If Cancer Cannot Be Cured, Can It Be Managed to Save Lives?

I do a weekly live-streaming television ‘Talking Heads’ show on the USA Global TV & Radio network. The topics are always focused on health and wellness. I started a six-part show last week on Cancer – Causes and Options. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl3zl0HEWkM

I am not a physician or associated with the pharmaceutical industry. I am a researcher. I focus on the cellular level of the body, looking for cause-and-effect relationships – chemically speaking. Treat a cause and fix a problem. Treat symptoms, and you will always be treating symptoms.

Current Theories

There appears to be a significant divide between genetic and metabolic theories in determining what causes cancer. The genetic side of the house, which dominates the medical-industrial complex, believes that cancer starts with genetic mutation of DNA, and subsequent treatments focus on killing the cancer cells using chemotherapy and radiation. That is today’s ‘Standard of Care!’

The metabolic theory started in the 1920s with Otto Warburg. He received a Nobel Prize in 1931 in Physiology for his work on the genesis of cancer. Otto Warburg discovered that cancer cells utilize more glucose than non-cancer cells. Normal cells ‘respirate’ (use oxygen) to create cellular energy. Glucose is converted to lactate which is further converted to energy (ATP - adenosine triphosphate).

In cancer cells, glucose is fermented in a non-oxygen environment to create lactate for cellular energy. Otto Warburg’s theory was that you could deprive or starve cancer cells by removing glucose – today’s ketogenic diet – also known as the Atkin’s Diet. Many cancer cells were killed using this approach; however, some tumors did not respond.

Decades later, researchers found that cancer cells use two fuel sources – glucose and glutamine. Some cancer cells prefer glucose, others glutamine, and some both. Had glutamine been discovered decades ago, the respirational theory may have prevailed, and current treatments may not include chemotherapy and radiation.

Modern cancer researchers following the respirational theory on cancer genesis would concentrate on starving cancer cells by depriving them of both glucose and glutamine. There are over 2,000 published papers on the metabolic theory and the subsequent success of managing cancer recovery multiple times better than the current standard of care. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyt3Do4w7fs

Starving cancer cells of glucose is simple – a ketogenic diet will do that. However, starving cancer cells of glutamine, an abundant amino acid in our bodies, is a different story.

Glutamine

https://draxe.com/nutrition/l-glutamine-benefits-side-effects-dosage/. Some amino acids are classified as ‘essential’ because our bodies cannot make them, and we need them from our foods. Our bodies can create other amino acids. Glutamine is a conditional essential amino acid. Our bodies make it, but we need more than our bodies can produce, so we need food to supplement the additional glutamine needed.

There are twenty amino acids in the proteins we eat. Glutamine makes up over 30% of the amino acids found in our blood. In addition, 60% of our skeletal muscles contain glutamine. Eggs, milk, beef, asparagus, salmon, turkey, corn, rice, and many other foods contain glutamine.

Glutamine, or L-Glutamine (the more official designation), has been shown to improve gastrointestinal and immune health and is used to treat digestive issues, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s), ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis and diverticulosis, leaky gut, joint pain, and more. Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (Krebs Cycle), a 1953 Nobel Prize winner for physiology, discovered the relationship between gut health and glutamine.

Glutamine Inhibitors

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6627209/ Cancer tumors can be starved of glutamine, but many challenges exist. DON (6-diazo-5-oxo-norleucine) is a glutaminase-inhibiting drug that inhibits glutamine-using enzymes. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6627209/

Glutamine cannot be regulated by diet. Some natural options address various glutamine-transport processes. Berberine and theanine (black tea) are two. Do not use either as a home remedy or treatment for treating cancer without consulting your physician. There are issues with berberine and who can take it safely.

Conclusion

The standard of care stops clinical trials from using the metabolic approach to managing cancer growth. The National Cancer Institute states Treatment that medical experts accept as a proper treatment for a certain type of disease, and healthcare professionals widely use that. Since the metabolic treatment does not involve chemotherapy or radiation treatment, it is not deemed suitable for clinical trials.

Using a chemo drug at doses 70-90% of normal and addressing the food sources for cancer cells has been highly successful overseas. Patients with months to live, as assessed by the current US standard of care, live years longer. Researchers are still searching for that one type of cancer cell that is not responsive to metabolic treatment. Therefore, the omission of glutamine by Otto Warburg should not be taken lightly when proposing a newer method to treat and manage cancer.

Live Long & Enjoy Life! - Red O’Laughlin – RedOLaughlin.com