Chat#11~Chat#20

Chat #11

Impurities in Food and Beverages are Extremely Detrimental:

Additives Conceal a Crisis

In the last chapter, we introduced how excesses in food and beverages of the five colors and the five flavors can lead to dysfunction of the internal organs of the body. This chapter will introduce a discussion of the problem of impurities in food and beverages.

Data from the United States National Cancer Institute clearly states that food can present risk in contracting cancer: The large intestine and stomach stand at 90%, uterus, gall bladder, pancreas, breast, stand at 50%, lung, bladder, cervix, mouth and esophagus stand at 20%, other cancers stand at 10%. All cancers add up to an average of about 35%. Clearly there is an intimate relationship between food, beverages and cancer. From the point of view of Chinese medicine, impurities in food and beverages are a key factor. The leading cause of food and beverage of impurities is their absorption of pollution.

Speaking of food impurities, most people would probably think of bacterial germs. Food that has been contaminated with bacterial germs will cause stomach and abdominal inflammation. In the face of a stomach and abdominal inflammation, Western medicine has antibiotics, and Chinese medicine uses purification of internal heat and dispelling the poison with herbal medicine drinks. Both approaches easily report efficacy. However, in speaking of cancer, the significance of food impurities lies predominantly in food items laced with additives, agricultural chemicals and pesticides.

First let’s talk about food additives. Food which has additives include antioxidants, stabilizers, emulsifiers, colors, flavors, etc. Why use them? They can enhance the food with an even brighter color, flavor and aroma. Moreover, preservatives extend the shelf life of products.

If we talk about the source of additives in food, you will probably be surprised to learn that for the most part they are refined from coal and petroleum products. Among them are many substances containing carcinogens. The fragrant sausage and salted and dried meat that we regularly eat contain a kind of food preservative called sodium nitrate. Sodium nitrate is a kind of cancer-causing substance.

You might say, the manufacturers should immediately stop using these food items with additives. In the case of fragrant sausage and salted and dried meat, the result without retardants would be product spoilage possibly even becoming poisonous. The Japanese company Sen Yong Nai Fen once found out by experience, that in using an industrial grade of phosphoric acid sodium as an improved additive replacement, they created a poison affecting over ten thousand children. The virulent accumulation of poison led to the death of over a hundred people.

On the issue of additives, each country has established its own standards. Adherence to these standards should be able to guarantee safety as far as effects on the human body is concerned. Most regrettable is that in order to find a way to process food items even faster and to lure consumer interest, new food items with additives are constantly being produced, some of which have harmful properties which are latent and difficult to evaluate. Even more challenging is to pinpoint the factories where there are inconsistencies between the label and the contents, with lax execution of standards during processing.

There are also other problems that occur during food processing which allow the food to absorb chemical substances that are injurious to the human body. For example, reusing oil for deep frying causes the recycled oil to harbor carcinogenic substances within it. In addition, among cooking utensils of fry pans and electric grill pans, if they reach a heat over three hundred degrees Fahrenheit, as in the case of making cooked beef cakes or something similar, because the food is cooked too long or the heat is too high, suddenly the opportunity to form a carcinogenic substance exists.

While I was in Beijing, I also observed that at small snack shops and food stalls, they use old newspaper and magazines to wrap up food items. The black ink in the characters contain a kind of substance called chlorinated linked benzene, and repeated usage can have serious consequences. I also witnessed some places where hot food was wrapped in plastic wrap. Plastics can dissolve at high temperatures and result in their chemical compounds entering into the essence of the food and producing danger for the consumer.

At some exhibitions in the United States, street vendors often set up food stands and it is not clear what standards they follow in food preparation. Moreover, since Chinese, Japanese, Westerners, Vietnamese and others also have street gatherings and food offerings, it is hard to know if they share these same type of problems. Hopefully, everyone will be attentive and observant. It is important for all peoples to analyze food stuff and understand safe preparation guidelines so that they can safeguard against these dangers.

I’ve also seen some people who have expired milk and orange juice in their refrigerator and continue to use them one or two days past the expiration date. Repeatedly doing this can also lead to a dangerous situation. Even more ominous is the problem which results from peanut products that have mildewed. For sure you will say there is no way that you would eat anything mildewed. It turns out that sometimes as things mildew, the process cannot be seen with the naked eye. Mildewed peanuts contain a kind of substance called aflatoxin, a potent cancer causing substance.

       Dear Readers, in order to go a step further in understanding how food influences health and causes cancer, please read the next installment.

Chat #12

Double Dipping Chopsticks Easily Transmits Disease

Agricultural Pesticides and Fertilizers can also Produce Cancer

In the last chapter we discussed the many food additives which the naked eye cannot see, whether good or bad they invisibly influence our health. According to statistics, each American eats on average one thousand five hundred pounds of food per year. Among them, all kinds of additives stand at one percent. Recently, the problem of food laced with chemicals has become sufficiently serious to initiate our concern. Below is a short anecdote concerning another type chemical contamination in food which needs to be brought to our attention.

On the Chinese mainland not long ago, a county was flooded. I volunteered to participate in the Beijing flood control and rescue medical treatment team. The people there warmly received us and for every evening meal they arranged for a different specialist to accompany us. Our support medical team members did not have the custom of double dipping chopsticks and it was hard to hold back blurting out some remarks to other people that certain ‘food items contain possible contamination’. Moreover, our medical team leader prohibited pointing things out face to face. There is one expression which sums it up: ‘After a great disaster, there will follow a great plague.’ After the massive flood, soon after followed every imaginable type of microbe disaster. Its momentum rivaled our present worry over the rise of these war-like microbes. At that time, gastritis, intestinal enteritis and hepatitis were all rampant. During daytime we exhausted ourselves running around to cope with many problems at the same time, sometimes one of us would be treating over a hundred and fifty people in a day. At the evening meal, we feared there would be the spread of contagious disease through double dipping chopsticks, so as soon as the dishes were served we quickly used our own chopsticks to take our own food before our host lifted his chopsticks to put food on our plates and before others put their chopsticks in. ‘The one who starts first is best’. We wound up only able to take the dishes which were placed right in front of us and quickly move the food onto our own small plates. As a result of this, no one ate their full.

