Thermo-Chemotherapy available in the USA?

I can't begin to thank you for the information you both put out here on this thread. I had a hard day today. Just so overwhelmed sometimes.
Does DIET make a difference then?

Best,

Sara

Hi Sara Anne,

Oops. You should have stated your career background in your profile. It would have been much easier to have asked you.

Continuation of Mitochondria

Dr. Fink summarizes about Mitochondria and Mitochondrial Disease

Mitochondria Biology is a) Extremely relevant to human health, b) Only now (2016) beginning to be understood, c) Complex.

Mitochondrial Disease is a) Recognizable,b)More common than previously recognized, c) Causative of many pediatric and adult problems involving high-energy tissues, d) Likely involved in pathogenesis of many common disorders such as cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative aging diseases.

She also mentioned that new therapies are being studied by pharmaceutical companies and by academia.


History of Mitochondria

Over many years - a few billion years, our body and our ancestors' body have changed to adopt in new and changing environment. There is a hypothesis that mitochondria was a bacteria living separately from our ancestors. Later, our cell engulfed the mitochondria bacteria. The rational is that our ancestor existed before there was an oxygen on Earth. If you recall, energy was created by two steps. The first step was in cytoplasm outside of Mitochondria. A set of chemical chains processed glucose without using oxygen and created 2 units of energy.
It means that our ancestors were generating some energy without mitochondria. Then, plants started its habitat and started generating oxygen. Our ancestors instead of waiting for mutations to use oxygen for energy production, engulfed Mitochondria bacteria as it was faster than waiting for mutations. So our body can generate small amount of energy even after oxygen become scares in our body such as when people exercise hard.

As mentioned before, Otto Warburg showed that cultured tumor tissues have high rate of glucose being consumed. I have explained that it is because caner cells (bladder epithelial cells) go through cell division every 24 hours where normal cells go through cell division every 40 days. What Warburg also showed was that cancer cells kept using the chemical reactions outside of mitochondria to generate 2 units of energy even if there enough oxygen which could e used to generate 36 units of energy in mitochondria using oxygen. Until today after 100 years after Warburg showed those metabolic changes, the scientific community has not reached a conclusion of why cancer cells chose inefficient way to produce energy (2 units) outside of mitochondria when it could utilize mitochondria more by using available oxygen to produce 36 units of energy per a glucose molecule.

I had watched Professor Thomas Seyfried in Youtube awhile ago. What he concluded was that cancer was caused
by the disease in mitochondria and by focusing on mitochondria rather than DNA would lead to cure of cancer without introducing the toxicity in the current standard care. Though the word Metabolism encompasses a wide range of chemical reactions involved in maintaining the living state of the cells and the organism, it often refers to the processes of converting glucose molecule to energy by mitochondria. I think he knows the subject. But I think there is a flaw in how he establishes his points. II have listed the link to his talk. To fully understand what he is talking, it helps to explain terminologies he uses. I have attempted to explain them but I got stuck often because there are so many things I do not understand myself. But without some detail explanation of what's going on, we would not know to agree or disagree with his claim. So I will explain knowingly there will be errors.

First, our body is made of organs. an organ is made of chemical molecules. A chemical molecule is made of atoms. An atom is made of protons/neutrons & electrons. A chemical bonding is a lasting attraction between atoms, ions or molecules that enable the formation of chemical compounds. A chemical detachment is a detachment of atoms or molecules from a chemical compound which results in different chemical compounds.
It requires energy to bond atoms or molecules but when atoms or molecules are detached, it produce energy energy. Our body functions by using energy by bonding and detaching of atoms and molecules. A case in point is cell division. In order for a cell to divide into two cells, the cell first has to grow by creating two sets of everything in the cell then it splits into two cells. Those process takes much energy and perform. The energy is generated by bonding and detachment of atoms and molecules.

