Running away from cancer

High-intensity aerobic exercise is stopping cancers from spreading, heralding a new approach that could make cancer less of a killer

- Bryan Hubbard

Cancer cells are different. Instead of feeding on oxygen, as healthy cells do, they thrive on glucose-the sugars in the blood that come from carbohydrates and this also produces lactate, an acid that allows the cancer to spread.

It's not news. The process was first observed by German physicist Otto Warburg in 1924 and was then almost completely ignored by the cancer industry, other than by a few maverick outliers who advocated a zero-carb keto diet as part of cancer therapy.

With the discovery of the DNA structure in 1953, cancer theory took a different route and focused on genetic mutations. It was a false trail, and today researchers acknowledge that energy metabolism is the key to understanding cancer's genesis and spread. It's estimated that 80 percent of cancers are the result of the "Warburg effect, as Warburg's discoveries were labeled.

The one new insight into Warburg's work is that it is the mitochondriathe powerhouses of cells that convert sugar (carbs), fats and proteins into energy that are damaged and so become over-reliant on glucose for their rapid growth. Oncologists recognize the phenomenon and routinely use PET (positron emission tomography) scans to seek out areas of the body that are consuming excessive amounts of glucose and therefore to detect cancer.

If the Warburg effect is right, there are other clues in the observation that suggest new ways of treating cancer and, more importantly, preventing it. A team of Israeli researchers has done just that by discovering that aerobic exercise reduces the risk of metastatic cancerthe cancers that spread and are almost always lethal-by 72 percent."

Feed me sugar