The point of recounting this story is to raise everyone’s awareness about gatherings for a meal where you will most certainly encounter double dipping. As I am writing this ‘A Hundred Conversations on Chinese Medicine to Fight Cancer’, I use the computer to type out the characters. Within the computer dictionary, to my surprise there is still not a compound for ‘double dipping chopsticks’. I have participated in many gatherings by Chinese friends in the U.S., I was also very startled to discover that in the U.S. many Chinese friends find the custom of double dipping permissible, and some seem to use double dipping to mean ‘aren’t you a good enough friend?’ On the Chinese mainland, hepatitis patients are approaching a hundred million. In Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as some other countries and localities in Southeast Asia, hepatitis is on the rise. Before the 1990’s, hepatitis patients were very few in the U.S. After the 1990’s, hepatitis started increasing daily. Hepatitis disease poisons the liver for a long time and opens the possibility of turning into cancer.

       Now we turn our attention to a discussion of the problem of agricultural pesticides and fertilizers.

       Agricultural pesticides are in widespread use worldwide. The U.S. at present uses over 850 kinds of them. Traditional pesticides were used to prevent devastation by insects. The pervasive tendency today is to make use of more and more agricultural pesticides. For example, in order to save on human labor, agriculture already makes common use of weed killers. Moreover some kinds of pesticides and weed killers potentially harbor carcinogenic substances. If you go strolling out on agricultural land, you will often observe airplanes spraying out agricultural chemicals. Research reveals that 55% of insecticides penetrate into the environment, including soil, air and water etc.

If residual agricultural pesticides are not washed off farm products or in some cases if the pesticides are extremely difficult to wash off, then the possibility exists that through the food products they will enter our bodies. If we analyze this from a broad perspective, the residual agricultural pesticides enter and remain in the water. Whether it be rivers, fish ponds, or water tanks for fish and shrimp etc., the water contains chemicals and the fish is then consumed by humans. The danger is even more formidable.

People often complain that fruits and vegetables are not as tasty as they used to be. The chief reason is the widespread use of chemical fertilizers. If these chemicals are not used with care, they pose a danger. For example, when vegetables are covered with an excessive amount of nitrogenous fertilizers and are also stored for too long at too high a temperature, then the vegetables contain nitrates and nitrates are a potent carcinogenic substance.

Other people say that these days duck and chicken is not as tasty as before. This is because modern feed has also changed. Just as in the case of vegetables, the lack of flavor is only one small factor, the key issue is that the feed oftentimes contain added substances. One glaring example is the addition of antibiotics given to prevent disease among poultry and livestock. In order to increase the speed of their growth and strength, hormones are added to their feed. Antibiotics and hormones are both substances which are difficult for the metabolism to get rid of, often residual amounts remain in butchered animals. When humans consume this kind of poultry and meat, it is hard to avoid the occurrence of illness.

Dear Reader, starting from chapter 6, we have discussed all three aspects of beverages and food, including unrestrained indulgence, unbalanced drinking and eating, and impurities of food.

In my introductory remarks our first lecture on the reasons for cancer from a Chinese medicine perspective, these most likely include four aspects: emotional factors, food and beverage factors, lifestyle factors and environmental factors. If you’d like to know about lifestyle factors and other connections to cancer then please read on to the analysis in the following chapter.

Chat #13

Lifestyle Habits Have Three Factors; Food and Beverages, Smoking, Alcohol and the Manner in Which They are Used

In chapters six to twelve, we have discussed the factors of food and beverage and their influence on health and cancer. This chapter will begin to examine how lifestyle habits form influences on health and cancer.

Before we begin let’s first answer a question from Ms. Lisa.

Question: May I ask, chapter 11 brought up the danger of chemical additives in food. I am extremely interested in this, but I am not very clear what are the boundaries concerning chemical additives in food. Would you please explain further?

Response: Foods that have additives in general fall into four categories. One is preservatives including; antiseptic preservatives, anti-oxidants and anti-bacterial preservatives, etc. The second type are used for processing, including chemicals which bleach, enhance color, enhance flavor and add aroma etc. The third type are used in food production including fermentation, swelling and expansion, quality improvement etc. The fourth type are chemicals which enhance the nourishment profile.

Question: Would you say that in our use of oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar in daily cooking that these also count as food with added chemicals?

Response: Yes, generally it isn’t true that food itself possesses chemicals. When additions are made, whether or not they come from food processing or from combinations of ingredients, they can all be seen as food additives. The products that you mentioned; oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar can all be placed in the second category of ‘flavoring chemicals’, however these of course are additives that were made in nature.

Let’s return now to the main topic. What is a lifestyle habit? Lifestyle habits are regular events that are part of our daily life. In chapter six, we discussed factors related to uncontrolled consumption of food and beverages, excessive and unbalanced intake of food and beverages, these kinds of habits. In this chapter, we will examine the specific problem of food and beverage habits.

Strictly speaking, factors of lifestyle habits include these three aspects: food and beverage habits, addictions to smoking, drinking alcohol and manner of living. Let’s discuss the first aspect, the factor of food and beverage habits.

Research indicates that after Japanese women emigrate to the U.S., U.K. and other Western countries, the occurrence of breast glandular cancer is clearly on the rise. If they return to live in Japan, the incidence of illness is generally once again lower. In analyzing the reasons, it is considered to be related to the change from low saturated fat foods to high ones. High saturated foods, because they can influence the balance of female hormone levels, make women particularly vulnerable to harm. Excessive amounts of saturated fats can also cause them to oxidize, producing even more oxidized saturated fat. This kind of excessive oxidized saturated fat can be said to be one of the many sources of malignancy. It can speed up human aging, break through and damage the structure and function of the cell membrane and influence many important metabolic processes, initiating a series of cancer illnesses.

Speaking of high saturated fat, we cannot help but think of the food habits of children these days, having changed from enjoying vegetables and now eating a constant diet of hamburgers, french fries, fried chicken, soda, Coke and canned foods etc. In these foods the most important component is high saturated fat, high amounts of sugar and low in fiber. These kinds of food habits will certainly create a latent environment which will initiate the occurrence of many kinds of illness in days to come. In general, in a comparison between east and west, Westerners have high occurrences of breast cancer from their use of high saturated fat foods over the long term. They are also on the forefront for glandular cancer and colon cancer all of which are clearly higher than Easterners. In the case of China, we can see that the eating habits of children are in the process of converging with those of the west.

