By Dr. Jamie Turndorf
JT – What personal event launched your career of over a half-century journey in treating cancer?
SJ – This is a long story because my interest in treating cancer began back in 1967 or 1968 when I was in Montreal, Canada, and found Dr. Max Gerson’s book, A Cancer Therapy – Results of Fifty Cases. I was at the beginning of my practice and knew nothing about cancer, but this book fascinated me since also I could see some correlation with the work of Dr. Bernard Jensen concerning the use of fresh organic vegetable juice, especially carrot and beet juice. Max Gerson’s approach made sense to me since it offered cancer theory and a diet. In truth, I have in my memory the sad story of both my father and mother who both died of cancer. At that time our house smelled of all kinds of medications that caused me to develop repulsion for these remedies. This maybe is the reason why I decided to spend more time learning about cancer—having been my fight for over the past 50 years. However, I found myself limited and decided to learn more about cancer and also iridology, since I started to use it in my practice from Dr. Jensen’s teaching.
So, I decided to close my consulting office and flew back to Europe, then traveled to Germany to see if I could get more information about cancer and therapy. I was lucky to meet pioneers like Dr. Paul G. Seeger, cancer researcher, biologist, and physician, who conducted several experiments, beginning in 1938 at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. In 1957, he demonstrated that the cause of cancer and its growth was the destruction of important enzymes in the respiratory chain in the mitochondria—a discovery was made similar to Otto Warburg’s. He published over 300 scientific papers and several books and was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1979 and again in 1980. Unfortunately, today, Dr. Seeger remains unknown even after having been a great researcher.
I also met Dr. Siegfried Wolz, a biotechnology engineer who also collaborated with Dr. P. G. Seeger. S. Wolz was the owner of the Wolz Laboratory; we kept in contact over many years before he died. Dr. Seeger asked him to develop a product that could regenerate cellular respiration. He then developed the famous Enzyme Yeast Cells during the same year we had met. In 1990, they both published a very important book called, Successful Biological Control of Cancer, offering a full description of his research since 1938, about the theories on mitochondria and cellular respiration, explaining how to reactivate cellular respiration using selected enzymes and other compounds. Now for me, it was a basis to understand what cancer is and to start treating it. My first article published in the Townsend Letter in 1999, was about the theory of cellular respiration. To my surprise, I received so many letters from both naturopaths as well as physicians showing major interest. In 2011, I subsequently published a more complete article.
JT – You were born in France and immigrated to the US in 1959 where you met Dr. Bernard Jensen. Then you spent time in Canada where you began your studies in naturopathy after which you came back to France, traveled to Germany, and finally settled in Portugal. Why did you choose to permanently reside in Portugal?
SJ – We can never know what life has decided for you, what you will do, or where you will go. For me, it is like a puzzle. When very young, I decided to immigrate by myself to the US. Luckily, I landed in Los Angeles where under some predestined circumstance, I met Dr. Bernard Jensen, who profoundly changed my life and guided me to this new world of natural medicine. The reason why I then moved to Montreal was to enroll in a course of naturopathy in the French language rather than in English since I also didn’t know where to go to study in the US; but at the same time, I started to read many health books. I also began my first homeopathy correspondence course with the French College of Homeopathy in Paris. Before graduation, I opened a consulting office and was lucky to have many patients. But as previously explained I found my knowledge limited and decided to return to France and traveled to Germany. So you see for some reason, life brought me back to Europe.
In Paris, I registered for advanced courses at the French School of Naturopathy in evening classes and then collaborated to offer some courses in iridology and Dr. Jensen’s nutritional and detox method. The French Federation of Naturopathy organized a yearly congress where I met a young Portuguese doctor, speaking fluent French who was attracted by my knowledge of naturopathy.
Back then, iridology was practically unknown in Portugal. He invited me to come and work in his Lisbon clinic. Of course, the language could at first be an obstacle, but I was not very satisfied with my life in France after living in the US and Canada. I decided to accept his offer and see what life would bring me.
One year later I met my wife Lucie, a professor of French philosophy, who was very enthusiastic about the philosophy of naturopathic medicine and natural food. We decided to open my own consulting office, while at the same time we created a small company to import the best natural products for our patients, including the important Enzyme Yeast Cell preparation from Dr. Wolz. Of course, my wife gave up her profession, and we began to educate people, publish our health magazine, started to travel, and then later opened several health food stores. In 1976 I opened my first large clinic in Lisbon, where the weather was excellent, the food still natural, etc. Now I permanently reside in Portugal because I was well accepted by patients, people who were very open, friendly, who understood how I treated disease. They were especially attracted by iridology. My mission was to help them and offer some meaningful education. Of course, we grew and developed a large [line of] natural products.
