No wonder conventional cancer therapies have failed so miserably…
They actually help cancer grow and spread.
When you discover how cancer actually develops – you’ll begin to understand why conventional treatment protocols can’t squelch it. Here’s the latest. . .
This post is on Healthwise
Trying to heal someone from a disease without knowing its cause is like trying to run your car on water instead of gasoline.
But for the past 50+ years, the “Mutational Theory” has been the leading explanation for what causes most cancers.
As the theory goes, DNA mutations accumulate within a cell’s nucleus, and lead some cells to “go berserk.” Their insane behavior is supposedly a result of multiple destructive events that attack the intelligent code within the DNA.
According to this view, rogue cells clone themselves and reproduce rapidly.
All conventional treatments are predicated on animal models, where the goal is to shrink a tumor.
Sounds plausible enough. But here’s the problem…
How can cancer cells be mutant if
they’re this successful?
More than 100 cancer-promoting genes (oncogenes) have been discovered hiding deep within our genome – our DNA. Hardly proof of a rogue mutation spinoff within individual cells. These cancer-causing genes seem to be part of our genetic heritage.
And cancer cells are surprisingly well coordinated and organized, considering they’re supposed to be the product of random mutations. They can do fairly amazing things:
- Build their own blood supply (angiogenesis)
- Defend themselves by silencing cancer-suppressor genes
- Move freely throughout the body by secreting corrosive enzymes
- Alter their metabolism to survive in low oxygen and acidic environments
- Escape detection by your immune system by removing their own surface-receptor proteins
These highly complex actions, which involve superior cooperation among cells, cast doubt on the view that mutated rogue cells are the primary cause of cancer. It seems unlikely that such deadly effectiveness is the result of a series of chance DNA breakages.
More likely, there’s something else going on here.
The life-giving cells that determine how you age
Endogenous stem cells – those your own body produces — are a vital part of your being, your genetic makeup. They busily work to keep your body in good health, and determine how, and how fast, you age.
Believe it or not, scientists disagree about what qualifies as a stem cell, because their characteristics are not easily identifiable. Here’s why…
First of all, most cells look identical. Cells don’t have special markings declaring them to be “stem cells.”
Second, cells can change their identity over time. They’re dynamic beings.
However, scientists usually use two criteria to identify a stem cell:
- It possesses the ability to “self-renew” – which means it can divide in half to create more stem cells.
- It can differentiate into a variety of other cell types –a characteristic called potency. Stem cells are shape-shifters.
Stem cells lie dormant till you get hurt or sick, at which time they spring into action to initiate healing (despite your being unaware of their amazing work).
Pull a muscle or skin your knee? Your stem cells are on the spot to fix and heal the injury.
Scientists also believe your stem cells fight aging. Without stem cells, you wouldn’t have an immune system, and you’d die in short order. As you age, you deplete your stem cells. Aging may, in large part, consist of the depletion of your healthy stem cells.
If more doctors understood the effect of stem cells, your death certificate would likely state that the cause of death was “Ran out of stem cells,” rather than cancer, Alzheimer’s, or some other disease.
So the $64,000,000 question is this… “If stem cells are so great, how do they degrade into deadly cancer stem cells?”
Cancer stem cells – the most
dangerous cells known
When stem cells become damaged or mutated, they usually die. But not always…
Sometimes, they deftly degrade into cancer stem cells (CSCs)… dangerous stem cells with the frightening power to create an entire tumor from a single cell.
They are, without a doubt, the most dangerous cells known to man.
CSCs are stealthy, and can enter a “sleep-like” state. These sleeper cells are especially resistant to conventional cancer treatments. It is likely that these nearly indestructible cancer stem cells give rise to the phenomenon called “multi-drug-resistant cancer.” More on this in a moment.
They’re also masters at evading your immune system. And they have no qualms about freely traveling throughout your system, wreaking havoc wherever they go.
Internal and external forces, such as radiation, environmental chemicals, bodily toxins, and more, can pose a formidable threat to healthy stem cells. Any time you damage your stem cells without killing them, you’re at risk of an altered cell mutating into a cancer stem cell.
That’s why conventional cancer
therapies are so deadly…
Conventional cancer therapies have completely missed the mark when it comes to targeting the root cause of cancer.