Doctors coming from the Chinese mainland all know that Lin County has one of the world’s highest incidence of esophagus cancer. Research has linked it with the custom of long term consumption of pickled vegetables by the residents. In addition, it is said that people of this area have the habit of quickly gulping down their food, including large amounts of spicy noodles with peppers. Eating this way can cause the food to easily stick to the membrane of the esophagus creating damage. Other injurious lifestyle habits are found in areas of Southeast Asia where people delight in chewing betel nut and the incidence of oral cancer is very high.

From the point of view Chinese medicine, high saturated fat is considered to be one type of ‘wet phlegm’, something which can influence the function of the spleen and stomach. This can lead to difficulty clearing it out and result informing obesity and high fat blood levels etc. Wet phlegm obstructs air and blood over a long period of time and leads to a battle between the phlegm, breath and blood. Over a long period of time this can result in the formation of tumor. We know that ‘brined pickles’ like pickled vegetables and pickled betel nuts enter the liver and that too much of it then damages the liver. Once the liver has an excess of brine secretion, it expels it to the spleen. The spleen controls the muscles, and the mouth cavity is muscle tissue. After soured brine has collected and the damage is localized at the mouth cavity for a long period of time, then this can lead to a malignant change.

The next chapter will take a look at the factors of addictions to smoking and drinking. Excessive absorption of smoking and drinking are important factors which affect the health of the body leading to the occurrence of cancer.

Dear Reader, if you want to know the signs then read on to the analysis in the next chapter.

Chat #14

Enjoying a Smoke Becomes Addictive and Leads to Lung Cancer,

Throat Cancer, Mouth Cancer and Esophagus Cancer

In the last chat we discussed food and beverage factors among lifestyle habits. We will connect this to the factors of enjoying smoking and drinking alcohol.

First let’s discuss the factor of smoking. We all know that inhaling tobacco is addictive. Well, why does inhaling lead to addiction? Everyone knows that substances which are capable of causing addiction, aside from smoking, also include alcohol, marijuana, and many others. These substances share one special characteristic, that is, after they are ingested they produce a kind of euphoria, even to the point of dissipating stress, a sense of greatly enhanced well being.

Though these substances are different, they all can produce a similar chemical substance, stimulating the same part of the central brain, inducing the production of a feeling of happiness. After this euphoria occurs, it can also cause the user to forget worries, luring the user to once again seek this high and go hunt for it.

Not long ago on San Francisco’s television Channel 26, a journalist named Shi Dong presided over the program called Words that Cross the Horizon. He interviewed a Stanford post doctoral student whose research topic was the relationship between addiction and memory. The preliminary results of his research were fascinating. When a person continually does something, it will repeatedly stimulate the brain producing a memory function. Eventually this kind of repetitive memory will be deepened and will then form a permanent memory. Deepened or permanent memory will then continually remind the person to go repeat the same kind of action. Thereupon, it is formed into an addiction. Then one day an addiction is formed and it becomes very difficult to change. The famous American writer Mark Twain cracked a very funny joke about this: “Quitting smoking really isn’t very hard, I have already quit many times!” So, what harm is there in smoking?

One lit cigarette can dissolve into a thousand or more chemical substances. Among thirty or so of them, nicotine is representative in causing harm to the human body. Among the thirty or so kinds of harmful substances, there are approximately sixteen which are carcinogenic.

If we went in and tested a household where people smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, before lighting up a cigarette, the density of the smoke in every square foot can reach as high as twenty milligrams. Everyone needs to be aware that if the cigarette is lit, then each square millimeter of smoke will reach a density as high as five hundred to a thousand milligrams.

We must also be vigilant about the problem of second hand smoke. What exactly is it? It refers to the effect of smoke on people surrounding the smoker even though they themselves are not smoking. Nevertheless, they have inhaled the smoke indirectly. Research shows that when people are within fifty centimeters distance from a smoker, they inhale more than tenfold over the amount of smoke inhaled by the smoker.

Smoking is one of the key factors in producing lung cancer. According to statistics, approximately eighty percent of lung cancer patients have a history of heavy smoking. A medical study done on animals in the U.S. reveals that after having a dog inhale the equivalent of twelve cigarettes every day continually for four hundred and sixty days, the top layer of cells showed a pre-cancerous condition. Two more years of experimentation on the dogs resulted in lung cancer. Smoking and inhaling second hand smoke not only will influence the formation of lung cancer, in addition it can also produce many other health problems. Here I will add in a brief explanation to help the reader grasp the meaning of this. Data shows that over eighty percent of emergencies of lung blockage originate from smoking. Smoking can influence a person’s immune function, it is one of the danger factors for diseases of the heart, brain and blood vessels. For example, smoking can accelerate the body’s arteries to become hardened, resulting in the initiation of a serious condition of heart disease in which the arteries harden like rice gruel, as well as put them at risk for stroke etc. Smoking also can lead to stomach and intestinal damage and is related to the development of digestive ulcers. Moreover smokers who have an ulcerated surface have great difficulty healing.

As far as women are concerned, smoking or inhaling second hand smoke can lead to a predisposition for irregular menses, aging skin, and fragile bones. For pregnant women, smoking can lead to premature birth, miscarriage, underweight babies and under par intellectual development, etc.

Although children do not smoke directly, they still can be indirectly influenced by second hand smoke, easily developing bronchitis, asthma, middle ear infections and even leading to lung cancer.

Research in England considers that the smoking of each cigarette reduces your lifetime by 12 minutes. The American Environmental Protection Agency then clearly concludes that second hand smoke is a Type A cancer causing substance. The so-called Type A cancer causing substance means that it is already known to be a cancer-causing substance for human beings.

