The gene light switch and cancer

Within 20 minutes of doing this, you can be switching on and off genes that lead to healing – or to faster cancer growth

Wow! Is it a new medication? A new therapy?

No. 

Instead, it is something that you have been using since the day you were born. Something that has the power to injure and to heal – to cause disease or to rebalance the body and put it on a healing track. Something that the majority of people use as a pleasure, but not as the powerful tool that it is.

What is it?

The food you choose to put on the end of your fork!

Several times a day, you are put in the driver’s seat of choosing how to fuel your body. 

Within minutes, hours, months and years, what we consume- actually NOT what we consume, but what we absorb- becomes our hair, skin, blood, organs, bones, etc. and nothing can be more explanatory than “garbage in, garbage out”…. or should I say “garbage in, poor health out?”

With the discovery of epigenetics or the study of external factors that switch on and off genes, also came the current paradigm that 90-95% of cancers are not caused by genetics, but rather by our lifestyle choices- what we choose to think, breathe, do and eat. [1]

Currently, there are several theories as to why cancer happens. Too many toxinsA poison made by certain bacteria, plants, or animals, including insects. in and not enough out over time seem to be the underlying theme. In fact, toxicity and inflammation currently seem to be at the root of just about every disease process. [2]

“With the discovery of epigenetics or the study of external factors that switch on and off genes, also came the current paradigm that 90-95% of cancers are not caused by genetics, but rather by our lifestyle choices- what we choose to think, breathe, do and eat.”

Laurie Boucino, RN

Natural Healing Center, Myrtle Beach

Basically, your body is like a glass. It gets filled with inflammatory foods, a sedentary lifestyle and daily exposures like smoking and poor air quality. On the flip-side, the opposite is true: antioxidant, anti-inflammatory foods, daily body movement, meditation, etc. help to decrease the volume in the glass. If the glass gets close to full, you display an array of symptoms. If the glass overflows, you may have an unwanted diagnosis on your hands.

Most diseases can be viewed using this model. When the body is toxic and out of balance – disease. When the body receives less toxicity and gets detoxified regularly, balance can be restored and the healing capabilities of the body can be miraculous!

While there are several pillars to address as you get the body more into balance, food is an immediate and frequently used method that can “make or break” the effectiveness of your other therapy choices. Also, as was mentioned earlier, it is not truly what we eat, we have to take it a step further in saying that it is what we absorb that helps or hurts the body. That being said, colonics, coffee enemas, heavy metal status, mouth health, and pH monitoring and balancing are very important therapies/testing that should be done and monitored to be sure that you are getting the most out of the quality food you choose to help you on your journey.

But there are so many theories on diet and one day you may hear that something is healing to the body and the next day it is a poison. What should I eat is certainly a loaded question these days. 

Through decades of research and education, here are the basics of how we address food at the clinic and the theories behind these choices. 

The Budwig Dish

Dr. Johanna Budwig (1908-2003) was a German biochemist and pharmacist that held doctorates in both physics and chemistry. She determined that consuming a cottage cheese and flax oil combination helped to heal cell membranes and increase the voltage of cells (two issues with cancer cells).  While she has never been disproven, there is virtually no money in doing large scale testing to determine its unrivaled effectiveness. [3] However, components of the dish have proven to be not only health-enhancing but are also able to increase the effectiveness of Western medicine cancer therapies. [4]

Fresh Pressed Juices

The cornerstones of Gerson therapy are fresh-pressed juices and coffee enemas. Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, a prominent New York-based medical doctor well known for his work with enzymes and cancer, states that because juice is a direct form of concentrated “pre-digested” vitamins, minerals and enzymes, it can be a “life-saving” therapy for late-stage cancer patients. This helps the body to “repair, rebuild and fight disease… even cancer” without requiring much energy from the body as the breakdown of whole foods does. As mentioned earlier, along with cancer comes a lot of inflammation. The antioxidantsProtects cells from damage caused by free radicals (unstable molecules made by the process of oxidation during normal metabolism). Free radicals may play a part in cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other diseases of aging. Antioxidants include beta-carotene, lycopene, Vitamins A, C, and E, and other natural and manufactured substances. in the juice also help to douse the flames of that inflammation.

