Cancer Causes & Prevention

The New Theory

Have you ever had cancer, or do you have cancer now? Chances are then that you have had a traumatic emotional conflict in your life, the most severe you have ever known, and that emotional conflict was the beginning of your cancer. These are the conclusions of Dr. Geerd Hamer of Germany, who examined over 10,000 cancer sufferers, and his thepry wasn't contradicted once. I find this to be an amazing discovery because of the ramifications it possesses concerning traditional cancer therapies.

The Old Theory

Discovering the cause of cancer is the first and most important step in its prevention. However, there appears to be more than one cause. Cancer may be seen as multi-dimensional with interconnecting causes on different levels. Most of the scientific attention is centred on the biochemistry of cells.

The effects of nutrition, toxic substances and radiation are all felt directly on this level. On another level, but generally not accepted by the orthodoxy, are suppressed and negative emotions and emotional traumas, negative beliefs and blocked or distorted bio-energy flows as found in the acupuncture meridians. Cancer is generally defined as an uncontrolled proliferation of cells, commonly resulting in the growth of a malignant tumour. The basic question is what makes cells divide uncontrollably?

Tumour Growth

Orthodox research focuses on the nucleus of the cell as it regulates cell divisions. It is known that unbiological chemicals and radiation can damage the reproductive mechanism and cause transmutation of the genetic material that may then lead to cancerous growth.

However, the problem usually is not that cancer cells divide very rapidly, but rather that both daughter cells tend to survive, just like in an embryo, while in adult tissue only one cell survives. This orthodox model sees the development of a tumour as a purely local event in an otherwise healthy body. The solution, accordingly, must be to completely destroy the tumour and every cancer cell and all should be well. But unfortunately, it is not so. Usually tumours just regrow in other places and sometimes victims even die despite a destroyed tumour.

Recognising that the common cancers cannot be medically cured, statistics are only expressed as five-year survival rates. All this shows that the medical model of cancer is either incomplete or wrong.

Not Localised

Natural medicine does not dispute that unbiological chemicals and radiation can cause cancer, but goes on to state that they are only part of the story. Importantly, cancer is seen as a disease of the total organism, not just a localised event.

If we have good liver and kidney functions, then harmful chemicals will be effectively detoxified and expelled, and if we have a high intake of protective anti-oxidant nutrients, such as vitamins A, C, E, beta-carotene and selenium, then so-called free radicals formed through radiation exposure, will be made harmless. However, if harmful chemicals should break the biochemical defences, resulting in weak or abnormal cells, then these will immediately be destroyed by an efficient immune system. With this, we know already three preconditions for the development of cancer: weak liver and kidney functions, a low intake of protective anti-oxidant nutrients and a weak immune system, while at the same time being exposed to unbiological chemicals or radiation.

There is a basic difference between conventional and natural medicine as to which chemicals are regarded as contributing to cancer. The orthodoxy is only concerned about chemicals that have mutagenic properties, affecting the genetic material. Natural medicine, on the other hand, regards all unbiological chemicals as contributing to cancer. For one thing, such chemicals tend to poison or weaken enzyme systems, liver and immune functions. Not only agricultural chemicals and food additives contribute to this toxic assault, but also most medical drugs and chlorinated water. Chlorine reacts with organic impurities in water or with food or body tissue to form organochlorines, similar to DDT and other banned substances.

Blocked Energy Production

Natural medicine also has a completely different understanding of the process by which chemicals cause cancer. Most of this pioneering alternative research was done by P.G. Seeger in Germany who worked for fifty years in experimental cancer research. He published 290 scientific works and was twice nominated for the Nobel prize (in 1979 and 1980) but only those who supported the orthodox view were successful. As early as 1938 he was able to convincingly demonstrate that, on the cellular level, cancer starts in the cytoplasm, not in the nucleus.

The cytoplasm is the jelly-like outer part of the cell that contains a series of 'power stations', the mitochondria, in which most of the energy needed by the cell is produced. This is done in a series of enzymatic steps called the respiratory chain. Seeger showed that in cancer cells this respiratory chain was blocked by the destruction of important enzymes, especially one called cytochrome oxidase.