Having read up until now you perhaps might ask, how is it that smoking can be detrimental? Talking from the perspective of the lung structure, the lungs are like a fan that has been cut down the middle. If you turn the fan upside down, the fan’s handle is just like the lung’s major air passage way. Cut the fan handle into two, one left leaf and one right leaf. The medical term for these are lung leaves, they are also referred to as simply left lung and right lung. The structure of the lung is like tree branches stood upside down. The above mentioned major air passage is the main trunk, the left and right lungs fork apart, as if showing tree branches, called bronchial tubes. Bronchial tubes from the main air passage continue like small tree branches forking out until finally the smallest branches are connected like tree leaves. The tree leaf portion we call the pulmonary vesicles. Pulmonary vesicles are the place where the human body exchanges oxygen and depleted oxygen. Under ordinary circumstances, the air of the nature passes through the nose and then the bronchial tubes arriving at the pulmonary vesicles. The depleted air is carbon dioxide, taking out the expelled air, and then oxygen pass through the pulmonary vesicles to be absorbed, entering the body’s blood circulation. This process is the replacement of the old with the new.

In sum, thinking about it one realizes that the harmful substances within the cigarette follow the inhalation of smoke and are absorbed, entering the blood circulatory system and causing health problems.

In talking about cigarettes I would like to briefly mention a related phenomenon and that is burning incense, burning paper funeral money, and other smoke producing substances. Since they harbor carbon hydride compounds which are not completely burned off, after they enter the pulmonary vesicles they can accumulate within the vesicles and produce a chronic irritation leading to the concentration of white blood cells. After a long period of time this can lead to a sudden change in the gene inside of the cell and result in cancer. Moreover, the smoke from cigarettes, burning incense and burning paper etc. all contain large quantities of carbon monoxide which is not completely burned off. We all know that the poison in carbon fumes is caused by carbon monoxide. The red color of the red blood cells is due to scarlet component within it and carbon monoxide’s affinity for the scarlet component is three hundred times greater than its affinity for oxygen, therefore it can cut off the supply of oxygen. This results in an insufficiency of oxygen in the body manifested as the mouth and eye socket turn purple cause breathing difficulties. This is also a chronic condition created by the poison of carbon monoxide which is very difficult to perceive and has accumulated over a long period of time.

Smoking and alcohol are usually categorized together. Having talked about smoking, we should turn our attention to discussing the influence of alcohol on health.

Dear Reader, if you’d like to go a step further in your knowledge then please read on to the analysis in the next chapter.

Chat #15

Indulging in Alcohol can Injure Your Stomach, Liver and Lungs:

Lifestyle Choices can give Rise to Cancer

In the previous chapter we introduced the impact of enjoying a smoke on human health and other factors related to the formation of cancer. Now we will begin to discuss the problem of indulging in alcohol.

The Chinese have a saying that ‘the poet comes out with intoxication.’ Folklore is abundant in transmitting the story that ‘ In Li Bai’s containers of wine are his hundred poems.’ Of course there is also ‘Using wine to strengthen one’s courage’, and ‘Using wine to drown out one’s sorrows,’ ‘After wine the truth spews out’, and other sayings which illustrate how Chinese people use the enjoyment of wine to reach an ethereal state of mind.

From the perspective of medical treatment, alcohol was used in ancient times as a medicinal system. For example, in order to strengthen masculinity, oftentimes white spirits of maize or sorghum were steeped in Chinese herbs, for the treatment of rheumatism, yellow spirits were often cooked in herbs. Chinese medicine promotes the daily consumption of a small cup of alcoholic spirits to strengthen the body making it healthy and to effectively prevent disease. I have also read that according to American medical research, having a small amount of alcohol each day can serve the function of preventing heart disease. Having said that, if we drink alcohol to excess, what are the harmful repercussions?

Firstly, if you drink alcohol excessively you can damage your gastrointestinal system. Research shows that after alcohol passes through your mouth into your stomach, eighty percent of it is quickly absorbed by the stomach’s sticky membrane. Twenty percent is absorbed by the small intestine together with food. Because of this, in eighty percent of situations, the alcohol can first injure the stomach. Chinese medicine considers that the alcohol’s nature is spicy, that it belongs to the quality of heat. The water content of the alcohol belongs to the quality of moistness. Therefore, small quantities of alcohol can stimulate the stomach’s excretion of digestive juices , thereupon increasing the desire to eat and this is the reason why people whet their appetite with an alcoholic beverage before a meal.

If the quantity of alcohol is excessive, then moisture and heat are produced. In consuming large quantities of alcohol, the moisture and heat enters into the stomach, leading to the stomach’s inability to digest food. All the stomach can do is expel it producing nausea and inducing vomiting. If the stomach’s blood capillaries have been damaged, then it is also possible to vomit blood. Over a long period of time, repeated irritations can then lead to the concentration of breath and blood, forming a tumor.

Secondly, excessive amounts of alcohol can injure the liver. We know that the drinking of alcohol has to pass through the liver which filters out all poisons. There is a kind of illness called ‘alcoholic sclerosis of the liver,’ and from its name we know that heavy Indulgence in alcohol has an influential role in the formation of hepatitis, sclerosis of the liver, and other illnesses. When hepatitis and sclerosis reach a certain stage in development, the breath and blood of the liver is obstructed and cannot pass through, this can then lead to the formation of a cancerous tumor.

Thirdly, alcohol can create injury for the lungs. Most interesting is that before people begin drinking, the alcoholic vapors are already passed through the breath and entered into the lungs. Moreover these vapors are quickly oxidized into the blood stream, flowing throughout the entire body. With gradual accumulation over a long period of time, the alcoholic spirits can do damage to the lungs. In addition, Chinese medicine has a theory called ‘lungs are master over the skin and hair,’ meaning the lungs govern the skin and hair functions of the human body.

The nature of alcohol is heat so when it enters the body, a great quantity of thermal energy and moisture is expelled out by the body. The supply capacity of blood to the skin is greatly increased therefore redness occurs and the body feels warmth. On the other hand, the blood supply capacity to the internal organs is relatively decreased and over a long period of time this will result in many organ defects.

From another perspective, a large quantity of alcohol entering the body, due to its hot nature, gives forth a large quantity of thermal energy. At this time, other food substances entering into the body are then not compatible or nor necessary and the alcohol oxidizes into thermal energy which in turn forms fatty tissue which is stored up and can lead to obesity and fat in the liver, etc.

The effect of indulgence in alcohol has been briefly summarized above. Now we will discuss life habits as the third factor and how lifestyle influences the body.

