By Walter Last
The cause and cure of cancer is basically unknown, not only in conventional medicine but also in natural medicine. For decades, while working as a natural therapist and health writer, I continually tried to improve my understanding of what was really going on, and I am confident that the relevant pieces of the puzzle have now fallen into place.
Blocked Energy Production
The conventional view is that cancer originates in the cell nucleus due to random mutations or damage to the genetic material from radiation or toxic chemicals. This orthodox model sees the development of a tumor as a purely local event in an otherwise healthy body. Therefore the aim is to catch it as early as possible, remove or destroy the tumor, and all should be well.
But reality is different. Unbiased investigations show that there is no real difference in conventionally treated and untreated cases (1). I suspect that honest statistics would even show chemotherapy to shorten lives. Why then do some patients survive conventional treatment?
The answer is that some tumors just have a tendency to spread and others remain harmless whether treated or untreated. Presently the focus is on detecting very small tumors many of which would never develop into cancer and form metastases but in statistics they are counted as cured cancers. When cancer does spread then there is generally no conventional treatment that really works. Recognizing this, statistics are commonly expressed as five-year survival rates. All this shows that the medical model of cancer is either incomplete or wrong.
The German cancer researcher Dr Paul Gerhard Seeger (2) demonstrated already in 1938 that in most cases cancer starts with the degeneration of the cell membranes which in turn leads to damage of the energy-producing mitochondria embedded in the cytoplasm, the jelly-like outer part of the cell. In the mitochondria food fragments are oxidized in a series of enzymatic steps called the ‘respiratory chain‘. Seeger showed that in cancer cells this respiratory chain was more or less blocked, especially at the site of the important enzymes cytochrome oxidase. Without it the cell can produce energy only anaerobically like a fungal cell. This is very inefficient and the resulting overproduction of lactic acid makes the cell and the whole body overacid.
Seeger and others found that cancer cells utilize 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 utilization, 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 low-virulence cancer cells and, with this, transform them back into normal cells.
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 fertilized 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 (2).
The Budwig Therapy
Dr Johanna Budwig (3), a German biochemist and fat researcher, confirmed the work of Seeger on a practical level. In the 1950’s 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 or flaxseed oil and the sulfur-amino acids cysteine and methionine, the yellow-green spot disappeared, the respiratory chain was reactivated, tumors commonly disappeared and cancer patients recovered. The main food providing sulfur amino acids was low-fat quark, a traditional form of cottage cheese made from fermented raw milk, and she specified that all foods must be “as natural as possible”.
In the final stages of oxidative energy production electrons derived from food are being made to flow along a bridge consisting of an essential fatty acid (EFA) and a cysteine-containing molecule to form carbon dioxide and water. This bridge becomes blocked at the cytochrome oxidase stage by metabolic and microbial wastes and toxins. With this the cell reverts to a fungal type of energy production which is the precondition for the growth of a tumor. Repairing this blocked bridge with a clean cysteine-EFA replacement allows the electrons to flow again and the cell to revert to normality.
The type of metabolic waste that Budwig found to block the respiratory chain were mainly unbiological fats containing trans-fatty acids as from commercial polyunsaturated oils, chemically hardened fats such as margarine and mayonnaise, and saturated fats from grain-fed animals, and in addition synthetic anti-oxidant preservatives added to processed food to prevent rancidity.
To replace these faulty parts efficiently it is important to provide both ingredients sulfur amino acids and EFA’s, in relatively high amounts at the same meal without much interference from other fatty acids, but additional lecithin is beneficial. Methionine, another sulfur amino acid, is also useful in food as it can be converted to cysteine inside the body but it is not suitable as a high-dose supplement.
Budwig wrote that beneficial results, such as increased energy, can often be observed within days or weeks, while tumors may start shrinking after several months. Furthermore, also worm-like microbes (Canceroben) that she observed in red blood cells and blood serum gradually disappeared.
