Holistic Cancer Treatment: Low Dose Chemo – Part 1

Holistic Cancer Treatment: Low Dose Chemo – Part 1 

Chemo…Chemotherapy…low-dose chemotherapy

This particular post is going to be a little different than previous posts. I want to lay some philosophical and historical groundwork for this new blog post series on low-dose chemotherapy. Low-dose chemotherapy goes by many names:

Fractionated chemotherapy

Low-dose chemotherapy

Insulin potentiated chemotherapy (IPT)

Metronomic chemotherapy

Low-dose metronomic chemotherapy

Ultra low-dose chemotherapy

Is it chemo, or is it chemotherapy? Does it even matter? These terms are used interchangeably by both patients and medical professionals. Is there a difference, or is it just semantics? Or is it just grumblings of a physician that thinks words matter.

I need to travel back in history to the work of Paul Ehrlich in the late 19th and early 20th century to get a better understanding of these two words. Paul Ehrlich was a brilliant biochemist that lived from 1854 to 1915. He won the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine in 1908 for his work in understanding antibody production by the immune system in response to bacterial toxin production.

“In order to pursue chemotherapy successfully we must look for substances which possess a high affinity and high lethal potency in relation to the parasites, but have a low toxicity in relation to the body, so that it becomes possible to kill the parasites without damaging the body to any great extent. We want to hit the parasites as selectively as possible. In other words, we must learn to aim and to aim in a chemical sense. The way to do this is to synthesize by chemical means as many derivatives as possible of relevant substances.”

—Paul Ehrlich

The phrase “magic bullet” origins is credited to Paul Ehrlich in the late 19th century. That time-date alone should provide solid enough evidence that there is no such thing as a magic bullet to treat any dis-ease. Initially, there were good intentions with this phrase and its intended goal of treating dis-ease states such as syphilis and cancer. However, with time, money, and power, this phrase and many others have become a way to marginalize thoughts and people to preserve and control money streams and centralize medical power. This medical Marxist movement has been ongoing in medicine for decades, all under the radar, of course. The goal is power over physicians and power over patients. Don’t question dogma. Don’t question the status quo. Don’t debate science in the arena of ideas for the betterment of patients. Physicians are now more advocates for the industry of medicine, than advocates for the purpose of medicine—the patient.

Many brilliant people have been looking for the magic bullet for centuries now and yet, nothing. When it comes to dis-ease, especially cancer, there is no magic bullet. There is no magic bullet that causes cancer. There is no magic bullet that treats cancer. This statement does not belittle the work by Paul Ehrlich, and others in the search for the magic bullet. Research and time have just proven the process of cancer to be more complicated than a magic bullet. Check out my previous posts on holistic causes of cancer to see just some of the complex and diverse changes that must come together for cancer to start, survive, and thrive. No magic bullet there. As there is no magic bullet in the genesis of cancer, there is no magic bullet available to eradicate cancer either.

“Cancer is not a sentence. It is a word”.
—Thomas Lodi, MD, MD(H)

This statement makes me think of sentencing diagraming back in the elementary day. Oh, the nightmare! Some people have nightmares about going to school and forgetting to dress for the occasion. Mine is having to diagram a sentence. A sentence consists of subjects, nouns, verbs, and adjectives–it is complex. Comparatively, a word appears simple. But, words can be complex in origin, complex in meaning, and complex in use. In the same, cancer seems simple but is complex in origin, complex in type, and complex in treatment.

Why do Dr. Lodi and myself always reference dis-ease and not disease? Dis-ease means the absence of wellness or the lack of ease. Disease results from two root words ‘dis’, meaning without, and ‘aise’, meaning ease, which literally gives the meaning ‘without ease’. Further discussion on this topic can be found in a previous post entitled ‘cancer as a metabolic disease.’

