“You don’t know what you don’t know.” That simple sentence implies a lot. Most of the gaps in our knowledge are in areas where we don’t think we have gaps in our knowledge, because we never heard the right information. Modern news media in particular plays on this, as does even some science media.
If you have an agenda, you don’t want to present the other side of the story, as it could weaken your propaganda. But if you present only your side, you still bring attention to the story overall. It’s more effective to simply ignore the story completely, making it a non-issue. For those news items which do promote your agenda, you cherry-pick them to the exclusion of the negative items. Omitting some details while playing up others allows you to be technically truthful while being completely misleading.
There is big money in research, especially if the research is targeting a specific disease. Somewhere around $6 billion dollars goes into just breast cancer research and campaigns. Much of the research is geared towards finding more drugs to fight cancer. Almost none of it goes into natural ways to counter or avoid breast cancer. In fact, the same is true of research into most any disease. The research is valuable, but doesn’t give you the whole story. There is little profit to be gleaned from those who stay healthy and avoid disease.
But skipping over some information while emphasizing other data is not something that only happens in news and research. It happens with your DNA as well! It turns out that your body is actually quite biased — in a good way: it has an agenda, which is to thrive, and it will suppress that which doesn’t line up with its agenda.
The DNA Library
In the center of all cells except for red blood cells, DNA strands of over a million “letters” of information resides. The DNA is the master data repository of the cell, its library of instructions. In a physical library, information just sits there until someone picks up a book and starts reading it. Over time, that library collects books from other libraries and from book donors, in addition to its original set. Not every book gets read. Readers come to read some of the books, based upon their interests. They may even go to different portions of the library to find all the books that they want. Much the same applies to DNA: the information was collected over time from many sources, it has to be read and acted upon to be useful, and only a fraction of it gets used at any particular time.
DNA contains genes, as well as other segments with different purposes. Genes are scattered throughout the DNA, like books in the library, but the genes cannot be taken out of the DNA like books can be checked out of the library. A more portable copy of the gene is made, via a process called transcription, which makes RNA (ribonucleic acid). The RNA can travel within the cell, out of the nucleus, and through the process of translation can cause the production of a protein with the same basic code as the gene. The proteins that are produced are the active agents, causing biochemical reactions according to their coding.
What controls the cell activity?
If all the genetic code were active and being used daily, we would know just what to expect from a cell. A standard set of orders would be given and carried out. But that would not allow for much flexibility, and cells must be extremely flexible, given the wide-ranging and unpredictable environmental conditions they face. Because the environment can throw virtually anything at them, cells have a vast reserve of instructions for what to do in extraordinary circumstances. The environment doesn’t make the cell do anything, but the cell, in its determination to survive and thrive, will always attempt to respond to the environment that it faces, so you can effectively say that the environment is in the driver’s seat.
When research finds a “cancer” gene, it is finding a set of instructions for what to do in cancer-promoting environments, especially harsh environments that make otherwise healthy cells sick. Just because that gene exists doesn’t mean it has to become active. Yes, certain genes can be linked to cancer since they may activate to help cells survive poor conditions and without those genes, the cells would not know how to handle the situation. That lack of instructions could avoid cancer development. But those genetic instructions might be quite valuable to the healthy body in different circumstances.
Often cancer development is blamed on the lack of certain genes or genetic expression as much as the presence of them. Damaged or missing genes means less instructions are available to the cell to handle the environment. Reducing the library of instructions means that the cell has to fall back on less optimal instructions. Damage to DNA can result in poor instructions from the gene, resulting in a mutation which almost always results in a poorer set of instructions from the mutated gene.
Genes indirectly tell the cell how to act through their creation of proteins according to their genetic code. So genes, or lack thereof, do matter. Mutated genes can be harmful. But first they have to be activated, and activation is the real key to cell activity. Cells try to ignore what doesn’t help them, because they are biased.
The cell’s right to choose
The main form of gene silencing, where the gene exists but is essentially ignored because the cell does not need that instruction to survive and thrive, is methylation. The cell places a marker at a certain point in the DNA strand that tells it where to code proteins and where to stop coding. This is the essence of epigenetics, where overriding instructions are laid on top of the genetics to determine which instructions to use and which to ignore.
