The Disease or the Microorganism; Subcutaneous Sarcomas in the Rat; Health Appropriation; Food Contamination; Report Calls U.S. Ill-Fed
Contents in this issue:
- “Which Is First—The Disease or the Microorganism?”
- “The Occurrence of Subcutaneous Sarcomas in the Rat After Repeated Injections of Glucose Solution,” by Tome Nonaka,
- “Health Appropriation?”
- “Food Contamination,”
- “Recent Report Calls U.S. Ill-Fed.”
The following is a transcription of the January 1965 issue of Dr. Royal Lee’s Applied Trophology newsletter, originally published by Standard Process Laboratories.
Which Is First—The Microorganism or the Disease?
Medical science has been insistent that germs, viruses, etc. are basic causes of disease. Many doctors insist that disease is a state of malnutrition, poisoning from endogenous or exogenous sources, or stress and environmental abnormalities rather than accidental encounters with microorganisms, health being a “normal reaction to a natural environment, disease a normal reaction to an unnatural environment.”
Dr. Rene J. Dubos of the Rockefeller Institute leans toward the latter hypothesis. In his book Biochemical Determinants of Microbial Diseases (Harvard Univ. Press, 1954), he says:
“The study of the tissue factors which are responsible for arresting the progress of infection, or for allowing it to evolve into overt disease, is still in the most primitive state…The dependence of susceptibility to infection upon the physiological status of the host is of course a familiar observation. However commonplace, it focuses attention upon an aspect of infectious disease which is much neglected. Most human beings, indeed probably all living things, carry throughout life a variety of microbial agents potentially pathogenic for them. Under most conditions these pathogens do not manifest their presence by either symptoms or lesions; only when something happens which upsets the equilibrium between host and parasite does infection evolve into disease. In other words, infection in many cases is the normal state; it is only disease which is abnormal.
“Let us consider a few examples. As is well known, the agent responsible for mammary carcinoma among breeding female mice (appears to be) a virus…(the) virus can be present…and cause no sign of disease…until lactation begins. Male mice never develop cancer even if they carry…the virus; nor do female unless under the stimulus of continuous reproductive activity (stress)…Of particular interest is the fact that cortisone treatment can cause animals to develop a fatal disease owing to the multiplication of microorganisms which they normally carry in their tissues in the form of an inapparent infection.”1
Dr. Dubos follows with a discussion of the way vitamin deficiencies invite disastrous multiplication of bacteria where before the induction of the disease by environmental control of diet there had been no detectable germs in the tissues of the animal.
This is, of course, very old stuff to all doctors who have had a little experience with the nutritional values of unprocessed foods and of natural vitamin complexes. But it is new to most followers of orthodox medical science!
[Note: A version of this article first appeared in the January 1957 issue of Applied Trophotherapy.]The Occurrence of Subcutaneous Sarcomas in the Rat, After Repeated Injections of Glucose Solution
By Tome Nonaka
Pathological Institute of the Imperial University, Osaka
Director: R. Kinosita
Translation from the Japanese: No. 8913. (Source: GANN, Japanese Journal of Cancer Research, 32–33, 1938–39, pp. 234–235.)
Last year Mr. Nishiyama caused the actual occurrence of subcutaneous sarcoma in the back of a rat with repeated injections of concentrated glucose solution. Also last year, after repeated concentrated glucose solution injections in the affected part, inflammation occurred, and fibroblast connective tissue developed and gradually became subcutaneous sarcomas. Therefore, this is a very interesting problem and requires continued testing.
The concentrated glucose solution I used was 25 gm/dl (Takeda). Seventy rats were used, and the average weight was 200 gm. The dosage was 2 cc/100 gm weight. Once every day a hypodermic injection was given in the back of the rat. This was gradually increased in three weeks’ time to 4cc/100 gm wt. When the animal became weak the injections were stopped. Sixty-two of the seventy animals died in the first six months, with four more dying in the next six months, and three of the remaining four animals developed subcutaneous sarcomas.
Of the last four animals, the first rat, after 403 days (300 injections), developed small red (Japanese) bean-size tumors that you could feel. (Then the process was stopped.) After five days the animal died. After 408 days the tumor was removed, subcutaneous sarcomas were observed clearly separate from normal tissue and were hard and pale or light blue in color. One portion of the subcutaneous sarcomas was hemorrhaged. The size of the tumor was 3×2.7×1.2 cm. Histologically, it appears that it is made of cells of spindle or oval shape. There were some regular separations in the tissue. The nucleus was round in shape and was less chromophillic and showed many obvious mitosis. The protoplasm was soft and fibrous. The many capillaries in the skin showed abnormal fibers developing into subcutaneous sarcomas. A few places were decaying, showing bad color and hemorrhage. This was the picture of Spindelzellensarcom. Surrounding the tumor with connective tissue was a hyalinous fiber.
The second animal, after 466 days (363 injections) developed the same type of tumor that you could feel. The tumors were located at the position of injection (2 cc injections were continued for two days and then stopped). Ten days later the tumors were the size of a thumb (human) and were transplanted. Five days after being transplanted another bean-size tumor was felt under the shoulder skin. Both tumors gradually increased in size, and some formation was noted between them. After 500 days the animal was dead. After the first tumor was removed the size was noted to be 4.4x4x2 cm. The tumor remained under the skin, was pale in color, hemorrhaged easily, and had a spot that appeared to be coagulated.
