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Without any further folderol, let's get to the Q&A!
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1. From your book, Winning the War on Cancer, I know that your father was a big influence on you as well as the book itself. Tell us a little more about him.
Born in the former Yugoslavia, Mirko Beljanski, PhD (1923-1998) worked his way from a small village with no resources to become a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, one of the top research institutions in the world. Considered a pioneer in environmental medicine, his findings help to underline the risks involved with continuous exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment.
With his Oncotest, Beljanski demonstrated how environmental toxins damage cellular DNA, which can lead to degenerative diseases, such as cancer. Through this major discovery, Mirko Beljanski offered the world an explanation at the cellular level of environmental medicine.
Beljanski also found that disease can be fought by selectively inhibiting the synthesis of damaged DNA in the body, only allowing cells with healthy DNA to thrive. These findings led to the development of natural compounds that enhance the body’s resistance to environmental toxicity. His efforts especially focused on the beneficial effects of two specific plant extracts: the Pao pereira and the Rauwolfia vomitoria, both able to destroy cancer cells (from many different cancer cell lines), work alone or in synergy with chemotherapies and radiotherapy, but also did not present any toxicity towards healthy cells.
As journalist Michele Cagan wrote in a newsletter for the Health Sciences Institute Members Alert:
“With this brilliant new concept, Beljanski tried to change the way we treat cancer patients. That was more than twenty years ago, and the mainstream still hasn’t caught on.”
Dr. Beljanski was also one of the first biologists to study small RNA fragments, which plays an important role in the growth of a cell. He discovered that some RNA fragments may stimulate the formation of white blood cells and platelets.
2. What about you? What would you like your readers to know about you as a person?
I was born in New York City when my father, Mirko Beljanski, came to New York to pursue a two-year fellowship with Nobel Prize Winner Severo Ochoa. At the end of the fellowship, my parents went back to work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, so I was raised and educated in Paris. I attended Law School at the Sorbonne and was admitted to the French Bar. Growing up, I simply did not understand what my father was doing and was not interested in following my parents’ footsteps, but over the years I got to see the positive impact they had on people suffering from cancer and other degenerative diseases. So, when the French Army raided my father’s laboratory and put an end to this research, I knew that was wrong, and I had to step in. It was the ability of his discoveries to make a difference for people diagnosed with cancer that led to my decision to carry on with this unexpected mission.
Today, nothing makes me happier than sharing my father’s powerful legacy of hope. As a lawyer, I certainly didn’t need to get involved in this adventure. But in the end, I’m so glad I did.
In 1999, The Beljanski Foundation was founded, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to further Dr. Beljanski’s research within a network of high-profile research institutions. Since then, The Beljanski Foundation has sponsored several research programs all conducted with high-profile institutions. They have all led to peer-reviewed publications, available on the website of the foundation: www.beljanski.org
3. Let's dive right into your book. First of all, congratulations on being book of the month for January. For those that aren't that familiar, can you give us a brief synopsis of Winning the War on Cancer?
When a new, natural and non-toxic way to address cancer is being discovered, it is a game-changer that does not go unnoticed in the scientific community. But instead of being hailed and embraced, it is fiercely opposed by prominent scientists with strong ties to the pharmaceutical industry and the might of the government is called upon to the rescue, to perpetuate a failing model that contributes to losing the war on cancer.
Winning the War on Cancer: The Epic Journey Towards a Natural Cure reveals the visionary discoveries of a French scientist whose suppressed research led to improvements in the prevention and treatment of cancer...naturally and without toxicity. This book is a “story within a story” as through its pages, I share my personal journey of embracing my father’s new, and promising, paradigm for the treatment of cancer, and finding my own calling. This tale unfolds against the backdrop of the French establishment, determined to obliterate the findings of the world’s first green molecular biologist, one who spent over 40 years studying the environmental impact on DNA replication and transcription.
President Nixon signed the “War on Cancer” into law in 1971. Nearly half a century and hundreds of billions of dollars later, it looks like we are still fighting a losing battle. Or are we? What if a natural solution had been discovered, but had just been overlooked by the pharmaceutical industry due to lack of profit potential?
