Thursday, February 28, 2019
Insights From An Oasis of Healing #2 | Role Of Oxidative Stress And Cancer
Watch on YouTube here: Insights From An Oasis of Healing #2 | Role Of Oxidative Stress And Cancer
Via
Monday, February 25, 2019
Jaz’s Healing Journey From A Type Of Blood Cancer
An Exceptional Young Man’s Story Healing From A Type of Blood Cancer
We would like to share with you the story of an exceptional young man who came to An Oasis of Healing seeking treatment and healing with a type of blood cancer. With the support of his totally amazing mother and father, he began the process of adapting to his new routine while undergoing our Comprehensive Cancer Care Program.
The first two weeks involved learning how to navigate the full schedule of classes, IV therapies, meeting with doctors, blood tests, sessions with the counselor as well as lymphatic and colonic sessions. And then, at the end of his day here, returning to the condo for his evening routine.
Jazz’s mother, Kelly was his true champion! She motivated him daily to follow his routine and to stay on schedule with her ever loving and joyful enthusiasm and endless patience.
Jaz was managing pretty well until the day we told him we needed to stick his earlobe ….of all places…to have his glucose level checked during his Insulin Potentiation Therapy. The first time, it must have taken almost 2 hours to convince him that it would not hurt. But then yes! We discovered the great motivator. Once he realized he would get a real special treat at the end of the process, he made up his mind and said, “I can do this”!
Jaz learned how we could assist his body to detox and eliminate the resulting toxins from the IPT and any cancer cell die off from Gina, our Colon Hydro-Therapist. Along with his weekly colonics, she and his mom eventually got him to do coffee enemas at home every day. Yay! A big win for us both!
Probably one of Jaz’s more enjoyable therapies was his Lymphatic Drainage sessions with Silke. Using an XP-Pro in combination with Manual Lymphatic Drainage techniques as needed, she opened up the flow of his lymphatic system to support the movement of toxins out of the body.
Silke, also introduced Jaz to dry brushing and rebounding for the promotion of lymph flow. He learned he could keep his lymphatic system moving and have fun at the same time!
An important part of Jaz’s time at Oasis was for learning to prepare foods and eat in a truly healthy way. Our chefs, Kim and Celena worked with him and his mother to find foods that he loved. And Jaz did love to eat!
Lakee, one of our educators, helped to make learning new recipes a fun experience for Jaz. Food preparation class was always an interesting experience for everyone with Jaz’s playful demeanor. Jazz learned the importance of a plant-based diet and he absolutely loved the juice. Yes! Another win for Jaz.
On other days, Jaz was busy doing therapies like Major Autohemotherapy (IV Ozone) and Vitamin C that can take several hours. So… this was a good day for a movie and some help from the Power Rangers to make the day go by faster.
Besides getting outside and enjoying the sunshine that Arizona has to offer, Jaz would maintain his muscle strength by working out with oxygen on the recumbent bike, better known as EWOT, exercise with oxygen therapy. He also helped improved his cellular communication and reduced inflammation by using the PEMF machine, Pulsed Electro Magnetic Frequency, a medical electromagnetic device. And he used the Bemer daily to improve his microcirculation as well.
Jaz experienced great healing and his family is very thankful for the very positive outcome he received from his time at An Oasis of Healing. Now his journey continues as he returns home.
We know he will continue in his healing process because he now knows and understands the importance of proper nutrition. Jaz is also participating in several of the Aftercare Immunotherapies which will be crucial for him to maintain and continue beyond the great progress he has made.
The staff at Oasis thoroughly enjoyed having Jaz and his amazing family together here as they all participated in the Comprehensive Cancer Care program. Jaz entertained us all with his enthusiasm and humorous commentary. We are so thankful for patients (and parents) like Jaz who put their heart into applying what they learn, enabling them to see such great outcomes!
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Vitamin C And Cancer Stem Cells
Vitamin C and cancer stem cells the evidence is telling.
What do cancer stem cells (CSCs) have to do with vitamin C? No opinion stated here just look to the evidence. A recent study published in the journal OncoTarget helps to identify the connection between vitamin C and cancer stem cells.
This is the seventh article of a seven-part series by Nathan Goodyear, MD at An Oasis of Healing detailing the evidence and scientific studies of intravenous high dose vitamin C and the effect it has on cancer. If you missed the last article, you can visit here to get caught up or go here to our blog page and read all the articles in this important series.
In this study, vitamin C was found to induce oxidative stress and inhibit glycolysis (cell energy production using glucose) via the inhibition of GAPDH in cancer cells. This may not sound like anything new or exciting, as I highlighted this mechanism in a previous blog post, but cancer, metabolically speaking, has backed itself into a metabolic corner because of its metabolic inflexibility.
