Thomas Seyfried on Cancer as a Metabolic Disease - NOT a genetic mutation.

Hi ATS,

I've just been introduced to the work of Thomas Seyfried, who is a biochemistry professor with 180 peer-reviewed papers, many of them concerning cancer as a metabolic disease. Basically he theorises that cancer cells originate from a defect in the mitochondria of our cells, in which they respire anaerobically, IE they ferment without oxygen - this causes genetic mutations in the nucleus of the cell as a downstream effect of the onset of the disease, but the mutations come second, and are not the primary driver of the disease in the first instance.

Cancer cells survive on high levels of glucose & glutamine which both produce ATP as a result of fermentation, as they must consume vast amounts of energy to survive & metastasize. The mitochondria are supposed to be making ATP for energy purposes, but a defect in the process is what leads to the cell becoming cancerous, leading to genetic mutations in the nucleus. This generates oxidative stress in the cells through the generation of reactive oxygen species - cancer cells suffer oxidative stress leading to fermentation in the mitochondria & damage to the genome.

The misunderstanding of cancer as a genetic mutation issue leads to the incorrect treatment of symptoms rather than the root cause. 1600 people die each & every day because the mitochondrial metabolic origins of cancer are misunderstood, being dealt with as though the genetic mutations are the principal causative factor in the disease. The most sensible way to treat cancer therefore is to deprive the cancerous cells of sugar molecules of glucose & the amino acid glutamine, so that the fermentation process can be arrested, the oxidative stress is disrupted, and the cancerous cell is unable to produce the energy it needs to continue to grow as an undying apoptopic cell which devastates the enviroment in which these cancerous cells are located.

Transitioning to an alternative fuel for your body - ketones - means that the cancer cells cannot utilise these fuel sources to grow & metastasize.

"By so doing you can progressively degrade the viability of the tumour cells slowly without harming the normal cells of the body.. it is an elegant way to treat the condition... without causing any toxicity to the patient"

Thomas Seyfried on cancer as a metabolic disease, more effective therapies & treating it without toxicity

This is a means of treating the cancerous illness without the risks of massive toxicity of chemotherapy which is a cumbersome, clunky & ineffective, dangerous approach to supposedly 'healing' the body from the cancerous illness. In reality the use of chemotherapy is like using a bullet to cure a headache. Chemotherapy toxicity is one of the leading causes of death in cancer patients. Half of cancer patients die BECAUSE OF the chemotherapy which is being used to 'treat' the cancer.

Ketogenic metabolic therapies are able to treat the cancer cells in the manner described, by depriving the cancer cell of glucose & glutamine, so that it cannot produce ATP for its own energetic needs, thereby starving the cell & causing it to die off (recalling that cancer cells are by nature apoptopic if they are sufficiently fuelled by glucose & glutamine, meaning they don't die when they should die - all cells are programmed to die after a certain time so that a new cell can take over the processes that the old cell would have done previously) - all without inserting anything toxic into the body which will have devastating secondary side effects in the so-called healing process of the use of chemotherapy.

Dr Seyfried suggests that we were evolved to be a 'starved' creature -we were not surrounded by high caloric foods when we evolved to hunt & gather foods which would sustain us, yet without overeating, and especially without overeating high quantities of sugars & fats. The fatty acids from our fat stores are directed to the liver when we have no food to sustain us in the normal manner - as long as we have water, we can survive for long periods of time on our fat reserves. The processes of our liver chop up the fatty acids into short chain molecules known as ketone bodies, which are made from fatty acids retrieved from our fat stores when we are in a starvation mode of survival. The ketone bodies provide the fuel for the cells of our bodies, and importantly they do not form as glucose or glutamine, and hence do not contribute to the growth of cancer cells. Remember that there are always cancer cells floating around in our bodies, but our immune system usuall deals with them. Only when a fermentation process is locked into a grouping of cells can a cancerous tumour form, and in such circumstances we must provide ketones for energy rather than glucose & glutamine. Starving the cancer cells of these fuel sources will cause the tumour to shrivel up & die.

Starting a diet that eliminates blood sugar entirely is the way to deprive the tumour cells of glucose & therefore to begin to starve them, if we reduce our caloric intake we expedite the process of generating ketone bodies as fuel sources for our cells. It is more difficult to restrict the production of glutamine - drugs are necessary to prevent the development of glutamine which would otherwise enter into the tumour cells & sustain them.

