The Budwig Diet, or Budwig Protocol aims to reoxygenate the blood of cancer patients through the use of flaxseed (linseed) and to drive oxygen into cancer cells through its combination with sulphur-rich quark, or cottage cheese.
Dr. Joanna Budwig
Dr. Johanna Budwig was born in Germany in 1908 and died 95 years later in 2003. She was a trained biochemist and physicist and a self-taught cancer expert.
In the 1950s she became an expert in membrane science, and oils and fats, or lipid metabolism. She was also interested in the pathogenesis of disease.
Budwig, essential fatty acids and health
As a leading expert on fat and oil metabolism, she despised hydrogenated and trans fats, and became interested in polyunsaturated fats. Through her research, she found that saturated fats could lead to fatty deposits in the heart and arteries blocking circulation, damaging heart action, inhibiting cell renewal and disrupting the normal flow of blood and lymph fluids.
She was particularly interested in lipoproteins and phosphatides, important constituents of cell membranes and she established that polyunsaturated fats were both essential to your good health (for example, now known to reduce LDL, heart disease and stroke risk) and also played an important role in membrane structure and transmission. These polyunsaturated fats are found in certain nut, seed and vegetable oils.
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids are now known to be essential fatty acids and also termed PUFAs. They are essential because the body cannot make them; you must consume them:
* Alpha-Linolenic Acid (ALA) - found as short-chain omega-3 in seeds (chia, flaxseed, hemp), nuts (walnut) and many common vegetable oils (rapeseed, soyabean).
* Linoleic Acid - also known as omega-6. Although most seeds are rich in ALA, they are much richer in Linoleic acid. The exceptions are flax and chia.
Linoleic acid (omega-6) and Linolenic acid actually compete for positions in cell membranes and result in different membrane health profiles.
ALA is prone to oxygenation and becomes rancid easily. ALA only converts in very small percentages into long chain omega-3 (EPA and DHA). It is a common mistake that flaxseed omega-3 is the same as that from fish oil; a mistake made by many 'experts'. Both fish oil omega 3 and flaxseed oil need to be consumed and is fish oil long-chain omega-3 is essential for biochemical processes, telomere strength and controlling inflammation.
Flaxseed is also called linseed.
Budwig's research in this area led her to study and research (including conducting Clinical Trials) the effects of the loss of essential lipoproteins and phosphatides in the Western modern diet, and the link to increased levels of cancer.
Her thesis, proved several times in her own research, was that the consumption of flaxseed oil could not only correct the deficiencies of a modern diet, it could help prevent, and even ’cure’ a cancer. A 2012 review on plant omega-3 seems to corroborate that (1).
Budwig and lowered oxygen in cancer patients
Dr. Budwig also noticed that the blood of cancer patients, especially those in the later stages of the disease was a greyish yellow rather than a red, due to the lack of iron-carrying oxygen haemoglobin. Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg in 1931 won his prize for showing the importance of oxygen in preventing cancer. A 2012 meta-analysis has shown that cancer tumours create a state of hypoxia (lowered oxygen) confiming the low oxygen theories(2).
Dr. Budwig then showed that after treating the patients with flaxseed oil daily for several months, the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood increased, and she believed this was due to the increased presence of lipoproteins and phosphatides. Furthermore, in her clinical trials she actually showed that tumour size decreased.
If you are thinking of buying Flaxseed Oil you might like to look at the Natural Selection Product of Choice. You can do this by clicking here 
Metionine and cysteine - suphur transports oxygen into the cells
One of her greatest discoveries was that the essential oxygen-boosting elements of the fats could only pass through membranes by binding to protein. Her idea was to make them water soluble by binding them with sulphur and to provide this she chose cottage cheese, in Europe called Quark! The electrons of the fat elements then bind to the sulphurated protein of the cottage cheese and pass through the cell membranes. Quark contains sulphydryl amino acids cysteine and methionine.
Suphur is now proven to aid transportation across cell membranes. Unfortunately, with the growth of herbicides and pesticides, suphur content in foods has declined. Chlorination of water can also reduce sulphur levels in the body.
Budwig and bioenergestics
We have run several articles before on the electrical nature of the human body and the influences on it both good and bad. Click here and read about Atomic man and chakras.
As a physicist, Budwig also understood vibrational energy, and believed that everybody had their own particular frequency; their own wavelength. Thus foods could boost that vibration if they were fresh, organic and ’energetic’, as could external factors such as simple sunshine. However, bad foods especially hydrogenated, electronically tampered fats could damage the electronic rhythms of the body.