Modified Ketogenic Diet

People often think of the ketogenic diet as the “Atkins diet”, a once-popular low carbohydrate way of eating that encouraged a “bowl of meat and sausages” to be available in the refrigerator to munch on when you became hungry.

Knowing that sugar can cause and fuel cancer [5] and that a diet high in choline (found in milk, eggs, and meat) is pro-inflammatory and can lead to cancer [6] and that a vegetable-based diet is anti-inflammatory (therefore ultimately “anti-cancer”), developing an eating program that includes these parameters is a must.

A diet high in low glycemic vegetables including a small to moderate intake of low glycemic fruits as well as high-quality wild Atlantic caught fish a few times a week (Pacific wild-caught is no longer considered safe due to the Fukashima incident) is a no-brainer and can be easily taught and maintained by most.

Eat Right For Your Blood Type

Dr. Peter D’Adamo takes diet one step further. His research indicates that the protein that causes us to be one blood type or another (O, A, B or AB) also helps determine what foods the body can tolerate easier than others. [7] According to D’Adamo, “A chemical reaction occurs between your blood and the foods you eat. This reaction is part of your genetic inheritance. It is amazing but true that today, in the 21st century, your immune and digestive systems still maintain favoritism for foods that your blood type ancestors ate.” [8]

The premise of this is that foods contain lectins or specific proteins, and those proteins behave differently with each blood type, in essence, “burning cleanly” or “gunking up the system.” Limiting the diet to foods that “burn cleanly” for your blood type can have anti-inflammatory, body balancing effect as well.

High Vegetable Intake

As mentioned earlier, low glycemic vegetable juicing can be part of an easily assimilated, highly nutrient-dense diet, but the benefits don’t stop there.

Most vegetables are alkaline, meaning that they have a pH that is above the neutral of 7.0. This is helpful as inflammation and cancer are acidic conditions of the body. In the body, the blood “reigns supreme” which means that above all, the body will use its minerals to “buffer”, or increase the pH of the blood if the blood pH begins to decrease even slightly. (The body works to maintain blood pH between 7.35 and 7.45 at all costs)

Vegetables are also a great source of fiber which can help to remove unneeded hormones while increasing the removal of toxic substances as well.

Using all of these tools together and under the guidance of a knowledgeable health care practitioner provides the building blocks for healing.

So again, nutrient-dense, alkaline, anti-inflammatory, and body balancing, can you see how much power you have as you choose what to have for dinner – every breakfast, lunch, and dinner?!

Nutritional IVs: When Food is Not Enough

Maintaining a nutrient-rich environment within the body allows it to pick and choose from a wide array of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and phytonutrientsPhytonutrients give plants their pigments. Among the benefits of phytonutrients are antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, may enhance immunity and intercellular communication, repair DNA damage from exposure to toxins, detoxify carcinogens, and alter estrogen metabolism. which are all needed at different times and in different amounts in the healing and balancing process. 

Nutritional IVs are often used as an adjunctAnother treatment used together with the primary treatment. Its purpose is to assist the primary treatment. to oral food intake and supplements to nutrify the body and help it regain immune system “power” and “accuracy.”

The Myers cocktail and Myers Plus cocktail (mixes of calcium, magnesium, C & B vitamins and more) as well as alpha-lipoic acid, or ALA, a potent antioxidant, glutathione, the “master antioxidant” and high dose Vitamin C can be instilled directly into the vein in order to bypass the digestive system and provide higher blood levels without digestive side effects. These potent tools can be used to increase nutrient availability as well as to decrease inflammation and improve immune system capabilities.

Applying these principles alone at a time of high stress can be daunting. Working with a Certified Holistic Nutritionist versed in these diet components and how they work together is a must in order to help you make proper dietary decisions that will help your body to regain balance and ultimately do what it knows better than any practitioner – how to heal itself!