Dr Seyfried is convinced that the problem lies with official sources of propaganda in government & medical schools, which describe cancer as a genetic disease - when in fact it is metabolic, and the genetic mutations are downstream effects of the disease process. He also states that grants from Big Pharma are responsible for misdirecting the attention of researchers onto problems associated with genes as being the root causes of cancers, when in actuality the problem is purely metabolic - this means that the radiation & chemotherapy treatments are essentially useless (or at least grossly inefficient & dangerous) - the problem of cancer can & should be treated in the manner described, which involves dietary changes to bring about ketone energy production & drugs to address prevention of the production of glutamine (see next post for evidence of this in the mainstream science world more recently).

People who say that diet alone can cure cancer are in error - there is a need to artificially induce the prevention of the production of glutamine so it cannot be taken up as a food source for the tumour - but once you are on the drug needed for that purpose, the fact of arranging a ketone-only diet is the adjunct which then supports the absolute destruction of tumorous cancer cells.


Thomas Seyfried website



(Continued..)

Scientists are now beginning to look into this glutamine-blocking approach as a means of preventing cancerous growth of tumours, which as noted, in conjunction with a ketone diet, can provide the hope of total healing of cancers which are thereby starved of their glucose & glutamine food sources. Cut off the food source, cut off the cancer's ability to grow - the cancer dies, the patient lives.

Working in collaboration with researchers at the Institute's Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, the scientists screened 7,000 diverse compounds for their ability to interfere with SLC1A5.

This work identified about 20 hits, or promising options, and one was selected based on its superior ability to prevent SLC1A5 from reaching the cell membrane.

This drug candidate, IMD-0354, inhibited tumor growth in both cell culture and in mice with melanoma.

"Our study shows that targeting SLC1A5, which stops glutamine from ever entering the cell in the first place, is an effective way to slow cancer cell growth," says Yongmei Feng, Ph.D., staff scientist in the Ronai lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys and first author of the study.

"Because many tumor types are dependent upon glutamine for survival, this drug may be able to treat many different types of cancers."

As a next step, Ronai and his team will further refine IMD-0354, with a focus on improving biophysical properties that will help accelerate preclinical evaluation of the drug candidate.

Science Daily - research into glutamine-blocking compounds in the treatment of Melanoma cancers

I hope you will give the podcast linked in the OP above a listen - it is one hour long, but well worth it. It could save your life one day.

Many thanks ATS!


FITO.

I would tend to classify cancer as more of a metabolic disease. Metabolism is diverse in our body, eating a food that does not metabolize correctly can lead to problems with our cells which can trigger increased cell division if the cell is damaged. If the process gets out of control, the cell division goes wild which is what some cancers are. Now also, if the metabolism is disrupted and cells of the lung form in the liver by mistake possibly because the frequency of those cells is not appropriate for the location, the wrong type of cells will be formed in the liver. These mutations form tumors usually, but if cell division goes wild, that type of cancer forms.

What we eat takes generations to change to keep things working smoothly, right now they are trying to tell people to change their diets and eat things our parents never ate. This can lead to a lot of different problems for a lot of people. Genetically modified foods can possibly also cause problems. It won't happen in all people, but it will effect some. Even what the animals eat that we eat causes changes in the meat chemistry sometimes which can also effect people's health.

Metabolism is a major thing in our bodies, all the highly processed foods with chemistries we are not accustomed to mixed in them can alter the metabolism. Even some herbs mixed together can cause inappropriate metabolic issues. We have cravings for a reason, but the foods they are making to attract us to eat are hijacking our ability to detect what we need to be healthy, we are addicted to chemistries that boost dopamine and also we are hit with too much ummami...glutamate chemistry...which can upset the balance of neurotransmitters in our bodies so our subconscious cannot tell what we actually need. Some of these foods make permanent changes to the brain. You can alter your diet to stop prediabetes becoming type 2 diabetes, but once the permanent changes to organs and the controlling part of our brain system take hold from the type two diabetes, it is not so possible to fix anymore I guess from what research shows. Don't ignore the prediabetes warning from the doctor, take the effort to fix the problem before it can't be fixed.

