What Otto Warburg Actually Discovered About Cancer
Seldom does a week go by without articles, internet posts, and advertisements which maintain that Nobel Laureate Otto Warburg discovered that cancer was caused by low oxygen and acidic pH. Though often misreported, Dr. Otto Warburg did not win the Nobel Prize for finding that cancer cannot live in an oxygen rich or alkaline environment.
What Warburg discovered and what he was awarded a Nobel Prize for was for simply making the discovery that low oxygen was characteristic of cancer cells.
Otto Warburg made some groundbreaking discoveries about the mechanisms of cancer, especially as regards respiration and mitochondrial malfunction. Instead of the widely spread disinformation that Warburg discovered that lack of oxygen was the prime cause of cancer and that he discovered that oxygen was a cure for cancer, the truth may surprise you…
What Warburg actually discovered was that cancer cells were low in oxygen due to a change in cellular respiration from using oxygen to using fermentation of sugar. In his own words:
“Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. Summarized in a few words, the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar.”
The widespread misrepresentation of Warburg’s discovery is most often used to support the sale of products, books, or treatments which center around beating cancer with oxygen and alkalizing. At one time, Warburg did hypothesize that oxygen might be used to cure cancer. However, when he tested his hypothesis and tried to cure cancer with oxygen, he failed.
It is easy to see why Warburg’s efforts to cure cancer with added oxygen failed. This is because lack of oxygen is not the prime cause of cancer − toxins are the prime cause of cancer. Cancer cells are low in oxygen primarily because they have changed from taking in and utilizing oxygen for respiration to a more primitive form of respiration which utilizes sugar instead of oxygen. It is the cancer process itself which causes most of the lack of oxygen, not the lack of oxygen which causes the cancer process.
Regardless of what Warburg postulated and wrote earlier, in his later years he became convinced that illness resulted from pollution. In that, he came much closer to the true primary cause of cancer and other illness. This is something that had been postulated half a century earlier by the late great French scientist Antoine Bechamp. Bechamp believed that illness is the result of a combination of toxins and an unhealthy cellular terrain.
Prolonged exposure to toxins, especially in combination with cells which have not been properly nourished, oxygenated, hydrated and cleansed is THE primary cause of cancer. This is especially so if one views radiation as a toxin. Over time the stress and inflammation that result from toxins leads to a dysfunction in the cellular mitochondria.
This leads to a cellular defense mechanism in which cells revert to a more primitive form of respiration (sugar fermentation), refuse to die, multiply and form a protective barrier.
Simply stated, cancer cells have low oxygen because they quit taking in oxygen for respiration as part of the cancer process itself. Similarly, it is the cancer process itself which causes the body to become increasingly acidic. The body labors mightily to maintain blood pH within a narrow range (7.35 – 7.45) and most people first get cancer when their pH is at or close to the normal range. As the cancer progresses, the body becomes increasingly acidic.
There have been many “prime causes” of cancer put forward, such as fungus, bacteria, viruses, parasites, stress, low pH, and on and on. But notably, virtually every one of those has been around for thousands and thousands of years. What has not been around and what tracks exactly with the increased incidence of cancer is toxins.
Since the beginning of the industrial age, man has created over 100,000 unnatural chemical compounds. These have been spewed or spilled into the air we breathe, the soil our plants are grown in, and the water we drink. Adding to that are the following:
What Warburg discovered and what he was awarded a Nobel Prize for was for simply making the discovery that low oxygen was characteristic of cancer cells.
Otto Warburg made some groundbreaking discoveries about the mechanisms of cancer, especially as regards respiration and mitochondrial malfunction. Instead of the widely spread disinformation that Warburg discovered that lack of oxygen was the prime cause of cancer and that he discovered that oxygen was a cure for cancer, the truth may surprise you…
What Warburg actually discovered was that cancer cells were low in oxygen due to a change in cellular respiration from using oxygen to using fermentation of sugar. In his own words:
“Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. Summarized in a few words, the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar.”
The widespread misrepresentation of Warburg’s discovery is most often used to support the sale of products, books, or treatments which center around beating cancer with oxygen and alkalizing. At one time, Warburg did hypothesize that oxygen might be used to cure cancer. However, when he tested his hypothesis and tried to cure cancer with oxygen, he failed.