What are our daily routines? We get up in the morning, go to sleep at night, eat three meals a day, do recreational exercise etc. these are all important lifestyle activities. We have already discussed beverages and food. Here I would like to focus our discussion on the problem of sleep and exercise. In the course of meeting many cancer patients, I am extremely surprised to discover that a considerable number of them do not receive sufficient rest. Therefore I’d like to first discuss the problem of sleep.

Let’s start by looking at a medical experiment conducted by Dr. Harker, an English zoologist, who created a dark environment for a group of cockroaches to move about in daytime, and then a light environment for them to move about in the evening. The fixed period of activity and rest for the cockroaches was turned completely upside down. The results reveal the discovery of cancer in the small intestines. Harker then took a nerve segment from the cancer ridden cockroaches and cut out a segment of tissue and injected it into other normal cockroaches. Consequently, the normal cockroaches also developed cancer.

Dear Reader, if you’d like to know more about the findings of Dr. Harker’s experiment, then please read on to the next installment.

Chat #16

Confusion over Activity and Rest at Sunrise and Sundown

Chaos for Breath and Blood from Insufficient Sleep

In the last chapter we discussed excessive drinking of alcohol, and how it can damage the stomach, intestines, liver, lungs and other organs. At the end we mentioned Dr. Harker’s experiment with cockroaches developing cancer.

       Before proceeding on to discuss the analytical meaning of Dr. Harker’s experiment, first I would like to clarify a communication issue. Since the series ‘A Hundred Conversations on Fighting Cancer’ has been published, I have received constant phone calls, whether it be inquiries about illness, to ask questions or to invite me to come lecture. I am very grateful to everyone for your support! Here I would like to explain that during most of my daytime hours I am treating patients and it is often evening before I can return phone calls. However when I return calls, the caller is out and sometimes the phone number is incorrect. To the friends with whom this has happened, please do not misunderstand that I didn’t return the call. If you didn’t receive a call back from me, then please call again so that we can maintain a mutual connection. Thank you!

       We have seen that when Dr. Harker disturbed the daily life regimen of the cockroaches, turning daytime into night and night into day, the cockroaches developed cancer. Previously I mentioned the theory of the biological clock. All living creatures of Mother Nature have set times for activity. Mankind like many other living beings, has daily activities regulated ‘at sundown then rest, at sunrise then work.’ That is to say that people should be doing activities and working in the daytime, and resting and sleeping in the evening.

In observing cancer patients, I was surprised to discover that for the most part, they have problems with the time management of activity and rest. Many do not sleep until one or two o’clock in the morning and still frequently need to get up early.

Our location in the San Francisco Bay Area, with Silicon Valley as its center, fans out to form America’s key area in computer and high technology. A very large number of computer engineers do not abide by ‘work in the day, rest in the evening,’ but rather ‘work in the day and still work at night.’ These days, college students, graduate students, professors and very large proportion of scholars also live the same way. Even more alarming is that even primary, middle school students and high school students also have this tendency; sleeping very late and feeling lethargic about getting up in the morning. People in today’s society are in the process of ignoring the biological clock, and the regularity of life has given way to a direction exactly opposite the rules of Mother Nature.

As people destroy the regularity of life, ‘work in the day, rest in the evening,’ all of the body’s internal activity regulators are then correspondingly scrambled, and over a long period of time this will necessarily create bodily damage. Here I would like to introduce an exceptionally insightful theory, that is to say, the movement of breath and blood throughout the day circulating at different times flows to different organs.

Let’s begin by discussing the morning. From 7a.m. to 9 a.m., blood and breath remain concentrated in the stomach; from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., they flow to the spleen; from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., they flow to the heart; from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., they flow to the small intestines; from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., they flow to the bladder; from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., they flow to the kidneys; from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., they flow to the heart sack; from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., they flow to the San Jiao [Three Passageways; to the stomach, inside the stomach, to the bladder]; from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., they flow to the gallbladder; from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m., they flow to the liver; from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., they flow to the lungs, from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., they flow to the large intestines.

Using this theory we can learn from the viewpoint of the origin of disease, that when the regularity of the biological clock encounters disruption, the blood and breath flow to each organ changes due to the shift in times of activity and rest. Moreover, a corresponding fluctuation occurs which can result in the occurrence of different illnesses. When breath and blood stop for too long in a certain organ, it can cause blockage and with clumps of accumulated blood comes the possibility of malignant change.

Due to the danger of these irregularities, I emphasize to cancer patients the necessity of following the discipline of sleeping early and rising early: ‘In daytime go to work, in evening then rest.’ Later on I will introduce a concrete method. As far as the healthy person is concerned, to prevent cancer, prevent illness, strengthen the health of the body, maintain youth, seek longevity, these all must be in tune with Mother Nature, causing the biological clock of the body and the biological clock of nature to move in synchronization. There is a Chinese proverb in folklore as testimony:

When eating, don’t speak,

When sleeping, not a word,

Healthy and few ills,

Early sleep, early rise,

Can reach a ripe old age still.

Dear Reader, we have finished discussing sleep and rest time and its influence on health and leading to cancer. At this point we should discuss the factor of exercise and its effect on health and it’s influence on cancer. If you’d like to know more about it, please read the next installment.

Chat #17

Prolonged Standing Injures Bones, Walking Injures Tendons,

Sitting Injures Flesh, Speaking Injures breath, Idleness injures Circulation

In the last chapter we discussed lifestyle and its influence on human health and other connections to cancer. Among numerous daily life habits, aside from the activity and rest factor is the movement factor.

In speaking of movement, everyone thinks of running, swimming, and the health club. Appropriate exercise for the health of the human body has definite impact. A Chinese proverb says: ‘Flowing water does not decay, door hinges are not moth-eaten.’ That is to say water that flows with regularity cannot possibly rot and putrefy, the door hinge that turns with regularity cannot possibly be worm-eaten. This is analogous to the human body which in maintaining exercise and can then maintain health. How to maintain exercise health will be introduced later.

       At this point, I’d like to discuss habitual motion primarily from the perspective of the origin of illness and its potential for initiating harm. Firstly, there are five sayings; prolonged standing injures bones, prolonged walking injures tendons, prolonged sitting injures flesh, prolonged speaking injures breath, and prolonged idleness injures circulation.

