Cellular hypoxia and cancer



Dr. Otto Warburg, the Nobel Laureate, in his article “The Prime Cause and Prevention of Cancer" (1966) wrote, “Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. Almost anything can cause cancer. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. The prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen (oxidation of sugar) in normal body cells by fermentation of sugar… In every case, during the cancer development, the oxygen respiration always falls, fermentation appears, and the highly differentiated cells are transformed into fermenting anaerobes, which have lost all their body functions and retain only the now useless property of growth and replication.“

Modern research completely agrees with his conclusions. Just look at the titles of recent professional studies:

The hypoxia inducible factor-1 gene is required for embryogenesis and solid tumor formation (Ryan H, Lo J, Johnson RS, EMBO Journal 1998).

Hypoxia: a key regulatory factor in tumor growth (Harris AL, National Review in Cancer 2002)

Prognostic significance of tumor oxygenation in humans (Evans SM & Koch CJ, Cancer Letters 2003).

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 is a positive factor in solid tumor growth (Ryan HE, Poloni M, McNulty W, Elson D, Gassmann M, Arbeit JM, Johnson RS, Cancer Research 2000).

Tumor oxygenation predicts for the likelihood of distant metastases in human soft tissue sarcoma (Brizel DM, Scully SP, Harrelson JM, Layfield LJ, Bean JM, Prosnitz LR, Dewhirst MW, Cancer Research 1996). 

How to measure body oxygenation

While measurements of tissue oxygenation require special equipment, you can do a simple test that is very sensitive to tissue oxygenation. Measure your breath holding time. How it is done? The prominent Russian physiologist who worked for the first Soviet spaceship missions Dr. KP Buteyko, MD was the head of the respiratory laboratory in the 1960s. He stated about 40 years ago, “Oxygen content in the organism can be found using a simple method: after exhalation, observe, how long the person can pause their breath without stress."

After your usual exhale, pinch your nose and count your BHT (breath holding time) in seconds. Keep nose pinched until you experience the first desire to breathe. Practice shows that this first desire appears together with an involuntary push of the diaphragm or swallowing movement in the throat. (Your body warns you, “Enough!") If you release the nose and start breathing at this time, you can resume your usual breathing pattern (in the same way as you were breathing prior to the test). Do not extend breath holding too long. This is the most common mistake. You should not gasp for air or open your mouth when you release your nose. The test should be easy and not cause you any stress. The BHT test does not interfere with your usual breathing.

This video clip explains in detail how to do the test:

This test became the main measuring tool for about 200 medical professionals who taught the Buteyko self-oxygenation therapy to hundreds thousands of Russian patients with asthma, heart disease, bronchitis, and other conditions. The Buteyko method has over 40 year history of use in the USSR and Russia. Obviously, these Russian doctors had many patients who, in addition, had malignant tumours. What did they find?

What are the usual stress-free BHT numbers of cancer patients?

1-10 s - severely sick, critically and terminally ill, usually stages 3 and 4 cancer patients. 10-20 s of oxygen – cancer patients (stages 1 and 2) whose health state gets progressively worse. 20-40 s - people with poor health, but without tumor growth at the current moment.Over 40 s of oxygen – gradual disappearance of tumors.

You can do this test many times per day to evaluate the current status of the tumour. Moreover, you can measure efficiency of various activities on your body oxygenation using the breath holding time test.

Practically, breath holding time or body oxygenation naturally increases when the person have easier and more relaxed breathing pattern, while heavy breathing, as we see in sick people, diminishes body oxygenation. This counter-intuitive effect is explained on the front page the website