re: Is there already a cure for cancer?

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We are gene therapy innovation leaders. We develop therapies to treat severe genetic disorders and cellular aging. We are working on several patents and are seeking strategic partnerships to help us make a positive step forward in our efforts to bring cures to aging populations and those who suffer monogenic disease. At the heart of Bioviva's product creation efforts is its broadly applicable gene therapy platform for the development of novel one time treatments for diseases with either ineffective or no clinical options.

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Dr. Valter Longo, a professor of gerontology and biological sciences and director of the longevity institute at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Longo has made huge contributions to the field of aging, including the role of fasting and diet in longevity and healthspan in humans as well as metabolic fasting therapies for the treatment of human diseases. In this conversation, Rhonda and Valter discuss...

• The effects of prolonged fasting, which refers to 2-3 day fasting intervals in mice and 4-5 days in humans.
• Dr. Longo’s work on the fasting-mimicking diet, which is 5 day restricted diet that is meant to simulate some of the biological effects of prolonged fasting while still allowing some food.
• How clinical trials have demonstrated efficacy for this diet for type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and cancer patients.
• Fasting as an inducer of differential stress resistance, where it can simultaneously make cancer cells more sensitive to death while also making healthy cells more resistant to these same death stimuli (such as chemotherapy) which might otherwise induce cell death amongst healthy cells as collateral damage.
• Fasting as a biological state which humans historically experienced with extreme regularity and we may ultimately need in order to mitigate various disease states.
• The effects of prolonged fasting on the immune system, namely, how it clears away damaged white blood cells via autophagy and how this causes hematopoietic stem cells to self renew and make more stem cells and also produce new blood cells to fully replenish the white blood cell population.
• How prolonged fasting causes a shift in the immune cell population towards one that is more representative of youth by normalizing the ratio of myeloid cells to lymphoid cells.
• The positive effects of prolonged fasting and the fasting-mimicking diet on markers of systemic inflammation, blood glucose levels and other aging biomarkers.
• The conclusions of Dr. Longo & Dr. Marcus Bock’s research comparing 1 week of the fasting-mimicking diet followed by 6 months of mediterranean diet to six months of a ketogenic diet in people with multiple sclerosis.
• The strange, somewhat paradoxical role of autophagy genes in cancer progression and some of the open questions surrounding the exact role that these genes are playing.
• Dr. Longo’s high level thoughts on metformin as an anti-aging drug.
• How the growth hormone/IGF-1 axis is one of the most important genetic pathways in aging from yeast to worms to mice to humans.

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9 Steps To Perfect Health

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Despite these considerable advances, we’re sicker and fatter than ever before. Consider the following:
• Excess weight now accounts for one in three deaths among middle aged people in the US each year.
• A billion people around the world suffer from diabetes and obesity.
• 600 thousand people die of heart attacks in the US each year.
• One-third of Americans suffer from high blood pressure, which contributes to almost 800 thousand strokes every year.
• 50 million people in the US—one in six Americans—suffer from autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and Crohn’s disease.
• Depression is now the leading cause of disability, affecting more than 120 million people worldwide.
Unfortunately, there’s every indication that things are going to get worse before they get better. This is the first generation of American children that are expected to live shorter lifespans than their parents. If current trends continue, 95 percent of Americans are expected to be overweight or obese within two decades, and one in three will suffer from diabetes.

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Finding a Balance Between Building and Repair: Part 1

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Finding a Balance Between Building and Repair: Part 2 Intermittent Fasting

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Building (growth) is an anabolic process that happens when mTOR is turned on. Stimuli such as resistance training and eating protein (especially the branched-chain amino acid leucine) turn the mTOR switch on. The hormone insulin also turns on the mTOR building pathway. This effect of insulin should come as no surprise to readers of Strong Medicine (SM pages 107-108) as we discussed insulin as a hormone of growth and storage.

As Dan Cenidoza covered in his Strength after Sixty post, the anabolic pathways of building are crucial to grow and maintain muscle mass especially as we age. Not enough of “turning on” the mTOR switch can lead to sarcopenia and frailty in old age.

At the extreme end of the mTOR building pathway is cancer. By the simplest definition, cancer is uncontrolled cell growth. Recent science has shown that many cancer cells have abnormally high mTOR signaling, putting them is a perpetual state of growth. People with insulin resistance (SM p. 180) have higher levels of insulin in their bloodstream at all times which keeps the mTOR switch activated. Thus, it is no surprise that those with insulin resistance/diabetes are known to have increase risk of cancer.

We also now know that high levels of sustained mTOR activation can lead to accelerating aging in many species, including humans. With this information in mind, it becomes evident that getting the proper “dose” of mTOR activation is key.

We need enough “turning on” the mTOR building (growth) switch to prevent the loss of muscle mass so crucial for healthy aging, but no so much that we accelerate the aging process and become at increased risk for diseases such as cancer.

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Potential Tactics for Defeating Cancer — A Toolkit in 1,000 Words

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There is a deluge of writing about cancer.

Below, I’ve suggested a top-10 list of articles as starting points. Some are for lay audiences, some are technical, but all are worth the time to read. Here you go:

Looking for articles to pass to your parents, or to read as a lay person? Read these, in this order:
1. Non-technical talk by Craig Thompson, Pres/CEO of Sloan-Kettering
2. Science piece written about cancer (for non-technical audience) by Gary Taubes

Have a little background and want the 80/20 analysis, the greatest bang for the buck? Read this:
3. Relatively non-technical review article on the Warburg Effect written by Vander Heiden, Thompson, and Cantley

Peaking on modafinil during a flight to Tokyo? Want to deep dive for a few hours? Here are three recommendations, in this order:
4. Detailed review article by Tom Seyfried
5. Review article on the role of carb restriction in the treatment and prevention of cancer
6. Talk given by author of above paper for those who prefer video

Want four bonus reads, all very good? As you wish:
7. Moderately technical review article by Shaw and Cantley
8. Clinical paper on the role of metformin in breast cancer by Ana Gonzalez-Angulo
9. Mouse study by Dom D’Agostino’s group examining role of ketogenic diet and hyperbaric oxygen on a very aggressive tumor model
10. Mechanistic study by Feinman and Fine assessing means by which acetoacetate (a ketone body) suppresses tumor growth in human cancer cell lines

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An Old Idea, Revived:
Starve Cancer to Death
In the early 20th century, the German biochemist Otto Warburg
believed that tumors could be treated by disrupting their source
of energy. His idea was dismissed for decades — until now.

BY SAM APPLEMAY 12, 2016

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The best hope the rest of y'all have is to raise your overall body pH. The higher the better

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