We have also seen that the urine manifests alterations which show a disturbed metabolism, and that the saliva has an abnormal acidity leading to disturbed amylaceous digestion.
We have further seen that there is evidence that the internal secretions of many organs, probably, through their influence on metabolism, are factors of importance in connection with the genesis and cure of cancer. Little well says, “Cancer is a disease of disordered nutrition, as a result of which cells revert to a primitive stage, which permits reproduction. The disordered nutrition is due to relative hypofunction of the ductless glands.” In later lectures we shall consider the basic causes of this deranged nutrition, which, as has been already intimated, has much to do with diet and the various elements of life which tend to induce functional and other derangements of the system, many of which are included in and influenced by what we term the advance of civilization.
LECTURE IV
RELATION OF DIET TO CANCER
In our earlier lectures we saw that cancer was undoubtedly a diseased action of originally normal tissue cells, due largely to perverted metabolism, the special features of which were brought out last week. In the second lecture we studied the frequency and geographical distribution of cancer, which was found to be very different for various peoples in diverse sections of the earth, and which we saw was proportioned in a great measure according to their diet and mode of life. In this lecture we will examine into the details of these matters more particularly, and endeavor to discover their practical bearing upon the prevention and cure of cancer.
For the proper understanding of the relation of food and drink to cancer, and the satisfactory application of the principles involved, it is necessary to bear well in mind the chemistry of the body and the relation to nutrition of the various elements which contribute to form healthy and diseased tissues.
The human body is composed of some fifteen different elements, the relative proportions of which may be understood by the following table from Sherman, which represents probably as approximately correct an average as any that can be given.
| COMPOSITION OF THE HUMAN BODY | ||
|---|---|---|
| Per cent. | ||
| Oxygen, about | 65 | |
| Carbon, about | 18 | |
| Hydrogen, about | 10 | |
| Nitrogen, about | 3 | |
| Calcium, about | 2 | |
| Phosphorus, about | 1 | |
| Potassium, about | 0.35 | |
| Sulphur, about | 0.25 | |
| Sodium, about | 0.15 | |
| Chlorine, about | 0.15 | |
| Magnesium, about | 0.05 | |
| Iron, about | 0.004 | |
| Iodine | } | very minute traces |
| Fluorine | ||
| Silicon | ||
As the actual composition of the body is changing day by day, through the activities of the system, so that it is commonly believed that after some years all the tissues are entirely renewed, the daily wear and tear, as also the material expended in heat and activity, must be supplied by the diet. For the ordinary requirements of the system, in health, the appetite serves as a guide, which should suffice in man as in wild animals, to preserve the balance of nutrition. But man has also the power to gratify the taste, which must be recognized in our study as distinct from the satisfying of the appetite; and the refinements of civilization have added so greatly to the temptation of wrong and over-eating and drinking, as they have to many other temptations, that it is questionable if reason, and what is often spoken of as the natural instinct for food, can be trusted in mankind.
It is to be remembered that the advance of civilization, and the facilities of transportation and cold storage, have brought from far and near an innumerable number and variety of articles for food and drink, including condiments, which bear no relation to the few simple articles formerly consumed; even the fruits which we eat are rarely ripened fully by nature, but are picked more or less green, and undergo an artificial ripening without the action of the sun, which is really akin to decay. In the combination and preparation of articles of food also, so-called civilization and refinement have made the greatest departure from the simple life of the aborigines, who are free from cancer, and with increasing ease and wealth throughout the civilized world more and more individuals are sharing in unnecessary and often harmful indulgences, more and more freely: and this is especially true of animal food, the consumption of which has increased so greatly. Many other elements likewise enter into the matter of the digestibility and consequent nutritive power of food and drink; such are nervous conditions, rapid eating, imperfect mastication and insalivation, heat and cold, character of the air breathed, micro-organisms, etc., and all the various causes which may derange the action of the digestive organs and so prevent the perfect metabolism between nutrient material and the cells of the body, as I tried to show you in some former lectures.
As is well known, the nutrition of man is supplied by the organic substances, protein, carbohydrates, and fat; these are found in various combinations in animal and vegetarian foods, and as a rule contain also much of the inorganic or mineral substances necessary for the system; all of these with water, and its salts, and oxygen, supplied by the lungs, unite, through anabolism and catabolism, to build and maintain the human body in health.