What do we mean by prolonged standing injures bones? Prolonged standing is regularly staying in a standing position. We know that the standing human body must rely upon the support of the skeleton. Standing for long periods of time will definitely pose a danger to the bone frame. However, Chinese medicine has a different view on this. Chinese medicine considers the kidneys to be master of the bones, that is to say the kidneys control the growth, nourishment and safeguard the movement of the skeleton. Looking from the outside, bone injury is a pathological change in the bones. From the inside, this can be triggered by injury to the breath of the kidneys. Therefore the Chinese medicine approach for treating injured bone illnesses, will take into serious consideration protecting the function of the kidneys. As far as cancer is concerned, causing the bones to remain in a standing posture for a long time will eventually lead to blockage of the flow of breath and blood in the bones, going one step further, it can produce a hematoma mass, either a blood boil, or a malignant change.

What do we mean by prolonged walking injures tendons? That is to say, constant walking motion can lead to injury of the body’s tendons. What are the tendons? If you make a fist and look at the palm side of your forearm, you will see the appearance of two strands tied together which are not as hard as bones, made up of tissue which is actually harder than muscle. That is a tendon. The places that have large joints and small joints in the body, especially in between organs, and within the structure of the organs, all have this kind of tissue. The function of the tendons is primarily to mutually connect the body’s musculature and joints, it is a kind of connective tissue.

The liver governs tendons, that is to say the liver controls the growth, nourishment and activity function of the tendons. With injured tendons, from the outside it appears to be a tendon illness, from the inside it influences the function of the liver. From the perspective of Chinese medicine, if there is a longstanding tendon illness, then the breath and blood flow to the tendon is clogged, and over a long period of time this can form an accumulated mass, a tumor. Chinese medicine must treat the tendon and the liver simultaneously.

       What do we mean by prolonged sitting injures flesh? Remaining in a sitting posture for too long will injure the body’s muscle system. Chinese medicine considers the spleen to govern musculature. The spleen controls the growth, nourishment and activity function of the muscles. When the muscles are injured, from the outside it is an illness of the muscle system, on the inside it influences the function of the spleen and stomach. Living in the Silicon Valley, there are many people engaged in computer work, and it is difficult to avoid being in a sitting posture for lengthy periods of time. It is easy to then trigger muscle fatigue, loss of strength in all four limbs and have a feeling of listlessness. Over a long period of time this will influence the digestive and absorption function of the spleen and stomach, producing abdominal swelling, stomach discomfort or pain, soft or formless bowel movements or diarrhea. When this occurs, relying solely on seeking a doctor to treat the symptoms oftentimes poses difficulties in resolving the basic problem. Being mindful of not sitting for too long a time, shifting one’s whole body posture at specified times will avoid muscle strain. From another point of view, long term muscle strain can lead to a loss of movement of breath and blood within the muscles. Going one step further, it can trigger a hematoma of clogged blood, even to the extent of a malignant change. Even more likely to occur is stomach and intestinal obstruction opening the possibility for the latent influence of stomach and intestinal tract cancer.

       What do we mean by prolonged speaking damages the breath? Talking too much can injure the body’s breath. What then is the body’s breath? On a basic level we can understand it as the body’s functions. You might be surprised to hear that talking a lot can injure the functions of the body! In fact, it is not the least bit strange. Chinese medicine considers this to be the case. In many situations, before the body has manifested any sign of illness, or said another way, before palpable tissue organ damage has occurred, at first there will be some symptoms before the onset of illness, a functional change occurs in the tissue organs. At this time going for a blood test, urine analysis, X-ray, Ultrasound, Electrocardiogram, CT, Nuclear-magnetic Resonance, oftentimes does not uncover any problems. Nevertheless, there is a feeling of discomfort in the body. Chinese medicine considers this to be a kind of functional injury, or to use a modern phrase, a ‘secondary health condition.’

Dear Reader if you’d like to go one step further in your knowledge of how speaking too much can injure your breath, please listen to the analysis in the next installment.Chat #18

Prolonged Speaking can Injure the Breath and the Lungs

Insufficient Central Breath can also Injure the Spleen

In the previous chapter we discussed the movement factor with prolonged standing which injures bones, prolonged walking which injures tendons, and prolonged sitting which injures flesh. We also began a discussion of the problem of prolonged speaking which injures the breath.

Before beginning our discussion, please allow me to respond to the phone calls of Mr. Zhang of Los Angeles and Mr.Tang of New York.

Mr. Zhang: “Greetings Dr. Ma. Every day I read your serial ‘A Hundred Conversations on Chinese Medicine Fighting Cancer’. I am really amazed that originally Chinese medicine has so many excellent theories, moreover from the sound of it, they have a great deal of scientific reasoning. I am grateful to you for introducing the Chinese medicine fight against cancer and at the same time introducing the essence of Chinese theories of medicine.”

Response: “Many thanks, Mr. Zhang. Throughout ‘A Hundred Conversations on Chinese Medicine Fighting Cancer’ one of my goals has been to diligently popularize the essence of Chinese learning on medicine and hopefully to introduce it to a broad audience. I will continue to work conscientiously on this.”

Mr. Tang: “I am engaged in translation work. Fortuitously, I encountered some of the content of your ‘A Hundred Conversations on Chinese Medicine Fighting Cancer’ at a friend’s house. I feel that you must quickly translate this work into English, It will surely be well received by Americans.”

Response: “Many thanks, Mr. Tang. My plan is that after the Chinese version has been completed, I will adjust the content to suit English readers, and after that I will consider an English edition.”

Now, let’s now return to the main topic. It is said that speaking too long can damage the breath, and if it continues on a regular basis, it might negatively impact the functional activity of the body. What kind of functional activity? We already know that the kidney governs the bones, the liver governs the tendons, the spleen governs the flesh. What is the breath governed by? As previously mentioned, the lungs govern the breath, that is to say the lungs control the production and distribution of the body’s breath. The nose and larynx are both governed by the jurisdiction of the lungs. When we speak, we must use the lung’s breath to produce airflow and the airflow sound repeatedly beats against the vocal chords of the larynx, producing the sound of words. When too many words are spoken, this expends a great deal of the lung’s breath and over time of course can injure the lung’s breath producing a hoarse voice, a change to a lower register, a dry throat, a lack of breath and energy. It can even reach the point of a dry cough which over time can result in coughing up blood. If this kind of situation continues on, then sudden cellular changes can be initiated resulting in cancer.

