless (or let him discover if from his family) and the will to live becomes paralyzed. Show him a way out, strip him of fear and hysteria, give him even a forlorn hope, and the will to live is stimulated. It becomes a powerful ally in the battle against death".

Relief of stress by drugs

   As described in the discussion of the role of the immune system which follows, tranquilizers and other drugs have a depressing effect on the immune system and are therefore harmful to a cancer patient. However, a report in the New Scientist (August 21, 1980) is of interest. It comes from British gerontologist, Dr Stephen Fulder, and describes a substance, assumed to be a drug, called eleutherococcus which is derived from a plant from the same plant family as ginseng. It acts as a tonic and helps people resist stress, without adverse side effects. The report concludes:

   "The most prestigious specialist medical institutes in the USSR have recently found eleutherococcus useful as an adjunct to other medicines in hastening the cure of chronic conditions such as chronic pneumonia, chronic tuberculosis, and vascular dystonia. Oncology institutes in several regions of the USSR, including the Petrov Oncological Institute in Leningrad, reported success in improving the general health of patients with cancer, and reducing the chances of metastasis (the development of secondary tumors). It was also found useful in reducing the debilitating effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy and therefore allowing higher doses to be given. The same goes for ginseng. Its glycosides have recently been shown to hasten the recovery of patients after serious operations, considerably shortening their dependence on the hospital and reducing complications. Trials with healthy* people have been extensive in the Soviet Union. The biggest was organized at the Volga car plant in Togliatti, in which eleutherococcus was given to no fewer than 80,000 workers with a consequent reduction in various illnesses and therefore in work losses."

*As in all industrialized countries, most people are not really healthy but are assumed to be so in the absence of definite sickness.

   This form of therapy, like other herbal therapy and megavitamin therapy, although doubtlessly beneficial as described, would be superfluous if the diet were correct in the first place.

   It should be realized, of course, that many people live highly stressed and emotional lives without getting cancer. The prerequisite for the onset of cancer is the development of the pre-cancerous state of the body's tissued--the "cancer milieu". Countless people live for years with the cancer milieu without the occurrence of cancer growths, but the advent of severe stress with its depressing effect on the body's defenses is all that is needed, when in this condition, for cancer to advance, and grow.

The role of natural sunlight and radiation

   In Chapter 18, I quoted Dr Joseph Meites, an endocrinologist at Michigan State University. Dr Meites said that light entering the eyes causes nerve impulses which influence the lower brain and pituitary gland and trigger a release of various hormones. He further stated: "We have no idea how many diseases are linked with hormone problems, but we do know that several diseases such as diabetes, infertility, cancer and thyroid disorders are involved with hormone imbalance".

   In view of Dr Ott's specific reference to the role of natural light associated with leukemia in school children, some positive attention should be directed at the effect of natural light and its influence on the pineal and other endocrine glands.

   An interesting article on the pineal gland in the Scientific Australian, March 1980, described some of the gland's functions, but only touched upon its dependence on light. It stated significantly the association of melatonin, a hormone secreted by the pineal gland, with a person's mood. In proper amounts, melatonin induces the feeling of comfort and wellbeing, and it has been suggested that the hormone could well be used as an alternative to currently used anti-anxiety drugs. This information derives from experiments performed by Dr R. F. Seamark of Adelaide University in collaboration with Professor Maurice King of Newcastle University.

   Bearing in mind the clearly established relationship between anxiety and stress with the onset of cancer, straight away it can be seen where a link may exist between lack of natural light and the onset of cancer. Specifically, the ultraviolet spectrum of natural light, by its effect on the retina of the eye, activates the pineal gland to produce melatonin which is an anti-stress hormone and therefore an anti-cancer influence.

   Additionally, and possibly more important, is the direct effect of sunlight radiation on lowering blood fat and cholesterol levels and detoxifying the blood as described in Chapter 18.

   Dr Ott's third book, Light, Radiation and You (1982), describes the specific effects of different wavelengths of light and other forms of radiation energy on increasing and decreasing the incidence and growth of cancer, both in humans and in laboratory animals. A recent report of Dr Ott's work, in the Merced Sun-Star (Feb 2, 1983) described the experience of Helen Fleming, director of the Merced (California) College radiologic technology program, whose tumors disappeared when she moved to the country and got lots of sunshine. The tumors reappeared when she returned to work but regressed again when the lights in her office and home were changed to a type recommended by Dr Ott.

