Reply With Quotehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...st/8277970.stm"With Swami Ji's pranayama your actual intake of oxygen increases to 10 times. So when you have more oxygen in your blood cells the cancer cell does not thrive," added Mrs Poddar.
Apologies if this is the wrong forum, but it seemed to be the closest match.
A news article appeared today, reporting on the purchase of Little Cumbrae (in the Firth of Clyde) to be used as an ashram for followers of guru Swami Ji. (As I can't post the direct link search for "scottish island to become ashram" on the BBC News website.
Fair enough, but it goes into some detail on the claims pranayama has cured many diseases and then there is this quote from the guru:
"the cancer cells cannot survive in an oxygenated environment - this is a scientific truth" - I thought Warburg's claims were at best unproven, at worst just not true.
Maybe I'm being oversensitive, but if you're going to print one person's health claims then perhaps a rebuttal would be appropriate.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...st/8277970.stm"With Swami Ji's pranayama your actual intake of oxygen increases to 10 times. So when you have more oxygen in your blood cells the cancer cell does not thrive," added Mrs Poddar.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear
bright, until you hear them speak.
I wonder which Trading Standards Office is responsible for Wee Cumbrae? The claim that yoga can cure or effectively treat cancer is certainly illegal.
*answers own question*
I reckon it's North Ayrshire TS, and I've just e-mailed them.
Last edited by Julia; 28th September 2009 at 10:38 AM.
"If I get rid of the cancer and the person decides they don’t want treatment any more ‐ either they’re too busy, or they’re too mean with their money, or they just think they know better ‐ the cancer often comes back. And if it comes back, I can’t get rid of it a second time. My healing doesn’t work a second time."
Adrian Pengelly
Near sea-level, one's blood is 98% saturated with oxygen- nothing can increase that ten-fold. Also, cancers grow in a low-oxygen environment because their metabolism is high and they suck up all the available oxygen. If one supplies more oxygen, the cancer grows more quickly.
Aside from those points, the proposal makes perfect sense.
Yes, but if you supply hypoxic cancer cells with more oxygen it reduces the number of malignant cells, because they are the hardier ones that survive best when oxygen starved. It also makes them more vulnerable to radio- and chemotherapy. See http://www.newscientist.com/article/...or-attack.htmlOriginally Posted by JJM
Whether this oxygen increase can be achieved without oxygen chambers is more open to question.
How about that ... thanks.
First you must demonstrate that yoga of any type improves oxygenation in any population - the best on this is improvement in dyspnea scores in a single study.
Then you need to demonstrate that the oxygen levels within any given cancer are increased - difficult given that this is a vascular problem, not an oxygen availability problem.
Then that this is associated with any improvement in outcome.
Needless to say none of this has been done - though there have been valliant attempts to explore the impact of improved oxygenation on cancers - no consistent outcomes have been achieved with much more powerful methods.
Hyperbaric oxygen delivery, and direct oxygen administration have been tried, yet even now it remains unclear whether improving vascularity of cancers would be beneficial or harmful
Cell Cycle. 2009 Oct 5;8(20). [Epub ahead of print]
Links
Hypoxia, angiogenesis and cancer therapy: To breathe or not to breathe?
Michieli P.
Laboratory of Experimental Therapy; Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (IRCC) and Department of Oncological Sciences, University of Turin Medical School, Candiolo, Turin, Italy.
As an expanding tumor conquers space within the host, it calls out for an increased oxygen supply. This demand is rarely matched by tumor blood vessels because neo-angiogenesis generates a structurally aberrant and functionally impaired vasculature. As a result of this unbalance, tumor progression is invariably associated with cancer cell hypoxia. Insufficient oxygenation appears to have opposing effects on cancer biology: on one hand, it limits tumor cell division; on the other, it selects for more malignant cells and it induces a series of cellular adaptations that sustain and foster tumor invasion. When designing a therapeutic strategy, how should we resolve this dichotomy? Should we cut oxygen supply, thereby halting neoplastic expansion, or should we let the tumor breathe, in order to prevent its malignant conversion?
So, advertising yoga for the treatment of cancer is definately beyond the pale and would fall foul of the cancer act.
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. Voltaire
Some interesting details on the cancer/oxygenation theories.
http://www.quackwatch.org/01Quackery...er/oxygen.html
De omnibus dubitandum
I know a company that is developing drugs that are oxidised in cancer cells to cytotoxic compounds, which then kill the cancer. These drugs are relatively benign in the unmetabolized (prodrug) form. They are oxidized in the body generally (as that is the direction of most metabolic pathways) but at a higher rate in vascularized tumours and hence there is some target specificitiy. This is real sceince by the way, not the pseudo mumbo jumbo eminating from Swami Ji's pranayama and the like.
mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur
The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so
Louis Pasteur
Yes, pseudo mumbo jumbo is utter crap. Always insist on genuine mumbo jumbo.
"If I get rid of the cancer and the person decides they don’t want treatment any more ‐ either they’re too busy, or they’re too mean with their money, or they just think they know better ‐ the cancer often comes back. And if it comes back, I can’t get rid of it a second time. My healing doesn’t work a second time."
Adrian Pengelly
One reason I come onto this forum is that I can rely on everyone to keep a close eye on my grammar ,,, or should that be syntax?Yes, pseudo mumbo jumbo is utter crap. Always insist on genuine mumbo jumbo.
mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur
The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so
Louis Pasteur
Try "semantics".One reason I come onto this forum is that I can rely on everyone to keep a close eye on my grammar ,,, or should that be syntax?
Be skeptical of the things you believe are false, but be very skeptical of the things you believe are true.
Actually I think it was a syntax error. I should have said "pseudoscientific ..."Try "semantics".
To (subtly) change the direction a little. My favourite type of word error is the Malapropism. My mother was a master at these. She once told me that she had been to visit a relative in America and she went to see an Indian Reservoir. Boy is this off topic - sorry.
mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur
The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so
Louis Pasteur
Nice review of the history of oxygenation therapy. Can't see it making any difference to quacks though, the issue of whether malignant transformation is favoured by hypoxia is unresolved, and the impossibility of a proposed treatment never dissuaded homeopathists!
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. Voltaire
I'd like to know exactly how doing yoga is supposed to increase the supply of cancer-killing oxygen.
"If I get rid of the cancer and the person decides they don’t want treatment any more ‐ either they’re too busy, or they’re too mean with their money, or they just think they know better ‐ the cancer often comes back. And if it comes back, I can’t get rid of it a second time. My healing doesn’t work a second time."
Adrian Pengelly
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks