Louis Pasteur formulated and promoted the ‘germ’ theory – that germs cause disease. He was challenged by Claude Bernard who argued it was instead susceptibility of the host. On his deathbed it is reported that Pasteur conceded that Bernard was right. In cancer, is it the tumor cells or is it the susceptible host whose terrain allows the cancer to proliferate unchecked?

Highly recognized Dr. Dean Ornish did research on men with early prostate cancer. Utilizing optimal nutrition, exercise, group and nutrient support, his research found that the primary prostate cancer marker PSA had on average improved after one year. Research shows that 80 percent of small kidney cancers are stable or regress after three years. In stage IV kidney cancer, 6 percent of those given placebo had stable disease or regressed. A mammogram study suggests as many as 30 percent early breast tumors spontaneously resolve. Sixteen years after surgery to remove melanoma, both kidneys were donated; recipients, on immunosuppressive anti-rejection drugs both developed melanoma, which was fatal in one. Conclusively, changing the terrain matters. Early cancer can regress, and established cancer can become dormant, by creating the proper terrain.

In mice, compared to those with an average blood sugar of 60, a level of 88 doubled the risk, and 108 tripled the risk of breast cancer. The pre-diabetic condition metabolic syndrome tripled the risk of recurrence in breast cancer patients. Metabolic syndrome promotes DNA damage, inhibits tumor cell death, promotes tumor proliferation, growth of blood vessels in tumors, and tumor metastasis (spread). Metabolic syndrome is reversible with aggressive nutritional and lifestyle change. Inflammation, which predicts cancer-specific and overall survival, is treatable. Fibrinogen, which we monitor, is produced by tumors, interferes with chemotherapy and radiation, and contributes to the six to seven fold higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and pulmonary embolism; can be treated. My mentor Donald Yance, in 20 years of treating thousands of cancer patients, has yet to have a cardiovascular event.

How much is cancer due to our genes? The prestigious researcher Bharat Aggarwal PhD of MD Anderson Cancer Center says 5 percent. Even this may be an overstatement. A recent investigation of 250 mummies found only one had experienced cancer. Cancer was rare in the medical literature until the last 200 years. Dr. Aggarwal noted that 200-500 genes have to go wrong before cancer develops. Cancer, he notes, develops on average over 30 years, beginning in the 20s. The triggering factor? – inflammation. Microbes, toxins, and stress trigger inflammation. The primary inflammation power switch that turns cancer on is Nuclear factor kappa beta (NFKB). NFKB controls about 500 downstream genes. As chemotherapy hits only 1 to 6 of these genes, they are infrequently more than a temporary dam in the stream. But if NFKB is blocked, all these genes can be blocked. Obviously, much effort and money has been put into developing a drug that controls NFKB, but without success. Yet NFKB is modulated by literally dozens of natural substances, primarily herbs and spices. The most effective is turmeric.