I finished reading the book about cancer by Dr. Cowan (last post). I would recommend it. He includes a few unusual strategies that might help and sources for buying quality products if interested. Cancer and the New Biology of Water - Why the War on Cancer Has Failed and What That Means for More Effective Prevention and Treatment. 2019, Chelsea Green Publishing. A review of the book (westonaprice.org)
He recommends NADH of a particular type or brand. The high dose niacin protocol would provide similar benefits as NADH supplementation.
Medicinal mushrooms are recommended such as chaga tea. I use that regularly as a hot beverage and Lion’s Mane powder in my seasoned tofu or ‘Thai soup' broth. Some Nutritional Yeast Flakes adds to the broth flavor. Lemon grass essential oil is good in it except I stopped using that as a likely salicylate source.
Dr. Cowan is not promoting the ketogenic diet particularly, rather that is Dr. Seyfried’s strategy, and Dr. Cowan discusses it. I still firmly believe that restoring methylation cycle function needs to be a main strategy - and that is a complex goal involving lifestyle factors including EMF, alcohol use, smoking, pollutants like glyphosate, many medications, and many nutrient deficiencies or imbalance - which may involve gene alleles.
A simple lab test check of homocysteine levels in plasma can be an indicator that something is going wrong in methylation cycles if it is elevated. Excess homocysteine is inflammatory and a risk for heart disease but it isn't checked routinely within the CBC (Complete Blood Count panel).
That was a good suggestion. Probably not coincidentally, elevated homocysteine levels are also seen in patients with cancer. (Hasan, et al., 2019)
“Recent advances have proven that there is a close link between hyperhomocystinuria and cancer (see Fig. 1).
First, higher levels of plasma homocysteine [Hcy] have been observed cancer patients, and venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the second most common cause of death in cancer patients.
Second, several polymorphisms in the enzymes involved in the Hcy detoxification pathways (the trans-sulfuration and remethylation) have close clinical ties to several cancer types13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23.
Third, folate, which is pivotal for cell proliferation, has an inverse relation with Hcy.
Fourth, Hcy has also been proposed as a potential tumor biomarker for a variety of cancers24.” (Hasan, et al., 2019)
Figure 1. Association between hyperhomocysteinemia and various cancer types, (Hasan, et al., 2019)
*Bullet points added by me.
**The trans-sulfuration and remethylation pathways are sections of the interconnected ‘methylation cycles’ - there are several main ones and many feed into each other, so disrupting one can disrupt other parts of the complex system.
I just enter phrases in the search engine, 🤔😁 and find that the information exists, yet mainstream medical care seems clueless . . . or homicidal.
I did try to talk to my father's cancer doctor about pomegranate peel and he didn't really even hear me/listen, immediately dismissive about it, and my dad was a believer in people called doctor.
A video interview by Dr. Mercola was shared in a comment by SteveInFlorida
Aug 26, https://www.bitchute.com/video/DIwBdA4tHXVU/, regarding the lower fat issue and other topics - cortisol and blood sugar levels/weight. He is supporting a 30% fat limit and does not differentiate between saturated and unsaturated fat, based on work by the guest speaker Georgi Dinkov. *It is a good video and discusses something someone asked about in a reply regarding resistant starch and endotoxin production - I would think it depends on the rest of your diet and microbiome species whether you will have endotoxin producing types eating the starch or whether you have butyrate producing species eating it. Pomegranate products help promote beneficial butyrate species and is an antimicrobial against negative species like ulcer causing Helicobactor pyloris. BUT, I need to listen to that video a third time and likely dig into the topic more with the ‘magic’ like aide of the search engine. Posting now because I am tired. Peace be with you.
Karwi, et al, review energy metabolism and how the heart muscle in health can switch between four different energy sources readily, in order to use what is available or to keep up with need. ATP levels are reduced in heart failure and more glycolysis is taking place instead of oxidation of glucose or ketones. (Karwi, 2018)
“An increasing body of evidence shows that increasing cardiac ATP production and/or modulating cardiac energy substrate preference positively correlates with heart function and can lead to better outcomes. This includes increasing glucose and ketone oxidation and decreasing fatty acid oxidation. In this review we present the physiology of the energy metabolism pathways in the heart and the changes that occur in these pathways in heart failure.” […]
“Different energy substrates, namely fatty acids, carbohydrates (glucose and lactate), ketones and amino acid, contribute differently to meet the high energy demand of the heart. Fatty acid oxidation is the biggest contributor to ATP production (~40–60%) while carbohydrates metabolism generates the remainder (~20–40%). The heart has a “metabolic flexibility,” a virtue which allows it to switch between these energy substrates according to the workload, availability of the substrates, and the hormonal status. There is a general consensus that this metabolic flexibility is impaired in heart failure which affects ATP production and, consequently, cardiac contractility. Another important dimension of the metabolic flexibility is the effect of inotropic agents on energy substrates mobilization and use which occurs in response to an increase in heart work.” (Karwi, 2018)
The loss of “metabolic flexibility” is likely due to Saturated fat intake above 10% of total calories causing the PDK enzyme to be inhibited. Retinoid Toxicity chronically which can occur with alcohol use can also inhibit the PDK → PDH enzyme path that produces the acetyl CoA needed for the Citric Acid Cycle to get started, step one input.