Most view cancer as metabolically advantaged over healthy cells, but the exact opposite is true. Healthy cells retain the metabolic flexibility to switch from glucose to protein, or even better fats, as the primary source of energy production as dictated by the environment.
This metabolic flexibility is found in the use of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway (the Kreb’s cycle and the electron transport chain). Cancer cells without stem activity lack this metabolic flexibility, thus limiting a cancer cells ability to adapt to changing nutrient sources.
This metabolic flexibility gives healthy cells the survival advantage over cancer cells if targeted therapy is employed to target non-stem cancer cell’s inflexibility and its sole reliance on glucose as its primary source of energy production. In this study, vitamin C (at doses that can only be obtained through IV delivery) was found to kill CSCs.
Vitamin C was compared to the experimental drug 2-DG and was found to be 10x more potent than the experimental drug (2-DG) in killing CSCs. Remember that CSCs are the ultimate backup copy to provide regrowth of the cancer cells if needed.
Kill the back-up, you forever kill the potential for recurrence. Other inhibitors of the CSC energy pathways found in this study were also Silibinin, an active component of milk thistle, and caffeine acid phenyl ester (CAPE) which comes from honeybee propolis.
Want more evidence of the impact of Vitamin C and Cancer Stem Cells?
A more recent study published in the journal Precision Oncology found that vitamin C kills CSCs in the very aggressive Hepatocellular (liver) cancer. The reason? Cancer Stem Cells more readily absorbed vitamin C because of its high uptake of vitamin C compared to normal cells.
This high uptake of vitamin C occurred due to the high expression of SVTC2 receptors on the CSCs compared to healthy cells or even non-stem cancer cells in general. It is one thing to have high plasma vitamin C levels in the presence of high SVTC2 receptors, but starve the CSC’s of its primary energy source, glucose, and the perfect high demand situation is created.
Couple this high demand with the high presence of vitamin C in the plasma, which looks just like glucose, and the setup is in place for the perfect stealth delivery of vitamin C. It is the perfect wolf in sheep’s clothing, but this time, in a good way.
A third study, published in the journal OncoTarget in 2017, found that IV vitamin C was able to kill CSCs in those cancers that were found to be resistance to the antibiotic doxycycline. This well-known and commonly prescribed antibiotic has been shown to be an effective therapy against CSCs in breast, ovarian, prostate, lung, pancreatic, melanoma, and glioblastoma cancers.
Interestingly, doxycycline increases the sensitivity of CSCs to radiation and chemotherapy. Some cancers, however, can escape and become resistant to these anti-cancer effects of doxycycline. The use of IV vitamin C in these doxycycline resistant cancers has been shown to be highly effective in killing CSCs.
High Dose Vitamin C Dosage For Cancer Stem Cells
These studies collectively conclude that Vitamin C can be used to target cancer cells in the primary tumor, cancer cells in metastasis and the ultimate back-up—Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs). In addition, vitamin C also targets the Cancer Stem Cell’s energy pathways in the mitochondria as glycolytic inhibitors. The authors of the study published in the journal OncoTarget stated:
“Vitamin C may prove to be [a] promising agent for new clinical trials, aimed at testing its ability to reduce CSC activity in cancer patients, as an add-on to more conventional therapies, to prevent tumor recurrence, further disease progression, and metastasis.”
I agree with the entirety of the statement, except for “may prove”. How much evidence is needed? How much time is required? Vitamin C has been studied for its anti-cancer properties since its first proposed benefit in 1954! “Time reveals all truth”. Evidence and time have proven the truth of benefit of vitamin C in the treatment of cancer.
Because of the presence of Cancer Stem Cells, the defeat of the primary cancer tumor is just the beginning of the battle against cancer. The battle must continue with lifestyle interventions to attack CSCs in the short-term and long-term to target a life-long, disease-free survival instead of just 5 years of disease-free survival.
Disease-free survival is a conventional medicine term defined as 5 years without evidence of disease. What about 5 years and 1 day? What then? A plan of attack against cancer that includes CSCs will redefine disease-free survival.
Monday, February 11, 2019
What Is A Cancer Stem Cell?
What is a cancer stem cell and why they need to be destroyed?
We will answer the question of what a cancer stem cell is and why it is the new frontier in cancer research and therapies for cancer treatment. Let’s start with looking at a historical perspective of whether the field of medicine is helping people heal or are they falling short?
This is the sixth article of a seven-part series by Nathan Goodyear, MD at An Oasis of Healing showing the evidence and scientific studies of high dose IV Vitamin C and its effects on cancer. If you missed the last article, you can go here to read it in full or go here to our blog page and read all the articles in this series.
Functional or Integrative medicine is the new movement in medicine that seeks to identify the root cause(s) of dis-aise for each individual. This movement is also a return to the roots of what a physician or doctor is—Docēre rāphè.
