“. . .  we don’t get sick because we have cancer; we get cancer because we are already sick.” – Sayer Ji

Unbeknownst to most, a Copernican revolution has already taken place in cancer theory. Today, the weight of evidence indicates that plants and not chemicals are the solution for reversing the global cancer epidemic.

Our understanding of what causes cancer has undergone something akin to a Copernican revolution in the past decade. Biological fatalism has been the predominant force in medicine over the past half century, where most conditions including cancer were believed predestined ‘in the genes,’ and therefore impossible to reverse. Instead of looking for root cause resolution of disease (RCRD), we resigned ourselves to ‘finding it early’ and in the case of cancer, when doing so (even when it was benign), we waged war against it, quite literally using weapons grade materials (mustard gas- and nuclear materials-derived agents). Now, however, in this post-Genomic era, factors above (epi-) the control of the genes – epigenetic factors – are taking center stage; these include environmental exposures, stress, nutritional factors, and various lifestyle-based variables that are within the ambit of our control and volition, and which are often reversible.

In other words, cancer is now being understood as epigenetic dysfunction, a direct and even adaptive response to the post-industrial, carcinogen-saturated environment, in addition to a diet of faux, mostly chemically-produced ‘food,’ combining to produce an environment – ‘inner terrain–  within the body ideal for cancer promotion.

Indeed, in a new study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology titled, “The use of plant-derived bioactive compounds to target cancer stem cells and modulate tumor microenvironment,” the authors note the powerful implications of this new epigenetic view of cancer: Continue reading →