A Real Cure for Cancer?

Thursday, November 8, 2012 7:37 AM

By Kathleen Walter and Donna Scaglione

Can a hyperbaric chamber help you prevent cancer?

Research has revealed that a deficiency of oxygen metabolism in the cells can lead to tumor growth. MIT-educated health expert Raymond Francis has written about this in his book, Never Fear Cancer Again, and a recent study in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology has confirmed that this is most likely the primary cause of cancer, he tells Newsmax Health.

“This is really enormously important because once you know what the cause is, now you can prevent it and you can cure it,” he says. “So we know how to prevent and cure cancer because we know what the primary cause is.”

Where does the hyperbaric chamber fit in to this? Hyperbaric chambers, commonly used to treat decompression sickness, hard-to-heal wounds, carbon monoxide poisoning, and smoke inhalation, deliver pure oxygen into the body. The oxygen binds with hemoglobin in the blood to be carried into tissues throughout the body. Francis reasons that getting more oxygen into cells can aid metabolism and possibly prevent cancer, but a poor diet full of unhealthy oils can prevent the oxygen from getting through the membrane, and toxins can hurt the “metabolic machinery,” he says.

“So yes, you can force more oxygen into the body with the hyperbaric chamber, but still if you can’t get the oxygen through the cell membrane, and if it does get in and you can’t metabolize it because the machinery is broken, you still can’t win,” he explains. “So you have to solve all these problems simultaneously.”

While the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the use of hyperbaric chambers to prevent or treat cancer, and the American Cancer Society does not recommend it for those uses, some of Francis’ other cancer-fighting ideas are supported by medical research and promoted by many health-care providers, such as eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, avoiding sugar and processed oils, and having a positive outlook on life.

“They’ve done study, after study, after study that show that people with a positive attitude, people who are happy, people who have a good outlook on life live longer and have less disease — it’s just as simple as that,” he says.

Living that way is a choice, one he made years ago as a young man in combat infantry during the Vietnam War, when he could have been miserable, he says.

“What you put into your mind every day, what you think is a choice. … I chose happy and I lived through some very miserable experiences being happy.”

Getting enough vitamin D is also critical to staying healthy and cancer free, he says.

“Vitamin D is really not a vitamin,” he says. “It’s really a hormone-like chemical. It has many effects on the body. For example, it helps to support apoptosis and that’s the death of a cancer cell. The cancer cell will destroy itself. It helps in cell-to-cell communications, which is very necessary. Cells talk to each other so if there is something wrong over here, they try to fix it. If it’s not talking, what’s wrong just continues on.”

Sunlight helps the body manufacture vitamin D. While getting too much sun can lead to skin cancer, not getting sunburned is what is critical, he notes.

“The sun doesn’t cause skin cancer; that’s really a myth,” he explains. “Sunburn causes skin cancer. Don’t get sunburned. Other than that, get as much sunlight as you can without getting burned. That’s the best way to get your vitamin D. And then, supplements are good.”

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