The conventional medical wisdom says that cancer is a genetic disease. However, some researchers are suggesting that cancer may be a metabolic disease instead.
According to the statistics of the American Cancer Society, although the incidence of cancer in the United States has been declining slowly since the beginning of the 21st century, if we consider a longer period of time, the rates of cancer have been increasing rather than decreasing.
In 1975, approximately 400 out of every 100,000 Americans had cancer. By 2018, that number had grown to roughly 445, an increase of over 10%.
Cancer mortality has had mixed results over the last 100 years. The number of women who died of cancer per 100,000 Americans has gradually declined from roughly 190 in 1930 to 130 in 2022. However, cancer deaths among men per 100,000 Americans rose from around 160 in 1930 to 180 in 2022.
Doctors expect a total of close to 2 million new cancer cases in 2022 in the U.S. In addition, over 500,000 people are expected to die from it. That works out to 5,000 Americans diagnosed with cancer and 1,600 who die from cancer each day.
Cancer may not be a genetic disease
Medical schools still teach the somatic mutation theory to explain the cause of cancer. This means that they still teach that cancer is considered a genetic disorder. The theory states that cancer is caused by mutations in proto-oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes, and the mutated cells then multiply indefinitely and form malignant tumors.
However, some researchers point to several weaknesses in the somatic mutation theory, including:
- Carcinogenesis also occurs in normal cells, but some do not develop further into cancerous cells
- Some cancers do not have genetic and chromosomal mutations
- Some carcinogens do not cause gene mutation
By deeming cancer a genetic disorder, science has developed precision medicine or personalized treatment, but doing so can result in off-target effects.
Cancer: A Modern Disease?
Ancient humans living thousands of years ago rarely developed cancer. Indigenous people living in their natural environments did not develop cancer either. So, what explains this modern phenomenon?
Researchers attempting to answer this question have conducted experiments on nuclear and cytoplasmic transplantation, which provided evidence for the possibility that cancer is not a genetic disorder.
Typically, normal cells develop into normal cells with controlled growth, while cancer cells develop into cancerous cells with uncontrolled growth.
Genes are stored in the nucleus. When the nucleus of a cancer cell was implanted into a cytoplasm containing normal mitochondria, the cell developed into a normal cell. However, if the somatic mutation theory is always correct, that cell with the cancer nucleus would develop into cancer cells.
Studies of breast cancer, glioma, and melanoma cells have shown that normal mitochondrial function inhibits dysregulated cell growth even with the presence of chromosomal or genetic abnormalities in the cell nucleus. This suggests that cancer is a metabolic disorder.
The key difference between normal cells and cancer cells
Normal cells break down glucose through aerobic respiration. However, cancer cells obtain energy through fermentation, even in an aerobic environment. Some scientists believe that aerobic respiratory insufficiency causes cancer. More recent studies show that cancer cells obtain energy from the fermentation of the amino acid, glutamine.
Therefore, some scientists suggest that because cancer cells don’t obtain energy through oxygen, but only through fermentation, the cells cannot live without sugar, glucose, and glutamine.
Cellular mitochondria, which are responsible for respiration, are damaged and hollow in all major types of cancer. The abnormality of mitochondrial structure will change the function of mitochondria, resulting in the inability of cells to obtain energy through oxidative metabolism. This changes the cell’s metabolism from relying primarily on oxidation to fermentation.
In addition, many types of cancers have the same metastatic process. Individual cells become cancerous and form tumors; the tumor cells then spread through the blood vessels and circulatory system to other parts of the body, forming new tumors.
Thus, a new theory has been presented called the mitochondrial metabolic theory to explain the origins of cancer. As macrophages overtake the defective proto-cancer cells, the normally functioning mitochondria are replaced by dysfunctional mitochondria due to inflammation. Then they spread throughout the body.
So, metabolic management may be the future of effective cancer therapies.
Exercise, fasting, and low-carb diets may help stave off cancer
The average person can maintain a healthy metabolism and prevent cancer by keeping the mitochondria in cells healthy. This can be achieved through a certain period of fasting (drinking only water), a low-carb diet, and exercise.
Eliminate high-carb and unhealthy foods like junk food that can cause cancer. You will be protecting yourself from diseases like Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity, among others that are related to the Western diet.