In a consistently good environment, free of stress, toxins, and full of nutrients, the cell doesn’t see the need to make epigenetic adjustments often. Basically the set of instructions it is using is handling the good environment well, and it is under little pressure to change. In a stressful environment, the cell’s condition is threatened, and it jumps into high gear to change the active genes, looking to find the combination that handles the tough environment. Epigenetic activity can rise as much as a thousand times normal in highly threatening conditions. We see this in the bacteria world, where “superbugs” can develop overnight in the presence of antibiotics that threaten their existence. We see this in cancer, where the cancer cells work actively to find a way around the drugs that are being used to try to kill it. Cells are hyper-reactive to the environment, and the more out of sync that they are with their current environment, the harder they try to silence or activate genes.
DNA can be a bit loopy
The process by which genes within DNA strands forms proteins and causes cellular function is quite complex., With the advent of “big data” computing, scientists are able to model in three dimensions the DNA, including unexpected interaction between widely separated portions of the DNA.
Methylation isn’t the only way that genetic expression can be controlled. Normally DNA would be read sequentially, transcribing active genes starting at one end and continuing to the other. But cells have another trick, called “DNA looping” (also called “DNA reeling”) where a protein short circuit is formed across the DNA strand, changing the normal readout. A DNA loop skips over significant portions of the DNA strand in one form, and in another form it enhances a portion of the strand, depending upon how the looped area is transcribed.
In the short circuit mode, the DNA loop skips over a strand portion perhaps as large as a million DNA “letters” long to bring genes far away in the strand to close proximity during the transcription process. This has the effect of ignoring that skipped over information as though it didn’t exist, without removing it, when creating the proteins that cause cell activity. This can result in very different proteins being created. This form of DNA looping is called transcriptional repression.
The second mode is the enhancement mode, where certain genes have a multiplying effect. Just as you may repeat a word or phrase for emphasis, so the gene transcription process can loop a gene transcription to increase the effect.
Since the entire DNA strand of a few feet in length must compress down to the size of less than 1/50 the size of a grain of sand, the DNA strand is highly twisted into a complex 3-dimensional shape resembling spaghetti. A loop is easily formed as a remote portion of the strand may come physically quite close to other parts of the strand. Recent advances in imaging techniques has given us video images of this process. Published in TUDelft, researchers at Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University and EMBL Heidelberg produced images of the single protein complex called “condensin” which pulls portions of the DNA into close proximity and forms a loop. These images were published directory on TUDelft’s Pageflow. In this imaging, the condensin has an active motor function which allows it to pull on the DNA strand, physically scanning across the DNA strand and then pulling a portion of that strand where needed so it can form the loop. This is an incredible level of intelligence that is exhibited by the cell.
DNA looping gives the cell the ability to repress or enhance gene expression very quickly, so cell response can change almost immediately. This is another tool the cell can use to respond to its environment. Genes only matter when their message is expressed via the construction of proteins. If they are skipped over or if other genes are emphasized during transcription of the proteins, “bad” genes become irrelevant.
A single cog in a wheel
Most genes that are considered to increase risk of cancer do not simply tell the cell to “go cancerous.” Consider breast cancer: in a study published in Nature Communications, researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research in London found 110 genes that appear to link to breast cancer risk. These were previously not discovered to have a breast cancer connection until DNA looping was taken into account, since looping changes the gene expression. One researcher stated, “The ways in which particular genes influence cancer risk are highly complex.” That’s because it often takes a combination of genetic interactions to favor cancer development. Often a normal and necessary function, such as estrogen reception, can become over-expressed and out of balance when cancer develops. Further, some genes that are considered to increase risk of breast cancer also increase risk of other cancers: for instance BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations also increase risk of developing colon, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers.
