Friday, July 15, 2011

Cancer: 32 Years and No Progress


With the billions of dollars spent on cancer research by the government and the pharmaceutical companies, you would think that they must be making progress on preventing and treating cancer. 

Unfortunately, the numbers don’t add up.  According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2007 461 new cases of cancer were diagnosed for every 100,000 people.  In 1975, 400 new cases were diagnosed for every 100,000 people.  In 32 years have we made any progress?  (1)

According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2007 the mortality rate was 178 deaths for 100,000 people.  In 1975 the mortality rate was 199 deaths for every 100,000 people.  A slight improvement but nothing that says any real advancement has been made. 

So 32 years later and modern medicine is able to diagnose cancer earlier and allow people to live a little longer with cancer. 

Cancer is a $200 billion industry based on chemo, radiation and surgery.  Think about what would happen if someone came up with a cure that you couldn’t patent?  How many doctors, nurses, scientists and other line employees would be out of a job?  A large portion of our economy is based on treating cancer patients with chemo, radiation and surgery. 

Does it really make sense from a logical perspective to take a patient with cancer and destroy their immune system to kill the cancer and take them to the brink of death?  When they recover from the chemo/radiation has the fundamental cause of the cancer been cured? 

Modern medicine treats chronic illness by treating the effect not the cause.   If your engine light comes on your dashboard you place a piece of tape over the engine light and keep driving the effect is over, but the cause is still there.  Modern medicine wants to make the symptom or effect go away. 

The problem with treating cancer through chemo radiation and surgery is that the cause part of the equation is left out.   For some cancers the slash and burn method will allow the patient to live 5 years from the time he or she was diagnosed - this is considered a success.  How many patients live 20 or 30 years?  How many patients live an enjoyable 5 years?

I recently read a book by Kelley Eidem called “The Doctor Who Cured Cancer”.  The title alone could make any person skeptical.  How could anyone cure cancer?  I was skeptical but I wanted to keep an open mind.  The book is about a doctor named Emanuel Revici.    The book describes his success in treating patients with cancer, aids, addiction and pain.  I read the book thinking this much be some kind of joke. 

The endless patient testimonials and other doctors praising of Dr. Revici were unbelievable.   He was able to help a lot of people and there’s no question his work needs to be studied and built upon.  Then the book enters the ugly side; the FDA, ACS and JAMA attacking Dr. Revici’s work.  Keep in mind that Dr. Revici treated his patients with  lipid based therapies.  Even if his methods weren’t approved by the FDA, it wasn’t like Dr. Revici was hurting anyone.  The story continues about his success helping people and the never ending struggles against the large medical institutions.  The amount of time and energy that the government put into discrediting Dr. Revici is staggering.  Couldn’t our tax money go to something more productive then trying to destroy a Doctor using natural elements to treat a lethal disease? 

Dr. Revici admitted he was just getting started in finding a real cure.  He cured a lot of patients but not all of them.  His work never became main stream for obvious reasons. 

Treating Cancer

Anabolic/Catabolic
Cancer seems to be caused by any number of different things.  Dr. Revici found that some of his patients had severe pain at night and others had severe pain during the day.    
This led him to do PH testing on his patients.  His patients with cancer were staying in either a catabolic or anabolic state 24 hours a day.  Using lipid based therapies he was able to take them back to a normal state where the body could be both catabolic and anabolic.  By fixing this imbalance he was able to change the living environment of the cancer.   This is a very simplified version of his work but it’s the general idea.   Is it possible that one of the causes of cancer is a constant catabolic or anabolic state? 

Sunlight
Vitamin D levels are crucial for optimizing health.  We spend way too much time inside with artificial light.  Getting vitamin D levels up is very important for patients diagnosed with cancer.   Natural sunlight and to a lesser extent supplementing with Vitamin D can bring levels up. 
JoEllen Welsh has studied the effects of Vitamin D for 25 years with the State University of New York at Albany.  She studied the effects of a potent form of vitamin D on cancer cells:
“What happens is the Vitamin D enters the cells and triggers the cell death process, it’s similar to what we see when we treat cells with Tamoxifen”  (2)
It’s obvious that either as a preventive measure or a treatment measure getting Vitamin D levels up is extremely important.  I would also suggest that sleeping in total darkness with no artificial light is necessary.  The body needs that cycle of day/night and light/darkness.  Get small doses of sunlight with no sunscreen and sleep in total darkness.   We’ve only had artificial light for 130 years and studies have proven that just a drop of artificial light on your skin while sleeping can cause negative hormonal effects. 

