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Magnesium and Cancer
Magnesium
stabilizes ATP[i],
allowing
DNA and RNA transcriptions and repairs.[ii]
There is a power and a
force in magnesium that cannot be equaled anywhere else in the
world of medicine. There is no substitute for magnesium in human
physiology; nothing comes even close to it in terms of its
effect on overall cell physiology.
Without sufficient
magnesium, the body accumulates toxins and acid residues,
degenerates rapidly, and ages prematurely.
It goes against a gale
wind of medical science to ignore magnesium chloride used
transdermally in the treatment of any chronic or acute disorder,
especially
cancer.
Magnesium repletion
produced rapid
disappearance of the periosteal tumors.[iii]
Aleksandrowicz et al in
Poland conclude that inadequacy of Mg and antioxidants are
important risk factors in predisposing to leukemias.[iv]
Other researchers
found that 46% of the patients admitted to an ICU in a tertiary
cancer center presented hypomagnesemia. They concluded that
the incidence
of hypomagnesemia in critically ill cancer patients is high.[v]
In animal
studies we find that Mg deficiency has caused lymphopoietic
neoplasms in young rats. A study of rats surviving Mg deficiency
sufficient to cause death in convulsions during early infancy in
some, and cardiorenal lesions weeks later in others, disclosed
that some of survivors had thymic nodules or lymphosarcoma.[vi]
One would not normally
think that Magnesium (Mg) deficiency can paradoxically increase
the risk of, or protect against cancer yet we will find that
just as severe dehydration or asphyxiation can cause death
magnesium
deficiency can directly lead to cancer.
When you consider that over 300 enzymes and ion transport
require magnesium and that its role in fatty acid and
phospholipids acid metabolism affects permeability and stability
of membranes, we can see that magnesium deficiency would lead to
physiological decline in cells setting the stage for cancer.
Anything that weakens cell physiology will lead to the
infections that surround and penetrate tumor tissues. These
infections are proving to be an integral part of cancer.
Magnesium deficiency poses a direct threat to the health of our
cells. Without sufficient amounts our cells calcify and rot in.
Breeding grounds for yeast and fungi colonies they become,
invaders all to ready to strangle our life force and kill us.
Over 300 different
enzymes systems rely upon magnesium to facilitate their
catalytic action, including ATP metabolism, creatine-kinase
activation, adenylate-cyclase, and sodium-potassium-ATPase.[vii]
It is known that
carcinogenesis induces magnesium distribution disturbances,
which cause magnesium mobilization through blood cells and
magnesium depletion in non-neoplastic tissues.
Magnesium deficiency
seems to be carcinogenic, and in case of solid tumors, a high
level of supplemented magnesium inhibits carcinogenesis.[viii]
Both carcinogenesis and magnesium deficiency increase the plasma
membrane permeability and fluidity. Scientists have in fact
found out that there is much
less Mg++ binding to membrane phospholipids of cancer cells,
than to normal cell membranes.[ix]
Magnesium protects
cells from aluminum,
mercury, lead, cadmium, beryllium and nickel.
Magnesium in general is
essential for the survival of our cells but takes on further
importance in the age of toxicity where our bodies are being
bombarded on a daily basis with heavy metals. Glutathione
requires magnesium for its synthesis.[x]
Glutathione synthetase requires γ-glutamyl
cysteine, glycine, ATP, and magnesium ions to form glutathione.[xi]
In magnesium deficiency, the enzyme y-glutamyl transpeptidase is
lowered.[xii]
According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, low magnesium is associated
with dramatic increases in free radical generation as well as
glutathione depletion and this is vital since glutathione is one
of the few antioxidant molecules known to neutralize mercury.[xiii]
Without the cleaning and chelating work of glutathione
(magnesium) cells begin to decay as cellular filth
and heavy metals accumulates; excellent environments to attract
deadly infection/cancer.
There is drastic
change in ionic flux from the outer
and inner cell membranes both in the impaired
membranes of cancer, and in Mg deficiency.
Anghileri et
al[xiv],[xv]
proposed that modifications of cell membranes are principal
triggering factors in cell transformation leading to cancer.
