Nutrition

The importance of minerals and trace elements

for health and cancer prevention

US - Sri Lanka Cancer Mortality Comparison

A revealing article by Peter H. Weis, Vancouver; B.C.^[1] outlining ”what may well be a simple, supremely effective, and completely natural cancer cure”. And if not cancer cure, then possibly at least a way to prevent and help heal untold cancers while simultaneously allowing our civilisation-battered environment and eco-systems to recuperate and return to a healthy state.

Article edited by Healing Cancer Naturally for reasons of space.

Cancer mortality overall in Sri Lanka is 7.5 times lower than cancer mortality in the US.
Colon cancer mortality in Sri Lanka is 187 (!) times lower than in the US
Prostate cancer mortality is over 137 times lower.
Lung cancer mortality is 39 times lower in Sri Lanka than in the US.
Breast cancer mortality is over 20 times lower (a Sri Lankan woman‘s chance of breast cancer = 1.6 / 100.000).
Leukemia mortality is over 5 times lower.
(Source: World Health Statistics Annual (1996); WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION)

Peter H. Weis:

”These facts point directly to a natural, nutritional cancer cure... and what amounts to the greatest horror story ever perpetuated upon humanity.

The horror story of an agriculture which robs our daily food of over 60 natural and crucially vital trace elements without which we sicken and die — and as if this were not enough – an agriculture which then adds its poisons to our daily food, to the air we breathe, to the water we drink, and to the soil in which we grow our crops.

The horror story of an animal husbandry which laces our daily food with powerful growth and female hormones — hormones which accelerate growth — including that of cancer, of course — push young girls and boys into earlier and earlier puberty at the cost of the development of their brains, and feminize males.

Add to this the powerful antibiotics fed routinely to livestock, which have now made many strains of deadly bacteria immune to these powerful drugs [and which seem to have contributed to the spread of Candida fungus overgrowth].

The horror story of a container and convenience industry which laces our bodies with powerful pseudo estrogens and xenohormones which interfere with our vitally fine-tuned hormone balance; and an industry which contaminates our air, our land and our water with its chemical pollutants.

These then, are the factors — and in the order listed here — which are the cause of the massively higher incidence of cancer — as well as of many other incurable, autoimmune, chronic and degenerative diseases.

Of these, the severe deficiency or lack of over 60 crucially vital trace elements in our daily food is by far the largest cause of most diseases — at my guess about 80%. Next are the agricultural poisons which our agricultural and horticultural industries have foisted upon us, followed by the the other causes in the order as listed.

Let us now take a look at Sri Lanka to see what is so different from the US, Canada and the Western world in general.

Sri Lanka is a densely populated island with about 19 million people on 25.300 sq. miles, and an average population density of 739 people per square mile. Sri Lanka's major national production consists of agriculture, forestry, tea, gems, raw rubber and rubber products, and the average household income is SL Rs 116,100 (U.S.$2,600).

About 23% of the population live in the lightly industrialized (clothing and accessories, gems, rubber products) five major urban centres, and about 73% live in the rural areas, in villages which merge with one another, each a conglomerate of homestead gardens interspersed with tracts of rice paddies. [sources: "Sri Lanka Web Window" by Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry; and Encyclopedia Britannica]

This means that the large impoverished rural population raises all of its own food, and much of the country's food. As is typical of underdeveloped and developing countries — which cannot afford modern farming methods, equipment and fertilizers — they grow their food by the traditional methods of hand cultivation and fertilization by returning all life wastes to the soil.

And the latter, incidentally, returns to and maintains the complete natural spectrum of the 72+ trace elements in the soil and, consequently, in all of their daily food. And this is the major cause of the Sinhaleses' extremely low cancer rate and general robust health.

The far lower cancer mortality and lower incidence of other physical and mental diseases among the Sinhalese is even more significant since hygiene among the crowded rural population is a far cry from what we are accustomed too, and refrigeration is practically entirely absent. Their immune systems put ours to shame by a long shot [Sinhalese death rate per 1,000 population: 5.9; world average: 9.3].

The extremely low death rate of the Sinhalese would be much lower yet if so many weren't killed by violence and food poisoning (38.6% per 100.000, and the second leading cause of death). The high rate of food poisoning is due to poor hygiene and the absence of refrigeration in a tropical climate.

It remains to be said that the typical diet of the Sinhalese consists of 95% grains (chiefly rice), vegetables and fruit, and of 5% seafood and meat.

