In the 1930s Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize for an observation that has since become known as “the Warburg effect” in oncology. He had reported that most cancer cells predominantly produce energy by a high rate of glycolysis (sugar metabolism) rather than the low rate in most normal cells. The energy in cancer cells, that typically have a glycolytic (sugar metabolism in action) rate up to 200 times higher than normal cells, is produced by fermentation. This form of energy production does not require oxygen and is known as anaerobic metabolism (without oxygen). Normal cells derive their energy from a chemical process that does require oxygen, hence the term oxidative, or aerobic (requiring oxygen), metabolism. The process of fermentation in cancer cells is much less efficient in producing energy than that in normal cells that derive energy from oxidative metabolism. Curiously, this anaerobic metabolism happens in cancer cells even when oxygen is plentiful. Although this has been much studied, its importance, either in cause or effect, remains unclear. Warburg had postulated that this change in metabolism is the fundamental cause of cancer, a claim now known as the Warburg hypothesis or Warburg effect. Today, mutations in oncogenes (genes associated with cancer) are thought to be responsible for malignant transformation and the Warburg effect is considered to be a result of these mutations rather than the cause. In other words, does the Warburg effect originate the cancer or is it an effect of the cancer? It is a typical “chicken and egg” question.
The Role of Thiamine in Cancer
The relationship between supplemental vitamins and various types of cancer has been the focus of recent investigation. Supplemental vitamins have been reported to modulate cancer rates and a significant association has been demonstrated between cancer and low levels of thiamine in the blood (1). This also gives rise to a “chicken and egg” question. Is the low level of thiamine a result of treatment using chemotherapy and radiation or does it have a causative relationship? Thiamine deficiency is increasingly recognized in medically ill patients. Its prevalence among cancer patients is unknown. However, thiamine deficiency was found in 119 (55.3%) of 217 patients with various types of cancer. Risk factors included effects of chemotherapy or undergoing active treatment (2). It is possible to induce a certain type of tumor in mice. Thiamine supplementation between 12.5 and 250 times the recommended dietary allowance (RDA for mice) stimulated the tumors. Doses 2500 times the RDA resulted in 10% inhibition of tumor growth (3). This inhibitory effect of exceedingly high doses of thiamine is unexplained and certainly merits further study.
Thiamine as a Drug
The definition of a drug is “a medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body”. Therefore, if thiamine is taken as a supplement, it must be considered to be a drug. Conventional wisdom sees thiamine as a food-borne particle whose function, in a minute concentration, is to assist the enzymes to which it is attached. The daily dose is governed by the RDA and is stated as 1 to 1.5 mg/day. For this reason, if its deficiency as a cause of symptoms is recognized in a given patient, the treatment would be considered to be simply replacement value. Any increase in that dose would inevitably be considered completely unnecessary. This is in spite of the hard-won history that treating beriberi demanded as much as 100 mg of thiamine a day for months. Of course, as I have mentioned in these pages many times, conventional wisdom also denies that beriberi, or any other form of vitamin deficiency, exists in America or any other developed culture. There are now many reports in the medical literature of thiamine being used in megadoses to treat virtually any disease associated with or caused by a breakdown in energy metabolism. It is therefore worth considering the potential mechanism in the already established place of thiamine, or its derivatives, in cancer.
We used to think that our genes dominated our body functions in a fixed way throughout life. The relatively new science of epigenetics tells us that nutrition and lifestyle have a powerful influence on our genetically determined mechanisms. Research in cancer has been almost completely dominated by study of the influence of specialized genes, known as oncogenes. The question that should arise is what, if ever, is the influence of malnutrition on these genes. Could thiamine deficiency “turn on” or otherwise influence oncogenes through epigenetic mechanisms? Our book (Lonsdale D, Marrs C. Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia and High Calorie Malnutrition) emphasizes that widespread thiamine deficiency exists in America because of an inordinate ingestion of sugar in all its different forms. The book supplies evidence that an overload of glucose ingestion provides “empty calories” that overwhelms the capacity of thiamine metabolism in processing the glucose. In other words, the intake of thiamine in the diet might be sufficient for a normal calorie load but insufficient for the load of empty calories. This is referred to as “high calorie malnutrition”. Calibration of diet depends on a study of three meals a day. We suggest that it is the inordinate consumption of sugar associated with almost all social activities that may make the difference. We question whether there is a potential relationship with the increasing incidence of cancer. Is sugar our ultimate enemy? Is our hedonistic consumption of it a threat to our civilization? Although this sounds like a fictional idea for a novel, understanding the complex role of thiamine in glucose metabolism should make us pause to wonder whether the pleasure derived from taste is a potential cause of our undoing.