Using cells from induced cancers, they found that there is much
less magnesium binding to membrane phospholipids of cancer
cells, than to normal cell membranes.[xvi]
It has been suggested that Mg deficiency may trigger
carcinogenesis by increasing membrane permeability.[xvii]
Magnesium deficient cells membranes seem to have a smoother
surface than normal, and decreased membrane viscosity, analogous
to changes in human leukemia cells.[xviii],[xix]
There is drastic change in ionic flux from the outer and inner
cell membranes (higher Ca and Na; lower Mg and K levels), both
in the impaired membranes of cancer, and of Mg deficiency. And
we find that lead (Pb) salts, are more leukemogenic when given
to Mg deficient rats, than when they are given to Mg-adequate
rats, suggesting that Mg is protective.[xx]
Magnesium has an
effect on a variety of cell membranes
through a process involving calcium channels and ion transport
mechanisms. Magnesium is responsible for the maintenance
of the trans-membrane gradients of sodium and potassium.
Long ago researchers
postulated that magnesium supplementation
of those who are Mg deficient, like chronic alcoholics, might
decrease emergence of malignancies[xxi]
and now modern researchers have found that all types of alcohol
— wine, beer or liquor — add equally to the risk of developing
breast cancer in women. The researchers, led by Dr. Arthur
Klatsky of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program
in Oakland, Calif., revealed their findings at a meeting of the
European Cancer Organization in Barcelona in late 2007. It was
found that women who had one or two drinks a day increased their
risk of developing breast cancer by 10 percent. Women who had
more than three drinks a day raised their risk by 30 percent.
The more one
drinks the more one drives down magnesium levels.
Breast cancer is the
second most common cancer
killer of women, after lung cancer. It will be diagnosed in
1.2 million people globally this year and will kill 500,000.
According to data
published in the British Journal of Cancer in 2002, 4 percent of
all breast cancers — about 44,000 cases a year — in the United
Kingdom are due to alcohol consumption. It’s an important
question though, and one not asked by medical or health
officials, is it the alcohol itself or the resultant drop in
magnesium levels that is cancer provoking? Though some studies
have shown that light- to moderate alcohol use can protect
against heart attacks it does us no good to drink if it cause
cancer. Perhaps if magnesium was supplemented in women drinkers
who were studied there would have been no increase of cancer
from drinking.
Alcohol
has always been known to deplete magnesium,
and is one of the first supplements given to alcoholics
when they stop and attempt to detoxify and withdraw.
Researchers from
the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota have
just concluded that
diets rich in magnesium
reduced the occurrence of colon cancer.[xxii]
A previous
study from Sweden[xxiii]
reported that
women with the highest magnesium intake had a 40 per cent lower
risk of developing the cancer than those with the lowest intake
of the mineral.
Pre-treatment
hypomagnesemia has been reported
in young leukemic children, 78% of whom have histories
of anorexia, and have excessive gut and urinary losses of
Mg.[xxiv]
Several studies have
shown an increased cancer rate in regions with low magnesium
levels in soil and drinking water, and the same for selenium. In
Egypt the cancer rate was only about 10% of that in Europe and
America. In the rural fellah it was practically non-existent.
The main difference was an extremely high magnesium intake of
2.5 to 3g in these cancer-free populations,
ten times more
than in most western countries.[xxv]
The School of Public
Health at the Kaohsiung Medical College in,
Taiwan, found that magnesium also exerts a protective effect
against gastric cancer, but only for the group with the highest
levels.[xxvi]
If we looked it would
probably be very difficult to find a cancer patient with
anywhere near normal levels of cellular magnesium meaning cancer
probably
does not exist
in a physical cellular environment full of magnesium.
It makes perfect medical sense to saturate the body with
magnesium through transdermal means. Magnesium deficiency has
been implicated in a host of clinical disorders but the medical
establishment just cannot get it through its thick skull that it
is an important medicine.
It is as if the
collective medical profession had just pulled the plug on
medical intelligence. In fact it has done exactly this and it
seems too late for it to redefine itself, which is a tragedy.
Though magnesium improves the internal production of defensive
substances, such as antibodies and considerably improves the
operational activity of white granulozytic blood cells (shown by
Delbert with magnesium chloride), and contributes to many other
functions that insure the integrity of cellular metabolism, no
one thinks to use it in cancer as a primary treatment. It is
even worse than this, the medical establishment does not even
use magnesium as a secondary treatment or even use it at all and
gladly uses radiation and chemo therapy, both of which force
magnesium levels down further.
