The United States has barely survived a number of pivotal points in history, which had they turned out differently, would have snuffed the nation out. One of those points in history was the “D-Day” invasion. The Nazis were winning, and the Allied forces were unable to stop their advance. The Allies needed to make a major invasion just to get a foothold back on Europe. But the German forces would have squashed any invasion attempt — they were just too powerful.
The only chance was a major deception. Somehow the Germans had to be convinced that the invasion would not occur on the beaches of Normandy, but instead at a different location. A major radio broadcasting effort was made on channels where the Germans would inevitably be listening as they hoped to learn where the impending invasion would occur. A very credible story was created, with false battle plans and a different invasion point at Pas de Calais, which strategically appeared to be the natural point of invasion, given it had the narrowest ocean gap with Britain. All the typical signal channels that the Allies would normally use to covertly coordinate their plans were carrying the false story. The deception was a huge success: Normandy was lightly defended until the Germans could reroute their forces, and by that time the foothold was established. The direction of the war had turned.
Cell calls are not the way your cells call each other…
The key to the D-Day deception was broadcast signaling. Unlike today’s cell phone point-to-point communication where a specific person is called, broadcasting throws out signals which may or may not be picked up by a listener, unless the listener “tunes in”. In your body, while point-to-point communication is used for some communication, most cells use the broadcast technique to “talk” to other cells via chemical signaling. The chemicals used are complex proteins which can be configured in so many different ways that almost anything can be signaled.
Cancer is somewhat like the Nazi invasion force, bent on taking whatever resources it wants. In our war with cancer, we face an enemy that uses our cellular signal channels to strengthen itself and deceive us. Cells that want to receive certain signal proteins have receptors on their surfaces which are keyed to that specific protein signature. When the protein wanders by the receiving cell, it is readily picked up by the receptor, which then conveys it into the cell, which begins acting on the “message”. The communication type used depends upon the distance necessary to convey the message. Local communication to nearby cells is like communication from a weak radio station that can only reach nearby locales. Long distance communication in the body is handled by special complex proteins called hormones that travel through the bloodstream, reaching the whole body.
Local signaling is of particular interest in dealing with cancer, where the cells in a tumor talk to each other and surrounding healthy cells. There are two types of local communication that apply to cancer: autocrine signaling, where the cell signals itself, and paracrine signaling, where the cell targets nearby cells.
“Note to Self…”
Sometimes we do write notes to ourselves, or put personal reminders on our phones. “Autocrine”, or self-signaling, is done by most cell types, whether healthy or unhealthy. Self-signaling may seem a silly thing to do, but it is an important technique of message reinforcement. Cells react not only to a specific signal; they also react to the quantity or frequency of that signal. When cells self-signal, they are telling themselves to “do more of this.” If the signal says “multiply”, and the cells send more of that signal to themselves, that causes these cells to ramp up their multiplication. If a signal with the opposing message is trying to get through, increasing the quantity of the primary message can drown out the other message.
Cancer self-reinforcement often goes out of control. The message volume is turned up so high that it is all the cancer cell hears. Cell signals could be thought of as “instructions” rather than suggestions — they are not notes, but commands. When the cell takes in the signal, it causes direct change in cell function. So the cells are self-directing their own function, and with cancer cells the directions are self-serving rather than body-serving.
Listen Up Team
“Paracrine” signals are meant for nearby cells. Sometimes the same signal can be both autocrine and paracrine, since the sending cell is part of the community it is communicating with. The chemical messengers in paracrine signaling can wander through the space between cells, thereby becoming available to neighboring cells. These messages are meant to coordinate cells in an area to work together. For instance, you want all cells in a muscle to function similarly as the tissue develops, so that the muscle works and grows as a coordinated unit. Cancer cells use this technique as well to coordinate their function as a tumor. This inter-cell communication meant to bring harmony to body functions is being used in a perverted manner to enhance the tumor function at the expense of the body.
Paracrine signaling is very important during cell differentiation, where the identity of the cells in the developing tissue align. Cancer can tell other cells to take on the same identity as themselves through the paracrine instructions that they send out. Two can play at that game however, as healthy cells can instruct cancer cells to behave properly. Cancer attempts to prevent this by overwhelming local cells with its own instructions and tuning out signals it doesn’t like.
Does this sound like a chess game between cunning strategists? Tumors are communities of cells that act as organisms with lives of their own, working to outsmart the body that spawned them. Cancer is made up of cells which came from your once healthy cells, and it uses the same signaling techniques. Sometimes it uses more of a certain signal than is normal. Other times it responds differently to the same signals as healthy cells use for normal activity. In some cases it may have more or less receptors than normal so that its reaction to the signals is skewed.