The respiratory chain produces energy by combining the carbon and hydrogen from short nutrient fragments with the oxygen transported by the haemoglobin from the lungs. Without this cellular oxidation, the cell can produce energy only without air, that is anaerobically, by converting glucose into lactic acid. This is how the cancer cell produces most of its energy and that makes it very acid. By taking exact measurements inside cells, Seeger and others found that cancer cells utilise only between 5 and 50% of the oxygen of normal cells. Furthermore, the virulence of cancer cells is directly proportional to their loss of oxygen utilisation and with this to the degree of blockage of the respiratory chain.

From this we can see the close conection at the metabolic level between cancer and allergies or chemical sensitivities. The main metabolic symptom of food allergies and chemical sensitivities is an excessive production of lactic acid in affected regions of the body. This is also a problem with chronic fatigue syndrome where the oxidative energy production is blocked by the endotoxins from invasive microbes. In all of these conditions this is caused by a blocked respiratory chain or oxidative energy production. Therefore, we can easily see how at the metabolic level cancer starts with the poisoning of the respiratory chain with allergens, unbiological chemicals and endotoxins.

In 1957 Seeger successfully transformed normal cells into cancer cells within a few days by introducing chemicals that blocked the respiratory chain. Further experiments showed that cancer cells of low virulence could easily be overcome by the immune system but those with high virulence prevailed and continued to spread.

Following this, Seeger made his most important discovery: thousands of experiments revealed that certain nutrients, mainly from the vegetable kingdom, could restore cellular respiration in cancer cells and, with this, transform them back into normal cells. While these results were published in prestigious scientific journals, they were completely ignored by the Cancer Establishment. It is not difficult to imagine why.

Findings Confirmed

Seeger's finding that cancer originates in the cytoplasm and not in the nucleus was confirmed by other researchers. Between 1975 and 1977 they repeated an experiment 93 times in which they replaced the nucleus of a fertilised mouse egg with the nucleus of a cancer cell. In each case the egg developed into a healthy, cancer-free mouse and even the offspring remained cancer-free. Similar results were achieved with frog eggs.

Johanna Budwig, a German fat researcher, confirmed the work of Seeger on a practical level. She developed a simple paper chromatography test that shows up the blocked respiratory chain of cancer patients as a slow yellow-green spot. By using liberal amounts of high-quality linseed oil and the sulphur-amino acids cysteine and methionine, the yellow-green spot disappeared, the respiratory chain was reactivated and cancer patients recovered. Methionine as well as copper and iron are the key components of cytochrome oxidase, the part of the respiratory chain that is blocked in cancer.

All this scientific research and its practical results continue to be ignored by the Cancer Establishment, who, despite the evidence to the contrary, still maintain that cancer originates in the nucleus, that it cannot be reversed but only treated by killing all cancer cells, and that curing cancer with nutrition is impossible and those who do it anyway are frauds and quacks and must be prevented from practising.

The Cancer Microbe

While a causal correlation between cancer and viruses has been shown only in a few rare or animal tumours, several independent researchers have reported the proliferation of certain microbes in all cancer patients.

One of the first was the German professor of microbiology G. Enderlein who described in 1925 the different stages of a microbe that is normally present as tiny colloidal protein units. In various degenerative diseases, especially cancer, these protein units grow into coccus and higher bacterial forms and finally into fungi. Independently, mostly without knowing of each other's work, several other researchers - Roy Ray Rife, Wilhelm Reich, Virginia Livingston-Wheeler, A.Cantwell and Gaston Naessens - have described the same phenomenon.

Orthodoxy, however, has a dogma that says microbes always have the same form and cannot change from viruses into bacteria and fungi. This is because orthodox microbiologists observe only dead stained microbes in dead tissue or live ones for short periods, instead of live microbes in live tissue at very high magnification over long periods.

