4. Excess Glucose in the Cell / Insuline-Adrenaline Imbalance
"Certain foods are known to promote tumor growth and spread. Sugar, excess omega-6 oils, hydrogenated oils, excess animal protein, and milk products all promote cancer. Cancer cells differ from normal cells in that they are totally dependent on sugar to produce energy. To feed a growing tumor you need to eat lots of sugar. One approach to shutting down the cancer the cancer process is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding them the food they need to multiply. Raising the sugar content of the blood feeds cancer cells and helps them grow. In addition, sugar increases blood insulin, which is a powerful promotor of tumor spread and growth. Eating carbohydrates, such as sugar, fruit juices, and grains [particularly in excess] increases insulin. Normalizing your insulin levels [i.e., stabilizing your blood sugar levels] is one of the most important things you can do to lower your risk of cancer." (Never Fear Cancer Again, Raymond Francis)
When a cell is over-loaded with glucose its operation is disrupted and it cannot effectively utilize oxygen; and, over time, it becomes oxygen-deprived. This condition comes about through the long-term consumption of sugar and carbohydrates which brings about chronically high levels of blood-sugar and insulin. (This is one reason why there is a positive link between cancer and diabetes―they share the same pre-primary cause.)
Excess glucose in the cell can also come about when the body's ability to produce adrenaline is depleted, as adrenaline is needed to keep insulin in check. (This hypothesis was first put forth by Dr. Waltraut Fryda.) Adrenaline production is depleted through long-term chronic stress, as this chronic stress forces the pancreas to produce adrenaline far beyond its capacity which, over time, eventually exhausts the chromaffin system and the ability of the pancreas to produce adrenaline. Lower adrenaline levels brings about chronically higher insulin levels and this leads to cells becoming sugar-logged.
Insulin not only ushers sugar into the cells it also brings in magnesium. Chronically high levels of insulin in the blood (which come from a diet high in sugar and carbohydrates) leads to insulin resistance. In this condition, the cells "close their doors" to insulin, which means they also close their doors to magnesium. Big problem. Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic processes, especially those involved with cellular energy production. Most people with cancer are chronically low in cellular magnesium and must take steps to remedy this severe problem. Reducing insulin resistance (which can be helped by adopting a low-carb diet and doing proper exercise), increasing one's intake of high-magnesium foods, and supplementing with magnesium (especially in the form of magnesium aspartate and/or magnesium orotate) can be helpful but is usually not sufficient to reverse a deep-seated magnesium deficiency. The transdermal application of magnesium chloride (in the form of "magnesium oil," diluted with water, to avoid a stinging sensation), or a regular course of magnesium baths (using magnesium chloride crystals), is usually required. Restoration of proper magnesium levels can often bring about amazing results. However, if your blood-sugar/insulin levels remain high you may not be able to solve your magnesium deficiency.
Another ill-effect of long-term sugar and starch consumption (which results primarily from a high-carbohydrate diet) is that it leads to insulin resistance. This is where the liver and other organs become resistance or insensitive to insulin thus leading to chronically high levels of blood-sugar and insulin (and eventually diabetes). Increased levels of insulin in the blood promote higher levels of "insulin-like growth factor one" (IGF-1) and lower levels of IGFBP-3. IGF-1 is a powerful stimulator of cell division while IGFBP-3 keeps unregulated cell growth in check by activating programmed cell death or "apoptosis." All said, elevated levels of insulin in the blood promotes unregulated cell division and the growth of cancer (and a general weakening of the entire body).
The best way to remedy this damaging condition of excess glucose in the cell is to carefully restrict your intake of carbohydrates and sugary foods (particularly wheat, all processed forms of sugar, corn, most grains, and fruit juices), drink sufficient amounts of water (as water is needed to remove excess sugar and insulin from the blood), don't overeat at night, and adopt a balanced, low-carb diet. It is particularly important to live a more stress-free life and also to restore the adrenal glands and the endocrine system as a whole.
"Oxygen deficiency and glycogen overloading in a locus minoris resistentiae (Latin: location of reduced resistance)―in this case a site with particularly poor blood supply―can lead to a first cell moving over to another reduced type of metabolism (which is it perfectly capable of doing). This is known as fermentation and takes place in the absence of oxygen. It is characteristic of optically levorotatory lactic acid, one of the end-products of this type of fermentation, to increase eightfold the division of cells in a given time (rate of mitosis), which process again consumes relatively large quantities of sugar."
(Fryda, Diagnosis Cancer, p. 27)
"The breakdown of the chromaffin system, resulting from continuous stress, inevitably leads to adrenaline deficiency. Lack of adrenaline initially leads to an overloading of the cell with glycogen with simultaneous oxygen deficiency in two ways: a) the vessel-modulating effect of adrenaline fails, and b) the vessel-constricting effect of noradrenaline continues. The cell “remembers” its early phylogenetic capability of anaerobic, reduced metabolism and reacts precisely in this way [by reverting to a fermentation-based mode of energy production]. This, ultimately, however, has fatal consequences, because the fermentation of glycogen produces optically levorotatory lactic acid, a toxic product for the organism, which increases mitotic rate (rate of cell division). This mitosis-stimulating effect is perfectly compatible with the idea of an unhindered cell division in the case of malignant cells. It gives the organism a further means to rid itself of its excess glycogen in the cells; cell nests need a particularly vast amount of glycogen. In this way, the first fermented cell relatively quickly takes on an autonomous form, with the the sole goal to use up glycogen. This looks like an efficient utilization of sugar, in the beginning seemingly life-sustaining for the organism, but it results in a toxic end-product and increased readiness for cell division with an anaerobic metabolism. . . .
Under high demand, muscle cells may need more oxygen than can be supplied by lung and blood, and yet the muscle does not cease to function because it restricts itself to anaerobic glycolysis by producing optically dextrorotatory lactic acid, which it turn stimulates adrenaline production and has a favorable influence on the acid-alkaline environment of the organism.
(Fryda, Diagnosis Cancer, p. 33-4)
“Adrenaline deficiency causes a relative predominance of the insulin effect, i.e., a kind of hyperinsulinism [and insulin resistance] with all its negative consequences. . . . the predominance of insulin in the metabolism is the catalyst that allows the mutation of oncogenes of genes that codify the cell signal-transmitting systems, possibly leading to illnesses, and in particular cancer. It is, furthermore, known that insulin causes damage to lysosomes (organelles that are capable of breaking down and reusing damaged cell parts), thereby, hindering or disrupting an important cell repair process. . . .
My starting-point is this: less insulin means slower tumor growth (relatively, in the case of adrenaline deficiency); more insulin equals faster tumor growth. . . . In accordance with the present hypothesis, the reason for the impeded breaking down of the blood sugar is found in the glycogen overload of many cells as a result of insufficient glycogenolytic hormones, in particular adrenaline. This, the illness, which lays the foundation for the formation of the first malignant cell, is nothing more that decompensated adrenaline-deficiency diabetes.”
(Fryda, Diagnosis Cancer, p. 39-41)
>> Normalizing Blood Sugar
>> Testing Sugar Levels
>> Carey Reams on Diabetes and Hypoglycemia
>> More on Adrenalin Depletion (Fryda)