VEGF-C
One signal protein that cancer uses is vascular endothelial growth factor C, of VEGF-C. It signals growth, and is primarily used in the body for blood vessel growth and neural development. How can cancer misuse a protein? For one, it can “overexpress” it, or produce greater than normal quantities, sending growth signals to itself and nearby cells. Published in Oncogene, a study by researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and the Baylor College of Medicine showed a more complex relationship involving VEGF-C: cancer uses it to tell other cells to take on properties that lead to metastasis, or migration of the cancer to a different part of the body. Metastasis is often what makes cancer lethal, as it spreads to vital organs through a process where cells that are differentiated to be one type of tissue can break from that tissue and pitch their tent elsewhere.
Cell differentiation is a natural process. Without it, we would be made of only one type of cell, which would be quite useless! The process where cells change to a migratory state is called “epithelial-mesenchymal transformation”, or EMT. The cancer tumor is telling nearby cells to undergo the EMT process. It is using (misusing) a normal cell signal to promote its “expand and conquer” strategy. VEGF-C has very proper uses in the body, but overexpression of this signal results in many cells becoming migratory and invasive.
As usual, medical science looks at reducing the expression of VEGF-C through medications. This has been shown to reduce metastasis, but at the expense of preventing normal blood vessel growth. This is another example of the chemotherapy “buying time” at the expense of health. The damage done by the chemotherapy is itself harming the health of the patient, while the cancer just seeks to use another metabolic pathway, which once found the cancer continues to thrive and grow.
Entrainment
According to Merriam-Webster, “entrain” means to draw along with or after oneself. Much like someone in a depressed mood tends to bring down others, so cancer sends signals which pave the way for more cancer. Cell signaling is like “talking”, where the sending cell is giving instructions to the receiving cell.
The good news is that the process can go both ways. For instance, while cells can undergo the EMT process mentioned above, they can also undergo the MET process, which reverses the transition from mesenchymal to epithelial. Cell talking/entrainment can go both directions. The depressed person in the crowd can be overwhelmed by enthusiastic, joyful people. The result is something you might not believe possible — switching cancer cell function back to normal.
Cancer can stop growing
Medical science has admitted that cancer can revert to normal function at least under some circumstances. The key to these studies lies with signal proteins. Published in PubMed, research funded by the National Cancer Institute found that in inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), a protein called PLEKHA7 almost disappears, and when reintroduced, abnormal cell growth stopped. In other cases, changes in signal proteins regulated the cancer development. In Cancer Research, Stanford University researchers published a study showing that reducing levels of the signaling molecule “Myc” to a lower level caused cancerous cells to stop dividing uncontrollably and follow normal life and die-off patterns. Myc proteins signal the turning on or off of some genes by binding DNA, and excess Myc results in unnatural gene expression.
Cancer can be shut down under the right conditions. Most of us are very good at providing the wrong conditions, letting cancer get started and progress. If you have a cancer diagnosis, that’s a strong clue that your internal conditions need to change. Given the right signals, cancer can stop growing. That’s where building your health is crucial, and we can see “death may be swallowed up in life”.
Dr. Nemec’s Comments:
Signaling is communicating and communication is how communities survive and thrive. If nobody ever communicated to each other then everyone would be doing what is best for them and not for the community. This is what cancer cells do and then they make their own toxic community called a tumor. This holds true with all the cells in your body. Cells all communicate just like a school of fish move as if they are all one. This is the ideal community: all are communicating, all are helping each other because we are stronger as a community than by our selves. The mind and brain are constantly controlling the body functions including the immune function and signaling. You cannot mimic this because it is an extremely intricate checks and balancing system that is coordinated through the neurotransmitters, hormones and immune cells. Most of all, what turns on and turns off most every response is your perception of the environment. Signaling is a major key in health and disease and it cannot be artificially reproduced for long term health and healing, because these signals are turned on and off by the mind-brain-body interconnection — this is like a symphony orchestra. It is hard to just throw in a violin player and have him play a piece if the piece isn’t in perfect synchrony with the other musicians and by the cue of the conductor; otherwise, instead of beautiful music you will get noise which becomes an irritant. So to address signaling and the communication between cells you must start with the brain because that is where all the signals originate. This is why the most important part of our treatment and teaching program at Total Health Institute is 3D brain imaging and brain mapping to discover mind/brain imbalances, then heart brain entrainment therapy to correct the improper signaling, and finally retesting with 3D brain imaging and brain mapping to make sure the signaling is balanced and the orchestra plays the beautiful music called health.
One patient shared how not only did her breast cancer heal on the program, so did her addictions to food, and codependent toxic relationships along with her no longer feeling like she was a victim of the people around her. Instead she felt free and her relationship with God started to grow. When you heal the brain and mind you heal the body. This is the life you were meant to live.
Here are the ways we can help you in your health journey:
- 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.
- Stay at Home Program-is offered to continental US patients who cannot come to Total Health Institute but still want a more personal, customized plan to restore their health. This program also includes our Learn Membership Program.
- 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.
