Are there any mistakes in the universe? Is there such a thing as luck? Is nature a constant collision of random events where luck wins?
You might say that it certainly appears that way. We see in the animal kingdom where predators go after prey; sometimes succeeding, to the ill fortune of the prey, and sometimes the predator fails and goes hungry. A squirrel might dart onto the roadway just as a car comes by — will it survive? You toss a coin to make a decision, throwing that decision to blind luck. We witnessed history in the making when the person who became our President was grazed by a bullet that would have taken his life, were it not for an extremely rare turn of his head to view a chart that was displayed far to his right side — the shot taken by the assassin was considered a “can’t miss” shot were it not for the exquisite timing of the head turn. If that was luck, then luck completely changed the course of our nation and even our whole world.
All of life is either extreme luck or by design. The formation of the first single cell was either extreme luck on an unimaginable scale, or it was designed. When we look deep into the function of a cell, we see that trillions upon trillions of lucky events would have been necessary to make that cell work, because many events would have been codependent — one development would have been useless without the other, and evolving just one would have been a negative to its survival. The whole concept of evolution is that genetic changes must benefit the organism, giving it an advantage, or else the change dies out. But we see in nature many changes that would have been unhelpful or even harmful without one or more nearly simultaneous changes to support it. The classic example of this is the development of a sort of propeller that some cells needed for movement, but that development would have required several simultaneous unlikely changes to assemble all the pieces of the propeller. This is a very strong argument for universal design with a far-sighted plan to get over all the hurdles that random chance would have to overcome.
Whether by luck or design, we know that bad is mixed in with the good. If someone hits us in traffic, we call it an accident. We call it bad luck when disease hits. When someone dies, especially when young, we consider it a tragedy. Luck is, by definition, random, so we can’t blame it when things go badly. If everything is designed, we want to blame the Designer for the bad, unless we can believe there is a greater good somehow that we just can’t understand yet. Things go awry in nature, and different belief systems and religions have different explanations as to why the natural order has what we call flaws. But we can’t throw blame around without also pointing some of it at ourselves: we need to take good care of ourselves if we expect a good outcome. Often we know we should have a better lifestyle, but don’t. Knowledge is power, but only if acted upon.
Knowledge is expanding rapidly. Research has uncovered many secrets of the human body, and some of the most sought-after secrets revolve around the “flaw” in nature called cancer. If anything is a flaw in nature — something we might call an evil flaw because of how horrifically it functions — cancer would be at the top of the list. Cancer is a perversion of life, where the cancer cells abandon the one-for-all approach of cells working together to form a unified body, but instead work for their own benefit at the expense of the body, and even try to fool the body into helping it grow. Cancer is life which is anti-life
Cancer’s deception…
Research has uncovered many of cancer’s tricks to fool the body. Those tricks include fooling the immune system to actually help it strengthen its colony, its tumor. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are two immune system components which can actually aid cancer development. How could that be?
These cells are very valuable parts of the immune system. Tregs are regulatory because they regulate other immune system cells — they keep them from going overboard and doing excessive damage. They are especially important in preventing the body from attacking its own cells, as happens with autoimmune diseases. They down-regulate the immune system, telling it to settle down when it is going on a rampage. MDSCs are also down regulators. They proliferate in cases of chronic inflammation, inhibiting T cells and natural killer (NK) cells from overreacting during infections. They originate in bone marrow as immature cells which have not yet differentiated into macrophages, dendritic cells, and neutrophils. They become polarized into an immune-suppressive mode when exposed to inflammatory compounds and cytokines (which are more active with inflammation).
…and the remedy
Cancer is fooling these cells by making them think the cancer is a legitimate part of the body. The immune suppressors are meant to protect the body from excessive killer cell action, so they are fooled into protecting the tumor. Immune systems cells work by population: the more of a particular type of immune cell, the more function of that type of cell gets done. Greater quantities of Tregs and MDSCs likely will be protecting more cancer when it develops. Higher population of T cells and NK cells means cancer is more effectively attacked.
Is it possible to get more of these cancer-fighting cells without also increasing the population of immune suppressors?