The western diet is bad for the majority of people, processed food is not too bad, but highly processed stuff is not good if it is over fifty percent of the diet...which it is for many Americans these days. Tacos and pizza are highly processed foods no matter how you make them. We look at all the stuff in the stores, the vast majority of it is highly processed food, it is quick and easy to make and tastes too good. If something tastes too good, then maybe you should make sure to moderate consumption...if it is too good, you tend to eat way more than you need even if it matches your metabolism which can lead to weight gain.

a reply to: rickymouse

Great post, thanks. Yeah unfortunately I have the type 2 diabetes, taking insulin & Metformin to control, it's a lot better now than it was (it was wildly out of control for a while but managed to more or less sort it out now). My wife managed to prevent prediabetes from becoming diabetes, but I had a sugar addiction for many years so it's entirely my own fault that I ended up with the condition. Thankfully my sugar cravings have totally gone now, but I'm still working on eliminating carbohydrates from my diet.

originally posted by: FlyInTheOintment
a reply to: rickymouse

Great post, thanks. Yeah unfortunately I have the type 2 diabetes, taking insulin & Metformin to control, it's a lot better now than it was (it was wildly out of control for a while but managed to more or less sort it out now). My wife managed to prevent prediabetes from becoming diabetes, but I had a sugar addiction for many years so it's entirely my own fault that I ended up with the condition. Thankfully my sugar cravings have totally gone now, but I'm still working on eliminating carbohydrates from my diet.

I don't break down sucrose much and also maltose. Lack a couple of enzymes but there is an alternate pathway for a low amount of maltose metabolism. I do create a lot of insulin when I eat sugar, and it wipes out my glucose and I used to get sugar shakes which I needed reeses peanut butter cups or M&M peanuts to get rid of most of my life. If I ate sweetss, my glucose would dive within half an hour and I would crash so I usually ate them before going to sleep. But I always craved sweets, My hypoglycemia started giving me headspins and I started testing glutamine supplements to help with sore joints and it got rid of my headspins and my hypoglycemia events have almost gone away...also the craving for sugar and sweets went away and they now taste terrible. My insulin level seems to be appropriate and I have long lasting energy. I switched most of my bread to sourdough, which also helps moderate my energy, I guess the sourdough enzymes have some sucralase activity, so it helps to break down the maltose.

Hypoglycemia is a form of diabetis too, diabetes is an improper regulation of sugar. I was told long ago that if I did get insulin resistance with my condition by some doctors I was sheet out of luck. I guess glutamine...not glutamate though...is a muscle sugar released by the muscles when you need energy.

So, my joints, muscles, and tendons feel lots better they felt better after a month and the headspins went away at about two weeks. I have lost over fifty pounds without even trying at all, probably because sweets taste so bad now. I take a five hundred mg tablet in the morning, and sometimes in the evening which is a small but effective dose of it for me.

Darn 1.7% inuit genetics...guess I need more meat and fat and a low carb diet. I love fish just like eskimos do..never want to eat a seal or sea lion though. They seem to cute, friendly, and inteligent to eat. I never saw a fish smile.

It kind of sucks that once you get full blown diabetes, you can't just change to a healthy diet and reverse it back to normal. The article did say it was easier to control and required a smaller dose of meds to control if you ate better, but their evidence showed it could not be normal again. Some people may be able to reverse it, just because none of their test subjects couldn't doesn't mean it applies to everyone, the article did say the research was done on a certain group of people in their area, which shared some genetic traits.

Is it possible that cancer - and other diseases - originate at the subtle level of thought which then, through action, become manifest in the physical?

If you haven't already seen this. Take a look at some of the work of William Li. This guy has been studying the effects of foods on cancer. And he's come up with foods that kill cancer. It's a very interesting Ted Talk.

a reply to: rickymouse

Darn 1.7% inuit genetics...guess I need more meat and fat and a low carb diet. I love fish just like eskimos do..never want to eat a seal or sea lion though. They seem to cute, friendly, and inteligent to eat. I never saw a fish smile.

Love that - 'never saw a fish smile'. Absolutely agree - anything cute & friendly should not be eaten. It's why I despise the practice of eating dogs. Dogs are useful, loving & friendly creatures, and should be made use of in ways other than as edible delights. It seems so wasteful to eat a dog, when they are so damn clever & can be trained to do awesome useful stuff!

I'm biased as a dog person with a crazy German Shepherd - she's a very loving hound, I never believe those who say that dogs have no real emotions & are just eating machines - dogs have a soul, I am confident of this. Any animals exhibiting intelligence have a soul of sorts, and I imagine that animals which are bonded very closely to humans will go to a heavenly realm when they die to await the return of their masters at the end of their lives. I have dreams quite often in which I will reunite with dogs I have owned previously which have passed away many years ago - I imagine that for intelligent creatures which are not bonded to humans, they would reincarnate back into life as another type of creature, or perhaps the same.