Histologically, they were almost the same as in the first animals, but the tumors were elongated, and the protoplasm was more fibrous. Also, the organization of the cells were in the same direction, side by side in a bunch. The bunches were tangled with each other, similar to the picture of fibrosarcoma. The shoulder also remained under the skin with a hard quality and without noticeable bleeding. The size was 2.5x3x1.4 cm. Histologically, the picture was found to be a compromise between the preceding studies. At first glance, the picture appeared to be a granulation tissue. However, the tumor cells and the new large cells of the capillaries of the skin were closely related. In some places you could notice two or more large nuclei cells. Between the back growth and the shoulder growth there was a cyst forming, which contained bloody liquid. The wall of the cyst was very flat and smooth, while on the bottom there were small firm tumors (like peas). The picture of the histological finding was the same as the preceding case.
On the third animal, after 510 days (393 injections), there was a fluctuated tumor all over the back of the animal. Gradually the shape of the fluctuation became very distinct, but the tumor remained soft and was transplanted. The tumor had a thick bloody liquid inside. The bottom of the tumor had a necrotic tissue. Immediately after the operation the animal died (530 days). Histologically, it was exactly the same as in the first animal, but the cells were arranged in rings. The cytoplasm was ill-defined and the nuclei stood on a line approximating a circle, located in the position of the big cytoplasm. Two of the transplants from the third animal were successful. One has lived for three generations and the other for two generations. Both are showing progress. The picture of the transplanted growth showed that it appeared to be in between the picture of the first and second animals (with reference to back tumors). In this manner, the facts were confirmed as to the occurrence of oval cell tumors, fiber tumors, and mixed tumors due to the glucose solution injections.
Looking beyond the evidence relating to the histology of tumors, I think that some of the occurrence of the tumor was due to granulated tissue. The lymphocyte appearance is very rare, and polymorphonuclear leucocyte is very hard to recognize. Therefore, the basis for the occurrence is due to the repeated injection of the lesion healing phenomenon.
Health Appropriation?
In testimony given before Representative Fogarty’s Subcommittee on House Appropriations in 1964, Mr. Clinton Miller, legislative advocate for the National Health Federation, made the following statements:
“Recently published statistics by the United States Public Health Service seems to indicate that our health is declining in direct relation to the amount we are appropriating to Federal Agencies for health research and regulation. This is not a criticism of the high and higher appropriations made each year by this committee. But now we have spent the money, we should have some results. We don’t. Those results we can measure show we generally have less good health in America today than we had several years and several billion dollars ago.
“Haven’t we been fooling ourselves when we appropriate money for ‘health,’ when all along, it has been for sickness? Carried to its logical conclusion, the argument that the number of hospitals and doctors is a measure of health, we could conclude that if every American lived in a hospital, we would have 100 percent health.
“We should start by discussing an incredible semantic block that prevents an intelligent discussion of the issues. First, we should stop calling sickness health. We should rename the National Institutes, the National Institutes of Sickness. They study sickness, not health…Congress appropriated $880 million in 1963 and $918 million in 1964 to these sickness institutes. There wasn’t a million, a thousand, a hundred, or even one single dollar spent to research health…Yet this bill has been labeled each year by Congress as the amount we are spending for health. I don’t know of a single study by the National Institutes where they have studied healthy people to find out why they were healthy.
“We suggest you appropriate approximately $90 million for this research (on nutrition and health, rather than disease and sickness), and be certain that it is administered by those who believe in nutrition, not those who ridicule and be little it as an approach to health.”
Food Contamination
States Expand Interest in Health Problems
The problem of checking for harmful residues of chemicals in foods is occupying the thoughts of numerous legislators. Colorado S. 69 proposes a supplemental appropriation to the State Department of Public Health for a pesticide residue analysis program. New York A. 936 would define as adulterated any food treated or sprayed with pesticides in such a way as to render it injurious or unwholesome. Massachusetts S. 533 would authorize the Department of Public Health to investigate the type of chemical substances used in the growing of food for human consumption. Another Massachusetts bill, H. 1247 in the Agriculture Committee, provides for investigation by a special commission of the possible presence of cancer-producing ingredients in packaged goods.
—Excerpt from Health Bulletin, Vol. 3, No. 4, January 23, 1965
Recent Report Calls U.S. Ill-Fed
There has been no substantial improvement in the American diet in 20 years, according to Dr. Robert S. Goodhart, Scientific Director of the National Vitamin Foundation.
A recent report of the foundation proclaims, “The ill-fed remain with us.” While America is described as a nation that is well fed, or even overfed, many Americans are still undernourished…The ill-fed, either through poverty or ignorance, subside on a lopsided diet of overly processed and denatured foods. The result is invariably a vitamin, mineral, protein deficiency that can cause many nutritional and health problems.
Dr. Goodhart continues: “Variable but substantial proportions of subgroups of our population consume diets which fall short of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for vitamin A, thiamine, riboflavin, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C), the vitamins routinely studied in nutrition survey work. It seems that mass nutrition education has been ineffective because too many commercial interests enter into the effort. He suggests this is due ‘to the very common practice of confusing the pushing of foods with the teaching of nutrition.’”
Furthermore, surveys of the National Vitamin Foundation do not find that the use of vitamin, mineral, and food supplements is being abused. If anything, they could be increased for favorable “preventive” use. Dr. Goodhart states “the more general use of properly formulated and economic priced supplements might prove to be a very effective way of nutritionally benefitting large numbers of people who otherwise, will not be reached.”
—Health Saver Magazine, April, 1964