But there are also problems with the Budwig therapy that caused me to hold back in the past. The Budwig diet is very high in milk products, which cause digestive problems or allergic reactions with many individuals. Also we know now that milk contains the growth factor IGF-1 which appears to promote tumor growth, especially in hormone-sensitive cancers.
Furthermore, like Budwig I only regard raw or unheated milk products as healthy, and the sale of healthy milk products is illegal in many highly medicalized countries such as Australia and most of the US.
Budwig supposedly had a 90% success rate with her therapy but that was with a high amount of fermented and raw organic products, and generally with patients who traditionally used a diet high in milk products. I am not aware of the success rate when using commercial non-organic and pasteurized cottage cheese but I believe that it will be much lower than Budwig’s results.
The presence of IGF-1 apparently did not affect Budwig’s results. This means when the conditions for tumor growth are removed, then IGF-1 is no longer a problem. It also helps that IGF-1 and lactose remain mainly in the whey, and may be discarded.
Budwig did not seem to pay much attention to the fact that not only quark but also other recommended food items in her diet such as buttermilk, fresh raw milk, fermented sauerkraut, and soaked grains provide plenty of beneficial bacteria to sanitize the intestines. I regard this as an essential part of her therapy.
While there are many glowing testimonials, one story in particular highlights a serious problem with the Budwig protocol. A US prostate cancer patient had a personal consultation with Dr Budwig in 2000 (she died in 2003 aged 95). All was well until he had a heart attack six years later. This was not supposed to happen on the Budwig program which this patient still tried to follow, although with American cottage cheese rather than German quark (4).
I believe some flaws in the Budwig approach contributed to this. While it is a plus in cancer therapy that the Budwig diet is low in pro-inflammatory phosphorus, it is rather high in calcium but low in magnesium. This is problematic with many conditions and especially with arteriosclerosis. Also contributing to this may have been calcifying nanobacteria because Budwig did not have an antimicrobial therapy available (5).
Furthermore, Budwig discouraged the use of vitamin E as protection of EFA’s from oxidation. Therefore individuals generally had a high level of unprotected EFA’s in the blood. If they then were exposed to oxidizing influences, such as car exhaust, active or passive smoking, and especially chlorinated tap water, then that could cause much internal auto-oxidation. Chlorinated drinking water has been shown to strongly promote atherosclerosis and heart attacks (6).
To counter these effects I would avoid using milk, buttermilk and whey as additions to quark as all of these are high in calcium; instead I recommend a high level of additional magnesium. Furthermore, I would also squeeze natural vitamin E oil into newly opened bottles of flaxseed oil. Contrary to some expressed fears natural vitamin E does not interfere with the respiratory chain.
Budwig also reported a rather unsettling feature of her therapy. She warned that even after tumors and metastases have disappeared, if someone starts again habitually eating processed meat, restaurant food, or other food with preservatives and synthetic antioxidants, there tends to be a sudden proliferation of the Canceroben (cancer microbes). These patients may then die within weeks and no amount of cysteine and flaxseed oil will help anymore. After about 5 years it is less dangerous to gradually introduce less healthy foods.
This brings us to the role of cancer microbes which I believe is one of the missing parts in the Budwig therapy. Budwig did not regard the Canceroben as important in the cause and cure of cancer but I do.
The Cancer Microbe
From time to time I found references stating that cancerous tumors can be dissolved by infusion of blood from young and healthy individuals, but not with blood from older individuals or from anyone with cancer (7). This shows that cancer has much to do with vitality and the immune system.
Many independent researchers have reported the proliferation of certain pleomorphic (shape-changing) microbes in the blood and tumors of all cancer patients (8). One of the first was the German professor of microbiology Guenther 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 cocci and higher bacterial forms and finally into fungi.
Before him, in the nineteenth century, the French professor Antoine Bechamp had already described similar microbes and called themmicrozymas. In 1890 the Scottish pathologist William Russell also discovered the cancer microbe, and a form of it is still presently known as Russell bodies in tumors.
