Epigenetics and reversing cancer

The Science of Epigenetics tells us how messages from your personal DNA code become altered or even blocked due to metabolic changes in the microenvironment of your cells, caused by lifestyle and environment factors, such as diet, alcohol, environmental toxins, stress, hormone imbalance, mRNA from the microbiome, smoking, exercise and oxygen levels.

Unlike genetic changes which occur as mutations inside your DNA and are inheritable (BRCA1 and 2, for example), epigenetic changes do not occur within your DNA but in the copying process (from DNA to mRNA to a protein) and so are neither inheritable nor permanent; they are reversible (1).

A Mutation is 'A sequence change inside your DNA'. As a result any message that emerges from that sequence is gobbledegook. Such changes are only in one strand of DNA - that from your mother or that from your father. So, you are likely to produce one damaged message, but still able to produce one healthy message.  Sequence changes inside the DNA are inheritable, for example BRCA1, BRCA2, CHEK2 and PALB2. Less than seven per cent of humans have an inherited mutation. 

Since you are almost certain to have one perfect sequence in the non-mutated DNA strand, about 30% of people go through their whole life with an inherited mutation in one DNA strand, without ever developing cancer or a chronic illness (2).

And while there is clear evidence that having an inherited gene mutation increases the risk of cancer, according to research in the Lancet (3), people with an inherrited mutation and cancer have at least the same survival times as people without an inherited gene, and sometimes more.

Cancer and mutation

The Somatic Theory of Cancer is the text book theory of cancer that has prevailed for 80+ years throughout cancer academia and the cancer industry. It holds that cancer is caused by a mutation or multiple mutations within your DNA. These are prompted by mistakes during cell division, ionising radiation, viral infections and more (2). These changes cause lost messages. This led your natural Germ cell (the one your were born with) to become a Somatic cell with mutations in it - and somatic cells create havoc in the body.

As if to prove the theory correct, there is a disproportionate coverage about inherited genetic mutations like BRCA1 and 2; but, to repeat, only seven per cent of people have inherited mutations.

Yes, 17 per cent of patients with Ovarian cancer, and between 10 and 17 per cent of breast cancer patients carry an inherited gene according to research from Stamford Medical School (4), but, to repeat, they don't lower survival times; in fact the Stamford researchers said that survival was higher! They even concluded that survival time has nothing to do with mutation in your DNA.

So what is going on? According to Dr. Christine Mayr of Sloan Kettering, there are no new mutations in the DNA of a cancer patient! (5).

And her research has won her the prestigious NIH 'Pioneer Award' in 2021. Mayr, from her research, was very clear:

     i) If you sequence the DNA in cancer cells, you do not see any new mutational changes

     ii) DNA is copied into mRNA, which is copied into protein messages - it is changes in the mRNA copying that occur, and these have the cancer driving effects.

     iii) The reason Doctors don't understand or accept Epigenetics is that all the tests to date, look in the wrong place - inside the DNA, not in the microenvironment of the cell.

     iv) This leads to orthodox treatments treating the wrong problem!

Yes, Mayr said this!

And there's research to prove the Somatic theory of cancer is wrong. On June 4th 2003, St Jude's Children's Research Hospital implanted the nuclei from aggressive cancer cells into healthy frog embryos. If the Somatic mutation theory were correct, these healthy frog embryos would all develop aggressive cancer. None did.

The inconvenient truth - the control systems of cancer lie principally outside the DNA sequence. Epi (around) genetics (the genome).

If you search Google, you will find almost all the leading articles on Somatic theory in complete disarray - people claiming that only Germ cells have inheritable mutations, and Somatic cells being the first cancer cells with lots of mutations but not inheritable. Yes, people still trying to hang on to the-Earth-is-flat, and the-sun-spins-round-the-Earth theories.

Cancer is largely a metabolic disease

Cardiovascular disease, dementia, diabetes, Parkinson's Rheumatoid Arthritis etc. are all metabolic diseases. Why would cancer be any different? People develop illnesses - high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high bad cholesterol etc. It's called metabolic syndrome. Many illnesses, of course, relate to bad choices, poor lifestyle, and pathogens and a dysfunctional microbiome. An illness is a wake up call. But most people don't wake up. They carry on with the bad habits and take drugs to compensate. And cancer is an accident waiting to happen.