Budwig believed natural whole and organic foods, natural water and sunshine were all factors our bodies had evolved with and so supported our health. Synthetic, fabricated and refined foods merely damaged us, even lowering the voltage of our cells a fact now proven in research.
There are many studies that we have covered in icon linking certain natural foods, or fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fibres with lowered levels of cancers. Equally we have also documented research linking higher illness levels with higher consumption of prepared, processed or junk foods.
New research studies show significant benefits of flaxseed
Flaxseed and lignin consumption shows up in the urine. And women with the highest levels in their urine have the lowest levels of breast cancer, a finding shown in studies from America to Japan. Secoisolariciresinol (SDG) is the natural lignin found in flaxseed. Research shows SDG has a direct effect on human oestrogen metabolism and also on its receptor sites. Oestrogen fuels the fire of many cancers. Research also shows SDG stops the action of oestrogen in stimulating cancer cells.
SDG also increases the production of ’Sex hormone binding globulin’. This binds oestrogen, reduces the free oestrogen in the body, and reduces the stimulatory effect of oestrogen on cell division. In research where animals were given a high fat diet and cancer cells, flaxseed reduced the levels of cancer found when it was also added to the mix. Animals with a highly potent metastatic cancer line had their tumours reduce in size and metastasis almost stop when given high levels of flaxseed.
Two studies with animals given a cancer-inducing chemical for 13 weeks, showed less cancers and smaller tumours, if the animals also took SDG one study reported 46 per cent less cancers if pure SDG was used.
Post-menopausal women given flaxseed supplementation for seven weeks showed increased levels of properly metabolised oestrogen in their urine. Another test on women newly diagnosed with breast cancer showed that factors associated with tumour growth fell 33 per cent in the group taking flaxseed.
Dr. Joanna Budwig and her anti-cancer protocol
As with many ’Alternative’ cancer practitioners, she tended to receive patients who had tried and failed with orthodox therapies and were in the later stages of their cancers. Almost all were terminally ill, some with only days to live.
She treated her patients with a simple diet based on a combination of flax oil and quark, the European version of cottage cheese.
She recorded all her cases and her published research is full of thousands of testimonials from people around the world that were diagnosed with terminal cancer and were completely cured by ’the Budwig diet’.
The Budwig Protocol
The current Budwig Protocol has had a number of additions - from insisting on fresh, organic food, to drinking purified water, to taking a quality probiotic daily, to avoiding meat (Budwig was a vetetarian) to supplementing with vitamin D.
Here is a brief summary of the core protocol:
* You should consume 8 tablespoons of Flaxseed oil daily. Each of 8 times -
* Put 1 Tablespoon of flaxseed oil, plus 2 tablespoons of organic, low fat cottage cheese (or quark) into a blender. You may add fruit juice to make it more palatable.
* Flaxseeds must always be freshly ground and consumed within 15 minutes.
You can then eat a Rainbow Diet around this.
You may find a quality flaxseed oil as the Natural Selection ’Product of Choice’ (click here).
Gut health importance in Budwig Protocol
At CANCERactive we prefer the grains of flaxseed as they also encourage healthy gut bacteria to multiply.
You can buy Flaxseed or Linseed in a product called Linusit Gold, and Holland & Barratt do an own label version.
It is also important to maintain good levels of beneficial bacteria, which thrive on the lignans and aid the binding or chelation process for oestrogens (both human and synthetic) to be better eliminated from the body. You should supplement with a quality, multi-strain probiotic.
Go to: Our Natural Selection - top quality multi-strain probiotic
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Please Note: At CANCERactive we simply try to lay out all the information so that you can make better personal decisions. We are not claiming in any way that we believe the Budwig Protocol will ’cure’ cancer. Our job is to stop you having to trawl through the internet and be misled by the many inaccurate reports and frequent over-claims made on the Budwig Protocol.
For the record, Budwig was also nominated for seven Nobel Peace Prizes, but failed to win any. She was frequently dubbed a ’quack’ and vilified and harassed by more orthodox practitioners.
Lignans, flaxseed and flaxseed oil pass through the body in about 48 hours so daily consumption is essential. You can buy and take flaxseed oil, or you could make your own breakfast muesli from whole grains, nuts and organic seeds such as sunflower and pumpkin, and sprinkle this with Linseeds (For example, the UK brand Linusit Gold). High lignin flaxseed supplements exist; for example, Brevail and Spectrum in America.
CANCERactive has been offered money to send people to Budwig Clinics. As readers will know, we do not do take incentives to recommend treatments.
References
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21490374
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3510426/