Think about it… their main goal is to shrink the tumor. Here’s why this approach doesn’t work…
The first round of chemotherapy only kills part of the tumor, not the entire thing. This is called fractional kill. The treatment plan consists of using repeated cycles of chemotherapy – usually six – to reduce the tumor population to zero — hopefully without killing the patient.
However – and this is incredibly important – here’s what usually happens…
The treatment selectively kills the least harmful cells (daughter cells), thereby increasing the ratio of CSCs to benign or less malignant cells.
This is similar to treating certain infections with antibiotics. The drug may wipe out 99.9% of the target bacteria. But the .1% that survive are genetically immune to the same treatment. In effect, they are a new, stronger strain of bacteria, so the disease can return with a vengeance.
Plus, the antibiotic kills beneficial species of bacteria that help you fight infection naturally… similar to chemotherapy treatments that devastate your immune system and support the conditions that make cancer even more likely to return and more deadly when it does.
The reality is that chemotherapy – while decreasing tumor size – boosts the ratio of cancer stem cells to less-harmful daughter cells, making the cancer much more malignant.
Radiation and chemotherapy create the illusion that the “war is being won,” when in fact, the cancer stem cell population has actually been enriched. Or, even worse, it’s been given the ability to infinitely renew itself.
This small, surviving population of highly invasive and malignant CSCs can reappear anywhere in the body years after the original treatment… but the conventional cancer establishment denies that this reappearance has any link to the first cancer.
Conventional therapies are based on animal models. But since the animals live less than two years, studying relapse is challenging, if not impossible.
Thus after a patient passes the “magical” five-year mark, conventional medicine deems any new cancer to be completely unrelated to the original tumor.
Multi-drug resistant cancers
Tragically, we’ve seen that mainstream treatments not only fail, but also make cancer more malignant.
By the time patients have been labeled as having multi-drug resistant cancer, their bodies have been irreversibly damaged, and more aggressive cancers have emerged to take the place of their original tumors. Essentially, the MDR label is a death sentence.
This despite the fact that the term “multi-drug resistant cancer” suggests the cancer was so exceptionally resistant and malignant that the “normally effective” chemo drugs just couldn’t do the job.
It would be more accurate to call this multi-failed-drug cancer – putting the responsibility back on the medical establishment. After all, they promote the spread of cancer through their “therapies.”
In other words, let’s quit blaming the patient’s body. Or rogue mutations, for that matter.
Multi-drug resistant cancer is the byproduct of oncologists throwing the proverbial chemo-radiation book at their patients, killing them in the process.
Cancer stem cells, not their daughter cells, should be the focus and target of cancer treatments.
CSCs are extraordinarily resistant to conventional therapies. But take courage, because…
There’s good news on the horizon…
These properties can make certain natural substances attractive for beating CSCs:
- High margin of safety – two orders of magnitude safer than chemotherapy agents (such as the well-known 5-fluorouracil).
- Selectively target only cancerous cells, not healthy ones.
- Ability to target cancer stem cells.
And almost anyone can access these CSC-killers.
Unfortunately, you probably won’t hear about them from your doctor, because they aren’t patentable and therefore aren’t profitable. If they were, they’d be an integral part of today’s standard of care already.
Only a few oncologists recommend these as an adjunct treatment.
But in view of the damage conventional therapies cause, you might consider ditching conventional methods completely… in favor of a smarter, CSC-targeted treatment protocol that makes your body inhospitable to cancer.
Research shows the following antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds can target and destroy CSCs:
- Green tea – presumably due to its Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)
- Turmeric / Curcumin – one of the most extensively studied chemo-preventive phytochemicals; confers 600 health benefits
- Resveratrol – found in grapes, blueberries, cranberries, cocoa, and dark chocolate
- Chili pepper and ginger
- Rosemary
- Citrus fruits
- Quercetin – found in onions, cranberries, blueberries, cherries, red leaf lettuce, and more
- Broccoli sprouts
- Black pepper – known primarily for its ability to multiply the strength of many supplements
- Selenium
Include these natural compounds in your diet of unprocessed whole foods, add detoxification, exercise, and mind-body therapies… and you’ll make your body an unwelcome environment for cancer stem cells.
http://www.cancerdefeated.com/the-deadliest-cancer-cells-in-a-tumor-does-your-treatment-help-them-grow-and-spread/3049/
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