Poor Diet, stress and methylation

Your DNA is about 1.8 metres long, but it is rolled up in a ball so small you can’t see it under a normal microscope. How might a message be lost? The ball is held in place by histones, rather like your body’s structure is held in place by bones. The histones cover very little of the surface because the coding sequences for the messages need to be exposed - little trains jump on at start points, read a message sequence, copy it, and then send it into the microenvironment of the cell as messenger RNA. There it makes a protein message. These messages are essential for your body’s biochemistry to work properly. There are thus several points where the copying process can go wrong.

We know that, for example, kinase enzymes will cause the final protein message to be phosphorylated. There are over 500 such enzymes in the body that can add a phosphate to your message and make it imperfect.

But the 'pollution' can occur before that rendering the DNA to mRNA copying imperfect. 

Histones hold onto the genetic material through methyl bonds. The bonds are not fixed and can change during any 24 hour period, allowing your body to express different underlying genes according to your particular needs at that moment. It’s how the body corrects problems or regulates excesses.

However, methylation can increase, resulting in a build up of histones and they may cover, and thus BLOCK, the underlying genes. This prevents the genes being read and sending out their protein message. So, a block around the genetic material, stops gene expression and results in imperfect messages.

What causes the build up of methylation and histones?

One proven cause is a poor diet and the build up of homocysteine.  Homocysteine is a known neuro-toxin. It is not found in our diets but is made inside our bodies. Elevated levels are linked to many chronic illnesses, for example, cancer and Alzheimer’s. It is an amino acid but is never used in protein formation. It can be down-regulated by sulphuration to cysteine, and up-regulated by methylation to methionine. Cancer cells need methionine - they thrive on it. Some cancer cures look to cut methionine from the body, but homcysteine is a reservoir for methionine.

Homeocysteine has been shown to cause more methylation, and more message loss. Its build-up can occur before Alzheimer's and before cancer.

But other factors increase methylation - for example, Stress. 

Most importantly, research from Oxford University has shown the build up of homocysteine is preventable through fish oils and a B complex (and we also know Turmeric can do it too). And where do you get B vitamins from in as healthy body? Diet and gut bacteria. What declines as you age? Gut bacteria.

We also know that methylation and increases in histones are reversible (6).

Thus, drugs and antibiotics plus anything known to affect the pH of the gut - such as too much salt, pickles, environmental toxins, smoking or stress - affects the balance of the bacteria in the gut (the microbiome) and changes the amount of B vitamins made, which in turn affects homocysteine levels.

Another factor in the microenvironment of the cell is the mitochondria. These powerhouses for the cell are known to define the health of the cell in many metabolic diseases; cancer is no exception. In cancer they play a role in cell proliferation and cell death. Mitochondria resemble the earliest bacteria; they were invaders of the cell. They have to balance energy needs with substrate provision for the cell. They also make waste products like any power station and this is 'cleaned up' by antioxidants glutathione and melatonin. The former is made from dietary components in foods such as greens, flaxseed, onions and garlic. The latter is produced when near InfraRed light hits the mitochondria. Exercise and endorphins play a role. And, again, your microenvironment influences the health of your mitochondria and the quality of the messenger RNA they produce (7).

Cancer is very much a metabolic disease.

Epigenetics and why you are not doomed

Journalists, cancer charities, drug companies, doctors and even oncologists glibly trot out the word mutation as if the person with cancer has become an X-man or a zombie. They want you to believe this is a really complex situation - akin to rocket science - and so it requires rocket science (and thus expensive) solutions.

But, we are not talking about any new sequence change mutations, rather lost messages due to alterations in message production in the microenvironment of your cells . The mRNA and protein copying systems have gone wrong under negative influences in that environment. But you can significantly improve this microenvironment by, for example a good diet, having a good intake of minerals, cutting stress and environmental toxins, balancing your hormones, taking exercise, oxygenating cells, having plenty of commensal (good) bacteria - these have all been shown capable of correcting the microenvironment. Indeed, more than 65 natural bioactive compounds are known to be capable of correcting cancer cell damage, the leader in this being vitamin D, which activates metabolic responses and pathways such as mTor and p53 prompting mitochondria to regain redox balance (8) 

Your micro-environment creates a body conducive to cancer or conducive to health. You choose!