Story at-a-glance -

• In “Cancer and the New Biology of Water,” Dr. Thomas Cowan explains why cancer is not a problem of oncogenes but rather a problem involving the cytoplasm — the structured water — of the cell
• Mitochondrial defects are an integral part of the breakdown of the structure in the water, which then triggers the formation of cancer
• Lifestyle strategies that will help restructure the water in your cells, thereby helping prevent cancer include eating a ketogenic diet and exposing your body to sunlight and near-infrared light such as near-infrared sauna
• Other strategies include grounding to the earth by walking barefoot, posing yourself to the biofields of other biological entities, such as the touch of other humans and animals, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy
• Mistletoe therapy stimulates your fever response. It’s an immunostimulating medicine that also works like a chemo drug

Dr. Thomas Cowan is a practicing physician, founding board member and vice president of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

I've previously interviewed Cowan on a number of different topics, including the link between vaccines and autoimmune disease, the use of low-dose naltrexone for autoimmune disease and novel treatments for heart disease. Here, we discuss his latest book, "Cancer and the New Biology of Water."

"I wrote a series of three books. The first one on the heart, the second one on vaccines and autoimmunity and then this one on cancer. As I got into it, I realized it was all about water," Cowan says.

"The first book was basically two premises: One is that the heart doesn't pump the blood. The reason for the movement of the blood in your body is not because there's a propulsion by the heart [but] because of the dynamics of water …

Then I got into the vaccine book and what childhood illness means. That took me deeper into what cells are made of. Somehow it hit me that the whole problem of cancer is a cytoplasmic, i.e., water problem.

It became like the culmination of this series of writing and thinking about human biology, biology in general, and how wrong we have the whole thing, basically."

Cancer and the Biology of Water

In 1971, President Nixon declared war on cancer. As noted by Cowan, we had just discovered the oncogene at that time, which was thought to be the reason for why people had cancer.

In the decades since, vast sums of money have been spent on cancer research. Were oncogenes the correct target, the war on cancer should have been won by now, yet we're no closer to a cure today than we were back then. Cowan cites research by the Australian government, which concluded that improvement in cancer statistics as a result of chemotherapy is 2.3%.

"That's an abysmal return on a $500 billion investment … Probably the costliest endeavor humans have ever undertaken, except maybe war," Cowan says. "What's the problem? The problem I submitted in the book is that cancer is not a problem of oncogenes. It isn't even a problem of the DNA. It isn't even a problem of the nucleus …

There have been a number of studies over the years where they transplant the nucleus from a healthy cell into another healthy cell and the progeny are normal, as you would expect.

But then they take the nucleus out of a cancer cell, where these oncogenes [are], the DNA that supposedly cause cancer, and put that into a healthy cytoplasm, the progeny are normal. When they take a normal nucleus and put it into the cytoplasm of a cancer cell, it turns the progeny cancerous.

That simple experiment tells you exactly where in the cell the problem of cancer lies, which is in the cytoplasm. The cell has two parts. Basically, it's a lipid biomembrane that has a nucleus and a cytoplasm. The cytoplasm is basically structured water or a gel.

Now we know that the cytoplasm is the site of cancer. The events in the nucleus are a consequence of degeneration of the cytoplasm, not the other way around.

When these researchers did this, and identified clearly that the site of the cancer problem is in the cytoplasm, they postulated that something in healthy cytoplasm must be able to heal the mutations of the DNA in the nucleus, which there's no evidence for."

The Cytoplasm's Role in Cancer

Cowan argues that the real problem in cancer lies in the structured water of the cell, i.e., the cytoplasm. Similarly, Thomas Seyfried, Ph.D., whom I've interviewed on this topic as well, believes the studies Cowan mentioned above reveal the problem is rooted in the mitochondria, which also reside in the cytoplasm.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is certainly one aspect, Cowan admits, but more specifically, he believes mitochondrial defects are an integral part of the breakdown of the structure in the water, which then triggers the formation of cancer.

"When you look at what the function of the mitochondria is — which is essentially to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) — and you see what the role of ATP is and how integral ATP is to the structuring of the water in the cytoplasm, then you begin to see the connections between the mitochondrial dysfunction … [and the] deterioration of the cytoplasmic water that leads to cancer."

Oftentimes, cancer can be palpated (provided the tumor is large enough). The tumor turns into a palpable lump because the density of the cells is too high, Cowan says. The cells are essentially clumped together, and they've lost their normal spatial orientation.