This book is a true story about natural medical research that is astonishing and compelling. A critical to read book if you know anyone with cancer.
4. In the book, it discusses several products that have already been researched and proven to be effective in fighting cancer, either alone or in conjunction with chemotherapy. Can you tell us more about the Pao pereira and Rauwolfia vomitoria?
Both plants are well known and well documented:
Pao pereira (Geissospermum vellosii, or Geissospermum laeve velloso), also spelled Pau pereira, is a well-known tree, native to South America. It has been used in traditional medicine for centuries. According to the “Revista Da Flora Medicinal, (No. 9, September 1942, Rio de Janeiro), “the inner bark of Pao pereira is considered as one of the best tonics and febrifuges of the Brazilian flora.”
As per the generic name Rauwolfia, it commemorates a 16th century German physician, Leonhart Rauwolf, who travelled widely to collect medicinal plants. The specific epithet vomitoria refers to the purgative and emetic properties of the bark. Modern science has studied the phytochemical constituents of Rauwolfia since the middle of the 20th century. The main alkaloid present in Rauwolfia is called reserpine, used to treat the symptoms of high blood pressure. Beljanski noted that once reserpine was removed from the Rauwolfia extract, the extract had very low toxicity, no hypertensive effect, but a selective effect on cancer cells. Beljanski perfected a Rauwolfia vomitoria extract standardized in alstonine, but devoid of reserpine.
Mirko Beljanski was the first to investigate the anticancer activity of both extracts against cancer cells. His work showed that the extracts were active against many cancer cells lines and had no toxic effect against healthy cells.
Since Dr. Beljanski’s passing in 1998, the Beljanski Foundation’s partnerships with several high-profile institutions have led to many peer-reviewed publications, confirming that two of the natural molecules discovered by Beljanski:
Are selectively active on many kinds of cancer (including prostate, ovaries, pancreas)
Help with precancerous cells (like elevated PSA levels)
Are effective on cancers that no longer respond to chemotherapy
Work in synergy with many chemotherapy drugs, all without side effects
Work against cancer stem cells.
5. What is the most promising treatment for cancer that is currently being researched?
During the 60s and 70s, the genome, then recently discovered by Watson and Crick, was looked upon as the future of medicine. However, only 7% of cancers are thought to be of genetic origin, and those drugs have failed to deliver a win on the War on Cancer.
What if the best treatment is natural? Today, it would be of no interest to pharmaceutical companies and would go unnoticed. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies invest heavily to create new-to-nature molecules they can easily patent, in order to create lucrative monopolies. That is why there is very little money and interest from the pharmaceutical companies for natural compounds, although it has nothing to do with the effectiveness of natural compounds. The system is distorted.
Beljanski had the idea that if nature came up with carcinogens, nature had also come up with natural anti-carcinogens. He discovered two of them, one coming from the bark of a tree from the Amazon rainforest, and the other one from a bush in West Africa. Research has confirmed that those extracts were not toxic, effective on a large array of cancers, and able to work in synergy with chemotherapy. However, access to those exotic plants will forever remain limited.
Therefore, in my view, the most promising treatment would be a synthetic molecule that would mimic the benefits of Pao pereira or Rauwolfia vomitoria, and would induce very low toxicity, a rarity for synthetic compounds.
6. If someone reading this interview has just been diagnosed with cancer, what advice would you give him or her?
Educate yourself on issues pertaining to prevention, nutrition, and lifestyle. Choose a doctor who values nutrition, psychology, and environmental medicine as part of his/her medical practice.
Tell your doctor that you expect him or her to take the time to get to know you and discuss your health goals. You may ask your doctor what the alternatives are to conventional treatment. Your doctor should assist you with reviewing all the options that science offers. Ask your doctor for a synergy of action between natural and conventional treatment to reduce the toxicity associated with chemotherapy. Ask explicitly how the removing or killing of cancer cells will affect normal cells and how normal cells will be protected from the side effects of your treatment.