Independently, mostly without knowing of each other’s work, several other researchers – Royal Rife, Wilhelm Reich, Virginia Livingston-Wheeler, Alan 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 high magnification over long periods.
Anyway, this microbe, generally called the cancer microbe, appears to do much of the damage attributed to malignant tumors. It badly weakens the immune system and makes it incapable of fighting cancer cells. Toxins released by advanced forms of this microbe cause the characteristic sickening odor as in terminal cancer and cause wasting in experimental animals, just as in terminal cancer. If injected into animals, this 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. It appears to originate from breakdown products of diseased body cells. The unhealthier the body becomes, the more it develops from the mycoplasma stage into bacterial and fungal forms.
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.
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 have become a major problem because of root-canal treatments. The dead roots and the surrounding jawbone commonly become concentrated breeding grounds of harmful anaerobic microbes, releasing a steady stream of toxins into the circulation (9).
Overgrowth of the gastro-intestinal tract with harmful microbes has the same effect on an even larger scale, and is a main cause of devastating the immune system, frequently resulting in autoimmune diseases and Candida-related problems (10).
Therefore, in addition to regenerating the respiratory chain we need to eliminate most of the microbes that poison the body and incapacitate the immune system. We start doing this by removing the main sources of microbial infestations, their home base, by sanitizing the gastro-intestinal tract and, after sufficient cleansing and while using strong antimicrobials, removing any dead teeth.
Sanitizing the gastro-intestinal tract involves killing harmful bacteria and fungi with a dose of a suitable microbicide, and before ingesting any carbohydrates using a high dose of probiotics, preferably as a self-made ferment of lactobacteria.
Antimicrobial treatment requires strong remedies and needs to be done at least for several weeks. My favorites are sodium bicarbonate, high-dose iodine as Lugol’s solution or Iodoral for about 3 weeks followed by a further period on acidified sodium chlorite known as MMS (11). Also suitable are very high doses of wormwood and extract of pau d’arco or olive leaf, all strong fungicides. In addition a so-called electronic zapper and magnetic pulser may be used, and a variety of other antimicrobial remedies.
In addition the immune system may need to be improved with specific nutrients, especially selenium, zinc, magnesium, iodine and vitamin D (sunshine). Many others will be helpful, especially berries yielding a purple juice.
While some cancer patients claim to have been cured with antimicrobials as the main therapy, others were not so lucky. This is what creates the confusion when looking for the cause and cure of cancer, almost every method can claim some successes and has some failures. Nevertheless combining antimicrobial therapy with regeneration of the oxidative energy metabolism must rate very high in overcoming the biochemical causes of cancer.
Cleansing
In addition to the problems caused by microbial toxins, there is also the damage from exposure to toxic and unbiological chemicals in our food and environment. This greatly weakens the immune system, and Budwig as well as Seeger have shown that it is also a major cause for the blockage of the respiratory chain. Natural therapists are well aware of this aspect, and basically all natural cancer therapies stress cleansing and avoiding or minimizing contaminated and processed food.
Most of the successful older methods, such as the Gerson Therapy (12), the Grape Cure (13) or the Breuss Cure (14) rely almost exclusively on cleansing and clean living, while also using raw foods and nutrients with a good track record of overcoming cancer. The Grape Cure and Breuss Cure are semi-fasting methods and most suitable in the early stages of cancer when individuals still have a fair amount of weight and vitality. In contrast, the broader-based but also much more difficult Gerson Therapy has a good track record with advanced cancers.
Such methods of clean and natural living place a high value on organic, unprocessed, and raw food and juices high in vitality. While so far ridiculed by conventional medicine, a recent research paper revealed that three small servings of raw cruciferous vegetables per month, such as broccoli and cabbage, decreased the risk of developing bladder cancer by 40 percent. But if these vegetables were cooked than the anti-cancer effect was lost (15).
