Cancer and Oxygen

In 1931, Dr. Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize for proving cancer is caused by hypoxia—that means a decrease in oxygen, either in availability or utilization.

Normal cells use oxygen to make energy (aerobic glycolysis). Cancer cells are different. They ferment sugar as their primary fuel source. This process is incredibly wasteful, using 19 glucose molecules to make the same energy as one glucose molecule would produce during aerobic glycolysis. Cancer becomes the greedy bully in the playground. It takes all the glucose and doesn’t leave any for the other kids. Not to mention the destructive process of which is the acidic metabolic waste products we talked about last week. 

An overwhelming number of studies have shown that when you deprive cancer cells of oxygen, they grow and when you increase oxygen levels, the cells weaken and sometimes die.

So the challenge is twofold: (1) to make sure we are oxygenating our cells to reduce our cancer risk and (2) how to increase oxygenation to therapeutic levels if a tumor is growing.

Let’s first look at how to maximize aerobic glycolysis.

1. Enable your cells to maintain a healthy cell wall by supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids (fish oils)

Your cells need to breathe. They need to be able to get fluid, food, waste products, oxygen, etc in and out. They do this by absorbing things through a fatty acid cell wall. If this cell wall is made up of hydrogenated or trans fats, they will now allow the proper transfer of fluids and gases. Supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids (fish oils) will enable your cells to maintain a healthy cell wall. 

2. Drink a lot of water

Your body is made up of 70-85% water, so it makes good sense to replenish what is lost through sweat, breathing, and metabolic processes. A good rule of thumb when it comes to water consumption is to drink half your weight in ounces. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs, you should be drinking 75 oz of water a day. 8oz in a glass, you need a minimum of 9 glasses of water a day. If you drink coffee or exercise, you would need to increase that number to match the water loss from those activities.

3. Change your breathing habits to deeper, more belly breaths

Breathing is the next thing you want to address. Far too many people are living lives of being hunched over. Either due to a computer screen or texting on their phones, they are not in a good posture for respiration. If you simply sit in a chair, slouch forward and take a breath and then sit up and take a breath, you will know exactly what I am talking about. When we breathe, we want that breath to go all the way to the belly. Shallow chest breathing is said to leave stagnant air in the lungs, reducing oxygen exchange. Interestingly enough, shallow chest breathing is also the type of breathing one does during fight or flight. Subsequently, changing your breathing habits to deeper, more belly breaths will calm down your nervous system. 

4. Exercise

When it comes to increasing oxygen to the body, there is no greater weapon than exercise. Exercise increases the amount of oxygen-carrying blood cells in the body. Exercise also increases the amount of capillaries you have to deliver that oxygen to your tissues. Additionally, exercise (depending on the type) will strengthen your heart and help keep your blood vessels from being clogged. 

5. Look for these protective elements in a cancer prevention diet

Nutritionally, you want to focus on several things. One is the maximum oxygen-carrying capacity. For that, we want to make sure you have enough iron. Make sure to properly assimilate iron in an alkaline environment. Any supplementation should be taken with food to produce stomach acids. People with digestive problems need to address that first or they will not be able to properly absorb iron. Ensuring proper spleen function is also a good idea.

The B12 and other trace minerals are also important in the promotion of growth and advancement of red blood cell formation and maturation.

In addition, you want to be sure not to be deficient in any of the following nutrients or it will limit your body’s ability to utilize oxygen:

a. Magnesium

Magnesium is necessary for ATP (energy) production in the mitochondria.

b. Selenium and Sulfur

Selenium and Sulfur have good anti-oxidant properties

c. Co-Q10

Co-Q10 helps electron transport system generate ATP. It helps cells utilize oxygen.

d. Carnitine and Alpha-lipoic acid

Alpha lipoic acid and Co-acetyl-L-carnitine support and protect the mitochondria (the energy producer of the cell).  

Carnitine is known for its ability to bring fats across the mitochondrial membrane to be oxidized for energy.  A deficiency in carnitine has been associated with impaired ability to utilize these fats.

