“Emerging evidence indicates that impaired cellular energy metabolism is the defining characteristic of nearly all cancers regardless of cellular or tissue origin. In contrast to normal cells, which derive most of their usable energy from oxidative phosphorylation, most cancer cells become heavily dependent on substrate level phosphorylation to meet energy demands. Evidence is reviewed supporting a general hypothesis that genomic instability and essentially all hallmarks of cancer, including aerobic glycolysis (Warburg effect), can be linked to impaired mitochondrial function and energy metabolism. A view of cancer as primarily a metabolic disease will impact approaches to cancer management and prevention.”
~ Thomas N Seyfried and Laura M Shelton from Cancer as a Metabolic Disease
This is our fourth Note specifically related to cancer I created after my brother’s diagnosis. The first three: Anticancer by David Servan-Schreiber, Tripping over the Truth by Travis Christofferson and The Metabolic Approach to Cancer by Nasha Winters.
This is actually a Note on an open access article from the scientific journal Nutrition and Metabolism. I have Thomas Seyfried’s book (also called Cancer as a Metabolic Disease) but I decided to start with the 22-page journal article (7 pages of which are references) rather than the book because the book is a 400+ page textbook-like beast and I figured this would be a great place for us to start. :)
I plan to cover the book as well but wanted to share Notes on the journal article first because the 15 pages here are, as Nasha Winters says, “A must read!” I completely agree.
Thomas Seyfried is the leading research scientist making the case for the metabolic approach to cancer (vs. as we’ve discussed, and will discuss more in this Note, a genetic approach). He and Laura Shelton brilliantly and lucidly unpack the case for cancer as a metabolic disease. Bonus: Your brain gets a nice workout as every word is chosen wisely for peer-reviewable hardiness.
Get the article in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism here. (It’s free.) And, if you or your family are dealing with cancer, I HIGHLY recommend you print it out. Read it. Share it with your team. (And, get a copy of Seyfried’s book here.)
My printout of the of the article is almost entirely underlined and circled and marked all up. The article is incredibly coherent and packed with wisdom. I’m excited to break it down and share it in a way that’s easy to grasp and practical so let’s jump straight in!