Other aspects of modern life that disrupt our circadian day/night cycles also may keep mitochondria using energy production methods other than the Citric Acid Cycle. The circadian control over energy production may also inhibit the PDK enzyme by affecting the PPAR receptor that can inhibit it from 9-cis-Retinoic Acid activation or a diet with more than 10% calories from Saturated Fats. (Houston we have a problem-post)
“The circadian clock can affect the function of hormone receptors (peroxisome proliferator activated receptor [PPAR]α, PPARγ, and REV-ERBα) and some genes at the cellular level (sirtruin) [41, 42].” (Serin, Tek, 2019)
Our innate immune system includes cell types that use glycolysis more than the Citric Acid/Kreb’s Cycle, similar to cancer cells.
“Both macrophages and DCs must be able to switch rapidly from a resting to an activated state. A hallmark of immune cell activation is a change in their metabolism. M1 macrophages upregulate glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) while the Krebs cycle is broken at two points and the fatty acid oxidation (FAO) and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) are downregulated (5). Toll-like receptor (TLR)-activated DCs also have increased aerobic glycolysis and decreased OXPHOS and FAO (7). This inhibition of mitochondrial respiration in murine DCs is due to NO and long-term activation of glycolysis in activated DCs serves to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to compensate for the collapse in mitochondrial function, maintain the mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔψM) and prevent cell death (8). The high rate of glycolysis is similar to that seen in tumor cells (3). Murine M2 macrophages also upregulate glycolysis, but the Krebs cycle is intact and OXPHOS is functioning (5). A general theme exists among immune cells where a reliance on aerobic glycolysis is important for cells, such as M1 macrophages and DCs, whereas immunomodulatory cells, such as M2 macrophages and regulatory T cells (Tregs), make use of OXPHOS (9).” (Williams, O’Neill, 2018)
Being able to use particular ways to produce energy is a normal function of mitochondria and our cells. Being stuck in the glycolysis mode due to a high fat or high Saturated fat diet or due to chronic Retinoid Toxicity would leave cells with a chronically reduced ability to produce ATP - the yield of 2 ATP instead of 36 ATP.
I need some sunshine and exercise.
Having an answer helps figure out next steps, but the steps are still a lot of work to figure out at the individual level. Methylation cycles can be disrupted for many reasons. My Substack archives have a lot on the topic of things that cause inflammation and that in general is pushing us more towards the fermentation methods of energy production which just add to the problem of a positive feedback hyperinflammation loop.
Disclaimer This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.
(Karwi, 2018) Karwi, Q.G., Uddin, G.M., Ho, K.L., Gary D. Lopaschuk, G.D., Loss of Metabolic Flexibility in the Failing Heart, Front.Cardiovasc. Med., 06 June 2018, Sec. Cardiovascular Metabolism, Vol 5, 2018, https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2018.00068, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2018.00068/full
"I did try to talk to my father's cancer doctor about pomegranate peel and he didn't really even hear me/listen, immediately dismissive about it, and my dad was a believer in people called doctor."
If you put in a packet with a fancy name like "Egolytin" and said it was a new chemo drug I bet he would be interested?
To some docs it's like the old gag about milk coming from supermarkets.
off topic, but thought you might like this comment on women news anchors (can we not say female?, no?, should I be saying news anchors who are women? Am I hopelessly pedantic?)
"I did try to talk to my father's cancer doctor about pomegranate peel and he didn't really even hear me/listen, immediately dismissive about it, and my dad was a believer in people called doctor."
If you put in a packet with a fancy name like "Egolytin" and said it was a new chemo drug I bet he would be interested?
To some docs it's like the old gag about milk coming from supermarkets.
off topic, but thought you might like this comment on women news anchors (can we not say female?, no?, should I be saying news anchors who are women? Am I hopelessly pedantic?)
https://joaniehiggs.substack.com/p/whats-wrong-with-this-picture