All cells have a certain spatial orientation because there's an electrical charge around the cell. When two cells start coming together, the charge repels them apart. This allows all the cells to remain at an appropriate distance from each other. This distance varies depending on the cells and organs in question, but all tissues have a spatial orientation that allows the tissue to remain healthy and normal.

Structured Water Is Responsible for Cellular Charge

Conventional medicine says that the charge around each cell comes from the distribution of sodium and potassium across the cell membrane. However, Cowan points out that experiments by cell physiologist and biochemist Gilbert Ling, performed more than three decades ago, showed that for the sodium-potassium pump to be responsible for the creation of this charge, the cell would need about 30 times the energy at its disposal.

So, according to Cowan, this belief, while being a cornerstone of modern biology, is little more than a myth. Something else causes the charge, but what? Cowan answers that question with the following explanation:

"It comes about because in the cytoplasm is a mesh network of water, which, by some genius of nature, is so constituted that it, by itself, it traps potassium and excludes sodium … The proper healthy grid, mesh or structuring of the water, in itself, is the pump. No energy needed, just like the heart.

The whole idea of a stupid pump pushing is ridiculous. It's done by the miracle of water. The charge distribution, the spatial orientation of a cell, is because of the structuring of the water. That's one.

The second thing is the other hallmark of cancer cells: They all have an abnormal number of chromosomes. It's called aneuploidy, as opposed to a diploid cell, which means humans have 46 chromosomes. If you get an abnormal number, that's an abnormal cell we call cancer.

How does that happen? It happens because of events in the cytoplasm, which pulls the two chromosomes apart and makes new copies of mitosis. It doesn't happen properly because the milieu in the cytoplasm, that structured water, is disturbed.

Therefore, you get all these errors of mitosis, and the energy used for mitosis is deficient. That's because of the mitochondrial problem. You get errors in chromosome replication called aneuploidy. When you get an aneuploid cell that has an abnormal spatial orientation, that's called a cancer cell."

How to Restructure the Water in Your Cells

Once you understand the importance and influence of the cytoplasm, the structured water inside your cells, in the development of cancer, the next question becomes: How do you restructure that water? A significant portion of Cowan's book covers this important topic.

To illustrate how structured water is made, he compares it to Jell-O. Jell-O is made by mixing gelatin proteins with water and then adding heat. The heat unfolds the proteins, exposing their hydrophilic surfaces, which then grab onto the water.

As the mixture cools, it forms a gel, "which is basically identical to the state that the cytoplasm is in," Cowan says. To structure the water in your cells and basically mimic this Jell-O making procedure, you can:

• Eat a cyclical ketogenic diet — When fats are metabolized in your mitochondria, they create deuterium depleted water (DDW), which is hydrogen-rich. The more hydrogen you get, the more ATP your cells generate, which in turn allows your cells to create more structured water
• Regularly expose much of your skin to sunlight
• Regularly expose your skin to near-infrared light, such as a near-infrared sauna or a heat lamp bulb. Not only does it restructure water, but it also detoxifies your cells by creating sweating, which purifies the cytoplasm
• Expose yourself to the biofields of other biological entities, such as the touch of other humans and animals

Now, ATP is instrumental for protein unfolding — which is an integral part of the process of creating structured water — and if you have an ATP deficiency, "as happens when you have mitochondrial disease, it's like trying to make Jell-O without heat," Cowan says.

"You get clumps of dysfunctional proteins with water that can't be structured. That's what you see with cancer cells … If you want to have properly structured water, which then creates healthy cell division and healthy spatial orientation in the cells, you need sunlight, earth and human touch — the biofields of other biological entities, especially those who wish you well, so to speak, like your dog."

Another alternative is hyperbaric oxygen therapy, although this is not something most people will be able to do at home. By providing more oxygen to the tissues at increased partial pressure, the oxygen is pushed into the mitochondria, allowing them to generate more ATP, which in turn allows your cells to create more structured water.

Mistletoe Therapy

In his book, Cowan also discusses mistletoe therapy, which he recommends almost universally for his cancer patients. He expounds on the benefits of this therapy as follows:

"Cancer is growing and parasitizing you, sucking your nutrients, just like the mistletoe sucks the nutrients from the oak tree. But there's a central difference, which is the mistletoe has learned to cooperate with the oak tree, and so each do better together than they would do alone, whereas in cancer, the tumor has parasitized you and you do worse.

