Apr 4, 20195 min read

Dr. Thomas Seyfried on Cancer as a Metabolic Disease, More Effective Therapies, and Treating it

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Alright everybody, we did it! The Indiegogo campaign was a success as of last night at midnight. We hit the goal with about 2 hours to spare. I appreciate each and every person who preordered, got one of the bigger perks, or even just threw in 10 bucks. I love that people shared about the film even if they couldn’t support it themselves. This has been such a great group effort. I now have nothing to plug on this podcast but I should let people know they can still preorder a copy from the same Indiegogo page now that we hit the goal - it will stay there until we finish the film in InDemand status. This is very needed as we continue the expensive post production process. You should also check out the new highlight videos we’ve been putting out on youtube. Really great 5 minute videos with some of the experts interviewed for the film. Now onto the guest today.

Dr. Thomas Seyfried is a Professor of Biology at Boston College, and received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Illinois. He then worked as an assistant professor in the neurology department at the Yale school of medicine. He has over 180 peer-reviewed publications and is author of the book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease. He recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Complimentary and Integrative Medicine.

I got a chance to meet and interview him at the Metabolic Health Summit earlier this year. You’ll notice we did this podcast shortly after the Super Bowl. In case people aren’t familiar with American football the New England Patriots had just beaten the LA Rams.

I hope people look up the paper he recently published that we mention and watch his presentation I linked to in the show notes and go deeper on this topic. It’s very surprising to learn of this completely new view on cancer if you haven't heard of it before. This really shouldn't be very surprising to anyone, however, because of course our modern diet and lifestyle would have the biggest effect on the rising cancer rates. And of course fixing these things would also be a major part of the treatment. He’s really doing legendary work. So without further ado, here’s professor Seyfried.

Preorder Food Lies: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post

Show Notes

Dr. Thomas Seyfried believes cancer is a metabolic disease, not a genetic disease and explains in simple terms why that is
The mitochondria in your cells make energy (ATP)
There’s 2 types of energy: ancient energy which is a fermentation metabolism which means you can make energy without oxygen, or respiration where you make energy from breathing air
Cancer cells ferment - therefore they don’t use oxygen
Not all cancer cells have genetic mutations, but all cancer cells ferment
The mitochondrial metabolic theory says that the organelle that makes energy from respiration is defective, forcing the cell to ferment. When the cell ferments, mutations collect in the nucleus
This means the genetic mutations seen in cancer cells come from a downstream effect of disruption of energy metabolism
The cancer cell has to consume a large amount of glucose and the amino acid glutamine in order to survive on a fermentation metabolism
On the other hand, normal cells use oxygen and very little amounts of glucose
This should make sense to a lot of people because they’ve probably heard cancer cells need a lot of glucose and if you starve them of that they die
Have to re-emphasize the fact that the DNA damage comes as a downstream effect
Damaged mitochondria, instead of making ATP, make Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) or oxidative stress (which causes a lot of problems in our body)
The oxidative stress also causes damage to the nucleus and the genome
The field of cancer research studies effects instead of causes
We’re not treating cancer by looking at the root cause - it’s absurd - how would we ever cure it?
This is supported by thousands of experiments and studies
Obvious step to treat cancer is to deprive the cancer cells of glucose and glutamine and transition healthy cells into the use of ketones which they can readily use
We evolved as a starving creature and convert fatty acids into ketones and usable forms of energy
Cancer cells can't use ketones
There’s no dietary way to restrict glutamine to the cancer cells so drugs have to be used
Basically nobody he’s heard of is treating it this way
If it’s so clear this is how cancer works, why has this not reached the mainstream?
The Federal government puts out websites saying cancer is genetic, medical schools teach it's genetic, leading cancer clinics tell patients it's genetic
Entrenched beliefs continue this. Also funding money is all based around the genetic theory
If you look at the mitochondria of any cancer cell under an electron microscope you can easily see the damage to the organelles and mitochondria
Cancer is a result of the industrialization as a society
Cancer is so rare throughout history or with non-industrialized societies they don't even have the word for it in their language
Cancer comes from all kinds of things like pollution, chemicals, radiation, hypoxia, infections, chronic inflammation, even some rare inherited diseases like BRCA1 (but it has to damage the mitochondria)
These are all secondary - the root cause is damage to the respiration
Obese people have higher rates of cancer and also higher inflammation (measured by C reactive protein)
To avoid cancer it’s as simple as avoiding diets and lifestyles that risk damage to the mitochondria
Metabolic therapies need to at least be options for people
Problem is doctors aren't aware of them or aren't trained on them
Therapeutic ketosis is a medicine - it’s different than just a diet (which is a turn-off to a lot of medical professionals)
There’s therapeutic weight loss and toxic weight loss
Using a suite of therapies to cure cancer including ketogenic metabolic therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen creates reactive oxygen species that kills cancer cells but healthy cells using ketones are protected from oxidative stress and are fine
Burning ketones creates less ROS (which is a good thing) and is why many people without cancer eat a ketogenic diet
ROS damages tissues and is why you age
He published the glucose-ketone index calculator
People need to realize sweets are a treat once in awhile - not an everyday thing
The food industry has played into our ancient desires for sweet
Otto Warburg studied cancer in the early 1900s
He found that cancer cells would grow in an 100% oxygen environment - they continue to ferment and create lactic acid
Because their mitochondria are defective they can’t switch back to oxidative phosphorylation
He recently published a paper filling in the gaps from Otto Warburg’s work
Missing link was the glutamine that cancer cells can also use
Have to pulse the glutamine so the immune system can do it's job and clear out the dead cells
He’s developed the press-pulse system in his lab to attack tumors strategically
Almost there with dosage, timing, and schedule - when done with this will have the pathway to resolution
He’s having trouble getting funding for this for some reason
One problem is people have created separate little communities and foundations around their specific type of cancer even though they all have the common metabolic foundational problem
People are going to have to participate in the management of their disease and the culture of the diseases has to change
Another problem is the high cost of these standard therapies - people have to pay $400k
His paper looking at research conducted on cancer https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3941741/
If you take a normal cytoplasm and implant a nucleus with a tumor you get normal cells. But if you implant a normal nucleus to a cell with damaged cytoplasm, you get more tumor cells. This shows it's the damaged mitochondria in the cytoplasm, not the DNA in the nucleus
The wheelchair doesn't cause your legs to not work
Needle biopsies are putting people at risk and are pointless
He calls this general misunderstanding of cancer the biggest tragedy in the history of medicine
What do critics of his views say? They try to create doubt
They rely on private funding and some great organizations supporting this research
Travis Christofferson’s foundation https://foundationformetaboliccancertherapies.com
His book Tripping Over the Truth https://www.amazon.com/Tripping-over-Truth-Overturning-Entrenched/dp/1603587292/
Dr. George Yu’s foundation https://yufoundation.org
Presentation by Dr. Seyfried https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APwnkpD_BfI&frags=pl%2Cwn
Dr. Seyfried’s book https://www.amazon.com/Cancer-Metabolic-Disease-Management-Prevention/dp/0470584920/