I've gone somewhat off-topic here, but I don't care. Dogs are great!

a reply to: grey580

Thanks, I will check this out!

a reply to: ThisPlaceIsADream

I don't absolutely agree with this, but certainly I believe that if we are very negative about our health, if we fear health problems, if we obsess over possible health problems, then that reduced level of energy intensity might very well precipitate illness in the body, following on from what the soul is spending its time thinking about. Not 100% sure on this point, but I do believe it may be at least partially valid. I live my life with absolute confidence that even though I'm on a whole bunch of medications for pain control, including several opiates, my body is strong to resist the potential negative side effects of the medications as time goes by.

I basically trust in God to protect my physical health from catastrophic disease like cancer or heart problems due to the medications. I live believing that God is helping in such a manner:

I have set the LORD always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will dwell securely.

Psalm 16: 8-9

a reply to: grey580


The parsley family and of course, strawberries that are picked ripe and have low pesticides used on them are good at preventing cancer. So are real wild blueberries and other berries. But remember, too much of a good thing is bad too. We need angeogenisis for repairing things too, so moderation and timing is essential. If you just got an operation, it wouldn't be beneficial to eat a lot of strawberries or tomato products because it would slow the repairs which could also cause more time to get infected because the wound is open longer.

Parsley contains apigenin which is good at reversing cancer pretty well, celery is in the same family, but in the lower part there is eugenol instead of apigenin. The midsection which contains less latex in celery has equal amounts, of each, and throwing the celery in the pot converts eugenol to apigenin. The leaves of celery are higher in this chemistry than the rest of the celery, but they are more bitter tasting...I do put celery in all my soups. Narrangeenan in grapefruit and to less amounts in some citrus is also anticancer to a point. Also rutabagga has a couple of chemistries that can destroy cancer cells while preserving food cells. So there are alternatives in diet that can be used to control cancer, but you have to make sure not to mix opposite chemistries...inhibitors and promotors...because they will cancel each other out. Also boiled cabbage in soups has anticancer properties...cooking it increases the sinigen in it to help stop cancer progression.

The video is good at awakening people, but it is important to know that how these fruits and vegetables are grown is also important. How depleted the soils are, what nutrients are in the soils to begin with is also important. Plants have metabolism too. These chemicals are plant defense system chemicals most times, so putting pesticides on the plants dampen the creation of these chemistries and boost size of the berries or vegetables....energy goes from the immune response into growth...big is not always better, sweeter is not always better either. A good strawberry picked ripe is not real sweet but has lots of flavor, a small amount of sugar makes it great tasting plus it is more medicinal. Black pepper is somewhat related to celery, smell that organic celery when you wash it with hot water...it smells like pepper which also has some anticancer properties because their chemicals are related.

Big subject, I could go on for hours with this stuff.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

I have no problem eating hot dogs.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

My comment was posed as a question as I don't know, only suspect that thought (you know, those things that buzz around in our head, often annoying & unwanted) may have a more direct effect, not just on our health, but on our lives as a whole.

As an example, take an angry person (and I speak of what I know, having life-long anger/impatience issues). If one entertains - that is, allows to remain in one's head - anger on a regular basis, is it not likely, or even just possible, that those thoughts may metastasize into bodily disease, by actually changing or distorting at the cellular/molecular level?

Also, in essence, trust in God is all we have; God made us and we are of God. But at some stage, we were also given free will, to choose in any given moment, this or that.. to maintain & 'enjoy' the anger, say, or let it go. If that is the case, is it not perfectly just that those choices should have consequences? Like cancer, in some cases?

Perhaps we are directly responsible for every aspect of our lives; health, wealth, happiness, personal circumstances, the lot. Perhaps there are no accidents in the Universe. Maybe there is a Law that says 'what goes around comes around'.

Just a thought.

And just another thought (well, it seems I do have to make 5 posts before I can start a new thread)...

The cancer cure industry is a massive, multi-billion dollar enterprise , that so far pretty much seems to have failed dismally. No money in well people I guess, keep 'em sick, keep 'em $$coming.

Does anyone know if there are purely, let's say, spiritual places where a person with cancer can attempt to reverse the disease by reversing/negating the thought processes that may have caused it? It's not an area I've investigated but I'm sure there must be such venues in places like India, Tibet and it would be interesting to know what results may have been achieved.

a reply to: ThisPlaceIsADream

Interesting thoughts for sure. I agree that maintaining negative emotional states leaves you far more likely to experience disease as a process because of the damage we do to our morphology through the emotional bad chemistry. I think of Masuro Emoto's experiments with ice crystallisation.