Hypoxia, Thiamine and Cancer
Hypoxia is one of the hallmarks of the tumor microenvironment (referring to the local concentration of oxygen that exists around cells that become cancerous). It is the result of insufficient blood supply to support growing tumor cells (4). This would result in lack of oxygen, but also would restrict the supply of vitamins, including thiamine. It is interesting that thiamine deficiency results in a metabolic disturbance that induces a state similar to deficiency of oxygen and is known as pseudo-hypoxia (pseudo-, meaning false)(5).
The term vitamin was derived from the finding that each one of these chemical substances found in naturally occurring food is “vital” to life. Thiamine’s role is to turn chemical food substances into energy. Therefore, it must be recognized as having the same life-giving effect in the body as oxygen. Granted that it is not the only vitamin required for this, however, it appears to have a degree of importance that makes it the dominant factor. Early studies of the relationship of thiamine deficiency as the cause of beriberi showed that, as the disease progressed, there were different metabolic patterns marking the degree of deficiency. For example, patients with a normal blood sugar responded to thiamine easily. Those with a high blood sugar were slower to respond and those with a low blood sugar often didn’t respond at all. The far-reaching consequences of the increasing effect of thiamine deficiency as the disease progressed need to be understood better.
It is known that the part of the brain that enables us to adapt to and thrive in our hostile environment, is particularly susceptible to thiamine deficiency. Therefore, its deficiency provides effects that are exactly similar to partial deprivation of oxygen. Is it possible that thiamine deficiency, resulting as it does in loss of efficient oxidative metabolism, is the underlying factor that initiates the cancer by an epigenetic mechanism? The low dose/high dose administration of thiamine in producing the opposite effects may be a mystery of thiamine metabolism requiring further research. Perhaps thiamine deficiency activates the genetic mechanisms that are known to be involved in the transition of the normal cell into a cancerous one. It may be that some cancers (and a lot of other diseases) could be prevented by a rational approach to a diet that spares us from metabolic stress induced by this highly artificial “high calorie malnutrition”.
Although this article is written for general readership, references are included to show that the statements made within the article are supported by publication in the medical literature.
References
- Lu’o’ng KV, Nguyen LT. The role of thiamine in cancer: possible genetic and cellular signaling mechanisms. Cancer Genomics Proteomics, 2013, 10 (4): 169-85.
- Isenberg-Grzeda, E., Shen, M. J., Alici, Y., Wills, J., Nelson, C., & Breitbart, W. High rate of thiamine deficiency among inpatients with cancer referred for psychiatric consultation: results of a single site prevalence study. Psychooncology 2016. May 26. doi. 10. 1002/pon. 4155. [Epub ahead of print]
- Comin-Anduix B, Boren J, Martinez S, et al. The effect of thiamine supplementation on tumor proliferation. A metabolic control analysis study Eur J Biochem, 2001, 268 (15): 4177-82.
- Kumar V, Gabrilovich DI. Hypoxia-inducible factors in regulation of immune responses in tumor microenvironment. Immunology, 2014, 143 (4): 512-9.
- Sweet RL, Zastre JA. HIF1-α-mediated gene expression induced by vitamin B1 deficiency. Int J Vitam Nutr Res 2013, 823 (3): 188-97.
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Thanks for information “Hormones Matter” and the references