Cancer Teaches Us Lessons
By Richard Kunin
Mona K. was 59 years old when she consulted me about breast cancer 8 years ago. After 30 years as an operating room nurse she felt there might be a connection to halothane, a commonly used anesthetic gas. Except for chronic allergic rhinitis and sinusitis she had always enjoyed good health. She was also quite obese, which led to periods of nutrient deficiency after crash diets; but she considered herself in good health until a mammogram revealed the cancer in 1988. She accepted mastectomy, and all of 30 lymph nodes that were removed tested positive for metastatic cancer. Her oncologist was not optimistic, offering a less than 3 in 10 chance at 5-year survival. She opted for nutrient support as an adjunct to her three-month-long course of chemotherapy with tamoxifen, cytoxan, methotrexate and fluorouracil.
Vitamin therapy helped her tolerate the chemotherapy with minimal adverse effects. She developed cravings for fatty foods, such as bacon, which succeeded in reversing her anorexia and weight loss. Odd as it may seem, she thrived on it; but I have seen this same unexpected benefit in other cancer patients, so I don’t regard any food as bad for cancer patients, so long as the patient feels a real craving for the food. On the other hand, Mona also craved mustard and horseradish, perhaps because these contain peroxidases, which are stimulants, including immune stimulation.
And there can be reverse cravings of equal merit: for example, her oncologist prescribed iron supplements; but these caused muscle pain and intestinal cramps so she stopped the therapy. Not a bad idea, since chemotherapy destroys blood cells, which then release their mineral and iron contents into the body fluids. Free iron is always adverse because it provokes platelet aggregation, causing clots that stick to blood vessel walls, thus providing a foothold for metastatic cancer cells. These clots contain growth factors that promote cancer cell growth, and blood vessel growth into the tumor, which feeds the metastases by bringing nourishment to the upstart cancer cells.
Just to give an idea of her laboratory profile: her white blood cell count was only 2400, about half normal, before the start of chemotherapy; and her vitamin A was only 49 mcg per 100 ml, about half the optimum for recovery from major illness. In other words she was not in condition for a good result from chemotherapy. With low vitamin A, she would be thrice penalized: inability to detoxify the chemotherapy agent; inability to generate anti-cancer T cells (NK cells), and inadequate protein synthesis for healing and repair. It is sad that vitamin A is not used routinely in orthodox medicine, since it is a determining factor in the outcome of almost all illnesses.
Her hair zinc was only 87 parts per million, about half the normal level. In addition, her antioxidant enzymes were grossly depleted: glutathione peroxidase was only 3.8 (normally above 4.2) and superoxide dismutase was only 8.1 (normal above 9.4). These results point to deficiency of selenium and copper respectively, confirmed by the effects of copper supplementation, which raised her superoxide dismutase to 13.3, which confirmed that the copper level was sub-optimal to begin with. Her glutathione peroxidase also normalized after giving her selenium, which is the specific mineral activator for this enzyme.