Peppers, Garlic and Ginger
Kelley Eidem, who wrote the book about Dr. Emanuel Revici has created a protocol for treating cancer with Habaneros Peppers, Garlic, Ginger and some other things that can be bought in most stores.  You can read more about his protocol here: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-I-Cured-Stage-4-Cancer-in-Two-Weeks-For-Less-Than-The-Cost-Of-A-Night-At-The-Movies

Apparently the heat from habaneras peppers can kill cancer cells.  It was hard to believe that a pepper could do something like that.  So I started googling capsaicin and cancer and found multiple studies.  Then I went to pub med and found study after study about the benefits of capsaicin against cancer.  You can read some of these studies here:

Again, I can’t see any negative about using the heat from capsaicin to attack cancer.  The studies suggest that it works. 

Ketogenic Diet
Most cancer cells rely on energy from carbohydrates.  This has been proven many times.  Some cancer cells can use fatty acids for energy needs but the majority relies on sugar.  It would seem to make sense that as soon as someone is diagnosed with cancer the doctor should check blood sugar levels, insulin levels and probably leptin as well.  If any type of metabolic disorder is diagnosed it should be treated to give the patient the best shot to defeat the cancer. Also, Insulin levels should be as low as possible.  As cancer cells have extra insulin receptors.  This means increased insulin levels help cancer cells grow even faster.   

Protein and Carbohydrates both cause sugar and insulin levels to increase.   The goal of a ketogenic diet is to put the body into a fat burning state and keep blood sugar levels stable.   If insulin levels are low and blood sugar level is stable, the growth of most cancers should be slowed down or stopped.  Without an energy source how would cancer grow? 

I would recommend a very high fat diet with adequate protein.  Fat should come from coconut, some nuts, wild seafood, avocados and pastured animals.  All vegetable oils, soy, sugar and wheat should be avoided.  Please remember that there is no such thing as essential carbohydrates, but there is essential amino acids and essential fatty acids.  The body needs proteins and fats.  It does not need any carbohydrates to survive.  

Conclusion
1)      Change the environment the cancer is currently flourishing in.  (catabolic/anabolic)
2)      Optimize Vitamin D levels to strengthen the immune system
3)      Minimize the energy supply through a ketogenic diet
4)      Attack the cancer cells with capsaicin. 









Tuesday, May 17, 2011

What To Avoid? What to Eat?

Every person who comes across the primal/paleo lifestyle takes something different from it.

Some people view it as low carb.  Some view it as moderate carb with plenty of fruits and vegetables.  Some people like to include legumes and dairy.


What To Eat:
1) Grass fed beef that is not CAFO.
2) Wild seafood
3) Fruits and vegetables that are organic.  No Monsanto GMO
4) Pastured chicken and pork.  Not so easy to find.  The vegetarian chicken diet is probably grains and GMO soy and corn.  No thanks. 
5) Good fats such as Coconut, Avocado and Olive Oil
6) Bone Broth from Chicken, Fish or Beef
7) Fermented Vegetables
6) I do think that dairy can have a role but it should be raw and organic.  Dairy raises insulin and exists for the purpose of helping a baby grow.  Not exactly ideal if you're looking to lose weight.  Dairy also has a protein called casein that can be a gut irritant for a percentage of the population. 

What to avoid:
1) Wheat
2) Sugar
3) Vegetable Oils
4) Anything in a box
5) Pasteurized Dairy
6) Legumes (proteins act as anti-nutrients)
7) Trans-fats 
8) Soy

Monday, May 16, 2011

Gluten And Tennis Performance

The Wall Street Journal had this article today: http://on.wsj.com/kFlwpX


"How did Novak Djokovic conquer the tennis world?
Maybe the answer is as simple as this: Since last year, he's swearing off pasta, pizza, beer, French bread, Corn Flakes, pretzels, empanadas, Mallomars and Twizzlers—anything with gluten."
It's great to hear stories like this.  Gluten, in my opinion causes issues for the majority of humans.  For some people it causes immediate reactions.  In the majority of people it causes long term health problems that can't be directly connected to gluten when diagnosed.  
Unfortunately doctors don't pay much attention to gluten and their lectins (proteins) unless a patient has a direct allergy.  
Let's hope that other athletes take notice of this which can only help in getting this information out.  


First Post

It's been a long time coming that I finally decided to start a blog.  I believe heavily in the paleo/primal lifestyle.  My blog will touch on topics such as paleo/primal, autoimmunity, The pharma/agra/insurance industries and their role in disease.

This blog will also document my weight loss journal along with recipes and pictures of recipes.  I'm a 31 year old male from the new york area.

I've had short term success with Paleo but then I seem to find my way back to the sugar/wheat.

I'm a big fan of Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson, Chris Kresser, Jimmy Moore, Diane Sanfilippo and Dr. Cate Shanahan.

I have psoriasis which is an auto-immune disease.  Modern medicine doesn't have a fucking clue what to do with it.  From everything I've read it's caused by intestinal permeability and/or high insulin levels.  Strict paleo does a pretty good job with both of those.

So this is my first post.  I hope people find this blog informative and entertaining.