Words have meaning, and the historical meaning of the words provide perspective for a purpose. A purpose without a historical perspective is ripe for disaster. Rāphè is the Hebrew root word for physician which can be translated healer or “to heal”.
Docēre is the Latin root word for doctor which can be translated teacher or “to teach”. What is the historical perspective of a doctor? Of a physician? From a historical root perspective, a physician/doctor is one that teaches the body how to heal.
How is medicine doing in this historic mission to teach the body how to heal? As you might guess, not very good. Let the evidence speak for itself.
According to data from the American Cancer Society, from 2013 to 2017, the number of deaths from cancer per year has doubled compared to new cases of cancer diagnosed over the same time frame. Despite all the new technologically advanced drugs and therapies that hit the market between 2013-2017, the diagnosis of cancer in 2017 was more terminal than a cancer diagnosis in 2013. That is an eye-opener and an indictment of the failure of physicians to hold to their historical calling—healers.
Understanding What Cancer Stem Cells Are Is The Key To Health Restoration From Cancer
In the effort to find the root cause(s) of cancer to curb the disproportionate deaths from cancer compared to a diagnosis of cancer, Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) are the new frontier in cancer research and cancer therapy.
Cancer Stem Cells are the ultimate back-up copy for cancer. As the back-up, CSCs are thought to be the “root cause” of :
- chemotherapy resistance
- radiation therapy resistance
- treatment failure
- tumor recurrence
- metastasis
For those affected by cancer, Cancer Stem Cells may be the difference between winning and losing. Make no mistake about it, we are all in this fight to win!
What is a Cancer Stem Cell exactly?
In general terms, stem cells are a class of undifferentiated cells that are capable, when signaled, to differentiate or change into specialized cell types. A lot of medical jargon I know; but specifically, in the case of cancer, Cancer Stem Cells can be used as the ultimate back-up to reproduce the original cancer cells in all of its glory of metabolic dysfunction.
It is the back-up of the worst metabolic kind of dysfunction in cancer instead of the optimal metabolic function of healing cells. Back-ups are often a good and required task for protection, but in this case, we would rather do without these back-ups.
These Cancer Stem Cell back-ups, if not destroyed, will lead to treatment failure and cancer recurrence. When cancer does recur from these Cancer Stem Cells, it is more aggressive and progressive than the original cancer presentation.
Cancer Stem Cells are a cancers secret weapon. It is the sequel that nobody wants that delivers in a very bad way. A cancer treatment strategy that simply involves the primary tumor is out of date.
Every individual in remission or “cancer free” must be assumed to have circulating CSCs. A cancer treatment strategy that meets the historical purpose of a physician/doctor (Docēre rāphè) must include the elimination of the ultimate cancer back-up, CSCs, in the short and long-term. Only with the target and elimination of CSCs can true healing be achieved.
Thursday, February 7, 2019
Is The War On Cancer Missing The Point?
Cancer is a tap on the shoulder and shouldn’t be treated with a war mentality.
It’s important to note that Dr. Thomas Lodi, Dr. Nathan Goodyear and An Oasis of Healing do not believe in the Allopathic viewpoint that there is a war on cancer. We don’t view the human body as a battleground for conventional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation.
An Oasis of Healing believes in treating people dealing with cancer staying within the biological laws of nature. We use alternative cancer treatments that stop producing cancer, target cancer and build and strengthen the immune system. Our treatments and therapies challenge the cancers cells at a metabolic level which they are unable to respond to and handle and hence, die off.
This is an update to show how excess body weight increases the risk of developing cancer.
A new study, Global patterns in excess body weight and the associated cancer burden, casts serious doubt that cancer statistics are moving in a positive direction! According to the authors of this study, approximately 4% of worldwide cancers can be attributed to the global epidemic of excess body weight (excess body weight = overweight individuals + obese individuals). So, are we winning the war on cancer, quite clearly, no, we are not!
In the U.S. alone, the percent of individuals with excess body weight is 6.9% and is expected to grow. Many cancers (at least 13 known as of today) are known to be linked to excess body weight i.e. pancreas, breast, ovary, prostate… The increasing trend in excess body weight of the world’s population suggests the incidence of cancer will continue to rise and the current conventional treatments for cancer will continue to falter.
This study, however, does present a silver lining. It points to the fact that cancer and cancer risk are open to influence. If excess body weight is associated with 4% of the worldwide cancer rate (6.9% in the U.S.), then at least 4% (or higher) of the worldwide cancers are open to possible influence, intervention, and prevention.
A healthier lifestyle and a reduction in excess body weight can reverse the trend in the global cancer rate. Cancer is not a de-facto by-product of our genes out of our control as once was thought. Cancer is a by-product of the lifestyle choices we make interacting with our genes and genetic expression, which places cancer and cancer risk under our control through the lifestyle choices that we make every day.