Co-Factors provide for the proper absorption and utilization of Omega 3 fatty acids. Co-factors also support the heart and the mitochondria, in addition to being an excellent anti-oxidant/aging formula. Take with Complete Omega-3.

e. B vitamins especially B3 in the form of NAD

B vitamins are necessary for the mitochondria to produce energy from carbohydrates in Kreb’s citric acid cycle.

f. Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll is the essence of life-supporting nutrition. From oxygen production to carbon dioxide consumption, green plants (chlorophyll) provide the life support pattern Cooking green foods destroys the chlorophyll content. Fat-soluble chlorophyll contains vitamins A, E, F, and K. 

As a “photoreactive” substance, it generates free radicals or electrons when reacting with light in creating oxygen. Free radicals are extremely destructive to surrounding structures. Therefore, nature impregnates chlorophyll with anti-free radical factors to prevent the plant from destruction. Chloroplasts such as carotenes and vitamin K, vitamins A and E, and minerals magnesium and iron are there to prevent free radical damage. Betacarotene is the form of vitamin A in chlorophyll and is perhaps the most powerful anti-free radical factor known.

CHLOROPHYLL COMPLEX is helpful in the formation of hemoglobin healthy blood. The structure of the chlorophyll molecule is very close to the structure of the hemoglobin molecule. While magnesium is primary in the chlorophyll molecule, iron is primary in the hemoglobin molecule. Other than that, the chlorophyll molecule and the hemoglobin molecule are almost identical. Finally, CHLOROPHYLL PERLES have a mild detoxifying effect in the gastrointestinal tract, 

It may be the patient isn’t able to metabolize the fat-soluble factors in the chlorophyll. Giving CHOLACOL along with the CHLOROPHYLL solves that problem. CHOLACOL is bile salt for aiding the digestion of fat-soluble factors. 

6. Protect yourself from all sources of lead and other toxic chemicals

An overload of toxins clogs up the cells, clumping up red blood cells and slowing down the bloodstream. Lead is toxic to mitochondrial respiration.

7. Have a proper functioning thyroid

If you are to have any hope of restoring normal aerobic glycolysis to the cell, you must have a properly functioning thyroid. Your thyroid makes T3 and T3 is needed for aerobic glycolysis.

The correct functioning of the thyroid depends on a good supply of iodine from diet or supplementation. Thyroid gland cannot produce T3 without the presence of the amino acid L-tyrosine and the mineral iodine.

Take Iodine, about 1 mg/week, plus tyrosine

The therapeutic effect of oxygen on cancer cells can not be denied, as it seems that the cancer cells are incapable of handling the Oxygen in a high Oxygen environment. However, it is difficult to raise the oxygen level around the cancer cells.

We have already discussed ways to make sure we are oxygenating our cells to reduce our cancer risk.

Next, we will look at how to increase oxygenation to therapeutic levels if a tumor is growing.

1. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT)

HBOT increases the pressure in a chamber that is highly concentrated with oxygen. This forces more oxygen into the body much like making a seltzer out of water. simple law of physics that says oxygen under pressure dissolves into the body’s fluids—including blood plasma, lymph, and cerebral spinal fluid.

HBOT will increase the oxygen levels in cancer tumors.

2. Ozone therapy 

Ozone, is a molecule consisting of 3 oxygen atoms bound together. It is most known for its ability to protect the Earth (including us) from the harmful radiation of the sun but recent studies have shown delivering ozone intravenously is able to drastically increase the amount of oxygen circulating in the blood.

Parting Words

All normal body cells meet their energy needs by respiration of oxygen, whereas cancer cells meet their energy needs in great part by fermentation. The prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar. An effective way to support the body’s fight against cancer would be to get as much oxygen as you can into healthy cells, and improving their ability to utilize oxygen. Raise the oxygen levels of normal cells with the ways we have discussed in this article and any cell from becoming cancerous.