   Also described in Chapter 18 is the adverse effect of various other fluorescent lights. Lancet, August 7, 1982, described an Australian study which sought the reason for the doubling of melanoma incidence in the past 30 years. The study of 274 women patients revealed a correlation between office fluorescent lighting and a 250% increase in melanoma risk. Data on 27 male patients showed a 440% increase in risk over 10 years of exposure. The types of fluorescent lights involved were not specified* and there is conjecture on which light wavelengths could be implicated.

*They were not the full-spectrum lights as recommended by Dr Ott, because these were unprocurable in Australia at this time.

   It should be remembered that ordinary window glass, spectacles and car windows etc., filter out ultraviolet light, and so to gain benefit from natural sunlight a person must spend some time outdoors without glasses. An alternative is the use of fluorescent lights which emit ultraviolet light.

   Whereas doctors recommend people to shield themselves against sunlight to reduce their risk of skin cancer, it should be clearly understood that skin damage by sunshine is not the real cause of cancer but only a secondary or "trigger" factor.

X-rays

   X-rays are known to be causative of cancer. People who have had many x-rays show a high incidence. Of 1,400 adult males who had x-rays of the hip, those with twenty or more x-rays had twice the rate of leukemia than the others. A similar proportion was noted in a survey of 10,000 women. Because of the danger of x-rays, new equipment has been designed and modern x-ray machines incorporating image intensifiers and fast film only emit one ten-thousandth of the radiation of the machines of 10 years ago.

   X-rays destroy white blood cells and deplete the immune system. Dr I. Bross of Rosewall Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, USA, Seymour Becker, Chief of Suffolk County New York Health Department Radiation Control Unit, and Richard Sandler, Energy Consultant to Ralph Nader, all agree that widespread use of diagnostic x-rays should be halted. In 1960, Dr Emile Grubbe, a world authority on radiation, said just before he died of cancer caused by radiation, that x-rays emitted by TV sets were dangerous over a period of years. Genetic damage could result. According to the International Commission on Radiation Protection, no one should receive more than 5 rem of radiation before age 30. As one year's TV watching provides approximately 1 rem, most young people will far exceed this amount.

The role of the immune system

   It is generally agreed that regardless of the cause of cancer, a properly functioning immune system will attack and attempt to destroy it.

   Malignant cells which migrate in the lymph and blood, in order to colonize elsewhere must first survive the defense mechanism of the body's immune system and lodge in a place "safe" for them. Usually they are arrested before they accomplish this. Millions of such cells are released from the primary tumor but the overwhelming majority do not survive.

   The degree of protection afforded by the action of the immune system against abnormal cells must depend of course on the degree to which the lymphocytes and macrophages can discern the difference between normal cells and abnormal cells. They lymphocytes must be programmed to know which cells to attack and destroy and which to ignore. With different degrees ranging from slightly abnormal to very abnormal, there must be a dividing line.

   A factor complicating this otherwise straightforward state of affairs is the similarity of cancer cells to embryo cells. Embryo cells within a pregnant woman are not the same as her own body cells, and indeed are "foreign" to her immune system. The mother's immune system, however, ignores the embryo growth because the embryo cells produce a substance known as blocking factor. Thus even a transplanted fetus not of the woman's own making can survive and grow in her womb. Cancer cells, having reverted to embryo-like form, are capable also of producing a blocking factor which protects them to a greater or lesser extent from attack by the immune system.

An effective immune system at work

A T cell, a thymus-derived lymphocyte, attacks a cancer cell 
(large sphere), which it identifies by the antigen molecules 
protruding from its surface.

The cancer cell is dying indicated by the deep folds in its 
surface membrane, These micrographs were made by Andrejs Liepins 
of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.

   Thus the efficiency of the body's defense against cancer cells lies not only in the health and vigor of the white cells but also in the proper programming of the lymphocytes and the rest of the immune system by the thymus hormones. In addition, cancer cells can be destroyed by inflammation* which is a secondary immune response, but it is known that cancer patients with their lowered metabolism are incapable of producing a proper inflammatory reaction. In 1932 Professor G. von Bergmann of Germany stated: "Cancer metabolism takes place once the body is no longer capable of producing an active inflammation metabolism" (A Cancer Therapy, Dr Max Gerson).