To not replete cellular
magnesium levels would be negligent especially in the case of
cancer where a person’s life is on the line. An oncologist who
ignores his patient’s magnesium levels would be analogous to an
emergency room physician not rushing resuscitation when a person
stops breathing. If one elects to have or has already had
chemotherapy they have four times the reason to pay attention to
a concentrated protocol aimed at replenishing full magnesium
cellular stores.
Magnesium chloride is
the first and most important item in any person’s cancer
treatment strategy.
Put in the clearest terms
possible, our suggestion from the first day on the Survival
Medicine Cancer Protocol is to almost drown oneself in
transdermally applied magnesium chloride. It should be the first
not the last thing we think of when it comes to cancer. It takes
about three to four months to drive up cellular magnesium levels
to where they should be when treated intensely transdermally but
within days patients will commonly experience its life saving
medical/healing effects. For many people whose bodies are
starving for magnesium the experience is not too much different
than for a person coming out of a desert desperate for water. It
is that basic to life, that important, that necessary.
That same power found in
magnesium that will save your life in the emergency room during
cardiac arrest, that will diminish damage of a stroke if
administered in a timely fashion is the same power that can save
one’s life if one has cancer. All a patient has to do is pour it
into their baths or spray it right onto their bodies. What could
be simpler?
Magnesium chloride,
when applied directly
to the skin, is transdermally absorbed and has an
almost immediate effect on chronic and acute pain.
Special Note on Calcium
and Cancer:
Experts
say excessive calcium intake may be unwise in light of recent
studies showing that high amounts of the mineral may increase
risk of prostate cancer. “There is reasonable evidence to
suggest that calcium may play an important role in the
development of prostate cancer,” says Dr. Carmen Rodriguez,
senior epidemiologist in the epidemiology and surveillance
research department of the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Rodriguez says that a 1998 Harvard School of Public Health study
of 47,781 men found those consuming between 1,500 and 1,999
mg of calcium per day had about double the risk of being
diagnosed with metastatic (cancer that has spread to other parts
of the body) prostate cancer as those getting 500 mg per day or
less. And
those taking in 2,000
mg or more had over four times the risk of developing
metastatic prostate cancer as those taking in less than 500 mg.
Calcium and magnesium
are opposites in their effects
on our body structure. As a general rule, the more
rigid and inflexible our body structure is, the
less calcium and the more magnesium we need.
Later in 1998, Harvard
researchers published a study of dairy product intake among 526
men diagnosed with prostate cancer and 536 similar men not
diagnosed with the disease.
That
study found a
50% increase in prostate cancer risk and a near doubling of risk
of metastatic prostate cancer among men consuming high amounts
of dairy products,
likely due, say the researchers, to the high total amount of
calcium in such a diet. The most recent Harvard study on the
topic, published in October 2001, looked at dairy product intake
among 20,885 men and found men consuming the
most dairy products had
about 32% higher risk of developing prostate cancer than those
consuming the least.
The adverse effects of
excessive calcium intake may include high blood calcium levels,
kidney stone formation and kidney complications.[xxvii]
Elevated calcium
levels are also associated with arthritic/joint and vascular
degeneration, calcification of soft tissue, hypertension and
stroke, and increase in VLDL triglycerides, gastrointestinal
disturbances, mood and depressive disorders, chronic fatigue,
and general mineral imbalances including magnesium, zinc, iron
and phosphorus.
High calcium levels
interfere with Vitamin D and subsequently inhibit the vitamin’s
cancer protective effect unless extra amounts of Vitamin D are
supplemented.[xxviii]
Magnesium is the
mineral of rejuvenation and prevents
the calcification of our organs and tissues that is
characteristic of the old-age related degeneration of our
body.
Recommendations
of magnesium to calcium ratios range from 1:2 to 1:1. For
those interested in preventing cancer one should look closely at
the 1:1 camp and during the first six months of treatment one
should be looking at ten parts magnesium to one part calcium. In
reality one need not even count the ratio during the first
months for the only real danger of extremely high magnesium
levels comes with patients suffering from kidney failure. If one
is at all concerned about their calcium intake one should eat
foods high in both calcium and magnesium like toasted sesame
seeds.
Up to 30% of the
energy of cells is
used to pump calcium out of the cells.
Doctors who have used
intravenous magnesium treatments know the benefits of peaking
magnesium levels, even if only temporarily. For the cancer
patient the transdermal approach combined with oral use offers
the opportunity to take magnesium levels up strongly and
quickly. For emergency situations three applications a day, for
urgent two treatments would be indicated though one strong
treatment with an ounce of a natural magnesium chloride solution
spread all over the body like a sun screen is a powerful
systemic treatment.