When he projected happy thoughts, emotions & music towards water before freezing it, the crystals were beatuful & ornate. When he subjected the water to hateful comments & emotions, or played death metal at them before freezing, the crystals were warped, smaller in size, distorted.

So it seeems that the same principle could have effect in our lives & bodies, because we are over 70% water in terms of our bodies. If we therefore decide to be happy, optimistic, listen to good music & surround ourselves with positive people, it is more likely that we will stay healthy as our water will carry those positive emotions through into our biochemistry, ensuring our body's processed can progress in a holistically healthy way, unencumbered by the negative or evil machinations of bad actors in our lives, or negative emotions that we hold onto in ourselves.

a reply to: ThisPlaceIsADream

I think it's likely that there are ways in which positive spiritual energy can have an impact on a place, which could then help to support one's own emotional & spiritual growth in such manner as to help with our general wellness.

As a very clear example from my own life, I live in Manchester, United Kingdom. Our nation, and this city in particular, is very secular, with a TONNE of negative energy flowing all around the whole place, it's unavoidable. It creates a dreary, dull sense of depression in the atmosphere, and you have to be a really positive person surrounded by really positive friends & family to overcome its effects. I don't have a very positive extended family, and I've only recently started to make good friends at church, but even so these small improvements are helping.

However, when I visited Texas, USA in 2012, as soon as I got off the plan & into the open air of the place, I could sense with true spiritual discernment that the place had been liberally soaked in the prayers of tens of thousands of people over the years preceding my visit. The atmosphere was light, optimistic, joyous even, and it was EXTREMELY clear, and very very different from my home city.

When I was worshipping in the church which I was attending with my hosts for the stay (we met through ATS of all places, because we shared our Christian faith in this forum!) I had a really weird experience. A local & quite powerful 'nature spirit' came to observe me. It was very surreal. It sort of popped into the church, observed me, then flitted away again.

To describe it clearly it was one of the so-called 'Green Man' spirits which often are carved as the faces of bearded men into large trees. It wasn't an angelic spirit, but it wasn't quite demonic either, it was somewhere in between. It couldn't remain in the church for more than a few seconds, as it wasn't submitted to Christ. But it was so weird that it happened, especially in a place that was so clearly soaked in generations of HOLY prayer. It made me think of the series True Detective (series 1) where there were occult murders in a southern town. I felt as though this was a sort of competitotr spirit to the Christian path, as though it was connected to pagan worship perhaps. But it definitely came just to take a quick look at me, as though I was invading its territory somewhat. Very strange experience, but 100% true.

When I got back to the UK, the difference in spiritual atmosphere was palpable, and rather depressing after my lovely time in Texas. Which makes it even easier for me to say..... TEXIT...!!!

Your example of Emoto's experiments are completely relevant with the theme of this discussion. He basically 'proved' that thoughts are things, they are real, that they have substance and can (do!) have effects in the physical world. When that premise is accepted, the perception of everything changes & shifts. Could we be responsible not only for our thoughts, but their effects too? Oh No!

Indeed, when you think (!) about it, all action begins in thought. My action in opening the fridge to pour a glass of white last night was preceded by the desire/thought do so, but you have to be quick to catch it. And on a different level, the decision to go to war must be preceded by the thought to do so, possibly initially by one (or a few) who then instill those thoughts in many via propaganda i.e. someone's ideas or thoughts imposed upon others, most of whom are too lazy to think for themselves. Can it happen in reverse, many influencing the few? Yes, but probably not often, sheep being sheep. It's a deep rabbit hole.

From your comments, FITO, I'd say you're an unusually sensitive person with a considerable degree of spirituality. I'd suggest that a large portion of Manchurians don't see the negativity that you do and that as far as they're concerned, everything is fine.. lovely place! As an aside, do you find the same level of negativity in other UK cities, say Nottingham (where I was born) or London? If not, what is it about Manchester? (a bit OT I know, but I can draw a link, if somewhat tenuous, between cancer-cure-causes-thought-examples-Emoto & Manchester )

Your experience in the church in Texas was extraordinary - literally! I suspect that, if there really is no 'happenstance' then there will be a subtle reason for seeing what you did. It's the interpretation that's difficult.. This particular thread probably not the place to discuss, but do you post on another threads on ATS? I'm new here and still feeling my way around - and being technically challenged I'm a bit slow. Cheers!