In 1971 President Nixon declared war on cancer. Now after 36 years and spending more than $69 billion in research, cancer is soon to overtake heart disease as the number-one killer of Americans. Why do we have such a miserable track record in fighting cancer, and equally important how can all of the advocates of even more research funds seem to ignore that fact that this is a war in which we continue to march backward? The impressive “survival” rates are simply a matter of early diagnosis of a cancer before it metastasizes to other tissues. Once that happens, the death rates are very similar to what they were before the war on cancer started. What new treatments exist are incredibly expensive and prolong the lives of patients with metastasized cancer by a few months at best. Some progress.
Less than 1 percent of cancer research is spent on understanding how to prevent the metastasis of cancer. Yet on the other hand, we know from animal studies that both calorie restriction and high-dose fish oil dramatically retard tumors from metastasizing. This is dietary chemotherapy that doesn’t require billions of dollars of new research. In fact, there is name for this type of calorie restriction (without hunger or deprivation) and high-dose fish oil. It’s called the Zone Diet, and it was developed without one dollar of cancer research funds. If you have cancer or are fearful of developing cancer, then consider following the Zone Diet before you fall for another pitch that we would win the war on cancer if we only had more money.