Hello, it’s April 18, 2018, and this is Dr. Colleen Huber, a Naturopathic Medical Doctor in Tempe, Arizona.

Today I want to talk to you about how cancer happens, how it arises in the body, and the role played by Vitamin B1 AGAINST the cancer machinery.

Now what I’m going to tell you is taught only VERY briefly in regular medical school. It’s not till you get to Naturopathic medical school that we really get DEEPLY into the SCIENCE of how different molecules behave in the body. And that is because we naturopaths are VERY much interested in nutrition.

Most doctors do not have the experience of being trained in 2 different medical schools. But I have been, and I can tell you that naturopathic medical education is FAR more intense and detailed regarding the SCIENCE of how a healthy body works, compared to other medical schools.

Naturopathic medical curricula include approximately twice as many classroom hours in total, as well as approximately twice as many biochemistry hours — 110 hours compared to 30 to 70 in most U.S. regular medical schools.

Why do we care so much about biochemistry? Let’s zoom our attention in, please. This is how the body works. AND this is the basis of all nutrition.

Here we have a diagram of the biochemistry of the body, showing metabolic pathways and processes. Naturopathic medical schools pay a lot of attention to this very important area of SCIENCE.

Let’s look at the impact of vitamin B1, also called thiamine, on normal metabolism and how a LACK of vitamin B1 can lead to cancer.

Here we see what biochemists call oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate by the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, and here is Vitamin B1. But don’t worry about all that language.

Basically, what I want you to know is this: Cancer goes this way (off to the side). After your food gets converted to pyruvate, cancer sends that pyruvate here to lactic acid.

But we don’t want so much lactic acid, and we DEFINITELY do not want to keep the cancer machine running! So we want to go THIS way (straight line). THIS is a more normal metabolic process.

In order to get here, you need vitamin B1 to decarboxylate the pyruvate and to form — very importantly here — to form Acetyl CoA. And once you have Acetyl CoA, you can enter the citric acid cycle, enter the mitochondria, and carry out a normal metabolism.

Now that is HUGELY important, because this is not generally the cancer pathway. This is the NORMAL pathway.

This is the fork in the road, folks. Right here, where cancer originates and detours from normal metabolism.

Vitamin B1 is not the only nutrient that helps direct traffic down the right road, not the cancer road, but it IS VERY important!

Now you probably want to know what foods contain vitamin B1. And for how much Vitamin B1 YOU should take, please see your local naturopathic physician.

Here is a very partial list of foods high in Vitamin B1: • Fish and Seafood • Pork and Liver • Peas and Beans and Seeds • Asparagus and Squash

There — we have foods to please our vegans and our carnivores!

Vitamin B1, also called thiamine, is a water-soluble vitamin, so it will wash through you quickly. So try to include one or more of these foods in your diet a few times per week.

I am Dr. Colleen Huber. It is April 18, 2018. And thanks for watching!