THE CAUSE AND PREVENTION OF CANCER

by Walter Last

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 directly felt at this level.

On other levels, 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, which regulates cell divisions. From animal experiments it is known that toxic chemicals and radiation can damage the genetic material, which may then lead to cancerous growth. 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, this does not work, or only with tumours that are not malignant or of low malignancy. Usually malignant 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 commonly expressed as five-year survival rates. All this shows that the medical model of cancer is either incomplete or wrong.

Not a localised event

Natural medicine does not dispute that toxic 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 antioxidant 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 several preconditions for the development of cancer: weak liver and kidney functions, a low intake of protective antioxidant nutrients, a weak immune system, and exposure to toxic 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 toxic 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 organo-chlorines, 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 in real life. Most of this pioneering alternative research was done by P.G. Seeger in Germany. He published 290 scientific works and was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize (in 1979 and 1980). As early as1938 he was able to show 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, which contains a series of ‘power stations', the mitochondria, in which most of the energy 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 carbon and hydrogen from short nutrient fragments with oxygen transported by 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. 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 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. All this scientific research and its practical results continue to be ignored by the Cancer Establishment despite the evidence to the contrary, they still maintain that cancer originates in the nucleus, that it cannot be reversed but only treated by killing all cancer cells, 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. 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 commonly observe 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, generally called the cancer microbe, appears to do much of the damage attributed 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 cause 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 directly with the respiratory chain. With this, cancer may arise from external influences, such as toxic chemicals or radiation, or it may result from internal poisoning of the cellular energy production due to the cancer microbe proliferating in an unhealthy organism.

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 can 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 a main cause of autoimmune diseases and Candida-related problems.

OTHER FACTORS

Many other factors contribute to the development of cancer 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 are a common cause of localised chronic inflammations. The most common food allergies are to wheat and cows milk protein.

•  Overeating, cooked meat and heated fats diminish our supply of digestive enzymes, especially with advancing age. In addition, highly heated meat and fats produce carcinogenic chemicals. In animal studies resistance to spontaneous and transplanted tumours increased tenfold on low-protein diets.

•  A high intake of salt combined with a low intake of potassium weakens the electric membrane potential of cells, and can make 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.

•  Mercury is a strong nerve poison and also inhibits the immune system. Most of our mercury exposure comes from dental amalgam. Roy Kupsinel demonstrated 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.

•  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, which 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 B 12, which is 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 may be 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 UV radiation is presently so harmful only because of a high intake of polyunsaturated oils combined with a low intake of protective antioxidants. Fluorescent light may be an even greater danger. A scientific study showed 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 commercial polyunsaturated oils is linked to an increase in the rate and spread of cancer. Omega-6 fatty acids in seed oils are pro-inflammatory, while the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oils and linseed oil are anti-inflammatory and therefore cancer-protective.

•  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 promoter to tap water for one group while the other group received spring water instead. The lifespan of the group with the "safe" chemicals in tap water was 20% shorter mainly due to an increased cancer rate.

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 for 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.

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, which 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.

The New Medicine of Dr Hamer

With a cure rate over 90% Dr Hamer had an exceptionally high success rate with his cancer therapy.

Dr Hamer started his cancer research when he developed testicular cancer after his son was shot dead. He wondered if his son’s death was the cause of his cancer. Subsequently he investigated and documented over 15,000 cases of cancer and always found the following characteristics to be present, which he termed the Iron Rules of Cancer:

1. Every cancer starts with a serious, acute-dramatic and isolating conflict-shock-experience.

2. The theme of the psychic conflict determines the location of the impact in the brain and body.

3. The course of the psychic conflict correlates with the course of the cancer.

At the start of a conflict-shock we experience continuous stress resulting in a tendency to develop cold hands and feet, lack of appetite, weight loss, sleeplessness, and dwelling all the time on the conflict content. If the conflict does not become resolved soon, the long-lasting stress will lead to specific symptoms and the development of cancer or another disease.

When we are able to resolve the emotional conflict, we are no longer occupied with the conflict content, the appetite returns, hands are warm again, and also normal sleep returns, but there may also be weakness, fatigue and a need to rest. This is the beginning of the healing phase, which can be long and difficult.

PREVENTING CANCER

This insight into the various causes and contributing factors in the development of cancer provides us with reliable guidelines to avoid becoming cancer victims ourselves. I see the relationship between these diverse factors and the actual development of cancer as follows.

The main factor is the depletion of life-force in a specific part of the body. In experimental animals this may be due to massive radiation, chemical assault or the transplantation of tumour tissue. The same may happen in humans but usually it is due to a combination of biochemical factors and emotional trauma. The healthier we are emotionally and on the biochemical level, the less we will be affected by any emotional trauma that might trigger cancer in someone less well prepared.

To cancer-proof ourselves we need to start with a basic health improvement program:

•  Intestinal Sanitation: Remove old accumulated wastes, establish proper bowel movements, eliminate harmful microbes, and
   re-establish a healthy intestinal flora.
•  Cleansing: Remove metabolic wastes and accumulated toxins through repeated cleansing periods.
•  Allergy Testing: After a cleanse re-introduce foods gradually to discover any food allergies and chemical sensitivities.
•  Acid-Alkaline Balance: Check the acidity of your urine and saliva, and correct any abnormal condition.
•  Microbes and Parasites: Remove harmful invaders with the help of simple remedies and devices.
•  Pollution Control: Minimize exposure to electromagnetic and chemical pollution, and sanitise your teeth
•  Healthy Living: Improve your health with exercise, sunshine and ‘living’ water.
•  Good Diet: Adopt a high-quality diet suited for the specific requirements of your body.
•  Mind and Emotions: Use mind tools to eliminate negative beliefs and emotions and acquire positive ones instead.

We have seen that the biochemical key to cancer prevention is a healthy respiratory chain in our cells. We must be vigilant to avoid non-biological 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 free of chlorine, fluoride and pesticides.

In addition to daily yoga-type stretching and breathing exercises, more vigorous exercises, such as jogging, walking, lively dancing or rebounding will be beneficial. Always breathe more strongly then 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 exercises. Cancer is also inhibited by moderate sun bathing, and minimising the use of glasses or sunglasses when outdoors. It has been estimated that regular moderate sunbathing (without getting sunburned) would prevent about 30,000 cancer death each year in the US alone.

In regard to diet we maximise the intake of raw and organic proteins, fats and oils, fruits and vegetables, especially purple food (beetroot, purple berries), and minimise highly heated food, grain products and sweet food. If not in good health, then use digestive enzymes with cooked meals, high quality food concentrates, such as spirulina or chlorella, wheat grass or barley grass powder, bee pollen, fish oils, ground linseed, lecithin with meals, apricot kernels; mineral supplements, especially selenium, zinc and magnesium, possibly vitamins, especially A and D (best as cod liver oil); antioxidants such as vitamins C, E, bioflavonoids, carotenes, alpha lipoic acid, grape seed extract, green tea, turmeric. Protein-digesting enzymes have a tumour inhibiting effect and in high concentrations are even tumour-destroying.

Improve your emotional life by releasing negative and suppressed emotions, do mental re-programming with positive attitudes, regular relaxation and meditation exercises, work at improving your social relationships, and adopting a spiritual outlook in life. If you do suffer an unexpected emotional shock, such as losing a loved one, a job, a big investment, self-esteem, relationship break-up, then quickly take steps to rectify the situation, eg grieve as deeply as you can but then get on with life.

We do not need to become perfect in any of these measures 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.