It is easy to see why Warburg’s efforts to cure cancer with added oxygen failed. This is because lack of oxygen is not the prime cause of cancer − toxins are the prime cause of cancer. Cancer cells are low in oxygen primarily because they have changed from taking in and utilizing oxygen for respiration to a more primitive form of respiration which utilizes sugar instead of oxygen. It is the cancer process itself which causes most of the lack of oxygen, not the lack of oxygen which causes the cancer process.
Regardless of what Warburg postulated and wrote earlier, in his later years he became convinced that illness resulted from pollution. In that, he came much closer to the true primary cause of cancer and other illness. This is something that had been postulated half a century earlier by the late great French scientist Antoine Bechamp. Bechamp believed that illness is the result of a combination of toxins and an unhealthy cellular terrain.
Prolonged exposure to toxins, especially in combination with cells which have not been properly nourished, oxygenated, hydrated and cleansed is THE primary cause of cancer. This is especially so if one views radiation as a toxin. Over time the stress and inflammation that result from toxins leads to a dysfunction in the cellular mitochondria.
This leads to a cellular defense mechanism in which cells revert to a more primitive form of respiration (sugar fermentation), refuse to die, multiply and form a protective barrier.
Simply stated, cancer cells have low oxygen because they quit taking in oxygen for respiration as part of the cancer process itself. Similarly, it is the cancer process itself which causes the body to become increasingly acidic. The body labors mightily to maintain blood pH within a narrow range (7.35 – 7.45) and most people first get cancer when their pH is at or close to the normal range. As the cancer progresses, the body becomes increasingly acidic.
There have been many “prime causes” of cancer put forward, such as fungus, bacteria, viruses, parasites, stress, low pH, and on and on. But notably, virtually every one of those has been around for thousands and thousands of years. What has not been around and what tracks exactly with the increased incidence of cancer is toxins.
Since the beginning of the industrial age, man has created over 100,000 unnatural chemical compounds. These have been spewed or spilled into the air we breathe, the soil our plants are grown in, and the water we drink. Adding to that are the following:
- The increased radiation from all the nuclear bombs (and more recently nuclear plant disasters such as Chernobyl and Fukushima)
- Microwave radiation
- The vaccines and other medications which the body recognizes as toxins
- All the pesticides, insecticides, cosmetic products, and a world of household chemicals
- The processed foods where harmful additives are processed in and nutrition is processed out. It all adds up to increased cancer.
This article does not mean to imply that providing the body with extra healthy oxygen, especially at the cellular level, cannot help beat cancer or is not healthy. Normally, oxygen does play an important role in normal programmed cell death. That is due to the oxidative damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS).
ROS are chemically reactive molecules containing oxygen. Examples include oxygen ions and peroxides. ROS are formed as a natural byproduct of the normal metabolism of oxygen.
The trick with trying to beat cancer with oxygen is getting the oxygen inside the cells. It is not enough to simply provide an oxygen rich environment around the cancer cells or in the bloodstream. This is because, as pointed out earlier, cancer cells stop taking in oxygen − and that is true no matter how much oxygen may be available.
Extra oxygen as well as a healthy alkaline diet are both very healthy things to do, but it is the author’s strong belief that relying solely on either oxygen or increased pH to beat cancer is not advisable.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
Article Summary
- It is frequently misreported that Dr. Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize for finding that cancer cannot live in an oxygen rich or alkaline environment.
- What Warburg discovered and what he was awarded a Nobel Prize for was for simply making the discovery that low oxygen was characteristic of cancer cells.
- Lack of oxygen is not the prime cause of cancer − toxins are the prime cause of cancer. It is the cancer process itself which causes most of the lack of oxygen, not the lack of oxygen which causes the cancer process.
- In his later years Otto Warburg became convinced that illness resulted from pollution. This is in line with the findings of the late great French scientist Antoine Bechamp who believed that illness is the result of a combination of toxins and an unhealthy cellular terrain.
- Since the beginning of the industrial age, man has created over 100,000 unnatural chemical compounds. These are now in the air we breathe, the soil our plants are grown in, and the water we drink.
- Providing the body with extra healthy oxygen is still highly beneficial. The trick with trying to beat cancer with oxygen is getting the oxygen inside the cells.
- Extra oxygen as well as a healthy alkaline diet are both very healthy things to do, but it is the author’s strong belief that relying solely on either oxygen or increased pH to beat cancer is not advisable.
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