Anyway, this microbe, variously called the cancer microbe, pleomorphic organisms, L-forms or cell-wall deficient microbes, appears to do much of the damage not only in cancer but also with all auto-immune diseases. What kind of damage or disease it causes depends mainly on the weakest organ or body system as well as the presence of contributing factors, such as allergies, chemical sensitivities or deficiencies. If, in combination with other microbes it invades the joints it causes rheumatoid arthritis, in the skin it can lead to scleroderma, in the muscles to chronic inflammations, in the bone marrow to leukemia and in various organs to malignant tumours.

The cancer microbe badly damages the immune system and makes it incapable of fighting the cancer cells. Toxins released by this microbe cause the characteristic sickening odour as in terminal cancer and they cause wasting in experimental animals, just like in advanced cancer. If injected into animals, the cancer microbe and its toxins causes cancer. Several of these researchers found ways to destroy or control the cancer microbe which often led to a cure or remission of the disease.

The cancer microbe generally begins to proliferate with a decline in health and vitality. By weakening the immune system and the metabolism it prepares the way for the development of cancer. Toxins released by the cancer microbe may also interfere with the respiratory chain directly. Factor in added external influences, such as exposure to unbiological chemicals or radiation, poor nutrition, and/or lowered resistance from other causes and full-blown cancer may result as conditions favouring cancer microbe proliferation are created.

Two Factors in Proliferation

Two factors that greatly contribute to the rise of the cancer microbe are dead teeth and overgrowth of the intestines with harmful microbes.

• Dead teeth and the surrounding jawbone become concentrated breeding grounds of harmful microbes releasing a steady stream of toxins into the circulation.

• Overgrowth of the gastro-intestinal tract with harmful microbes has the same effect on an even larger scale and is the main cause of auto-immune diseases and Candida-related problems. These block the respiratory chain of cellular energy production by poisoning it with microbially produced chemicals or endotoxins. I am convinced that the main cause of this is the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in raising livestock and by the medical profession, also other medical and recreational drugs contribute greatly.

I regard it as criminally negligent to prescribe antibiotics without using a fungicide at the same time and replacement lactobacilli immediately afterward.

The late Virginia Livingston-Wheeler warned cancer patients strongly against eating chicken or eggs because she found that the cancer microbe was commonly present in commercial chicken. Another indication, reported recently in a Gerson Institute newsletter, comes from the Navajo Indians who rarely develop cancer despite generally poor health. They do not eat fowl for religious reasons. The very few Navajos who did develop cancer all had broken the taboo and eaten chicken and eggs. She also fund other types of meat were commonly contaminated and only lamb was relatively safe. I believe that the animals originally become infected in feedlots and other unnatural methods of animal husbandry..

In order for a tumour to form usually several factors come together. Commonly there is some tissue injury as from chronic inflammation, radiation, surgery or other physical or chemical injury or irritation. This damages the cellular respiratory chains and prepares the ground for the cancer microbe to proliferate in this area. This microbe has been shown to produce growth hormone which in turn stimulates cellular division and tissue growth in the area, leading to a tumour, similar to plant and tree tumours growing after attack by certain parasites.

Growth hormones are important to maintain and regenerate our body at any age, but this takes place within the confines of a strong etheric blueprint. If this blueprint is weak as in an old or inefficient body, then stimulation with growth hormones leads to uncontrolled growth, commonly a tumour. Whether such tumours become malignant depends on the quality of the oxidative energy metabolism and the proliferation of the cancer microbe.

It is quite common for people to have dormant or slow-growing tumours which may not cause any problem for the rest of their lives. However, if we are low in vitality with a depressed immune system, then the cancer microbe starts proliferating in the bloodstream, invading the red blood cells, and growing from their benign form as tiny protein units into bacterial and fungal forms. This results in a greatly increased supply of growth hormones to any existing or newly forming tumours and an inflammatory condition around them. With this, a cancer has developed.