If the doctor measures success by the size of the tumor with CT scans or PET scans and offers a chemotherapy treatment, ask for studies showing an overall improvement of length and quality of life. Ask about cancer stem cells, those 1 percent to 5 percent of cancer cells that will resist conventional treatment and can metastasize. Ask your doctor how to protect your healthy tissues during radiotherapy, and how to maintain your platelets during chemotherapy. If you are advised not to take supplements during chemo or radiation treatments, be specific and ask your doctor for scientific evidence of any negative effects of those supplements when taken with these therapies.
Tell your doctor that you don’t want to take a chance on a therapy that may fail you. The Research Genetic Cancer Center (RGCC) is a genetic research laboratory that operates globally. RGCC has developed a patented membrane that is able to capture malignant cells from a simple blood sample. Then they match those malignant cells recovered from the blood sample with a panel of known anticancer agents and see what will indeed work.
Over the years I have seen many great individuals courageously and relentlessly fight their cancers—and win. All of them have prevailed by taking control of their lives.
7. Are there other conditions that your treatments would benefit?
Yes, Pao pereira has also exhibited an antiviral benefit, and is actually the first thing I am reaching to whenever I feel I am getting a cold. Research has also shown that Pao pereira has an anti-inflammatory benefit and has been used preventively by men with enlarged prostate suffering from BPH.
Rauwolfia vomitoria has some hormone balancing benefits. According to some testimonials, it has been used successfully to boost fertility (in men and women). It can also be used to limit the side effects of menopause.
RNA fragments, by helping to maintain a healthy level of white blood cells and platelets, help boost the immune system.
Golden Ginkgo, besides helping to repair the tissues after surgery, or protecting healthy tissues from radiotherapy induced fibrosis, helps with proper liver function and detoxification.
8. Do you think it's possible to avoid getting cancer to begin with?
The cornerstone of my father’s research is that most cancers result mainly from a progressive and cumulative destabilization of the DNA, rather than a mutation. Through progressive loss of regulation of duplication and transcription a cell makes the transitions from normal to precancer and from precancer to cancer. To a certain extent, this slow process gives us opportunities to prevent what is happening, and to fight it.
People understand nowadays that we are living in an extensively polluted planet and starting to take action about it. They are eager to educate themselves to make better, healthier choices with their food and learn about their health options.
Healthy nutrition, reasonable physical activity and emotional balance are paramount to defining a healthy environment.
9. For those that would like extra information or to research more, do you have a link to the foundation website?
For more information about the research conducted by Dr. Mirko Beljanski and The Beljanski Foundation, please visit www.Beljanski.org
The website offers access to a short film about Mirko Beljanski’s life and major scientific achievements.
https://www.beljanski.org/engl/media-li ... the-movie/
Also, The Beljanski Foundation provides a one-hour CME webinar presentation with specific learning objectives that provides AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ – the highest continuing education accreditation available for licensed health professionals in the U.S. “A Natural Approach to Cancer “, narrated by The Beljanski Foundation’s Senior Scientific Advisor, John Hall, PhD, covers the cumulative destabilizing effect environmental toxins have on the physical structure of DNA and explores the underlying scientific theories and breakthroughs on DNA destabilization made by Mirko Beljanski.
http://shop.beljanski.org/cme/continuin ... ation.html free access to the webinar with a code provided in the book.
I always like to end on some fun questions to let the readers get to know a bit more about who you are:
10. Gold or silver?
I like the warmth of gold in the winter, and cool silver in the summer.
11. Coke or Pepsi?
None. I do not drink pop sodas. They are filled with sugar and synthetic coloring.
12. What is your favorite vacation destination?
Wherever I am invited to speak. Love to make a destination of every trip.
13. Do you have a favorite TV show? Movie?
I like history, and well-done movies or documentaries that offer a glimpse of by-gone times. I like Jane Austen and historic series like Downtown Abbey.
I want to thank Ms. Beljanski for taking the time to answer my questions and enlighten our audience. If you would like to see about purchasing the book, please feel free to click here.
