Cancer’s Achilles Heel: Oxidative Stress
- Cynthia Chin-Lee
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
A few years ago when I posted on social media that I was eating a plant-based diet to control my cancer, I had two friends comment on my post. They essentially said that a plant-based diet alone would not be enough. And perhaps they were right, though, I’ve heard of people secondhand with early stage cancer, who have reversed cancer with diet alone. (And a belated thank you to the people who took the time to comment on my social media posts. I know you have my interests in mind!)
Though diet is at the foundation of my treatment, I've also taken aromatase inhibitors (hormone blockers) which are part of conventional care and well-suited to my estrogen-positive breast cancer. On top of that I have taken and am taking nutraceuticals (organic compounds with the potency of pharmaceuticals). I haven’t taken the time to explain the nutraceuticals because it does get technical. Some people don’t like to get into the technical stuff. However, it pays to get technical when it comes to your health.
Because cancer cells grow rapidly, they have a higher metabolism and consume nutrients, such as, glucose (sugar) and glutamine (a conditionally essential amino acid) at much higher rates than normal cells. This high metabolism is one reason cancer cells are under oxidative stress.
Oxidation is simply the transfer or loss of electrons from one atom or molecule to another. Common forms of oxidation are rust on a car or brown spots on a slice of apple. In the last blog post the Rusty Bucket, I talked about how this oxidative stress is a weakness in cancer cells that we can take advantage of. Some call this the “Achilles heel of cancer.” In Greek mythology, the river nymph Thetis dipped her baby Achilles into the River Styx to protect him from harm and to make him superhuman. The one part she could not dip into the river was his heel (that’s what she was holding onto) and that was the only weak part of his body. Achilles eventually succumbed to a wound in his heel.
The Achilles heel of cancer may be its oxidative stress. The folks at Nutritional Oncology Research Institute (NORI) have explained it quite elegantly on their web site here. [1]They compare the cancer cell to an overheated sports car, spewing the toxic fumes of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS are molecules such as hydrogen peroxide and superoxide free radicals, highly charged molecules ready to do some cellular damage.
In contrast, a normal cell runs on a steady, safe idle. In the cancer cell, if the ROS runs just a little higher, the cancer cell will collapse from the ROS. To counteract the ROS, the cancer cell has its own defense mechanism. Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2) is a master switch that turns on antioxidant systems.
We can weaken the antioxidant defense until the cancer cells collapse and die. There are two nutraceuticals that turn down the antioxidant defense in cancer and you’ve probably never heard of them. At least not from your conventional oncologist…
Sodium Selenite
The first is sodium selenite. It disables the thioredoxin (Trx) antioxidant system, one of the body’s main ways to prevent cellular damage. In 2009, a clinical trial at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, gave one set of cancer (non Hodgkin's lymphoma) patients chemotherapy by itself. A second set was given chemo and sodium selenite. The patients, who received the added sodium selenite, had a statistically significant improvement in cancer cell reduction from 58.9 percentage for set one to 78.9 percentage for set two. [2]
There is a safe dosage range where sodium selenite can treat cancer without any adverse side effects or toxicity.
Sodium selenite disables Trx so that molecules like hydrogen peroxide can spike rapidly. This sudden oxidative flood damages cell structures such as lipids, mitochondria (kidney-shaped organelles that are the cellular power sources) and DNA, forcing the cell into programmed cell death called apoptosis.
Now you can’t just run out to the drug store and buy sodium selenite. This is not a do-it-yourself strategy. Even eating high selenium foods like Brazil nuts will backfire because Brazil nuts have high methionine. If you have cancer and taking sodium selenite sounds appealing to you, I’d advise you to talk to Mark Simon at the Nutritional Oncology Research Institute. [3] Simon writes, “There is a safe dosage range where sodium selenite can treat cancer without any adverse side effects or toxicity.” However, sodium selenite at therapeutic doses can have side effects such as stomach pain, nausea, and headache. And chronic use can also cause hair loss, changes in fingernails, and nerve symptoms such as tingling and numbness.
B6 (p5p)
The second nutraceutical that can help control cancer is B6 (P5P). Pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (P5P) is the active form of vitamin B6. B6 can degrade the amino acid cysteine, which is used to create glutathione (GSH). [4] The body’s “master antioxidant,” GSH can donate electrons to molecules like reactive oxygen species, preventing oxidative damage to DNA, proteins, and lipids. By eating a low-protein plant-based diet, we are eating a diet low in cysteine and methionine, thus lowering the body’s ability to make GSH. By supplementing with B6 (P5P), we can break down cysteine, a building block for glutathione. Like sodium selenite, long-term therapeutic doses of B6 can cause side effects such as nerve pain and should be taken under supervision.
Notes
[2] Asfour IA, El-Tehewi MM, Ahmed MH, Abdel-Sattar MA, Moustafa NN, Hegab HM, Fathey OM. High-dose sodium selenite can induce apoptosis of lymphoma cells in adult patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2009;127(3):200-210. doi:10.1007/s12011-008-8240-6
[3] https://advancedcancercoaching.com/blog/f/the-most-powerful-and-effective-natural-anticancer-agent
[4] Mulay P, Chen C, Krishna V. Enzyme-independent catabolism of cysteine with pyridoxal-5'-phosphate. Sci Rep. 2023;13(1):312. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-26966-6
⚠️ Not Medical Advice
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. The information on this blog is based on my personal experiences, individual research, and non-standard protocols. It is published strictly for informational and educational purposes and should not replace advice from your doctor or healthcare team. Always consult a licensed physician before starting or altering any treatment plan.
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