|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cancer cells - with no purpose in life
The nature of cancer cells, as Herman Aihara observes, suggests that people with cancer have "no purpose in life". Order is restored by creating an alkaline environment, Herman says. And his way to cure cancer is to starve these cells to death using the macrobiotic diet, which he calls “The cancer starvation diet“.
This article forms part of a series based on macrobiotic lectures that Herman Aihara gave in Singapore in 1995. Following that, I published an entire issue of The Good Life, summarising his key teachings in Singapore. Herman Aihara passed away on 25 February 1998 and Cornelia Aihara passed away exactly eight years later, on 25 February 2006.
Cancer is like a fetus during its first weeks of life in the womb. It just grows and grows and grows…without stopping. During the first four weeks of life, the cells of a foetus behave the same way, Herman Aihara observes. They just multiply, without any apparent purpose. It’s only later that the foetus cells acquire “a purpose of life”. Herman Aihara illustrates: “Some cells say, ‘I want to become a brain cell’. Some say, ‘I want to be liver cell‘.... So they develop into the various organs, or blood, or skin, or nerves... Then they stop growing. Cancer cells don’t become anything specific. They just grow into a huge mass. “Cancer cells have no purpose”, Herman notes. “Having cancer is like having no purpose in life.” How do normal cells develop into the brain, liver and other organs? They get instructions from genetic codes embedded in the DNA, the basic substance in the nucleus of cells. Herman Aihara then proceeds to draw the chemical structure of the DNA molecule. He seems to take forever drawing each section. Then he shows a sheet of paper showing how all the sections are linked together. It’s so complex, we wondered if any of us could make sense of it. What’s the purpose of showing all this? “I’m testing your patience” Herman laughs. On a more serious note, he says he wants to show that there is order in all that complexity. Click here to read Herman's lecture on patience. Cells turn cancerous when the DNA gets altered. And this happens when there is no order. “Cancer means no order,” Herman says. “Life has to be orderly. We wake up, we go to sleep; we eat, we eliminate…. Everything follows a natural order. Cancer is the result of not having order in our lives, of leading life in chaotic way. When and why do cells lose their order? Looking at the fetus, we find that cells actually start off being disorderly. But at the fourth week, a fundamental change takes place. Cells start to develop as nerve cells, brain cells, liver cells and so on. Order sets in. Each cell now has a purpose.
What happens around the fourth week? Why do disorderly cells suddenly become orderly? The womb environment changes. At first, the womb environment is acidic. Around the fourth week, it changes to alkaline. Herman believes this alkaline environment alters our genetic code and leads to order. If our body become acidic again – from too much acid-forming foods and an acid-forming lifestyle – some cells die. But others revert to their previous disorderly state. They become cancer cells. To prevent cancer, therefore, it is vital that we maintain our body in an alkaline state.
To cure cancer is more difficult. Once the DNA is damaged and a cell has become cancerous, it may not be possible t change it back into a normal, healthy cell. Some scientist has done this in a test-tube. But Herman Aihara doubts if it can happen inside the body. His solution to cancer is to starve the cancer cells. Herman does not think that a macrobiotic diet actually cures cancer. It merely starves the cancerous cells to death by depriving them of the two foods they need most – protein and sugar. Cancer cells are weak cells. When the body has a limited amount of protein, this protein is allocated only to normal, healthy cells, Herman explains. Cancer cells get their share of protein only when there is excess. Herman Aihara therefore recommends a very low protein diet for cancer patients – usually no meat or fish, and beans only two or three times a month. Brown rice, miso soup and vegetables contain enough protein, he says. Not at all macrobiotic counselors are as strict on protein, though. Some recommend small amounts of beans or bean products regularly. All agree, however, that cancer patients should avoid sugar, including honey, raw sugar, molasses, and other simple sugars. Because sugar feeds cancer. Fruits, which are rich in sugar, should also be avoided or at least minimised. The macrobiotic diet is popularly known as “The Cancer Prevention Diet”. Herman Aihara prefers to call it "The Cancer Starvation Diet”.
|
|||