About 15 yrs. ago, a group of researchers in the UK initiated a study of mineral deficiencies in the general population. They analysed blood, hair and tissue samples from everyone in one of the northern counties. They were shocked to find that 92% of the people were deficient (on an intra-cellular level) in what they called 'the master mineral'-magnesium. (the US is similar) Why the 'master mineral', I wondered. It seems that magnesium, far more than any other mineral is required for most of the 2000 or so chemical processes in the body. Their next finding was even more troubling...people with the lowest magnesium scores all had cancer.
Now they had known for 30-40 yrs that magnesium slowed down cancer (I have not found that information in US sources), but this was a new piece of the puzzle. The researchers set up a companion study right away in an effort to address these findings. In this study, they enrolled 140 late-stage prostate cancer sufferers. These men had received treatment, gone into remission for a time and then when the cancer resurfaced, they had again received all available treatments. They were fighting a losing battle and were finally sent home 'to get their affairs in order.' Of these 140 men, they had between 6 wks.-7 mths. to live, according to their doctors. The purpose of this companion study was to determine if one form of magnesium was better than another and then to see what the best method of restoring magnesium levels was. The options were oral, IV, intramuscular injections and transdermal (applied to the skin). When they gathered all of the data, they found that magnesium chloride gel was by far the best, with magnesium sulfate (epsom salts)in a fairly distant 2nd place. The best protocol was for the patients to apply it everywhere they could reach twice a day.
I knew from my research that magnesium chloride was the fastest-acting form. The literature suggests and it has been my experience, that it takes about 4 mths. to get your levels up to an optimum state. I thought perhaps 6 mths. for these most deficient patients, I also wondered how many would survive the study under the circumstances, but at the 4 mth. mark, tumors began to shrink and disappear, though no further treatments of any kind were administered! Now, for the most important part... ALL of these men were alive and cancer-free 4 YEARS later!
In their summary, the researchers said (1) that if our soils were not so magnesium-deficient, we would not be seeing such epidemic levels of cancer, heart disease, depression, anxiety and diabetes and (2) that if we restore magnesium levels to the body, even late-stage, that the body can do what it is designed to do, which is to beat back cancer 8-10 times over the course of a lifetime.
On a personal note, this made sense to me. I grew up with a father who had head, neck and throat cancers from an early age...late 20s. He had many surgeries and radiation treatments back in the day when they often over-radiated. Dad passed at 76...not of cancer. He was enjoying his favorite pastime of dancing several times a wk until shortly before his passing. So, in my experience, cancer is not a death sentence...again, CANCER IS NOT A DEATH SENTENCE. My sister who works for WebMD and I tried to figure out how dad beat back cancer so many times. This is what we came up with... Dad always ate real food, a pretty good old-fashioned diet. There was no pop. Sugary treats were for special occasions. No junk food. The last piece of the puzzle was that he had homemade baking soda biscuits with most meals. What's so special about baking soda biscuits?! I learned along the way that the old doctors did much of their doctoring with 3 minerals that belong in the body. Magnesium in the form of epsom salts was number 1 for most everything. Muscles, nerves, the brain, the heart and more. Number 2 was Iodine which supports the thyroid. Number 3 was plain old baking soda! Before I go into detail, these 3 minerals were safe, available and affordable. They BELONG in the body. The old doctors could teach the mothers and grandmothers how to care for their families with these 3 minerals.
Baking soda alkalizes the body, restoring proper body chemistry. In an alkaline state (which is what we were as children), the body can thrive and repair in many ways. Moreover, chemo is heavily buffered with baking soda and infused slowly or it would kill the patient outright. As research has progressed, Dr Simoncelli in Italy advocates skipping the chemo altogether. A tumor is simply injected with baking soda water. An excellent book on the subject is "The Doctor who Cures Cancer". This doctor gave each patient his personal phone number, PH saliva testing strips and a box of baking soda. He taught them the simple protocol for healing themselves. (see below for a link to this book)
Final note: There was a time when you could find all of these (often tax-payer funded) studies on the internet, but this material is being swallowed up into on-line medical libraries that only licensed professionals can access. Beyond that, one has to know the exact name of the study and pay (last time I checked) $65-$145 to access the study. In the place of that solid and far-reaching material, we find volumes of basic, watered-down, repetitive, superficial pap masquerading as information and insulting the intelligence of the knowledge-seeking public citizen.