The Oldest Plant on Earth
Flexes Its Muscle Against Cancer

Recently, the first stage of an extensive research project carried out at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Canada produced some remarkable results. The entire project studies the effect of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA) on the immune and endocrine systems, as well as on general blood physiology. In the performance of this project it was discovered that eating AFA had a profound and unique effect on Natural Killer cells. These results were recently published under the title: Effects of the Blue Green Algae Aphanizomenon flos-aquae on Human Natural Killer Cells. It appears in Chapter 3.1 of the IBC Library Series, Volume 191 1,"Phytoceutical5: Examining the health benefit and pharmaceutical properties of natural antioxidants and phytochemicals"

Before I give you the results of the research I will tell you that Natural Killer cells (NK cells) are part of our body's immune system, designed to search out and destroy abnormal cells, including cancerous cells and virally-infected cells.

It's important to know how big the problem is so you can appreciate how big the solution is.

Cancer is a leading cause of death in the United States. Worldwide, tens of millions of people die each year from cancer. In third world countries, viral infections are also a significant cause of mortality. In the United States, over one person out of every three will have cancer sometime in their life. Cancer is one of the most menacing and frightening things in the world today.

It is important to know how and why a person gets cancer. Please understand a complete explanation could fill a huge number of textbooks. It doesn't serve the purpose of this letter to get too complicated, so I'll keep it simple.

What is cancer?

Cancer is a condition in which cells undergo abnormal cell division.

The average human body has more than 54 trillion cells. Millions of cells die every day and must be replaced. The process of replacement is called cell division. One cell divides and becomes two.

Normal cell division results in the production of two normal, identical new cells. Sometimes, due to various factors, a cell degenerates and starts to divide in a disorganized manner. The cell is then said to be cancerous. The malignancy or severity of the cancer depends on the rate of growth, the organ or tissue affected, the state of the immune system and many other factors.

What would cause abnormal (cell division?

In a simplified way, substances that interfere with normal cell division are said to be cancer-causing substances or carcinogens. There are thousands of normal everyday chemicals found in our food, water, and air that are carcinogenic. The incidence of cancer is increasing because the number of industrial and domestic carcinogens is increasing. Prolonged exposure to sunlight may also lead to skin cancer.

If 99.9999% of the cells were to divide normally we would still have approximately 5,000,000 potential cancer cells produced every day.

You can conclude that at any point in time, your body contains cells that are potentially cancer causing. Whether or not you have cancer depends on the number of carcinogens you are exposed to, your ability to remove them and the strength of your immune system in eliminating newly-formed cancer cells.

Before I write about the immune system and how it controls cancer, I want to tell you about the other menace that NK cells control - viruses.

What is a virus and how does it cause disease?

A virus is a sub-microscopic, disease-causing organism, consisting of pieces of RNA surrounded by a protein coat, having the ability to invade a cell and use its machinery to replicate itself.

Some commonly known viral diseases: Herpes, Influenza, Small Pox, Polio, Mumps, Rabies, Common Cold, Hepatitis.

A virus travels through the blood and lymphatic system until it finds a susceptible host cell. It then attaches itself to the cell membrane and forms a channel through which it sends its genetic material for duplication. The host cell is then forced to produce duplicate viruses until it is so full it bursts, scattering thousands of newly-produced viruses. They then seek their own host cells and a full-blown viral infection is underway.

Viruses are transmitted by contact with infected mosquitoes, mice, pets, friends, air, water, food, bats, birds and insects.

Whether or not you have a viral infection or cancer depends largely on the strength of your immune system.

What is your immune system?

It is a group of tissues and organs whose role is to protect our bodies against substances or organisms that could potentially cause a disease. The entire immune system is quite complex. It is composed of many organs and tissues (bone marrow, spleen, lymph nodes, thymus gland...) that produce different kinds of cells having specific immune functions, as well as chemicals that modulate these various immune functions. One of these types of cells is called NK cells. They are a subset of T-cells. They are also called cytotoxic T-cells, meaning "toxic to other cells." One of their main functions in the body is to search for cancerous and virally-infected cells and kill them.

How do killer cells work?

NK cells have the ability to recognize cells that are cancerous or have been infected by a virus. The strategy used by NK cells is a drastic one-they directly approach cancerous or virally-infected cells and release strong free radicals in their immediate environment. The free radicals create a hole in the cell, and the cell then dies. The dead cell is later eaten by another kind of immune cell-the macrophages - the scavengers of the body. To leave the bloodstream and reach the tissues where they look for abnormal cells, NK cells have homing molecules on their surfaces to help detect infected cells and they use large molecules called adhesion molecules which allow them to crawl out of the blood, through the capillary wall, into the tissues.

The Punch Line

The team of research scientists at the Royal Victoria Hospital, led by Dr. Gitte S. Jensen, discovered that:

Within two hours after eating 1.5 grams of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, an average of 40% of the blood NK cells (one billion) left the bloodstream and migrated into the tissues. They further discovered that in some cases the NK cells that remained in the bloodstream had two to three times as many adhesion molecules as they did before the Aphanizomenon flos-aquae was eaten. After a few hours, the NK cells had returned to the bloodstream.