Cancer is Wily

I learned something old last week. Does that ever happen to you? Do you ever read something, or someone tells you something, and a lightbulb goes on . . . and about a second later you realize you already knew that but it was buried under who-knows-what-kind-of-minutiae that apparently mattered more? Happens to me all the time. Sigh.

Anyway, cancer begins with a single cell (or maybe a few cells) that was damaged by toxins (stress chemicals, pesticides, etc.) and then when it divided (which is how cells multiply), it made two damaged cells. Which then divided to make four damaged cells, etc. etc. After a few months or years or decades (depending on the type of cancer and how fast it divides), there are enough abnormal cells to be seen as a tumor. With me so far?

Most normal cells are programmed to stop dividing at a certain point, but cancer cells have mutated in such a way that they don't have a shut-off switch. They will keep dividing -- and at a faster rate than normal cells -- until they kill the host by robbing it of the nutrition it needs. It becomes a parasite in the truest sense of the word.

So cancer cells are not programmed to die as normal cells are. But here's the really interesting thing. They mutate to the point that they provide their own food source. In essence, they eat their own (recycled) poop. Is that not ingenious?  Here's how it works:

Cancer loves sugar, right? (also known as glucose). When a normal cell processes glucose, the by-products are carbon dioxide and water. We get rid of the carbon dioxide by exhaling, and the water by urinating. So far so good? Well, when a cancer cell processes glucose, the by-product is lactate (the same stuff that makes your muscles hurt when you've over-exerted). Lactate isn't just urinated or exhaled out. No, it has to go to the liver where it's broken down into . . . wait for it . . . glucose! . . . which goes back into circulation and feeds the cancer. It's an endless, ingenious cycle!

That's the old thing I learned last week. Cool, huh?

The kicker is that no matter how carefully I cut out ingested sugars, theoretically, the cancer will still survive. Thrive, even.

So I may as well go have that fried ice cream I've been hankering for, right?

Nah. Because sugar (and homogenized pasteurized dairy) still creates an acidic environment, and that's exactly the way cancer likes it. I think my cancer's pretty much gone, but I don't want it to come back, so I'm all about maintaining an unfriendly environment for it.

Interesting thought though, yes?