Also another cornerstone of cleansing was recently verified by medical research: it has been demonstrated that removing protein debris or damaged proteins from cells keeps aging organs young and healthy (16). Of course, the search is now on for a patentable drug to do this.
The basic importance of cleansing may be properly understood if we assume that the cancer microbe starts its rise as tiny protein plasmas out of the diseased protein sludge gradually accumulating inside cells. The more this sludge leads to higher bacterial and fungal forms the more the oxidative metabolism becomes blocked, and the more inflammation and general comfort arises in the body.
A raw cleansing diet high in chlorophyll is strongly alkalizing and this counteracts inflammation and pain. Commonly pain and inflammation disappear within about 3 days on a raw-food cleanse. In the short-term a strong alkalizing and pain-relieving effect can be achieved simply by taking bicarbonate. Temporarily half a teaspoon of bicarbonate may be taken up to seven times daily in water on an empty stomach or 2 to 3 hours after meals. As a general rule if there is pain alkalize the body.
Using antimicrobial therapy is necessary as a first step to keep the cancer microbe and other microbes and especially fungi under control. However, for a long-term solution microbial bases in intestines and teeth need to be cleared up, and in addition the protein sludge must be removed from cells. This is a slow process, and after a more intense initial cleanse there needs to be a long period of clean living.
What Causes Tumors?
There is still the unsolved question of what actually causes tumor development, and what is the underlying difference between benign and malignant tumors? All of the factors mentioned so far may be essential ingredients of cancer, but they apply also to autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, and to chronic fatigue syndrome. The cancer microbe is present in all of these, and Budwig expressly mentions diabetics and others as having the same blockage of the oxidative cellular energy production as cancer patients, and also recover when this is rectified.
There must be an additional factor at work in cancer as compared to autoimmune diseases, a factor that focuses a destructive influence on a specific small part of the body. Basically all chronic degenerative diseases are associated with widespread chronic inflammation. This is an unsuccessful attempt of the immune system to eliminate the infective disease agent, the cancer microbe or diseased body cells.
If a disease-causing agent manifests in a very limited part of the body then there will be an inflammatory immune response only in this small area. This may happen if a group of cells becomes abnormal due to an accumulation of toxic chemicals, causing a local blockage of the respiratory chain, and possible infiltration by mycoplasma. If the immune system does not succeed in eliminating this threat then chronic inflammation with destruction of body cells result. This gradually leads to fibrosis with a tough fibroid wall surrounding the battlefield, and we have a tumor.
If the immune system is strong, the damage to the respiratory chain locally contained, no systemic problem with the cancer microbe, and any toxins safely stored away, then the inflammation around the tumor subsides and we have a benign or dormant tumor. However, if these factors are more severe then tumor cells have greatly reduced vitality, they divide abnormally, and if there is also a good blood supply then the tumor keeps growing. The cancer microbes inside the tumor become aggressive and, aided by high acidity and chronic inflammation, help the cancer cells to invade surrounding tissue.
If in addition the cancer microbe and other microbes are active throughout the body, and there is widespread damage to cellular respiration, then cancer cells being released from the tumor find fertile ground to become attached and grow in other parts of the body, we now have metastases. In a way we may compare cancerous tumors with mushrooms as both grow out of a widespread fungal root and support system. The tumor-mushrooms are relatively harmless; instead the root system and fungal overgrowth cause most of the damage. Finally the fungal forms of the cancer microbe poison the whole body. This is cachexia as the final stage of cancer.
Tumor Location
What causes a tumor to grow in a specific location, for instance in the left breast rather than in the right? This is a confusing subject because there can be different factors leading to the same result. The basic cause of a tumor is local toxicity and damage to the energy production, leading to a loss of vitality and abnormal fungus-like cell division.
Experimentally tumors can be caused in a specific location by injecting a suitable toxin into tissue such as a concentrated form of the cancer microbe or chemicals that block the respiratory chain. Another possibility is radiation frequently being beamed into the same location as from a mobile (cell) phone, or always sleeping in the same position over a beam of earth radiation from an underground stream, or from radiation treatment of an existing tumor.