In 1985, we decided to open our own pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, not only for pharmaceutical products but for high-quality natural products to fulfill the need of my patients and supply our health food stores. Today we export to about 28 countries. In 1983, I opened a second, large, three-story clinic outside of Lisbon that became a school where doctors from several countries came for my teaching. This explains the reason why I settled in Portugal; but of course, I never forget the US, having made many good contacts with doctors. I went back several times to lecture, offer seminars, and collaborated with some institutions. I even obtained a license as a naturopathic physician and even as a homeopathic physician, but this was many years ago. I also traveled to lecture in about 36 countries worldwide.
JT– In your book you speak about your personal experience in treating cancer. Please tell us how you approach this disease.
SJ – When I speak about my personal experience I am referring to having a cancer patient facing you, which is one aspect of the disease along with the disease itself. Just treating the cancer is not like treating Parkinson’s disease or arthritis since cancer is a killing disease that causes serious physical and psychological suffering. We have to know how to handle and help patients in this battle. I felt it takes years or even decades before you understand what cancer means and how to approach both the disease and the patient. I have treated thousands of cancer patients of all types, grades, and ages; but this disease is so complex that you never finish discovering more mechanisms. You never know when cancer cells start to develop resistance, what mechanisms support the migration of cancer cells; and of course, it all depends on the patient’s attitude, lifestyle, dietary style, the way he/she reacts when diagnosed. We also must consider whether or not if the cancer was previously diagnosed without metastasis or as cancer with metastasis, which makes an overwhelming difference when treating the disease.
Science is far from discovering everything there is to know about the human body, especially, what is cancer? On one hand, you have to describe the disease to your patient, collect several factors associated with lifestyle, all the organic function or dysfunction including the nervous system, the energy level being also important, along with an emotional profile, oxidative stress profile, and the nutritional profile maybe through an LBA (Live Blood Analysis) examination. But if you want to treat patients like I do, you do molecular markers testing, and only then do you have a better way to understand the cancer of each patient. Maybe the patient needs a chemical brain analysis as I offer, to get an idea about the function of the neurotransmitters, which also may affect the immune system and need to be balanced.
One other very important step when treating cancer is to determine the activity of the p53 tumor suppressor gene and p53 protein levels. For instance, a high level of mutated p53 is considered a poor prognosis and you have to know how to reverse this situation. This is the way I approach the disease, but it requires time to learn and be organized. I believe the p53 gene is the most important gene protecting us against cancer. Just as an example, a few years ago a team of researchers from the US and Israel made an investigation with elephants to find out why they practically do not die from cancer. In their lifetime elephants develop only a 5% risk of cancer and a 5% risk of dying from cancer, while for a human it goes up to 55%. So where is the answer? Could you believe this, but the answer is associated with the p53 gene, but why? While humans have only two copies of the p53 gene, elephants have 40 copies and are highly protected. The published article suggests that the p53 gene may be the answer to cancer prevention and treatment.
JT – Can you give us an overview of your research on this topic?
SJ – Let’s say that for the past 15 years I have concentrated my research in two main directions. First, I focus on apoptosis—related to the function of the p53 tumor suppressor gene since p53 mutation is necessary for the development of many forms of cancer along with other apoptotic players and inhibitors of apoptosis. We then perform specialized blood testing on the patient where the results give you the information you need for diagnosis, prognosis, treatment follow-up, and how to build your treatment.
Now, remember that cancer cells can be killed directly or indirectly even with chemotherapy, but always through apoptosis. Dysregulation of apoptosis occurs in cancer cells and has not only been implicated in tumor progression but also plays an important role in response to therapy; this is important to remember. Now doing such testing gives you the result you need to tailor your treatment, and it works also as a prognosis but sometimes you get a very bad prognosis. We may call this diagnostic procedure molecular markers testing, and we do it in a laboratory, as I have explained in several articles in the Townsend Letter.
In the beginning, when I started to use this molecular blood testing, I was obliged to spend considerable time studying and understanding the function of each gene. Of course, you have to know how to select natural agents that can reverse, activate, and inhibit various genes. I initially worked by experimentation and intuition. But it makes an overwhelming difference if you have a cancer patient with a mutated p53 gene or high levels of mutated p53 proteins, where the treatment has to be tailored according to the result. But this serves as only one example.
