Friday, August 11, 2006

Pseudoscience Fridays: The Cause of Cancer

Filed under: Pseudoscience Fridays

That's right ladies and gentlemen, we've found it. Forget what you've heard about chemical damage to cellular DNA, Dr Otto Walburg has arrived with great new info...

Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. Almost anything can cause cancer. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. The prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen (oxidation of sugar) in normal body cells by fermentation of sugar.

All normal body cells meet their energy needs by respiration of oxygen, whereas cancer cells meet their energy needs in great part by fermentation. All normal body cells are thus obligate aerobes, whereas all cancer cells are partial anaerobes. From the standpoint of the physics and chemistry of life this difference between normal and cancer cells is so great that one can scarcely picture a greater difference. Oxygen gas, the donor of energy in plants and animals, is dethroned in the cancer cells and replaced by the energy yielding reaction of the lowest living forms, namely the fermentation of sugar.

Really...it has nothing to do with cell growth regulation? Okaaay...so based on this great information, how do we prevent cancer?

To prevent cancer it is therefore proposed first to keep the speed of the blood stream so high that the venous blood still contains sufficient oxygen; second, to keep high the concentration of hemoglobin in the blood; third, to add always to the food, even of healthy people, the active groups of the respiratory enzymes; and to increase the doses of these groups, if a precancerous state has already developed. If at the same time exogenous carcinogens are excluded rigorously, then much of the endogenous cancer may be prevented today.

We've tried to find a specific proposal for a mechanism to keep venous blood highly oxygenated or any speculation as to how to get arterial O2 saturations higher than the usual 90-something level. And, of course we were looking for a pile of relevant material published in credible journals, but, to be honest, it's become too complicated to continue digging through the assorted "evidence" and other claims at alkalizeforhealth.net. Boy do they know how to write a disclaimer (emphasis ours):

The people responsible for this web site are not medical professionals. We publish the information on this web site as a public service. We assert our right of freedom of expression to take issue with the medical profession's conflict of interest regarding cancer treatment and prevention. While we hope the information presented here is helpful, what you do with it is your responsibility.

By following along the assorted therapies listed in the sidebar or via the table of contents, you can really find a great repository of junk science.

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