To Your Health: Cancer As A Systemic Functional Disease

Guest Column by Cheryl Wade, MD, PC

Cheryl D. Wade, MD, PC

It seems that just about everyone is getting cancer these days. It is happening to our families and to our friends. It is happening to us.  Cancer is a life threatening disease and it terrifies us because we don’t understand it.  There seems to be no way to predict why, when, or how with this disease.  Here are some of the facts that we do know about cancer and some of the facts that we are rediscovering. 

We are going to look at cutting edge science that points to cancer as a symptom of the breakdown of some of the body’s key operating systems on a cellular level. The cell is the basic operating unit of the body. Groups of cells working together make up our organs and tissues. 

The material that I am sharing comes mainly from an article by Dr. Jeffrey Bland co- founder of the Institute for Functional Medicine. The article appears in the Mar/April issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 

What is becoming clear from current research is that each person’s cancer is slightly different on a molecular and cellular level than everyone else’s hence one size fits all does not quite work.  There has to be some individualization of treatment. 

For example, in breast cancer the tissue is checked for certain hormonal markers that allows one’s doctor to decide whether certain treatments will be more effective than others such as whether or not the tumor is responsive to estrogen or progesterone or both. 

On the other hand, it is also becoming clear that the wide range of different cancers share certain common functional characteristics that are vitally important for us each to understand if we are to protect ourselves from the horrors of being the victims of cancer. 

What are these common traits that all cancers share? There are several functional systems failure associated with the birth of cancer.  These include increased damage to the DNA of the cell combined with malfunctioning of the cell’s internal DNA repairing systems. DNA is the code for all the genes that carry the instructions for how our body works and how it looks. The DNA code controls ever aspect of our being. 

When the DNA is damaged the cell is no longer able to read it’s operating instruction manual about how to live and grow . The instructions are not in order, they are jumbled and confused and cellular growth is no longer under control. Cells become cancerous by reproducing in an uncontrolled way. This could take years to happen but it still means that a cancer may eventually develop. 

One of the other systemic functional changes associated with cancer is a decrease in the functioning of the immune system’s surveillance and destruction of altered cells, as well as an increased hormonal and chemical stimulation of cellular division and growth.  These changes are all internal systems failure on many different levels. 

The initiation of damage to the genetic material of the cell can occur either as a result of an external or internal occurrence. We know, for example that exposure to certain chemicals can initiate damage to DNA such as the association of asbestos exposure with lung cancer (mesothelioma).

It is also known that exposure to ionizing electromagnetic radiation can also  cause cancer by damaging cellular DNA. Electromagnetic radiation can be classified into ionizing or non-ionizing radiation, based on whether it is capable of transferring enough energy to the cell to break the chemical structure of the DNA. Ultraviolet rays and X rays are examples of ionizing radiation.

 Non ionizing radiation has enough energy to excite internal cellular structures but not enough to cause structural changes. Microwaves and radio waves are non ionizing as well as the radiation given off from household electrical appliances, mobile phones, and computers and their screens. Some studies suggest increased cancer risk from prolonged exposure to the radiation from some of these devices. 

Internal sources of damage to DNA can occur with certain types of chronic viral infections which then cause cancers.  Chronic infection with Hepatitis B and C can lead to liver cancer. It is also known that conditions that cause chronic inflammation such as bacterial and parasitic infections can also lead to irreparable DNA damage and cancer formation.

From these known facts it is advocated that cancer prevention start with reducing exposure to known carcinogens in the diet such as heterocyclic amines in charred meat and toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke, as well as reducing environmental exposure to ionizing radiation. 

The new recommendations for prevention and treatment also include lifestyle changes such as maintaining a healthy weight to reduce the risk of breast and other cancers, eating fruits and vegetables to obtain vital cancer fighting phytonutrients and antioxidants. Fruits and vegetable, nuts and grains, also contain fiber to decrease the risk of colon cancer.  Vitamins and minerals are essential components needed for cellular energy production, while omega3 fatty acids protect against cancer by their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. 

 The new paradigm suggests that there is a more complex interplay between exposure to a carcinogen and the several step process associated with the development of a cancer.  Multiple factors must work in combination to convert a normal cell into the systemic disease of cancer. Therefore treatment must incorporate multiple areas for opportunities to positively impact disease development and progression in other words a “multi hit” approach. 

The newest science suggests that there are opportunities for intervention at multiple stages along the cascade of cellular events associated with the development of cancer. These are the stage of initiation or damage to the cellular DNA, the stage of altered cellular signaling for growth, the propagation of the abnormal cancer cell, the development of a blood supply which is necessary to support the nutrient needs of the malignant cellular mass, and the invasion of normal tissue and distant spread (metastasis).  

It is now recognized that everyone develops during their lifetime maybe several instances of the development of mutated cells but cancer never develops because of the multiple check points that exist in the healthy cell. 

We can now see that certain functional physiological states associated with disturbed metabolism are more conducive to cancer development and progression. Here are some of the functional states that create fertile ground for the birth and growth of cancer. 

Abnormalities in insulin production and use, states of chronic inflammation, increases in cellular division and multiplication as occurs with certain hormonal contaminants in food and water, increased DNA damage, and altered cellular energy systems associated with oxidative stress ( that’s why we need antioxidants), and cellular hypoxia from lack of oxygen all encourage the formation of cancer by creating a “stressed” and damaged cell. 

The Pharmaceutical industry’s strategy to cancer is to focus on the study of the  cancer cell so that they can develop drugs to kill them.  However, these drugs usually also kill our normal healthy immune cells whose job it is to destroy foreign invaders like viruses, bacteria, parasites, and cancer. 

Additionally, what industry fails to admit is that just as the flu virus changes its DNA as an adaptation to the  vaccine and just as bacteria change so that we now have alarming drug resistances, and the most dangerous bacteria have been inadvertently created by our overuse of antibiotics, so do  cancer cells change their genetics and undergo conversion to resist cancer drugs after treatment has been started. 

So now the good news. Life style and diet modifications can have a multi- hit impact on the factors promoting the creation of cancer. A minimally processed diet high in plant derived nutrients is essential to prevent the creation of the stressed out cell that can no longer control its key functional processes and metabolism. 

Instead of exclusively focusing on the cancer cell it is more profitable for us as individuals to focus on how our lifestyle and diet creates fertile ground for cancer development and spread. 

We know that the current paradigm has failed by its attempt to treat disease rather than the patient, operating under the false presumption that disease can be separated from the person in which it develops.  Everything is connected to everything else. 

The glaring error is the Health Industry’s failure to acknowledge that the body is a self healing, self regulating system which merely requires the right conditions so that it can heal and maintain it’s integrity. If we allow ourselves clean air and water, live food, joyous movement and positive thought, actions and feelings we can be healthy and whole. Simple enough isn’t it?

(Editor’s Note: The information in this article represents the opinion of the author and is not intended to be construed as an endorsement or promotion by Crucians In Focus of any of the information herein.)

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