It is medical wisdom
that tells us that magnesium is actually the key to the body's
proper assimilation and use of calcium, as well as other
important nutrients. If we consume too much calcium, without
sufficient magnesium, the excess calcium is not utilized
correctly and may actually become toxic, causing painful
conditions in the body. Hypocalcemia is a prominent
manifestation of magnesium deficiency in humans (Rude et al.,
1976). Even mild degrees of magnesium depletion significantly
decreases the serum calcium concentration (Fatemi et al., 1991).
Calcium requirement
for men and
women is lower than previously estimated.[xxix]
[i]
Mg2+ is critical for all of the energetics of the cells
because it is absolutely required that Mg2+ be bound (chelated)
by ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the central high energy
compound of the body. ATP without Mg2+ bound cannot
create the energy normally used by specific enzymes of
the body to make protein, DNA, RNA, transport sodium or
potassium or calcium in and out of cells, nor to
phosphorylate proteins in response to hormone signals,
etc. In fact, ATP without enough Mg2+ is non-functional
and leads to cell death. Bound Mg2+ holds the
triphosphate in the correct stereochemical position so
that it can interact with ATP using enzymes and the Mg2+
also polarizes the phosphate backbone so that the
'backside of the phosphorous' is more positive and
susceptible to attack by nucleophilic agents such as
hydroxide ion or other negatively charged
compounds. Bottom line, Mg2+ at critical concentrations
is essential to life,” says Dr. Boyd Haley who asserts
strongly that, “All detoxification mechanisms have as
the bases of the energy required to remove a toxicant
the need for Mg-ATP to drive the process. There is
nothing done in the body that does not use energy and
without Mg2+ this energy can neither be made nor used.”
Detoxification of carcinogenic chemical poisons is
essential for people want to avoid the ravages of
cancer. The importance of magnesium in cancer prevention
should not be underestimated.
[ii]
Magnesium has a central regulatory role in the cell
cycle including that of affecting transphorylation and
DNA synthesis, has been proposed as the controller of
cell growth, rather than calcium. It is postulated that
Mg++ controls the timing of spindle and chromosome
cycles by changes in intracellular concentration during
the cell cycle. Magnesium levels fall as cells enlarge
until they reach a level that allows for spindle
formation. Mg influx then causes spindle breakdown and
cell division.
[iii]
Hunt, B.J.,
Belanger, L.F. Localized, multiform, sub-periosteal
hyperplasia and generalized osteomyelosclerosis in
magnesium-deficient rats. Calcif. Tiss. Res. 1972;
9:17-27.
[iv]Aleksandrowicz,
J., Blicharski, J., Dzigowska, A., Lisiewicz, J. Leuko-
and oncogenesis in the light of studies on metabolism of
magnesium and its turnover in biocenosis. Acta Med. Pol.
1970; 11:289-302. (abstr: Blood 1971; 37:245)
[v]
D. Deheinzelin, E.M. Negri1, M.R. Tucci, M.Z. Salem1,
V.M. da Cruz1, R.M. Oliveira, I.N. Nishimoto and C.
Hoelz. Hypomagnesemia in critically ill cancer patients:
a prospective study of predictive factors. Braz J Med
Biol Res, December 2000, Volume 33(12) 1443-1448
[vi]
Bois, P. Tumour of the thymus in magnesium-deficient rat.
Nature 1964; 204:1316.
[vii]
Magnesium is used in the creatine-phosphate formation,
activates the alkaline phosphatase and pyrophosphatase,
stabilizes nucleic acid synthesis, concerning DNA
synthesis and degradation, as well as the physical
integrity of the DNA helix, activates amino acid and
protein synthesis, and regulates numerous hormones.
[viii]
Durlach J, Bara M, Guiet-Bara A, Collery P. Relationship
between magnesium, cancer and carcinogenic or anticancer
metals. Anticancer Res. 1986 Nov-Dec;6(6):1353-61.
[ix]Anghileri,
L.J. Magnesium concentration variations during
carcinogenesis. Magnesium Bull. 1979; 1:46-48.
[xi]
Virginia
Minnich, M. B. Smith, M. J. Brauner, and Philip W.