The answer is yes. Anything that reduces chronic inflammation helps, as MDSCs and other immune system cells will fire up with inflammation. Cancer is inflammatory like a wound that won’t go away. So stress reduction, good sleep, and a low inflammation diet are all vital steps against cancer. Exercise is a great counter to chronic stress, but it also has direct impact on the immune system…
Research has shown that exercise does exactly what we want: it increases the population of T cells and NK cells without increasing the quantity of Tregs and MDSCs. As published in Frontiers in Immunology, researchers from the University of Turku, Finland studied the effects of acute exercise on the immune system by taking blood samples of study participants before, during, and shortly after a period of major exercise. “Acute exercise increased the number of total leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, basophils, total T-cells, CD4+ T-cells, T helper (Th) 2-cells, Th 17-cells, CD8+ T-cells, CD4-CD8- T-cells, CD56+ natural killer (NK) cells, and CD14-CD16+ monocytes. Many of the changes were transient. Proportions of NK-cells and CD8+ T-cells increased, while the proportion of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) reduced, and proportion of regulatory T-cells remained unchanged by exercise.” (1)
If you believe in luck, then you are increasing your odds of beating cancer. If you accept design, then you are working with the way you were designed to build your defenses. As insidious as cancer is, you can do a lot to reject it with exercise. The study above refers to acute exercise of about 30 minutes, which is very active, high-energy exercise — this high activity rapidly changes blood chemistry and immune response.
Options
There are other types of exercise of course. Chronic exercise is considered to be a long-term program done to build stamina, where the exercise may or may not be acute, but can be quite time consuming. HIIT (high intensity interval training) combines both, where acute exercises are done over a short period of time, but the training program is done chronically — that is, consistently over a period of time. A single bout of acute exercise has immune-boosting benefits, but a program is important to maintain those benefits and build them.
A review study published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer compiles exercise study data as it relates to building immune response. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Arizona considered the effects of chronic and acute exercise, especially in fighting cancer. Muscles comprise almost half of the human body, and they secrete over 300 proteins. Many of these are considered to be myokines, or muscle-derived cytokines, which cause significant immune response. The researchers explain that acute exercise increases mobilization of leukocytes, greatly benefiting NK cells; increases immune surveillance, which better locates cancer and foreign invaders; and rapidly increases circulation, making the immune system more robust and active. Chronic exercise was seen as reducing or halting the detrimental effects on T cells caused by aging and disease: it preserves vibrant T cells and increases the frequency of stem-cell like memory T cells. (2)
We live in a busy world. We may try acute exercise but can’t keep a consistent program. We may start a walking program that we can maintain over time, but we aren’t doing much acute exercise. HIIT is the best option for many: it packs in acute exercise for short periods, and the total daily HIIT program might only be 20 minutes. Such a program can fit into virtually any schedule and still provide full anti-cancer benefits.
This world is subject to aging and decay. Getting angry about it won’t fix anything, but we can work with our magnificent design to stay ahead of the ravages of time which are trying to pull us into decay. The human body is engineered to last beyond a hundred years, maybe 120 or so, yet the average American lifespan is under 80 years. You should have a long, abundant life. Bad things can still happen, but let them not be self-inflicted. It’s time to exercise!
Dr. Nemec’s Review
As the Finland study stated: exercise does exactly what we want: it increases the population of T cells and NK cells without increasing the quantity of Tregs and MDSCs.
And the Mayo clinic study confirmed: muscles comprise almost half of the human body, and they secrete over 300 proteins. Many of these are considered to be myokines, or muscle-derived cytokines, which cause significant immune response. The researchers explain that acute exercise increases mobilization of leukocytes, greatly benefiting NK cells; increases immune surveillance, which better locates cancer and foreign invaders; and rapidly increases circulation, making the immune system more robust and active. Chronic exercise was seen as reducing or halting the detrimental effects on T cells caused by aging and disease: it preserves vibrant T cells and increases the frequency of stem-cell like memory T cells.
High intensity, exercise, short, duration, and long-term consistent repetition has amazing benefits for the immune system. First, it boosts the white blood cells that kill cancer. Second, it is either neutral or inhibitory to the white blood cells that stop the cancer killing.
What does this mean to you?