During the Chinese Jin/Yuan dynasties, a period separated from us by over a thousand years, there was a story of an extraordinarily famous medical doctor named Li Dongyuan. Please note this is not Li Shizhen, who was a famous pharmacologist of the Ming dynasty. Li Dongyuan’s ‘Discourse on Spleen and Stomach’ is a famed and prominent work in the history of Chinese medicine. The last chapter of this work is called ‘Comment on Frugality with Words’ discusses the fact that speaking excessively not only can injure the lung’s breath, it can also injure the central breath, that of the spleen and stomach.

       If we think back for a moment to the theory of the Five Elements in Chinese medicine, wood, fire, earth, metal and water are mutually produced in sequence and this mutual promotion of sequence corresponds to the organs of the human body; liver, heart, spleen, lungs, kidney. The spleen gives rise to the lungs refers to the fact that the spleen’s function is advantageous to the lung function, helping to maintain its normal condition not that the spleen ‘produces’ the lung. Because the spleen and stomach are essential for digestion and the absorption of food, their nutrient component is transported to the lungs, making the lungs a nutrient rich source. In pathology, with an illness of the spleen, there is no way to give the lungs its fill of nutrients, which may lead to lung disease. The Five Elements call this ‘mother illness and child.’ Alternatively, with lung disease, the lungs have no way to pass through normal breathing function and take the inhaled oxygen to the spleen. Naturally, the spleen and stomach digestion and absorption functions are then blocked. The Five Elements call this ‘Child illness and mother.’

This is the rationale behind the idea that excessive talking can injure your lung’s breath. When this occurs over a long period of time, it can damage the breath of the spleen and stomach. On occasion we hear someone speak with weak breath and they are critiqued: ‘How come this person doesn’t have enough central breath?’ If we think about it, inhaled oxygen and digested food produce material nourishment. These are both extremely important for the body and if a blockage occurs, then naturally this will trigger pathological changes in the lungs and spleen.

Having finished our discussion of excessive talking injuring the breath, we now turn to another extremely serious problem, ‘prolonged idleness injures circulation.’

Dear reader, if you’d like to know about it, then please listen to the analysis in the next installment.

Chat #19

Ten Big Dangers with Prolonged Idleness

The Environmental Factor: Inside and Out

In the last chapter we discussed the problem of excessive talking injuring the breath. Now we will turn to the problem of prolonged idleness injuring circulation.

Prolonged idleness injuring circulation points to excessive inactivity or, said another way, a lack of exercise. This will injure the body’s blood circulation. What exactly is the body’s blood circulation? It is the movement of blood through the passageways, commonly called blood vessels. The blood vessels are dispersed throughout the entire body, the relatively large ones can be seen from the surface of the skin, the very small ones can only be seen with a microscope. There is no place where they don’t go, they take the inhaled oxygen from nature which passes through the lungs as well as digested and absorbed food which has produced nourishment material to be transported throughout the body. Which organ governs blood circulation? Of course, it is the heart. The heart governs blood circulation and also pushes the blood through the vessels, flowing to the entire body. One who always dwells in idleness, indulges in leisure and deplores work, living too lazy a life, can easily develop circulatory illnesses, especially illnesses of the heart and brain vessels. Idlers can also develop obesity, diabetes, fatty liver and other pathological conditions. Going one step further, it sets the preconditions for cancer.

The United Nations World Health Organization did research on the dangers of lack of exercise, a sedentary lifestyle and sitting too long all of which can lead to doubling the risk of illnesses of the heart vessels, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, loosening of bone tissue, even to the point of providing the opportunity for bowel cancer. It can also trigger a tendency toward depression and anxiety. Each year, throughout the world there are over two million deaths related to sedentary lifestyle, ranking it as one of the world’s ten highest causes of death. From this we can see that excessive idleness factor in Chinese medicine is based on scientific reasoning.

We have already discussed injury on bones due to prolonged standing, injury on tendons due to prolonged walking, injury to flesh from prolonged sitting, injury to the breath from prolonged talking and the injury to circulation from prolonged idleness.

Another related problem is prolonged eyestrain which injures the blood. We know that the liver governs the eyes, that is to say that the liver function controls the growth and development of the eye, eyesight and visual acuity.

Chinese medicine understands the growth and movement of the blood from three aspects. The first is that the heart governs the blood, pushing the blood to circulate. The second is that the spleen produces blood and controls the blood, that is to say the spleen’s function is creating blood. The control of blood by the spleen refers to the breath of the spleen which regulates the blood flow in the blood vessels ensuring that the blood will not flow outside the circulatory system which would cause hemorrhaging. The third is that the liver stores blood, this happens at night when blood from all over the body flows into the liver and is stored there except for a certain amount which remains to safeguard necessary life activities. At this time the liver is like a blood storehouse. When day light comes, the liver once again takes the stored up blood and releases it throughout the entire body.

Now to explain how prolonged eyestrain injures the blood. This points to injury of the liver’s blood since the liver governs the eyes and is also an organ for storing blood. There are many Silicon Valley computer engineers and a large percentage of these engineers are staring at a computer screen for 7-8 hours a day, some as long as 10 hours. Over time, this leads to declining eyesight as well as eye problems, tearing eyes, dizziness, etc. The Chinese medicinal treatment is then to nourish the liver’s blood to clear the eyes.

We have already discussed the influence of the movement factor on the body. In sum, the movement factor includes two aspects; the first is overwork, that is to say excessive work fatigue, such as prolonged standing injuring bones, prolonged walking injuring tendons, prolonged speaking injuring the breath and overtired eyes injuring the blood etc. The second is excessive idleness, that is too much inactivity, for example, prolonged idleness injuring circulation, prolonged sitting injuring flesh, etc. Of course from the point of view of work habits, prolonged sitting injuring the flesh can also be categorized as one of the overwork factors.

Dear Reader, we have four main factors related to the formation of cancer and have already investigated emotional states, food and beverages and lifestyle habits as three major factors. Below we will begin to analyze another extremely important factor, that of the environment.