Majerus. Glutathione biosynthesis in human erythrocytes.
Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University
School of Medicine, J Clin Invest. 1971 March; 50(3):
507–513. Abstract: The two enzymes required for de novo
glutathione synthesis, glutamyl cysteine synthetase and
glutathione synthetase, have been demonstrated in
hemolysates of human erythrocytes. Glutamyl cysteine
synthetase requires glutamic acid, cysteine, adenosine
triphosphate (ATP), and magnesium ions to form
γ-glutamyl cysteine. The activity of this enzyme in
hemolysates from 25 normal subjects was 0.43±0.04 μmole
glutamyl cysteine formed per g hemoglobin per min.
Glutathione synthetase requires γ-glutamyl cysteine,
glycine, ATP, and magnesium ions to form glutathione.
The activity of this enzyme in hemolysates from 25
normal subjects was 0.19±0.03 μmole glutathione formed
per g hemoglobin per min. Glutathione synthetase also
catalyzes an exchange reaction between glycine and
glutathione, but this reaction is not significant under
the conditions used for assay of hemolysates. The
capacity for erythrocytes to synthesize glutathione
exceeds the rate of glutathione turnover by 150-fold,
indicating that there is considerable reserve capacity
for glutathione synthesis. A patient with erythrocyte
glutathione synthetase deficiency has been described.
The inability of patients' extracts to synthesize
glutathione is corrected by the addition of pure
glutathione synthetase, indicating that there is no
inhibitor in the patients' erythrocytes.
[xii]
Braverman,
E.R. (with Pfeiffer, C.C.)(1987). The healing nutrients
within: Facts, findings and new research on amino acids.
New Canaan: Keats Publishing
[xiv]
Anghileri, L.J. Magnesium concentration variations
during carcinogenesis. Magnesium Bull. 1979; 1:46-48.
[xv]
Anghileri, L.J., Collery, P., Coudoux, P., Durlach, J.
(Experimental relationships between magnesium and
cancer.) Magnesium Bull. 1981; 3:1-5
[xvi]
Anghileri, L.J., Heidbreder, M., Weiler, G., Dermietzel,
R. Hepatocarcinogenesis by thioacetamide: correlations
of histological and biochemical changes, and possible
role of cell injury. Exp. Cell. Biol. 1977; 45:34-47.
[xvii]
Blondell, J.W. The anticancer effect of magnesium.
Medical Hypothesis 1980; 6:863-871.
[xviii]
Whitney, R.B., Sutherland, R.M. The influence of
calcium, magnesium and cyclic adenosine
3'5'-monophosphate on the mixed lymphocyte reaction. J.
Immunol. 1972; 108:1179-1183.
[xix]
Petitou, M., Tuy, F., Rosenfeld, C., Mishal, Z.,
Paintrand, M., Jasmin, C., Mathe, G., Inbar, M.
Decreased microviscosity of membrane lipids in leukemic
cells; two possible mechanisms. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
USA 1978; 75:2306-2310.
[xx]
Hass, G.M.,
McCreary, P.A., Laing, G.H., Galt, R.M.
Lymphoproliferative and immumunologic aspects of
magnesium deficiency. In Magnesium in Health and Disease
(from 2nd Intl Mg Sympos, Montreal, Canada, 1976), b
Eds. M. Cantin, M.S. Seelig, Publ. Spectrum Press, NY,
1980, pp 185-200
[xxi]
Collery, P., Anghileri, L.J., Coudoux, P., Durlach, J. (Magnesium
and cancer: Clinical data.) Magnesium Bull. 1981;
3:11-20.
[xxii]
American
Journal of Epidemiology (Vol. 163, pp. 232-235)
[xxiii]
Journal of
the American Medical Association, Vol. 293, pp. 86-89
[xxiv]
Paunier, L., Radde, I.C.: Normal and abnormal magnesium
metabolism. Bull. of Hosp. for Sick Childr. (Toronto)
1965; 14:16-23.
[xxvi]
Yang CY et al. Jpn J Cancer Res.1998 Feb;89 (2):124-30.
Calcium, magnesium, and nitrate in drinking water and
gastric cancer mortality.
[xxix]
Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):1054-1063. Calcium
requirements: new estimations for men and women by
cross-sectional statistical analyses of calcium balance
data from metabolic studies.Hunt CD, Johnson LK. US
Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research
Service, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center,
Grand Forks, ND.
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