Natural therapists working with electro-acupuncture diagnosis have developed a chart that shows energetic connections between specific tooth locations and specific organs or body parts on the same side of the body (17). If a tooth is dead as from root canal treatment, then this energy connection becomes disharmonious and the organ is stressed. In combination with a general presence of the cancer microbe and damaged energy production, this organ may now develop a tumor.
Another cause may be deficiency of a nutrient that is needed in high amounts at a certain location, such as zinc for the prostate gland, iodine for the thyroid, and manganese for the thymus. In combination with other aggravating factors such deficiencies may lead to tumors in these glands.
With breast cancer it has been shown that habitually wearing a tight bra greatly increases the risk (18). This is understandable from the principle of debris accumulating where the river flow slows down. In a similar way toxic chemicals will deposit in fatty breast tissue when the lymph circulation in this area is suppressed. Another question is why is one breast affected and not the other? The answer may be found at the emotional level.
Emotions and Cancer
Dr Budwig also addressed emotional issues with her patients. She wrote that she cannot help anyone with persisting emotional problems. I am convinced that her success was also greatly enhanced by the positive expectations of patients when consulting a famous therapist.
Another German, Dr Ryke Geerd Hamer linked different forms of cancer and tumor locations to specific kinds of emotional shock. Accordingly, a conflict shock concerning child, home or mother will affect the left breast, while conflict shock relating to a partner or others will affect the right breast (19).
Dr Hamer believes that most metastases or secondary tumors are caused by the cancer-fear or death-fear resulting from the patient being given the cancer diagnosis or a negative prognosis. The solution is to search for any emotional shock that may have triggered the cancer, and neutralize it with positive emotional changes.
The strong influence of fear can also be seen from an observation by the late medical clairvoyant and Theosophist Geoffrey Hodson. He described a woman who previously had a cancer operation on one breast now becoming fearful of cancer developing in the other breast.
The fear created a dense grey area in the aura over this breast with increasing pain and tumor growth, so that surgery was recommended. By cleansing the aura and replacing fear with a positive emotion the grey area gradually dissolved which then allowed the tumor and the pain to disappear as well. Hodson remarked that if surgery would have been performed, the cancer would most likely have returned (20).
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a generally harmless calcification in a breast that can occasionally develop into an invasive tumor. The preferred medical treatment is mastectomy. Despite this 1% of women get local recurrence of a malignancy and another 1% get distant metastases after mastectomy.
A research report found that women with DCIS are much more fearful of a malignant recurrence than is warranted (21. It requires a high amount of fear to have a harmless calcification recur as cancer after mastectomy, but these women must have had a lot of fear put into them to agree having a breast cut off in the first place.
With this we have a further important aspect of a comprehensive cancer therapy: reversing the lack of vitality in the affected organ due to fear. This can be done by refreshing a memory of joy or love, or imagining a situation that will cause such feelings, and then transfer this feeling to the affected organ. Practice this focus daily as a guided imagery in a state of relaxation or meditation.
A Rational Cancer Program
A rational cancer program will include the following aspects:
· Immunotherapy – vigorous antimicrobial therapy and immune system support
· Restoring the oxidative energy metabolism according to the Budwig principle
· Cleansing and alkalizing, using natural food and unpolluted water
· Daily guided imagery to bathe the affected organ in positive feelings
· Trying to find and neutralize any emotional shock
· Correcting any other conditions that may have contributed to cancer development
· Supportive remedies and therapies
Direct tumor destruction as with Cansema/cancer salves (22) or sodium bicarbonate (23) is sometimes possible but should not be done in isolation but rather as part of a holistic program that includes immunotherapy, metabolic and emotional improvement as well as cleansing. For a program to implement these steps see my website (24). However, there are different ways of doing this, and in time we may come to a consensus on the best combination of remedies and treatments for different conditions.
