> Health and Disease > Cancer > alternative medicine for cancer

In practising preventive medicine, I have often focused my attention towards our two leading causes of premature death–heart disease and cancer.

I have attended several conferences, but was never so moved as I was in June of 1998 in Kyoto, Japan. The city of Kyoto hosted the first international symposium on disease prevention by IP-6 and other rice components. More than 500 physicians attended, with more than 30 PhDs presenting.

The professors presented study after study and slide after slide of both cancer prevention and regression by IP-6 and Inositol. In fact, I entered the field of natural medicine after witnessing my mother overcome cancer, which in her case was against all odds. As a result of my family history I have strived to support cancer patients with effective adjunctive complementary medicine.

Western medicine has a number of chemotherapeutic agents that are able to destroy some types of cancer cells. Unfortunately, healthy essential cells are also destroyed.

Natural medicine has several agents such as vitamin C, thymus, zinc, echinacea and astragalus that can stimulate our immune response. However, cancer cells often have unique linings and as a result may not be recognized by our immune system. My excitement was due to the fact that here, for the very first time, was a non-toxic agent that was able to convert uncontrolled, differentiated normal cells.

Several experiments were performed on laboratory animals. However, a before and after in-vitro test is shown here to demonstrate specifically the effects on the cancerous cells themselves. Several types of human cancer cells have undergone the same testing with similar results. Numerous scientists have been researching IP-6 and Inositol with Dr A.K.M. Shamsuddin being credited as one of the pioneers and most passionate forces in this field of study. The following experiment was performed by Sakamoto et al and published in the journal Carcinogenesis, issue 14, pages 1815-1819 in 1993.

These colon cancer cells started off the same as the slide above but IP-6 was added to the medium upon which the cells are growing. Cancer cells divide at a greater rate allowing less time to differenciate. Keratin is a marker of epithelial cell differenciation and appears orage/red in color after staining. Only in the sample does kerati appear. Most of the cells now have a smaller nucleus and the chromosomes are condensed (pyknotic). The change in the nuclei and the keratin production indicate cells that are not dividing as quickly but instead are maturing and differentiating in a much more normalized manner. Dare we say that most of the cancer cells have been converted back into healthy cells.

These colon cancer cells (type HT-29) have not been treated with IP-6. There are a lot more cells in the sample. They have large prominant nuclei that have an unusual number of chromosomes (Aneuploid). Keratin does not appear to be present.

Dr Vanderlinden practices at the West Coast Clinic of Integrative Medicine in Vancouver, BC.

Source: alive #209, March 2000