We can also eliminate the notion that the Sinhalese are blessed with unusually healthy genes. The Sinhalese are a rich and varied mix of the original inhabitants (now almost extinct), of 4th century AD settlers from Northern India (predominant), with a long continuing influx of Tamils from Southern India, a 10th century influx of Moors from Northern Africa, an 11th century influx of Javanese political exiles (nobles and chieftains), and in the 16th century, of Javanese (also Balinese, Tidorese, Madurese, Sundanese, Bandanese and Amboinese) soldiers and convicts from Java under Dutch rule — along with a varied admixture of genes from the 5 centuries long succession of Portugese, Dutch and Englisch colonial empires.

That genes are not a factor is further underscored by the almost as low incidence of disease and cancer among the Chinese and Japanese (the second and third lowest in the world by far). And if it were not for the significantly higher rate of stomach and liver cancers (and particularly so among Japanese males), the cancer mortality of these two vast populations would be as low as that of the Sinhalese.

Most significantly though, these two countries also still predominantly practice a traditional agriculture which returns all life-wastes to the soil, and with it, the full natural spectrum of the 72+ trace elements. Consequently, most of their daily food also contains the 72+ natural trace elements.

In China in particular, the 6 thousand year-old tradition of returning all life wastes to the soil is so deeply ingrained that it is practised more strictly than any religion. For the great majority of Chinese farmers it is the only fertilizer there is.

We can also eliminate industrial pollution as a major factor. Owing to the fact that Japan is the 3rd largest economy in the world, yet is one of the smallest and most densely populated countries of the world, Japan is the most heavily industrialized country in the world, with all the environmental consequences thereof.

Modern in every respect, the Japanese are also subject to the consequent air and environmental pollution, as well as the chemical contaminants in the the wide variety of plastics which are now so pervasive in our lives.

Yet, and only with the exceptions of stomach and liver cancer, the cancer mortality and incidence of disease among the Japanese is almost as dramatically low as that of the Sinhalese. (The incidence of Alzheimer’s, for instance is 5.4% in Hawaii vs. 1.5% of the population in Japan — source: "The Hawaii-Japan Study", Journal of the American Medical Association).

Altogether, these three countries comprise more than one third of the world's population, a combined population of over 2 billion which exhibits the lowest cancer and disease rates in the world, and in many instances, and with few exceptions, dramatically so.

And I fully expect that India has a similar disease and cancer rate to that of Sri Lanka — practically all of the same conditions apply — but I could not find any figures. Apparently, India does not yet track these statistics. If India should prove to have a similarly low incidence of cancer and other diseases as that of Sri Lanka — as one may fully expect — then we are looking at about half of the world's population whose incidence of cancer and diseases is dramatically lower than that of the Western World.

Finally, and since about 1/2 (including India) of the world's population has dramatically lower cancer and diseases rates than the Western world, we must now ask why our health sciences have not jumped on this long ago and figured out what makes us so much sicker — and kills so many more of us. And particularly so — given these diverse cultures — since the cause can be isolated so easily, and since the remedy is so simple, so ridiculously cheap and, as these diverse cultures demonstrate, so supremely effective.”

Notes by Healing Cancer Naturally

Some may object that the above observations do not take into account the major lifestyle and probably stress level differences existing between the two countries. While this is true and general perceived stress is likely to be much greater in the US, there still remains the fact that cancer mortality in the US has risen from 1 in 50 to 1 in 3 over the last hundred years, with stress alone being an unlikely candidate or causative agent to account for such a dramatic increase.

So while there is a much lower incidence of cancer in Sri Lanka pointing indeed to a (trace) mineral/vitamin deficiency coupled with toxin onslaught (pesticides, drugs, etc. etc.) as a major causative agent of cancer in the Westernized world, there still IS some cancer occurring in this healthy people.

Unless all those stricken by cancer in Sri Lanka were alcoholics or otherwise deviating strongly from the healthy diet enjoyed by the vast majority of the populace, this would be another clue pointing to the likelihood of cancer being multicausal, i.e. having different or several causes. See Causes of Cancer, Emotions, Mind, Spirituality, Geopathic Stress and Energetics.

Also read Low Incidence Cancer Areas (excerpted from Cesium Chloride (High pH Therapy): A Cure for Cancer?) and the article of the same name (excerpted from ”The High pH Therapy for Cancer” and discussing the Hopi Indians of Arizona, the Hunza of North Pakistan, as well as Central and South American Indians) and their relationship to (trace) mineral-rich nutrition.

The findings of Dr. Joel Wallach

On his tape entitled: "Dead Doctors don't lie", Dr. Wallach, BS, DVM, ND., a veterinarian doctor, says, "Every animal or human that died of natural causes died of a mineral deficiency".

