Alternative Cancer Care Fight
All of our bodies have cancer cells that can develop tumors. Healthy bodies with intact immune systems typically identify and destroy those cancer cells before they develop into serious health problems. Healthy cells should not be susceptible to alteration by a change in the environment from chemicals or toxins. Normal cells effectively fight off viruses and bacterial infections before they can cause permanent damage to a cell. When cells are damaged by stress or genes we are born with which can cause cells to fail to function properly, this may leave healthy cells vulnerable to disease. Aggressive, appropriate and alternative cancer care is critical in the Sunridge Medical fight against cancer.
The Cancer Cell
Understanding how cancer begins helps us to treat and stop its progress – to kill off this terrible disease. It is easiest to recognize cancer when we fully see how cells work normally and what makes a cell fail and become cancer.
This Warburg Effect was observed in a wide range of cancer cells with impaired mitochondria. All cells have mitochondria or little power plants that create energy. In a healthy cell, these power plants combine oxygen, making it an aerobic cell (just imagine a cell wearing leg warmers), and mix in glucose, also known as sugar which comes from our food.
The cell’s output of energy is triggered by insulin which makes energy units of ATP, thirty-six units of ATPs to be exact (you can think of ATPs as kilowatts). Depending on the type of cell, determines the type of energy that is manufactured. A dermis cell grows skin, a liver cell detoxifies, and so on and so forth, as each cell has a job and a target for its energy. When a healthy cell is working correctly it is an amazing thing to behold.
A Weakened Immune System and Cell Production
If the immune system is not strong enough to fight off infections or toxins which can come from chemicals or other substances in the air, food, or environment – there is interference with a cell, and it can become sick. Damage occurs in the cell’s mitochondria (power plants) and it can begin to malfunction. The power plants no longer use oxygen to make energy, and this converts them to anaerobic cells also known as non-oxygen-using cells.
The sick cell is only able to use sugar in its power plant to produce energy and the cell starts giving off less ATP energy sometimes as little as 2 ATPs (kilowatts). This kilowatt output is so dim that the cell cannot survive as a normal cell, and it begins to make changes and look for a way to restore its original energy output. The need to create energy allows increased areas of insulin to release into the cell so it can survive. This process continues to morph the cell into a cancer cell.
The cancer cell changes and as part of its progression it becomes not welcome in the area it originally belonged. The cell loses its glue becoming a cell called a metastasis which can relocate to other places in the body. As an example, a morphed liver cell can now be found in the bladder as the cancer cell originated as liver cancer. A metastases bone cell has moved to the lungs from mutated cancer cells in a bone formed in a different area of the body and moved to the lungs.
Circulating Tumor Cells and Cancer Stem Cells
Early in a diagnosis we often find Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) which are morphed cells that have sloughed off a tumor. They lost their stickiness and are flowing throughout a patient’s bloodstream. This shedding is part of the tumor metastasis and is used as a factor in a “liquid biopsy” providing insight into cancer staging and progression rate.
Stopping the Glucose Game
Cancer cells are very fond of glucose so to control the cells and put an end to damage the cells are creating, we need to rid the body of as much glucose as possible. We encourage patients to control the intake of simple sugars because sick cells cannot survive on protein and healthy fats. We introduce a ketogenic diet. By focusing on healthy fats and proteins, this carbohydrate-lite eating plan begins to rob the cancer cells of their energy and ability to cause further damage.
Cancers We Treat
The Cancer Care Fight
The Weapons in the Sunridge Arsenal to fight disease are dependent on the patient’s health, type of cancer, and stage of cancer. A Treatment Plan is a Battle Plan for our patient’s cancer. We use the plan to strategically order how we will win the cancer fight. We look at our role in a cancer journey as being part of the army that will aid in winning the cancer war. We take being part of your cancer fight seriously and we will not give up!
References for Cancer Care Fight
Liberti, Maria V., and Jason W. Locasale. “The Warburg effect: how does it benefit cancer cells?.” Trends in biochemical sciences 41, no. 3 (2016): 211-218.Vander Heiden, M. G., Cantley, L. C., & Thompson, C. B. (2009). Understanding the Warburg effect: the metabolic requirements of cell proliferation. Science (New York, N.Y.), 324(5930), 1029–1033. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1160809/
