A Eureka Moment...

Yesterday we took a look at the China Study and its effect on Pancreatic Cancer.

It was a hard post to share.   And for many, it may have seemed to be heartless and without hope. {Please don't give up... there is Hope ahead}

Enter Dr. Kelly's Eureka Moment...

After losing 4 of his pancreatic cancer patients, including his own brother, Dr. Kelly shared his all out preoccupation with pancreatic cancer...

"I was heartbroken, but his death focused my mind as never before.  I had studied every aspect accessible to me about cancer and I felt sure there was a fundamental difference between cancer of the pancreas and other cancers.  I reread everything I could about the disease, and scoured the Internet daily to make sure I wasn't missing anything.  I went to sleep thinking about pancreatic cancer, and woke every morning still thinking of it.  Then came my eureka moment, a flash of clarity.

As with so many eureka moments a simple answer proposed itself.  My deduction, based on all the published and known scientific facts, was that in cancer of the pancreas it wasn't the dietary animal protein that was most relevant, but rather the structure and function of the pancreas itself.  In the unique case of the pancreas, its own cells - and any cancers therein - have the ability to produce their own animal protein already fully metabolized and ready for use.  What I had overlooked was the fact that more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancers take place in the glandular cells of the pancreas and that the normal function of these cells is to produce the enzymes that metabolize the foods we eat.  The enzyme involved in metabolizing protein - the culprit we are interested in - is called trypsin."

Now, here the explanation gets more detailed, but stick with it, the a-ha moment is coming!

Dr. Kelly continues, "Trypsin is produced by the glandular cells of the pancreas and is stored there in an inactive form (trypsinogen) until there is need for it.  When we eat protein it is fed into the upper part of the small intestine, where it becomes active and thus capable of metabolizing the consumed proteins so they can be absorbed into the bloodstream and utilized by the body.  Trypsin is a very powerful enzyme and the reason it is normally stored in the inactive state is that it might otherwise begin to metabolize and corrupt the pancreatic cells themselves.  In fact, this sometimes does occur, in a non-malignant condition called pancreatitis where self-digestion results in inflammation and destruction of pancreatic cells.

Trypsin does not cause cancer.  But what my eureka moment suggested was that should a number of pancreatic cells begin malignant change - for whatever reason - the trypsin produced by these cells could trigger auto-digestion of the protein structure within the cell, thereby providing an endless supply of best-quality animal protein that would nourish rapidly replicating, rapidly metastasizing cancer cells indefinitely.  Small wonder, then, that it is virtually impossible to cure pancreatic cancer once the surgical option of removing a localized tumour is no longer feasible."

Did you get that??

Pancreatic cancer is basically self-digesting the patients body to provide itself with a daily smorgasbord of the best animal protein around... An animal-protein-free diet, like that of the Whole-Food, Plant-Based kind, won't begin to turn around or even touch this vicious cancer machine.

Pancreatic cancer is a parasite of the worst kind.  And if this cancer wasn't such a nightmare you could almost admire it's stealth-like adaptation to survive.  Except that survival for the cancer means certain death for our loved ones.

This cancer is a nightmare.

But back to Dr. Kelly's Eureka Moment.  He shares what this means to the future of pancreatic cancer treatment,

"I believe we have approached a critical border here.  If my deduction is right, we are broaching a broad range of new possibilities that might be of considerable importance in new treatments for cancers of the pancreas and stomach, and perhaps all cancers.  The role played by trypsin and pepsin (the enzyme in stomach cancer) in feeding the worst cancers has been too long overlooked because nobody has pressed the argument that a devastating association between animal protein and cancer growth exists.  Now that it is becoming clear that such a link does exist, these enzymes must come under renewed scrutiny.  It is my view that oncology experts should lead the field in reviewing the role of the anti-trypsin chemicals that we know exist naturally in the body, but I believe it is quite likely that the pharmaceutical industry will step up the pace, and hugely effective medications will result.

In the end, it may well be that all that's required to finally defeat pancreatic and stomach cancer, indeed all cancers, is an anti-trypsin and anti-pepsin medication available at the bedside."

This is a beginning.  And it is Hope.

So much of this resonates with me.  As we watched mom waste away from this terrible disease, I can now see how the cancer was feeding on her, in a horrible, agonizing way. 

Pancreatic cancer is a nightmare.  And it's hard to talk about these things.  Even harder to think upon them.

But this is where the Eureka Moments happen.  And it is moments like these that will lead us to a cure.

And that is the heartbeat of this journey.  We will walk it out together...

It is all joy to be journeying this road with you,

Always,
Jane