Symptoms of mineral deficiency according to Dr. Wallach:

Calcium deficiency: Facial muscles are sagging, osteoporosis sets in. The following also develop, according to natural pre-dispositions: heel spurs, kidney stones, calcium deposits, cramps and twitches, PMS, lower back pain. Arthritis is osteoporosis of the joint ends of the bones (in 80% of all cases).

Chromium deficiency: Man develops 'Pica' an unnatural craving for chocolate, sweets and other substances such as pickles, dirt etc.

Bismuth deficiency: Heals ulcers (Helicobacter pilori) together with some tetracycline (antibiotic). You can also use Manuka honey.

Selenium deficiency: Together with Vitamin E, Beta-carotene and Selenium, more than 13% of all cancers can be cured according to a Chinese study. This also cures cardio-myopathy (heart attack) and 'liver' spots.

Boron deficiency: Kidney stones are symptoms of a raging calcium deficiency. This condition is quickly cured with addition of calcium (please, not calcium carbonate), magnesium and boron. Addition of this mineral also helps regulate testosterone and estrogen hormone production.

Copper deficiency: Ruptured aneurysms, a ballooning of blood vessels, a weakening of the fibers of arteries, strokes — can always be cured by the addition of copper. Gray hair also disappears then. So do vericose veins and sagging body parts.

Chromium and vanadium deficiency: Low blood sugar, diabetes.

Tin deficiency: Male baldness

Zinc deficiency: Loss of smell and taste. Loss of male libido.

Salt deficiency: Hypertension (high blood pressure) in conjunction with calcium supplementation.

Consider this: The addition of rare earth elements (lanthanides) doubles the life-span in animals.

Some of Dr. Wallach's observations include:

”Our genetic potential for longevity is at least 120 to 140 years. The present average life-span of humans is 75.3 years. The average life-span of medical doctors is 58 years.”

A rich and inexpensive source of all known minerals and trace minerals is seaweed. Organic food due to the way it is grown will also be a richer source and contain minerals and trace elements in a balanced ratio, in contrast to conventionally grown food. And wild herbs are not to be sneezed at either...

Healing mineral & trace element deficiencies

1 Seaweed

2 Colloidal and other mineral supplements

According to Dr. A., a naturopathic physician, ”The intake of vitamins is virtually useless without minerals... Only organic and colloidal minerals can be assimilated and used by your body cells! ... As the body gets re-mineralized, it also becomes more normalized (and thus more healthy) and becomes progressively less suitable for parasites, bacteria and viruses which can only exist in a de-mineralized and therefore ‘sick’ body.

... the intake of minerals represents the prime reason why living beings (including man) eat. As most foods one can purchase are woefully deficient in minerals (the soil has no longer any of these minerals except NPK supplied by agricultural fertilizers) one MUST supply these in adequate amounts or else ANY disease is ultimately a deficiency disease directly attributable to a lack of one or more minerals."

As this subject is somewhat complex and I am rewriting this chapter to reflect additional information, the reader meanwhile is asked to refer to Dr. Tim O'Shea’s highly recommended thedoctorwithin.com site. Among other things, Dr. O’Shea disagrees about the value of minerals in colloidal form and recommends other forms of minerals. You can read his extensive Minerals article “Minerals — What Dietary Mineral Supplement Should You Buy” at www.thedoctorwithin.com/minerals/Minerals.php .

Also see Supplements, Bioavailability: the science behind “live” and “dead” minerals and On food & supplement absorption, intestinal flora, cancer and immune system: It’s not what you ingest, but what your cells actually absorb.

3 Organic nutrition.

4 Wild herbs as a rich source of minerals

Last but far from least, a wonderful and free source of minerals and trace elements are wild herbs. In contrast to their "civilised" relatives, they generally not only boast higher vitamin but also increased mineral and trace element content (as shown for instance by German botanist Professor Wolfgang Franke [1921-2001] who inter alia researched wild vegetables).

What makes the humble "weeds" even more interesting is their frequently wide-ranging therapeutic potential including against cancer, see e.g. Stinging nettle medicinal effects, Taraxacum (dandelion) medicinal effects and Cure testimony: terminal lung cancer with metastases (healed via detoxification with wild herb smoothies and raw foods) — another reason to liberally incorporate wild herbs into one's diet.

5 Additional information on healing mineral & trace element deficiencies

More tips and advice can be found under Foods rich in minerals & trace elements: some easily affordable sources.

... and for the best, easiest, and least expensive ways I know to heal cancer

after studying the subject for some twenty years, click here.

Footnotes

1 formerly published at www.truehealth.org/acompare.html

Related section

Nutrition