Nexus - 0110 - New Times Magazine-pages

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atoms or molecules with unpaired electrons, an unavoidable occurrence in bio-chemical reactions. There could be no life as we know it without free radicals. f In 1939 Dr William Frederick Koch summarised the feature shared by the chemistries of all disease organisms, that leaves every one of them vulnerable on the same front: “Molecular structures that catalytically quench the normal oxidation catalysis possess rather heavy molecular weight which contributes inertia. At the same time they possess an ethylene, quinone, imide or amino group, the free valencies of which actively absorb the energy of the positive oxidation catalyst and thus remove its activity from the reaction field. The toxins of pathogenic germs and allergenic substances are all built up along this plan. They therefore possess a common mechanism of action which offers a single means of attack whereby they can be completely destroyed so far as their toxic action is concerned. One agent, therefore, can serve specifically destructive to all of them and this agent is a vigorous oxidation catalysis.” Although there was massive documentation on the effectiveness of his compounds, today they appear to be unavailable and largely unknown... Another promising oxygenating substance was Ozol, a safely breathable carrier of ozone described in 1912 in Dr Homer Bennett’s “Electro-Therapeutic Guide”. The inventor, William N. Neel of Chicago, found that ozone can be attached to certain aromatic oils which may then be inhaled without any lung irritation... Many other safe high-oxygen supplements are waiting to be identified and synthesised. The curative properties of certain plants such as taheebo and echinacea are partly due to their ability to bind large amounts of active oxygen into organic molecules that we can assimilate. In 1931 Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize for his delineation of the anaerobic cancer metabolism, so it must have been considered an important discovery at the time. Cancer cells derive energy from sugar fermentation instead of oxidation like normal cells (see Now What#1). Any cells deprived of 60% or more of their oxygen supply will turn cancerous; if a healthy oxygen tension is restored, the cells resume a normal metabolism. But apparently there was no way to make oxygen therapy anywhere near as profitable as radiation, chemotherapy or radical surgery, unfortunately for cancer patients. Ironically enough, it turns out that it’s not uncommon for oncologists in the US to administer IVs that include H,O,, “to help improve the effectiveness” of the radiation or chemotherapy. The charges that cheap alternative cancer treatments have been squashed to protect the existing medical industry’s financial commitments have been around for a long time. In 1959 The Cancer Blackout by Maurice Natenberg (Regent House, Chicago) detailed some twenty successful therapies that had appeared previously, drawing high praise from patients and sincere physicians but heavy fire from medical authorities. Natenberg’s description of the situation 30 years ago sounds chillingly familiar today, with the key difference that the public sense of urgency is finally forcing alternatives into the open... Somehow the general notion has spread that ‘free radicals’ are categorically dangerous and that HO, is and/or produces a free radical, so it too must be dangerous. Free radicals are just However, some free radicals are indeed dangerous. The properties of free radicals vary widely, depending on the atoms composing them. Some are toxic to all living cells, others only to the most vulnerable cells. Singlet oxygen is a highly reactive free radical that acts as a scavenger of other free radicals. The oxygen combines with them to render them harmless, thereby protecting the cells in a sufficiently oxygenated body. While guarding us from free radical damage, singlet oxygen will also oxidise the membranes from around any unprotected cells. The key is that healthy cells are normally protected by enzymes such as catalase, reductase superoxide dismutase, and gluthione peroxidase, that block any potentially dangerous reactions from occurring. Disease microbes have no such protective enzymes, nor do cancerous or other disease-weakened cells. By this elegant mechanism single-atom oxygen distinguishes microbial friends from foes and attacks only invading pathogens and cells that have ‘gone over’, The ‘dangerous free radicals’ from H,O, are dangerous only to’ tissues which are so thoroughly diseased that they are no longer of much help to the body anyway. In such cases the body’s oxygen level needs to be raised gradually, so as not to overload the elimination system with too many sloughed-off seditious cells at one time. “Oxygen uptake can be increased by some 30% by improving the body's electrical conductivity to the ground” These “anti-oxidant enzymes”, which term does not really describe their entire function, are now gaining in popularity as nutritional and/or medicinal supplements. They have been shown to help protectmarginally healthy cells from general free radical damage and make it easier to repair damage that’s already occurred. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) in particular has helped reduce a variety of disorders; nomnally it’s among the body’s most plentiful enzymes. However, prolonged use of supplements could tend to atrophy the internal bio-chemical processes that would normally be making those enzymes. In any case it does not address the oxygen deficiency which underlies the condition being treated, and which causes the cells to be too weak to produce their own protective enzymes in the first place. It appears that the essential mechanism in many useful therapies is the increase of active oxygen they induce at disease sites by various means... The effectiveness of negative ion generators for cleaning and recharging air and promoting the healing of burns and lung problems, has been well documented elsewhere. The aspect that applies here is that the lungs can absorb oxygen more easily from air that is negatively ionised (carrying extra electrons); a key factor in the invigorating effect Nexus “10 47 —— Confusion Over Free Radicals —— Continued over...