In the early stages it is relatively easy to strengthen vitality and immune system sufficiently for the cancer microbe to recede. The tumour becomes dormant and the cancer is in remission. Unfortunately, cancer patients sometimes lose heart and give up when they do the right thing, have a six week cleanse, and the tumour is still present. They do not realise that they have won the fight and a dormant tumour does not really matter.

Therefore, I now recommend not to have any scans at this stage because a disheartened patient is too often a dead patient soon after. Apart from mental depression, deficiencies and chemical pollution, general anaesthesia in combination with cancer surgery often leads not only to a proliferation of the cancer microbe, but also to a dissemination of cancer cells throughout the body - a recipe for creating metastases - secondary tumours.

Tumour Formation & Breast Cancer

Looking at it another way, we may also see tumour formation as an attempt of the body to heal itself or to minimise any damage from unhealthy living. Consider pesticides and other fat-soluble chemicals regularly entering the body. They will predominantly accumulate in an area with weak lymph flow, similar to sediment accumulating in a slow flowing section of a river.

In women the slowest lymph flow commonly is in the breasts, due to their rigid position inside a tight bra. This is why - according to one clinical study - women who constantly wear a bra have a 20 times (2000%) higher incidence of breast cancer than those who minimise the time they wear a bra.

In order to lessen toxic damage to the rest of the breast, the chemicals are piled together in the equivalent of a rubbish dump and partly sealed off. This is a tumour, initially benign, but the higher the toxic load, the more is the oxidative energy metabolism interrupted and the more it becomes malignant.

If the rest of the body is still vital with the cancer microbe subdued, the tumour remains isolated and relatively harmless, even if it is classified as malignant. At this stage surgery or simple natural treatments can be successful in causing a permanent cure.

However, without a change in life style or due to the stress of surgery and anaesthesia the cancer microbe may gradually win the upper hand and then cancer may spread through the body regardless of whether all of the tumour has been removed or not. With this, we may say as a general rule: removing a tumour does not cure a cancer, but controlling the cancer microbe usually does.

Other Factors

Many other factors contribute to the development of cancer more indirectly by weakening the liver, the immune system or individual cells and their enzyme systems. Without going into details I just want to mention some of these.

• Chronic inflammations prepare the local conditions for the growth of a tumour by destroying or weakening tissue structures. Tumours themselves are inflammatory processes. Hidden food allergies and chemical sensitivities are the most common causes of localised chronic inflammations. The most common food allergies are to wheat and cows' milk products.

• Overeating, eating much meat and predominantly cooked food and poor food combining habits tend to diminish our supply of digestive enzymes, especially with advancing age. Protein-digesting enzymes have a tumour inhibiting effect and in high concentrations are even tumour-destroying.

• A high intake of salt combined with a low intake of potassium weakens the electric membrane potential of cells and makes the cell walls permeable to harmful chemicals and toxins.

• Not only chlorine is dangerous in our drinking water, but also fluoride. It is a strong enzyme poison and damages energy-producing enzymes as well as those involved in immune activity and cancer protection (catalase, superoxide dismutase). The cancer-causing potential of fluoride has been shown in numerous animal and tissue experiments and in statistics of fluoridated versus unfluoridated regions.

• Mercury is not only a strong nerve poison but also inhibits the immune system. Most of our mercury exposure comes from dental amalgam. Roy Kupsinel demonstrated on numerous occasions greatly improved immune functions after removal of all amalgam fillings. A child with leukaemia recovered when her amalgam was removed but the leukaemia returned when the amalgam fillings were restored some months later and again it disappeared when all amalgam was removed for good. Also a case of Hodgkins disease went into remission when amalgam was removed. Some successful cancer therapists advise their patients to have all amalgam and dead teeth removed before cancer treatment.

• In addition, the nickel in dental material, such as braces, has been shown to suppress immune functions. In one reported case lymphocyte viability dropped to 50% after placement of braces. Two different metals in the mouth are even much worse than just amalgam or just stainless steel.