Disease is a disease in name only. Take any named disease, for example, i.e., cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease. For most, this diagnosis is a one-way road, the beginning of many prescription drugs, the beginning of the “disease state of mind,” the beginning of the end. In every way, a dis-ease is a label. It is the team of disease that each new patient becomes a member. With the diagnosis of team cancer, you receive a team jersey, team position, and lose all control; the loss of control of decisions, loss of control of treatment, loss of control of time, and loss of control of the future. Remember, dis-ease means a lack of ease or better—lack of wellness.

Take diabetes, for example. Diabetes (or any other disease for that matter) is a disease in name only. It is a name. It is a label, a way to categorize people into a group. The individual diagnosed with diabetes has not become diabetes, but, instead, has had been labeled. Diabetes is just a word. Once the person is labeled and appropriately grouped, they can now be controlled; controlled by insurance and by the medical industry.

At issue is not “Diabetes,” but the physiology of collective inflammation, insulin, and glucose dysregulation that results in the label of diabetes. At the core of this problem is a severe dysregulation of insulin and glucose. The elevated glucose is simple the smoke of the fire. It is the result of the underlying problem(s). The same applies to the other dis-eases associated with diabetes, i.e., cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s. Disease does not beget disease. Dis-ease, lack of wellness, begets them all. It is only through the restoration of wellness that all dis-eases can be treated.

With the diagnosis of diabetes, doctors and the patient have fallen into the trap of the “disease state of mind”. Which to me, seems to be a dis-ease in and of itself. The body just wants to heal to reach a state of homeostasis. This fact is seen in how the body can heal from diabetes from lifestyle changes. This is how the body can heal from cancer through natural, holistic therapies that address cancer’s root causes. See, no matter how much dysfunction or dis-ease exists, the body wants and works to heal itself. The body is designed to heal itself. Isn’t it interesting that the root word of physician, rāphè, in Hebrew, means healer. Food for thought: under the current paradigm of conventional medicine, is the body given the opportunity to heal itself?

Want to find a good physician? The next time you visit your physician, ask them if they are a healer, and see their response.

The goal of every physician should be to connect the healer with the body’s ability to heal. Novel concept! This lock and key opens the door of hope to stir the healing potential of the body for every patient with whatever named dis-ease is labeled. Any breakdown in this, i.e., lack of hope, lack of body’s healing potential, use of non-healing therapies, will result in the absence of healing.

How about a little word origin work? The words chemo and chemotherapy are relatively new as history goes. The words chemo and chemotherapy origins date back to the early 20th century. Chemo means chemical. Chemotherapy is the use of chemicals in the treatment of dis-eases. Chemo is the chemical, and therapy is the treatment of dis-ease, thus chemotherapy.

Originally, chemotherapy was first referenced for the treatment of syphilis ^[1]. Its origin of use has no reference to cancer at all. It wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that the treatment of cancer became synonymous with chemotherapy ^[2].

Why is any of this even important?

History.

It is vital to know history. History is time recorded teaching moments. History is full of different people, supposedly smarter than their predecessors, making the same series of mistakes over and over again. We can look back in history on the Salem witch trials with condemnation, yet fail to recognize the same process and behavior in the current cancel culture today. History is essential to know, not to re-write it, but to learn from it. History that is forgotten or re-written destines that culture or profession to the same mistakes. Essentially, the culture becomes a prisoner of the past, instead of learning from past to avoid mistakes in the future.

Join me in the coming weeks as I review the history of chemotherapy in cancer treatment, define and discuss low-dose chemotherapy, and review the efficacy and additional benefits of low-dose chemotherapy.

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^[1] Gelpi A, Tucker JD. After Venus, mercury: syphilis treatment in the UK before Salvarsan. Sex Transm Infect. 2015;91(1):68. doi:10.1136/sextrans-2014-051778

^[2] DeVita VT, Chu E. A History of Cancer Chemotherapy. Cancer Res Nov 2008;68(21):8643-8653; DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-07-6611