What we need is a situation where we bring back that cooperation … This is not a survival of the fittest … That's not how it works in nature. Nature is a cooperative venture … Mistletoe tells you to see it like that. Now, that's the metaphor.

[Mistletoe] stimulates fever response, so it is an immunostimulating medicine. It stimulates white blood cells. It stimulates all these aspects of immune response. It stops cells from growing, so it works like a chemo drug, as well … We want the simulation, the purification, the detoxification that happens with fever therapy. Mistletoe does that."

The idea that fever is a healing aid goes back to a cancer treatment developed in the 1890s by William Coley, a bone surgeon. The treatment, which involves giving isolated proteins from the erysipelas bacteria at a specific dose to induce a fever, is known as "Coley's toxin."1

"Around 1989, for I don't know what reason, I get in the mail a book from Coley's granddaughter about 2,000 cases he treated and the results — about 60% of them, stage 4. All different kinds of cancer were cured by Coley's toxins. It's very well documented.

It was the main adjunct of cancer therapy in the United States for a couple of decades. It was used up until the '60s. Many, many papers written about it, peer-reviewed journals. There's no doubt that it was more effective than any adjunctive therapy for cancer we have today.

In a sense though, it's a blueprint. When you talk about hyperthermia, the problem is it doesn't work as well as Coley's toxins. I think the reason for that is [hyperthermia] doesn't turn on your innate cellular immune system. It's just heating up your cells.

I'm not saying that something good doesn't happen from heating up your cells, but it's not the same. Coley's was a way of internally generating the temperature, and so is mistletoe, although mistletoe isn't as dramatic as Coley's toxins …

[Today, Coley's toxin] is not available anywhere. It's very sad. There should be a way of stimulating fever. I had occasion to use it a little bit years ago. You could basically generate any temperature you want. It's pretty rigorous therapy. You get shakes and chills and not everyone wants to do that. But if you do that, you have a dramatic detoxification-purification response …

None of these strategies are a magic bullet. The point I'm trying to make is that healthy cytoplasm, which is basically a structured water gel, that's the key focus … All those [factors discussed earlier] contribute to the quality of the gels that you're going to produce. That's what good health is."

More Information

Cowan's book ends with the story of Sleeping Beauty. "It's what we tell children to teach them how the world works," he says. Sleeping Beauty, a princess, is bewitched by an evil witch, which in fairytales always illustrates the materialistic side of life.

"When you're bewitched by materialism … you fall into chaos and disrepair has happened in the story. Something has to come along to wake you up, not to a new way of seeing, as they say in the story, but to your true nature.

That's where we're at now. We're living out the story of Sleeping Beauty. We're bewitched by materialism and we can't see our true nature. That's become a real problem. [Getting out of that matrix involves] an interesting combination of all these techniques that we're talking about …

Cyclical ketosis, sunlight, walking in the ocean, infrared saunas … fever therapy, bringing back therapies like Coley's toxins. There's another side too, which is to change our minds … Somehow, we have to change our mind and … see the world as it is.

I often tell people and patients, 'If you see the world from a materialistic point of view and you realize that the matter we're talking about is made of atoms, which are, themselves, 99% space, just empty, so how does that work? It's an illusion.' Once we see that we're essentially crystallized energy, then you start to wake up.

The most hopeful thing I think I can tell people is that once you begin to open your mind, there's more out there than was taught in school or that your doctors tell you. Somehow the world seems to feed you information or give you clues as to where to go next.

You don't need me to tell you what to do or where to go next. Somehow it just happens. I don't know if you would agree, but in my life, once you open yourself to this possibility, to me, it's like the spiritual world comes in to offer a hand. The next thing you know, you meet this person. Next thing you know, you [learn] things that you didn't know before.

You just keep opening your mind. If we keep doing that, we can build a different world. You don't have to do anything. You just have to stop not doing things, believing that there's nothing there."

To learn more, be sure to pick up a copy of Cowan's book, "Cancer and the New Biology of Water." I definitely recommend it and all the resources in there. It's a great read. Cowan tells a good story, which makes his books easy to digest. "I hope that it catalyzes some institution, some person — somebody — to say, 'We've got to do things differently because this isn't working," Cowan says.