• Increasingly we read reports about the potential dangers of electromagnetic pollution, not only from transformer stations and high-voltage power lines, but also from household electric appliances, hand-held power tools and electric blankets and waterbeds. We seem to be most susceptible to these influences when we are asleep. Electromagnetic fields act just like light to stimulate the pineal gland that requires a regular light-dark cycle to regulate our body rhythm. Only during the dark phase does it release growth hormone and melatonin which, among other functions, is needed for a strong immune system. Vitamin B12, which is so helpful with advanced cancer, helps to resynchronise body rhythms and so improves the rhythmic release of melatonin and growth hormone.

• Many therapists also believe that earth radiations from underground streams significantly contribute to cancer development. While this possibility is discounted by conventional science, without investigation, many dowsers point to numerous houses in which the bed of a cancer victim was supposedly exposed to such radiations. To avoid harmful consequences it is usually sufficient to move the bed just a few metres.

• Sun exposure has been blamed for a large increase in the rate of skin cancers but there are indications that ultraviolet radiation is presently so harmful only because of a high intake of commercial polyunsaturated oils combined with a low intake of protective anti-oxidant nutrients. Furthermore, it has been shown that most sunscreen lotions contain an ingredient that kills skin cells and may cause more cancer in the future.

• John Ott was the first to demonstrate the harmful effects of electric lighting but especially of fluorescent light. This has now been confirmed in a scientific study showing a doubling of the melanoma risk in office work under fluorescent lighting.

• We are also now being told that the risk of developing cancer from X-rays is about four times higher than previously estimated.

• A high intake of not only commercial polyunsaturated oils but fats in general and also of proteins are linked to an increase in the cancer rate. A high fat intake is a strain on the liver, especially if the fat or oil at any time has been heated to over 50 degrees C which causes the destruction of the fat-digesting enzyme lipase. Fat also requires more oxygen than other food to be converted to energy and a high intake of fats causes blood to sludge resulting in poor tissue oxygenation.

• Clinical experience shows that a diet high in protein, especially of animal origin, is a fast road to a fatal conclusion for cancer patients. Not only does it greatly reduce the availability of protein-digesting enzymes for fighting the cancer, but it also leads to the congestion of the lymphatic system with debris from protein fragments. This results in oedema in tissues with poor blood circulation and in oxygen starvation of the cells, preparing the way for anaerobic, cancer-type energy production.

• The same applies to arteriosclerosis, shallow breathing and other factors that restrict the oxygen supply to some parts of the body. In animal studies resistance to spontaneous and transplanted tumours increased tenfold on low-protein diets.

• Until recently, protein debris has been largely overlooked as a cause of cancer. By using an electron microscope it could be shown that on a diet high in protein and especially of animal protein, protein fragments begin to clog up the so-called basement membranes. These act as filters which facilitate the transport of oxygen and nutrients into cells and of waste matter out. Congested membranes increasingly lead to a blockage of the respiratory chain.

• Not only smokers face a greatly increased risk of cancer, but also passive smokers. In one large study non-smokers in a household with smokers had a 6.8 fold risk of leukaemia and 3.3 times the risk of breast cancer as compared to controls from smoke-free houses.

• High body stores of iron increase the cancer incidence. At risk are men and post-menopausal women who ingest much iron from cast-iron or stainless steel cooking pots or from iron added to breakfast cereals, bread or food supplements. Also, drinking water can be too high in iron.

• In the US Dr Hans Kugler did some interesting experiments with mice. One group received a good diet and the other a junk food diet as commonly used in our society. The life span of the junk food mice was 50% shorter mainly due to increased cancer rates. In another experiment he added 'safe' quantities of nitrates, nitrites, saccharin and a commercial growth promotant to tap water for one group while the other group received spring water instead. The life span of the group with the 'safe' chemicals in tap water was 20% shorter mainly due to an increased cancer rate.

Another important factor to prevent cancer is a diet high in organically grown raw fruit and vegetables and low in meat and fat.