*Hyperthermia is a procedure sometimes used as an accessory to other treatment aimed at destroying cancer cells. The entire body is wrapped and heated to increase the body temperature to fever level because it is known that cancer cells cannot endure such high temperatures. Reduction in the size of tumors can be achieved this way but of course cures cannot be.
   Inflammation cannot be simulated simply by raising the body temperature, as chemistry changes are involved as well. In real inflammation the fluid which is produced at the site acts chemically against the cancer cell in addition to the effect of the heat.

   The thymus gland relies on a rich blood supply, well oxygenated, as do all body tissues, and its function is influenced by secretions of hormones from the other endocrine glands. It has been described already how even the effect of natural light is important to proper function of the endocrine glands. If the thymus is debilitated, which it invariably is in people degenerated, stressed, or sick, the immune system becomes ineffectual.

   The majority of people are never in a condition of robust health, and the fact that the "common" cold is indeed so very common, testifies to the marginal condition of the average person's thymus. The general degeneration of the vital organs accompanied by the towered immune function which usually accompanies old age accounts for the increase in cancer incidence in the older age groups.

   The thyroid gland is also an important component of the immune system, and it is significant that cancer is most common among hypothyroid people and least common among hyperthyroid people. Thyroid suppressing drugs have been shown to increase the growth of all kinds of cancer.

   In kidney transplant operations, the immune system of the recipient must be suppressed by drugs in order to prevent tissue rejection of the new kidney. The incidence of cancer among kidney recipients then increases enormously.

   It has been found that the body organs, adenoids, tonsils, and appendix, rather than being useless appurtenances, are in fact, important components of the immune system. Although the body can get by without them, a certain degree of protection is lost. Two researchers, Dr J. R. McVay and Dr Howard Bierman, working independently, reported that cancer occurs more often in those who have had their appendix removed. One may conjecture, at the same time, that internal pollution has led to the infection of the appendix in the first place, leading then to the development of the cancer milieu. Some carcinogenic substances are conducive to cancer, not because of their influence on tissue cells, but because of their debilitative effect on the immune system. The paralyzing effect of cholesterol on white blood cells has already been mentioned.

   When cancer becomes so advanced in a patient to cause severe pain, if pain-killing drugs are employed with resultant further depression of the immune system, the cancer will advance rapidly with little hope for the patient.

   In September 1979, the Australian Federal Government, following the lead of USA, Britain and Canada, banned a number of drugs containing methapyrilene, a drug shown to be carcinogenic to animals. The drugs were tranquilizers and medicines for colds and allergies. It is interesting to note that some months earlier, in May, a letter appeared in Medical Journal, written by Dr David Horrobin, director of the Endocrine, Pathophysiological Laboratory of the Clinical Research Institute, Montreal, in which he described research with rats in which the growth of tumors was accelerated by tranquilizers. He said urgent investigations were needed in view of the very high levels of tranquilizers used in our society.

   Dr Edward Humphries, a veterinarian of the Bureau of Animal Health, also in May 1979, warned that the use of chlorine in water supplies may be lowering people's resistance to a variety of diseases. In a five-year study he had noted a link between the incidence of "Q"-fever among abattoir workers and the chlorinated water supplies in certain Australian country towns. Q-fever did not appear at all among abattoir workers in towns with unchlorinated water. Dr Humphries said that his study supported research by US cancer researcher, Dr Isiah Fidler, of the Cancer Research Center, Frederick, Maryland, who had found a marked depression of white blood cells in animals which drank hyper-chlorinated water.

Immunotherapy

   It is now apparent to everyone that surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are only palliative approaches in the treatment of cancer, and that the immune system is the key to completely eradicating cancer cells throughout the body.

   Thus immunotherapy has emerged over the past few years as the "new hope". Although immunotherapy had been tried early in the 20th Century, the efforts failed, and so this is the second time around. With greater knowledge of microbiology and immunology, the scientists are more hopeful, though faced with perplexing problems.