Cellular operation is complex machinery. If you look at an old-fashioned clock, it has many gears that all have to turn correctly to make the entire clock work. One damaged cog on one gear may be enough to prevent the entire clock from running properly. Your genes are like cogs. Fortunately, your body can, and does, turn many genes off so that they don’t respond, and all of us have some mutated genes in our bodies that are not causing harm because they are being ignored, due to DNA methylation and DNA looping. We see that even if medical science allows us to shut down certain gene expressions, we would then have to shut down vital metabolic functions to alleviate cancer risk. But if we can make a good environment that gives our cells no reason to activate cancer-promoting genes and to keep a balance of normal genetic expression, we can harbor a number of mutations that go nowhere. Since there are so many ways that cancer can develop, cleaning up our cellular environment is the most effective tool we have to reduce risk, and to fight cancer if it does develop. It should be our first choice, regardless of what other steps we take, because we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Dr. Nemec’s Review:
What you can see from these studies is that cancer cells are very intelligent cells responding to the environment. They will adapt at incredible speeds and always be ahead of any drug, medication or conventional treatment. Why are they so smart? Because they are you. They are not a bacteria, not a virus, not a parasite, not a fungus — but you. They are your cells with an innate wisdom to keep you alive in the most toxic and inflammatory environments. You have heard the story so many times: so and so went in for chemotherapy, radiation and surgery and they did great — all the tumors shrank and dissolved on follow up scans. Everything was going textbook, according to plan, then a follow up scan 6 months or 1 year or 2 years or 5 years later showed that it was back and in more areas. If it started in the breast, now it is back in the breast and the other breast and the PET scan shows spots on the liver, lung and spine. What happened? The patient thought they were cured. There is no such thing. Temporary killing of your cancer cells with strong chemicals and toxins did kill the cancer cells for the moment but what did it do to the environment? Did it make it healthier, more nutrient filled, more oxygen filled? Did it remove the inflammation and toxicity that caused the cancer in the first place? NO. What it did do was make an environment that was worse than the original environment that the patient made to get the cancer in the first place. So if you make an environment worse than the environment that caused the cancer how do you expect to heal and let the genes stop adapting to so many stressors? You will not. Time is against you in this battle because your cancer cells are constantly undergoing more or less methylation, more or less DNA looping to continue to have a battle plan to survive until the environment that caused it reverts back to one that promotes health and life. This is food that has been chosen that is anti-inflammatory and aligns with your unique genetic blueprint. This is why people come to Total Health Institute: because whether or not you choose to do conventional treatment, you cannot get healthy and stay healthy without someone to test your genes, test your environment, test your organ and gland function, test your brain and mind, and put you on a customized health plan so that you can be all that you were created to be in body, mind and spirit. This is so far beyond just hoping some conventional treatment is going to be enough. We will never win the war on cancer until we learn how to make our mind, emotions and body’s environment one that supports health and healing. This is what we have helped people do for over 38 years. Sign up for our full version video “How to heal cancer” on our website’s homepage. See the causes of what makes an inflammatory and toxic environment. Don’t look for the easy quick fix, but the long lasting correction of the cause.
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- Outpatient Comprehensive Teaching and Treatment Program-has the most benefit of teaching, treatment, live classes and personalized coaching. This program has the most contact with Dr. Nemec with 3- 6 month programs that can be turned into a regular checking and support program for life. This is our core program that has helped so many restore their health and maintain that restoration for years.
- Inpatient Comprehensive Teaching and Treatment Program-is our four-week intensive inpatient program for those that are not in driving distance, usually over 4 hour drive. This is the program that is an intensive jumpstart with treatment, teaching, live classes and coaching designed for all our international patients along with those in the US that do not live in Illinois. This program is very effective especially when combined with our new membership program support.
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- Membership Program is our newest program offered for those that want to work on their health at a high level and want access to the teaching at Total Health Institute along with the Forums: both Dr. Nemec’s posts and other members posting. And also, to have the chance to get personalized questions answered on the conference calls which are all archived in case you miss the call. The Membership Program has 3 levels to choose from: Learn, Overcome and Master. The difference is at the Overcome and Master levels you received one on one calls with Dr. Nemec personalizing your program for your areas of focus.