Monday, February 4, 2019
Cancer As A Metabolic Disease
Cancer is a complex metabolic disease.
As simple as this statement is to write, it does nothing to reveal the complexity that actually is cancer metabolism. Numerous research and medical journal publications have been published on this very topic of cancer as a metabolic disease.
This is the fifth article of a seven-part series by Nathan Goodyear, MD at An Oasis of Healing showing the evidence and scientific research with IV Vitamin C and its effects on cancer. If you missed the last article, you can visit here for that article or go here to our blog page and read all the articles in this series.
Even the top researcher on the topic, Dr. Thomas Seyfried entitled his 2010 paper and his 2012 book Cancer as a Metabolic Disease. As prominent as these recent publications are, it all began with Dr. Otto Warburg and his description of the aerobic glycolysis metabolism of cancer in the article On the Origins of Cancer back in 1956—justly named “the Warburg effect”.
“Complexity is the prodigy of the world. Simplicity is the sensation of the universe. Behind complexity, there is always simplicity to be revealed. Inside simplicity, there is always complexity to be discovered.” Gang Yu
Dr. Warburg described the complexity in the metabolic changes in cancer in the simple—aerobic glycolysis. Let’s take a stroll back down the biochemistry memory lane. All cells must make energy to live.
The cell’s complete pathway for energy production includes 3 separate, yet connected pathways: glycolysis, the Krebs’s cycle, and the electron transport chain. Energy production begins with glucose, amino acids, and/or fats.
The glycolysis pathway uses glucose as its sole source for energy production. In contrast, the Krebs’s cycle and the electron transport chain, can use amino acids and/or fats, in addition to glucose, as additional sources for energy production.
Aerobic glycolysis is the cancer cells use of glucose in the inefficient energy pathway of glycolysis under aerobic conditions.
This use of glycolysis by cancer cells in the mismatched aerobic environment on face value is a paradox. Glycolysis should dominate in the presence of a low oxygen environment (anaerobic), instead of the oxygen-rich environment (aerobic). The oxygen-rich environment favors the more efficient energy pathway of oxidative phosphorylation (kreb’s cycle and the electron transport chain).
The paradoxical state of cancer cell metabolism, aerobic glycolysis, has been the debated dogma of cancer cell metabolism since its first description by Dr. Warburg. This is the simple truth that lies behind the statement that cancer loves sugar. As in so many things, the story does not end there.
Recent research in cancer stem cells (CSCs) highlights a new discovery of the complexity inside the simple. Cancer stem cells are the hot topic of discussion in treatment-resistant cancer and recurrent cancer.
Cancer stem cells are the ultimate back-up copy for the cancer cell. It is important to first understand that not all cancer cells are CSCs—cancer cells and CSCs are not interchangeable.
The simple assumption was that CSCs followed the same paradoxical cell metabolism of non-stem cancer cells as described by Dr. Warburg. Recent publications, however, cast serious doubt on this simple cancer cell metabolism characterization. Instead, the new complexity is found in the simple.
The first study, Inhibition of Amino Acid Metabolism Selectively Targets Human Leukemia Stem Cells, published November 12 2018, found that CSCs use amino acids (glutamine, glutamate, cysteine, valine, iso-valine, leucine…), the building blocks of protein, to drive energy production via the efficient oxidative phosphorylation metabolism pathway of energy production.
Cancer Stem Cells use Amino Acids & Fats to Produce Energy
This is in stark contrast to non-CSC cancer cells which predominantly follow the paradoxical Warburg metabolism pathway of energy production with glucose only. This amino acid driven oxidative phosphorylation has been shown to be the predominant cell metabolism in leukemia, brain, breast, and pancreatic cancer CSCs.
Another study, MYC and MCL1 Cooperatively Promote Chemotherapy-Resistant Breast Cancer Stem Cells via Regulation of Mitochondrial Oxidative Phosphorylation, published on October 3rd, 2017, described the distinct oxidative phosphorylation (aerobic) metabolism unique to triple negative breast CSCs compared to the paradoxical anaerobic glycolysis metabolism of cancer cells that lack stem cell activity.
So, what can we conclude from this new research? Was Dr. Warburg right? Yes and no. Yes, non-stem cancer cells love sugar as their primary source of energy production through the paradoxical aerobic glycolysis pathway he described in 1956.
But no, as evident in the new research discussed above, CSC’s seem to march to the beat of a different drummer using amino acids and even fats (creating questions for the advocates of ketogenic diet only) for energy production via the oxidative phosphorylation pathway. As different (heterogeneous) as the individual cancer cells are in a tumor, CSCs, and non-stem cancer cells are equally different.
Einstein said, “any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex…it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction”. As we seek to make cancer cell metabolism simple, we must not miss the truth, evident in the science, that is found in the beauty of the complex. We must embrace the complex! Only then can we find the simple.
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