Emotions and Energies

• Grief and mental depression also depress the immune systems. Dormant tumours often start growing again after the loss of a close relative or other traumatic events. In a study on the influence of attitude on cancer survival a group of women were followed up, ten years after their diagnosis of breast cancer. Those who had reacted to the diagnosis with a fighting spirit had a 70% survival rate, denial gave 50%, stoic acceptance 25% and helplessness and hopelessness 20% survival.

• It has been noted that cancer patients often harbour resentments and repress their true feelings, they try to please others and seek praise and recognition. They also tend to be dominated by their spouses and do not question anyone in authority. Often they are so focused on helping others that they do not even recognise their own emotional needs and if they do, they do not express them.

• In the 1950's Wilhelm Reich published results of successful cancer treatment with his bio-energy accumulator. The psychiatric assessment of his patients led him to conclude that cancer is usually associated with repressed sexual feelings and energies that caused strong muscle tension or 'armouring' in the pelvis and other areas. This widespread armouring restricts the free flow of feeling and acupuncture energies and favours the development of cancer.

• In a similar way, I assume that tumours are associated with energy fields formed from unreleased negative emotions. As an example, a woman with fear of developing breast cancer or with guilt for not breastfeeding projects this fear or guilt onto her breasts. This causes muscle tension with reduced blood supply, oxygen and nutrient deficiency and accumulation of waste matter.

Resentment, suppressed sexual energy and unreleased or excessive grief may bring a similar result in an appropriate target area. The late Geoffrey Hodson, well-known theosophist and clairvoyant, described cancer as a dark, dense, astral entity surrounding the tumour and often of karmic origin or caused by fear.

From an esoteric perspective and looking at the deeper or inner causes, cancer originates mainly in the astral body or in our feeling nature. A certain quality of suppressed or unexpressed negative feelings, such as resentments, creates an astral entity that drains our life-force. This entity may already pre-exist for karmic reasons and becomes re-activated through negative or harmful emotions and environmental conditions. This predisposition may be visible to clairvoyants even before the developmentr of cancer as dark and stagnant areas in the astral and etheric auras. As a general rule, we may say that disease is usually a combination or coming together of esoteric inner and more obvious outer causes. Healing may already occur if one of these causes is being removed but for a permanent cure inner as well as outer causes may need to be eliminated.

Preventing Cancer

These insights into the various causes and contributing factors in the development of cancer provide us with reliable guidelines to avoid becoming cancer victims ourselves. We have seen that the key to cancer prevention is a healthy respiratory chain in our cells.

To keep it healthy we need a good supply of oxygen through developing the habit of deep, full breathing in clean air, and we must be vigilant to avoid unbiological chemicals as much as possible. Therefore, we try to obtain and use mainly organically grown food, we minimise processed food with non-biological additives, we prefer natural medicine to pharmaceutical drugs and use either bore water, rain-water or filtered water. I favour reverse-osmosis for water purification but check R-O membrane integrity regularly. Also bore water can be contaminated by pesticides, etc leaching into aquifers; rain water can be contaminated by pesticide drift onto a roof collecting point; filters need regular checking for efficiency. Get water quality lab tested when in doubt.

In addition to daily yoga-type stretching and breathing exercises, more vigorous exercises, such as jogging, lively dancing or rebounding will be beneficial. Always breathe more strongly than the activity requires. Conventional 'aerobic' exercises aimed at achieving artificial goals, often become anaerobic or oxygen-deficient at the cellular level and might be cancer promoting. Therefore, for best results, do not become breathless during exercise. Cancer is also inhibited by moderate sun bathing and minimising the use of glasses or sunglasses when outdoors.

Edgar Cayce, the famous American psychic, used to say that eating two or three almonds a day will prevent cancer. It is possible that he referred to bitter almonds that were still common in his day but even the skin of normal almonds has still a fair amount of the bitter laetrile factor.

Other important factors are:

We do not need to become perfect at all in any of these, but just make an effort in the right direction. The more we learn to enjoy what we need to do and the more we act from a position of love rather than fear, the more we will be protected from cancer.

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Last modified: May 11, 2001, Friday.