   The first problem barring the application of immunotherapy as conventionally employed against other diseases is that cancer cells are not all the same, and therefore, just as with the wide variety of influenza viruses, it is not feasible to produce vaccines against them. This puts the entire responsibility of reaction against cancer, when it appears, upon the body's own defenses, and the only potential of immunotherapy therefore, is to somehow boost the general capability of the immune system.

   This is easier said than done because, in the first place, the immune system which in most cases appears normal enough, does not seem to always recognize the cancer cells as enemies and may make little or no effort to destroy them, although it is known that lymphocytes and macrophages are perfectly capable of doing so. Immunotherapy technique is to employ various vaccines and other forms of stimuli to encourage the immune system into greater activity.

   The sounds reasonable enough because the circulating white cells, although perhaps depleted in numbers, often appear to reasonably perform their other normal functions.

   At this point the researchers are stalled and perplexed and the reason for this is that their entire concept, although sensible, is based on false assumptions, which are:

1. That cancer is a local problem wherever it appears in the body.
2. That the patient's body, apart from the cancer, is healthy.
3. That the patient's immune system is normal, or near normal.

   None of these is the case, and although the immune system may be partially functional, the thymus appears unable to program it effectively, and so the cancer cells are ignored. So until the activity of the thymus is restored, the cancer cells will escape destruction.

   The immune system of a cancer patient is depleted and ineffectual, and to try and stimulate it with vaccines or other artificial methods is like whipping an exhausted horse. Indeed it can be regenerated, but only by removing stress and building up the health of the entire body.

   Natural remission of cancer may occur merely by improvement in immune function perhaps brought about solely by alleviation of stress factors. In this case the disappearance of cancer tumors in itself cannot be considered a cure, it means only that the cancer is being held in check by the body's white cells.

   To achieve a cure the cancer milieu within the body must be cleared and the entire body restored to vigorous health.

The role of hypothyroidism

   The thyroid gland is an important component of the immune system, and it is significant that cancer is most common among hypothyroid people (hypo = low) and least common among hyperthyroid people. Thyroid suppressing drugs have been shown to increase the growth of all kinds of cancer. Dr Broda Barnes said that in cancer transplant experiments with animals the transplant would seldom take unless the animal's thyroid had first been removed.

   Hypothyroidism, although generally unsuspected, is very common says Dr Barnes (see book list), not only in the various "goiter belts" around the world but among all populations on high protein diets. Dr Barnes pointed out the observations (1954) of Dr J. G. Spencer, pathologist at Frenahay Hospital, Bristol, England, that the goiter areas of 15 countries and four continents consistently show a higher incidence of cancer than adjacent areas of the same countries, and that Austria with its high incidence of goiter has the highest incidence of cancer of the Western countries.

   The majority of people have low thyroid activity due to their diet, says Dr Barnes, but of the thousands of patients he has put on thyroid therapy, not one has developed lung cancer, and only six deaths have occurred from cancer of any kind.

Different types of cancer

   It has been postulated that there are as many as one hundred types of cancer and therefore the cancer problem is a very complicated one. On the other hand, sensible analysis of the subject reveals instead that cancer is a single, constitutional complaint preventable by the simple act of purifying the constitution and that therefore the cancer problem is in fact a comparatively simple one.

   Primary cancers may make their appearance in any one of a number of sites, the location depending on several factors:

1. The degree of local circulation of blood, which determines the degree of pre-cancer. (See The Liver and Cancer: A New Cancer Theory by Kasper Blond, MD, 1955)
2. The location of irritation or injury as a trigger for cell growth.
3. In the case of hormonal dependent cancer, the type of hormonal upset.

Cancer of the bowel (colon and rectum)

   This form of cancer is the most common form of malignancy in Western countries, and causes the most cancer deaths. Cancer of the intestine is rare. (See Fig 20.1, appearing earlier in this chapter) There is no doubt, therefore, that colon cancer is directly attributable to the poisonous milieu in the colon caused by constipation and the residues of the high fat, high protein Western diet.

   Countries with a high consumption of beef--Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, England, Scotland and Argentina--suffer from a high incidence of bowel cancer. Scotland has the highest bowel cancer rate in the world, with the worst incidence around Aberdeen, the cattle raising center. The Scottish consume 19% more beef per capita than the English and their bowel cancer rate is precisely 19% greater than the English.