It means with minimal exercise daily you can remain healthy and anti-cancer along with being anti-pathogenic day in and day out. It only takes 10 to 20 minutes a day. And it can be done in your home or at your workplace.
The newly discovered power of muscle
Muscles comprise almost half of the human body, and they secrete over 300 proteins. Many of these are considered to be myokines, or muscle-derived cytokines, which cause significant immune response.
Since the muscle secreted over 300 proteins and most of them are myokines, meaning they are muscle-formed immune cells which greatly affect the immune system. What does this mean to you? It means you have a whole other immune system that you haven’t even tapped into. Most Americans don’t get anywhere close to enough exercise and what they do is not high intensity, short duration. Going for a walk and riding your bike: these are great exercise exercises, but they’re not high intensity, short duration.
What is the take home message?
It’s time to tap into your secondary immune system, one that you didn’t even know you had. But those who work out regularly within controlled limits, and not excessively — do they know this secret?
What is the secret?
When you exercise muscle regularly within controlled boundaries, you do not get sick. Your immune system becomes much stronger, much more resilient to all pathogens, including all viruses and all cancer.
So at Revolution Health & Fitness when people ask us, “how can I boost my immune system?” we tell them the Seven Basic Steps to Total Health to total immune health, and a big one of those steps is exercise.
What exercise you ask?
High intensity, short duration — but doing it consistently every day, every week, every month, every year. It only takes 10 to 20 minutes a day. You can start your day with it before you go to work and give yourself a boost. You can do it midday to continue the boost. Just make sure you do it every day, make it part of your daily routine.
What most patients say
I don’t have any time! And we say, adjust your priorities to include time. Who sets your daily schedule? Who is the captain of your ship? Who makes the choices in your life?
The answers are: you are and you do. If you don’t steer your ship, it’s going to go into the rocks. If you don’t choose to exercise, then you’re going to remain prey to the second law of thermodynamics, which means everything in this world is breaking down, not building up. The only way to counter that is to exert energy to oppose that breaking down, and that’s what exercise is.
Do not put all your eggs in one basket
Over the years at Revolution Health & Fitness we have heard many people say this over and over again: “How did I get this cancer?” I eat so well, I exercise regularly, and I have no stress in my life that I know of. I’m really at a good point in my life, so why am I developing cancer now?
The answer
Seven Basic Steps to Total Health. Not two, or three, or four — but seven.
Seven is a very special number. It is a number of divine perfection. In our Seven Basic Steps to Total Health protocol at Revolution Health & Fitness, exercise is the fifth step — but the sixth and seventh are the most powerful.
Number six
Fasting from the world system and the world’s food. This is unbelievably powerful, more than we can touch on in this review, but let’s say it is much more powerful than any of the five steps before it.
Number seven
Prayer.
What is prayer?
Well, it’s important to know what prayer is not. It’s not asking God to give you things. It’s not hoping God will bless you. It’s not you changing an outcome because of the number of times you asked God. It’s not bargaining with God. It’s not making a deal with God
What is it then?
It is simply listening to Him. Listening to your Father in heaven speak to your heart, not your head. And once He does speak and you act on what He speaks, you move in the direction He spoke.
So no matter what your goals are in life, you must apply seven basic steps to get there, and never pick only a few of them. All of them are mandatory as a daily routine but the most important is number seven. And always remember we are here to help you in your journey.
(1) Koivula T, Lempiäinen S, Neuvonen J, Norha J, Hollmén M, Sundberg CJ, Rundqvist H, Minn H, Rinne P, Heinonen I. The effect of exercise and disease status on mobilization of anti-tumorigenic and pro-tumorigenic immune cells in women with breast cancer. Front Immunol. 2024 Jun 24;15:1394420. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1394420. PMID: 38979417; PMCID: PMC11228136. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38979417/
(2) Gustafson MP, Wheatley-Guy CM, Rosenthal AC, Gastineau DA, Katsanis E, Johnson BD, Simpson RJ. Exercise and the immune system: taking steps to improve responses to cancer immunotherapy. J Immunother Cancer. 2021 Jul;9(7):e001872. doi: 10.1136/jitc-2020-001872. PMID: 34215686; PMCID: PMC8256759. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8256759/