Firstly, I would like to define the concept behind the use of the term environment. I will introduce two kinds of environmental factors; the first is called the external environmental factor, it is the factor from nature and can also be understood as the body’s external environment factor. The second kind is called internal environmental factor, it is intrinsic within the body.

       First, a look at the external environmental factor. Looking at the surrounding environment you discover natural and manmade phenomena; air, sunlight, earth, rivers, lakes and oceans, tall buildings, country homes, airplanes, cars and as well as computers, refrigerators, air conditioners, and telephones, etc. These things all have a critical influence on our health.

I sum up the external environment factors into five categories: Air, sunshine, properties of water, geography and equipment factors. Each will be discussed separately below.

Firstly, I’d like to introduce the air factor from two different perspectives. One is the climate factor and the other is air pollution. Traditionally, Chinese medicine divides the study of the origin of illness into three causes; internal, external, and those that are neither internal nor external. The internal factor is emotional state of mind, the external factor is climate and the ones that are neither include factors such as food and drink, activity or idleness, and external injury etc. From this we can see that Chinese medicine looks at the climate factor as key area of concern.

Natural climate can be summed up into six types: wind, cold, heat, humidity, dryness and fire just as the natural world has its four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter.

Dear Reader, if you’d like to know about changes in the climate and seasons of the natural world and how they influence the health of the human body, even leading to their connection in the formation of cancer, then please read the next installment.

Chat #20

Wind, Cold, Summer Heat, Humidity, Dryness and Fire

Spring, Summer, Extended Summer, Autumn and Winter

In the last chapter we finished our discussion about lifestyle habits and how they impact the health of the human body and the development of cancer. Now we will turn to the question of environmental factors. We have mentioned that there are both internal and external environmental factors. External environmental factors are divided into five kinds, the first of which is air. The air factor is divided into two categories of climate and air pollution.

I mentioned in chapter one that Chinese medicine is based on the theory of the five elements and that everything is classified in one of these five categories. The climate of the natural world and the seasons are no exception. Chinese medicine takes the six kinds of climates and condenses them to five: wind, cold, heat and fire, humidity and dryness. Here we combine heat and fire into one because summer heat is scorching hot, its nature is heat, the same as fire.

Chinese medicine also takes the four seasons and expands them to five; spring, summer, extended summer, autumn and winter. The so-called extended summer refers to the rainy period between summer and autumn when the plums are ripening. China’s Jiangnan region is most representative of extended summer. Because summer’s special characteristic is a scorching sun with sultry heat blazing like fire, one branch is the phenomenon of fiery heat. The other branch is the phenomenon of continual clouds and rain which occurs when we reach the period between summer and autumn. The extension of the seasons from four to five is not without reason, moreover it is in accord with the specific characteristics of the natural climate.

Why then do we take the six kinds of climate and four seasons and re-categorize them into five?

Dear Reader, once again I would like to present you with an astounding theory from Chinese medicine: Different climate conditions and different seasons have a connection with the internal organs and tissues of the human body!

       In springtime, there is plentiful wind, one of its outstanding characteristics. In the human body, the liver governs channeling and dispersal, which means that the liver’s function is to push through the body’s breath mechanisms smoothly. This kind of exertion is extremely gentle and soft, like a spring breeze brushing the willow, therefore the spring breath penetrates into the liver and wind is governed by the liver. Springtime is when liver illnesses easily erupt. To prevent and cure them one has to seize hold of spring’s unique character. In addition, illnesses that carry wind or have those characteristics, for example, the trembling limb from Parkinson’s disease, the dizziness from high blood pressure, brain vessels which unexpectedly trigger a tilted mouth or eye and partial limb paralysis etc. all discussion of their cure begins with the liver. In Chinese medicine this is the so-called ‘Varied winds turn in confusion, they all belong to the liver.’

Summer’s intense heat is the special characteristic of its seasonal climate. Within the body, the heart governs the circulation of blood, pushing the blood through the blood vessels. This kind of propulsion takes a great deal of force, surging through, like the blistering heat of summer’s fire, an uncontrolled heat, galloping on without end. Therefore, summer’s breath penetrates the heart, it’s heat and fire belong to the heart. In the summer season, heat ailments easily occur, and to prevent and cure them one must seize hold of summer’s unique character. Moreover, the illnesses of fire and heat can burn the body’s tissue, therefore a discussion of cure for ulcers, hemorrhaging, pain ailments begins from the heart. Chinese medicine calls this ‘Varied painful ulcers and sores all belong to the heart.’

Extended summer has heavy rainfall and belongs to the water category. If we get soaked by rainwater, the body certainly feels sticky and stagnant. Therefore Chinese medicine considers stickiness and stagnation to be the character of water and this can lead to so-called ‘high humidity ailments’. Humidity is the special characteristic of extended summer. Within the body, the spleen governs movement and conversion of water and humidity, so the spleen’s function is to transport water containing digested fluid and humid breath which is both flowing and stagnant. This kind of transport and conversion is continuous and slow like the clouds and rain, and therefore the breath of extended summer penetrates the spleen. Humidity belongs to the spleen and stomach and spleen ailments easily arise during the extended summer or period of continuous clouds and rain. Therefore, to prevent spleen and stomach ailments one must seize hold of the unique character of extended summer. In addition, the character of humidity is stickiness and stagnation, and as it impacts muscles it can trigger tissue tension and stiffness in the nape of the neck and other muscle tissue. Discussion of a cure starts from the spleen. Chinese medicine calls this ‘Various spasms of the neck are powerful, they all belong to humidity.’

Autumn is very dry and this is the seasons’ special characteristic. Within the body, the lungs govern breath, and the lung’s function is to take the inhaled oxygen from nature and provide it to all the tissues and organs of the entire body. Inhaled oxygen enters in and disperses out of the lungs continually, therefore the phenomenon of dryness can easily occur in the lungs. Dry skin, dry throat, dry stool and a dry, unproductive cough etc. all belong to the phenomenon of dry lungs. Therefore autumn breath penetrates into the lungs, and dryness belongs to the lungs and lung ailments easily occur during autumn. In order to prevent and cure lung ailments, one must seize hold of autumn’s unique character.

Dear Reader, if you’d like to know the special characteristics of winter and it’s connection to the organs of the body, then please read on to the analysis in the next installment.