The word “cancer” comes from the Greek term “karkinos”, which was coined by the Greek physician Hippocrates (460 to 370 BC) and later translated by Celsus, a Roman who lived between 28 BC to 50 AD. In English is was referred to as “canker” until the 17th century at which time it became known as it is today, ‘cancer’.
The conventional perspective regarding cancer is that it is a “class of diseases characterized by out-of-control cell growth”. Furthermore, they consider that there are “over 100 different types of cancer” that originate in different cells (organs). In fact cancer is often defined as consisting of “many diseases”.
Since cancer cells do not undergo programed cellular death, (apoptosis) they continue to grow “out of control” and invade other tissues (metastasize). These are the hallmarks that broadly define cancer.
This same conventional perspective believes that cancer is initiated when a gene (DNA) mutates and is neither able to correct the damage or to engage in normal process of apoptosis (programmed cellular death).
As is written on the NCI website, “Cancer is a genetic disease… caused by changes to genes that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide…. genetic changes that cause cancer can be inherited… can also arise during a person’s lifetime as a result of errors that occur as cells divide or because of damage to DNA caused by certain environmental exposures.”
Cancer Is A Metabolic Disease Not A Result Of DNA Mutation
Cancer however is not initiated by a DNA mutation but rather is a “metabolic disease” that produces changes in the DNA. In 1931, Dr Otto Warburg was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his discovery that cancer results as a result of the inability to engage in aerobic cellular respiration.
Warburg postulated and it has been corroborated repeatedly over 8 decades that cancer develops as a consequence of insufficient cellular respiration due to mitochondrial damage. The mitochondria are the “energy factories” inside of cells that “burn” glucose in the presence of oxygen through a process known as ‘oxidation’ to produce biological energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). In fact, ATP is the ‘currency’ of energy in all biological systems.
Energy is released from the ATP molecule to do cellular work by removing one of the phosphate-oxygen groups, which leaves adenosine diphosphate (ADP). The ADP molecule is almost immediately processed or recycled in the mitochondria in a process that adds a phosphate to the ADP so that ATP is restored. In the words of Trefil (1992, p. 93) “hooking and unhooking that last phosphate [on ATP] is what keeps the whole world operating.”
ATP Is Known As The Energy Currency Of The Cell
Consider that each cell contains approximately 1 billion ATP molecules, which necessary for that cell’s metabolic needs but that it lasts for only a few minutes. Since there are one hundred trillion cells in the average person, about 1023 or one sextillion ATP molecules normally exist in the body. For each ATP “the terminal phosphate is added and removed 3 times each minute” (Kornberg, 1989, p. 65).
The amount of ATP in the human body is approximately 50 grams and must be continuously recycled. Considering that the daily consumption of approximately 2,500 calories from eating produces about 180 kg of ATP (Kornberg, 1989, p. 65), it is clear that our energy needs are tremendous.
The ultimate source of energy to produce ATP is food hence ATP is simply the carrier of the energy that is ‘harvested’ from the food.
Who said that it does not matter what we eat ???
Once this process of “oxidative phosphorylation” is inhibited through mitochondrial damage, the only way the cell can survive is by the “default” mode of ATP production called, glycolysis or fermentation.
In order to support this new requirement of the cell, specific genes are “turned on” or “expressed” that will support glycolysis and it is these genes that are what are referred to as oncogenes.
What Is The Function Of Mitochondria In Cells?
Therefore, rather than the malignant process being driven (initiated and promoted) by a DNA mutation, the DNA (genetic expression) are “changed” to support the cells new metabolic demands. Hence cancer is a metabolic disease, not a mutation or nuclear disease.
What ultimately occurs is that the fluid in which all the cells of the body live (ECM or extra-cellular matrix) becomes so toxic that normal cellular mechanisms to eliminate waste and keep toxins out are overwhelmed. Mitochondria are the most vulnerable ‘organelles’ in the cell and once the number of mitochondria are too low to adequately produce ATP through aerobic respiration, the cell begins fermenting….”cancer”.
The causes of a sufficiently toxic ECM to produce dysfunctional mitochondria include a multitude of factors related to diet and lifestyle:
Do we eat human food? First, we must define what “human food” is? Human food consists of fresh organic ripe plants, fruit, nuts and seeds. Processed foods and junk food is not human food. Eating processed cooked food, getting takeout and eating junk food is the fastest way to develop what conventional medicine calls “disease”.
Is our lifestyle appropriate for our biology? Meaning are we getting adequate rest and exercise? Do we have a balance of work and relaxation? Are you eliminating waste 2-3 times a day? How is your hygiene?
Living in a modern, urban environment makes it literally impossible to live according to our biological requirements so we need to do the best we possibly can under the circumstances.
Unfortunately, most people do not even realize this simple truth:
We, like all creatures were designed to live and function under specific conditions and in order to do so we have specific requirements….anything less will result in less than optimal functioning (“disease”).