   Similar to the relationship between beef consumption and colon cancer, there is also a strong relationship between beer drinking and colon cancer.

   This latter relationship is held to be accountable for the higher incidence of colon cancer among males.

Breast cancer

   The incidence of breast cancer is much higher in countries where people eat high fat diets. Frequently cysts (soft lumps) wilt appear first but disappear quickly when the diet is rectified.

   Breast cancer is the number one cause of death in women aged 35-50 years in the USA; Holland and Denmark have seven times the rate of Japan with its low-fat diet.

   Oral contraceptives cause 90% of women using them to develop breast cysts within two years. These women have a much greater (260%) chance of developing cancer.

   The effect of the Western diet, in changing the type of intestinal bacteria which react dangerously with the bile, has been described. Another effect of this process is that the female hormone, estrogen, is produced. An excess of estrogen induces premature development in young girls. Whereas a hundred years ago girls commenced menstruating at 17 to 18 years, they do so now at 12 or 13. Estrogen is such a potent hormone that a three-and-a-half-year-old girl who had been rubbing her mother's estrogen skin lotion all over herself in a period of two months developed breasts and an adult uterus.

   In the USA, Premarin, an estrogen preparation designed to keep women youthful, was shown to increase the incidence of cancer of the uterus by 400% in two years and by 1,400% in seven years. The high estrogen levels result in the cysts and breast cancer mentioned. In the UK, cancer of the ovaries has been linked with estrogen contraceptive pills. The incidence of cancer of the cervix and uterus is twice that of those who use a diaphragm.

Fig 20.5 The effect of high-fat diets on breast cancer rates


Breast cancer mortality (age adjusted) vs per capita consumption of dietary fat,
courtesy Kenneth K. Carroll, "Experimental Evidence of Dietary Factors 
and Hormone-dependent Cancers", Cancer Research,  Vol 35, page 3379.

   Prolactin is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland and is involved in the function of breast tissue and mammary glands of the breast. In tests on rats it was noted that cancer was associated with an increase in the prolactin to estrogen ratio in their bodies. Dr Ernst Wynder in his report to the US Senate Select Committee described a study with a group of nurses who voluntarily adopted a low-fat vegetarian diet. Their prolactin levels decreased 40-60% in four weeks.

   At an International Congress of Vegetarians, Dr Kristine Nolfi of Denmark described how she cured herself of breast cancer by adopting a 100% raw vegetable diet. She later established a sanitarium, "Humilgardin" where this diet is employed and consumed by patients and the staff. All forms of rheumatism and arthritis are alleviated, also psoriasis, hemicranea, gallstones, and stones in the renal pelvis and urinary bladder. Loss of hair, fat accumulation and dandruff cease.

Cancer of the stomach

   The countries with the highest incidence are Japan and Iceland.

   Japanese average an intake of 1 oz of salt per day and have a very high rate of hypertension. Examining the stomach lining of young Japanese men with inflammation of the stomach, observers noted it took two weeks of salt-free eating before the inflammation disappeared.

   The rice consumed in Japan used to be dusted with talcum powder to make it look whiter. Talcum is mined along with asbestos. In Russia, asbestos miners have high rates of lung cancer and stomach cancer.

   In tests on animals where cancer-producing substances were injected into their stomachs, those animals on a 35% fat diet developed four-and-a-half times more tumors than animals on a 5% fat diet.

   The people in Iceland eat a lot of smoked fish and smoked meat. Investigating 1,600 deaths caused by stomach cancer, the highest incidence correlated with the consumption of smoked meat. The carcinogen in smoked meat is called 3-4 benzopyrine. The amount of this carcinogen in 1 lb of smoked mutton equals that in 250 cigarettes. In the coal mining areas of Utah, USA, miners have three times the stomach cancer of non-miners, and eight times the incidence of people in non-mining areas.

   The barbecuing of meat has been strongly suspected for years now. Tests on 25 rats fed smoked meat showed they developed tumors and 21 died in 90 days. Nitrates and nitrites are used as preservatives of processed meats, ham, bacon, frankfurts etc. Much of the nitrates' effectiveness depends on its conversion by bacteria into nitrite. The permitted level of nitrite in the USA is 0.2%. Nitrites can be changed in the stomach to nitrosamines, some of which are carcinogens. These have been observed to cause cancer in all laboratory animals. It should be remembered that preservatives work by inhibiting the function of enzymes, and therefore the consumption of preserved foods must inevitably lead to the depletion of enzyme activity in the body.