Endnotes
(1) Last, W: How Scientific are Orthodox Cancer Treatments? NEXUS 2004, 11(4); also at http://www.health-science-spirit.com/cancerscience.html
(2) The only book available in English is Seeger, P.G. and S. Wolz: Successful biological control of cancer by combat against the causes.Neuwieder Verlagsgesellschaft, Neuwied, Germany 1990. The most important book is Seeger, P.G: Krebs – Problem ohne Ausweg? (“Cancer – Problem without Solution?”) Verl. f. Medizin Fischer, Heidelberg, Germany 1974, 2nd ed 1988
(3) Budwig, J: The most detailed information is at www.healingcancernaturally.com/budwig_protocol.html. Here you also find details of the 3 Budwig books that have been translated into English
(4) http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/dr-budwig-patient-consultation.html
(5) Mulhall, D: The Nanobacteria link to Heart Disease and Cancer. NEXUS 2005, 12(5)
(6) Price, J.M: Coronaries/Cholesterol/Chlorine. Alta Enterprises, US, 1969
(7) Scienceblog.com 30-06-2008: Cancer ‘cure’ in mice to be tested in humans http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/cancer-cure-mice-be-tested-humans-16786.html
(8) Cantwell, A: The Cancer Microbe. Aries Rising, Los Angeles 1990. Also see Cantwell, A: Do Tuberculosis-Type Bacteria Cause AIDS?NEXUS 2008; 15(5); and http://ariesrisingpress.com/ for more articles by Alan Cantwell
(9) Meinig, G.E: Root Canal Cover-Up. Bion Publ. 1993 www.ppnf.org/catalog/ppnf/Articles/Rootcanal.htm
(10) Truss, C.O: The Missing Diagnosis. Truss, Birmingham, AL, 1983, and Last, W: Candida and the Antibiotic Syndrome. http://www.health-science-spirit.com/candida.html, and Overcoming Candida at http://www.the-heal-yourself-series.com
(11) Last, W: The Ultimate Cleanse at http://www.health-science-spirit.com/ultimatecleanse.html
(12) Gerson, M: A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 cases. First published Totality Books, CA 1958; also see www.gerson.org/
(13) Brandt, J: The Grape Cure. Ehret Literature Publ. Beaumont CA, first published 1928
(14) Breuss, R: The Breuss Cancer Cure. Alive Books, Burnaby, BC, 1995
(15) Adams, M: Raw Broccoli, Cabbage Slash Bladder Cancer Risk by 40 Percent; Cooking Destroys Benefits.http://www.naturalnews.com/023655.html
(16) Scienceblog.com 11-08-2008: Researchers correct decline in organ function associated with old age.http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/researchers-correct-decline-organ-function-associated-old-age-17120.html
(17) http://www.health-science-spirit.com/dental.html
(18) Singer, S.R. and S. Grismaijer: Dressed to Kill. Avery Press 1995; also see www.all-natural.com/bras.html
(19) The official English-language website of Dr Hamer is at http://www.newmedicine.ca; see also Last, W: The New Medicine of Dr Hamer.NEXUS 2003, 10 (5), and http://www.health-science-spirit.com/hamer.html
(20) Hodson, G: An Occult View of Health & Disease. Health Research, Mokelumne Hill, CA 1972
(21) Phend, C: Fears of Recurrence Linked to Anxiety After DCIS Diagnosis.http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/BreastCancer/tb/8334
(22) See www.health-science-spirit.com/cansema.html with suppliers listed at the end of this article
(23) Simoncini, T: Is the Cause of Cancer a Common Fungus? Nexus Magazine Vo. 14/5, 2007, also www.cancerfungus.com
(24) See the 8-part series Overcoming Cancer at http://www.health-science-spirit.com/diseases.html and the book Overcoming Cancer athttp://www.the-heal-yourself-series.com