A cell is like a flexible ball. The cell is filled with a thick solution which is mainly composed of water, salts and proteins. The thick solution is called cytoplasm. Also inside the cell, there is the nucleolus in which 23 pairs of chromosomes are stored. Note that each chromosome contains a DNA. Also there are 1,000-2,000 mitochondria embedded in the cytoplasm. These mitochondria are called the power station and generate.

Metabolism to covert to a glucose to energy

Step 1. A glucose molecule enters a cell and into cytoplasm.
The glucose molecule composed of 6 carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms and 6 oxygen
Step 2. Still inside cytoplasm, the glucose goes through first set of chemical reactions and generate 2 units of energy. The chemical reactions are called glycolysis and it does not use oxygen.
Step 3. The resulted chemical molecule enters mitochondria.
It goes through various chemical reactions and generate 36 units of energy.

Warburg Effects

In the 1920s, Otto Warburg showed that cultured tumour tissues have high rates of glucose uptake and lactate secretion, even in the presence of oxygen.

One of hallmarks of cancer is that it grows faster than normal tissue. Bladder consists epithelial tissue, connective tissue, muscle tissue and fat layer. The epithelial tissue of bladder consists of 3-6 layer of cuboidal cells stacked like layers of boxes. Those 3-6 layers of epithelial cells consist of the top part, middle part and bottom part. The cells on the top need to be replaced because it has tear and wear because they were being exposed urine and stretching for holding urine and contracting to excrete urine out from the bladder. A few studies show that they are replaced about every 40 days (mice). In general it takes 24 hours for a cell - normal or cancer - to divide into two. So, a bladder cell needs mitochondria to produce energy for the cell division every 41 days. But a cancer cell because it lost a function to wait 40 days for a cell division, it needs mitochondria to produce energy for the cell division 24x7. It means mitochondria must work harder and it needs more glucose and oxygen. I will show how this metabolic change is used in diagnostic.

I think one of Dr. Seyfried' idea to cure cancer is by intervening metabolism in mitochondria by reducing glucose, so mitochondria does not have enough glucose to produce energy which will be used by cancer cells. It sounds
like a good idea. But glucose es essential for producing energy for everything else in the body too. So he continues to day that the treatment must be done in very controlled manner. A concern is that chemical reactions are so interrelated and we do not know what will happen to our body if glucose intake is reduced for treating cancer and I think there have been no large studies done the impact of glucose reduction during cancer treatment except a few studies based on a small population and mice.

Mitochondria related diseases

Mitochondria has its own DNA and it is called mtDNA. It is not enclosed in a nucleous like DNA in a cell. Mitochondria has 16,500 DNA building blocks (base pair) compared to 3 billion building blocks of DNA in the cell. Mitochondria's DNA contain 37 genes which are used to make various proteins for various functions. DNA in the cell has 20,000- 25,000 genes.
DNA in Mitochondria (mtDNA) also mutates. The mutations are known to cause some disease. Typical disease caused by mutations in mtDNA are shown below. ( Dr. Marni Falk from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia)

MELAS - mitrochondrial encephalopathy, lactice acidosis, and strokes
MERRF - myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers
NARP - Neurogenic ataxia and retinitis pigmentosa
LHON - Leber Hereditary optic neuropathy

Dr. Falk says there are no FDA approved therapies or cures exist for Mitochondrial diseases.

She lists the reasons why theare are so few effective therapies.

1. Individually rare disorders - Highly heterogeneous genetic causes and clinical features
2. Excercise is beneficial (aerobic and isotonic)
3. No consensus of optimal diet into mito diseases
4. One-size-fits-all empiric "nutritional supplement cocktails" are variably used to theoretically assist mitochondrial enzymes and reduce celluar stress" - Support celluar metabolic activities & Antioxidants

I have noticed that university of Pennsylvanian and Harvard medical school have researches going on Mitochondria.

I hear you. My mom has breast cancer (25 years battle). She adopted a very strict diet (Hypocrate center Palm Beach) but still needed chemo treatment. It is what it is.
Thank you.