   Researchers at the University of Nevada have found that nitrosamines did not occur in the presence of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). Nitrates which normally exist in vegetables can be converted to nitrites in prolonged storage. It was recently discovered in Europe and in the USA that commercial beer contained nitrosamines. A paper by B. C. Challis and C.D. Bartlett, organic chemists, Imperial College of London, April 1957, described how nitrosamine formation from nitrates and amines increased tenfold when small amounts of coffee were consumed. Thus Vitamin C would lessen the danger of this combination. Nitrites can also affect oxygen transport when they combine with the iron in the hemoglobin of the blood. It is thought that the high levels of sodium nitrite in the salt used in Japan were partly responsible for their cancer rate.

   It has been noted that among Japanese who migrate and live in the USA, the incidence of stomach cancer decreases but the incidence of cancer of the colon increases.

   Scientists at the University of Texas report that common seasonings such as cayenne pepper, paprika and particularly turmeric (the main ingredient in curry powder) alter cells permanently by disorganizing chromosomes.

Cancer of the liver

   Despite the fact that the liver continually processes all the blood in the body as well as receiving substances directly from the intestine, thus being more exposed to carcinogens and toxins than any other tissue, and despite the fact that liver cells are capable of replicating faster than any others, primary cancer rarely occurs there. However, secondary cancer of the liver is common. Primary cancer of the liver may occur when cirrhosis exists and the liver tissue is attempting to restore itself. Heavy drinkers and smokers are very susceptible.

   As is well known, natives of undeveloped countries, who eat more natural food, escape most of the degenerative diseases of civilization. However, among some of these people primary cancer of the liver occurs frequently, and this is directly attributable to the potent carcinogen, aflatoxin, which like the carcinogens used to quickly cause cancer in animal experiments, is powerful enough to do so in the healthy livers of humans. The incidence of liver cancer among natives in Johannesburg is 27 times that of the USA, and in Mozambique is 270 times greater.

   The 20% rate of primary cancer of the liver among the Bantu population was attributed primarily to their poverty-restricted diet of corn and corn mush, cooked in iron pots.

   Aflatoxin is an excretion of a mould which can penetrate the shells of peanuts and poison them, and is also sometimes found in rice. Aflatoxin increases greatly in rice which has been cooked and kept for later use.

   Brazil nuts contain aflatoxin and their importation into Austria has been banned. Peanuts are the worst. In England in 1960, 100,000 turkeys all died of liver cancer when fed mouldy peanut meal. In the tests that followed, calves given aflatoxin, one part in half a million in their food, all got liver cancer in three weeks and all died in 16 weeks. Steers given one part in three million got liver cancer in 16 weeks. Tests on ducks and trout in even weaker concentrations had the same results. With rats, one part in 70 million killed them all with liver cancer in 6-8 weeks.

Lung cancer

   Until recently lung cancer caused more deaths among men than any other form of cancer. It now ranks second to cancer of the bowel.

   Smoking not only introduces carcinogenic tars and other irritants into the lungs, but also elevates blood fats by its effect on the nervous system and simultaneously reduces oxygen available to the tissues by carbon monoxide poisoning of the red cells of the blood.

   However, not all heavy smokers get lung cancer, and at the same time there are many nonsmokers who do get lung cancer. Admittedly lung cancer is so markedly more prevalent among smokers that it is certain that smoking must be regarded as a powerful causative agent, but it could never be said that smoking was the primary cause of lung cancer.

   More directly causative of lung cancer is a high fat, high cholesterol diet. In a Chicago survey of 876 smokers, in those with cholesterol levels of 275 mg% (7.0 mm/L) the lung cancer rate was 37 per thousand.* For those with cholesterol levels of 225 mg% (5.77 m/L) the lung cancer rate was only five per thousand, but for those smokers with a cholesterol level of less than 150 mg% (3.8 mm/L) there was no cancer incidence at all.

*These figures were the number of smokers with cancer at the time of the survey. Of the 876 smokers, a far higher number will eventually get cancer.