insulin and cancer

I am doing research on insulin and am wondering about its dangers in areas other than blood sugar, ie with cancer and other worries that are somewhat (whether warranted or not) associated with AS. Anyway, I found some info I thought was worth passing on and discusssing:

Basically, this doc says cancer cells have a much higher insulin sensitivity and that is the reason they are able to absorb nutrients rapidly and grow so much quicker than other cells. This obviously raises the question of insulin users who may be prone to cancer (ie insulin-using bbers): are they increasing the rate at which all cells (cancer included) grow? If this sounds plausible, is there any way to confirm this and measure its effect and continued use dangers?

The trend I've seen on this board is younger and younger studs eager to stick themselves with more advanced cycles. Right or wrong, if anyone can shed some more light on the other risks of more "advanced" compounds like insulin, I'm sure it will be useful for a bunch of people.

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-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Insulin and cancer - a primer for those interested
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 07:42:37 -0800
From: "The Weeks Clinic"
Reply-To:
To:


Roy,Your readers might be interested to learn a few things about cancer which we now know but only since 1990:1) cancer cells grow faster than regular cells in great part because they feed more efficiently - they are pigs because they are able to develop the tools to eat more blood sugar than normal cells;2) they feed more efficiently because their autocrine and paracrine micro-environment includes the secretion of insulin and insulin-like growth factors (IGF-l and IGF-ll); 3) these insulin related substances which are enhanced in cancer cells increase energy production and growth stimulation for cancer cells; 4) a metaphor is simply that because cancer cells have more insulin receptors, it is like they have more "mouths" to compete for the limited food; Note that cancer cells feed on blood sugar preferentially;5) that means other normal healthy cells in the area of a cancer (including local immune cells) get relatively starved for sugar;6) breast cancer cells, for example, have 7X more insulin receptors (Papa et al 1990) and 10X more IGF receptors (Cullen et al 1990) - that means breast cancer cells have a 17 fold advantage compared to local competing normal cells - a mismatch which accounts for the alarming rate of proliferation of cancer cells in general and breast cancer cells in particular - we all know people who "discover" a tumor only after it is the size of a grapefruit.... fast growth is now understood;7) There is a 50 year old technique for treating cancer called Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT) which involves giving the patient a safe but adequate dose of intravenous INSULIN to lower blood sugar to the treatment range of 30-40 (this can be an uncomfortable level) then during what is called the therapeutic moment (when the cancer cells are freaking out by the low blood sugar available and are really opening their "mouths" wide to get every drop of blood sugar remaining), my colleagues and I typically give 1/10 the dose of the appropriate conventional chemotherapy drugs and, quite elegantly, clinical experience shows that the toxic chemo drugs go preferentially to those cells that are pigging out - the cancer cells. Happily for people who do not enjoy the severe side-effects of chemotherapy, it appears that the normal cells, which have only one "mouth" and can't compete as effectively for food, seem to get no chemo drugs. Therefore, my patients call this safe and often effective protocol "side-effect free chemotherapy". IPT often puts me in mind of scripture applied to the battle between ravenous, aggressive cancer cells and healthy, patient immune cells - with IPT, indeed, "The meek shall inherit the earth." One of you readers was asking about brain tumors so I wanted to offer this info.Typically, the more aggressive the tumor, the more susceptible it is to IPT.For more info people can go to www.weeksmd.com and search under "cancer" or "insulin".It goes without saying that IPT, while beneficial in killing cancer cells, does not address issues that cause cancer - as you point out, for example, electromagnetic radiation etc. People who are concerned about cancer should adopt a balanced and healthy life style which includes eating organic living food, drinking plenty of good non-fluoridated, chlorinated water, avoiding sugar (which feeds cancers) and getting plenty of exercise to oxygenate the blood since cancers thrive in an anaerobic (no oxygen) environment. Best wishes to all,Bradford S. Weeks, M.D.

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